Avenger Assembled

Master Thief PL: 10 (150) Abilities: 34 pp STR 16 (+3) DEX 18 (+4) CON 18 (+4) INT 10 (+0) WIS 16 (+3) CHA 16 (+3) Combat: 28 pp ATK: +6 (+12 Melee/+12 Thrown Objects) DEF: +14 (+4 flat-footed) Init: +4 Grapple: +15 Saves: 9 pp TOU: +6 (+4 Con, +2 Armor) FORT: +7 (+4 Con, +3) REF: +7 (+4 Dex, +3) WILL: +6 (+2 Wis, +4) Skills: 80 r=20 pp Acrobatics 11 (+15) Bluff 12 (+15) Climb 2 (+5) Disable Device 15 (+15) Language 1 (French) (Base: English) Notice 8 (+10) Sense Motive 8 (+10) Sleight of Hand 10 (+14) Stealth 11 (+15) Swim 2 (+5) Feats: 28 pp Acrobatic Bluff Attack Focus: Melee 6 Attack Specialization: Thrown Objects 3 Dodge Focus 6 Equipment 2 Improved Initiative Luck Move-By Action Power Attack Skill Mastery (Acrobatics, Bluff, Disable Device, Stealth) Second Chance (Disable Device checks) Sneak Attack Takedown Attack Uncanny Dodge (auditory) Powers: 31 pp Device 1 (Staff) (Easy to Lose) (PF: Subtle [collapsible]) [4 pp] -Strike 3 (PFs: Extended Reach, Mighty) Immunity 1 (own powers) [1 pp] Throwing Stuff Array [24+2=26 pp] Blast 6 (Extras: Autofire, Penetrating) AP: Damage 10 (Extras: Area [Cone], Selective) AP: Drain TOU 10 (Extras: Affects Objects (+0), Area [burst]) (PFs: Reduced Progression on Area 3, Precise) Equipment: 10 ep -Body Armor (Protection 2) (PF: Subtle) [3 ep] -Grapple Gun (Super-Movement 3 (Slow Fall, Swinging, Wall Crawling) and Speed 1 (10 MPH)) [7 ep] costs abilities 34 + combat 28 + saves 9 + skills 20/80 + feats 28 + powers 31 = 150 pts Design Notes: Here’s a Francophone master thief who gets around by throwing exploding objects for fun and profit. He’s not terribly clever, but he’s very pretty: there are better thieves out there, but thanks to his very high total and his Second Chance, he can probably handle himself vs. any mundane lock in the world and do pretty good even vs. various kinds of high-tech stuff. (He still needs to be careful; Disable Device’s difficulties are pretty high, and while he’s very good, he’s not as incredibly talented as the Cat Burglar upthread. But that’s why he fits in better as part of a team when he’s doing superheroic stuff.) He’s also got a staff to bust out if he’s in barfights or something, and doesn’t want to reveal that he’s some kind of crazy superpowered guy. He’s better with his pretty face, unlocking doors by talking the guard out of parting with the key, and he’s equally good with ladies and gentlemen too. (Even if he keeps doing bad stuff, he always seems to be able to talk his way back onto whatever team he’s on) His power revolves around blowing things up, which he can use in a variety of ways: I figure his Area Attack is something like a storm of playing cards, or jacks, or whatever his signature ‘thing’ is, creating an effect that clears the room in front of him. His base power is very effective, doing damage comparable to a super-charged machine gun. The big power, Drain TOU, lets him blow up objects by concentrating on them: this is primarily a tool since it only affects objects, but he can do some effective damage with it: that steel door blocking your way and its jammed lock unpickable? Blow it down! With the Reverse Progression on the Drain, he can limit his destruction to one small area, perfect for taking out that big lock. He’s natural to team up with that Energy-Draining Paragon above thread, or her twin the Mindtaker. Or both at once! (He can dream, can’t he?) His low exotic saves do mean that she was totally right to be worried about poisoning him with her touch. But with the right complications for this kind of character, maybe that sort of thing won’t bother him! He should be something of a laughing rogue and a daredevil, perhaps with an ungrammatical French nickname for everybody. If he’s known as an ex-supervillain, switching sides will be a problem, but a character this sneaky and charismatic shouldn’t be known for stealing anything except hearts. And maybe wallets. And lots of covers in the 90s. And once the Hope Diamond, off a really hot lady.

Edge smiled thinly as he stepped off the platform, heading back to the Gravois family who were watching the spectacle with tense, pale faces. They'd been through a hell of a lot in the last couple of days, and it was probably just habit that was keeping one or all from freaking out in the presence of the super-people. "Probably so," Mark agreed. "But if he's busy being pissed at me, he won't be getting pissed at you guys." His grin turned crooked. "You may not know this," he admitted, "but I can be pretty irritating when I put my mind to it."

I love, love, love the concept. The sheet looks mostly OK: I like that he's primarily a social character given his gradually aging body. You might benefit from setting the abilities so you're rolling all 'round' numbers (10s or 5s), but that's totally optional.. My only real concern is with the bladed disks: Equipment shouldn't have the Accurate feat. That's what the Masterwork feat is for. (Masterwork providing +1 rather than +2). Fix that up, and I think you're good to go. APPROVED

Spinning Hero PL: 10 (150) Abilities: 30 pp STR 14 (+2) DEX 24 (+7) CON 16 (+3) INT 10 (+0) WIS 14 (+2) CHA 12 (+1) Combat: 28 pp ATK: +6 (+10 Melee) DEF: +10 (+4 flat-footed) Init: +11 Grapple: +12 Saves: 8 pp TOU +10 (+3 Con, +7 Spinning) FORT +6 (+3 Con, +3) REF +15/+8 (+7 Dex, +1, +7 Spinning) WILL +6 (+2 Wis, +4) Skills: 36 r=9 pp Acrobatics 8 (+15) Concentration 4 (+6) Notice 8 (+10) Sense Motive 8 (+10) Stealth 8 (+15) Feats: 16 pp Acrobatic Bluff Attack Focus: Melee 4 Challenge (Fast Acrobatic Bluff) Dodge Focus 2 Evasion 2 Improved Initiative Move-By Action Power Attack Takedown Attack 2 Uncanny Dodge (auditory) Powers: 59 pp Concealment 4 (all visual) (Flaw: Partial) (PF: Close Range) [5 pp] Corrosion 10 [30+2=32 pp] AP: Damage 10 (Extras: Area [burst], Selective) AP: Damage 10 (Extras: Autofire, Penetrating) Flight 3 (50 MPH) [6 pp] Immunity 1 (vertigo) [1 pp] Spinning 7 (PF: Radius Sight) [15 pp] costs abilities 30 + combat 28 + saves 8 + skills 9/36 + feats 16 + powers 59 = 150 pts --- Design Notes: Here's another build that makes use of a rarely-used power: Spinning. As long as our plucky heroine maintains her velocity, she has +7 to her TOU and +7 to her Reflex save. (With Radius Sight, she can see in all directions as she does so, making it very tough to sneak up on her and also making logical that immunity to vertigo. Not to the film stylings of Alfred Hitchcock, that is, but rather that her attacks on her inner ear don't bother her. I've tried to give her powers that I think befit someone with super-speed spinning: she can soar into the air like a top o the breeze, she can only barely be seen while she's going full-speed, and additionally she can cut through enemies like a buzzsaw with rapidly whirling hands. With Takedown Attack and her various attacks, she can cleave through a group like nobody's business. If she focuses all her attention on one dance partner, well, she can just about take them down easy as pie. In my mind, this is the greatest heroine of Hobart, Tasmania: perhaps her native abilities manifested while under stress at a dance competition in the big city? That makes her something of a country girl in the big city, given Tasmania's relative poverty and isolation from the rest of Australia. Plenty of good roleplaying potential there. Despite the low whine she emits in my mind when her powers are operating, she's also a very good sneak, perhaps instead revolving through the air with the invisible grace of helicopter blades. Balancing her career as a dancer and performer is going to be an important part of her superhero career, naturally! Perhaps she's hit it big in her career in more ways than one, and has come to Freedom City to make her fortune. With her decent TOU and massive Reflex bonus, she's basically invulnerable vs. Area attacks: use that to your advantage vs. area spammers! People will think of this as a girly character right up until you punch them several thousand times in a second; use this to your advantage as everyone underestimates the gaudily dressed ballet dancer! Problems you may have with taking other people in Flight (what with the puking and all) are very valuable complications! (They also mean your friends won't want to bum a ride off you!) You've got broad stunting possibilities: Deflect? Nauseate? I could see Impervious too, as the character rotates so fast that anything fired at her bounces off. She'd be pretty fun to play, I think.

"The logistics are difficult," answered Harrier flatly. "Generally magical para-dimensions are collapsed into the larger universal well as it plunges into the Coil." Firing up his pike, he said, "Wander and I will endeavor to destroy the material component of the energy when it materializes. If that fails," he added, looking straight at Wander and the others. "The building must be destroyed and its material components reduced to their basic atoms. There is no safer way to ensure the safety of this dimension from the growing threat of the Terminus."

"If you guys can take charge of Singularity, I'll handle the Gravois family," said Edge, smiling a little before keeping his distance from Singularity on the transporter pad. "I'll contact the League and the school so they know what we're doing, and so they can process the refugees." He smiled thinly. "We can't just show up with Francois and get her registered tomorrow...and I think they like me more than that Erin does. I'll make sure no one comes looking around Blackstone until after you've already processed what needs processing."

Charismatic Magnetic Controller PL: 10 (150) Abilities: 24 pp STR 10 (+0) DEX 16 (+3) CON 14 (+2) INT 12 (+1) WIS 14 (+2) CHA 18 (+4) Combat: 24 pp ATK: +6 (+10 Thrown Objects/TK) DEF: +10 (+3 flat-footed) Grapple: +6/+20 Saves: 15 pp TOU +10 (+2 Con, +8 Protection) FORT +5 (+2 Con, +3) REF +7 (+3 Dex, +4) WILL +10 (+2 Wis, +8) Skills: 56 r=14 pp Bluff 6 (+10) Diplomacy 11 (+15) Intimidate 11 (+15) Knowledge: History 4 (+5) Knowledge: Physical Sciences 4 (+5) Languages 4 (Chinese, English, German, Polish) (Base; Yiddish) Notice 8 (+10) Sense Motive 8 (+10) Feats: 16 pp Beginner’s Luck Dodge Focus 4 Improved Initiative Inspire 4 Jack of all Trades Leadership Luck Move-By Action Power Attack Uncanny Dodge (auditory) Powers: 57 pp Flight 1 (10 MPH) [2 pp] Impervious TOU 8 (Extra: Duration [sustained]) [8 pp] Magnetic Mastery Array [33+2=35 pp] Telekinesis 10 (Extra: Damaging) (PFs: Accurate 2, Precise) AP: Telekinesis 10 (Extras: Area [burst], Selective) (Flaw: Range [Touch]) (PFs: Reduced Progression 2, Precise) AP: Telekinesis 10 (Extra: Range [Perception]) (PFs: Attack Specialization (Thrown Objects) 2, Split Attack) Protection 8 [8 pp] Super-Senses 4 (Metal Awareness, Detect 2 (Metal) [Radius]) [4 pp] costs abilities 24 + combat 24 + saves 15 + skills 14/56 + feats 16 + powers 57 = 150 pts ---- Design Notes: Here's a radical mutant activist turned superhero: a Malcolm X after his conversation to non-violence. He's an incredibly charismatic man, capable of leading a team of low-level characters into basically even combat with much more capable and well-trained fighters. He's also a powerful magnetic controller, who has emancipated his powers from the shackles of magnetism to be able to fight and win in very broad terms: his need for some rubber science version of electromagnetism to use his powers is a Complication, not a Flaw or a drawback. In other words, he's really very badass! (If you're looking to build the movie version of this guy, I'd put him at about this range with almost everyone else closer to 6-8; emulating his comics version as an NPC should be in the 12-15 range. After all, he could fight the PL 10 X-Men and the PL 12-15 Avengers and come out about as well each time) He's got broad descriptors. Need to rip the metal out of the bones of the Feral Canadian? Stunt an Incurable Damage, or even Affects Objects Corrosion, off your big array. Need to kill a security guard for the iron in his blood? (Note, hero characters shouldn't do that, obviously!) Drain Con! For stunts like disarming a room full of thugs, you've got your Selective Area TK: your STR score with the Telekinesis should easily let you disarm those bad guys. He's got a very good Will Save, as befits someone who has so often gone up against a famous mentalist, but as demonstrated in X-2 his Fort save is something of a weak spot. I did not include any sort of asteroid base for him; bases are usually jointly shared if he's on a team, and if not he should save his PP to buy something like that in play. A family of annoying super-kids is a complication. (Why do your daughters dress like that? A reaction to their repressive postwar Eastern European childhoods perhaps? Feh! And why does your son never call...) That shapeshifting girlfriend of yours (represented by my Sneak Thief build upthread) is her own character and decidedly not a Sidekick or Minion. In Freedom City, this character is almost certainly a Terminus baby, perhaps a product of the invasion of 1965 who is using his new powers to protect the younger generation of Terminus mutants from a world that fears and hates them. An Immunity to aging is a good idea if you want to make him around and active since WWII; as it is any deaging he's undergone is definitely a plot device. An ex-supervillain will have quite a series of Complications around him, especially if he's still political. But luckily he's persuasive enough that even his enemies still take him in, Revolving Face-Heel Door or not.

Vampire Slayer PL: 10 (150) Abilities: 50 pp STR 24 (+7) DEX 16 (+3) CON 24 (+7) INT 14 (+2) WIS 16 (+3) CHA 14 (+2) Combat: 24 pp ATK: +6 (+10 Ax) DEF: +10 (+3 flat-footed) Init: +7 Grapple: +13 Saves: 13 pp TOU: +10 (+7 Con, +3) FORT: +10 (+7 Con, +3) DEX: +6 (+3 Dex, +3) WIS: +10 (+3 Wis, +7) Skills: 100 r=25 pp Bluff 13 (+15) Intimidate 13 (+15) Knowledge: Arcane Lore 13 (+15) Knowledge: History 8 (+10) Knowledge: Civics 8 (+10) Knowledge: Tactics 8 (+10) Languages 1 (Old Slavonic) (Base: English) Notice 12 (+15) Sense Motive 12 (+15) Stealth 12 (+15) Feats: 23 pp All-Out Attack Attack Specialization: Ax 2 Blind-Fight Dodge Focus 4 Fearless Improved Initiative Leadership Luck Master Plan 2 Move-By Action Power Attack Quick Draw [draw] Second Chance (Arcane Lore checks) Skill Mastery (Bluff, Intimidate, Notice, Sense Motive) Takedown Attack Taunt Ultimate Save (Will) Uncanny Dodge (mental) Powers: 17 pp Device 1 (Axe) (Easy to Lose) [3 pp] -Strike 3 (PFs: Critical Strike [undead], Mighty) [5] Immortality (1/week) [4 pp] Protection 3 [3 pp] Speed 1 (10 MPH) [1 pp] Super-Senses 6 (Undead Awareness, Detect Undead 2 (Acute, Analytical, Radius) (all mental) [6 pp] costs abilities 50 + combat 24 + saves 6 + skills 25/100 + feats 23 + powers 17 = 150 pts Design Notes: WHO drove a stake through the heart of the Grave Power? WHOSE armies burned Atlanta, where the shrieks of the undead within were sweet music to the cause of righteous freedom? WHOSE Emancipation Proclamation ensured that all Americans would be free and that none, white nor black, would ever again be bought and sold like cattle? And WHO, by his sheer force of will, has continued his struggle against the unrighteous hordes of vampires even after his own alleged demise? Ladies and gentlemen, none other than the 16th President of the United States, the Great Emancipator himself, ABRAHAM LINCOLN, VAMPIRE SLAYER! True, his legacy may have been tainted by time: his heirs may have accommodated so-called 'loyalist' vampires so much that ultimately a kind of undead domination survived to hold down the South for another few generations. How many undead Senators held their posts in the Deep South for decade upon decade? Many. But today, only a few would openly call themselves pro-vampire in America. (I do think it's a pretty obvious dogwhistle that the other party keeps calling President Brooks a dhampir; as if his race or his place of birth were an issue in 2011!) So yeah, here's Abraham Lincoln as an immortal vampire slayer. I've had to compromise on the original Lincoln a little (i.e., a faithful non-supernatural Lincoln should be a grappler), but with his mystic rail-splitting ax in hand and his supernatural ability to hunt the undead, this version of Abraham Lincoln is ready to take to the streets of the campaign city with vampire-hunting on his mind. In re the Critical Strike on his ax: I took a page from the corebook Martial Artist for that. If he rolls a critical hit while fighting the undead, he can spend an HP to gain Favored Opponent (undead) and thus score a crit even on something usually immune to them. I figure his century and a half of vampire fighting has given him an encyclopedic knowledge of their ways, and a larger presence in the supernatural community than you might think. Various herbs and treatments have prolonged his life, giving him a supernatural resilience in his battles. With his Master Plan and Leadership, he's a great leader, while his Taunt feat represents all those old-timey jokes Lincoln used to tell, but this time at the expense of the ravening hordes of undead! His STR and CON may seem high, but Abraham Lincoln was a big, imposing guy. His CHA may seem a bit low, but most people who met Lincoln didn't think much of him: perhaps a use of that high Bluff to better confound his enemies? He's got the Blind-Fight so he can engage his enemies in the dark of the night that is their natural home, but of course he's better off fighting them on his own ground. He could benefit from a purchase of the Ritualist feat, but Honest Abe always preferred to rely on specialists rather than being a specialist in everything himself. He'd make an interesting counterpart to the Rough Rider upthread, a solo champion while RR is head of a secret government faction. Perhaps they've been rivals down the many long years?

"No..." said Sharl, tracing his fingers over the utilitarian display. "I mean, there are people occasionally hurt by weak nuclear radiation, but nothing that would need a poster." He shook his head. "You hear rumors about it, but believing in mutants is as crazy as believing in aliens. Or other dimensions...I don't know." He pulled his glasses back up so they better covered his eyes. "We can ask my parents about it when we get there, or when we see it on the news going up." He led the way out of the alley, turning them down into an alien city street. This far down; the streets were nearly deserted. Which was to say, it looked like a typical weekday on the streets of Freedom City. Despite the crowd, though, no one looked their way. Or did they? It was hard to tell who was looking anywhere in a society where everyone wore dark glasses and nearly identical clothing; the main fashion variant that some people favored form-fitting black leather rather than the long coat that young men like Sharl did. Even Sharl's black hair and short haircut seemed to be a common strain among the citizens of Tronik. Sharl quickly led them to a door in the side of the building that was rapidly filling with people, obviously Tronik's version of an elevator. Once a dozen or so people were inside, their little box began to rise with a smoothness that belied what a look outside revealed was fantastic speed: they were rising faster than the mightiest express elevator in Earth-Prime. And no wonder, with so much space to cover. Sharl looked out the window at the familiar sights of the city, murmuring to Mary nearby, "There are more militia cruisers flying around than I remember..." His discretion got him a glare from the man opposite; indeed, almost no one else was talking at all. They didn't look frightened, either; just very quiet. On the wall opposite in the elevator, the commuters were watching the news, flashes of images like a rapidly changing channel flicking on the nearby wallscreen: "...Council President Batage reports that effective plankton harvests are expected to double with the deployment of new oceanic grafting technology...solar plant on the sunward continent target of opposition by anti-government protesters who claimed that..." The face of a uniformed humanoid in futuristic black body armor replaced the news anchor: "The Tronik Militia reminds you: If you see a mutant, report it. The life you save may be your own." And with that, with the elevator's most recent stop, Sharl turned and headed off. "This is it, Ema and Mary," he murmured as they walked out into a steel-lined corridor cast in greenish-blue by the glowstrip overhead. "This is our floor..."

"Does the racial memory of the human population extend to the period of devastation?" inquired Harrier as they walked. "Even if they have lost their knowledge of the names and faces of their attackers, often those stories can survive in folk tales and ancestral memory." He offered her his arm as they walked, acutely conscious of just how pregnant she was. He could have offered to fly her, but his own condition, when put against hers, didn't bear thinking about. "If you and they show no sign of contamination, that is a promising sign. But it is best if I investigate. There have been many...exceptional cases over the centuries."

Sharl stepped through the gateway and was assaulted by strange sensations: air that tasted green, sounds that blew cold winds across his skin, sensations beneath his feet that jangled like alarm bells! He forced himself to adapt to the synthesisia, closing his eyes and taking deep breaths, and gradually his body and mind adjusted themselves to their new surroundings. No, not new surroundings; to the surroundings where he'd been born and raised, to the place that was "Home..." He opened his eyes and found himself back in a place once familiar and alien: they were back at the base of the 30th district, the familiar white-blue glow of the ground sector lights the only reliable illumination. The distant, reassuring hum of the air recyclers that were all that kept the land at the base of hundreds of mile-high towers inhabitable by humans sounded in his ears as he looked up, and up, imagining his family so far overhead. In the deep sky, where sectors bent together like trees to form a forest of steel overhead, he could just make out a few slivers of welcoming green sky, with little flivvers moving back and forth between buildings. For Miss Americana and Dragonfly, Tronik was a considerably more alien place, and it took a few moments for their perspectives to adjust. They were surrounded by buildings that were more like tremendous towers, huge skyscrapers cast in dark blue and gunmetal grey, rising far higher and bulking far thicker, than any building on Prime had ever dreamed, packed so closely together they blotted out the barely visible alien sky overhead. The Pyramid Plaza in Freedom City would have been lost in the forest of steel overhead. The air had the faint smell of ozone and the whine of equipment was everywhere; the glare of artificial light glowing all around them. Overhead, half-visible craft flitted silently from building to building, without even a glow at their tailpipes to show what might be powering them. There were no birds against that sky; no sign of animal life in the alley they shared. From outside the alley came the sound of people and conversation, but no one who sounded like they'd noticed their arrival. "There's an elevator just around the corner," called Sharl to the women, "with my passcode, it'll take us right up into the sector! It...oh." Sharl fell silent as the wall near them flickered to life, the sensors built into the building sensing a human presence: just as he'd expected, the usual bills had been posted even here. And the leading one was written in a style familiar to anyone from a civilized world: SHARL TULINK LAST SEEN 1/3/18242, and the sort of smiling teenager shot underneath that was that of any civilization. Sharl put his hand against his face in the wallscreen. "I guess they're still looking. We...we need to get up there!" Next to his picture, though, was another poster, smaller and more utilitarian, that the native hero didn't notice: IF YOU SEE A MUTANT, REPORT IT.

"I will need to tour the devastated areas for signs of Omegadrone attack," said Harrier honestly. "Large areas of high technology introduced through violent artificial means. A scouring of inhabitants. Charnel pits and objects placed to reduce the morale of survivors." He felt ugly saying the words, and even more as he asked, "Have you had your unborn child medically checked for exposure to Terminus radiation? Or toxic chemicals? I can recommend an extremely competent super-scientist with a medical interest...and if you did find evidence of Grue activity, that is reassuring. No one has attempted to sterilize the planet."

Projectile Hero PL: 10 (150) Abilities: 30 pp STR 20 (+5) DEX 14 (+2) CON 20 (+5) INT 10 (+0) WIS 14 (+2) CHA 12 (+1) Combat: 28 pp ATK: +6 (+10 w/Strike) DEF: +10 (+4 flat-footed) Init: +6 Grapple: +21 max Saves: 10 pp TOU +10 (+5 Con, +5 Protection) FORT +8 (+5 Con, +3) REF +5 (+2 Dex, +3) WILL +6 (+2 Wis, +4) Skills: 64 r=16 pp Climb 5 (+10) Concentration 10 (+12) Craft: Structural 10 (+10) Knowledge: Earth Sciences 10 (+10) Notice 13 (+15) Profession (miner) 8 (+10) Sense Motive 8 (+10) Feats: 14 pp All-Out Attack Dodge Focus 2 Fast Overrun Improved Initiative Improved Overrun Luck 3 Move-By Action Power Attack Takedown Attack 2 Uncanny Dodge (auditory) Powers: 52 pp Cannonball Array [20+1+2+2+2=27 pp] Flight 10 (10000 MPH) [Dynamic] DAP: Damage 10 (Extra: Area [burst]) DAP: Damage 10 (PFs: Accurate 2, Improved Crit 2) DAP: Super-Strength 10 (Heavy Load: ~180 tons) Impervious TOU 10 (Extra: Duration [sustained] (+0) ) [10 pp] Protection 5 [5 pp] costs abilities 30 + combat 28 + saves 10 + skills 16/64 + feats 14 + powers 52 = 150 pts Design Notes: Here’s a hero who flies around on a jet of energy, surrounding himself in a shield of energy to make himself bulletproof. He’s really, really fast, easily capable of breaking multiple Machs in flight, and at the same time he punches really, really hard while having the ability to generate massive explosions! He’s a familiar enough archetype, similar to Freedom City’s own Victory. I gave an origin similar to his comic book progenitor; i.e. that he’s a miner or geologist with the power to take to the air, breaking the surly bonds of Earth and touching the face of God! He’s fast, he’s really strong (with redirecting his powers towards ‘towing’), and in general he’s your go-to guy for aerial combat while covering a not terribly-populated niche in the sciences: only dedicated science types are liable to have a higher Earth Sciences total than this guy even with his average INT. I didn’t give him the ‘must be flying’ drawback on his Strike or his Impervious TOU, I think those things are better left to complications. Rather than give him the Force Field power, I went with giving him Impervious TOU with a Sustained duration: that way he’s not totally vulnerable when his field isn’t turned on (and he has a decent chance of surviving a failed Concentration check at high speed), but he still has a definite advantage to be gained by turning on his ‘force field’; he’s freaking bulletproof with it! He can fight military jets on even terms as it is; shrugging off their machine gun fire and going toe-to-toe with even your larger missiles: with Flight 10, he can outpace almost all flying characters, and all mundane aircraft as well. Note that I avoided giving him any extras on his Strike, so he can hit for full damage and still keep up a respectable flying speed with the Dynamic power construction. This is a pretty flexible concept. One thing to give him might be Immunities to reflect someone who can survive the vicissitudes of high-altitude travel; as it is, while he can survive flight at 10000 MPH, he’ll freeze or suffocate if he goes too high. With a few more immunities, he can even fly in space! (Though you’ll probably want Space Flight for that, given just how far it is even to the Moon at the 20000 MPH that is this guy’s accelerated move) You could also give him some Leadership or Inspire if you want to represent someone with experience managing his teenage superteam. Consider making him part of a big family of superpowered folks, perhaps as a result of all the uranium their family mined over the years. (How much did they mine? So much!)

Having come back in with the Gravois family, Mark didn't hesitate. He was back in his bright, cheerful costume; exactly the opposite (in more ways than one) of what his counterpart would wear. "Erin?" he said, kneeling down and staying just out of arm's reach so he wouldn't frighten her: he hoped he wouldn't frighten her, anyway: "This is for you." He produced from the air a sandwich, two all-beef patties, lettuce, mayo, and a sliced tomato inside wheat bread: he'd been practicing. "Here, eat up. If you want more, I can make that too. We can give you whatever you want to eat."

Edge (Vignette) Down Together (and GMing) Rainmaker Fusion Other Fishies in the Sea Harrier (Vignette) The Stars Went Out The Last Picture Show Citizen The City of the Future Strange Visitors State of Grace GMing Measure of a Hero Lonely Eyes Conquering Mind

"I had not considered the idea. Perhaps it is worth trying." And he meant it. "As for the future," he added, "to be here, with a friend, eating good food in a safe place, is a future brighter than I could ever have dreamed. Only here, with heroes, could I believe in something more." He let her lead the way when they walked outside, resisting the urge to pop into either version of his armor. "Have you encountered any evidence of non-Terran intelligences on or near this planet?" he asked her as they walked outside.

Sharl guided the way, more on instinct than memory, as his mind went back to his terrified flight of a few months ago. "This was all different then," he said aloud, walking along the sidewalk out of memories of what walking in that 'road' was like. "I couldn't even feel the ground beneath my feet, or see anything but myself. Stepping from Tronik out to this was like walking off the edge of reality; just falling and falling forever, knowing there were things in there with me but not able to see them or touch them." He shuddered a little, and added, "I'll have to..." No, come to think of it, he didn't have to try this again on the Internet in Freedom City. Chances for that were going to be thin on the ground. What had been a mad, panicked flight was much, much easier as a straight shot through a recognizable, if deeply alien cityscape. He didn't recognize the backdoor to Tronik at first, since after all it had looked nothing like this his first time through! But as they went, the cityscape seemed to part as they reached the edges of the network's coverage, until finally they found a classic Daedalus computer construct: literally! From its marble steps to its Doric columns, the gate to Tronik looked like something from classical Greece. This time, it was Sharl who took the lead as he put his hands on the big brass door. "From the other side," he said, "It just looked like a door to nowhere, but stepping through it..." He ran his hands over the 'brass' surface. "If it's in the same place, it'll just be an alley in the ground sectors. Somebody posted anonymously on the alien boards that there'd been a sighting, so I came down and investigated." He blinked. "I didn't even tell my parents where I was going. They'll be...right through here."

Harrier ate; he'd known real hunger, real poverty too long to not eat food when it offered to him. "I have never been in school," he told Stesha. "My parents had both been educated on their world before its destruction. They taught me what they could about all they knew, but there was survival to consider first, and always. That made me luckier than most." He looked down at his reflection in the bottom of the bowl, the lines just visible beneath his skin seeming to catch the light. "I would be alien to them," he said, as if he was trying to talk himself out of a tempting possibility. "As I am elsewhere. And I am not clever or wise."

"It is...satisfactory," said Harrier, speaking slowly and distinctly in his metallic timbre. "Many of the men I work with in the kitchen are also displaced by war or poverty from what had once been their homes. We have camaraderie. And when I walk the aisles I can see children and families, and I enjoy that. I have considered the jobs available to men with my identity and skills, but there are none other." He smiled faintly. "When Lady Liberty gave me a list of jobs I could work upon my freedom, I thought that Champions was the restaurant where superheroes ate all the time. But it is a normal place, and I think I am the better for that. There is very little that is normal about me, or about my life, and to have some of it is...pleasant. When I am given charity, I must pay it back."

Motorcycle Daredevil PL: 10 (150) Abilities: 50 pp STR 24 (+7) DEX 24 (+7) CON 24 (+7) INT 10 (+0) WIS 14 (+2) CHA 14 (+2) Combat: 32 pp ATK: +8 (+13 Melee) DEF: +13 (+4 flat-footed) Init: +11 Grapple: +20 Saves: 10 pp TOU +7 (+7 Con) FORT +10 (+7 Con, +3) REF +10 (+7 Dex, +3) WILL +6 (+2 Wis, +4) Skills: 60 r=15 pp Acrobatics 13 (+20) Craft (Mechanical) 5 (+5) Drive 13 (+20) Notice 8 (+10) Perform (Daredevil) 13 (+15) Sense Motive 8 (+10) Feats: 22 pp Acrobatic Bluff All-Out Attack Attack Focus: Melee 5 Dodge Focus 5 Evasion Fast Overrun Fearless Improved Initiative Improved Overrun Move-By Action Power Attack Second Chance (Drive checks) Takedown Attack Uncanny Dodge (auditory) Powers: 21 pp Device 5 (Motorcycle) (Hard to Lose) (PF: Restricted [+12 ranks in Drive]) [21 pp] -Enhanced Feats 2 (Quick Change 2) [2] -Immunity 3 (environmental heat, suffocation) [3] -Impervious TOU 7 [7] -Speed 5 (250 MPH) (Extra: Affects Others) (PFs: Wall Running 2, Water Run) [13] costs abilities 50 + combat 32 + saves 10 + skills 15/60 + feats 22 + powers 21 = 150 pts ----- Design Notes: Here's my take on the Motorcycle Daredevil archetype from the Silver Age book (aka, Ghost Rider if he hadn't sold his soul, or Evel Knievel as a superhero). I've re-envisioned the concept as a very, very good stunt driver with a really very good motorcycle: I figured that his fancy red white and blue costume (complete with cape!) is part of the motorcycle, so I weighed the costs together. He's as strong, tough, and fast as it's possible for a human being to be: even without his souped-up bike he can take monster hits and recover after just a little time in the hospital. (With Ultimate TOU, he can take a terminal velocity fall (+20 damage) and come away with being stunned and injured; luckily being a daredevil, this guy is going to have lots of Complications powering his HP pool) With his fancy motorbike, he can ride up the side of buildings, across ceilings, and even over water! Note that while a regular motorcycle had Speed 5; equipment can't use accelerated and all-out moves the way Device-powered Speed can: this guy can break the sound barrier in his lean machine and he can do it in style! The Impervious and Environmental Immunities help while doing the FLAMING WHEELS OF DEATH, while Quick Change means he can pop right back into his swinging 70s open-chested leisure suit before he goes and flirts with the ladies. (Yeah, this guy has a definite mid-70s funk about him, but there are still insane people doing this sort of thing on a regular basis in backlots and on dirt tracks all over America!) In combat he'll zip around on his bike, clearing the room of goons, or he'll just punch them right in the head! (Affects Others Speed is my way of giving him the ability to ride with a passenger, something that's not easy to model with non-vehicle stuff when it's not his strength being directly exerted here) Give him an aquatic theme to play a latter-day Tommy Bartlett (look it up!), or perhaps a suit that gives him Wall-Crawling if you want to play the Human Fly II. In Freedom City you run the risk of getting confused with Captain Knievel, notorious supervillain, but I like to think you'll be able to reclaim the legacy of the insane daredevil by demonstrating the sheer awesomeness of your heroism! Ride right up the side of the Pyramid Plaza and jump to another tower while rescuing the lady tossed in the air by a supervillain? Yessss.

Lucky's eyes widened, and he obligingly spilled the beans. "Mistah R is the big boss, see? The boss of all bosses, and-" "QUIET YOU MUG!" Boss Moxie was awake and fighting mad, his three foot something frame knotted with rage. "Ain't nobody the boss of Boss Moxie, see! We wuz just doin' a favah for Mistah R so he'd cut us in on his action!" "Sheesh! Okay, fine," said Lucky, beset on both sides. "You don't hafta be makin' no federal case outta it." For her part, Roxie had looked away, giving the saddest little shriek of all as she was threatened with erasure by the big bad superhero! For his part, Ox was all injured dignity. "You know, mistah," he said with great, slow patience, "you shouldn't oughta threaten a lady to get two fellas to talk. I'd have spilled da beans if you'd smacked Lucky around some, easy." As the muscular little midget spoke, the police sirens in the distance got louder, and the cops appeared down the street.

Harrier told her all he had been up to, much of which had been outside the city. "I have been adventuring under a new name and identity," he said, "secured for me by a friend. I find that my face, and my...self can be a distraction when trying to work with others, or rescue those who have every reason to fear and hate me. Much of it has been outside the city. While things are quieter in the less populated regions, they can be more pleasant as well. To stand on a clean beach and feel the water beneath my toes, to see birds in the sky and crabs on the sand...it is quite lovely." He asked after her own fate as well, and that of her child. "When it is of age, bring your child to Champions. We have a good children's menu," he said stolidly. "And children love the little hero toys."

"I will look as far as I can," said Harrier, relaxing now that he knew he was in safe company. "It is unlikely that a world as habitable as this one was a victim of a direct attack. Worlds that do repel direct assault, or that close their dimensional barriers to mass bombardment, are usually deliberately poisoned by chemical transformation of their atmosphere, or by fusion suppressors fired into their star, or..." His voice was flat, as if describing something that had happened a long time ago, to other people. And indeed, it had. "...But since this world is habitable, that seems unlikely. However," he added, "the chance must be investigated. If they closed their barriers after the initial assault, but before the installation of the transmission towers, a habitable, if devastated planet, is still possible. The changes of radiation poisoning in such a case are high. You are right to be concerned."

Harrier started at the sudden transport, his hackles going up as he felt a sudden feeling of dislocation...but luckily sense reasserted itself before he could do more than startle the extremely pregnant heroine before him. "I have had experiences with perspective shifts before," he said after a moment's awkwardness. "That was surprising." He blushed furiously and looked away, afraid he'd offended her, but she still offered him food he accepted a place at the table and took subs and salad and soft drinks alike. "That was more than just teleportation."

Harrier accepted her offer graciously, in fact looking quite grateful. Skipping work on a Saturday was easy enough with the long hours he worked through the rest of the week, but it did mean that he'd have been looking at eating at the charity kitchen, or perhaps beans from a can again: he'd eaten much worse in his life, but eating so well was far better. "Thank you for the meal," he said, his voice its usual quiet, steady beat. "I will give you whatever technical assistance I can." If the sight of a pregnant woman fazed him, well...he'd dealt with those ancient pains a long time ago. "Congratulations on your successful breeding."