[Mutants & Masterminds] A World Less Magical But No Less Fantastic

[Davies]

Urilia

Image by Brezeburg.

In so far as is known, no human being has ever visited the anomalous structure dubbed Urilia. The published account of a sailing ship visiting it in 1925 is complete fiction, unlike other segments of that short story. After it became apparent that there was something at 47° 9′ 0″ S, 126° 43′ 0″ W, Argus arranged to set up a series of buoys at ten, five and two knot distances around it, both to alert anyone approaching that point and to alert themselves when anything came out of it. The latter is believed to have contributed to the prevention of global catastrophe, repeatedly.

Urilia is not an island. The region of the sea and sea floor where it appears have both been studied carefully by the Morrison Institute -- only when it is absent -- and it has been confirmed that this is not a case where something rises from the bottom of the ocean. The current model is that it is, much like Dread Island, located in a subspace fold that only occasionally intersects with local space time, but that unlike Dread Island, it is a floating body on which great towers rest. (The tallest of these structures exceeds 300 meters in height.) When it materializes, it does so roughly half a kilometer beneath the surface, but rises very quickly, suggesting either that the central structure possesses considerable buoyancy, or that known physical laws have no relevance here.

Should someone be both suicidally foolish and cosmically fortunate enough to try and explore Urilia while somehow avoiding its most famous resident -- possibly while that entity is elsewhere -- they will find the caverns beneath its surface to be largely empty, or containing what would appear to be wreckage. Unlit by any illumination, those hoping to find information about the beings who created this place will be disappointed; there are no convenient mosaics that outline their history, no carved inscriptions that will reveal secrets of the universe.

Within the lowest chamber, the beings who were known as the Xothi can be found. Physically, they are similar to the self-image that Kthulu has been projecting out into the collective unconsciousness for longer than the entire duration of humanity's existence, if a bit smaller. Their current state could be described as fossilized, but it seems to function as a state of suspended animation rather than actual death; telepathy will confirm that they are dreaming. Waking them would require a very involved process, and would be a bad idea to end all bad ideas and probably all good and indifferent ideas as well.

The Xothi are utterly hostile to any life, especially any life with pretensions towards intelligence, that is not themselves. The notion of anything trying to communicate with them will briefly surprise them before they attempt to destroy the source of that communication and anything that reminds them of it. Fortunately, the Xothi are not likely to awaken in the current geological epoch. They expended a great deal of energy the last time they were active, around 65 million years ago, and will probably not awaken of their own volition for at least another 100 million years, and possibly longer.

Despite what you are probably expecting at this point, the Xothi's hibernation is not caused by the presence of one of the Cosmic Gems of interstellar legend. It is a purely natural phenomenon. The sleep from which they awoke on that earlier occasion, on the other hand, was the result of a process developed by members of the Rpdwactk species (sometimes known as the Elder Things or Old Ones) roughly 300 million years ago. The power source of that process was a fragment of the Time Gem, hidden within the Xothi's sleep chamber. When it was removed from this place by entities unknown, the Xothi awoke and destroyed most of what remained of the Rpdwactk colonies on Earth before returning to their sleep.

Removing that fragment -- necessary to reconstruct the Time Gem -- will cause that reawakening. However, removing it before the correct moment will cause a time paradox that will both destroy the individual who does it and possibly alter the course of Terrestrial history in ways that are impossible to predict. There are ways around that former difficulty, but it is still probably the most difficult task awaiting one who would gather all five of the Cosmic Gems.

Xothi -- PL 13

Abilities:
STR 13 | STA 14 | AGL 4 | DEX 4 | FGT 7 | INT 5 | AWE 12 | PRE 4

Powers:
Aquatic: Immunity 14 (cold effects, drowning, heat, high pressure, poison); Movement 1 (environmental adaptation [water]); Swimming 6 (250 MPH; includes +1 for Growth) - 19 points
Claws: Strength-based Damage 2, Improved Critical - 3 points
Huge Size: Permanent Growth 8 (+8 Strength, +8 Stamina, -4 Parry, -4 Dodge, +4 Intimidation, +1 Speed); Protection 2, Impervious 8 - 34 points
Overwhelming Mind: Mental Communication 2, Limited to other Xothi; Perception Range Affliction 12 (Resisted by Will; Dazed, Stunned, Incapacitated), Subtle - 43 points
Senses: Senses 3 (darkvision, mystical awareness) - 3 points
Shielded Mind: Impervious Will 12, Limited to Mental Effects - 6 points
Tentacles: Elongation 3, Limited to Extra Limbs; Extra Limbs 4 - 6 points

Advantages:
Chokehold, Improved Grab, Improved Hold, Move-by Action, Power Attack.

Skills:
Close Combat: Unarmed 4 (+11), Expertise: Galactic 9 (+13), Expertise: Magic 9 (+13), Insight 2 (+14), Intimidation 4 (+12), Perception 2 (+14)

Offense:
Initiative +4
Claws +11 (Close Damage 15, Crit 19-20, Reach 2)
Tentacles +11 (Close Damage 13, Reach 5)

Defense:
Dodge 9, Parry 11, Fortitude 14, Toughness 14, Will 12

Totals:
Abilities 100 + Powers 114 + Advantages 4 + Skills 15 + Defenses 17 = 250 points

Complications:
Destruction--Motivation. Utter Contempt for All Non-Xothi.


The Time Gem

Actual size, when fully assembled

At some point in its history -- possibly in the far future -- The Time Gem was or will be shattered into five different fragments, which each possess some of the original's power. Only by bringing them into the same temporal region inside a gravity well similar to Earth's will cause them to reform as the original.

* One of the fragments is incorporated into the mechanisms that create the Pillars of Eternity. Removing it will change that instrumentality so that those who pass through it can be destroyed by time paradox, where they are normally protected from it. However, this destruction, like anything else that critically damages the time projections that the Pillars create, will still just cause their originals to return to their point of origin. (This fragment grants the Time Manipulation Basics power described below.)

* One of the fragments can be found on the home world of the Destrons, powering their time and space displacement method. Removing it will prevent them from continuing their invasions, for good and ill. (This fragment grants the Temporal Banishment power described below.)

* One of the fragments is incorporated into the mechanisms of Lord Carnifex's powered armor. Removing it will force him to find another power source for the armor, but not otherwise inconvenience him meaningfully. His own time control abilities have another origin. (This fragment grants the Accelerate Aging power described below.)

* One of the fragments can be found in a rural village in the northern hemisphere of the planet Chirab, where it has caused a period of 12 days to repeat in a neverending cycle for the last twelve hundred years. Individuals entrapped within this effect periodically awaken to the reality of their condition, but rarely more than one at time; this awareness invariably fades after a thousand repetitions or so. Removing the fragment will kill every one of the more than two hundred persons entrapped within the effect as the delayed aging catches up with them at once. (This fragment grants the Temporal Distortion Field power described below.)

* One of the fragments was hidden within Urilia, three hundred million years ago. (This fragment grants the Temporal Stasis power described below.)

Time Gem: Removable (-27 points)
Timeless: Immunity 6 (aging, temporal effects) - 6 points
Time Manipulation Basics: Enhanced Advantage 5 (Improved Initiative 4, Seize Initiative); Enhanced Defenses 20 (Dodge 10, Parry 10); Flight 8 (500 MPH); Movement 6 (space travel 3, time travel 3); Quickness 8 - 61 points
Time Manipulation Mastery: Array (55 points)

• Accelerate Aging: Ranged Cumulative Affliction 18 (Resisted by Fortitude; Fatigued, Exhausted, Transformed [elderly and feeble]), Reversible - 55 points
• Temporal Banishment: Ranged Movement 3 Attack (Time Travel 3), Resisted by Dodge, Accurate 2, Extra Ranks 9 (DC 24), Precise, Reversible - 1 point
• Temporal Stasis: Ranged Affliction 18 (Resisted by Dodge, Overcome by Will; Hindered and Vulnerable, Defenseless and Immobile, Paralyzed and Unaware), Extra Condition, Reversible - 1 point
• Time Distortion Field: Burst Area Affliction 15 (Resisted by Dodge, Overcome by Will; Hindered and Vulnerable, Defenseless and Immobile, Paralyzed and Unaware), Extra Condition, Reversible - 1 point

Time Shield: Sustained Impervious Protection 7 - 14 points

 

[Voltron64]

They expended a great deal of energy the last time they were active, around 65 million years ago, and will probably not awaken of their own volition for at least another 100 million years, and possibly longer.

That's not to say they're totally responsible for wiping out the dinosaurs, that was still the meteor. It did however, wake them up from their hibernation.

 

[Davies]

I should probably clarify that they destroyed the Elder Things 65 million years ago. That's where most of their efforts then went.

So yeah, you've got that to deal with too when you're trying to get this particular sparkly.

 

[Davies]

Chantress

The second time Dana Griffith's life changed forever, she was just a few weeks past her twenty-third birthday and expecting that her current night would be pretty much a repeat of every other night for the last week. She'd do her show to a sold-out crowd, singing and dancing up a storm, and using her superpowers to enhance the performance. Sure, the tour's security chief had warned her that Missoula had been having a lot of problems with Saturn recently, but those jerks had bigger fish to fry than her, surely? Unfortunately, it seemed that they didn't, and now a bunch of heavily armed thugs were coming up out of the audience for her!

None of this had been what she wanted for her life. The first time her life changed forever was when she was fifteen and her cute talent of perfect pitch, refined through constant vocal practice, turned into something much more notable: a song that could shatter stone. Her parents immediately agreed to pack her off to Wales so that she could be a student at the Academy, where she learned to control sound in many different ways, whether drawing the vibrations into herself to strengthen the force field she could create, or making people faint from the sounds that she made.

But while she tagged along with the other kids while they were 'studying Practical Heroics', Dana's heart was never really in it. Fighting scared her, and while she could protect herself with her force field, it seemed really week by comparison to the defenses everyone else seemed to have. More often than not, she ended up the hostage who had to be rescued, which further soured her on all of this. Dana didn't want to be a hero, she wanted to be an entertainer. And so, once she graduated in 2017, she followed the example that fellow alumnus Warp Witch had blazed, two years earlier, using the stage name 'Chantress'.

Things went pretty well. From time to time, she'd help out in crisis situations and help to save lives, but avoided actual superpower combat. The closest she got to it was when she was one of a number of entertainers whom Jodie Crowley kidnapped to try and siphon their 'magnetic energies' or something like that, and she would up helping Blakestone drive the crazy old wizard off. In the aftermath, Blakestone noted that said crazy old wizard had not been completely wrong about the sort of energies that Chantress possessed; Dana might be able to learn to use magic. That wasn't anything that she was interested in doing, though, so she just filed it away.

And now here she was, watching a bunch of terrorists make short work of her security team, and knowing that she was next. She wasn't a fighter, she wasn't a magician, she was just a singer. So if this was how she was going to go out, she was going to go out singing. The tune she picked to sing, using her powers to create the accompaniment, was one she'd first heard as a child; it had been one of her mother's favorites. And as she started the second verse, she began to feel something building.

Somewhere after midnight, in my wildest fantasy
Somewhere just beyond my reach, there's someone reaching back for me
Racing on the thunder and rising with the heat --

Just before she delivered the verse's last line, she heard a voice not her own, saying unfamiliar words: "Somewhere, in the middle of our darkest night, we made up the story of a man who will never let us down." And, with a sensation of a vast series of wheels turning in her mind to somehow achieve a one-in-a-billion combination, Chantress all but shrieked the last words.

It's gonna take a Superman to sweep me off my feet!

And. There. He. Was.

The man who thinks of himself as Clark Bradley wasn't sure what was going on. He remembered strolling off after one more adventure, and now he was suddenly standing on stage watching a bunch of palookas with guns trying to scare people. Well, no matter what was happening, he always knew what to do about that, and jumped in to start educating this miscreants in the error of their ways. Fortunately, they didn't need a lot of educating. Afterwards, when the police showed up -- or at least he guessed that these were the boys in blue, though they weren't wearing that anymore -- he finally got to ask the lady who'd been watching all this from the stage what the sam hill was going on.

"I needed a hero," she told him. "And you came."

"Well, all right then," he said, accepting this as an explanation right before he went back.

And so, despite everything, Chantress has found herself becoming a hero herself. Who had been helped must help others, or it was all meaningless, right? She still doesn't like fighting, and prefers to support her 'Superman' from behind. But she's found herself getting just a little bit braver. If she's to believe everything that Blakestone has told her, when she asked for her advice last week, 'Clark' is a part of her mind given form. So maybe there's something inside of her that's every bit as fearless as he seems to be.

Chantress -- PL 9

Abilities:
STR 1 | STA 2 | AGL 5 | DEX 3 | FGT 3 | INT 2 | AWE 3 | PRE 5

Powers:
"I Need a Hero!": Heroic Summon 9, Activation (Move Action) - 26 points
Sonic Absorption: Enhanced Sustained Protection 3, Fades, Limited rank of absorbed sonic effect; Immunity 10 (sonic effects) - 11 points
Sonic Control: Array (27 points)

• Deafening Shriek: Ranged Cumulative Affliction 13 (Resisted by Fortitude; Hearing Impaired, Hearing Disabled, Hearing Unaware), Limited to One Sense - 1 point
• Hypnotic Song: Cumulative Hearing Area Affliction 9 (Resisted by Will; Entranced, Compelled, Controlled), Concentration Duration, Instant Recovery - 27 points
• Sonic Blast: Ranged Damage 13 - 1 point
• Sonic Projection: Illusion 9 (hearing), Area 9 (15000 cft) - 1 point
• Vertigo: Burst Area Progressive Affliction 9 (Resisted by Will; Dazed, Stunned, Incapacitated), Hearing Dependent - 1 point

Sees Sound: Senses 2 (analytical tracking hearing) - 2 point
Sonic Shield: Sustained Protection 5 - 5 points

Advantages:
Agile Feint, Attractive, Benefit 2 (independently wealthy), Defensive Attack, Evasion, Fascinate (Performance), Grabbing Finesse, Improved Trip, Inspire 2, Languages (Spanish), Redirect, Taunt.

Skills:
Acrobatics 6 (+11), Athletics 5 (+6), Close Combat Unarmed 3 (+6), Deception 4 (+9), Expertise: Magic 1 (+6), Expertise: Performance 8 (+13), Insight 7 (+10), Perception 9 (+12), Persuasion 5 (+10), Ranged Combat: Sonic Powers 2 (+5)

Offense:
Initiative +5
Unarmed +6 (Close Damage 1)
Sonic Blast +5 (Ranged Damage 13)
Deafening Shriek +5 (Ranged Fortitude 13)
Hypnotic Song -- (Hearing Area Will 9)
Verigo -- (Burst Area Will 9)

Defense:
Dodge 8, Parry 6, Fortitude 3, Toughness 10/7/2, Will 8.

Totals:
Abilities 48 + Powers 75 + Advantages 14 + Skills 25 + Defenses 12 = 174 points

Offensive PL: 9
Defensive PL: 9
Resistance PL: 6
Skill PL: 8

Complications:
Developing Sense of Responsibility--Motivation. Fame. Public Identity. Weakness (becomes Fatigued without regular exposure to loud noises or music.)

"Superman" -- PL 9

Abilities:
STR 5 | STA 8 | AGL 3 | DEX 3 | FGT 8 | INT 1 | AWE 2 | PRE 3

Powers:
Fast Recovery: Regeneration 10 - 10 points
Keen Senses: Senses 3 (extended hearing, extended low-light vision) - 3 points
Just Plain Fast: Speed 3 (15 MPH); Leaping 4 (120 feet) - 7 points

Advantages:
All-out Attack, Attractive, Diehard, Extraordinary Effort, Fast Grab, Fearless 2, Improved Initiative, Improved Smash, Improvised Weapon, Interpose, Leadership, Move-by Action, Power Attack, Takedown.

Skills:
Athletics 4 (+9), Close Combat: Unarmed 3 (+11), Deception 6 (+9), Expertise: Streetwise Hercules 6 (+7), Intimidation 8 (+11), Investigation 6 (+7), Perception 8 (+10), Ranged Combat: Throwing 5 (+8).

Offense:
Initiative +7
Unarmed +11 (Close Damage 5)

Defense:
Dodge 8, Parry 10, Fortitude 8, Toughness 8, Will 8.

Totals:
Abilities 66 + Powers 20 + Advantages 15 + Skills 23 + Defenses 13 = 135 points

Offensive PL: 8
Defensive PL: 9
Resistance PL: 8
Skill PL: 6

Complications:
Justice--Motivation. Accident (sartorial damage.) No Legal Status. Vulnerable (magic.) Wisecracks.

 

[Davies]

Kamāngīr

According to legend, in Iran's heroic age, the heroic Iranian general Manuchehr reached an agreement with his Turanian opponent, Afrasiab, under which such territory as fell within the range of a bowshot would be returned to the Iranians, with all their other former territories being surrendered to their foes. Guided by divine inspiration, however, Manuchehr had a special bow and a golden arrow crafted, and bade his greatest archer, Arash, to fire the shot that would determine their fate. Most versions of the myth claim that Arash destroyed himself firing that bow, but that the shot travelled a thousand leagues or more. This tale of Āraš-e Kamāngīr, Arash the Archer, has remained a popular one in Iran right up until the present.

Ironically, the current heir to that particular legend never really intended to be known as an archer. When Nader Tabasi trained with the military and later with SAVAM -- the successor to the notorious SAVAK, installed by the current Shah after his succession to the throne in 1986 -- he was taught to use rifles and pistols in conjunction with the superpowers of coordination and clairvoyance that he'd developed. Tabasi first used a bow almost by accident; his gun having jammed, he seized a museum piece to shoot one of the terrorists who seized the National Museum during an incident in 2006 that was never adequately explained to him.

While commended for his role in that episode, his superiors and colleagues largely viewed Tabasi as a liability. They perceived him, accurately or not, as unacceptably soft, preferring to go for incapacitating shots rather than kills. His political opinions were also considered suspect, though here it would be more accurate to say that he was overly apolitical; while outwardly loyal to the Shah, Tabasi nursed what he believed to be private concerns about the direction of the Shah's government. Ultimately, this led to an attempt to eliminate him during a mission undercover in Turkey in 2011.

Tabasi survived but managed to keep that a secret, and was left uncertain about his next actions. He still wanted to protect the Iranian people from those who would harm them, whether those foes were external or internal. But if he used his black market connections to supply himself with firearms, he'd be strengthening those very same forces, or at least further contributing to the corruption of the state. But if he used a bow and arrows, civilian weapons, things could be very different. So it was that, a year after Nader Tabasi 'died', an individual using the name Arash Azari found employment with one of Teheran's leading newspapers, and a bowman, dubbed Kamāngīr by the press, began fighting a quiet war on crime in the city's nights.

Kamāngīr cannot match the legendary shot of Arash, but has been able to use his clairvoyance to fire an arching shot that struck a target hundreds of miles away. He also enjoys a very limited precognitive talent that lets him see a few seconds into the future, allowing him to dodge bullets and explosions. Aside from such considerations, Nader Tabasi is a highly trained commando with a keen eye for detail, and has learned the skills of criminal investigation though hard practice. He still prefers to avoid killing when possible, but has no illusions that he will always be able to do so, and those who deal out death to the innocent can expect to receive it in kind. He does not consider himself innocent.

During his few missions that have taken him out of his homeland, Kamāngīr found himself working rather well with Egypt's Medjay, and has considerable respect for her talents and determination. He also briefly crossed paths with the Ghost Hunter, but hasn't really formed an opinion about him. Aside from these, he has not had any contacts with other superheroes, though he was familiar with Mossad's team of psychic operatives from his time with SAVAM, and he is similarly all but unknown outside of Iran. At least, for now.

Kamāngīr -- PL 9

Abilities:
STR 3 | STA 3 | AGL 6 | DEX 6 | FGT 6 | INT 1 | AWE 2 | PRE 1

Powers:
Bow and Arrows: Array (10 points); Removable (-4 points)

• Long Shot: Perception Range Damage 5, Tiring - 1 point
• Rapid Fire: Ranged Multiattack Damage 3 - 1 point
• Standard Shot: Ranged Damage 5 - 10 points

Clairvoyance: Enhanced Advantages 3 (Evasion 2, Improved Initiative); Enhanced Defenses 8 (Dodge 4, Parry 4); Remote Sensing 8 (250 miles; hearing, visual); Senses 1 (danger sense) - 36 points

Advantages:
Accurate Attack, Assessment, Defensive Attack, Defensive Roll, Evasion 2, Extraordinary Effort, Fearless, Improved Aim, Improved Critical 4 (bow), Improved Initiative 2, Power Attack, Ranged Attack 4, Skill Mastery (Perception), Takedown, Teamwork, Ultimate Effort (Aim).

Skills:
Acrobatics 5 (+11), Athletics 8 (+11), Close Combat: Unarmed 6 (+12), Deception 10 (+11), Expertise: Military 8 (+9), Expertise: Streetwise 8 (+9), Insight 8 (+10), Investigation 8 (+9), Perception 10 (+12), Ranged Combat: Bow 3 (+9), Stealth 6 (+12).

Offense:
Initiative +14
Unarmed +12 (Close Damage 3)
Rapid Fire +13 (Ranged Multiattack Damage 3)
Standard Shot +13 (Ranged Damage 5, Crit 16-20)
Long Shot -- (Perception Range Damage 5)

Defense:
Dodge 13/9, Parry 12/8, Fortitude 6, Toughness 5/2, Will 8

Totals:
Abilities 56 + Powers 42 + Advantages 21 + Skills 38 + Defense 14 = 173 points

Offensive PL: 9
Defensive PL: 9
Resistance PL: 7
Skill PL: 7

Complications:
Justice--Motivation. Hunted by the Authorities. Secret Identity.

 

[Davies]

Rainbow

Current appearance

Former appearance (Columbia)

Born in early 1983, Lucy Morgan lived a fairly unremarkable life through most of her adolescence, never making waves as she grew up in Chesapeake, Virginia. Soon after her high school graduation, however, Cerebron attacked, with drones killing her father and several of her friends. Previously uncertain of what she wanted to do with her life, Lucy enlisted in the Navy in the hope that she could help make a difference in the world. Trained as a hospital corpsman, she was assigned to Norfolk Naval Station.

Less than a year into her posting, Hospitalman Apprentice Morgan happened to be in the blast radius when an experimental weapon exploded inside one of the hangars at Chambers Field, killing several people but leaving her empowered with the ability to project energy beams of the same type as the weapon. When she also demonstrated other powers, Lucy was quickly snatched up to serve as a last-minute addition to the United Superheroes of America. She was intended to serve as the team's official medic, with her energy projection powers used as a backup. Pleased to have the chance to make some good come out of a pair of unfortunate events, Lucy also agreed to use the identity of Columbia, dressed up like the Statue of Liberty come to life.

Aside from her dislike for this costume, Lucy's biggest problem was the increased public attention that she received as a member of the official superheroes of the Department of Defense. While scrupulously living within the 'Don't Talk, Won't Ask' policy that had been in place since the 1980s, she lived under the constant threat of exposure for her homosexuality. It was an extremely uncomfortable situation, and she let out a sigh of relief when the policy was finally dismantled in 2005, with gays, lesbians and bisexuals now permitted to serve openly.

Unfortunately, her relief came a bit too soon. In a private meeting with the Colonel supervising the United Superheroes, she was told in no uncertain terms that she was expected to remain in the closet for the duration of her service with the team. When she protested that this was not a legal order, it was clarified that it wasn't an order, merely the fact that, if she came out, she would be reassigned away from her current position. As she still believed, then, that the United Superheroes were doing good, she chose to swallow her pride and continue serving in silence.

She put it up with it for nearly two more years, until the team was finally disbanded. It honestly came as something of a relief, but the higher-ups continued to mess with her. Rather than reassigning her to continue serving as a hospital corpsman, she was expected to become a living artillery piece on a ship! Lucy had finally had enough, and ended her service with a dishonorable discharge. Thoroughly sick of the East Coast, she decamped for the West, specifically for San Francisco.

Over the next three years, she made a new career for herself as a private investigator, now going by the alias Rainbow and frequently working for one of the city's larger law firms. Then the American Angel contacted her about signing up with the new Heroic Enterprises organization he was establishing. Lucy proceeded to laugh in his face, told him exactly what she thought of his style of leadership and general character, and indicated that she had exactly zero interest in ever working for or with him again.

That set the tone of her interactions with other members of Heroic Enterprises for the duration of their stay in San Francisco. (It got even worse after, in her biased opinion, Dore's idiocy killed the one member of his team whom she sort of respected, fellow Navy veteran Monitor.) Fiercely independent, Rainbow has also none-too-politely refused an offer of membership from the Powerhouse, preferring to work alone. After the incident with the bridge, she has officially become San Francisco's semi-official heroic defender, occasionally putting her in a position where she ends up working with Montana -- an association that neither of them likes very much. (She has her suspicions about the other superpower, but honestly just thinks that Harmon is just a good-old-fashioned homophobic and racist jerk.)

Rainbow -- PL 10

Abilities:
STR 1 | STA 2 | AGL 4 | DEX 3 | FGT 3 | INT 1 | AWE 2 | PRE 3

Powers:
Boosted Leap: Leaping 6 (500 feet) - 6 points
Energy Beam: Array (20 points)

• Direct Blast: Ranged Damage 10 - 20 points
• Lance: Line Area Damage 10 - 1 point
• Wide Angle: Cone Area Damage 10 - 1 point

Force Field: Linked Reaction Damage 5; Linked Sustained Impervious Protection 4; Linked Sustained Immunity 10 (life support); Subtle - 39 points

Advantages:
All-out Attack, Contacts, Defensive Attack, Defensive Roll 2, Improved Initiative, Move-by Attack, Power Attack, Set-up, Teamwork.

Skills:
Acrobatics 6 (+10), Athletics 8 (+9), Close Combat: Unarmed 4 (+7), Deception 5 (+8), Expertise: Civics 7 (+8), Expertise: Military 6 (+7), Insight 7 (+9), Intimidation 5 (+8), Investigation 6 (+7), Perception 5 (+7), Ranged Combat: Energy Blast 7 (+10), Treatment 6 (+7).

Offense:
Initiative +8
Unarmed +7 (Close Damage 1 and Reaction Damage 5)
Direct Blast +10 (Ranged Damage 10)
Lance -- (Line Area Damage 10)
Wide Angle -- (Cone Area Damage 10)

Defense:
Dodge 9, Parry 7, Fortitude 5, Toughness 11/7/2, Will 6

Totals:
Abilities 38 + Powers 67 + Advantages 10 + Skills 36 + Defenses 16 = 167 points

Offensive PL: 10
Defensive PL: 10
Resistance PL: 6
Skill PL: 5

Complications:
Responsibility--Motivation. Fame. Out and Proud. Temper.

Note: As Columbia, she was PL 9; reduce her INT and PRE by 1 each, drop Boosted Leap, reduce Defensive Roll to 1 rank, drop Contacts and Improved Initiative, reduce Acrobatics to 2 ranks, Close Combat: Unarmed to 2 ranks, Expertise: Civics to 5 ranks, Insight to 5 ranks, Investigation to 3 ranks, and Ranged Combat: Energy Blast to 5 ranks. She also had the complication Secret (guess) instead of Out and Proud.

 

[Davies]

Fermion

Fortunately for all of humanity, great minds do not always think alike. In the late 90s, Wilhelm Binder was regarded as one of the leading researchers in the nascent field of androtics, with Valerian Rossum one of his few rivals. After grants for this line of research dried up after Cerebron, however, Binder wasn't willing to pursue criminal means to that end, unlike Rossum, whose 2002 arrest seemed to confirm the folly of that course. Nevertheless, Binder continued to conduct small-scale, privately funded research into the biomechanics of android creation, hoping that matters would one day change, while working for the Morrison Institute on other matters.

He got his big break when an associate at Argus asked him to consult on the study of the completed android body that had been seized from Rossum in the aftermath of Zane's coup attempt. At first startled by how much more advanced the prototype was when compared to his own work, Binder quickly learned from its examples. On his recommendation, Rossum's android was stored in an intact manner rather than being disassembled. It's not clear whether he'd realized that the android, later known as Machinanima, was slowly charging his batteries; he has never commented on the subject.

Despite this boost, it still took Binder more than a decade to create his own functional android, in large part due to many other distractions, including research into gravity manipulation technology that would eventually be incorporated into the final designs. But Fermion, as Binder dubbed his creation, finally came on-line in 2018, while his creator was working at the Morrison Institute's Geneva offices. The android soon developed a reputation as a superhero in Switzerland, especially after rescuing CERN's facilities from an attack by terrorists allegedly sponsored by the Koreans. Since then, he has been unofficially employed by the Organization as its superpower security chief.

Fermion has not yet revealed that he is an android to the general public. This is largely at Dr. Binder's insistence, as Fermion is bewildered at the idea that, more than twenty years after Cerebron last visited Earth, humans would be automatically hostile to android intelligences. However, he heeds the man who is his creator and mentor in this, as in nearly all things. Maintaining a secret identity as Binder's laboratory assistant, a Swiss national named Karl Link, he never hesitates to leap into action in the defense of science and sanity.

His greatest weakness is his difficulty understanding emotional responses, both his own and those of others. While part of this is is relative youth -- having only been active for less than three years -- part of it is the fact that he was educated by an individual who also has difficulties understanding emotions. Nevertheless, Fermion is entirely loyal to the human species despite not fully understanding the humans he encounters. He would be dismayed to learn that Dr. Binder obtained some of the materials for his construction from agents of the artificial super-intelligence Savitor, whose existence he does not yet suspect.

Fermion -- PL 10

Abilities:
STR 7 | STA -- | AGL 3 | DEX 2 | FGT 8 | INT 3 | AWE 2 | PRE 2

Powers:
Android: Immunity 30 (Fortitude effects); Impervious Protection 8; Regeneration 1 (natural healing) - 47 points
Gravitational Fields: Array (9 points)

• Deflector Field: Enhanced Defenses 8 (Dodge 4, Parry 4), Subtle - 9 points
• Exoskeletal Field: Enhanced Strength 4, Subtle - 1 point
• Force Field: Sustained Impervious Protection 4, Subtle - 1 point
• Manipulator Field: Move Object 4, Precise - 1 point

Gravitational Flight: Flight 7 (250 MPH) - 14 points

Advantages:
Close Attack, Interpose, Languages 2 (English, French, Italian, Japanese, [German is native]), Move-by Action, Power Attack

Skills:
Deception 4 (+6), Expertise: Science 5 (+8), Investigation 4 (+7), Perception 5 (+7), Technology 4 (+7).

Offense:
Initiative +3
Unarmed +9 (Close Damage 11/7)

Defense:
Dodge 12/8, Parry 12/8, Fortitude Immune, Toughness 12/8, Will 9

Totals:
Abilities 44 + Powers 82 + Advantages 6 + Skills 11 + Defenses 12 = 155 points

Offensive PL: 8
Defensive PL: 10
Resistance PL: 9
Skill PL: 3

Complications:
Responsibility--Motivation. Emotional Challenges (Impaired on Insight and Persuasion checks.) Loyalty (Dr. Binder.) Secret Identity.

 

[Davies]

Purple Haze

Almost nothing is known about the villain dubbed the Purple Haze by the press. She appeared as if from nowhere in 2018 to start bedeviling the Blue Bolt, challenging him several times that year. While she could not fly nearly as fast as her chosen adversary could run, her ability to maneuver in three dimensions and lack of physical substance meant that, while he could thwart her schemes, he was never able to capture her. His best guess was that she was someone who'd suffered some sort of elemental transformation, like Aeolia of the Primal Pattern, and suffered a breakdown as a consequence.

He was quite mistaken. The Purple Haze's name is Violet Irving, born in 2018 to Jimmy Irving and his wife, Erika. From the age of eight, when her parents were killed in action, she was filled with a violent hatred for the superheroic community whom she blamed for their deaths. When her powers to transform into gas and use those chemicals to various ends developed in her mid-teens, she began to use it to seek revenge, causing a great deal of havoc in an era that had already seen too much destruction already.

From time to time, she would find herself opposed by those who'd known her parents, who sometimes tried to reason with her and get her to understand how they would have felt about these activities. When she first fought Dancer, a fellow second-generation superpower, she expected the same, and was startled when she didn't get it. "That would be pointless," said Dancer. "It would be appealing to your better nature, and you don't have one. You're not sad that they're dead. You're glad. It's given you the excuse you need to live out every violent fantasy you've ever possessed. Why else have you never once gone after the people who actually killed them?"

Furious at that insult, the Haze would later try to prevent Dancer's attempt to time travel in an attempt to fix the events that led to the end of the second age of heroes, but failed. That failure broke her already badly damaged psyche, and she decided that the only thing she could possibly get revenge would be to bring about the end of the reality which had witnessed her humiliation. So she stole a starship and flew across the galaxy to the time portal known as the Pillars of Eternity, and traveled through them, returning to her home world in the year 2008, more than a decade before she was born.

Her first scheme was intended to test the limits of the Pillars' supposed protection from paradox. When she succeeded in causing her birth mother to have a psychotic break, ensuring that she wouldn't ever be born, and didn't blink out of existence, the Haze knew that she was now invincible. If anything happened to her, after this, she could just return through the Pillars. (In fact, it's not possible to return to use the Pillars to travel to an era in which you have 'died', but this is not the most severe among her delusions.) After that, she engaged in quite a bit of behind-the-scenes villainy, waiting for her nemesis to show up.

When Dancer finally revealed herself, the Purple Haze did too, quietly working to set wrong what Dance had made go right. To this end, she has recently joined forces with the Emperor of Korea, helping him to recruit members for an anti-Powerhouse organization that he calls his Hwarang, with herself taking the 'anti-Blue Bolt' role in it. The Haze actually feels a bit conflicted about this, since the Emperor did technically kill her parents and all that junk, but rationalizes that with the knowledge that her true goals will be mean his end too.

Her long-term goal is to manipulate a certain individual to go to Daath and solve the riddle that is Ananke so that Azathoth is reborn, destroying all of reality. That will show that rotten Dancer for insulting her like she did. She is still a bit confused why Dancer hasn't tried to confront her in this new era, because she fails to understand that the Dancer who exists here is the product of a timeline where Violet Irving was never born. But even if she did understand that, it would make absolutely no difference to her. The insult still needs to be punished.

Purple Haze -- PL 11

Abilities:
STR 1 | STA 1 | AGL 4 | DEX 3 | FGT 4 | INT 1 | AWE 2 | PRE 2

Powers:
Gaseous Form: Visual Concealment 4, Partial; Enhanced Advantages 6 (Defensive Roll 2, Improved Initiative 4); Enhanced Defenses 18 (Dodge 9, Parry 9); Linked Flight 14 (32,000 MPH); Linked Insubstantial 2, Continuous - 72 points
Gases: Array (36 points)

• Hallucination: Progressive Affliction 9 (Resisted by Fortitude; Dazed & Vulnerable, Stunned & Defenseless), Extra Condition, Limited Degree - 36 points
• Suffocation: Progressive Affliction 9 (Resisted by Fortitude; Dazed, Stunned, Incapacitated) - 1 point

Advantages:
Beginner's Luck, Benefit 2 (cipher 2), Defensive Roll 2, Eidetic Memory, Improved Initiative 4, Taunt, Well-Informed

Skills:
Close Attack: Gas 5 (+9), Deception 10 (+12), Insight 7 (+9), Perception 7 (+9), Persuasion 8 (+10), Stealth 7 (+11).

Offense:
Initiative +20
Unarmed +4 (Close Damage 1)
Hallucination or Suffocation +9 (Close Fortitude 9)

Defense:
Dodge 16/7, Parry 15/6, Fortitude 5, Toughness 6/1, Will 11

Totals:
Abilities 36 + Powers 109 + Advantages 6 + Skills 20 + Defenses 18 = 191 points

Offensive PL: 9
Defensive PL: 11
Resistance PL: 8
Skill PL: 7

Complications:
Psychopathy--Motivation. Secret (origins.)

 

[Voltron64]

So she's basically Billie Zane 2.0, how pitiful...

 

[Davies]

So she's basically Billie Zane 2.0, how pitiful...

Arguably, she's one of the devils on Billie's shoulder at this point.