Avenger Assembled

Edge headed straight into the simulator. "I've had a lot of simulator time at my school," he said, "so I'm familiar with holograms and stuff. If that's how you do it," he said with a little shrug. "I don't know very much about really high-tech science these days." He hmmed, looking around. "Okay, I'm ready for whatever you want to do. I can take whatever you throw at me. Just don't make the illusion too good," he said with a little laugh. "Once I blew the hard matter coils right out of our holo-simulator at school, and I had to spend two weeks helping our science teacher put all the pieces back together. That wasn't fun." He winced a little at the memory.

Mark had been a little cagey about that in the email, largely because he had a feeling science types like Supercape might be put off by the nature of his abilities. "My powers are magical," he said with great seriousness as he fastened the lab pass to his lapel. "They're genetically inherited from my grandfather." He could say those words without hesitation, after months of dealing with it, and looking Supercape dead in the eye. "When I was younger, and up until just about a year ago, my abilities were about luck and probability control: I could change how likely it was something could happen, and make accidents happen to bad people. But now...now it seems to be almost anything. I can blow things up, turn them into other things, I can teleport myself places...I haven't really found any limitations to what I can do, and sometimes that's a little scary. I try not to think about it, but I'm going to be using my powers a lot in my job and, well..." He shrugged helplessly. "I don't want to hurt the people I'm trying to save," he said as he followed Supercape into the elevator.

"Hello there," said Edge affably. He'd come in costume, and was glad to see that Supercape seemed to have a fashion sense similar to his own. I like the cut of this fellow's jib! "I'm Edge, I made the appointment. Wow, you guys have a really nice space," he commented admiringly, looking up and around the lab. "I heard about all your equipment, but this is amazing!" He put his hands in his costume pockets and said, "So like it said in my letter, I need to get powers-tested for my job. I'm graduating from high school in a couple of days, and I'm going to spend a couple of years working for UNISON in Africa before I come back and go to college. Since they're hiring me for my powers," he admitted with a rueful grin, "I've got to have professional certification about how they work. Can the Lab do that for me?

Evil Sorcerer In 1697, Abigail Williams lay dying. She was just seventeen. Having fled Salem after the collapse of the witch trials, she’d been forced into the grim life of an unattached girl in Puritan Massachusetts and disease had rapidly taken its toll. Maybe she had deserved punishment for her role in the Witch Trials, where over a dozen men and women had gone to the gallows on the word of her and her friends, but she’d been a child then. After years of life on the streets, doing all she could to survive, she wasn’t a child anymore. As she lay dying of pneumonia, she remembered the words of her childhood and sketched out on the floor of her tavern home a terrible pattern in her own blood. And as happens sometimes, particularly in darkling lands founded on the blood of innocents, Something answered her. Abigail pledged her life, her soul, and all else to her new patron, and that Dark Lady gave her power and immortality in return. Hellish flames burned that house to the ground, and Williams never looked back. Instead she headed to Europe, where there were more infernalists to learn from, and then elsewhere to learn the black and terrible magics of Hell. As a girl Abigal had preferred to draw attention to herself, but as an adult she learned discretion. Fires and plagues followed her wherever she went, and she played the innocent young woman through them all, sometimes sadistically blaming a man or woman who had offended her for the deed. Across Europe and Asia, wherever she could go and not be questioned, many died where her feet walked, many more died at her word. By the late 1700s, some eighty years after her death, she was ready to go back to Massachusetts and burn it to the ground. But she hadn’t counted on the spread of science, or rather, a scientific understanding of magic: Paul Revere’s alchemically-treated silver proved sufficient to hold her, while Benjamin Franklin’s Masonic rituals were powerful enough to bind her for generations into a vessel made of the same stern stuff. It wasn’t until the early 20th century that an unwise thief robbed the Franklin house and tried to melt the silver down for its raw value. As a laughing young woman emerged from the melting silver, he learned his mistake far too late. In the years since, cunning Abby has proved among the most successful infernalists, careful to play her demonic patrons off each other, careful to keep herself out of the terrible crimes she inflicts, and careful to keep the glee off her face as she watches the innocent die at her hands. Their souls may go to Heaven, but their AGONY goes to the Things below that are her true mother and father. It’s all they deserve, anyway. Abigal Williams still looks like a stereotypical Puritan in body-covering black and white pointed cap, at least when she’s outraged enough to stop using her body-warping magics. She avoids the world-wrecking threats of her fellow infernalists, instead typically moving into a hotel or homeless shelter, spreading disease and starting fires through magic, and then encouraging the survivors to abandon the God that had done so little for them and pledge their souls to Satan afterwards. Once they do, she gives them a chance to meet their new lord immediately, and then she moves on. Until she shows her full powers when sorely pressed, she looks like a low-level cult leader, and is one Hell of a surprise for low-level heroes expecting her to not be particularly powerful: she doesn’t look like an immortal, centuries-old infernalist. But when she laughs, when she really laughs, she sounds like one. Suggested Powers Drain All Ability Scores X (Extras: Contagious, Disease) (PFs: Insidious, Subtle) Hellfire Control X (Extras: Range [Perception], Vampiric) Regeneration X Teleport X

"<Our empire is...>" Runs-With-Claws hissed at Bloodfang, silencing her lieutenant before she could speak. The commander chose to share those facts herself. "<Let us not be pulled into questions of politics,>" she said with the gentle firmness of a mother predator, once again talking to the woman there who had taken a leadership role. "<The Forever Empire endures where others have fallen. Where worlds are empty, we fill them with the blood and glory of civilization. When we pass through the Ghost Zone, we will have taken our monster from this world, and you need not worry about our ways any further.>" Bloodfang kept a close eye on the work, hissing instructions at her slow-moving male subordinates. But even as her leader talked, she murmured a question to Wail. "<This is...this is all your web is, isn't it? Worlds upon worlds of...your kind, roaming free, and not one of us to be found.>" She sounded fascinated and scandalized all at once.

The angels stirred uneasily for a moment before Jeanne rose to her feet, getting her husband to his as well. "Thank you so much for your time, Fleur de Joie. I appreciate both your hospitality and your healing. Would you mind if we took some as well?" she asked. "Your hospitality among the angels will be well-remembered." For her part, her husband looked oddly unsettled, peering out the window for a moment before returning to join his wife. "I WILL NOT SEE YOU AND YOURS FOR...A GREAT AGE," said the angel of death, bowing to her cordially as his wife got some lasagna. "IT WAS A PLEASURE TO MAKE YOUR ACQUAINTANCE IN THIS WAY RATHER THAN OTHERS. NICK, HEARKEN TO MY WORDS ABOUT A PARTNER. OUR NEXT MEETING WILL NEEDS BE LESS SOCIABLE THAN THIS." Heyzel rose to say his goodbyes to his folks, and watched with a strange expression as they vanished into the air with the faint but unmistakable sound of trumpets. "I had better head back to the church," he said, "and see if they will still have me." He folded his wings behind him and said, "Thank you as well for the help, Fleur. It's nice to know that there are still friends here, even after all this time." And you as well, Nick. Sometimes I let myself forget that virtue and friendship aren't just heavenly things, but things here on Earth as well. You shame my arrogance with your goodness, just as men and women should do for angels." He added to Fleur "Should there ever be a need in the next few weeks, call me at the church. I have been in at births before."

"Good. We will talk again, Donar's daughter." The angel looked away for a moment, and was ready to fly away before he turned to Thrude again. "You have found the good fight today, and suffered grievously for it. You have faced a great loss, and pledged to work beyond it. This is good; this is virtue, and I am pleased. But make no mistake, daughter of Donar. The world of men has moved beyond the ancient gods. Spread the word of your people by your deeds if you do. But such as you and I make no temples these days. That is for men to make, not us. If you fall from that trust, and revive the worship of the old gods, then...well, it will not be me you have to worry about." And with that, and a thrust of wings, the angel of Freedom took to the sky again as the summer sun came out above.

Down below in the church basement, it was easy to see the scene where the giant T-Rex had thrashed around and tunneled out with his radioactive fire-breath: luckily the church stored most of its records in the attic, though the loss of the spare choir outfits was certainly upsetting, the fact that no one had been using the big meeting hall down below had saved a lot of lives. Finding the raptor ship through the seared cinders (the stone foundation had luckily held up just fine) was a little harder until they pointed out the huge round hole in the floor: they had come in and intersected the concrete underground! A few more feet, and they might have been trapped, or their ship might have materialized inside the crowded congregation. Bloodfang went about clearing the mess around the open nacelle, hissing over her duo of men to help her clear away the space for Wail to work. "<Just a minute...>"

May 26, 2011 Hanover Things had been strange for the last couple of weeks for Mark. With his parents gone and his relationship with Zarana petering out now that she was going back to the Lost World upon her graduation, Mark was something at a loss for what he was going to do with himself. His job at UNISON didn't start until the fall, which left him with a long summer of things to do. Since so much of his work at UNISON was going to be dependent on his powers, he'd decided to sign up for an additional round of testing: not at Claremont or the League facilities where he'd already been training, but in at the new high-tech Lab in town that promised to be able to handle all kinds of cases. With double-certification, hopefully he could skip out on part of his UNISON training and get right to work helping people in need! (He wasn't sure it worked that way, really, but he hoped to get lucky.) Following on a lead he'd gotten from another Claremont student, he made an appointment with a distinguished-sounding fellow over the phone and was there at the door promptly at one PM!

Harrier stared at Fulcrum for a long moment as she spoke of the natural value of the Terminus, incomprehension turning to suspicion on his face. "In the grim ghetto streets of the Black Slum, those proles who have abandoned all hope embrace Omega as their dark god of death and pain, the lord and master of a multiverse that he will one day pull down and feast upon for the greater glory of the end of all things. " He fell silent for a moment, his face implacable, before saying, "Do not expect me to embrace my destroyers, Mona. And yours, should they succeed in their dark plans for all of creation. There are enemies that cannot be bargained with, that cannot be reasoned with, that have nothing for you but your own destruction. It is natural to live. To love. Do not see justice in anything else."

Sharl flew in through the window, nimbly turning so that his emitter slipped right through the crack where it had been opened against the heat. Sticking his head out, he said, "Nice car, Baron!" The Tronik-born teenager knew nothing of cars; he'd seen the car in Gina's garage, but she'd never driven it with him around. This was certainly no hovercar, but from what he'd seen of Earth cars it was a very nice ride. He buckled himself in as the others boarded, an automatic habit he'd picked in very different circumstances. This car was unlikely to crash at supersonic speeds into the side of a sector, he was personally just about invulnerable to that kind of damage unless something fried his emitter, but his mother hadn't raised a fool!

"<That would be difficult,>" said Runs-With-Claws, looking quite satisfied with the prey the heroes had brought down for her. "<We can discuss that in a moment. But first...>" The raptors went around and made a ritual bow to the heroes, ducking their heads low and scraping their noses against the ground. (It was a gesture of humility, it seemed, particularly since Bloodfang had to be swiped across the face with Runs-With-Claws' tail before she would grudgingly consent to do so.) "<On behalf of the Forever Empire, you have my thanks and our gratitude,>" Runs-With-Claws said to Wander. <"You have helped us destroy the last champion of an old and vicious evil. Younglings will sleep soundly in their beds across the worlds for what you have done. Should you ever need our help, just ask.>" She seemed to assume that the most ferocious female there was the leader. For her part, Bloodfang was eying Wail. "<With your sonic powers, we may be able to power our zero-drive and take our ship to the Hearthworld after all. Would you consent to using your powers on our engines? I can rig up the required power absorption in just a few moments...>"

Giant Lincoln PL: 10 (150) Abilities: 22 pp STR 40 [16] (+15/+3) DEX 10 (+0) CON 32 [20] (+11/+5) INT 12 (+1) WIS 12 (+1) CHA 12 (+1) Combat: 28 pp ATK: +7 (+9 Melee) (+3 w/size/+5 Melee) DEF: +7 (+3 w/size/+5) Init: +0 Grapple: +11/+34 w/full size Saves: 12 pp TOU +15 (+5 Con, +6 Growth, +4 Protection) FORT +12 (+5 Con, +6 Growth, +1) REF +5 (+0 Ref, +5) WILL +7 (+1 Wis, +6) Skills: 15pp=60 r Bluff 2 (+3) Concentration 15 (+16) Diplomacy 9 (+10) Intimidate 8 (+9/+15) Knowledge: Civics 4 (+5) Knowledge: History 4 (+5) Notice 9 (+10) Sense Motive 9 (+10) Feats: 8 pp Attack Focus: Melee 2 Dodge Focus 2 Interpose Second Chance (Concentration checks) Startle Takedown Attack Powers: 65 pp Alternate Form 13 (Duration: Sustained) (Abraham Lincoln Statue) [65 pp] Growth 12 [36] -4 ATK/DEF, +12 Grapple, -12 Stealth, +6 Intimidate, 32 ft tall, 32K lbs, 20 ft Space, 15 ft Reach, x3 Carrying Capacity Immunity 10 (aging, life support) [10] Impervious TOU 10 [10] Protection 4 [4] Super-Strength 2 (Heavy Load: 192 tons) (PF: Groundstrike) [5] costs abilities 22 + combat 28 + saves 12 + skills 15/60 + feats 8 + powers 65 = 150 pts --- Design Notes: Here’s the statue of Abraham Lincoln in the Lincoln Memorial as a PL 10 starting character. With Growth 12, he’s a bit taller than the Lincoln statue (32 feet to its 28 feet), but I tell myself that part of that was that Lincoln was a tall guy, so you slap some ranks of Growth on him and he’s taller than your average giant guy. With his bulletproof skin and immunity to most environmental concerns along with his great size and strength, he can convincingly rep being made of marble. (A Fort immunity would be way too costly, given his tremendous size) You could give him some low ranks of Density if you really want to get technical about it, but I think the weight distinction is basically academic given how much even a normal person made thirty feet tall actually weighs. True, I did already build Abraham Lincoln, but not cast in gigantic marble! In my mind, this could certainly be the spirit of the 16th President brought to life in giant marble, but I actually built this with a different idea. (Largely because the thought of ruining that lovely statue is depressing, since he’d have to stand up to get out of the building and would thusly burst burst his way through the roof): this is a Lincoln impersonator (of whom there are many), who one day gained the power to be the symbol for America that he always wanted to be! Imbued with the spirit of the Lincoln statue, he goes out to fight bad-doers. Consider him an all-American Captain Marvel-type, perhaps with a magic word. (IOW, while he turns into the statue, he himself is not the statue, just as Captain Marvel is not actually Zeus). If you did want to make this the statue, I’d definitely make that Growth Innate, and possibly Permanent. In that case, hopefully he’s got a Normal ID, or maybe just a hinge on the roof of the Lincoln Memorial. He’s not as strong as a powerhouse with Super-Strength, but with his massive size he’s still a great grappler. Between Takedown Attack and how his giant stone fists function as area attacks, he’s really good at goon sweeping, and with his high Impervious and Ultimate TOU he’s not as vulnerable as your typical squishy-giant guy. He’s a great addition to a patriotic super-team, and a good ‘Big Guy’: consider buying up his Charisma and giving him Inspire, or just Leadership to start with. With his massive Intimidate thanks to his size, he’s great at Startling, and he shouldn’t have any real trouble catching most people flat-footed. Remember to All-Out Attack when fighting the little guys, sucking up any damage your dropped Defense gives you for Ultimate TOU. He’s the symbol of America’s greatest President and most inspiring leader in the body of a thirty-foot marble statue. Let’s do this!

Of course, the Creator had withdrawn from Creation well before the conversion of the Northmen, thought Freedom Angel. Thrude's worshippers abandoned her people without any overt help from the Lord. But best not to dwell on that fact. He listened, impressed, at Thrude's words, nodding in satisfaction at the choice she had made. "You make the hard choice, Donarssdaughter. I am sure he would be pleased at thy humanity." And perhaps, Heyzel finally admitted to himself, I have been wrong about the Asgardians, or at least, wrong about them as a rule rather than individually. "Come," he said, exhaling a breath that exploded into mist in the air. "The guardians of this dimension will no doubt soon find you and have words about the ancient pacts and what led you to this place. Meet them fed and rested. And in the meantime..." The angel raised his flaming sword high and shouted to the sky: "THE POWER OF CHRIST COMPELS YOU!" His sword flared almost impossibly bright, and the storm faded, the sunlight breaking through the clouds as they melted away beneath the Light. "Viktor," he asked, "I believe as my fellow Leaguer, you can both follow our mutual duties and entertain our guest in this dimension?"

"<NOOO!>" The great dinosaur roared and bellowed as he failed to match Wail's mighty roar, and indeed the sheer force of the shout hurled him backwards into the empty park across the street, safely away from any nearby civilians as the great dinosaur tumbled down unconscious, his sheer bulk plowing into the soft grassy earth as he landed with a sound like the shattering of the world. The assembled parishioners, not to mention the crowd as a whole, began to cheer! While the humans celebrated, the raptors went into action, charging into the field and making short, vigorous work on the T-Rex; within seconds, they had efficiently slashed their way through the backs of his legs, effectively hamstringing the unconscious uber-predator.

Sharl had spent the plane ride visible on his laptop's screen, sitting in a program called "Apartment.exe" and reading the Swedish phrasebook that had appeared on his desk when Dragonfly had programmed his computer with her invention. He looked to have a decent space in there, and for all the world it looked like a running webcam with a view of someone's Freedom City apartment. Of course, a close inspection of the computer revealed no such connection: the kid with the glass Coke bottle and book were inside the laptop itself. He left both behind when he came out, though, shifting back into his costume's shiny symbol as he stepped right out of the laptop's screen, picked up his emitter, and leaned over to nudge Miss A's arm. "Hey, we're here!"

Staggered him again, so he's out

Staggered and Stunned!

Freedom Angel was silent as the storm of words raged over him for a moment, listening both to Fenris and Thrude with patient attentiveness. When there was a moment's peace in the inferno, he fearlessly put his hand on Fenris' shoulder and looked the man in the eye, his gaze seeming to find Magnus' face underneath the metal. "Brother, this young woman has done her best here to battle against the terrible power of an ancient evil. She has given of her very flesh to do so. The Greeks have the parable of the man in the river who drowns while people on the bank call him foolish for swimming. Be not that man, my brother. Let us help this girl heal her wounds, and learn the full truth of the fate of her family and her people, before you pass judgement on her. Neither you nor I are without sin." To Thrude, though she was all the raging fury of the storm, he said simply, "Daughter of Donar, the truth I have to tell you is fantastic, but you must believe it. If you know of the Logos and its speakers, then you know I do not speak falsehoods to you." He gave her a calm, level look, even as he offered her part of his tunic to help bind up her eye. "In ancient days, the worship of the old gods faded. As those who worshipped the Asgardians found new ways, Odin, like Ra, Svarog, and the other Skyfathers, chose to leave the Earth and let Man find his own destiny, bound as he was by the ancient pacts of Simon Magus not to interfere directly when not summoned to Earth." He eyed Thrude and added, "Time passed. In what you would call Germania, a monstrous ruler named Adolf Hitler seized power and began to work terrible, fell acts of sorcery among his many Earthly horrors. His magi used black magic to bind the spirit of your father to a mortal man, enslaving Donar to the service of foul men. When mortal mystics finally freed the Thunderer from his chains, Odin chose to pull up the rainbow bridge rather than risk any more of his sons and daughters being violated by the power of mortal magic." His face was full of all sympathy. "While I am not a child of the Asgardians, even...even we of Heaven believe that Donar and his brothers love their children. He will surely welcome you as his liver returned to his body. If you are able to travel home, take the chance. Your family awaits you there." He snorted, and added, "Thanks to my mistake in taking his pride as greater than his evil, your dire enemy awaits you there, and I tell you the truth, should you fight him again I hope you strike him one for myself and these others. Go, and fight your war where it should be fought."

Wail is up

"Let me help," said the angel, and soon he was guiding the old and sick through the gateway to the hospital and away from the scene of carnage wrought by the war between the Fenriswulf and Donarsdaughter. He reminded himself that the wolf was the monster, that it was he who had brought their war to Earth and risked the lives of so many for nothing more than the innate desire to sin. Thrude herself had suffered as much as anyone in the fight, which she'd waged for the people of Freedom against the monster, though with the usual Asgardian stubborn pride she was doing nothing to draw attention to her wound. And yet...She didn't believe me. She knew nothing of Odin, nothing of the Pact, nothing of the great Asgardian flight. What could have happened? When he was done, he called, "Daughter of Donar! My offer to you still stands, nay, is reinforced by the treachery of the Fenriswulf. Ask, and you shall receive. And before your pride tells you to stand alone, remember. You are not."

Biokinetic PL: 10 (150) Abilities: 30 pp STR 30 [10] (+10/+0) DEX 14 (+2) CON 20 (+5) INT 20 (+5) WIS 14 (+2) CHA 12 (+1) Combat: 28 pp ATK: +6 (+10 Melee) DEF: +12 (+4 flat-footed) Init: +6 Grapple: +6/+26 Saves: 10 pp TOU +8 (+5 Con, +3 Protection) FORT +8 (+5 Con, +3) REF +5 (+2 Dex, +3) WILL +6 (+2 Wis, +4) Skills: 64 r=16 pp Concentration 8 (+10) Diplomacy 9 (+10) Knowledge: Life Sciences 15 (+20) Knowledge: Physical Sciences 8 (+13) Language 1 (Latin) (Base: English) Medicine 8 (+10) Notice 8 (+10) Sense Motive 8 (+10) Feats: 14 pp Attack Focus: Melee (4) Beginner’s Luck Dodge Focus (4) Improved Initiative Power Attack Takedown Attack Uncanny Dodge (auditory) Powers: 52 pp Immunity 3 (aging, disease, poison) [3 pp] Protection 3 [3 pp] Regeneration 0 (PFs: Persistent, Regrowth) [2 pp] Mutation Array [42+2=44 pp] Enhanced STR 20 and Impervious TOU 8and Super-Strength 6 (Heavy Load: 48 tons) AP: Healing 10 (Extras: Action [standard], Total) (PFs: Persistent, Regrowth) AP: Transform 10 (living to living) (Extra Duration [sustained] (+0) ) (PFs: Precise, Subtle) costs abilities 30 + combat 28 + saves 10 + skills 16/64 + feats 14 + powers 52 = 150 pts Design Notes: Here's my attempt at a life controller/biokinetic, modeled on the sadly absent Wesley Knight. The general idea is that our hero here can control the very stuff of life itself, molding and shaping humanity at his touch: he can enhance his own physique to incredible, superhuman levels and become super-strong and bulletproof, he can heal the injuries of others or his own with just a touch, even overcoming particularly damaging poisons or injuries, and perhaps most frightening of all: he can transform other living beings into whatever he desires with a touch! (Well, assuming they fail the Fort save). This is the Mutation power from UP, and plenty scary. Note that he can't actually take anything away, or kill somebody directly, but he can do some pretty gross things. He can be as subtle as putting someone in a short-term coma (dropping their INT/WIS/CHA to 0 and maybe giving them some immunities in the process) or as gross as putting their legs where their head should be and their nose in their navel! (That's a pretty straightforward rearrangement of DEX, among other things). Note that you shouldn't treat the latter power as an excuse to go crazy: an ideal use of the PC would be somebody who uses the power to heal and stun, maybe to punch robots or really bad guys if he's mad, and looks harmless right up until he gets sorely pressed by a very bad villain, and then shows him what it means to control life itself! He has some innate powers that don't require direct use of his attention, like an immunity to many physical problems that's natural to his way of living, and the ability to (eventually) regrow any injury short of death itself. It seemed like a doctor wouldn't want to completely overcome death, at least not his own death. Transform can't be used for yourself (that's what Shapeshift is for), so stunt a personal 'transformation' if you want to make him spaceworthy: that's why he's got that massive array! (You technically CAN stunt things like Shapeshift [i.e, Variables], but it's really not anything you should actually be doing. I went with the idea that this is a doctor, a basically friendly man who wants to make life better for others, and uses his powers to help long before he uses them to hurt. The Hippocratic Oath is one hell of a Complication for a superhero, don't be afraid to make use of it. You could change his medical background up some (his powers seemed the logical development for a really, really dedicated surgeon): maybe he's a tattoo artist whose interest in human flesh is artistic rather than scientific? (Did that sound creepy? Hmm, I guess it did) You could make him Jewish and give him a strange aversion to pork; who knows where that might come from, eh? :? His Transform is Sustained, so its changes aren't permanent: this makes book-keeping easier, gives people a chance to overcome it with more saves, and is generally aimed at making him less freaky all around. Maybe not be a weirdo with the guy, and he'll be very popular socially. Think of all the beneficial tricks he can do for his friends with his Transform! He's like the world's nicest, least dysfunctional plastic surgeon. (Stunt Continuous and have the person pay for any permanent changes you make, naturally) It's also touch-range, another way of keeping a very powerful character from being too powerful. Think about buying small powers to represent various personal upgrades: Flight and Speed for movement, more Immunities, more Regeneration. Or go ahead and buy a low-ranked Shapeshift, maybe with the Action flaw to make it tougher to use, and use that for the raw numbers of being able to rearrange your flesh on the fly. This character has the potential to be very creepy, but I think he's much more fun to play as the nice, kindly doctor who only wants to help people, but who is the wrong man to cross when pressed!

Amaryllis PL: 10 (150) Abilities: 26 pp STR 10 (+0) DEX 16 (+3) CON 16 (+3) INT 10 (+0) WIS 16 (+3) CHA 18 (+4) Combat: 24 pp ATK: +6 (+8 ranged) DEF: +12 (+3 flat-footed) Init: +7 Grapple: +20 w/TK Saves: 12 pp TOU +8 (+3 Con, +5 Protection) FORT +7 (+3 Con, +4) REF +7 (+3 Dex, +4) WILL +7 (+3 Wis, +4) Skills: 12 pp=48 r Bluff 6 (+10) Diplomacy 10 (+14) Knowledge: Life Sciences 4 (+4) Languages 1 (Lor) (Base: English) Notice 7 (+10) Perform (glam rock) 6 (+10) Search 5 (+5) Sense Motive 7 (+10) Feats: 16 pp Attack Focus: Ranged 2, Dodge Focus 6 Evasion 2, Improved Initiative, Move-By Action, Power Attack Precise Shot, Ultimate Save (TOU) Uncanny Dodge (mental) Powers: 60 pp Flight 3 (50 MPH) [6 pp] Gravity Flower Array [24+5=29 pp] Blast 12 ‘gravitic blast’ AP: Healing 12 (Extra: Total) (Flaw: Personal Only) ‘regeneration’ AP: Move Object 10 (Extra: Range [Perception]) (Flaw: Up or Down Only) (PFs: Indirect 2, Subtle, Variable Descriptor 1 (gravity/plant)) ‘gravity flower’ AP: Stun 12 (Extra: Ranged) (Flaw: Action [Full]) ‘stun flower’ AP: Telekinesis 12 (Heavy Load: 48 tons) ‘gravitic TK’ AP: Teleport 20 (anywhere in the Universe) (Flaw: Long-Range Only) (PFs: Change Velocity, Progressionx3 (1000 lbs)) 'wormholes' Immunity 12 (aging, life support, starvation and thirst, sleep) [12 pp] Protection 5 [5 pp] Space Travel 1 (1c) [1 pp] Super-Senses 7 (Accurate Analytical Extended 4 (x10000) Radio Sense [7 pp] costs abilities 26 + combat 24 + saves 12 + skills 12/48 + feats 16 + powers 60 = 150 pts ------------ Design Notes: An actual canon kid for once, here's Fleur de Joie and Dark Star's kid Amaryllis, a hero of the future! The idea is that she's both a plant and gravity controller, manipulating two basic parts of life to become quite powerful indeed. Her signature move is the 'gravity flower', an effect which lets her grow a giant daisy underfoot that pins her targets to the Earth with the sheer force of gravity! She has a variety of movement options that need explaining: she uses Flight to get around in Freedom City, Flight 3 being a respectable movement speed in an urban setting. She uses Teleport for planet-wide navigation, being careful to only go places with which she is very familiar, and using Space Travel to get from point to point in deep space. With her movement powers, she can get anywhere in the Universe, she'd better just be very careful about going off-course. She has all the immunities you'd expect from a space-going plant, and can survive on her own on the solar winds alone for the longest time. I figure that's also the descriptor for her Personal Healing, which has such a high rank since she needs it to boost her not-great Recovery Check bonus. (You cannot put Regeneration in Arrays, whatever your lying eyes tell you about Ultimate Power, as that is the devil's playground). She luckily inherited her mom's good looks and winning way with people, as well as her interest and training in life sciences rather than her dad's love of physics: she does like to fly in space, though! She's something of a Glass Cannon, hitting hard but having to be fast and lucky to avoid full-on hits herself. That's one reason she has Ultimate TOU, so that she can take it if she does get tagged by a Space Battleship's main guns, though it won't do much for her if it does happen. (Luckily, she has enough damaging powers to mess with them something fierce in return. A space-going hero can be fun, especially if they're better-known in space than they are at home. (Take a page from recent Nova stories for this, or other Marvel Cosmic Heroes who are much less 'all that' on Earth.). Amaryllis, the champion of the Lor Republic, the Lady of Vines, can have a bit of a homecoming shock when she comes home and finds out that she's just Fleur and Dark Star's daughter and that Ouroborous guy is making eyes at her again. It can be a little disconcerting. Not to mention she may have space-going complications aplenty, like making enemies with space pirates and other such ne'er do wells, or maybe getting called into service to help rescue a Lor planet from the machinations of the Gorgon! Or maybe getting a space-going boyfriend like a "Rogue" Grue, much to the outrage of your poor respectable mother! Note that her 'radar' is tricked out enough to be usable in combat: she can tell people apart via their 'life' energy, tell some pretty specific things about them, and even target them with her powers when she can't see them directly. She has some impressive range, too, with a range increment of 100,000 ft she can easily scan a planet's surface just by flying overhead in orbit. If you want to give her Silver Surfer-style planet-finding powers based off it, max out her Extended PF: 18 or 19 ranks should get the job done. Making that an AP off her main array (under our current rules, that's allowable) would also get that job done. She's all about life in space, and may well try to encourage people to do the same since she's probably going to be around for the era when people move out into space. She's a glam rocker, because she's very pretty and glam is rad, yo! (That's how the kids talk, right? I dunno) Not bad for a florist's kid from Chicago stock!

Cyborg Paragon PL: 10 (150) Abilities: 32 pp STR 30 [20] (+10/+5) DEX 14 (+2) CON 14 (+2) INT 20 (+5) WIS 14 (+2) CHA 10 (+0) Combat: 28 pp ATK: +6 (+10 Unarmed) DEF: +12 (+4 flat-footed) Grapple: +11/+19 Init: +5 Saves: 16 pp TOU +8 (+2 Con, +6 Protection) FORT +7 (+2 Con, +5) REF +7 (+2 Dex, +5) WILL +8 (+2 Wis, +6) Skills: 60 r=15 pp Computers 10 (+15) Craft: Electronic 5 (+10) Craft: Mechanical 5 (+10) Knowledge: Physical Sciences 5 (+10) Knowledge: Technology 10 (+15) Notice 8 (+10) Perform (epic poetry) 4 (+4) Search 5 (+10) Sense Motive 8 (+10) Feats: 10 pp Attack Specialization: Unarmed 2 Eidetic Memory Fearless Inventor Online Research Speed of Thought Takedown Attack Uncanny Dodge (radio) Well-Informed Powers: 49 pp Flight 2 (PF: Move-By Action) (25 MPH) [5 pp] Immunity 9 (Life Support) [9 pp] Impervious TOU 6 [6 pp] Nanite Array [16+2=18 pp] Enhanced STR 10 and Super-Strength 3 (Heavy Load: 6 tons) [16+2=18 pp] AP: Datalink 9 (anywhere on Earth) (PFs: Rapid 6 (1m), Subtle) AP: ESP 4 (1 mile) (visual and auditory) (Flaw: Medium [Electronics]) (PFs: Rapid 6 (x1m), Subtle) Protection 6 [6 pp] Shield 4 [4 pp] Super-Senses 1 (Radio) [1 pp] costs abilities 32 + combat 28 + saves 16 + skills 15/60 + feats 10 + powers 49 = 150 pts ------------------ Design Notes: This is Harrier and Miss Americana, or rather Gina Evans', kid. This one is still plausible, much to Gina's chagrin. The idea is that they're both social outcasts with tremendous issues with personal interaction; in other words, Murdock is one of the few people Gina might let see her naked because he's not someone she worries about impressing. So they get drunk, they fool around, why not? I'll make the admittedly broad assumption that they manage to make something work enough to raise their son together, for certain values of together. He had a bit of a messed-up childhood, for pretty obvious reasons, and that's why his Charisma is relatively low. (At least he didn't get entered into any baby beauty pageants!) The basic idea here is that he's a super-genius and a cyborg: he inherited part of his mother's gigantic brain, but between her desire to improve the human condition and the basic mechanical alterations to his father's cells (and perhaps the ultimately dangerous effects of Terminus radiation on his DNA), the young fellow wound up being mechanically enhanced from a pretty early age: in my mind the Shield, for example, is a built-in force field generator, while his Protection is the result of metal wrapped around his bones. His folks managed to help him overcome their aversion to magnets, something that will help him function and fight in the magnetic World of Tomorrow! (Giving him such would be a great way to get some points back) His array is the product of the nanites that infuse his body: he can use them to pump up his physical strength or to access nearby computers by radio. He can scan an area's computers and machinery via that same power, letting him take in the whole scene quickly. With extra effort, he can search the entire city with a thought, finding anyone he wants as long as they happen to be in the area of a camera with the Flaw on his ESP. (This would be more a Drawback or a Complication if he lived in a country like Britain, of course. Take that, security state!) I figure his Super-Senses and all come from a similar source. Luckily he flies without the need to have a jetpack come rupturing its way out of his spine. Online Research lets you use Computers for Gather Info, thus with Well-Informed letting him know about situations thanks to his mighty technological powers. (It's a great feat, and convincingly lets you play hacker types who are socially inept.) His folks would probably like him to be more of a blaster than he is, but he's more inclined to mix it up than they are. That's why he's got Move-By Action on his flight, so he's not stuck in melee with people who hit harder than he is tough. He's got decent Impervious: he can shrug off bullets from anything short of military-grade hardware. That said, he could use more if you can scare up the points. Assuming you don't want to play this kid per se, I think he'd work just fine as a cyborg with flight there's no reason why every cyborg has to be a blaster/powerhouse or Japanese secret agent. Perhaps he's the result of deliberate implantation, or maybe he was infected by a nanite package. (Maybe by one of the other nanite characters on this very thread!) Cyborgs get a bad rap as a result of people trying to bring character balance to Shadowrun, but I don't think they're really all that bad. If you could implant something in yourself that would give you the power to fly, why not?

Junior PL: 10 (150) Abilities: 20 pp STR 24 (+7) DEX 24 (+7) CON n/a INT 10 (+0) WIS 14 (+2) CHA 8 (-1) Combat: 32 pp ATK: +8 (+10 Melee) DEF: +10 (+4 flat-footed) Grapple: +15 Init: +7 Saves: 8 pp TOU +10 (+10 Protection) FORT n/a REF +8 (+7 Dex, +1) WILL +9 (+2 Wis, +7) Skills: 64 r=16 pp Acrobatics 8 (+15) Climb 3 (+10) Diplomacy 11 (+10) Intimidate 11 (+10) Knowledge: Arcane Lore 8 (+8) Languages 2 (French, Spanish) (Base: English) Notice 8 (+10) Perform (ballet) 5 (+4) Sense Motive 8 (+10) Feats: 14 pp Acrobatic Bluff Attack Focus: Melee 2 Critical Strike [undead] Dodge Focus 2 Evasion 2 Improved Init Luck Power Attack Quick Draw [Draw] Takedown Attack Uncanny Dodge (auditory) Powers: 62 pp Device 1 (Shovel) (Easy to Lose) (PFs: Restricted 2) [5 pp] -Strike 3 (PFs: Improved Crit, Mighty) [5] Immunity 30 (Fortitude Saves) [30 pp] Impervious TOU 8 [8 pp] Protection 10 [10 pp] Regeneration 15 (Recovery Bonus +9, Resurrection 1/week) (Flaw: Source [Flesh]) [7 pp] Super-Senses 2 (Darkvision) [2 pp] Drawbacks: -2 pp Vulnerable (fire) (common, minor) [-2] costs abilities 20 + combat 32 + saves 8 + skills 16/64 + feats 14 + powers 62 - drawback 2 = 150 pts ------ Design Notes: So the infamous Sister Sextus made out with Dead Head, stole some of his flesh, and then used it to perform certain terrible rituals on herself. Nine months later, a baby with chilly skin and a hunger for flesh was born in jail. Luckily the authorities weren't bad people, really, and they contacted Dead Head to try and figure out what to do with this most unfortunate of infants. Luckily, Dead Head turned out to be a surprisingly good father under the circumstances, raising his son (how does a baby revenant grow? fast!) and not minding his frankly terrifying diet, and with the help of his Freedom City friends helped train him to be a master melee fighter with his sharpened shovel, faster and more agile than any walking dead out to be. (Learning how to evade Wander was also a natural part of his upbringing) When the young thing came of age, he went into the world to seek his fortune and battle all those undead who sought to prey on the living! He learned ballet because his father wanted him to get some culture, of course, and the languages and Arcane Lore helped with the letters his mom wrote from Crazy Jail. This is a decent build for a zombie superhero, a fast, skilled combatant with a flashing blade and not that great scent. (His Charisma penalty is offset by decent skills: he's basically a nice guy and easy to get along with, he just has the disadvantage of being a zombie, if a well-put-together, not actively decaying one) With the Flesh flaw on his Regen, lifted from his father, he has to consume some variety of meat in order to heal injuries. I'd be inclined to say it has to be fresh, too; raw or unprocessed meat giving his body what he needs to reconstitute himself. It's up to you whether or not eating corpses would do it, but that's probably something a hero should avoid except in an emergency. (Though hey, if there's already a zombie attack going on, and you've got this Fort immunity anyway so it won't make you sick...) Drinking blood from a bottle like his 'cousin' Jack Jr. satisfied him when he was a baby, but as a baby becomes a child he has to start eating solid food. He lacks his dad's supernatural talents: that's probably for the best given his various issues with his mom and the many terrible magical friends she made during her storied and bloody career. As it is there's more of gravy than of grave about him; he's the guy you call in to fight a zombie uprising while the magic or science folks go to work cleaning up the damage the undead are causing rather than a spellcaster himself, and that's entirely OK! Naturally his horrible origins will cause him plenty of Complications. The undead turning hero is a pretty big step, and he's going to be under a pretty big microscope if he doesn't watch himself. And if he fails a Stealth check at the wrong moment, he just might get a little visit from the bogeyman he grew up hearing about...