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Players Name: Cubist Characters Name: Jubatus Power Level: 13 (175PP/196PP) Trade-Offs: +2 Attack / -2 Damage, +2 Defense / -2 Toughness Unspent PP: 21 Progress to Silver Status: 46/60 In Brief: Speedster who is his own worst enemy -- his toughest challenge will be overcoming 'the demons within' Alternate Identities: Jay Nelson Xavier Identity: Public (it's kind of hard to maintain a Secret Identity when you're blatantly Not Human...) Birthplace: San Francisco Bay Area Occupation: Freelancer specializing in technological troubleshooting and tech writing Affiliations: Sometimes works with Martin Brandtford of ASTRO Labs for scientific purposes Family: Parents: Albert Xavier (father -- dead), Rebecca Xavier (mother -- Alzheimer's-stricken 105-year-old in nursing home). Siblings, in birth order: Corrie Xavier (sister, 86), Maxwell Xavier (brother, dead), Dan Xavier (brother, dead), Elaine Xavier (sister, 79), Nancy Xavier (sister, dead), Randolph Xavier (brother, 64). Jube is aware that he has several more-distant relatives (cousins, etc) in various parts of the US and Europe, but has never attempted to build relationships with any of these persons Age: 66 (DoB: September, 1946) Apparent Age: Young adult (how old does a cheetah look..?) Gender: Male Ethnicity: Cheetah (formerly Caucasian) Height: 6'1" Weight: 102 lbs Eyes: Green Hair: Fur w/ typical cheetah markings -- sandy-yellow w/ black spots all over, with white on the torso's front side Description: First impression: The guy's a cheetah, end of discussion. A closer look reveals that his braincase is rather larger than that of a 'real' cheetah, and the digits on his forepaws are a fair amount longer, slimmer, and more dexterous than those of a 'real' cheetah (which isn't saying much). He typically doesn't wear anything more than a khaki vest that's got ridiculously many (gadget-filled) pockets. Power Descriptions: Jubatus' only exotic ability is what he calls "Timeshifting", the power to control how quickly Time flows for himself. He calls it 'upshifting' when he's running faster than normal, and 'downshifting' when he's running slower than normal. This ability has some innate side-effects. One, gravity becomes weaker (when he upshifts) or stronger (when he downshifts). Two, it 'Doppler shifts' all wavelengths (of light or sound or whatever else); when he's running X* faster than normal, he percieves all wavelengths as 1/X of their 'normal' value. History: With an IQ around 140, Jay Nelson Xavier has been 'the smartest kid in the room' for most of his childhood (and a good fraction of his adult life). Thanks to an intermittent, continuing series of abusive incidents at the hands of his so-called 'peer group', incidents which were either ignored or dismissed as "kids playing around" by adults who were nominally in positions of responsibility, Jay learned early on that most people are stupid or crazy or both... a conclusion which was only reinforced during his adolescence and later years. For the past 30-40 years, Jay has been a technocrat, specializing in troubleshooting and technical writing; his life was a comfortable routine of accepting, and fulfulling, freelance contracts. That comfortable routine ended in 2011. Unknown to Jay, he'd been chosen by a Grue sleeper agent as a suitable test-subject for biological experimentation... so one day, Jay went to sleep normal, and woke up with a five-o'clock shadow that just wouldn't quit. Overnight, his body had changed from 'normal human' to 'almost-normal cheetah'. As if the associated changes to his vision, hearing, and other senses weren't bad enough, he also found himself 'floating', as if gravity had somehow been reduced to 1/6 of its customary strength. Confused and disoriented by this radical transformation, Jay managed to dial 9-1-1... and that freaked him out even more: There was no person on the other end of the line, just a slow basso droning. Even worse, Jay discovered that he was no longer capable of speech -- all that came out of his mouth were animal noises! In desperation, Jay barked out the classic SOS code. Then he lost consciousness... Jay woke up in a hospital room, tied to a bed by loose restraints. During the week or so he spent in hospital, Jay learned about his new, highly cheetah-esque body; what he could and couldn't eat safely, that he was permanently stuck at 6* faster than the rest of the world, etc etc. As well, he figured out how to talk with a vocal tract that can't produce speech (the secret is, make a series of carefully-selected sound effects that sound like the phonemes of spoken language), and how to 'downshift' (slow himself down) to the same speed as everybody else. At which point, he returned to his normal life, as best he could. A week after his release from hospital, Jay happened to be passing by the site of a five-on-one mugging. Ordinarily, Jay would have just dialed 9-1-1 on his cellphone and let the police handle it... but this time, he couldn't just let the victim suffer, because he was a by-God human being, not a friggin' animal! Jay thought his monstrous appearance would be enough to drive the thugs away. Wrong: Inhuman he might seem, but he was also obviously scared & underconfident, and he appeared to be a scrawny little bugger (6' tall and 100 lbs). So the thugs figured a weak, frightened animal (albeit one that was a little bit larger than the last animal they'd tortured) would be easy meat. The thugs were very wrong: In the ensuing scuffle, Jay 'upshifted' for the first time, and his 'beast side' took over for the first time... or at least he friggin' well hopes it was his 'beast side' taking over. Because when it was over, Jay was horrified to see all five thugs sprawled out on the asphalt, unmoving, in puddles of their own blood. Jay called for ambulances, and spent the next several minutes puking his guts out. All five of the thugs were alive when the ambulances arrived. Jay reported the incident to the police, who assured him that there would be no legal repercussions -- it was a clear case of self-defense on behalf of an innocent victim -- which made Jay feel a little better about his having ripped and torn and shredded and... anyway, Jay resolved that the next time he came across a crime-in-progress, he would let the police handle it. Then the parents of one of the thugs insisted on charging Jay with assault and battery! However the judge might have originally planned to handle this case, Jay derailed that plan by pleading guilty. So the judge was forced to come up with a 'plan B'. Well, it was pretty clear that Jay wanted to be a good citizen, but it was also clear that he was having problems dealing with his newly-transformed body, and that he could be a danger to the public, if those problems weren't dealt with. In the end, the judge ordered Jay to get the psychological help he so clearly needed. And some few months of treatment later, Jay still had bad days from time to time... but his mental condition was sufficiently improved that when his therapist suggested Jay put his special abilities to public-spirited use, Jay agreed. And now Jay battles injustice with the blazing speed of... Jubatus! Personality & Motivation: Jay Nelson Xavier has never been anyone's idea of a superhero. He's a cynical, hardshell pragmatist, and while he does have altruistic impulses, his life experiences have forcibly taught him that acting on said impulses usually has a bad outcome. However, he has recently come to understand that the results of ignoring altruistic impulses can be worse. Jay has few friends, and he likes it that way -- especially now that his brain has been rewired to add cheetah traits/instincts, such as their generally solitatry nature. Jay, a detail-oriented fussbudget, is aware that he's more competent than most people, but where some might think "damn, I'm great!", Jay wonders "why can't they do it, too?" Part of the reason Jay acts as a superhero is because he believes his cheetah-like body is doomed to die of old age within 2-3 years, and he's determined to make as much of a difference as he can, while he's still capable. In reality, Jay's accelerated metabolism heals the ravages of Time as quickly they occur, so he's effectively immune to aging -- he just doesn't know this yet. Powers & Tactics: Jube is about speed and precision, not brute force. He prefers the surgically exact strike to carpet-bombing, pre-planned activity to improvisation. Complications: Can't Touch Me: Jube's Danger Sense is permanently active -- he cannot shut it down -- and whenever the DS thinks there's trouble inbound, it actives his Timeshift for Jube... The Nature of the Beast: Jube's eyes and ears are cheetah-normal; thus, he has lousy color discrimination, and he cannot hear any sounds below 100 Hz or so. The digits on his forepaws are longer and slimmer than those of normal cheetahs, but nowhere near as good as human fingers; hence Jube's manual dexterity suffers at times. Obligate carnivore; chewing on one leaf won't hurt him, but a whole salad would give him horrible diarrhea. Human-style clothing is very uncomfortable -- it chafes against his fur and makes him overheat, not to mention his skeletal structure is all wrong for it -- so he wears as little of it as he can get away with. Jube's voice sounds terrible; he can't actually speak, so he strings together carefully-selected sound effects to produce 'speech' which is easy to comprehend. Jube is naturally quadrupedal, but he insists on standing up on his hind legs anyway, no matter how much it hurts. Thou Shalt Not...: Jube is very very very opposed to killing anything, and takes a rather dim view of even inflicting injury; he's scared spitless that the scent of blood might allow his 'beast side' to take over. Time Will Let Me: Jube's Timeshift affects gravity (Timeshifting slower = stronger gravity; faster = weaker gravity). He can Timeshift to slower than normal, with the accompanying effect on personal gravity. As well, the Timeshift affects anything with a wavelength; when Jube is running N* faster than normal, he percieves the frequency of an X-Hertz sound as (X/N) Hz, and analogous color-shifts affect light. This quirk affects Jube's Infravision, Ultravision, and Ultrasonic Hearing, and he may eventually learn to exploit it for X-ray Vision. Too Darn Fast: Jube's bodily processes (metabolism, nerve impulses, etc) are permanently stuck at 6* normal speed; in order to interact with normal-speed characters, he must use his Timeshift power to slow down to their speed. As well, he needs to eat 6* more than anyone else; Jube going 1 day without food affects him much the same way a normal person would be affected by not eating for 6 days straight. Similarly, Jube's sleep cycle is 1/6 as long as that of any normal person. Abilities: - 4 + 18 + 4 + 8 + 6 + 2 = 34pp Str 20/6 (+5/-2) Dex 28 (+9) Con 14 (+2) Int 18 (+4) Wis 16 (+3) Cha 12 (+1) Combat: 12 + 20 = 32PP Initiative: +9/+37 Attack: +6 Base, +12 Melee Grapple: +16/+10 Defense: +10 (+10 Base), +5 Flat-Footed Knockback: -5, -1 Flat-Footed Saving Throws: 4 + 0 + 6 = 10 Toughness: +10 (+2 Con, +8 Defensive Roll) / +2 Flat-Footed Fortitude: +6 (+2 Con, +4) Reflex: +9 (+9 Dex, +0) Will: +9 (+3 Wis, +6) Skills: 32R = 8PP Knowledge: Business 4 (+8) Knowledge: Current Events 4 (+8) Knowledge: Technology 5 (+9) Knowledge: Theology and Philosophy 5 (+9) Language 2 (English [native], Spanish, French) Notice 6 (+9) Sense Motive 4 (+7) Stealth 2 (+11) Feats: 24PP Attack Focus (Melee) 6 Benefit: Wealth 2 Defensive Roll 4 (+8 Toughness) Eidetic Memory Environmental Adaptation (Low Gravity) Evasion Fearless Improvised Tools Jack of All Trades Master Plan Online Research Stunning Attack Takedown Attack Uncanny Dodge (Motion Sense) Well-Informed Powers: 1 + 6 + 2 + 2 + 5 + 6 + 1 + 3 + 4 + 1 + 1 + 35 = 67PP Feature 1 (Mimicry: Jube's throat produces excellent sound effects) [1PP] Gadgets 1 (5PP Variable Power, Any Power, Multiple Powers At Once; Extras: Duration [Continuous]; Flaw: Easy to Lose) [6PP] Example Gadgets Immunity 2 (Aging, Cheetah-Specific & Human-Specific Diseases) [2PP] Regeneration 2 (Recovery Rate: Bruised 1 [1 round], Staggered 1 [20 minutes]) [2PP] Strike 4 (Feats: Mighty) (claws, fangs) [5PP] Super-Movement 3 (Safe Fall, Sure-Footed, Wall-Crawling) [6PP] Super-Movement 1 (Water Walking, Drawback: Power Loss [Only when Timeshifted > 6*]) [1PP] Super-Senses 3 (Danger Sense, Tremorsense [Tactile Sense; Extras: Ranged]) (motion sense) [3PP] Super-Senses 4 (Low-Light Vision, Normal Olfactory Sense [Extras: Acute, Tracking], Ultrasonic Hearing) [4PP] Super-Senses 1 (Infravision; Drawback: Power Loss [Only when Timeshifted < 6*]) [1PP] Super-Senses 1 (Ultravision; Drawback: Power Loss [Only when Timeshifted > 6*]) [1PP] Timeshift (35PP Container [Active]) [35PP] Enhanced Feats 7 (Improved Initiative 7) [7PP]Enhanced Strength 14 [14PP]Quickness 7 (250) [7PP]Speed 7 (1,000 MPH/10,000' per Move Action) [7PP]DC Block: ATTACK RANGE SAVE vs. EFFECTUnarmed Touch Toughness, DC19 (15+4) Damage (Physical) Strike Touch Toughness, DC24 (15+9) Damage (Physical) Blast Range Toughness, DC17 (15+2) Damage (Physical) / from Gadgets Snare Touch Reflex, DC15 (10+5) Entanglement / from Gadgets Abilities (34) + Combat (32) + Saving Throws (10) + Skills (8) + Feats (24) + Powers (67) = 175PP/196PP

Tuesday, March 12, 2013 10:25 PM A thick cloud cover hung over Freedom City, intensifying the gloom of the already dark night. On the other side of the South River, the lights of downtown Freedom City glistened against the dark sky, seemingly alive with energy. Along the southern bank of the river, there were the bright lights and neon of the casinos of the Boardwalk, attempting to entice new patrons. But stretching out from the glitz of the Boardwalk were the dark streets of Southside. Long a middle and lower-middle class section of the city, Southside had for years struggled with the encroachment of crime in its neighborhoods. Despite the efforts of a number of costumed crimefighters, there still appeared that the bad areas were slowly expanding. As such, there often seemed to be something happening in Southside that would warrant attention, even from someone new to crimefighting.

Friday March 1, 2013 Mozambique air space between Pemba and the Messalo River Valley 11:00 CAT (Central Africa Time) [5:00 AM Freedom City] Though it was not yet mid-day on the southeastern coast of Africa, the temperature had already reached the high eighties, without accounting for humidity. Rain clouds lay to the west, though that was hardly unusual as March was the wettest month of the year for this region of Mozambique. An old, Soviet made Mil Mi-8 (Hip) helicopter was flying low over the acacia and palm savannah that covered much of the area near the Messalo River valley in Mozambique's Cabo Delgado province. The sliding side door on the left side of the aircraft had been left open, providing those inside with some much welcome ventilation to help deal with the stifling heat, humidity and the smell of aircraft fuel from the twin turbines located just above the helicopter’s cargo area. For the ten passengers in the back of the Mozambique Air Force transport, this was the last leg of a long journey. More than fifteen hours ago, they had left Jordan International Airport in Freedom City aboard a plane chartered by Danger International. Their travel route had taken them through Accra, Ghana, where they had boarded a smaller plane, which had flown them to the airport in Pembra, Mozambique, where they had then boarded the Hip. Five of the passengers were employees of Danger International, a foundation and NGO that was heavily involved in humanitarian aid projects in a variety of Third World countries. Dr. Mario Conte; registered nurses Dorothy Cofield and Andrew Myers; civil engineer Denise Gorrell; and support personnel Steven Wilker were part of the disaster relief team DI was dispatching to the Messalo River valley in response to flooding that had occurred when a dam under construction on the river had collapsed less than forty-eight hours ago. The other members of the team, along with UNISON super-agent, Edge, were already on site, preparing the base camp the team would be using during its stay. The other five were individuals who had volunteered to assist the team for the next few days, and were in fact superheroes. Four were students (two young women, two young men) from the Claremont Academy. As a graduate of Claremont himself, during the rushed planning for this mission, Edge had had the idea to reach out to the school and see if any students might want to join the mission for a few days and get a chance to learn about other ways they could use their powers that did not involve fighting criminals. The fifth was by far the most unusual of the group, a humanoid cheetah, the superspeedster known as Jubatus.

OOC for this thread, for when we need it.

Thursday, Jan 5th, 2012 The crowd outside Fun Time Toy's main lobby had begun growing as the unveiling of their newest product line came closer. The company had managed to keep what exactly it was under wraps, using everything from harsh Non-Disclosure Agreements with their employees and contractors to false leaks declaring everything from a line of Freedom League action figures to working hoverboards. When the announcement had been opened to the public and not just to the press, demand and interest had spiked. The entry fee for the public had also included a gift basket with a random selection of the company's catalog. The speakers setup outside the entrance crackled to life. "Welcome ladies and gentlemen! Please step back from the doors and have your ticket ready. Our friendly staff will guide you to the exhibition hall where the new line as well as complementary donuts and drinks are being served," a male voice sounded over the chilled crowd.