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OOC thread for this thread. Citizen takes a STAND. On the ISSUES. @Avenger Assembled You don't need to roll for this opening part. It's basically just a cold open and splash title page.

GM April 1st, 2018, 1.23AM Emerald City, Oregon, USA, Earth-Prime The meteorite had snuck past every layer of warning the Earth had to offer, a flaming rock that by rights should have been seen coming a light-year away by the Lighthouse. It careened through the sky, directly for the peaceful, foggy Columbia River mouth and the two tiny cities crouched on the shores of the great gray sea. One of the Archetech staff had stepped outside for a smoke break, and a passing homeless man had pointed out the "new star" to him. Three minutes later and there Citizen was, high up in the sky with a giant ball of iron and alien metals racing for his head. It was around 150 meters across its smooth body, if it hit the cities at the speed it was going there wouldn't be any survivors for miles around. The voice of Archetech West's ground crew hummed into his receptors. "We're ready when you are, Sharl! Say the word and we'll fire up the conduits for that power boost! Hit that thing with everything we got!" "Just make sure to burn some of it off before you come back," another voice quickly added "just to be safe."

GM The Bridges connecting North and South Emerald Mallory Bay, The Emerald Cities, Washington and Oregon Wednesday, February 1st, 2017 6:00 PM The Emergency Civil Defense Siren blared throughout the city. Atlantis had sent warning ahead of time of an attack through an encrypted military frequency. It wasn't long before local seismic activity changed drastically, with scientists able to predict the fact that a massive tsunami was coming for the cities. Coupled with rush hour traffic, this meant that the bridges connecting the sister cities were filled to the brim. Defenseless, as the waves could be seen in the distance. Nearing by the minute. The frantic sense of fear overwhelming the drivers did nothing to speed up the egress issue. In fact, people started getting into car accidents in a desperate bid to escape the bridges. Unintentionally trapping themselves and others and dooming them to their fate. That was unless aid happened to arrive in a timely manner.

Summer 2017 It was a beautiful summer day in Emerald City, Oregon - especially if you stood here on the edge of the Pacific Ocean, far from the noisy, delicious minds of the city and enjoyed the peace and solitude of crashing waves at the base of this seaside cliff. The beaches here weren't like the ones Sensus had known back on the Jersey coast, much rockier and colder, but they had a wild beauty all the same. "Excuse me, miss. Did you need some help?" Turning behind her, silhouetted by an east-rising morning sun, Sensus looked up to see Citizen - the most famous superhero in Emerald City. For his part, Citizen's early morning flight had let him spot this girl by the edge of seaside cliffs that had taken the life of more than one young man or young woman in the last few years. There was a fence - but it wouldn't be hard for someone that small to slip underneath it. At first glance, he'd assumed this was a lost child - but she clearly wasn't too far from his own early twenties, though his black costume and glowing blue chest symbol marked him as a superhero.

Here's the OOC

Kesteven 79 system Coalition Victory Station Imperial Year 0, Day 0 One way or another, Sharl Tulink had all of 36 hours in Coalition space before he had to be transmitted back home to the body waiting for him back in Emerald City. He had friends, family, a city to protect - and an employer who had high expectations about his report on post-Incursion Lor technology and its adaptability for Terrestrial purposes. He had just one last thing to do - to act as bodyguard for the woman who he hoped would be the next Imperator of the Lor Republic. He knew the Imperator's duties well enough from his early education in Tronik, for all that the Republic he'd learned about had been just a few centuries removed from its imperial days: the Imperator on the one hand had little power "reigning, but not ruling" - but on the other hand as the voice of the people against the state, as the symbol of all the Lor revered about themselves, and as the person who actually selected the ministers of government from the ranks of the Senate and the people - well, it all came down to how you used your power. In the first election since the Incursion, filling a spot left vacant after the old Imperator and its family had gone with the rest of Lor-Van, the question of how the Imperator's power would be used wasn't as easy to answer as it once had been. Sharl wanted Grand Nauarchus Bucklin Frankan to be the one who found the new answers to that question; and not just because he hoped that her election would be a stepping-stone to Terran unification and joining the Republic. The Lor needed to be strong again after the horrific things they'd lost, and from all he'd seen, she was the best candidate for the job. He took the lead as Frankan's party walked into their station quarters, scanning the suite with his internal sensors as a supplement to the scanning already done by the station's security staff. "It's clean," he said after a moment. "No listening devices or bombs - and I think the station commander left a box of sweets in the refresher." "She must be angling for a promotion," commented Frankan with a wry smile as she entered the room just behind Citizen. "Thank you, Citizen Tulink. As always, your work here has been invaluable." As the two spoke, Frankan's staff, almost all of them uniformed officers either in the Star Navy or in one of its planetary militias, were filling the rooms, setting up gear and calls, getting ready for the media presence they were about to encounter. It was tradition in the Republic that on Election Night, the candidates for Imperator shared the same space at the same time as a way of promoting amity (and as a way of preventing assassination attempts). This year, this election, this day - it was Coalition Victory Station that would see the two candidates together. A quick glance out the window (with the help of tapping into the station's external sensors) showed Sharl a three-dimensional sphere buzzing with spaceships, a volume he hadn't seen since the end of the Incursion - military vessels armed to the teeth to prevent another attack, civilian ships, Grue Individuality vessels with their usual hodgepodge of designs, and countless others. Between the press, the spectators, and the parties of the two candidates, the interior of the station was packed to the gills even beyond its usual large population. It was going to be a busy day and a half.

GM March 21st, Tuesday, 2017 Then With a final burst of power Citizen's android housing scattered across the floor. The unimaginable scale of the energy needed to discorporate an Archetech android originally built for super-level combat against space-borne opponents had the air tingling and crackling for a long time. The explosion's titanic BOOM faded, cushioned by the noise-cancelation field, but it rang in the ears of those watching for hours after the fact. The core was a whiff of vapor. Behind the screens someone said "It worked." Someone else began "Now we are all sons of b-" "We talked about this. No." "Sorry." A third "He's just going to come back." The last "And now we know we can beat him. Again and again and again..." Now Citizen woke up in the quiet peace and humming familiarity of Gina Evans' digital sanctum. To a quiet little house and a big happy dog panting lovingly on his shoulder. To the certain knowledge something very wrong had happened. Archetech West wasn't equipped for holding copies of Citizen. Its spare android sets weren't even unsealed. So far as anyone knew, nothing in either Emerald City was actually personally dangerous to what was effectively the most powerful single entity on the Pacific Coast. Apparently that had changed.

OOC thread for this thread. The whodunnit of our time! Citizen's Murder Mystery. @Avenger Assembled

GM March 15, Wednesday, 11.33AM, 2017 ASTRO Labs West, Emerald City University, Emerald City, Oregon "...Which brings us to one of Professor Zediker's running experiments, transmission and reception of ZPE radiation between dimensional points!" With a final, flourished tap of a button on the numberpad, the door beside Dr. Razko segmented and retreated into the wall, letting the small crowd of humans and the super-advanced super-powered android into an antechamber overlooking the experiment proper. The rented convention floor was crammed with setups like this, small mini-buildings holding this or that portion of revolutionary super-science too dangerous for the open air. Anyone walking into the converted Worlds Fair complex could feel the electricity humming in the floor. The "Sponsored by REDSHIFT ENERGIES" logos were perhaps not in the best of taste, but they stood out for their graceful simplicity next to the clumsy programmer art in evidence elsewhere. Behind walls thicker than most humans are broad, strategically-placed windows gleaming with frost allowed for a fairly clear view of a massive ring ten feet in diameter. Energy crackled in brief, brutal discharges from the central white void, while the black outer rim bent the bolts back inside. Ice clung to the walls and ceiling, radiating from the ring. A few technicians inside monitored control stations surrounding the apparatus while several more observed from the antechamber. One of them, a robust and energetic white man with iron-grey hair and a silver goatee, white dress shirt, black tie and slacks watched the ring intently behind slim square glasses. Starting at the entrance of Razko and the visitors, the man recovered rapidly and glided majestically towards them, all smiles and crinkly-eyed grandfatherly charm. "Welcome, glad to have you! As you can see, me and my team have managed in a few weeks what took Doctor Atom and his descendants years. A stable interdimensional portal, looping a burst of radiation in and out of an endless array of realities! And, unlike last time, no risk of robot dinosaur attacks!" That got a resounding chorus of laughter from the Emeraldites, a strained smile from Dr. Ann Razko and a polite stare from the ASTRO Labs representative at the back of the party. Stepping forward, the bespectacled blonde hurried to get things back on track "Professor, we both work at the ECU's Parker Building, and your portal there is at least twice as powerful as this one, but both emit the same amount of energy. Would you explain why that's relevant?" "Certainly! You see, Ann, the Parker Portal is less concentrated, there's more space for energy to escape but that space decompresses it as it leaves the portal. This one has a much tighter beam but is also less stable. It'll collapse in twelve hours. The one I made at Eeseeyou will last longer than I do! Plenty of time to refine it and start the next age of humanity." "Which you define-" "By expansion!" Zediker's steely eyes caught those of Archetech West's rep and the most powerful hero on the Pacific seaboard "Citizen, what do you think? Colonizing other Earths by 2020 or 2025?"

OOC thread for this, where definitely science crimes happen. Rolls post upcoming,

September 1, 2016. Emerald City. Downtown. 9:00 AM. It was just another day in Emerald City. Normal. Ordinary. Supercrime was a relatively new thing, and it still wasn’t expected in day to day life, like back in Freedom City. Traffic was…well, tolerable at least. Nobody was having any loud disagreements on the streets, on the phone or in person. The workday had just gotten started, and in offices all around downtown EC, people were safely earning their livings. Until…”Look, up in the sky!” “It’s a bird!” “It’s a plane!” “No, it’s a superhero!” “Oh my god it actually is a plane! Run!” A commercial jetliner was falling from the sky. The desperate pilots pulling at a control stick that didn’t respond, pressing buttons that now did nothing, and screaming warnings into a radio that no longer functioned. If someone didn’t do something, the plane was going to crash. Directly into City Hall. If only there was a superhero around…

This is the OOC. Feel free to ask me quite literally anything about the thread, especially if it doesn't make sense. I've likely missed something. Mechanically we do it like this: http://www.atomicthinktank.com/viewtopic.php?t=21238 Now go catch that plane, hero! So...the DC to beat would be 38. Because it has Flight 6 instead of 5. The goal is to bring it down safely in 12 rounds.

January 2016 "So why didn't you bring your robot body?" asked Eira Katastroff as she walked alongside Sharl Tulink, the blonde girl now substantially taller than she had been just a few days earlier. At twelve years old, the young full-body cyborg had long since mentally outgrown the body she'd been uploaded into in 2011, but a Christmas visit to America and the Archetech labs (along with a chastened Uncle Magnus) had gotten her installed in a brand new body more suitable for a girl of twelve. She was over five feet tall now, a young woman who came up to Sharl's shoulder, her long blonde hair in a braid that went almost all the way down her back. (Eira had been a big fan of the Hunger Games) "Because I want people to be looking at you, not at me in a giant robot body," commented Sharl with a big brother's grin at his sister...well, not by blood, but as close as it could come out here in the 'real world.' "We wouldn't be able to get anything done out here." He was projected today, a miniaturized holo-emitter actually something included in Eira's physical 'body', the magnetic enhancers she used to get around with peak human strength and dexterity easily able to power the matrix that produced his own unique energy matrix. It meant he had to stick close, at least until they got into the DuTemps Building and he could directly interface with its systems, but that was okay - why would he not stick with his not-so-little friend? "So tell me more about your girlfriend," teased Eira, which he had to admit was the other reason he was planning to integrate with the DuTemps systems once they were up in the castle proper. Sharl used a security code Eliza had given him to get in one of the staff elevators, and the two of them were whisked upstairs towards the castle. "She's very nice," said Sharl, "and I think you'll like her. You can tell her what you were telling me about the vatnavættir, I think she'll like that." He hmmed. "But maybe in a different way." Come to think of it, Eliza would probably be pretty put off by stories about how Sweden's national superteam was endeavouring to clear psychic debris from the oceans surrounding the high-latititude nation. "Eliza's views are very different than mine, or yours, but I still respect them." Eira was pretty sure that was because Sharl and Eliza were having sex, a prospect that managed to be disgusting and hilarious at the same time, but said nothing to that effect as she and Sharl talked more about the friends who lived in the DuTemps Building, some of whom Sharl had known since she'd been first been uploaded almost five years earlier now. Calling upstairs as their elevator reached the security barrier of the castle, Sharl reached the castle's AI, who patched him through to Kimber. "Hey Kimber, it's me!" he said to the air, transmitting at the same time up to Bluebird. "Let us up, I've got a visitor who wants to meet my favorite Canadian." "

July 11, 2015 Kimber finished etching the last rune into the surface of the ice with a telekinetically controlled chisel before floating a few meters into the air to survey her work critically. After the better part of two years of preparation and careful work she wasn't going to let the arcane ritual equivalent of a typo ruin everything now, especially now with so many of her friends on the way to help pull off her plan. Indira and Eve were already waiting on the bleachers on the other side of the plexiglass, the latter having been convinced to rent out the indoor ice rink for the day with only a minimum of pleading. Kimber had asked Tarva to head up to the announcer's booth so that she could double check the complex circles of inscribed sigils that made up the first step of the day's undertaking. Satisfied with the results, the poltergeist nodded and turned to her friends, hands on her hips. "Good to go! Just in time, too! Everybody should be getting here pretty soon!"

The OOC! To start off with the DuTempts Building crew are already at the ice rink with Kimber any everyone else can begin arriving! Nick, Equinox and Frost should all have a general idea of what Kimber's been working on since she'd have asked them for their professional opinions along the way. I'll leave it to each of you how complete a picture of the final goal you think they'd have. She'd have likewise let Temperance know she needed help with something involving Jotunheim and made a weak attempt to coach the whole thing in technobabble for Citizen's peace of mind. Papercut and Revenant may only know that Kimber asked for their help and that there's a non-zero chance that there's going to be some monster fighting involved. Kimber's friends from True North are stuck dealing with another Igneous (lava men) crisis, which Frost and Blue Fox would certainly know about, if it comes up.

Eclipse Thursday, December 16th 2014 9:52 PM After two weeks straight of her first round of college finals, Eliza could feel her brain curdling into the consistency of butterscotch pudding. Between her studies, her extracurriculars, and her nightly extracurriculars, there was only so much she could take until she lost herself in something stupid. Then came Guardian. The show was another attempt to do a hero drama in primetime, this time focused mainly on a teen audience. The show had acquired an ensemble cast that had everyone on Tumblr fighting for one or another, but no one got more attention than Harry Langstrom, a.k.a. Jonathan Regent, a.k.a. the Guardian, the super-strong (though not budget-busting), super-tough street vigilante and lead of the show. Janet, her roommate, was a big fan of the show, and while Eliza couldn't quite get fully into it ("Why is that girl fighting crime in three-inch heels?"), it allowed for some time to unwind, bond, and eat some popcorn. So, when news had come around that the show was going to be shooting in Freedom to set up a backdoor pilot for another teen hero series, Janet had jumped at the news. And Eliza, needing a good diversion, had decided to come along. That's how she and close to a hundred other fans found themselves gathered outside a security cordon at Eclipse, which was closed down for the night for fight scene filming. So far, none of the stars had shown up, which meant there was naught but gossip and fan theory to fill the air. And cold. It was December in New Jersey, after all, and most of the fans were bundled up to deal with the weather. "Aren't you freezing?" Janet asked Eliza, who didn't even have her coat closed. Realizing she'd been distracted, she tightened up the jacket to make a show of things. "Guess I just had my mind on other things." "I can understand. Man, I hope I get some pics of Langstrom. This'll be great!" Yeah. High priority individuals, hundreds of attendants... this will be just fine.

Tuesday, April 7, 2015 Freedom City, New Jersey, Earth Morning Archetech's North American headquarters saw more than the average amount of parahuman weirdness in a work week, even more than most places in Freedom City. Being the home of highly advanced sciences, the regular working space of superheroes, and the epicenter of a world-wide attack meant that a place started to attract a certain type of attention, and the security team had developed procedures for all sorts of situations. Like when a falling star landed at the top of the building. Corona glowed gold and red and perpetually angry, floating half a foot above the helipad. She glared as the security guards spilled out of the rooftop access and surrounded her. No one was pointing weapons at each other yet, but if looks could kill there would murder. Corona crossed her armored arms and rotated slowly in place, finding the one guard who looked the most in charge of his emotions. He was an older gentlemen, with a bushy mustache and an Archetech cap on his head; Corona inclined her head infinitesimally towards him. "I need to speak with your genius," she said, her voice amplified through the suit's speakers. "I have a trade for her."

Kestevan 79 23,000 LY from Earth March 1, 2015 Temperance was seeing the ghost of a dead star pass by. There was a way to say it that was much less poetic and much more scientific. And, although there may have been some literalism to it, given her powers, there was little spiritual thrum out in the void of space. If there were entities that represented the great void, they were likely to cling to the travelers passing through it - and even then, they were keeping a wide berth from her ship. Ship. She said it like it was familiar. She was hurdling through the void on a gigantic hunk of metal, the vacuum of space surrounding her on all sides. She knew enough to know that her head wouldn't necessarily explode if she went tumbling out into the void. That was where her knowledge ended. Everything else, on the other hand, was so limited. This was not her territory. Thank God for the others, then. Three of them had reached out to Sharl. They were space travelers of a sort - that was how she understood it - who had encountered Communion forces on a planet orbiting a star near Kestevan 79. The planet had been destroyed to make way for a wormhole - just like had happened to Lor-Van. By their estimate, and given the Communion forces overseeing the wormhole, they believed that whatever was controlling local operations would be stationed nearby. And they had gathered, through said intelligence, that there had been someone who'd survived Lor-Van who had a knack for electronic frequencies. Who had been on the planet when the Communion forces had organized and attacked. And who might be able to parse their signal through the field of cosmic radiation that made all other efforts impractical. He had recommended that she might want to stay behind. This wasn't her field, and it wasn't her fight. But she'd seen what had happened to him when he had come back. She was not going to leave him to wander into Hell alone. She just had to hope that, when the time came, they could get through the fires together.

Lor Timemark 1329.7 - February 28, 2015 Repiuk System Asteroid Belt When rich ore deposits had been discovered in the asteroid belt of a system with no habitable worlds nearly a hundred and fifty years prior it had drawn in a rush of prospectors, independent fortune seekers and small companies looking to stake a claim that would set them and their families up for generations. As the demands of the galactic economy shifted and the best veins had been tapped out, however, the cost of refinement had risen past the profitability of the belt and one by one facilities had been abandoned, subterranean ghost towns riddling the asteroids with tunnels and shafts. Decades later those abandoned mines would serve as a base of operations for a vicious pirate fleet, their leader cannily realizing that the remaining deposits of heavy metals would play havoc with snooping sensor sweeps. They'd been found out by the Star Knights nevertheless and soundly routed, leaving another layer of abandoned equipment in their wake. It was Sri A'Lan Koor who had remembered those raids and suggested the belt, a remote location of no military significance or appeal to the Communion, as a staging area for the Coalition forces. For the past three months the secret had remained kept, long enough for the leaders of the Coalition to feel secure gathering together in one room as they planned out their last, best chance to drive out the invading menace. Standing at the war table the veteran Star Knight had to wonder if they weren't going to do the Communion's job for it. "You need to pull your head out of whatever orifice you've shapeshifted for defecation purposes," Senator Diena Th'emme told the Grue Arcane across from her flatly, fingertips pressed firmly against the surface of the horizontal display between them. The tall, imperious woman managed to make even the utilitarian grey jumpsuit she was wearing come across as regalia, her honey blonde hair done up in a crisp bun. "We have a precise window of opportunity. What troops we can spare to assault the communication relay will have to be enough." The short, stocky being to her made a fluting growl, waving fur covered hands for emphasis as his translator box did its work in an incongruously light soprano. "You would send them to their deaths and for what?" Minister Ch'rrr had rallied a number of worlds to the Coalition's banner in his home sector but was by nature disinclined toward risk taking. "The slim hope of a possible advantage for a doomed plan? Your ancestors' pardon, Citizen Tulink, but I cannot place so much faith in a single simulacrum. Surely you agree, Praetorian Val-Ren?"

December 25, 2014 Walking about the Dubai International Convention Centre and mingling, Amir al-Misri would have been well within his rights to congratulate himself on a very successfully hosted conference. The science and technology summit - his PR people had come up with a more pompous title but it had sounded a little too obviously designed by committee to stick in the billionaire philanthropist's mind - had drawn experts in civic engineering, clean energy initiatives, information networking and a few dozen other equally impressive fields from around the globe. The chance to compare notes and show off the latest prototypes had been incentive enough but the sizable grant money being offered by his firm to the most impressive projects hadn't hurt, either. He wasn't left to bask in satisfaction for long, however, as one of his aides rushed over, his colouring pallid with stress, and shoved a tablet into Amir's hands. "Sir! Sir, you have to see this," the uncharacteristically disheveled man insisted, running a hand through his neat beard. "Some sort of weapon just made groundfall in the Rub' al Khali! It looks like- the data suggests it was launched from orbit. The payload... we don't have any idea what we're looking at, sir." The thermal satellite image on the tablet showed an aerial view of the Empty Quarter with a small, strangely cool blotch at the site of the impact. A blotch that was slowly but noticeably spreading outward.

Feel free to have each of your characters receive the same information as Asad through their own channels. I figure Maxima and Terrifica can already be at the summit; Citizen, too, unless you'd rather have him e-mail himself from Freedom City, AA. Vahnyu, Hronos is a cosmic enough sort of guy I expect you can come up with your own reasons for him being around!

November 25, 2014 5:32 PM There was something horrible up in space. That's mainly what Eliza knew right now. The thought had been turning over in her head for the past few weeks. Something had utterly destroyed a planet. And Sharl had been there to witness it. For the past few weeks, she and him had been talking. It had helped to deal with the crushing existential dread that came with everything, on both their parts. It didn't necessarily help with classes, but somehow, she was having a little trouble focusing on Intro to Lit when dealing with the possibility that whatever had destroyed Lor-Van might be coming their way. They'd kissed that night. And while it had been pretty good, she was still wondering. What next? Sharl had been talking about getting back together, and she wasn't adverse to it. And she'd seen weirder splits in relationships in her time, ones that had managed to weave back together. But... was this what they needed? Or what they wanted, in the face of a greater threat? This was why she'd picked out the Bean Bar near Freedom College. They needed to talk. And hopefully, they'd get all the answers by the time it was done.

Player Name: AvengerAssembled Character Name: Citizen Power Level: 12 (250/250PP) [252] Trade-Offs: +3 DMG/-3 ATK, +3 TOU/-3 DEF Unspent PP: 0 In Brief: Robotic defender of two worlds Alternate Identity: Sharl Tulink Identity: Varies [Public on Earth, Secret in Tronik] Birthplace: Tronik Occupation: Superhero [Plankton Boat Tender] Affiliations: Tronik, Miss Americana, Young Freedom, Temperance Family: Mother, father, sister - back in Tronik Base of Operations: Emerald City Age: 21 Gender: Male Ethnicity: Caucasian [Lor] Height: 6'0 Weight: 180 lbs Eyes: Green Hair: Black Description: In his long black coat and dark sunglasses, with his pale skin and floppy black hair, Sharl Tulink looks like any other young citizen of Tronik - somebody utterly forgettable, albeit very personable when you actually talk to him. No one would ever peg the mild-mannered plankton boat tender as Citizen, Tronik's first and only superhero. In the air he uses his fantastic speed and his ability to manipulate 'reality' to avoid being holoed by the cameras that are otherwise omnipresent in the heavily secured, high-tech society that is Tronik. Power Description: Sharl is primarily a classic 'flying brick' - he flies, he punches things, he's nigh invulnerable, he sets things on fire just by looking at them! It's pretty badass. His 'heat vision' takes the form of brilliant red, white, and blue beams coming from his eyes in imitation of Miss Americana's finger blasts. History: Sharl Tulink grew up knowing there was something more than the world where he'd been born - the cold, sterile, overcrowded city of Tronik on the distant world of Neo, an isolate cut off from the Lor Republic, the only city on a watery world around a cold red star so close that it forever hovers in the sky over the city, whose location in the Halbmond means it is in one of the few habitable spots on the planet. He looked for adventure, followed rumors of aliens and strange visitors from other worlds, and dreamed of finding another world. And at the age of sixteen, falling through a dimensional portal, he did just that! Of course, that was when he discovered the truth about Tronik - his home was a computer program, a digitized city rescued by heroes of a primitive world decades earlier. He learned about those heroes - first Miss Americana and Dragonfly, then the friends he fought alongside at Claremont Academy, and became a hero in his own right: Citizen, Tronik's one and only superhero! He even rescued another Tronik from Erde, creating a parallel system now in the Centurion's Sanctum alongside his own city - his own not yet knowing about the rescued much-abused parallel. As he prepared to graduate from Claremont Academy, he joined Young Freedom in battle against the Curator, the mad Preserver construct who had kidnapped and digitized Tronik in the first place. And there he died... But death has little meaning for machines, much less those deeply skeptical about the supernatural. Revived from a backup by Miss Americana, he returned to Tronik to act as their native superhero after graduation. He took a job as a plankton boat tender to get some privacy - and so he could come and go at will as a hero. After over a year of study, using material sent by Miss A and the Freedom League, he came to believe that he had finally found a solution to the problems of both Troniks. The Lor had the technology, the resources, the power, to reconstitute his people! And so he went to Lor-Van as a special technical ambassador to try and be the hero Tronik deserved. Until the Incursion came. He fought in space and on Terra, defending both his homeworlds and the Lor Republic, from its enemies. Now back on Earth, he's recently moved out west to find his identity, taking advantage of his powers to let him commute back to Freedom City (not to mention Tronik!) when necessary. Personality & Motivation: Around Tronikians, Sharl is a boy scout of virtue and bravery, the true champion of justice his sometimes-corrupt city needs. Whether laughing off laser blasts to the chest or punching through a criminal's door, he really is the titanium titan they need! In his secret ID, he's just another mild-mannered plankton boat tender. But away from Tronik, whether in his own ID or among humans, Sharl is a little guarded, hiding his insecurity with snark, argument, and the occasional bit of attitude. He's not a jerk - but he's rather less the squeaky-clean paragon of virtue. When he forces himself to, he's still the champion he is among his own people, he's just a little odder and a little more out of place. This world is not his home - it never will be. Powers & Tactics: Sharl is a mighty paragon, throwing big punches to start a fight, picking things off with his heat vision when necessary. He falls back on the heat vision when angry as well. He takes big hits for his friends! Complications: Atheist - raised in a dogmatically materialist culture, Sharl refuses to accept the reality of the divine and magic. Worse, he has a lot of trouble keeping these thoughts to himself. Copy - Sharl also has to help protect the other Tronik - the one from Erde. Dutemps Building - Many of Sharl's old friends have settled in Freedom City's DuTemps Building. Family - Sharl's family is still back in Tronik. Home - Tronik is a higher priority than Terra. Machine - in every way that matters, Sharl counts as a robot - he has no soul. Miss Americana - Sharl is ever-loyal to his old patron. Not from around here - Sharl is new to Emerald City and the Pacific Northwest in general. Outlander - Sharl is a non-human from an alien civilization, and still doesn't understand a lot about Terran culture. Rogue - Sharl's arch-nemesis has inspired other rogue AIs - and is a threat herself. Temperance - Sharl loves his girlfriend. Flying-Brick-in-Tronik-Sharl Abilities: 10 + 0 + 10 + 10 + 0 + 10 = 40PP STR 40/20 (+15/+5) DEX 10 (+0) CON 40/20 (+15/+5) INT 20 (+5) WIS 10 (+0) CHA 20 (+5) Combat: 10 + 10 = 20PP Init: +13 ATK: +5 (+9 Unarmed) DEF: +9 (+5 Base, +4 Dodge, +2 flat-footed) Grapple: +10/+25 Knockback: -12 Saves: 0 + 5 + 10 = 15PP TOU +15/+5 (+5 Con, +10 Enhanced Con ([10 Impervious]) FORT +15/+5 (+5 Con, +10 Enhanced Con) REF +5 (+0 Dex, +5) WILL +10 (+0 Wis, +10) Skills: 104r=26PP Acrobatics 5 (+10) Bluff 8 (+13) Computers 5 (+10, SM) Concentration 5 (+5) Craft [Electronic] 5 (+10, SM) Craft [Mechanical] 5 (+10, SM) Diplomacy 8 (+13) Disable Device 5 (+10) Gather Information 8 (+13) Knowledge [Civics] 5 (+10) Knowledge [Cosmology] 5 (+10) Knowledge [Galactic] 5 (+10) Knowledge [Technology] 5 (+10, SM) Languages 5 (English, French, Grue, Lor, Swedish, Base: Galstandard) Notice 10 (+10, SM) Sense Motive 10 (+10, SM) Stealth 5 (+10) Feats: 32PP All-Out Attack Attack Specialization (Unarmed) 2 Benefit 1 (Benefit [It's Citizen!]) Connected Contacts Dodge Focus 4 Evasion Improved Initiative 2 Inspire 5 Interpose Leadership Luck 2 Move-By Action Power Attack Skill Mastery 2 (Computers, Craft [Electronic], Craft [Mechanical], Knowledge [Technology], Notice, Sense Motive) Quick Change 2 Takedown Attack 2 Uncanny Dodge (visual) Well-Informed Powers: 20 + 20 + 2 + 12 + 10 + 4 + 13 + 3 + 28 + 5 = 117PP Enhanced CON 20 (to CON 40/+15) [20PP] Enhanced STR 20 (to STR 40/+15) [20PP] Flight 1 (10 MPH/100FPM) [2PP] Immunity 12 (aging, life support, sleep, starvation and thirst) [12PP] Impervious Toughness 10 [10PP] Morph 1 (Extra: Continuous, Flaw: Limited [Requires Computers], PF: Innate, Metamorph [Citizen], Subtle) [4PP] Paragon Array 5 (10PP, PFs: Dynamic, Dynamic Alternate Power 1) [13PP] DBE: Flight 1-5 (10-250 MPH/100-2500 FPM) {10/10} DAP: Super-Strength 1-5 (Effective STR 45-65, Heavy Load 6-96 tons) {10/10} Regeneration 0 (Resurrection 1/week, PFs: Persistent, Regrowth) [3PP] Sharl's Array 12 (24 PP, PFs: Alternate Power 4) [28PP] BE: ESP 4 (Clairvoyance; Auditory + Visual Senses, 1 mile, DC 14 Notice; Extras: Action [Free], Duration [sustained]; PFs: Fast Task 4 [Full Action to search 1-mile-diameter area]) [24/24] AP: Insubstantial 4 ('stepping out, affected by dimensional) [20] + Super-Movement 1 (Dimensional, out of the system, Extra: Portal [+2]) [4] {20+4=24/24} AP: Healing 6 ('system repair', Extras: Total, Restorative) {24/24} AP: Move Object 7 ('telekinesis'; Str 35, Hvy Load 1.5 tons; Extra: Range [Perception]; PFs: Precise, Split Attack, Subtle)) {24/24} AP: Transform 4 (anything to anything, 6/rank, 100 lbs) {24/24} Super Senses 5 (Extended Normal Vision, X-Ray Vision, Power Loss [not vs. 'extra-dimensional' beings], Extended Normal Hearing 1) [5PP] Abilities (40) + Combat (20) + Saves (15) + Skills (26) + Feats (32) + Powers (117) = 250/250

November 10, 2014 A hyperlight signal crossed the vast interstellar network, ricocheting off Lor communications stations a moment before the stations were deluged by word of the apocalypse that had befallen the homeworld. Further and further out into the Orion Arm it went, passing by the populated worlds of the galaxy as it headed into a remote galactic backwater that held one insignificant yellow dwarf and a small system of eight planets. It hit the unmanned station the Lor had left in Pluto orbit decades earlier and headed in one last burst for Earth, passing by the Lighthouse and heading straight for its source - Archetech. In a darkened laboratory, Sharl Tulink arrived on his hands and knees, screaming. "NO!" Instinctively, he reached out mentally into the surrounding network, both the building's power grid and the computers all around him. The lights flared up at his command and the computers came to life, the primitive technology and raw naturalism of Terra a sharp contrast to the sterile, doomed world he'd left behind him. As the Terran computers booted up, Sharl fought the natural urge to dive directly into their systems and not stop running through that primitive wireless network until he reached the familiar confines of Tronik - but of course that wouldn't really solve anything, would it? Instead, he raised his head and got up off the floor - though of course being a holographic projection he'd only barely been on it in the first place. He reached out into the surrounding network of the city and called a familiar number. "Gina!" he called, remembering old distress signals easily enough. "Code 404!"

Edges of Grue Unity Space Lor Timemark 1312.4 "Perimeter Vessel Theta-Theta-Gamma reporting all quiet," the Grue Metamorph named Dul'ce sighed, repeating the same message he'd been sending back to command twice a cycle for the entire duration of his posting. Cycle after cycle of staring at a field of stars, empty apart from a patch of asteroids or the occasional comet, lightyears away from anything to conquer or infiltrate or even just observe, just the arbitrary border of Unity controlled space past which there was simply nothing worth claiming. It was busy work of the highest order, that was the worst of it, Dul'ce reflected as he melted back in his chair, dejectedly allowing his form to become slightly liquid. The Meta-Mind could have easily focused on his thoughts, just like any of the Grue, if it truly wished to know what was happening on the frontier. The twice-cycle reports proved that it was simple bureaucracy, a tick in a ledger that no Grue would ever bother reviewing once it was logged. "Pull yourself together, Navigator!" a sharp voice barked, causing Dul'ce's outer layer to go spiky in surprise. The only other Metamorph on the vessel and his commanding officer strode onto the bridge, flanked by a pair of drones. Faa'et had taken to making his form a little taller and broader at the shoulder since his promotion and Dul'ce might have sworn his chin was even a little more square, though he couldn't imagine for whom Faa'et was making the effort. "I don't tolerate loose shifting on the Double-Theta Gee!" Dul'ce hid another sigh. The Unity didn't bother naming its vessels like lesser species and for good reason. Faa'et's attempts to give the scout ship a nickname were ridiculous, though the navigator never would have said so aloud. Just thinking that was about the captain would have been bad enough if Faa'et had ever bothered to read anyone's thoughts apart from his own. "Apologies, Captain. I was just finishi-- eh?" On the console in front of him a green dot blinked on, floating through nearby space before changing direction and heading toward them.