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[Mutants & Masterminds] A World Less Magical But No Less Fantastic
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<blockquote data-quote="Davies" data-source="post: 8176349" data-attributes="member: 30538"><p><span style="font-size: 26px"><span style="color: blue">Quark</span></span></p><p><img src="https://photos.smugmug.com/My-First-Gallery/i-V4F9GdQ/0/ab06aaf5/S/GAATOM3-S.gif" alt="" class="fr-fic fr-dii fr-draggable " style="" /></p><p></p><p>The beginnings of sizewarping technology occurred when Michael Newton, who would be credited with advancing it further than anyone before John Wright, was only an elementary school student, and are somewhat obscure. By 1938, a Dr. Alexander Thorul (called Thorkel in the fictionalized version of these events; his birth name remains unknown) had developed a method of reducing a biological organism's size to one-fifth of its size through exposure to certain radioactive gases. His ostensible goal was to reduce the impact of human beings on their environment; from his later actions, it seems much more likely that he had ambitions of being the only full-sized human being in a world of the diminished -- essentially, a god.</p><p></p><p>However, his process had a number of drawbacks, most notably the fact that it tended to kill its subjects. He brought in a small group of researchers to assist him in correcting this flaw, which they did. He rewarded them by making them the next experimental subjects, killing some of them when it became apparent that the process was still limited in that it would eventually wear off. He was himself killed before he could finish the job, and his victims returned home, with one of them passing information about their experiences on to the Office of Scientific Investigation, and another selling the story to Hollywood.</p><p></p><p>The Office investigated the remains of Thorul's laboratory and were able to reconstruct his process. It was added to the organization's files of potentially useful but also dangerous technologies, to be used only in emergencies. Whether or not it was ever actually employed to that end in the years that followed remains classified -- the one likely case, in 1953, involves an accidental release of the gas -- but, as with the Griffin Formula, research continued in the hope of making it more useful.</p><p></p><p>Michael Newton had been working for the Office of Scientific Investigation for four years, since shortly after he obtained his second doctorate, when he was given the assignment of continuing that research in 1960. He was only supposed to work on the subject for half a year before being rotated back to field work, but something about the subject fascinated him as nothing before it ever had. He spent a full year working on it, and achieved greater results than any prior researcher. </p><p></p><p>He identified the energy frequencies involved, so that the phenomenon could be projected as a ray rather than needing to be taken internally as a gas. This also facilitated its use on inorganic material -- objects could be reduced as well as living creatures. In addition, it could reduce the size of its target by a slightly greater amount. However, Newton's version of the process only lasted a minute, on average, making it less useful for espionage purposes than the original. However, Newton included in his final report speculation that a subject were to be subjected to the radiation on a constant basis, while wearing an emission device, he would be able to remain in a constant state of miniaturization, only reverting when the device shut off.</p><p></p><p>As it happened, that final report was not delivered to the Office, which had been shuttered before Newton reached his conclusion. It was instead presented to his current employers at the FBI's Department of R&D, who in turn passed on a summary of their project to the Director, who arranged a meeting with Newton. The Director complimented Newton on his work, and then asked the scientist what he thought of the recently created Institute. Reading the room correctly, Newton replied that it seemed potentially dangerous to the American people. The Director smiled and nodded, and laid out the details of Newton's first job for his new employers.</p><p></p><p>Quark, a superhero employing a Newton Field emitter in his costume as well as a pair of wrist-mounted Newton Beam projectors, made his debut a month later. He quickly became the first non-founding member of the Institute, just as planned, keeping an eye on the group's activities for the Bureau, the Director, and -- theoretically -- the American people as a whole. It didn't take him long to figure out that there were no real threats to the American people in the group, but he kept filing his reports all the same. When urged to 'find' (read manufacture) evidence that wasn't there, he reported unfortunate failures that might expose his infiltration if repeated, which kept his handlers pacified.</p><p></p><p>The mission lasted up until Quark's death in the Battle of Vietnam, where he was the first member of the Institute to fall in battle. He attempted to use an experimental version of the Newton Beam to reduce Stardust to a minute size in hopes that he could be more easily dealt with. Not only did it not have the desired effect, the device caused Stardust to increase to an even greater size, large enough that he crushed Quark beneath the sole of his boots with his next footfall.</p><p></p><p>In the aftermath, the Bureau attempted to train a new agent to use the Newton Field emitter, only to discover that it didn't have the same results for any other user,, acting simply as a portable self-directed Newton Beam. It has been suggested that Newton had tuned it to his own unique biology, or that he was unwittingly a superpower whose abilities required some technological mediation. Regardless, the sizemorphic field generator was put back on the drawing board, with numerous other scientists trying and failing to improve on Newton's work in subsequent decades ... until John Wright began his work on the subject. </p><p></p><p><strong>Quark -- PL 8</strong></p><p><strong></strong></p><p><strong>Abilities:</strong></p><p><strong>STR</strong> 2 | <strong>STA</strong> 1 | <strong>AGL</strong> 3 | <strong>DEX</strong> 3 | <strong>FGT</strong> 4 | <strong>INT</strong> 7 | <strong>AWE</strong> 3 | <strong>PRE</strong> 2</p><p></p><p><strong>Powers:</strong></p><p><strong><em>Shrinking Suit:</em></strong> Continuous Shrinking 8 (-2 Strength, +4 Dodge, +4 Parry, -1 Speed, +8 Stealth, -4 Intimidation); Removable (-5 points) - 19 points</p><p><strong><em>Shrink Ray:</em></strong> Ranged Shrinking 8 Attack, Independent, Extended 2, Increased Mass 6 (3200 lbs); Removable (-6 points) - 26 points</p><p></p><p><strong>Advantages:</strong></p><p>Defensive Roll 2, Evasion, Hide in Plain Sight, Improved Trip, Inventor, Move-by Action, Skill Mastery (Technology), Uncanny Dodge.</p><p></p><p><strong>Skills:</strong></p><p>Close Combat: Unarmed 3 (+6), Deception 6 (+8), Expertise: Science 5 (+12), Insight 6 (+9), Intimidation 0 (+2/-2), Investigation 4 (+11), Perception 4 (+7), Ranged Combat: Shrink Ray 5 (+8), Persuasion 8 (+10), Stealth 0 (+11/+3), Technology 5 (+12).</p><p></p><p><strong>Offense:</strong></p><p>Initiative +3</p><p>Unarmed +6 (Close Damage 2/0)</p><p>Shrink Ray +8 (Ranged Toughness 8)</p><p></p><p><strong>Defense:</strong></p><p>Dodge 10/6, Parry 10/6, Fortitude 4, Toughness 6/1, Will 6</p><p></p><p><strong>Totals:</strong></p><p>Abilities 50 + Powers 45 + Advantages 9 + Skills 23 + Defenses 11 = 138 points</p><p></p><p><strong>Complications:</strong></p><p><strong><em>Responsibility--Motivation. Secrets</em></strong> (identity, actual loyalties.)</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="Davies, post: 8176349, member: 30538"] [size=150][color=blue]Quark[/color][/size][color=blue][/color] [img]https://photos.smugmug.com/My-First-Gallery/i-V4F9GdQ/0/ab06aaf5/S/GAATOM3-S.gif[/img] The beginnings of sizewarping technology occurred when Michael Newton, who would be credited with advancing it further than anyone before John Wright, was only an elementary school student, and are somewhat obscure. By 1938, a Dr. Alexander Thorul (called Thorkel in the fictionalized version of these events; his birth name remains unknown) had developed a method of reducing a biological organism's size to one-fifth of its size through exposure to certain radioactive gases. His ostensible goal was to reduce the impact of human beings on their environment; from his later actions, it seems much more likely that he had ambitions of being the only full-sized human being in a world of the diminished -- essentially, a god. However, his process had a number of drawbacks, most notably the fact that it tended to kill its subjects. He brought in a small group of researchers to assist him in correcting this flaw, which they did. He rewarded them by making them the next experimental subjects, killing some of them when it became apparent that the process was still limited in that it would eventually wear off. He was himself killed before he could finish the job, and his victims returned home, with one of them passing information about their experiences on to the Office of Scientific Investigation, and another selling the story to Hollywood. The Office investigated the remains of Thorul's laboratory and were able to reconstruct his process. It was added to the organization's files of potentially useful but also dangerous technologies, to be used only in emergencies. Whether or not it was ever actually employed to that end in the years that followed remains classified -- the one likely case, in 1953, involves an accidental release of the gas -- but, as with the Griffin Formula, research continued in the hope of making it more useful. Michael Newton had been working for the Office of Scientific Investigation for four years, since shortly after he obtained his second doctorate, when he was given the assignment of continuing that research in 1960. He was only supposed to work on the subject for half a year before being rotated back to field work, but something about the subject fascinated him as nothing before it ever had. He spent a full year working on it, and achieved greater results than any prior researcher. He identified the energy frequencies involved, so that the phenomenon could be projected as a ray rather than needing to be taken internally as a gas. This also facilitated its use on inorganic material -- objects could be reduced as well as living creatures. In addition, it could reduce the size of its target by a slightly greater amount. However, Newton's version of the process only lasted a minute, on average, making it less useful for espionage purposes than the original. However, Newton included in his final report speculation that a subject were to be subjected to the radiation on a constant basis, while wearing an emission device, he would be able to remain in a constant state of miniaturization, only reverting when the device shut off. As it happened, that final report was not delivered to the Office, which had been shuttered before Newton reached his conclusion. It was instead presented to his current employers at the FBI's Department of R&D, who in turn passed on a summary of their project to the Director, who arranged a meeting with Newton. The Director complimented Newton on his work, and then asked the scientist what he thought of the recently created Institute. Reading the room correctly, Newton replied that it seemed potentially dangerous to the American people. The Director smiled and nodded, and laid out the details of Newton's first job for his new employers. Quark, a superhero employing a Newton Field emitter in his costume as well as a pair of wrist-mounted Newton Beam projectors, made his debut a month later. He quickly became the first non-founding member of the Institute, just as planned, keeping an eye on the group's activities for the Bureau, the Director, and -- theoretically -- the American people as a whole. It didn't take him long to figure out that there were no real threats to the American people in the group, but he kept filing his reports all the same. When urged to 'find' (read manufacture) evidence that wasn't there, he reported unfortunate failures that might expose his infiltration if repeated, which kept his handlers pacified. The mission lasted up until Quark's death in the Battle of Vietnam, where he was the first member of the Institute to fall in battle. He attempted to use an experimental version of the Newton Beam to reduce Stardust to a minute size in hopes that he could be more easily dealt with. Not only did it not have the desired effect, the device caused Stardust to increase to an even greater size, large enough that he crushed Quark beneath the sole of his boots with his next footfall. In the aftermath, the Bureau attempted to train a new agent to use the Newton Field emitter, only to discover that it didn't have the same results for any other user,, acting simply as a portable self-directed Newton Beam. It has been suggested that Newton had tuned it to his own unique biology, or that he was unwittingly a superpower whose abilities required some technological mediation. Regardless, the sizemorphic field generator was put back on the drawing board, with numerous other scientists trying and failing to improve on Newton's work in subsequent decades ... until John Wright began his work on the subject. [b]Quark -- PL 8 Abilities: STR[/b] 2 | [b]STA[/b] 1 | [b]AGL[/b] 3 | [b]DEX[/b] 3 | [b]FGT[/b] 4 | [b]INT[/b] 7 | [b]AWE[/b] 3 | [b]PRE[/b] 2 [b]Powers: [i]Shrinking Suit:[/i][/b] Continuous Shrinking 8 (-2 Strength, +4 Dodge, +4 Parry, -1 Speed, +8 Stealth, -4 Intimidation); Removable (-5 points) - 19 points [b][i]Shrink Ray:[/i][/b] Ranged Shrinking 8 Attack, Independent, Extended 2, Increased Mass 6 (3200 lbs); Removable (-6 points) - 26 points [b]Advantages:[/b] Defensive Roll 2, Evasion, Hide in Plain Sight, Improved Trip, Inventor, Move-by Action, Skill Mastery (Technology), Uncanny Dodge. [b]Skills:[/b] Close Combat: Unarmed 3 (+6), Deception 6 (+8), Expertise: Science 5 (+12), Insight 6 (+9), Intimidation 0 (+2/-2), Investigation 4 (+11), Perception 4 (+7), Ranged Combat: Shrink Ray 5 (+8), Persuasion 8 (+10), Stealth 0 (+11/+3), Technology 5 (+12). [b]Offense:[/b] Initiative +3 Unarmed +6 (Close Damage 2/0) Shrink Ray +8 (Ranged Toughness 8) [b]Defense:[/b] Dodge 10/6, Parry 10/6, Fortitude 4, Toughness 6/1, Will 6 [b]Totals:[/b] Abilities 50 + Powers 45 + Advantages 9 + Skills 23 + Defenses 11 = 138 points [b]Complications: [i]Responsibility--Motivation. Secrets[/i][/b] (identity, actual loyalties.) [/QUOTE]
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