Avenger Assembled

Earth-Prime "Well, I guess that answers whether or not Hans Hellman is still alive," said Edge a little testily. "Lousy Nazis. He's supposed to be in Hell!" He hmmed, thinking about the picture they'd seen. "That didn't look anything like the Hell I remember. I suggest we head for Freedom Hall," he said to the others. This wasn't the sort of thing anyone was ever totally blase about, especially not with the global storm network, but truthfully he could imagine a lot scarier plots than what was happening now. "All right, I suggest we head for Freedom Hall and use the equipment there to try and trace the signal. If we can figure out where it's coming from, or even better where that rift leads and who's on the other side, maybe we can make some connections and figure out what happened to the League. Earth-ND Mark took the opportunity to briefly hug Erin, wanting to reassure her as well as himself on this terrifying day. "It'll be all right!" he told everyone, though the usually-chipper cheerleader didn't sound entirely sure of that. "This is bad, and this is big, but...but if we all work together, all of us, we can do this thing. The Freedom League didn't die for nothing." He looked from one to the other, thinking about his mother, and even his father. There were tornadoes in Texas. Nowhere was safe. "We need to go fast," he added with a murmur, shooting a look around them. "Not a lot of people in Freedom City are going to sell paragons out to al-Khayal, but you know the rest of the world won't be that nice."

"That sounds great," said Sharl cordially. "If you're going to take me to the kitchen, I can't eat anything," he said, putting his hand over his stomach. "Not anything that isn't digital, anyway. I have a stomach, but it's just electronic impulses, and when I go back into a computer the food just falls out." He patted his belly and winced at what was evidently an embarrassing memory. "I do really like computers, though! I've been inside all kinds of systems, apparantly. I wasn't really paying attention at the time."

Armored Megalomaniac (Villanous NPC) PL: 15 (250) Abilities: 45 pp STR 20 (+5) DEX 20 (+5) CON 20 (+5) INT 30 (+10) WIS 20 (+5) CHA 20 (+5) Combat: 40 pp ATK: +10 (+15 ranged) DEF: +12 (+5 flat-footed) Init: +9 Grapple: +15/+30 Saves: 17 pp TOU +18 (+5 Con, +13 Force Field) FORT +8 (+5 Con, +3) REF +8 (+5 Dex, +3) WILL +16 (+5 Wis, +11) Skills: 31 pp=124 pp Concentration 10 (+20) Craft (electronic) 10 (+20) Craft (mechanical) 10 (+20) Diplomacy 10 (+15) Gather Information 20 (+25) Intimidate 15 (+20) Knowledge (Civics) 5 (+15) Knowledge (Streetwise) 5 (+15) Knowledge: Technology 10 (+20) Languages 4 (Arabic, English, Hindi, Urdu) (Base: Soqotri) Notice 10 (+15) Sense Motive 15 (+20) Feats: 17 pp Attack Focus: Ranged 5 Benefit 2 (Diplomatic Immunity, Security Clearance) Dodge Focus 2 Eidetic Memory Fearless Improved Initiative Inventor Master Plan Move-By Action Uncanny Dodge (tactile) Well-Informed Powers: 100 pp Device 3 (Hard to Lose) (Battlesuit) [12 pp] Impervious Toughness 13 {13} Supersenses 2 (Darkvision) {2} Force Field 13 [13 pp] Immunity 3 (cold, high pressure, suffocation [underwater]) [3 pp] Movement Array 3 (6 points; PF: Alternate Power) [6+1=7 pp] BE: Flight 3 (50 MPH) AP: Swimming 6 (100 MPH) Noahic Array 30.5 (61 points; PFs: Alternate Power x5) [61+5=66 pp] BE: Create Object 15 (Extras: Duration [Continous], Moveable; PF: Selective) AP: Damage 15 (Extras: Autofire (2) [10 ranks each], Ranged; PFs: Accurate Attack, Improved Crit 2, Improved Range 2, Indirect 3, Power Attack, Stunning Attack) AP: Damage 15 (Extras: Alt. Save [Fortitude], Range [Perception]; PF: Reversible) AP: Damage 15 (Extras: Duration [Concentration], Range [Perception]; PF: Knockback) AP: Move Object 20 (12.5 ktons; Extra: Range [Perception]; PF: Precise) AP: Trip 15 (Extras: Duration [sustained], Range [Perception]) Supersenses 2 (Tremorsenses) [2 pp] costs abilities 45 + combat 40 + saves 17 + skills 31/124 + feats 17 + powers 100 = 250 --- Design Notes: This build is for Typhoon, my East Asian hydrokinetic Dr. Doom analogue for the Freedom City setting. The idea I have here is that he’s the head of state of Socotra, an island nation off the coast of the Arabian Peninsula. It’s something of a cross between Latveria and Madripoor, a hi-tech meeting place for supervillains and the corporate tycoons that love them, where loose extradiction treaties let bad guys sip cocktails on the beach and wink at passing women in bikinis. From one perspective, he’s a good ruler, fanatically proud of defending his people against European and American colonialism and making the local standard of living the highest in the Indian Ocean. From another perspective, he’s a brutal despot, destroying dissent and smashing all those who dare oppose his rule under tidal waves. He’s getting older now, having been around since the late Silver Age (born in 1950, having come to power in 1972), but he’s just as insanely lethal as ever. Yeah, he’s a freaking wrecking machine. He can throw up huge walls of water and fire jets of steel-bending water through them, fly through the water faster than the fastest boat, dessicate or drown his enemies with a look, and enwrap them in giant fists of water. He can solo against most of the Atlantean military, and score a guaranteed hit with almost any of his attacks. People think that his armor protects him, and it does, but as his enemies have discovered over the years, the suit just makes him bulletproof and able to see underwater. (He’s still not at all helpless underwater without it, given his immunities and his ability to sense vibrations underwater.) He’s also a technical genius and head of a secret police network that has spies everywhere. If he enters combat, there will be blood. But he probably won’t! He’s actually a valuable resource for PCs, as he has no interest in the world dying or otherwise coming to serious harm, and will happily offer advice on old-time supervillains who he used to run with or aid in a crisis...if he finds them in his country illegally (perhaps to catch a runaway supercrook?), he will pull them into the abyssal plains on which his island sits and let them drown. He may be an ally, but he is never, ever your friend. His nation comes before you, and so does he. He thinks of Typhoon. Always. Typhoon.

Earth-ND Wander heard the armored inventor's voice come through laden with heavy static: "Ray, no must be WanGrave danger. The Trick... into the Imageria. Overshadow and the Tiger of al-Khayalnothave taken over the Clock. must reach them before Reality Storm threatens to end. Meet me in League base in Freedom Tower before-" And with that, and a particularly loud crash of thunder from overhead, the signal cuts off, leaving the teens suddenly feeling very alone. "Okay, uh...I guess we'd better do that?" said Edge, shooting a look at Wander. "If he's actually asking us for help, we've got to do something! We can't just sit by and let them handle things, not when...not when they're gone! Oh jeez, Sage!" Even as Edge spoke, suddenly his own comm snapped to life, along with the sat phone's tiny screen, along even with the radios of the cops on scene, speaking in a terrible voice familiar to any who'd watched the news in the last decade: it was the voice of the Tiger of al-Khayal: the man who brought down the Pyramid Plaza, speaking in his familiar accented, hissing English. As the civilians all turned white-faced, and the teens did as well, the terrible voice on the radio speaking. "I am become Death, the Shatterer of Worlds! It is said that Robert Oppenheimer spoke those words from the Bhagavad Gita on the day the atom bomb was detonated. I take those worlds as my own, for coming from my lips on this day, they are more appropriate.... Earth-Prime It was the grim and terrible voice of Overshadow, the monster long thought dead even by the likes of Edge and Midnight: "Fools! Today I have become Death, shatterer of worlds! I take those words as my own even as I take your planet! I have taken control of the world's weather systems. What you have seen thus far is nothing-only the most trivial demonstration of my newfound power. You will surrender rulership of the world to me immediately or face the consequences of defying the EMPEROR OF THE WORLD!!!" Earth-ND "As your rightful Caliph, heed my words for I make my first proclamation. As proof of your loyalty, you will gather together those paragons calling themselves superheroes and turn them over to me for punishment, for having stood against the rightful ruler of the world for SO MANY YEARS, punishment for their wrongdoing will be just. Those deserving pain will SUFFER before their execution; others will suffer punishments suitable to their crimes, and will be given an opportunity to..." "Wait a minute..." Edge said, his voice just loud enough to carry as the storm boomed overhead and as the mad paragon would-be god-king ranted. "Who the hell is that!?!" Sure enough, on the tiny screen of the sat-phone, they could make out the familiar black-shrouded, kaffiyeh-wearing figure of the Tiger, but standing behind him was a bizarre figure in gleaming metal armor, looking like a warped version of Daedalus or a knight in shining armor, his arms folded imperiously as his seeming ally ranted. Earth-Prime "Who the hell is that behind Overshadow?" They'd managed to catch the video portion of the broadcast in the tent still standing by the levee, the videophone the responders had been using for coordination now carrying the signal coming in from elsewhere. They all recognized the armored figure of the SHADOW leader, or at least the man claiming that title since everyone knew Hans Hellman was dead, but the black-shrouded Arab-looking gentleman was a total stranger. "...arrive at the United Nations in 72 hours for my coronation! If you, all of you, all the people of the world would live, have the superheroes present for my inspection at that time. As evidence of my benevolence, those misguided FOOLS will be the only gift I require of my subjects. All hail, EMPEROR OF THE WORLD!!!"

Sage-Prime sees: There is a man born into wealth and power in a wealthy country, wanting for nothing as he grows up. He is the Tiger. But his wealth is not enough for him: he is discontent. He hears the words of the Prophet preaching the words of Submission, the story of a holy war waged by fellow believers against a terrible enemy, and gladly accepts the call. He fights well and bravely, if viciously, and ultimately the holy warriors are victorious! But the war is not over: he sees corruption everywhere, especially in his homeland. But his homeland's government is wealthy and powerful, and backed by other wealthy, powerful nations. The man decides to punish them: to punish all the sinful nations of the world that have kept him from liberating his people, whether they want it or not. And he has abilities to help carry it out now: shadowy powers of darkness that terrify his friends and delight him with their power. His organization, Al-Khayal, begins planning an operation...and then, horror. The Pyramid Plaza collapses in ash and fire as thousands die. But there is light in the darkness, as shining beacons of hope arrive! The Tiger is horrified at what he sees: the armies of his enemies now occupy his homeland, occupy the nation of his refuge, and they have powers to match his own, rendering him simply a powerless terrorist. He must do something else, something great and terrible, so finally he will realize his destiny! Sage-ND sees: There is a man. A man with cold blue eyes and perfect blonde hair, the perfect image of the Aryan superman: and no wonder, he's a Nazi! But much more than that. As Sage watches, he gains a dark and terrible power: is he the first paragon? But no, there are more, shining beacons of hope, who foil the shadow-man's schemes and send him fleeing in terror from his homeland. He has abandoned the cause of his old masters: now there is only him, there is only power! He builds an army of identical goons, each bearing his own face, and constructs for himself a suit of invincible armor. He dies, again and again, only to rise in another body with the same evil heart. He is the Shadow, and he is a monster like she's only seen in legend and comic books. But even this monster is bound by powers greater than his; shining beacons of courage who hold him down. He needs to do something more, something great and terrible, so that finally he will realize his destiny! And both Sages suddenly realize that, as they cast their mind into the probe, there is another mind there probing into it from the other side!

Up in the sky, a flight of half-a-dozen giant bees were waiting for Victory, each of them buzzing around and smacking into each other like eager frat boys punching themselves on the arm. "ALL RIGHT, MAN!" called the leader, who he recognized as Beearthur when he got up there, "LETZ GET PHYZICAL IN THIZ HIZICAL!" And with that, the bees all took off with roar of frantically flapping wings. They were, of course, much slower than Victory in flight, but they had to be approaching Mach 1 at least; not bad for bees bigger than jet fighters! Meanwhile, it was easy enough for Stesha to make her way back to her house, accompanied by a sociable Beeatrizz.

"Can I see other parts of the Lab?" Sharl asked Miss A and the others ingenously, his face full of hope. Hologram or not, he certainly looked like the friendly teenager he believed himself to be. "Science is really cool," he said with conviction, "and I like watching scientists do their thing, especially science heroes." He folded his hands in front of him and added, "I won't get in the way, or at least, any more in the way than a hologram should." Gina had warned him about some of the things that could destabilize his display on earlier outings, and somehow he had a feeling Miss A knew all about those. "I, er, spend a lot of time with computers, but of course I'm not as smart as you guys."

Fusion goes to the circus and judges them!

Earth-Prime Corbin had seen pictures of dimensional rifts plenty of times; documentaries about the Terminus Invasion, pictures in his Claremont textbooks, and even live simulations of them in the Doom Room. (He hadn't taken the Advanced Physics class that gave students an opportunity to make their own rifts in the lab) But this one was like nothing he'd ever seen, a shimmering, formless mass of purple-grey light that got even stranger as he got closer: the colors were cold to look at, as if they had a physical presence beyond the visual, and the faint scrittching coming from the rift itself made him taste purple too. He was educated enough to know what synthesia was, and as he got closer, he realized that's exactly what the rift was causing. As he watched, peering through the heavy storm, he saw drops of water hit the rift and vanish utterly, without so much as a sizzle. Were they going elsewhere? Or being disintegrated? In response to Sage's question, Edge turned and shouted through the storm: "Call Nancy Gardener at Freedom Hall! She runs things when the League's away!" It had been quite a while since Mark had met Captain Thunder's wife, before his father's disappearance and his bitter rivalry with Bolt, but soon an image of the nice lady who worked monitor duty when the League itself was gone popped into his mind. "I don't know if anyone else is still in the city. She's our best contact person." Down below, Wander and Edge working together succeeded in shoring up the levee: if a collapse did come today or tomorrow, it wouldn't come here, despite the disaster that had happened overhead. With a look of relief on his face mitigated only somewhat by what a rotten day this was, he went to give aid to the few wounded who still needed it, trusting that Cobalt Templar would be able to get a good look at the rift. Things were bad, that was true, but he was sure things were going to be all right. Earth-ND Mark was scared, there was no other word for it, but he was doing his best not to show it when Erin and the other teens were around. He'd just seen somebody's powers used to blow up the Freedom League, in the middle of a week when terrible things were going wrong all over the nation. His powers were to make himself and other people lucky: but today he didn't feel lucky at all. He nodded with a feeling of relief at Wander's words, and soon was on his cellphone back to the school, trying to relay over one of their earth-manipulating friends to help patch up the damage. The problem, of course, was that there were so many things going wrong, and only so many supers to fix the damage. He quickly figured out that his headset phone could be worn while he worked, and soon he joined the others in helping to get the wounded away from the levee. They were succeeding here, but who knew what was happening elsewhere? The rift, or hole, or gash, or terrible thing was like nothing Corbin had ever seen before, a swirling mass of colors that froze and sounds with flavor. He'd seen pictures of superpowers in action and read some theories about them, but nothing that matched the grim reality of this sight. Despite the bizarre, alien nature of the thing he was looking at, Corbin felt a strange connection to the gap, as if some part of it was akin to some part of him. If it was, though, it was certainly a very alien part, one that he wasn't immediately familiar with. The blue light of his powers was, however, distinctly brighter around the rift, even against that strange glow. Working down below, Wander was able to help Edge get the wounded away from the weakening sandbags and earth, the rain still beating down on everything. She'd seen worse disasters on the news, but that was a far cry from seeing one up close and personal. Moving through the debris on land, she almost stepped on a battered black box she recognized as a still-active sat phone. "Hello, Ray? Beth? Can any of you hear me?" She recognized the tinny voice from inside as Daniel Daedalus, the armored paragon of the League. Sage and Midnight zoomed through the streets of Freedom City, only Midnight's bike letting them stay mobile in the chaos. Between the falling rain and the frightened people on the streets, particularly after the explosion in the heart of town, things were getting bad: lightning strikes in the sky providing a noisy percussion to all they said and did. Things were bad, and it looked like they were getting worse. But there was a light of hope, at least; they could see the shape of the blue and yellow Claremont kids as they got closer to the crash site. They weren't alone, even if all they had were kids.

Sharl had a brief, irrational vision of his mom at those words, but luckily he quickly dismissed it. "It's true," he said with a little nod, "I'm not anyone's property. I thought I might be before I met Miss A," he confessed, "but she took care of me and got me started here. I owe her a lot." He slid his glasses back into his jacket and slid his hands into the pockets too, taking them out again after a second. "Are you guys all superheroes?" he asked, echoing his earlier question to Protectron and expanding on it. "Because that's really neat. I've seen superheroes online before, but seeing them now...that's even cooler!"

"I've never met Dr. Atom," said Sharl, "but I've heard of him." Reading about Dr. Atom had been reassuring for Sharl; here was a human being who'd been uploaded into a machine, and his intelligence was as respected as everyone else's! On the other hand, he thought, Dr. Atom had at least once been alive, while he wasn't at all sure the same could be said for himself. Do I mean anything if I'm just a machine inside a machine? Dismissing those thoughts, he said, "Ah, well, that's about as long as I've been in the real world too! So maybe we have the same birthday!" He smiled. "Are you a superhero?" he asked the robot, reminding himself to be polite. "Because they're totally cool!"

"That's right," agreed Sharl, wincing briefly at how he'd almost given himself away. A citizen of Tronik, familiar with synthetic life from early childhood, would have had very different knowledge of the world compared to a creature of this world's Internet. "I'm sorry if I sounded strange," he apologized. "Things are very different here than how I'm used to. Miss Americana's been helping me understand the way things are in the real world. She even programmed this body for me! Not bad, huh?" Nervously, he took the shades out of his pocket and started toying with them. Facing Protectron, he added, "You really are sentient? That's amazing!" And it was; though he knew some worlds had built synthetic intelligences, such things had never developed on Tronik: they had a bad reputation. "Were you once a person, or have you always been...artificial?"

"Oh, hello Protectron," said Sharl politely, if a little distantly, to Protectron. "I didn't know you had talking synthezoids," he commented to Miss Americana. He was familiar enough with the concept, but he didn't think Gina's world (as he still thought of this place) built that way. He did bear a slight resemblance to pictures he'd seen in history books. "You're very articulate!" he commented. "I've never met a synth who could talk as much like a person as you." A little belatedly, he added, "I'm here to meet people and see the world, but if life needs protecting, I'm happy to do that too," he said with a smile. "Freedom City has so many superheroes, and I think they're great."

"I'm here," said Sharl, tapping the projector inside his pocket. "But most of my files are in Miss A's computer, too," he added. "Just as, you know, backups. I'm really excited to be here!" he said with a smile. "This is my first time outside Miss A's headquarters. Outside further than just talking a walk, anyway. It's my trip where I can see people and move around. Miss A found me on the Internet!" he offered. He walked around, unconsciously showing off for the girl paying so much attention to him. "This is the first time I've ever been in a physical library. It's really cool. Did you write any of these books?" he asked Dragonfly, taking another off the shelf. Watching, she could see the patterns of energy that made up his body shifting as he hefted the weight in his hand.

Automatically, Sharl looked down at himself to make sure his display wasn't flickering. _How did she...hmm, maybe she's got superpowers! Like supervision!_ "Hologram and magnetic fields," offered the electronic teenager, gently, if somewhat awkwardly, sliding the unfamiliar shape of the book back onto the shelf. "Hello," he told her with a wave, keeping his distance. He was used to giving people their privacy, and until he knew differently, he'd give this new girl the space. "I'm Sharl! What's your name."

"Okay," agreed Sharl, murmuring quietly as he walked around the room. "This is really amazing," he murmured to Miss A, just loud enough for her to hear. They didn't have libraries where he was from, not like this, but they had museums and art galleries, places where quiet contemplation was best. He picked up a technical manual and held it in his hands, marveling at the weight of the metal-bound volume. "I can't believe you can afford to have so many hard books," he murmured, shifting the volume from hand to hand as his internal magnetics shifted. "Are they from the town library?" He'd seen plenty of those on television!

Earth-Prime It was a grim scene, but it could have been much worse. Edge's fantastic powers had deflected most of the falling debris, leaving the rescue workers at the levee shaken up but mostly unhurt. The tornado and lightning storm that had brought down the Pegasus continued to flash and roar in the sky, but they stayed offshore, instead dancing in the river as if mocking the heroes and any hopes of rescuing the League. No bodies were visible in the wreckage that had fallen onshore, but from the sheer power of that explosion, who could say what might have been destroyed and what hadn't been? Dominating the sky was that bizarre purple rift, a jagged tear in space and time that sizzled with energy that made it hard to look at. It wasn't particularly _bright_ so much as it was simply _wrong_: it didn't look like pictures of the Terminus, though, or of incursions by magical entities they'd all seen in class. It looked like something else entirely. Edge stared up at the rift, rain running down his cape, then called to the others, "I don't know what that is, but we've got to get in touch with Freedom Hall! They need to know about this, and maybe get some answers!" With a gesture, a giant wall of earth sprang up behind the levee, helping reinforce the structure before it could begin to crumble. Earth-ND It was a grim scene when the Claremont kids (and Midnight) arrived. Edge's powers had let him save many people, turning what could have been a disaster into a crisis, but things were still very bad. The exploding debris had showered down on the all-too-human rescue workers like a flurry of knives, killing some outright and leaving others very seriously hurt. Edge was doing his best to tend to them, but the plucky team cheerleader was obviously under stress himself: and no wonder, with the League's plane exploded just overhead! Dominating the sky, more frightening even than the tornado and lightning bolts striking the water, was the jagged purple _hole_ in the universe, gazing down at them like the eye of an angry god. It was obviously the product of paragon powers, but who knew anything more than that? _This isn't supposed to be our job!_ thought Mark desperately, letting his gloved hands brush away the shower of broken glass on his back. He couldn't see any costumed bodies around him; there were already too many bodies for his taste. "Oh thank God!" said Mark, a look of profound relief on his face as everyone got there. "I don't know what happened! It...it just blew up when the lightning hit! I couldn't catch all of them..." But there wasn't time to worry, not when there were people who needed their help and a levee that needed reinforcing!

Sa-Ur sighed. She didn't look angry; it was more the face you gave a child playing a frustrating game of tag than anything more rageful. "I understand," she said to Corbin. To Blake, she said, "Yes. We prioritize honesty in our society. I can understand how that might be intimidating to people from other cultures, especially younger ones like your own. I certainly don't want to be an impediment to your socialization." And with that, much to Quo-Dis' relief, the older woman stopped talking, instead concentrating on her coffee and occasionally sending her daughter up to get more.

The bees did their best to show Victory where they'd found the carrier, but it wasn't easy. For a man used to interpreting visually-oriented maps, understanding the gyrations and pheremone secretions of a sixty-foot honeybee and transforming that into useful information wasn't easy. Finally, the bees offered to provide Victory an escort to the carrier. "IF YOU THINK YOU CAN KEEP UP THAT IZ, HEH HEH," said one bee, buzzing around like a low-flying jet. "YOU THINK YOU CAN HANG WITH THE FAZTEZT BEEZ IN TOWN?" Beatrizz furiously protested on Victory's behalf: "CMON GUYZ, YOU KNOW HOW FAZT ZUPERBIPEDZ GO! I BET HE'Z REAL FAZT!"

Sharl let out a low whistle as he walked into the Lab alongside Miss A, impressed at the sort of luxuries they had available this far down. _Don't be silly,_ he reminded himself as he looked around the elevator, _This isn't the lower depths for them, it's a, whaddyacallit, skyscraper!_ Sharl didn't know much about Terran computers, but looking around the fancy elevator even he could see how impressive this place was. _I bet I'd be more impressed if I knew what half of it was!_ he thought wryly. On the other hand, he supposed, maybe this was just a fancy elevator. Not everything about a fancy science lab had to be high-tech! He was doing his best to concentrate on the elevator, truthfully, so he didn't keep staring at Miss A. Gina had some...some pretty hot friends, honestly!

"Oh, we've got plenty of structure," said Mark with a little wince. "Sometimes more than some of us would like," he added, shooting a grin the teacher's way so she wouldn't be annoyed. "But it's 3 PM on Thursday, so most people are out of class. The blue and yellow is the school uniform," he said, pointing to several kids dressed like that, "It's also some local football colors, so you may not have noticed." Several kids were indeed wearing blue and yellow jumpsuits, with parkas over them to match. "If you want to see some training and structure," he suggested, "I can take you by the gym as we go?"

Gourmand Hero PL: 10 (150) Abilities: 34 pp STR 16 (+3) DEX 18 (+4) CON 20 (+5) INT 10 (+0) WIS 14 (+2) CHA 16 (+3) Combat: 24 pp ATK: +6 (+10 Blast/Melee) DEF: +10 (+3 flat-footed) Init: +7 Grapple: +9 Saves: 8 pp TOU +10 (+5 Con, +5 Protection) FORT +8 (+5 Con, +3) REF +5 (4 Dex, +1) WILL +6 (+2 Wis, +4) Skills: 52 pp=13r Bluff 8 (+11) Craft: Chemical 8 (+8) Knowledge: Physical Sciences 8 (+8) Knowledge: Technology 4 (+4) Notice 8 (+10) Sense Motive 8 (+10) Feats: 19 pp Accurate Attack Attack Focus (Melee) (4) Dodge Focus (4) Improved Initiative Luck (2) Move-By Action Power Attack Precise Shot (2) Takedown Attack Taunt Uncanny Dodge (olfactory) Powers: 54 pp Immunity 4 (disease, poison, radiation, starvation and thirst) [4 pp] Impervious Toughness 8 [8 pp] Leaping 1 (x2) [1 pp] Nuclear Furnace Array [30+2=32 pp] Matter Eater 10 (PFs: Improved Crit 2, Precise) and Healing 10 (Flaw: Personal Only) (PFs: Persistent, Regrowth) AP: Blast 10 (PFs: Accurate 2, Improved Crit 2, Precise) AP: Corrosion 10 Protection 5 [5 pp] Speed 1 (10 MPH) [1 pp] Super-Senses 3 (Acute Analytical Olfactory) [3 pp] costs abilities 34 + combat 24 + saves 8 + skills 13/52 + feats 19 + powers 54 = 150 pts --------------------- Design Notes: As per an old request of Shaen’s, here’s my build for a hero with Matter Eating, the ability to eat and digest anything so long as they can fit it into their mouth. The power is named for the most famous hero to have that ability, the eponymous Matter-Eater Lad pictured above. (Look, the High Silver Age was a weird era. Everyone did things they’re not very proud of.) Despite the character’s reputation as a goofy refugee from the Silver Age (recently rewritten as a badass), Matter Eating is actually a pretty useful power if you flesh it out and give it the right descriptors, as I’ve tried to do here. Matter-Eating is Immunity to what’s in your mouth [5 pp] +Drain Toughness, in case the mechanics are puzzling to anyone. My assumption is that this character has an internal nuclear furnace, one that lets him consume anything that can fit inside his body. He can heal his injuries by consuming matter and integrating it into his body-mass (suggesting a resilient, perhaps alien anatomy, with plenty of useful immunities), shoot blasts of radioactive energy from his mouth, or just fry things with a touch of his mouth. He can also leap and run faster thanks to his internal furnace, shrug off much damage thanks to skin hardened enough to hold the furnace burning inside him, and his experience with eating all sorts of things lets him determine a great deal about a object by eating it. (‘Taste’ in M&M is scent+taste; if it matters that his super-senses technically only work on what he’s nomming, give him an HP for it, unless you actually want his nose to be as sensitive as his tongue) I figure he has the Bluff and Taunt because a guy with a goofy power like that has got to have a sense of humility about himself; he can take blows of his own and give them back to others! He’s got the Blast so you don’t go around trying to bite chunks off people with your superhero character, despite a hilarious moment the character got in a recent comic, that’s not cool! One possible way to tweak this would be to make his powers magical: perhaps he’s a wendigo from the frozen North, or otherwise possessed by the Spirit of Hunger itself. If this guy _is_ a time-traveler from an insane Silver Age future, perhaps going to an era where his abilities actually matter, you’ve got a whole host of potential complications for him.

"Wahooo!" Sharl exclaimed, shouting excitedly in an alien language before shifting back to the English he'd picked up along the way. The alien city beneath him was a carpet of sights and sounds, tiny houses cast even smaller beneath him, trees like tiny plants far below, cars and people moving, a spectacular sight cast beneath the strange blue light of an alien yellow sun. "This is totally grrrreat!" he exulted, unconsciously sounding like the cereal-hawking tiger he'd seen on TV. "I see the Pyramid Plaza, and clouds, and...wow! This is beautiful! Thank you, Miss Americana!" Never let it be said Sharl had no manners, even when he was excited. The flight was a little strange, the air half-rushing through him and half-blowing his hair back, but he was paying far more attention to the world around them to notice that for more than a moment.

"Hey!" Edge frowned at Rook, thinking dismissive thoughts about what jerks heroes could be outside of Freedom City. "We had that guy, you know." He wasn't pleased; who could possibly fail to recognize all the awesome heroes assembled here. He was sure Fleur's entirely accurate chiding didn't apply to him. He'd made some hilarious puns and blast an obvious bad guy, not kept kicking a guy when he was down. "We're here from Freedom City," he added, trying not to sound annoyed. "We heard your city was having problems, and from the looks of things with Monolith there, we were right. What's happened lately?"

"The Lab sounds good," said Sharl readily, the teenager having a very positive opinion of Freedom's science heroes. "So, uh, how should we do this? I can't send myself on the Internet," he said, "it's too dangerous. I guess you could carry my projector, but it'd be even more fun if you carried me!" Soldiering on, he added, "That way, it'll be like I can fly, and I can see everything, just like a superhero! It'll be great." Sharl had flown in sky-cars, even sat behind the wheel of the family craft under his father's patient tutelage, but flying under his own power, or under someone else's, sounded great!