Upgrade your account to a Community Supporter account and remove most of the site ads.

Reply to thread

Message: <blockquote data-quote="Davies" data-source="post: 8187542" data-attributes="member: 30538">Songbird (I)<img src="https://photos.smugmug.com/My-First-Gallery/i-F7NV6bh/0/e25c68a6/S/DFWTFusXgAA13V9-S.jpg" alt="" class="fr-fic fr-dii fr-draggable " data-size="" style="" />Growing up in Watts, Sarah Brandt had exactly two ambitions for her life. The first was to get out of Watts alive and in good health, and hopefully never look back. The second was to become the first Black member of the Institute. She knew that she had powers -- in addition to being able to hear sounds far above and below the frequencies that most people could, her scrappiness was also clearly superhuman -- and she had ever confidence that she'd contribute a great deal to their operations. But she was honest enough to admit that she wanted it for herself, not for any good she might do for other people. And they were clearly going to need some new members, after all the crap that went on in Vietnam!Unfortunately, when she was sixteen, and her sonic powers were finally beginning to manifest themselves, the Institute shut down. Well, great. She looked into a few of the groups that sprang up to fill the void that the group's dissolution had left, but none of them impressed her much. The bunch in Harlem came closest, but while she wanted to leave Watts and Los Angeles in general, moving all the way across the country was well outside her means and wishes. The whole thing left Sarah feeling rather embittered, enough to seriously consider using her powers for criminal purposes instead. Her career as a super-powered enforcer for the Los Angeles mob lasted less than two weeks before she got tired of the surprisingly unenlightened attitudes of the Mafia. Her departure, leaving several 'soldiers' with broken bones, also coincided with some shake-ups in the organization's hierarchy, so she wasn't pursued all that hotly. But L.A. was now no longer all that safe for her, so she relocated northwards, to Las Vegas. Initially, she obtained legitimate work as cab driver and occasional delivery driver, while also teaching self-defense classes at the local YMCA. Events kept pushing her into confrontations with criminals, usually of the mundane variety, but she managed to keep her powers a secret. Matters finally came to a head in 1981 when she ended up having Basilea herself as a fare when the Star of Africa was in town following up on some business from one of the Iconoclast's old cases. They ended up having a lengthy conversation about the current state of superheroics, with Basilea expressing hope that new heroes were going to arise when they were ready. (When the two women met again, in 2003, Basilea admitted that she'd suspected that her driver that was a superpower whom she'd heard rumors about.)After another year of preparations, Sarah finally decided that she was as ready as she was ever going to be, and made her debut as Songbird just a week before the entire world went completely insane. Her activities in the era of the Pythonian Insurgency were somewhat unusual; while perfectly willing to smash Pythons when they showed up in Vegas, Songbird rarely followed up on such conflicts, instead passing information about what she'd learned on to the authorities through JSOT's tipline. Her focus was on doing as much as she could for one community, rather than trying to fix problems on a national or international level.In 1986, she ran across James Graham while the two of them were pursuing separate angles on the same case. After this happened a few more times, they started working together, and Graham arranged for Sarah to be employed by the Carter Detective Agency alongside him. This gave her activities a small amount of legal protection, somewhat easing the frequently confrontational nature of her relations with the police. Their relationship became romantic, though marked by frequent arguments sparked by the quick tempers of both parties, and eventually resulted in the birth of their daughter, Leah, in 1989. James, who was starting to feel his years, retired from the agency to look after Leah while Sarah continued fighting crime.At least, he did until 1996, when he disappeared. Despite her best efforts, Songbird was unable to find out anything about his fate. The episode bewildered her, and she began to focus more on investigation as a result, no longer quite as devoted to kicking ass and taking names. For a few weeks in 1997, she worked with a different partner, Ernie Malone, who was an eager student of both combat and deduction. She was more than a bit disturbed when he also disappeared, but at least she would later develop a working theory of what happened to him, the first time she saw video footage of Darkwing.The Carter Detective Agency was bought out by Argus Security in 1999, and many of its operatives, including Sarah, were let go. She was able to hold onto her private investigator's license for a few years, but money was starting to get a bit tight. In 2004, she decided to relocate herself and Leah to Portland, claiming that 'the job' was taking them there for a change. In fact, this was more true than she was saying, since a number of the cases she'd been investigating recently had dangling ends that led back to Portland, and she wanted to follow up on them.That investigation would end up consuming the rest of her life, involving her working (among other things) with the Golden Archer and other superheroes as she kept tracing loose ends that seemed to go absolutely nowhere. It wasn't until a week before she was murdered that the pieces finally fit, and Songbird deduced that the ghost-like central figure of all these strange occurrences had to be none other than Abigail Mason. She was still considering her next move when the car she was driving was run off the road by a police cruiser, and she was shot to death while attempting to escape the wreck. Ironically, Spectra had no idea that her existence and identity had been discovered; she was solely motivated by spite and contempt in ordering Songbird's murder.Nor is she aware that a notebook, containing all of Sarah Blade's evidence on the subject, is hidden somewhere in Portland. Songbird (I) - PL 9Abilities:STR 2 | STA 2 | AGL 4 | DEX 3 | FGT 10 | INT 1 | AWE 3 | PRE 4Powers:Boosted Leap: Leaping 4; Movement 1 (safe-fall) - 6 pointsHypersonic Voice: Array (19 points) <ul> <li data-xf-list-type="ul"> Deafening Shriek: Burst Area 2 Affliction 9 (Resisted by Fortitude; Audio Impaired, Audio Disabled, Audio Unaware), Limited to One Sense - 1 point</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul"> Silver Tongue: Perception Range Cumulative Affliction 6 (Resisted by Will; Dazed, Compelled, Controlled), Hearing Dependent, Subtle - 19 points</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul"> Stunning Shriek: Burst Area 2 Affliction 9 (Resisted by Fortitude; Dazed & Vulnerable, Stunned & Defenseless), Extra Condition, Limited Degree, Hearing Dependent - 1 point</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul"> Vocal Blast: Cone Area 2 Damage 6 - 1 point</li> </ul>Subtle Sonar: Senses 4 (accurate extended hearing, ultrahearing) - 4 pointsAdvantages:Agile Feint, Close Attack 2, Defensive Attack, Defensive Roll 2, Equipment 2, Evasion, Fearless, Improved Defense, Improved Disarm, Improved Initiative, Improvised Weapon, Instant Up, Interpose, Language (Spanish), Move-by Action, Power Attack, Redirect, Set-up, Takedown.Equipment:Car: Size Large; Strength 5; Speed 5 (ground); Defense 8; Toughness 8 - 10 pointsSkills:Acrobatics 7 (+11), Athletics 10 (+12), Close Combat: Unarmed 4 (+14), Expertise: Streetwise 12 (+13), Insight 9 (+12), Intimidation 6 (+10), Investigation 10 (+11), Perception 10 (+13), Vehicles 8 (+11).Offense:Initiative +8Unarmed +16 (Close Damage 2)Deafening Shriek or Stunning Shriek -- (Burst Area Fortitude 9)Silver Tongue -- (Perception Range Will 6)Vocal Blast -- (Cone Area Damage 6)Defense:Dodge 11, Parry 10, Fortitude 5, Toughness 7/2, Will 9Totals:Abilities 60 + Powers 32 + Advantages 22 + Skills 38 + Defenses 14 = 166 pointsComplications:Justice--Motivation. Family. (daughter) Relationship. Temper. Uneasy Relationship with the Authorities.</blockquote>

Verification