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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Davies" data-source="post: 8120679" data-attributes="member: 30538">Machinanima<img src="https://photos.smugmug.com/My-First-Gallery/i-H8SCd2F/0/31ca9e48/S/665779-morph-S.jpg" alt="" class="fr-fic fr-dii fr-draggable " data-size="" style="" />Even in mad science, many of the greatest discoveries are not the products of lone geniuses having single moments of inspiration, but rather long periods of extensive labor to which many brilliant minds contribute. Such is the case of the invention of the android superhero known as Machinanima, or Emil Rossum to use his civilian identity. The road to his creation began in 1999, when Valerian Rossum developed a thesis that combined the earliest published work on androtics, dating from the mid-60s, with Andre LaFontaine's more recent publications about memory metals and memory plastics, which had been employed in the empowerment of Trouble. The third major source for Rossum's theories was the research he'd assisted in compiling while a grad student employed at the Morrison Institute, a study of how the Omnivore's powers worked, conducted during the villain's brief incarceration during the early 90s. From these diverse sources, Rossum believed that he could create an android which would be able to imitate the super-powers of any opponent, becoming an incredibly adaptive combatant in the process.Unfortunately, while his theory was convincing and persuasive, the aftermath of Cerebron's attack had a decidedly chilling effect on androtic research of all sorts. Unable to find sponsors for his work, Valerian turned to crime in order to obtain the funds he needed to realize his goals. Unfortunately, he was a much better scientist than a criminal mastermind, and wound up caught by Argus almost immediately, and was promptly turned over to the authorities, tried and packed off to jail.Except that was an elaborate fiction woven by Billie Zane. Her interest in androtics was very limited, preferring non-humanoid and completely mechanical robots as she did, but she decided that Rossum's talents would make a fine addition to the conspiracy that she was weaving. A willing patsy was found to take Rossum's place in the dock and later in prison, with the man himself going to work for Argus under a false name. Early on in his employment, Rossum and Zane had a brief discussion about his android, whose creation had plateaued even with the greater resources he could access. Essentially, he was unable to create a power supply to fuel the power duplication process. Zane casually outlined some experiments that she'd recently conducted with extradimensional energy sources -- which would later power her Warsuit. It is now believed that this conversation and the diagrams sketched on a napkin probably saved Valerian more than a decade of work.But it didn't seem that way at the time, for by the time that Zane launched her coup in 2006, Rossum had still not managed to get his prototype up and running. He was captured by Argus -- for real this time -- and tried once again for his original crimes and for what he'd done in support of the coup, including a few things for which he was basically scapegoated. Sent to prison, he will likely not be considered for potential release until 2028. The android prototype was also taken into Argus custody and stored in one of their warehouses in Ireland.As it turned out, Valerian had made a crucial error in his calculations about how long it would take his creation's batteries to charge, drawing from their extradimensional sources. Instead of a few weeks to fully charge, it took about seven years. In 2013, the android awoke inside the aforementioned warehouse, and naturally attempted to escape from what he viewed as a prison. As it happened, a number of students from the Academy were on a field trip to that warehouse, and both prevented him from doing much damage and rescued him from the somewhat overzealous response by Argus to his escape attempt.Subsequently, Exelion used some of his clout to persuade Argus' directors to let the android become a student at his Academy, employing their aid to create the identity of Emil Rossum. Machinanima, to use his heroic alias, proved to be a talented if not particularly brilliant student, and graduated with respectable grades five years later. With his public identity's American citizenship -- not strictly a lie, as he was entirely constructed in the United States and could be said to have been 'born' there, despite having spent his entire infancy and childhood abroad -- he returned there to begin his career as a superhero.He has settled in Baltimore, as it didn't have a native superhero of its own. Machinanima has since learned that this is likely the result of enemy action by the somewhat notorious House of Ashe, a group of local mutant criminals who claim to be descendants of the Usher family whom Poe wrote about. He's failed to make much of an impact on their activities as of yet, though it's only been two years. Roderick Ashe, the family's head, has developed a rather clever strategy for dealing with this new adversary -- he sends only mundane criminals after him, rather than superpowered mercenaries whom Machinanima would be able to imitate.As Emil Rossum, Machinanima has also made a few friends in Baltimore, most notably a young woman named Penny Lane, who's gone through a rather startling variety of jobs in just the past two years. Penny is well aware of Rossum's true nature, and supports and encourages his attempts to develop a more human attitude. He doesn't necessarily want to become human -- his existence does have certain advantages -- but he does want to be accepted as a person by the general public. That is probably going to take a long time, but he has it to spend.Machinanima -- PL 9Abilities:STR 2 | STA -- | AGL 2 | DEX 2 | FGT 2 | INT 2 | AWE 2 | PRE 2Powers:Android Body: Immunity 30 (Fortitude); Protection 8 - 38 pointsPower Duplication: Variable 10 (another person's powers), Limited to targets that can be accurately perceived, Cannot duplicate technological powers, Perception Check Required (DC 15) - 64 pointsSemblance: Morph 1 (human form); Enhanced Morph 2, Limited to individuals whose power has been copied - 13 pointsAdvantages:Assessment, Eidetic Memory, Evasion, Hide in Plain Sight, Jack-of-all-Trades, Skill Mastery (Insight)Skills:Close Combat: Unarmed 6 (+8), Deception 6 (+8), Insight 6 (+8), Investigation 6 (+8), Perception 6 (+8), Stealth 6 (+8).Offense:Initiative +2Unarmed +8 (Close Damage 2)Defense:Dodge 8, Parry 8, Fortitude Immune, Toughness 8, Will 9Totals:Abilities 18 + Powers 115 + Advantages 6 + Skills 18 + Defense 18 = 176 points Complications:Acceptance--Motivation. Enemy (the House of Ashe.) Prejudice (android.) Relationship (Penny Lane.)</blockquote>

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