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GM December 15th, 2016. 1.42PM A.S.T.R.O. Labs showroom, behind the labs proper, where they used to show off new jets and guns. "...Which brings us to the pride of our tour, the Guardian of Infinity!" Dr. Spencer gestured grandly to the towering apparatus, a of aluminium tubing on either side of a sideways, elongated oval as wide across as a city street and tall as a house. Hydrogen fuel cells hummed away, connected to the titanium oval by thick bundles of cables that vanished into the complex of struts and and bars around it. Running a good yard from it was a large black/yellow striped square. With "please do not approach the distortion of space-time" signs at each front-facing corner. The floodlights they reflected shone down on both the meticulously-curated and presented showcase floor and relics of the Lab's glorious past. Up above their heads hung replicas of various weapons and vehicles that had been the end of countless Germans. Around the guests was the future. Spacial-temporal distortions and all. Said distortion was a remarkably mundane affair. A city very like the Freedom City outside, with people looking very like those gathered before it. The first sign of difference was the omnipresence of Arabic letters. The second was the giant mechanical eagle that crashed into the ground, causing havoc as citizens rushed to shelter. As it rose up, it was struck down again by the now-visible superhumans pursuing it. Their host grinned and produced a spiral-shaped remote from her suit-jacket. "Yes, citizens! A world like our own, but not! With this device, constructed by my colleague Dr. Brandtford and myself, we can see any-" A world where domes were the major architectural style. "-neighboring-" Crosses filled the skyline, with images of saints on every window. "-divergence-" At the intersection, drivers floored it on the red light. "-we choose!" Spencer beamed at the crowd, tucking an errant lock of thick brown hair behind her ear "And best of all, we have made contact with a few alternate Labs, who had made devices nigh-identical to this one! Who knows what the future holds?" She scanned the gaggle of visitors, the vast majority of whom were students at Freedom City University "Any questions?" Dozens of twentysomethings glanced at each other. Spencer's grin was a bit too far that side of manic.

Espadas School of Self-Defense and Swordsmanship! December 16, 9:07 PM "Alright, we're locked up," Erik Espadas confirmed as he rounded the gap in the wall between the dojo's entryway and the training space. With the blinds drawn over the big front windows and a few more sophisticated measures in place the small group gathered were ready for their planned after-hours class. Unlike usual the mats were littered with piled weights, cardboard boxes and anything else that had been handy and looked like it might make for an inconvenient obstacle. "Remember, we're working on mobility tonight," he reminded the deceptively lanky man and the woman with short black hair in front of him, folding his bare arms across his plain white workout shirt. They could have easily been a pair of the college students who frequented his intermediary self-defence classes. "That means something a little different for you two than the rest of us so I figured it was past time you compared notes." The fencer let a lopsided grin split his businesslike demeanour as he stepped back toward far corner where Talya and Steve were watching. "That said, loser has to mop the footprints off my ceiling." In the apartments up above Ellie Espadas held her breath as she tip-toed out of the nursery, hoping against hope that her newest niece and nephew would stay asleep at least long enough to get back to the kitchen. Either one of them crying inevitably woke the other and even with three pairs of hands helping she wasn't sure how their parents were coping. Making it down the hallway and all the way to the kitchen table the med student silently raised a pair of crossed fingers as she sat down between Min and Mara. "And I thought pulling a double at Trinity took it out of you," she drawled just barely louder than a whisper. "Please tell me there's coffee or tea or something."

OOC thread for this thread. Trans-dimensional dinosaursations. DC for a full Sense Motive on Raul here is 25. Accepting his story, or at least cautiously letting him in, will grant you both a Hero Point.

Wednesday August 24, 2016 The Waterfront, Freedom City GM Post Tourism had always been a valuable source of income for the city of Freedom. The main draw was obvious - FC had seemingly more superheroes per capita than any other city in the nation. And once you got here, the residents had devised many other ways of extracting your money from your wallet. The casinos were always popular, as were the restaurants. But one of the most consistently popular tourist activities was the citywide tours offered by a number of organizations. When the city was full of superheroes - and consequently, a history of superbattles - it made for an town rife with landmarks. The waterfront had proved to be a surprisingly popular location for many tourists. The many docks and cargo ships that were constantly coming and going, loading and unloading, was already an impressive enough sight. Add in the ability to recant the history of the various superbattles that had taken place there, and you had a major inconvenience for the workers who had to be constantly shooing clueless tourists away from loading zones. It was a hot day, with the sun beating down fiercely on the city from the sky. Cargo ships blared their deafening horns as they methodically rumbled through the water - which did nothing to deter the busload of overexcited tourists from taking pictures of everything that moved while chattering to each other excitedly. The guide seemed to be weakly attempting to get them back to the subject of whatever landmark they were supposed to be admiring - but the crowd was cheerfully ignoring her, their attention having instead been captured by the spectacle of a forty-foot shipping container with a "Mercury Shipping" logo in the side being hoisted into the air by a towering crane. For residents or citydwellers, it was a none-too-impressive sight, but for those new to both Freedom and cities in general, it was apparently miraculous. Sharp-eyed observers might have noticed dockworkers expressing some consternation at the situation. The unruly tourists were crowding entirely too close to the work zone for comfort, disregarding the yellow warning signs. If there was an accident or malfunction of some sort, bad things could happen - but what were the chances of that happening?

OOC for this. Let me know if you need a reason for Casey to be at the scene, and feel free to have her be currently in-costume or out of it!

Friday January 22, 2016 Greenbank, Freedom City Nighttime It is a truth universally acknowledged, that an off-duty superhero in search of pizza will inevitably encounter something that renders the acquisition of pizza highly unlikely. Buffy Stein had just run out to grab a quick slice from the pizza joint around the corner, wanting a little fuel to get her through her late-night cramming session. She had even had her hand on the door when she overheard the police scanner in a nearby parked patrol car. Apparently something had triggered the silent alarm at a warehouse over in Greenbank. That wasn't exactly enough to make the cops peel out, sirens blaring, so why should she, innocent civilian, bestir herself? Surely no one would expect her to abandon her pizza, abort her studying, don her costume, and sprint clear across the city just because some raccoon accidentally tripped an alarm or something, right? This was what Echo was bitterly reflecting on as the crouched there on the edge of the rooftop in the freezing cold, staring gloomily at the shadowy bulk of the warehouse across the street. Sometimes, it just wasn't fun being a superhero. She was going to have to make some modifications to her costume, that was for sure. Heroes of the super variety weren't exactly renowned for their subtlety, but she couldn't help feeling conspicuous there in her blue-and-silver bodysuit. Those colors didn't exactly fade into the darkness as well as one might hope. Not to mention, she needed to install some thermal padding, or get some new long underwear or something. If didn't wrap this up quickly, all they would ever find of her would be a big Echo-shaped popsicle. And all because of a false alarm at some random warehouse. You didn't get a statue for that. Huh. She noticed something that made her perk up slightly. The warehouse was enclosed by a high chain link fence topped with barbed wire, presumably to keep the contents from escaping. Thing was, she was pretty sure the gate was supposed to be closed. With a whumph of displaced air, she was gone from the rooftop, now standing beside the open gate. The chain that ordinarily held the gates shut was lying on the ground. Kneeling down to examine it, she saw that it had been cut. Maybe the night watchman forgot his keys. And remembered his bolt cutters. Looking up, she saw an white van parked inside the fence. She had ignored it before, but now she saw that the plates had been removed and the engine was running. And one of the nearby doors that led into the warehouse looked to have been forced open. Well, hey. This might not be a waste of time after all.

GM Friday Mid Afternoon, June 3rd Starbase Coffee Southside A blend of pleasant coffee aroma swirled in the air. It was hot outside, and a pervasive kind of dustiness filled the air, a precipitation of pollution and sweat. Nobody was feeling very energetic, despite the caffeine. And at this time of afternoon it was never that busy. And today it seemed positively quiet. A trickle of the tired, a line of lethargic. Jack Longwheel ordered his coffee. It was full of cream and milk, and Jack Longwheel did not mind. He had given up trying to control his ever expanding waistline years ago. Jack Longwheel was a hack. He covered gossip and covered corruption. Neither of these topics had earned him many friends. It had earned him money, and a lot of fines. Most recently, he had been nearly broken by publishing accusations on Neutron Industries unclean energy. Accusations that were, all agreed, probably true, but unproven. He was a regular, Jack. A cynical man in his fifties who knew too much but like a dog with a red rag, couldn't quite let go. He knew "Buffy" stein. Every friday, like clockwork, about this hour. "The regular, ma'am. And a one way ticket to Hell on the side please..." he sighed. "God the things I hear...." he mumbled under his breath. "I'd Jack your Job in and sail to Hawaii, if I was you. Don't want to be stuck in Freedom City this weekend!" he said. He wiped his brow. Rotund as he was, Jack Longwheel did not normal have cold anxious sweat. He did today.

Sunday April 24, 2016 Nuevo Laredo, Mexico There have been some interesting reports from Freedom City for the last few days - but honestly the news from Freedom City is usually full of something interesting or another. Nuevo Laredo was a dangerous city - its status as the busiest inland port in Mexico made it a hotbed of cartel activity, crime and violence such serious problems that even families separated by the border only met on the American side to avoid the risk of street violence. And yet even so, the people that lived there lived better than any prole in the Terminus - better than those people could have dreamed. In the trainyards, as the local security monitored the loading of Dragonfly's new electronic decompilers into the cars of the Southern Pacific, Steve Murdock brooded on these thoughts, and more besides, his dark mood a strange contrast to the "Pixar-blue" sky overhead complete with perfect white puffy clouds dotted here and there. "Thank you for coming, Echo," he said in a moment when his speedy teammate joined him on top of the train where he crouched, watching the work. Of all the Interceptors, Echo was the one with the simplest passport card - no wonder, for a woman who could cross borders when it suited her fancy. "The men appreciate seeing an American superhero - and I appreciate a comrade here. I apologize I am not a better companion." And with that, as he had been doing so often since they arrived, he fell silent. - Getting assigned as a superhero 'ridealong' to the famous Asad had proven to be a real coup for Sparkler and El Huracan - the wealthy playboy had had no real superbattles to fight during a week when business had taken him down to south Texas to supervise the acquisition of Multimedios Radio, one of the largest Norteño stations in the region, a gateway towards making a real financial push into the relatively untapped media market that was northern Mexico. Now he'd crossed the border to actually sign the papers that would make this territory part of his business empire, bringing with him his business staff and the two teenage heroes who hadn't had very much to do this week. The Crowne Plaza Hotel might not have been very big at 12 stories high - but it was the largest building in Nuevo Laredo. From the penthouse suite that Asad's party had rented for the occasion, the group could see out over the struggling city. From this high up, and behind glass, it was impossible to see the city's troubles, or hear them; just to see a nice, sunny day and a thriving commercial metropolis below them. The streets all around here were crowded with semitrucks, thicker than any the teens had seen even back in major cities in the States, making things far easier for those who could fly.

Rolls and suchlike for this thread.

Initiative time

March 15. Freedom City. The West End. Summers Elementary School. 12:15 PM Her name was Ruth. Ruth Yamashiro. Her father’s parents were from Japan. Immigrated in the last Seventies. Her mother’s were card carrying Jewish Freedonians since birth. She was six years old, and soon to graduate from kindergarten to first grade. She was excited about the change, but also scared. She was a good girl, who did what her parents told her to do. Perhaps more perceptive than most children her age, but not oddly so. She had plenty of friends, and seems to be well on her way to a normal childhood and life. As normal as one could get in Freedom City, at any rate. The truth was, Ruth had a secret. She’d only told her best friends Kanako and Esther, and they didn’t even believe her. She could hear people think and move stuff with her mind. Some people thought too quiet and it wasn’t like she could lift more than her plastic chair, but still. She was like a superhero, only she was six. Her mom said a superhero’s first duty is to grow up big and strong. So, Ruth had to wait until she was older. It was okay. She liked being a kid. Grownups had so much on their minds, and she didn’t understand most of it. But it was weird. Ever since she’d started listening, really listening, to the grownups around her…she’d been having nightmares. Her mom and dad were worried, but she couldn’t just tell them about her powers. Then they might not be special anymore. Besides, she never remembered what they were about anyway, and they didn’t wake her up. Everybody had bad dreams sometimes, and they always went away after a while. She just had to wait, and everything would be fine. The kindergarten teacher’s name was Emily Corazon. She was 24, and not a full year out of college. Full of vim and vigor, she wanted to teach little children and give them a lifelong love of learning. Yes, she was a optimist. A regular ball of sunshine. That said, she kept it down to a dull glow as it was naptime. It was a good class, she thought. Good kids, yes indeed. Even though some were a little rough around the edges, with patience, kindness, and good old fashioned elbow grease she’d won them over. Now, as the year marched on (heh, marched) she was beginning to realize how much she’d miss them when June finally rolled around. In September it seemed like she’d have them forever, now there was almost no time left. Wait. What was that? Was Ruth having a nightmare again? Maybe Miss Corazon should wake her? She really seemed to be having a bad time there. The screaming started at 12:15. Monsters out of a small child’s darkest nightmares roamed the halls. Terrified students and staff hid in classrooms and offices. The police had arrived quickly, but found themselves out of the league just as quickly. The few that had escaped told impossible tales about what happened inside. This was a situation that required superheroic intervention.

OOC for this thread

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. Arrive upon scene however you like. Detective Watson is in charge, not that he or his men can do much.

Friday, November 13, 2015 Even with Merlin around to help supervise Raina was a little surprised to find herself to be anyone's first choice for a babysitter, short notice or not. Still, Talya had been as difficult to say no to as ever and it wasn't as though the young pyromancer couldn't use the extra income. And so she found herself in the apartments above the Espadas School on a Friday night, armed with a list of contact numbers, money to order a pizza, the knowledge that one of Erik's other students would be downstairs using the training equipment after hours and instructions that, should anything go truly badly she should literally call for 'Vince', whatever that was supposed to accomplish. While little Mia Espadas sat on the carpet in front of Raina concentrating mightily on her efforts to maneuver her own foot into her mouth, her older sister Eden looked up the tall blonde expectantly.

The OOC!

The Atlantis Casino Boardwalk, Freedom City, New JerseyTuesday. September, 1, 201511:24 PM Armed Robbery wasn't a new concept to the Freedom City's less than affluent Southside. In fact the recent string of robberies had a familiar air to them for the past three weeks. A group of thugs in gladiator clothing had been showing up throughout the area. Assaulting various civilians, robbing, and outright vandalism. Despite the public nature of their crimes the police had found no leads in tracking down the assailants. At least until 30 minutes ago. When the gladiators very publicly stormed the Atlantis Casino swiftly cutting through the well equipped security team and making their way inside. News of the attack spread quickly on every local media outlet. Police cars surrounded the entrance of the establishment. The flashing red and blue lights illuminating the street. A burgeoning crowd looking on in horror. With the FCPD trying their best to keep the civilians back as far as they could to no avail.. Out of direct sight from the commotion below, Foreshadow and Echo were looking down from the roof of a nearby Luxury hotel.

Contents HellQ

September 5, 2015 It started with a wave of car thefts from the edge of the West End, all of them parked, secured vehicles in the parking lots of the many strip malls and other commercial areas that took up space between the West End and the growing suburbs of Ashton and Grenville. Then came the dumpsters, emptying out without a trace, and then finally vanishing themselves. When store owners put out security cameras and caught glowing lights surrounding their missing property before it vanished, they called their local superheroes for help. This meant the Interceptors - this meant stakeout. A little investigation revealed what looked to be a regular pattern to the thefts; and suggested the next place the thieves would strike. The team was currently occupying the next location on the list; a strip mall adjoining a small stretch of scrub woods that had for the moment escaped the growth of the city all around them. This late, only the all-night liquor store anchoring one end of the complex was open; the rest of the businesses, like much of the neighborhood, were sleeping. Luckily, Steve had a face for customer service, and so behind the counter he sat in the uniform of Al's Liquor Store, his scarred face and brusque demeanor making him seem 'like the kind of person who would work at a liquor store late at night." He wasn't entirely sure he understood what that meant; but he'd been given a mission by his team and he did his job. He knew the other Interceptors were on the case too. Of course, they weren't the only people out tonight trying to solve the mysterious disappearances...

June 8th, 2015 The citizens of Freedom City tended to be a politically active sort, as keen to hold protests as rallies, to throw parades and circulate petitions. There was something about taking to the streets to make a spectacular demonstration that was simply baked into the city's core. Even so, there was only so much of the specific mechanics of actual government that the average citizen was honestly willing to wrap their head around so it would be understandable if the name Stewart Bench didn't ring any immediate bells. If he'd emerged with surprising speed as the front runner to be the new city councilman for one of the western wards in the next election, well, who had really heard of any of the candidates before the campaign signs started going up? If his poll numbers indicated a noticeably higher voter turnout rate than previous terms, well, it was just nice to see the youth of today exercising their democratic rights. It had only taken Ellie Stein a little bit of digging to realize that those numbers simply didn't add up and while creative use of statistics might have been a way of life for politicians it was enough to convince her to investigate further. The more she looked into Bench, the less she like what she found. Eventually it was the blue and silver clad heroine Echo who peered down at his campaign offices, the lights still on at this late hour, ready for some more hands-on research...

Here we go

The OOC!

Echo Power Level: 11 (160/175 PP) Trade-Offs: +3 Attack/-3 Damage, +3 Defense/-3 Toughness Unspent Power Points: 15 In Brief: A wisecracking, reality-warping heroine with ties to the multiverse, determined to stop her evil alternate-self. Residence: Southside, Freedom City Alternate Identity: Elizabeth “Buffy” Stein Identity: Secret Birthplace: Freedom City, New Jersey Occupation: Barista/student Affiliations: The Interceptors Family: Mother (Marian Stein, 55), father (Thomas Stein, 53), older sister (Rachel Stein, 30), older brother (Thomas Stein Jr., 28), younger brother (Joseph Stein, 18), numerous other relatives Description: Age: 25 (DoB: January 3rd, 1991) Gender: Female Ethnicity: Jewish Height: 5’ 5” Weight: 125 lb Eyes: Hazel Hair: Black (wears a white wig when in costume) Buffy Stein is a young, cheerful woman with a pale, heart-shaped face, hazel eyes, and black hair she keeps cropped short. She usually wears casual, comfortable clothes and no makeup, not being overly concerned with her appearance. As Echo, she wears a blue-and-silver bodysuit with white lines around the forearms and shins, which is designed to afford her maximum mobility. Her features are concealed behind a full face mask with large, opaque eye slits. She wears a long white wig to make the disguise complete, which does a remarkable job of staying on despite her constant acrobatics. Power Descriptions: Most of Echo’s powers appear to be extremely heightened natural traits, such as her inhuman agility and strength. She isn’t particularly subtle with them, either, constantly flipping and leaping around like a circus performer. She possesses what looks like super-speed, but is actually limited temporal manipulation. She does have a few tricks that are obviously “impossible” even for someone with her enhanced physiology, such as altering gravity so that she can walk on walls or freezing someone in place with a touch. When she teleports, she vanishes instantly with an audible whumph of displaced air, and the space around her seems to ripple and distort slightly, as though being viewed through water. History: Lisa Stein was born to a middle-class Jewish family, the third of four children. Their parents worked demanding, but respectable jobs, and the siblings were well loved and cared for. Until one day, in 2001, they found themselves suffering the main disadvantage of living in Freedom City. When their mother, Sarah Stein, was walking home from work, a grudge match broke out between two groups of so-called “heroes” who had chosen to openly defy the long-standing Moore Act. The battle escalated quickly, until part of a storefront was destroyed by a careless attack, and Sarah was buried underneath rubble. The combatants were too busy with their fight to bother helping her. Eventually, both teams called it a draw and withdrew, and the emergency services deemed it safe to move in. They were too late for Sarah, however – she suffocated to death. The family never recovered. Their father fell into depression, withdrawing, bit by bit, into himself. The siblings drifted apart, separated by childish quarrels. Lisa grew up quiet and deeply resentful, but deep inside she longed for the opportunity to join the rogue heroes of the city, Moore Act or no Moore Act. She knew that her mother was dead because of their failure, and she was certain that she could become a better hero than any of them, and stop this from happening to anyone else. On her eighteenth birthday, everything changed. The moment she woke up, she felt different. The world around her no longer seemed fixed and immutable – everything could be altered. Excited experimentation followed, and she discovered that she seemed to possess an array of minor superabilities. Simply by thinking about it, she could become a little stronger, a little faster, a little less hampered by the laws of physics. Her powers were fairly weak, but she was undeterred – she continued to push herself, intent on discovering exactly what she was capable of. She got her wish. After one particularly intense “training” session, she vanished from the face of the Earth. In her entire life, Eliza Stein never wanted for anything. Born to rich, high-class parents, she spent her entire childhood being pampered, spoiled, and told how special she was. Things like money were almost meaningless to her – she had so much, she could do whatever she wanted without the tiniest consequence. She and her siblings lived a life of such opulence and excess, she grew bored. She wished for something unexpected, something that would throw off the dull monotony of luxury she lived every day. She got her wish when a young woman identical to her in every respect arrived at her doorstep, babbling excitedly about “powers.” This was certainly unexpected. Intrigued, she invited her in, and the woman introduced herself as Lisa Stein. She insisted that she had just arrived from another world, and that they were two versions of the same person. None of the other rich kids had an alternate-universe clone! The next few weeks were an incredible game for the two young women. They switched places, pranked relatives, compared life stories. Lisa began to feel as if she had finally found her true soulmate, in herself. Until, as always happened, Eliza grew bored once more. Once the novelty of the situation wore off, she began to wish that this crude, low-class girl would go back to where she came from and leave her alone. When she told Lisa as much, Lisa panicked, terrified of going back to her old life of frustration and mundanity. Why couldn’t they just stay together, forever? Couldn’t she see this was how it was supposed to be? Desperate to make Eliza see reason, she seized her by the shoulders and shook her, screaming into her face. She had forgotten about her enhanced strength. She accidentally broke Eliza’s neck. But her initial horror lasted only a moment – suddenly an incredible thing happened. Eliza’s body seemed to dissolve slowly away into glowing threads of energy, which Lisa’s body immediately absorbed. As this happened, Lisa’s understanding of the universe seemed to deepen. It was a feeling of indescribable euphoria, realizing how easy it was to shape the world, make it bend to your will. Lisa’s power nearly doubled. Eliza was gone, nothing more than a heap of empty clothes. Lisa mourned her not, instead taking her place and living her life for several months, until one day the feeling of unease came again. The surety that she was intended for more than this. She had been given this power for a reason, she just needed to figure out what it was. Maybe if she did that again, just once more, then she would understand… Maybe there was always something broken inside the young woman. Maybe the act of inadvertently murdering herself pushed her over the brink of sanity. Maybe when the other woman’s very being was unwillingly absorbed into her own, some critical part of her mind was irreversibly warped by the trauma. But so it was that Lisa Stein became one of the more unusual serial killers in the many worlds. Every few months, she would travel to another reality, divine if there was an Elizabeth Stein there, and if so, kill her. And with every kill, her power grew. Years passed. Beth Stein was raised on one ideal: responsibility. Her father was a police lieutenant – her mother, an assistant district attorney. When she discovered she possessed a suite of minor physics-bending powers, she became a hero without a moment’s hesitation. While she was comparatively weak next to many of the others in the world, the newly-christened Echo made the most of the abilities she had, compensating for lack of raw power with skill and training. Soon, she became a respected figure. Until one day, a woman appeared to her. This woman was her exact physical double in every way. She was polite and soft-spoken, reassuring her that she had nothing to fear, but Beth could see a dark glitter in her eyes. Her fears were not assuaged when the woman politely asked if she would be so good as to let her kill her. She fought. She defended herself with everything she had, but her doppelganger had her hopelessly outmatched. When the smoke cleared, Beth had been beaten so savagely she could hardly move, and her duplicate (who mildly introduced herself as “Lisa”) hadn’t received so much as a scratch, and seemed quite unperturbed. In a final attempt to play for time, Beth begged Lisa for one single favor: to know why. Lisa obliged, explaining apologetically that they were the same person from different realities, and that this was the only way Lisa could realize her true potential. Out of some twisted sense of compassion, she comforted Beth, telling her she wasn’t going to die, far from it. In fact, she was going to become a part of something greater. Something wonderful. With her last ounce of strength, Beth focused on the desire to be anywhere but here. Buffy Stein was born to a middle-class Jewish family in Freedom City, the third of four children. Their parents worked demanding, but respectable jobs, and the siblings were well loved and cared for. One day, when Buffy was ten, her mother found herself an innocent bystander in a battle between a team of heroes and a team of villains. A building was damaged by a misaimed attack, and she was trapped under rubble. The heroes, who had formed based on their respect for the Centurion’s sacrifice during the Terminus Invasion, immediately leaped to her aid, ignoring their opponents and disregarding their own safety. They rescued her, but she was badly injured, and their fastest member rushed her to Freedom Medical Center. She was determined to be paralyzed from the waist down, but alive. From then on, Buffy worshiped superheroes, who had saved her mother’s life with their selfless action. Unfortunately, she didn’t seem to possess any powers of her own, despite her many attempts at awakening them, and her father put an end to her experimentation by forbidding her to jump off the garage roof anymore. Resigned to the fact that she would never fly, she decided instead to do the next best thing – write about those who did. Being a reporter swiftly became her new dream. However, she had difficulty applying herself in class – there always seemed to be something better (read: more fun) to do. No matter how hard she tried to work on her grades, she was inevitably distracted by the siren song of that one video game she wanted to try, or the latest issue of Freedom League Adventures. By the time she decided to truly buckle down and pursue her ambition, she was in her twenties and working in a coffee shop to pay the rent. She enrolled at Freedom College, but still had trouble concentrating, unable to shake the feeling that she was still intended for something more important (or at least more exciting). The last thing she had been expecting when she returned home from her shift one night was to find a woman perfectly identical to her lying in a bloody heap on the floor, clad in a tattered costume. The strange woman could barely move, but she refused to let Buffy call 911, saying there was no time. With her final breaths, Beth told Buffy everything she knew about Lisa Stein – that she was them from another world, that she grew stronger by killing them, and that she was already terrifyingly powerful. As the last of her strength began to fade, Beth begged Buffy to heed her warning. It was all up to her now, she told her. Lisa Stein was going to come for her too, sooner or later, and she had to stop her, to protect every Elizabeth Stein in every world everywhere. And with that, she died. When Buffy involuntarily absorbed Beth’s essence, she was both shocked and horrified. But because Beth willingly allowed it to happen, the process was smoother than it had been when Lisa murdered Eliza. By combining her own latent power with Beth’s, Buffy was made far stronger than either of them ever could have been alone. She became the second Echo, determined to uphold the ideals the first one died for, and honor her sacrifice (whether it was voluntary or not). And besides, being a superhero sounded like a lot more fun than being a barista. Personality & Motivations: Echo is torn between two conflicting feelings. She is intently disturbed by the knowledge that she is apparently capable of cold-blooded, selfish mass murder, even if it is a different her who lived a different life. On top of that, she watched herself die in her arms, an experience that she still has occasional nightmares about. But on the other hand, she can walk on walls. She is both excited by her new power and troubled by how she came by it. Never much one for self-analysis, she’s decided the best way to deal with it is to beat nine kinds of crap out of bad guys and save people, while doing her best to live up to her own ideals, particularly the name of Echo (despite the fact that no one in this universe knows who the original one was). When in-costume, she has a tendency towards being energetic, almost manic. Heroics are a chance for her to break free of the stifling restraints of her normal life and become a different person, and she likes to make the most of it. She can’t resist making constant wisecracks (of sometimes dubious quality) unless the situation is truly dire, in which case she can become surprisingly serious. Of course, her definition of what constitutes a “truly dire situation” might differ somewhat from that of most people. Ultimately, however, she knows that she has these powers for one reason: to stop Lisa. She has no idea what Lisa’s endgame is, or if she even has one, but she apparently intends to reach it by murdering countless innocent Elizabeth Steins. A source of constant frustration for Echo is that she currently has no way of actually confronting Lisa, having yet to master her own world-traveling powers. Not to mention the fact that Lisa could be literally anywhere in the entire multiverse. Powers & Tactics: Echo has what she might describe as a “unique” relationship with reality. She considers things like time, space, mass, and gravity to be loose guidelines at best. Simply by wanting to, she can accomplish physical feats that would be outright impossible for any ordinary human, becoming far faster, stronger, and more agile. Beyond this, she can bend or even outright break the laws of physics themselves, doing things like redirecting gravity in order to walk on walls, reducing it in order to perform impressive leaps, slowing down time, or teleporting short distances (although when asked, she says she’s actually moving the universe around her, which she insists is far easier). She is unsure if she has the ability to travel between parallel worlds like Beth and Lisa, but if she does (and she does), she hasn’t figured out how to do it deliberately yet. She is well aware of her own physical strengths and weaknesses, and she has tailored her combat style around them. Fighting fair is something she avoids at all costs, using all manner of dirty tricks and unorthodox tactics to seek an edge. She also has a tendency to keep up a steady barrage of taunts and groan-inducing quips during a battle, partly to rile up her opponent, but mainly just for kicks. Complications: Best Game Ever: Despite everything, Buffy loves being a superhero, sometimes a little too much for her own good. She has trouble taking thing completely seriously, having yet to truly appreciate some of the stakes of her new role, or experience the consequences of failure. Family: Buffy has a sizable (and fairly close) family. My Own Worst Enemy: Lisa Stein is still out there, somewhere in the multiverse. And she is extremely displeased that the original Echo escaped her clutches. She has been spending a certain amount of effort attempting to divine which reality she fled to, to settle the score with “the one who got away.” Secret Identity: To date, only a select few know that Buffy Stein is actually Echo, and she does her best to keep it that way. Struggling: She’s not likely to starve, but most of her money goes toward paying bills, leaving her perpetually a little cash shy. Unworthy: Deep inside, she worries that she’s not as much of a hero as Beth Stein, and that Beth’s the one who should be alive, not her. She does her best to not acknowledge these fears, but the nagging self-doubt remains. Her exuberance is partly due to overcompensating for this feeling. Abilities: 0 + 2 + 4 + 4 + 4 + 8 = 22PP Strength: 26/10 (+8/+0) Dexterity: 30/12 (+10/+1) Constitution: 14 (+2) Intelligence: 14 (+2) Wisdom: 14 (+2) Charisma: 18 (+4) Combat: 8 + 8 = 16PP Initiative: +14/+5 (+4 Improved Initiative, +10/+1 Dex) Attack: +14 Unarmed, +12 Melee, +4 Ranged Grapple: +24/+20/+12 (+12 Attack, +8/+0 Str, +4/+0 Super-Strength) Defense: +14 (+4 Base, +10 Dodge Focus), +2 flat-footed Knockback: -4 Saving Throws: 4 + 2 + 6 = 12PP Toughness: +8 (+2 Con, +6 Defensive Roll), +2 flat-footed Fortitude: +6 (+2 Con, +4) Reflex: +12/+3 (+10/+1 Dex, +2) Will: +8 (+2 Wis, +6) Skills: 56R = 14PP Acrobatics 12 (+22/+13) Skill Mastery Bluff 8 (+12) Diplomacy 6 (+10) Gather Information 8 (+12) Skill Mastery Knowledge (current events) 8 (+10) Knowledge (popular culture) 2 (+4) Language 1 (English [Native], Hebrew) Notice 10 (+12) Skill Mastery Sense Motive 8 (+10) Stealth 5 (+15/+6) Skill Mastery Feats: 31PP Acrobatic Bluff Attack Focus (Melee) 8 Attack Specialization (Unarmed) Challenge (Fast Acrobatic Feint) Defensive Roll 3 Dodge Focus 10 Elusive Target Evasion Improved Initiative Skill Mastery (Acrobatics, Gather Information, Notice, Stealth) Takedown Attack 2 Well-Informed Powers: 1 + 10 + 14 + 2 + 4 + 34 = 65PP Feature 1 (Temporal Inertia) [1PP] Go Real Fast 4 (8PP Array, Power Feats: Alternate Power 2) [10PP] Base Power: Speed 8 (2,500 MPH/25,000 feet per move action) (Bend Time) {8/8PP} Alternate Power: Enhanced Skill 12 (Acrobatics +12) + Leaping 4 (x25 [using Skill Mastery Acrobatics: running long jump: 875 feet; standing long jump: 437.5 feet; high jump: 218.75 feet]) (In a Single Bound) {3+4=7/8PP} Alternate Power: Teleport 5 (500 feet; Flaw: Short-range only, Power Feats: Change Direction, Progression 1 [200 lb], Turnabout) (Spatial Hop) {8/8PP} Reality Warping 5 (10PP Array, Power Feats: Alternate Power 4) [14PP] Base Power: Damage 0 (Extra: Autofire [8]; Power Feats: Improved Critical 2 [18-20]) (Superfast Fists) {10/10PP} Alternate Power: Enhanced Speed 1 (to Speed 1 [10 MPH/100 feet per move action] or Speed 9 [5,000 MPH/50,000 feet per move action]) + Quickness 9 (x1,000) (Slow Time) {1+9=10/10PP} Alternate Power: Paralyze 10 (Extra: Alternate Save [Reflex, +0], Flaw: Action/Full) (Temporal Stasis) {10/10PP} Alternate Power: Super-Movement 5 (trackless, wall-crawling 3, water walking) (Gravity Schmavity) {10/10PP} Alternate Power: Super-Strength 4 (effective STR 46; heavy load: 6 tons; Power Feat: Groundstrike) (Ignore Weight) {9/10PP} Super-Movement 2 (dimensional [parallel universes]; Flaw: Uncontrolled) (World Traveler) [2PP] Super-Senses 4 (Danger Sense [Mental], Dimensional Awareness [Mental], Temporal Awareness [Mental], Uncanny Dodge [Mental]) [4PP] There Is No Spoon 6.8 (34PP Container [Passive, Permanent]) [34PP] Enhanced Dexterity 18 [18PP] Enhanced Strength 16 [16PP] DC Block ATTACK RANGE SAVE EFFECT Temporal Stasis Touch DC 20 Reflex (staged) Paralyze Unarmed Touch DC 23 Toughness + Autofire (staged) Damage (physical) Totals: Abilities (22) + Combat (16) + Saving Throws (12) + Skills (14) + Feats (31) + Powers (65) – Drawbacks (0) = 160/17