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

[Davies]

Kerero Taicho

Boku no Hīrō Akademia (or My Hero Academia) is an extremely popular manga and anime franchise that has achieved worldwide recognition, telling an ongoing story of a young man without superpowers in a future world where they are nearly ubiquitous. Its themes draw on the theories that superpowers are becoming more prevalent and more powerful with each passing generation, which are generally dismissed by the scientific community but somewhat better regarded in the underworld, particularly among those familiar with the secret histories of the world. The series is quite popular even among the members of Japan's relatively small costumed superhero community ... save for one superhero who finds it a bit embarrassing, and particularly dislikes all the erotic fanart of one of the characters. And she's really getting tired of getting asked questions about whether she can do anything with her mucous. (The answer is no, okay?)

Even as a child, Yoshizaki Kumiko was aware that she had some sort of superpower, from the fact that she could hold her breath for a duration that seemed almost indefinite as long as she was under water. She didn't make a big deal out of it; while she learned to swim early and quite well, she knew that this sort of thing would disqualify her from competing in actual matches. So it remained something that she did for fun, and she intended to grow up and get a real job one day.

At fifteen, however, the rest of her power set activated, and over the course of a few days her tongue began to extend to several times its normal length as she turned into a frog-humanoid. This happened during her summer break, but Kumiko still found the experience horrifying. Fortunately, her parents adapted more quickly than she did, and reached out to contact the local representatives of the Futurian Academy. Thus, when the school year started up again, she was being educated in Wales. Unfortunately, she only lasted a year before homesickness, and the oppressive situation in the United Kingdom, convinced her that dropping out was the best option.

While unwilling to continue her heroic academy life, Kumiko was still interested in being a superhero, and felt that the lessons she'd already received left her ready for it. So she created the costume and identity of Kerero Taicho ('Captain Frog', since Sergeant was taken.) The novice heroine made her debut in April of 2014, three months before the first published episode of a certain manga series, and four months before a certain supporting character was introduced.

Initially, Kumiko found it rather flattering to have a character clearly inspired by herself in such a popular and interesting manga. She's become somewhat less enchanted with the notion as she's grown into adulthood and the character has remained a teenager, and as she's learned just how much erotica features that character. She's never considered changing her look or trying to persuade the franchise's creator to change the character's look, however, as it was hers first and the other option would be boorish and impolite. (And she's also aware that it wouldn't stop the production of the fanart, and that there would still be gross sexual fantasy depictions of her even if BHA didn't exist.)

Despite all this, Kumiko considers herself a genuinely fortunate person, as she's been able to be a force for good in a world that often rewards wrong-doing. She's also aware that she was really lucky not to encounter threats she couldn't handle during her first few years of activity, and was able to grow into her present level of competence before she started to encounter them. In recent years, her most persistent opponent has been Hebi-Onna, the second individual to occupy the house of the Snake in the Shēngxiào, one of the group's more blatantly criminal members. She has never mananged to capture Hebi-Onna, but has foiled her plots, and counts that as good enough, since it means that the more powerful members of her enemy's group have not yet taken action against her either.

No, she doesn't make ribbiting noises when she talks, either. That isn't funny.

Kerero Taicho -- PL 9

Abilities:
STR 2 | STA 3 | AGL 6 | DEX 4 | FGT 6 | INT 2 | AWE 2 | PRE 0

Powers:
Amphibious: Immunity 1 (drowning) - 1 point
Keen Senses: Senses 2 (acute olfactory, low-light vision) - 2 points
Long Tongue: Enhanced Strength 3, Limited to Extra Limb; Extra Limb 1 - 4 points
Very Mobile: Enhanced Advantage 2 (Improved Initiative 2); Enhanced Defenses 4 (Dodge 2, Parry 2); Leaping 3 (60 feet); Movement 2 (sure-footed; wall-crawling); Swimming 4 (16 MPH) - 17 points

Advantages:
Agile Feint, All-out Attack, Defensive Attack, Defensive Roll, Equipment, Evasion 2, Fast Grab, Improved Defense, Improved Grab, Improved Initiative 2, Move-by Action, Teamwork

Equipment:
Goggles (+2 to resistance checks against visual afflictions), 4 points as neeeded.

Skills:
Acrobatics 6 (+12), Athletics 6 (+8), Close Combat: Unarmed 5 (+11), Expertise: Streetwise 7 (+9), Insight 8 (+10), Perception 9 (+11), Sleight of Hand 8 (+12), Stealth 7 (+13), Technology 6 (+8).

Offense:
Initiative +14
Unarmed +11 (Close Damage 2)
Tongue +11 (Close Damage 5)

Defense:
Dodge 13/9, Parry 11/9, Fortitude 6, Toughness 5/3, Will 7

Totals:
Abilities 50 + Powers 24 + Advantages 10 + Skills 31 + Defense 16 = 131 points

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

Complications:
Responsibility--Motivation. Fame (and frequently confused with her fictional counterpart.) Secret Identity. Weakness (drying out.)

 

[Davies]

Miyashita Nagisa

More than a decade ago, when Miyashita Nagisa was only in middle school, she and a group of her friends were accidentally transported to a parallel world where magic was much more prevalent than it is on their own. There they developed magical powers, possibly due to the effects of their slide across dimensions and possibly because some of the local powers-that-be needed agents in a hurry. Nagisa acquired powers associated with deception and trickery, able to easily fool others through illusion and compel them to believe whatever she said. She found herself utterly horrified by what she was asked to do with these talents, and was further traumatized by the loss of a number of her classmates during their 'adventure'.

When the survivors of this incident finally found a way back to Japan, their powers were lost, and Nagisa was enormously relieved by that for a few moments before the weight of her experiences made her collapse. Hospitalized, she wound up isolated from her former friends, and would eventually attend a different high school than the others in her group. By the time she had graduated, it was clear to her that she had been permanently scarred by the episode, as she was no longer able to tell lies in any sort of convincing manner; regardless of how plausible she tried to sound, something in her voice or face would always give the game away.

Uncertain what she wanted to do with her life after graduation, Argus' booth at the career fair attracted her attention -- particularly their off-hand remarks about how they supposedly worked to protect the world from invasions both extraterrestrial and extradimensional. Once she learned more about how the organization worked, Nagisa initially found herself expecting to have a short and unhappy career there, since someone who couldn't lie also couldn't keep secrets. However, her trainer helped her to understand that there were compensations to what she'd endured. First and foremost, she was talented at recognizing the lies that other people told, without developing the cynicism and paranoia that afflicted many people who had that sort of gift.

Consequently, Argus' Tokyo office frequently employed her as a spokesperson when they needed to act more overtly than the organization often preferred, as well as relying on her to sort out the somewhat tangled motivations of their associates. She's done rather well in this position, and risen in the agency's ranks, and was appointed as the office's Chief Administrator in 2020 after her predecessor retired, despite not yet having seen her thirtieth birthday. While her first few months in the role were unsurprisingly shaky, she seems to be settling in well.

Miyashita Nagisa -- PL 6

Abilities:
STR 0 | STA 1 | AGL 2 | DEX 2 | FGT 2 | INT 3 | AWE 4 | PRE 2

Advantages:
Connected, Contacts, Defensive Attack, Defensive Roll 2, Equipment 2, Fascinate (Persuasion), Improved Trip, Languages 2 (English, Korean, Mandarin, Spanish, [Japanese is native]), Ranged Attack 2, Second Chance (Insight check to resist Deception), Well-informed.

Equipment:
Smartphone, 8 points of equipment as needed.

Skills:
Athletics 3 (+3), Close Combat: Unarmed 2 (+4), Expertise: Business 5 (+8), Expertise: Civics 6 (+9), Expertise: Magic 4* (+7), Expertise: Streetwise 4 (+7), Insight 7 (+11), Investigation 5 (+8), Perception 6 (+10), Persuasion 7 (+9), Stealth 3 (+5), Technology 4 (+7), Vehicles 4 (+6).
* INT-based.

Offense:
Initiative +1
Unarmed +3 (Close Damage 0)

Defense:
Dodge 6, Parry 4, Fortitude 3, Toughness 6/1, Will 6

Totals:
Abilities 32 + Powers 0 + Advantages 15 + Skills 33 + Defenses 10 = 91 points

Offensive PL: 3
Defensive PL: 6
Resistance PL: 5
Skill PL: 6

Complications:
Responsibility--Motivation. Cannot Lie to Save Her Life (Disabled on Deception checks.)

 

[Davies]

Hirai Heizo

The years 2006 to 2009 were a brief golden age for teenaged detectives in Japan, with many famous examples, Hasegawa Naru and Asagiri Sayo not least among them. But the foremost among them, in terms of celebrity if not necessarily in talent, was Futaba Shotaro, sometimes called the Newtype Detective. He had no supernatural powers, but his wits often seemed nearly diabolical at times, even though more cynical observers noted that his reputation owed quite a bit to clever media manipulation and to the fact that his older brother, Yukiyoshi, was employed by the government in some rather nebulous capacity. (Predictably, it was sometimes claimed that Yukiyoshi was the smarter brother.)

Regardless, the light that burns twice as bright burns half as long, and Shotaro vanished while pursuing an investigation in 2008. More than a year later, Yukiyoshi announced to the world that his younger brother had not reported back since his disappearance, and with no further sightings of him, he was declared dead in 2015. Much like some of his contemporaries, he had clearly encountered some situation that a young person was ill-equipped to handle, and suffered a tragic fate.

That was true, but the tragic fate was a stranger one than the general public ever learned. While investigating certain crimes associated with the Tanaka Financial Group, Shotaro was captured and interrogated, then used as a test subject for an experimental toxin designed to cause death and extremely accelerated decomposition. Some unknown factor in his bloodstream prevented his death, but he aged some sixty years in the course of a minute. Fortunately, his mind was left intact, and he was able to feign senility so that his captors chose to release him rather than studying him to determine what had gone wrong.

In the aftermath, and the years since then, Shotaro has built a new reputation for himself as an elderly private investigator under the alias Hirai Heizo. His primary goal, of course, is to uncover the secrets of the Tanaka Group and expose them to the harsh light of public attention, and would ideally like to discover that they have some method of reversing the changes that were done to him. Heizo is aware that the latter is probably a mirage, however; he has noted that his body hasn't aged naturally since he was turned into an old man, which indicates that he has become a superpower of sorts.

While Heizo has trained himself into a crack shot with a meta-taser pistol, he's not any sort of combatant otherwise. For those occasions when he needs physical assistance, he has recruited karateka Fukuen Natsuki, a friend from his youth who is the only person with whom he has shared his terrible secret. While she is by no means a superpower martial artist, she is a very capable bodyguard and medic who takes the task of keeping her boss alive much more seriously than he himself does, and is quite capable of defeating most of the foes that they come across, especially after they've taken a meta-taser shot or two.

Heizo has avoided most dealings with the supernatural or superpowered since his transformation, though he recognizes that he's going to eventually need big-league help to bring Tanaka down. He finds it frustrating that after more than a decade, he's still not completely sure what the company is up to, beyond engaging in human experimentation. The best that he's been able to determine is that all their efforts are directed by a small cabal within its Board of Directors who refer to themselves as 'the Vision', who have been active since around the year 2000 but only began the efforts that attracted his attention in early 2006. They don't seem to be connected to Saturn or Axiom, but just what their actual goal is remains a mystery.

Fortunately, Heizo loves a mystery.

Hirai Heizo -- PL 8

Abilities:
STR -1 | STA 0 | AGL -1 | DEX 1 | FGT -1 | INT 5 | AWE 4 | PRE 2

Powers:
Elderly but Unaging: Immunity 1 (aging) - 1 point

Advantages:
Contacts, Equipment 3, Improvised Tools, Jack-of-all-Trades, Sidekick 16, Tracking, Well-informed.

Equipment:
Meta-Taser (Ranged Affliction 5 [Fortitude; Dazed, Stunned, Incapacitated) and 5 points of equipment as needed.

Skills:
Deception 8 (+10), Expertise: History 7 (+12), Expertise: Streetwise 5 (+10), Insight 7 (+11), Investigation 8 (+13), Perception 7 (+11), Persuasion 6 (+8), Ranged Combat: Meta-Taser 6 (+7), Technology 4 (+9).

Offense:
Initiative -1
Unarmed -1 (Close Damage -1)
Meta-Taser +7 (Ranged Fortitude 5)

Defense:
Dodge 5, Parry 3, Fortitude 2, Toughness 0, Will 8

Totals:
Abilities 18 + Power 1 + Advantages 8 + Skills 29 + Defenses 16 = 88 points

Offensive PL: 6
Defensive PL: 3
Resistance PL: 5
Skill PL: 8

Complications:
Justice--Motivation. Old in Body, Young at Heart. Secret Identity.


Fukuen Natsuki -- PL 5

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

Advantages:
Assessment, Defensive Attack, Defensive Roll, Fast Grab, Improved Defense, Improved Disarm, Improved Initiative, Improved Smash, Improved Trip, Instant Up, Interpose, Power Attack.

Skills:
Acrobatics 7 (+10), Athletics 6 (+8), Close Combat: Unarmed 3 (+8), Deception 5 (+6), Insight 4 (+6), Intimidation 6 (+7), Perception 6 (+8), Sleight of Hand 7 (+9), Treatment 4 (+5), Vehicles 4 (+6).

Offense:
Initiative +7
Unarmed +8 (Close Damage 2)

Defense:
Dodge 4, Parry 6, Fortitude 3, Toughness 4/2, Will 6.

Totals:
Abilities 36 + Advantages 13 + Skills 24 + Defenses 7 = 80 points

Offensive PL: 5
Defensive PL: 5
Skill PL: 5
Resistance PL: 5

Complications:
Duty--Motivation. Wants to Improve Her Skills.

 

[Davies]

Gomi-Nezumi

Gomi-Nezumi ("Trash Rat/Mouse") is both the occupant of the house of the Rat in the Shēngxiào, having held that position since the formation of the organization, and the group's primary spy. While ill-suited to any sort of social intrigue, his abilities to reduce himself to a tiny size and to use rats and mice as remote sensors allow him to observe and report on numerous supposedly private conversations, and his skills as an infiltrator and saboteur are nearly unmatched. (He can also summon a swarm of rats to bite and harrass many targets, but it's a fairly minor threat by most standards.) While frequently looked down on by the other members of Shēngxiào, both literally and figuratively thanks to his focus on material gain in an organization which seeks the destruction of the human race, his talents have kept the group functioning far longer than it might otherwise have.

He was born Nozawa Chikao, and none of this was supposed to have happened to him. Up until 2006, he had what he considered to be a fairly good life, working in Fujitsu's research and devlopment department and assigned to a project developing an artificial super-intelligence. Despite what he might sometimes claim, he wasn't the project's leader, or even all that essential to it. If he had been, he probably wouldn't still be alive.

In 2006, the lab where he was working was raided by superpower mercenaries who killed the project head and most of the senior staff; Nozawa was one of the few survivors, and counted himself lucky to have sustained only minor injuries. Unfortunately, the matter didn't end there. When the mercenaries were defeated and captured by the Sea Dragons, they claimed that their actions had been taken in response to the lab's work on systems designed to detect the existence of superpowers, the better to assassinate them. Arrant nonsense, but their other claim was much more serious -- they fingered Nozawa as the one who'd tipped them off about the situation.

His pleas of innocence were disregarded, and he found himself without a job or prospects for finding a new one. Evicted from his apartment, he attempted to take up residence with his elderly parents, but they soon kicked him out after a fight. This left him with nowhere to go, and he became a member of Tokyo's unhoused community, occasionally using his skills to repair their salvaged electronics but more often lost in fantasies of revenge and renewed affluence. This was his condition when Diorite found him, and recruited him for her Shēngxiào.

Over the last decade, Gomi-Nezumi has had many opportunities to learn more about the reasons for his downfall, and worked out what he believes to be the full picture. The mercenaries, unsurprisingly, lied about their motives; they'd been hired to assault the lab by representatives of the Vietnamese-based corporation which was run by the artificial super-intelligence Axiom, in order to put a halt to the research which could have created another ASI. And Nozawa had been randomly selected as a scapegoat.

Discovering all this naturally led to renewed thoughts of vengeance, and his associated discovery that Axiom intended to destroy as much of the mystical side of the world as it could led him to view the Shēngxiào as its natural opponent. He has been able to convince some of the other members of the group of the danger that Axiom represents, but has not succeeded in convincing the group as a whole to start targeting its forces. Like many mystics, they are inclined to denigrate the products of human technology (while employing them for their own benefit) and thus don't regard Axiom as a priority.

This situation, and the lack of respect that he receives, are wearing away at Gomi-Nezumi's loyalty to the group. He remains with the group out of fear of what Diorite might do to him if he ever rebelled, as he's seen her do to other rebellious members of the Shēngxiào. Nevertheless, he represents a major weak link in the organization's leadership that could be exploited to damage it. However, he is still utterly misanthropic and self-serving, and should not be trusted for a moment.

One of his personal weaknesses is also noteworthy. Understanding that he and his associates have powers that relate to the Chines zodiac led him to learn a bit about the subject, and he learned one aspect of the myth. In some stories about the origin of the concept, it derives from a great race held by the Jade Emperor where he rewarded various animals with places in the calendar based on their arrival at the gate of heaven. The cat failed to arrive due to the schemes of the rat, and this is the reason that cats hate rats. Imputing perhaps a bit too much significance to this myth, Gomi-Nezumi has developed a severe phobia of cats, and believes that Diorite created a cat personification somewhere in the world to be his nemesis. (This does not appear to be the case, but who knows? You're not really paranoid when someone's out to get you.)

Gomi-Nezumi -- PL 10

Abilities:
STR 2 | STA 2 | AGL 2 | DEX 0 | FGT 2 | INT 4 | AWE 4 | PRE 1

Powers:
Rat-Eyes: Remote Sensing 5 (30 miles; auditory, visual), Medium (rat or mouse); Senses 1 (low-light vision) - 11 points
Rat-Size: Linked Continuous Shrinking 12 (6 inches tall; -6 Strength, +6 Dodge, +6 Parry, +12 Stealth, -6 Intimidation, -1 Speed), Normal Strength, Quirk (limited to minimum size); Linked Speed 6 (includes size penalty) - 42 points
Rat-Swarm: Linked Burst Area Damage 4, Concentration; Linked Ranged Environment 1 (impede movement 2) - 14 points

Advantages:
Defensive Roll 2, Evasion, Improved Defense, Improved Initiative, Improved Trip, Move-by Action, Startle.

Skills:
Athletics 4 (+6), Close Combat: Unarmed 4 (+6), Expertise: Criminal 6 (+10), Expertise: Science 7 (+11), Intimidation 7 (+8), Perception 5 (+9), Stealth 5 (+7/+19), Technology 7 (+11).

Offense:
Initiative +6
Unarmed +6 (Close Damage 2)
Rat-Swarm -- (Burst Area Damage 4)

Defense:
Dodge 13/7, Parry 12/6, Fortitude 6, Toughness 7/2, Will 8

Totals:
Abilities 32 + Powers 67 + Advantages 8 + Skills 19 + Defenses 16 = 143 points

Offensive PL: 4
Defensive PL: 10
Resistance PL: 7
Skill PL: 6

Complications:
Greed--Motivation. Fear (cats.) Hatred (Axiom.) Mild Paranoia. Subject to Orders (and increasingly resentful.)

 

[Davies]

Miss Glass*

Before she appeared at the first meeting of what became the Mile High Marauders in 1983, the superpower known as Miss Glass had never been seen in public as far as her new colleagues could determine. She refused to discuss her past or even any name that she might have used other than the one that she gave when she arrived on the scene. To a degree, it could be said that she set the tenor of the group that began to emerge from Denver's superpower community in the early 80s, rejecting any pretensions towards a mundane identity or lifestyle. "I'm hear, I'm clear, get used to it," she said on one occasion.

After her death in 2006, investigators untangling her network of financial dealings worked out some of the backstory. She was born Johanna Josephine Miller, daughter to an Oklahoma oil baron and a Louisiana beauty queen in 1955. She was returning home from a trip to Japan in 1975 when her flight was forced to make an unscheduled emergency landing at Denver International, owing to a fight between superpowers. It was her misfortune to be outside when the final explosion of that battle took place, and she ended up mutated by the forces unleashed.

Over the course of the next few days, her body transformed from organic flesh and bone to an inorganic, glass-like substance, with her hair becoming a substance similar to fiberglass. If damaged, her body would heal itself, but at a much slower rate than living tissue. It wouldn't be long before she learned that she could alter the substance of her body so that she would be either completely transparent, or polarized and bulletproof. Johanna could not, however, resume a mundane human appearance, and so her parents -- horrified by what their daughter had become -- paid her a substantial allowance to stay in Denver and talk to no one.

When her father passed away around the start of the Pythonian Insurgency -- not for the reason you'd expect, he just had a heart attack at the news -- she came into her inheritance and was no longer had to hide herself. Still, Miss Glass waited a year to see whether the insurrection would succeed, and only emerged when it seemed to be successfully opposed. That coincided with the formation of the Mile High Marauders, and she wove herself into the fabric of this new organization, becoming its financial backer, accompanying the team, and frequently insinuating that she could do a better job of leading it than El Gato and Enigma.

Her motivations in this were entirely selfish, as she genuinely feared the possibility of coming under attack by the Pythons (or of being conscripted into fighting them) and sought to have as much backup as possible when and if that happened. Or almost entirely selfish, because more than one of her teammates came to realize that there was a lonely lady hiding behind that supposedly impervious façade, who was unfortunately too proud to admit it. For someone who'd often seemed quite willing to tear the team apart in power struggles, when the Marauders' end came she was the one who was trying to hold it together the most.

She remained in Denver after the group broke up, and maintained a -- admit it -- catty relationship with El Gato until the latter's death, which nevertheless devastated her. In the aftermath, she started to make fewer and fewer public appearances, though she hadn't aged at all since her transformation. In the end, what she'd always feared came to pass; Miss Glass was murdered during Billie Zane's coup attempt, shattered by the successors to the Pythonian Insurgency. By the terms of her will, the pieces of her body were pulverized to a fine dust and poured on the graves of her parents in Oklahoma.

Miss Glass -- PL 9

Abilities:
STR 0 | STA 5 | AGL 3 | DEX 2 | FGT 3 | INT 4 | AWE 3 | PRE 5

Powers:
Glass Body: Immunity 21 (aging, electrical effects, life support); Permanent Concealment 2 (olfactory) - 25 points
Metamorphosis: Array (18 points)

• Polarization: Environment 1 (light); Strength-based Damage 2; Sustained Impervious Protection 6 - 1 point
• Transparency: Continuous Concealment 6 (radio, visual) - 18 points

Advantages:
Attractive, Benefit 2 (independently wealthy), Contacts, Daze (Deception), Fascinate (Deception), Eidetic Memory, Languages 2(French, Spanish, possibly others), Teamwork, Uncanny Dodge.

Skills:
Close Combat: Unarmed 4 (+7), Deception 7 (+12), Expertise: Business 4 (+8), Expertise: Streetwise 6 (+10), Insight 6 (+9), Intimidation 6 (+11), Investigation 6 (+10), Perception 6 (+9), Stealth 5 (+8).

Offense:
Initiative +3
Unarmed +7 (Close Damage 2/0)

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

Totals:
Abilities 50 + Powers 44 + Advantages 10 + Skills 25 + Defenses 16 = 145 points

Offensive PL: 5
Defensive PL: 9
Resistance PL: 9
Skill PL: 7

Complications:
Survival--Motivation. Jaded and Cynical. Slow Healer. Strange Appearance.

* She was complicated, okay?

 

[Davies]

Monitor

Lieutenant Bradley "Cygnus" Nicholas was trained as a naval flight officer (NFO) in the last years of the Pythonian Insurgency, completing his training shortly after the situation came to its end. During the war in Syria that followed, he was assigned to serve as the radar intercept officer for Lieutenant Commander Thomas "Wild Card" Junkers, who'd been decorated for his service with JSOT, and flew numerous missions with him. They became close friends, and Junkers even served as Nicholas' best man when he married in 1998. Tragically, however, just a few months later, Junkers was killed in action on their last mission, and Nicholas was left uncertain as to whether he could have prevented the death. Thus, he sought reassignment from flight duty and served as a base officer.

After Cerebron's assault, however, Nicholas came to the conclusion that he had to return to flight duty, despite the objections of his wife. While undergoing retraining with several other officers seeking the same goal, he was tested for compatibility with a new form of operating interface, and scored extraordinarily high. Consequently, Lt. Nicholas was offered the opportunity to train as the pilot of an entirely new sort of flying vehicle -- the first suit of powered armor ever test piloted by the United States Navy, dubbed the Monitor.

The Monitor project had its origins during the Pythonian Insurgency, when the situation seemed dire enough that both the Army and the Navy dusted off the old plans for Peter Sullivan's armored flying suit. With advances in technology since the 1960s, the concept was no longer quite so expensive as it had been back then -- though still on the high end -- and seemed a worthwhile project. The Army's program was ultimately abandoned, but the Navy project continued even after the Insurgency's end, with the first prototypes finally ready to debut in 2002. Now came the task of finding qualified operators.

Lt. Nicholas was one of only four graduates from the training program (all of whom were NFOs like himself, where aviators struggled with the new interface) and seemed to possess an almost superpower-like talent for operating the Monitor. When the decision was made to integrate the Monitor's program into the developing United Superheroes of America organization, the brass elected to make him the Navy's sole representative on the team, holding the other three candidates (and their suits) in reserve. Events would later modify that decision to the tune of assigning another enlisted woman to the team.

Under the operations moniker "Monitor", Lt. Nicholas performed fairly well, acting primarily as a reconnaissance officer for the team. He got along well with all of his teammates, aside from a few early clashes with the American Angel when the latter's Army methodologies clashed with Monitor's Navy approach, but they quickly realized that they had to work together or suffer public humiliation. However, Nicholas privately wasn't thrilled to be assigned to the team, but his wife was even less happy with the situation. She sought and received a divorce, receiving custody of their daughter. That increased his disaffection.

When the United Superheroes program was shut down after three years, he breathed a sigh of relief, and was also glad to be reassigned from the Monitor program in general. Frankly, after nearly fifteen years in the Navy and with no signs of promotion, Nicholas decided to take the early retirement offer open to him and look for work in the civilian aviation industry, and possibly look into negotiating a joint custody arrangement of his daughter now that he was out of the military. Unfortunately, fate had other things in mind for him.

How, exactly, Thomas Dore managed to obtain a damaged prototype of the Monitor and arrange for it to be repaired and refurbished as a working model without breaking a dozen or more laws was something that Nicholas decided not to examine too closely. Despite all that, and despite having found being a superhero to be tiring and thankless work, he was still susceptible to Dore's persuasion that operating this thing was his first, best destiny. Consequently, he joined up with Heroic Enterprises, intending only to stay with the company for a few years, look after his friends from the other team, and build up a comfortable nest egg for his eventual retirement.

Five years later, he was killed in action during the affair that led to Heroic Enterprises becoming persona non grata in California. The sabotage which disabled his suit at a crucial moment, resulting in his death, has never been discovered.

Monitor -- PL 10

Abilities:
STR 8/2 | STA 2 | AGL 2 | DEX 3 | FGT 4 | INT 4 | AWE 3 | PRE 1

Powers:
Battlesuit: Removable (-16 points)

• Armored Shell: Protection 10, Impervious 8 - 18 points
• Comm System: Radio Communication 4 - 16 points
• Life Support System: Immunity 10 (life support) - 10 points
• Sensors: Senses 17 (accurate extended radio, analytical extended auditory, direction sense, distance sense, extended infravision, extended ultravision, extended vision, time sense, ultrahearing) - 17 points
• Servo-Motors: Enhanced Strength 6 - 12 points
• Turbines: Flight 7 (250 MPH), Aquatic - 15 points

Multi-grenade Launcher: Array (18 points); Easily Removable (-8 points)

• EMP: Burst Area Nullify Electronics 6, Simultaneous - 18 points
• Flash-bang: Ranged Burst Area Affliction 6 (Resisted by Fortitude; Perception Impaired, Perception Disabled, Unaware), Quirk (hearing and auditory only) - 1 point
• Fragmentation: Ranged Burst Area Damage 6 - 1 point
• Tear Gas: Ranged Cloud Area Affliction 5 (Resisted by Fortitude; Dazed & Visually Impaired, Stunned & Visually Disabled, Incapacitated), Extra Condition, Limited Degree on Extra Condition - 1 point

Advantages:
Assessment, Evasion, Improved Defense, Improved Initiative, Languages 2 (Korean, Mandarin, Russian, Spanish), Move-by Action, Skill Mastery (Perception), Teamwork.

Skills:
Acrobatics 6 (+8), Close Combat: Unarmed 4 (+8), Expertise: Military 6 (+10), Insight 6 (+9), Investigation 5 (+9), Perception 8 (+11), Stealth 5 (+7), Technology 6 (+10), Vehicles 6 (+9).

Offense:
Initiative +6
Unarmed +8 (Close Damage 8/2)

Defense:
Dodge 6, Parry 8, Fortitude 6, Toughness 12/2, Will 7

Totals:
Abilities 42 + Powers 84 + Advantages 9 + Skills 26 + Defenses 16 = 178 points

Offensive PL: 8
Defensive PL: 10
Resistance PL: 7
Skill PL: 6

Complications:
Responsibility--Motivation. Family (daughter.) Hidebound (operates by the book, and fails to update the book.)

 

[Davies]

The January Man

From 1997 to 2006, a man who went by the name Paul Hardison, also known by the nickname 'the January Man' (though never in his hearing) was reputedly the boss of the Chicago Outfit. Little definite is known about his background, but it is believed that he was actually born Paoli Accardo in Oak Park, Illinois, around 1938, and was distantly related to former Outfit boss Tony Accardo. (Rumors that he was the illegitimate son of the elder Accardo should probably be discounted.) While arrested for numerous crimes in the sixties and seventies, he had always been released due to a lack of evidence.

It's also not clear when exactly he suffered the facial scarring that inspired his nickname, as no photos of him without it are known to exist. After his death, there arose an account which claimed that he had secretly provided state prosecutors with evidence that ensured that John DiFronzo's 1993 conviction was upheld rather than overturned, leaving control of the Outfit in those hands from which he took it. However, DiFronzo's girlfriend responded by splashing his face with a corrosive substance that left him permanently scarred. This account seems extremely unlikely; had rumors of such treachery been circulating during his rise to power, Hardison would likely have suffered a much more severe fate.

Regardless, it was the January Man's misfortune to be directing the Outfit at the start of the career of Darkwing, and later that of Jack as well. It is a coin toss as to which of those two whom he despised more, and the frustration that he felt at their respective repeated escapes from the final fates that he tried to arrange for them boiled over into his dealings with other mobsters, often making him behave in an extremely erratic manner that contrasted greatly with his usual cold reserve. There are even reports that he tried to handle the matter personally on some occasions, though this worked no better for him than any other strategy.

In 2004, the January Man was finally arrested and charged with various racketeering offenses. His schemes were not finished, however, and he arranged a deal with prosecutors by which he would serve as informant about Chicago's various superpower residents in exchange for the most serious charges being dismissed. This offer was accepted; to ensure the security of their source, Hardison was 'revealed' to have superpowers himself and assigned to serve his sentence in a supertech prison facility in New Mexico.

It seems likely that his intention was to arrange his escape from there with the help of authentically superpowered inmates. However, the January Man had outsmarted himself, and died when the facility was destroyed during Billie Zane's coup.

The January Man -- PL 7

Abilities:
STR 1 | STA 2 | AGL 2 | DEX 3 | FGT 4 | INT 5 | AWE 5 | PRE 4

Advantages:
All-out Attack, Benefit 4 (crime lord, millionaire), Connected, Contacts, Daze (Intimidation), Defensive Roll, Equipment 4, Improved Initiative, Leadership, Startle, Well-informed.

Skills:
Athletics 4 (+5), Close Combat (Unarmed) 3 (+7), Deception 6 (+10), Expertise: Crime 6 (+11), Expertise: Streetwise 6 (+11), Insight 6 (+11),
Intimidation 8 (+12), Investigation 4 (+9), Perception 4 (+9), Persuasion 4 (+8), Ranged Combat: Guns 6 (+9), Sleight of Hand 4 (+7), Stealth 6 (+8), Vehicles 3 (+6).

Offense:
Initiative +6
Unarmed +7 (Close Damage 1)
Heavy Pistol +9 (Ranged Damage 4)

Defense:
Dodge 9, Parry 7, Fortitude 5, Toughness 4/2, Will 9

Totals:
Abilities 52 + Advantages 17 + Skills 35 + Defenses 17 = 121 points

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

Complications:
Greed/Power--Motivation. Distinctive Scars.

 

[Davies]

Quoll

Art by TimLake66

A quoll is a carnivorous marsupial native to Australia and New Guinea, similar to but smaller than the more notorious Tasmanian devil. It's not really clear why the mutated human who chose to identify with the former animal over the latter did so, but it was somewhat seriously suggested that his relatively short stature, not quite reaching five feet in height, might have figured into the decision to name himself after the smaller animal. On the other hand, he was also somewhat famous for his load roars, similar to the "horrific, droning roars that echo deep into the night" produced by the quolls, in the words of one noted zoologist.

Quoll's earliest memories were of awakening in great pain in a laboratory, in a year he would later learn to be 2002. He found himself under the care of one Dr. Charles MacCorkindale, not yet dubbed the Manimalist, then only beginning his experimentations in granting animal traits to humans. Indeed, Quoll may have been the first successful "beneficiary" of MacCorkindale's techniques, though he was told a very different story of his origins by the mad scientist, who claimed him to be a dasyurini whom he had transformed into a humanoid. Naturally, his creation would serve him as an assistant in further research, specifically in kidnapping other humans to be subjected to it.

Naturally nix! While Quoll had no reason to doubt the account he'd been given, something in him found the notion of kidnapping people for the sake of this sick science to be utterly repugnant. He trashed MacCorkindale's laboratory and beat up his so-called creator, then took his unconscious form with him as he left the ruins to try and find some higher authority. Quoll soon learned that they were just outside the city limits of Hobart, the capital of Tasmania, and unfortunately found himself hunted by those same authorities, who believed him to have assaulted an innocent human.

The Discovery Company was called in and soon discovered the truth of Quoll's origins, though they were unable to return Quoll to his human form or discover much of anything about his former identity. Tasmania's state government attempted to make up for their earlier view of Quoll as a threat by offering to sponsor his membership in the Discovery Company, as the latter group felt that they could certainly use a fifth member. While initially interested in the offer, Quoll decided after about a week that the organization was much more of a hassle than he wanted in his life. He parted with the other members as friends, and became something of a celebrity in Australia.

That paled after only a short time as well, and Quoll returned to Tasmania where he found a position that suited him, that of a superpower park ranger in Mount Field National Park. By all accounts he was quite happy there, though his private writings reveal that he actually suffered from lingering identity issues. He had never been able to identify his former life, and on some level still worried that he might as well be an evolved marsupial rather than a transformed human. While motivated to protect human life in the abstract, he felt alienated from every human and most superpowers that he had ever met, yet also yearned for companionship.

He still had not resolved any of these issues in 2006, when he was attacked by kill teams working for Billie Zane. Overcoming his attackers, he promptly attempted to go to the assistance of the Discovery Company, who were also under attack by a much larger group. Tragically, he was killed before reaching their headquarters, with his last act to give one last roar of defiance that echoed all the way to Gibraltar Peak.

Quoll -- PL 9

Abilities:
STR 6 | STA 7 | AGL 4 | DEX 2 | FGT 9 | INT 0 | AWE 2 | PRE 1

Powers:
Beastly Senses: Senses 6 (acute tracking Smell, danger sense, extended hearing, low-light vision, ultra-hearing) - 6 points
Claws: Strength-based Damage 2 - 2 points
Fur: Immunity 1 (cold) - 1 point
Healing Factor: Immunity 2 (disease, poison); Regeneration 10 - 12 points
Roar: Feature 1 (loud cry) - 1 point

Advantages:
Animal Affinity, All-out Attack, Diehard, Fast Grab, Favored Environment (forest), Great Endurance, Improved Hold, Instant Up, Move-by Action, Power Attack, Startle, Uncanny Dodge

Skills:
Acrobatics 6 (+10), Athletics 6 (+12), Expertise: Survival 8 (+8), Intimidation 8 (+9), Perception 7 (+9), Stealth 7 (+11).

Offense:
Initiative +4
Unarmed +9 (Close Damage 6)
Claws +9 (Close Damage 8)

Defense:
Dodge 9, Parry 11, Fortitude 11, Toughness 7, Will 7

Totals:
Abilities 62 + Powers 22 + Advantages 12 + Skills 21 + Defenses 16 = 133 points

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

Complications:
Thrills--Motivation. Brooding Loner. Inhuman Appearance.

 

[Davies]

Sylph

In late 2001, New Orleans had recovered from the damage that it had suffered during Cerebron's assault; for whatever reason, it had been spared the worst of it. Many lives had still been lost, and much property damaged. For the purposes of this discussion, the most significant examples of both were the deaths of Dr. Anatole Theriot -- a somewhat well-regarded mad scientist who lived in the Village de l'Est -- and the destruction of his home. While returning to her own home from a long day of work at a café in the area, Annabelle Fontenot happened to hear strange noises coming from the ruins of the doctor's house, somewhat impulsively investigated, and ended up exposed to exotic radiation from one of the doctor's inventions.

Within twenty-four hours, it was clear that Annabelle had been transformed into a superpower by her experiences, and not, unfortunately, the sort who could maintain a mundane identity. The most visible effects were on her eyes, transformed into compound organs like those of an insect, from which she could project energy discharges. Beyond that, she was able to shrink to one-fifth her height and use the non-functional wings she possessed even at her full height in order to fly. As her employer was struggling to make ends meet already and could not afford to get the insurance needed to have a superpower on staff, Annabelle found herself unemployed in the aftermath of all this.

After considering and dismissing the idea of a villainous rampage, Annabelle decided instead to become a superhero -- of sorts. She contacted a bounty hunting agency in the area and persuaded them that she could be an asset to their activities, and went to work as one of the first heroes for hire under the alias Sylph. Neither beloved nor respected within the parish, Sylph was nonetheless effective at her job and worked overtime to deal with the supervillains in the area, opposing many of those who would later also fight the Veil, more than a decade later.

And then the sex tape surfaced. In the immediate aftermath of her transformation, Annabelle had, in a vulnerable moment, let her boyfriend of the time talk her into filming their private activities, notably including what they got up to when she was in 'sylph form'. While they broke up a few months later, he claimed that the only copy of the tape had been destroyed in an apartment fire some time before. He was either lying or mistaken, and the entire thing was released by Vivid Video. Scandalized -- or possibly opportunistically getting rid of an employee who'd caused as many problems as she'd solved -- her current employer fired her on a morals clause hidden in her contract.

Sylph disappeared, perhaps hoping to wait out the humiliation. Two years after that, however, Gideon Gold managed to find her hiding place and convinced her that she might find a home with the Grim Brigade he was forming. After he sold her on the idea, she relocated to Omaha and seemed to be settling in fairly well, contributing her experience to the younger members of the group. Unfortunately, less than a year later she would be killed, with the rest of her teammates, during Billie Zane's coup d'état.

Sylph -- PL 9

Abilities:
STR -1/1 | STA 3 | AGL 4 | DEX 6 | FGT 4 | INT 2 | AWE 4 | PRE 2

Powers:
Eyeblasts: Ranged Damage 8 - 16 points
Keen Eyes: Senses 2 (darkvison) - 2 points
Sylph Form: Linked Continuous Shrinking 8 (1 foot; -2 Strength, +4 Dodge, +4 Parry, -1 Speed, +8 Stealth, -4 Intimidation); Linked Flight 6 (120 MPH), Winged; Linked Movement 1 (wall-crawling) - 24 points

Advantages:
Agile Feint, Attractive, Daze (Deception), Evasion, Hide in Plain Sight, Improved Initiative, Move-by Action, Redirect, Taunt, Teamwork.

Skills:
Acrobatics 6 (+10), Deception 6 (+8), Expertise: Popular Culture 5 (+7), Investigation 5 (+7), Perception 5 (+9), Sleight of Hand 4 (+10), Ranged Attack: Eyeblasts 4 (+10), Stealth 5 (+9)

Offense:
Initiative +8
Unarmed +7 (Close Damage -1/1)
Eyeblasts +10 (Ranged Damage 8)

Defense:
Dodge 13/9, Parry 11/7, Fortitude 5, Toughness 5/3, Will 7

Totals:
Abilities 52 + Powers 42 + Advantages 10 + Skills 20 + Defenses 13 = 137 points

Offensive PL: 9
Defensive PL: 9
Resistance PL: 6
Skill PL: 5

Complications:
Acceptance--Motivation. Reputation (after 2003.) Strange Appearance.

 

[Davies]

The Flamen

By 1964, Augustus Malory had done many things of interest in his forty-two years. During World War II, he'd worked with the OSS in Europe, encountering terrors both human and otherwise. After the war, he'd resumed his interrupted university career and obtained advanced degrees in classical studies. Rather than become a college professor in his discipline, however, he sought and obtained work teaching Latin at a private high school in Winchester, New York, hoping to inspire a new generation of students as he had been inspired at their age. And that was where the problem started.

Malory's career started well enough, teaching the relatively small number of students each year who chose Latin as an elective and frequently being dragooned into supervising other classes as well. He was aware that his subject wasn't a very popular one, and that he himself wasn't all that well-regarded by his fellow teachers, who viewed him as an anachronism and a snob. He took refuge in his belief that those students who did take his class were being prepared to become part of an intellectual elite who would one day help to steer the country back to sanity.

That belief, and his own sanity, was shattered in 1964, when one student in the class, whom he was lambasting for tardiness, struck back by telling Malory that nothing he was teaching mattered in the real world, that he was a high priest of a dying religion that worshiped dead ideas, and then got the rest of the class to walk out on him. However, it's likely that what happened next had been building for some time, and that these events only shaped the form that it eventually took. Malory's psyche fragmented under the sudden development of his superpowers, and he seized on the idea of himself as the high priest -- the Flamen -- of the Roman religion.

Attacking anything that struck him as too modern or too vulgar, with his first target a drive-in where some of his former students were enjoying themselves, the Flamen would curse these institutions and use his powers to inflict damage or debility on either their structures or the people enjoying them. A group of opportunistic criminals, recognizing the potential profit they could obtain from looting the Flamen's targets, began accompanying him on his missions and steering him towards rich ones. Of course, his activities did not go unopposed, and he was a frequent enemy of Diane Fortune from the start.

In 1968, four years into his crusade, the Flamen became a member of the second assembly of the Agents of Destruction. Just how he was persuaded to join such a group, given his delusions, has never really been adequately explained, but one theory holds that Ayesha, then allied with Diavolus, convinced him by posing as a priestess of Isis. Regardless, after the group was betrayed by their leader, the Flamen was the only member of the group to be captured by the Institute. Tried for his part in the death of Madame Menagerie and the attempted destruction of Detroit, the Flamen was found not guilty by reason of disease or mental defect, and imprisoned in a hospital in Massachusetts.

There he remained for more than a decade, apparently impervious to any attempts at treatment. In 1982, however, he was freed after the hospital was attacked by the forces of the Pythonian Insurgency, and somehow persuaded his liberators to introduce him to Pythia herself. Recognizing her as one blessed by the gods, just as he himself was, he chose to join her struggle, and was rewarded for his perspicacity with the title of Director of Religious Studies. He held that title for the entire duration of the Insurgency, a fixed point in the power struggles that would consume it in later years.

When the end came, it came strangely for him. A group of JSOT troopers discovered him conducting a mock-Roman ceremony in the Insurgency's headquarters, accompanied by several dozen non-combatant workers employed within the group. Rather than fight, he promptly surrendered and commanded his fellow celebrants to do the same; they did so at once. While tried for aiding and abetting treason, the Flamen was once again found not guilty and returned to his sanitarium, where he remained for another half-decade before passing away of old age in 1998.

But it has been noted that one of the few unifying traits of the Pythonian remnants active within the prison system, still recruiting new members to this day, is the practice of the religion that the Flamen taught. And some experts believe that the Flamen's surrender may have been part of Pythia's grand strategy that has endured even after both of their deaths.

The Flamen -- PL 9

Abilities:
STR -1 | STA 0 | AGL 0 | DEX 0 | FGT 2 | INT 4 | AWE 5 | PRE 3

Powers:
Curses!: Array (28 points)

• Curse It!: Perception Range Damage 9, Subtle - 28 points
• Curse You!: Perception Range Cumulative Affliction (Resisted by Will; Vulnerable, Defenseless), Limited Degree, Subtle - 1 point

Perceive Those Likewise Touched by the Gods: Senses 1 (psychic awareness) - 1 point

Advantages:
Defensive Roll 2, Evasion, Luck 4, Ultimate Effort (Will resistance).

Skills:
Expertise: History 8 (+12), Expertise: Religion 6 (+10), Insight 6 (+11), Intimidation 8 (+11), Perception 6 (+11), Persuasion 6 (+9).

Offense:
Initiative +0
Unarmed +0 (Close Damage -1)
Curse It! -- (Perception Range Damage 9)
Curse You! -- (Perception Range Will 9)

Defense:
Dodge 3, Parry 5, Fortitude 3, Toughness 5/0, Will 11

Totals:
Abilities 26 + Powers 30 + Advantages 8 + Skills 20 + Defenses 15 = 99 points

Offensive PL: 9
Defensive PL: 5
Resistance PL: 7
Skill PL: 7

Complications:
Power--Motivation. Delusional (I am the Flamen of the Roman Empire, which still exists.) Power Loss (must speak or gesture to use Curses!)