N/A Posted December 20, 2015 Posted December 20, 2015 (edited) History: James “Jim†Phillips was many things to many people: A loving husband. A beloved brother and son. A veteran of the war in Afghanistan. A promising young sous chef at one of the best restaurants in Freedom City. But to more people than all of those things combined, he was known as the third-rate masked vigilante “Silverspear.†He didn’t have any powers, or a fortune in high-tech gadgets. All he had was the desire to make his own little corner of the world a better place, and the courage to make it happen. Karl Ridley, or “Doctor Conquest†as he had once called himself, was a third-rate supervillain in the 1960s and 1970s, just another mad scientist convinced that anyone who disagreed with him just failed to appreciate his genius and that the world would be a better place under his bootheel. Some of his work in robotics and human/machine fusion was innovative, but he was never quite the world-class intellect in real life that he was in his own mind. The Freedom League put him in prison, and unlike many of his peers, he stayed there. When Ridley was finally paroled decades later, he was a broken shell of his former self, acutely aware of how he had wasted his life. He was almost relieved when the Grue Invasion of 2010 caught him out on the street. He was sure that Death had finally come for him in the form of the charging battle-beast, and he stood fast, resigned to his fate. He did not expect anyone to intervene, especially not Silverspear. Silverspear was outmatched, but despite Ridley’s protests, he refused to abandon the old man to his fate. The vigilante sustained numerous mortal wounds, but managed to hold off the hulking bio-weapon’s attack just long enough for a passing hero’s energy blast to incinerate it as he flew by. Ridley managed just enough first aid to keep Silverspear alive long enough to reach a hospital and get on life support, but in the next few days, it became clear that the vigilante would never wake up from his coma. The hospital kept his identity secret out of respect for his service to the city and regard for his family’s safety. In accordance with his previously stated last wishes, which his widow did not contest, his organs were to be harvested, and the rest of his body was to be donated to science. Ridley decided the form that “science†would take. He secretely relocated Jim to his own makeshift intensive care unit, and he reconstituted his laboratory for one last project. This man had been a third-rater like Ridley, and he had sacrificed himself to save the life of a washed-up old convict without a moment’s hesitation. The world needed a Jim Phillips a lot more than it needed a Karl Ridley, and there was a chance that Ridley could give the world back the hero it had lost, and give his own wasted life some meaning in the process. Jim was clinically brain-dead, but Ridley was able to recover most of what constituted the man’s “mind†from what was left of that brain. His methods were not as sophisticated as those used to preserve Doctor Atom and The Patriot; there was no direct transfer of Jim’s own intelligence. But Ridley managed to program an artificial intelligence based closely, if not completely, on the memories and personality of Jim Phillips. Meanwhile, Jim’s DNA was the foundation for the vat-grown flesh and blood overlaying the impervium endoskeleton of his “new body.†Even with the assistance of S.I.X. (Synthetic Intelligence eXperiment), his first success in the realm of artificial intelligence, the creation of Jim’s new “body†and “mind†took Ridley several years. There were some gaps in the required science and technology that he just couldn’t overcome on his own, so at one point, he brokered a deal with agents of The Foundry. Of course, he lacked the resources to make good on his end of the bargain. Instead of buying the Myrmidon robots, he stole them, along with the information he needed to bypass the self-destruct mechanisms. It took The Foundry almost a year to catch up with Ridley, just as he was activating his greatest achievement. Now it was Ridley’s turn to save Jim Phillips. On orders from Ridley, S.I.X. fled the lab with a disoriented Jim Phillips, by way of Ridley’s teleport pad, while Ridley engaged a squad of Myrmidons led by a Keres with what few gadgets he had left at his disposal. The fight didn’t last long. The withered husk of Karl Ridley died with Keres’ hand around his throat and a smile on what was left of his face. When his heart stopped beating, the radio signal from his pacemaker set off the tactical nuclear warhead buried under the lab. The android that thinks it is Jim Phillips reached full consciousness with a flash of light in an otherwise dark alley in Freedom City, naked and alone, save for a floating metal ball that disappeared whenever anyone else looked at it. He scavenged some clothes and found a condemned building in which to hide, and then S.I.X. explained to him why going home to his wife was a bad idea. Ridley’s instructions to Skeets had been very clear on this matter: S.I.X. was not to outright lie to Jim about his true nature, but neither was S.I.X. to volunteer any information on that subject. Ridley feared that the sudden revelation would cause Jim’s programming to crash in a software equivalent of a nervous breakdown. So at first, S.I.X. let Jim assume that he had survived the Grue Invasion. Then, when Jim saw a face in the mirror that was not his own, when he clawed at that face and the flesh tore away like paper to reveal metal instead of bone, Skeets let him assume that his brain had been transferred into a cyborg body. Jim has not yet discovered his true nature as an artificial echo of the real (and truly deceased) Jim Phillips, and S.I.X. has no intention of hastening that discovery. S.I.X. did inform Jim that four years had passed since the world assumed he had died. Subsequent investigation revealed that Jim’s wife had since remarried, and was now a mother. The robot that thinks it is Jim Phillips no longer had a home, a family, an identity or even a job. All it has now is the very thing that Karl Ridley gave his remaining years on Earth to preserve: The courage to use his strength to protect the weak from those who would prey upon their weakness. Complications: Animals Hate Him: The synthetic flesh and blood forming the outer layer of his body just smells wrong to animals. They will react to his presence with an immediate fight-or-flight response, every time. Dogs will bark, cats will hiss, and flocks of birds will scatter. Every dog is an Evil-Detecting Dog when he's around. Back From The Dead: His family may have moved on, but he hasn't. Their lives will probably be complicated by his inability to let go and stay away, and then his existence will be complicated by danger to their well-being. He doesn't have the same face or the same voice, and any routine laboratory analysis will identify his flesh and blood as human-like, but not human. But his DNA and even his fingerprints match those of a man dead for years. Cloning Blues / Do Androids Dream? / Loss of Identity: Everything he knows about himself is a lie or a half-truth. His memories are all based on a life he never truly lived. He doesn't have a "mind" or a "soul," just an advanced computer program trying to mimic one. Hollywood Density: He is the same volume as a normal human, while literally weighing half a ton. Made Of Plasticene / Red Right Hand: His impervium endoskeleton is nearly indestructible, but the synthetic flesh on the outside isn't much more durable than that of a normal human. Even if he makes his Toughness save, at the GM's discretion, he may sustain superficial lacerations which expose the metal skeleton. The flesh will eventually mend itself if stitched back together, requiring either Craft (Repair) or Medicine checks, but if left unattended, it will eventually necrotize. The dead flesh will need to be cut or burned away before it can grow back, and in the meantime, he will look and smell like a rotting corpse. Metal Detector Checkpoints: These will cause him problems, since his entire skeleton is made of metal. Sense Loss Sadness: He is already receiving Power Points for the drawback of possessing no olfactory-type senses, so any direct effect of that condition should not award Hero Points. However, his inability to smell or taste anything may cause additional indirect complications through psychological trauma (see below), especially given his former vocation. Unwilling Roboticization: Nobody asked him if he wanted to be rebuilt as a cybernetic echo of his old self. The GM should feel free to apply various conditions resulting from the psychological trauma inflicted by anything which forces him to confront the reality of what he is and isn't. PL 10 (8) PP 149/150 Abilities 2PP Str 26 (+8), 41 Lifting Dex 10 (+0) Con - Int 10 (+0) Wis 14 (+2) Cha 14 (+2) Combat 32PP Init +0 Atk +8 Dmg +8 Grap +19 Def +8, +4 Flat-Footed Tough +8 (Impervious 8) KB 10 Saving Throws 14PP Fort - Ref +8 [8PP] Will +8 [6PP] Skills 15/16R = 4PP Climb 3 (+5) Handle Animal - Knowledge (Any) 0 (+0) Notice 3 (+5) Profession (Cook) 3 (+5) Profession (Soldier) 3 (+5) Sense Motive 3 (+5) Swim - Feats 22PP Eidetic Memory Interpose Sidekick 7 (35PP)Veteran Reward Sidekick 19 (95PP) Takedown Attack Powers 83PP Density 6 (Permanent, Feats: Innate) [19PP] Immovable 0 (2, Extras: Unstoppable [2]) [2PP] Immunity 40 (Fortitude Effects, Mental Effects) [40PP] Leaping 3 (x10, 180ft) [3PP] Protection 5 (8, Extras: Impervious 5 [8]) [10PP] Quickness 3 (x10) [3PP] Speed 3 (50MPH) [3PP] Super-Senses 1 (Communication Link [Radio, Sidekick]) [1PP] Super-Strength 1 (3) [2PP] Drawbacks -8PP Disability (No Olfactory Sense) [-1PP] Vulnerability (Electricity, x2) [-4PP] Vulnerability (Magnetism, x2) [-3PP] Character: S.I.X. PL 10 (6) PP 129/130 (Sidekick Rank 26) Abilities 0PP Str 01 (-5) Dex 10 (+0) Con - Int 20 (+5) Wis 10 (+0) Cha 10 (+0) Combat 8PP Init +5 Atk +6 Dmg -5 Unarmed, +1 Move Object Grap -11, +7 Move Object Def +6, +3 Flat-Footed Tough +6 (Impervious) KB -6 Saving Throws 12PP Fort - Ref +6 [6PP] Will +6 [6PP] Skills 40R = 10PP Computers 15 (+20) Craft (Electronic) 5 (+10) Craft (Mechanical) 5 (+10) Intimidate 0 (-6) Knowledge (Any) 0 (+5) Knowledge (Physical Sciences) 5 (+10) Knowledge (Technology) 5 (+10) Notice 5 (+5) Search 0 (+5) Stealth 0 (+12) Feats 5PP Eidetic Memory Second Chance (Computers) Speed of Thought Teamwork 2 Powers 103PP Comprehend 4 (Codes, Languages 3) [8PP] Datalink 1 (Radio, 10ft, Feats: Subtle) [2PP] Features 1 (Library) [1PP] Flight 3 (50MPH, Feats: Subtle) [7PP] Immunity 40 (Fortitude Effects, Mental Effects) [40PP] Move Object 1 (100ft Max Range, Lifting Str 5, Extras: Damaging, Feats: Improved Range 3 [1 100ft Range Increment], Improvised Tools, Precise) [8PP] Protection 6 (Extras: Impervious) [12PP] Quickness 12 (x10,000, Flaws: Limited [Mental Tasks]) [6PP] Shrinking 12 (Diminutive, Permanent, Feats: Innate, Normal Toughness) [14PP] Super-Senses 5 (Communication Link [Radio, Hero], Direction Sense, Radio, Radius Vision, Time Sense) [5PP] Drawbacks -9PP Disability (No Olfactory Sense) [-1PP] Disability (No Hands) [-1PP] Vulnerability (Electricity, x2) [-4PP] Vulnerability (Magnetism, x2) [-3PP] Edited December 22, 2015 by ShaenTheBrain
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