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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Davies" data-source="post: 8395688" data-attributes="member: 30538">Night Hag<img src="https://photos.smugmug.com/My-First-Gallery/i-KgSV6Xr/1/33f41ddf/M/Original_Costume-M.png" alt="" class="fr-fic fr-dii fr-draggable " data-size="" style="" />The never-ending pursuit of a method of permanently inducing superpowers in a subject, ideally without too many horrific consequences, has sometimes been dubbed the 'quest for the Golden Ticket'. The sort of person who engages in this line of inquiry almost always believes that the ends outweigh the means, and that being able to create superpowers is the path to unlimited wealth, more than justifying the usually vast amount of resources that are thrown into this money pit, to say nothing of the crimes against humanity that often ensue. Very rarely, you might encounter someone who cares more about the scientific achievement than the money, but the sort of person who puts that ahead of all other considerations is rarely better than the former type. And sometimes, as with Martina Hazel, secretly the supervillain known as the Night Hag, they are much worse. Born in 1971, Martina Hazel was given over to the Think Tank system when she was just twelve years old. Her auto mechanic father -- who'd wanted a son he was going to name Martin, hence her name -- was more than happy to give his weird, unwanted daughter over to her fellow eggheads, especially since they were paying to take her away. The loyalty conditioning techniques used by the Think Tank which trained her weren't all that effective, but she still chose to remain and continue learning right up until the facility shut down in 1998.Martina promptly returned home to Newark and executed a series of simple business maneuvers that resulted in her becoming the owner of her father's mechanic shop, then firing him after draining his retirement fund and ensuring that he would never find another job. Having gotten her revenge, she then ruined the lives of her three younger siblings out of envy for the way that they'd had a family growing up. This kept her busy for about four years, but in the end she was free to devote herself to the quest for the Golden Ticket. In the aftermath of Cerebron's attack, a lot of supersoldier projects had begun, and it was child's play to ensure some of the research opportunities came her way.The one vaguely admirable deed of Martina's life might have been her choice to use herself, rather than a volunteer or 'volunteer', for the first test subject of her prototype super-serum, when she developed it in 2005. The truth was much less altruistic; she'd read all the literature, and knew that the majority of the times that a treatment like this was tested, it worked on the first subject to use it and no one else. If anyone was going to gain powers from this, she wanted it to be her. So she closed her eyes, and plugged her nose, and took a drink.It worked! Sort of. It turned her skin green and twisted her facial features until they were all but unrecognizable, but she was filled with physical might. There was the problem that these enhancements wore off after a few hours, but that meant she was back to her regular looks, too. And even afterwards, she felt as though she was seeing the world with much more clarity than she'd ever managed before, and so she started to come up with schemes to use her secondary identity as a tool to increase her wealth and power, so that she'd be able to figure out how to apply the effects (some of them, weaker versions of them) to other people who took a dose of her 'witchbrew'.Of course, schemes like the ones she devised are bound to be answered by a self-proclaimed superhero, and the Night Hag soon made the acquaintance of Megawatt, Newark's newest protector. Their conflicts were very frustrating for Martina, as she usually came out second best in them, but she was confident that her greater intelligence would eventually win the day. And then something completely unimaginable happened, and suddenly her nemesis was now just another supervillain. She offered the newly criminal Megawatt an alliance, fully intending to double-cross him and torture him to death, but was caught flat-footed when he double-crossed her, first, and then wrecked her laboratory before fleeing the state.The Night Hag considered the idea of pursuing him, but by the time she'd managed to rebuild, the trail had long since gone cold. Instead, she focused on preparing for the day that he came back to finish things with her, and so turning herself into Newark's worst nightmare. On some level, she's aware that she's really just lashing out at anyone who seems even a little bit more successful or even happier than she is -- which pretty much encompasses everyone in town -- and that she ends up hiding from those who are more powerful, scheming to find ways to bring them down. But she  can't stop and doesn't really want to, either.Recently, the Night Hag has developed a mild obsession with learning the secrets of magic, seeking out occult secrets and trying to add them. The fact is that she's approaching these matters in exactly the wrong way, treating them as though they were just another form of science rather than the completely different sort of discipline that they actually are. Thus, she knows a lot about magic and magicians, but has no shot at ever duplicating their results. This just fuels her envy, of course, and makes her that much more dangerous to potential rivals. Night Hag - PL 10Abilities:STR 6/0 | STA 8/1 | AGL 7/1 | DEX 6/1 | FGT 8/3 | INT 9 | AWE -1 | PRE 3Powers:Derangement: Immunity 20 (mental effects), Limited to half effect - 10 pointsEnhancement: Enhanced Agility 6; Enhanced Dexterity 5; Enhanced Fighting 5; Enhanced Stamina 7; Enhanced Strength 6; Senses 2 (Darkvision) - 60 pointsAdvantages:Benefit 4 (multimillionaire), Daze (Intimidation), Equipment 6, Evasion, Inventor, Move-by Action, Startle.Equipment:Witch's Broom (Flight 5 [60 MPH], Platform), and 8 points of equipment as needed.Arsenal: Array (15 points)Blaster Glove: Ranged Multiattack Damage 5 - 15 pointsScreaming Devil: Ranged Burst Area Affliction 7 (Resisted by Fortitude; Hearing Impaired, Hearing Disabled, Hearing Unaware), Limited to One Sense - 1 pointStink Bomb: Ranged Burst Area Affliction 5 (Resisted by Fortitude; Dazed & Vulnerable, Defenseless & Stunned), Extra Condition, Limited Degree - 1 pointSkills:Acrobatics 6 (+13/+7), Close Combat: Unarmed 6 (+14/+9), Deception 5 (+8), Expertise: Business 3 (+12), Expertise: Science 4 (+13), Expertise: Crime 5 (+14), Expertise: Magic* 2 (+11), Intimidation 8 (+11), Ranged Attack: Blaster 9 (+15/+10), Technology 6 (+15), Stealth 6 (+13/+7).* INT-based.Offense:Initiative +7Unarmed +14/+9 (Close Damage 6/0)Blaster Glove +15/+10 (Ranged Multiattack Damage 5)Screaming Devil -- (Ranged Burst Area Fortitude 7)Stink Bomb -- (Ranged Burst Area Fortitude 5)Defense:Dodge 11/5, Parry 12/7, Fortitude 12/5, Toughness 8/1, Will 5.Totals:Abilities 34 + Powers 70 + Advantages 12 + Skills 30 + Defenses 18 = 164 pointsOffensive PL: 10Defensive PL: 10Resistance PL: 9Skill PL: 10Complications:Envy--Motivation. Obsessed with the Occult. Power Loss (Enhancement, without regular doses of witchbrew[1].) Secret Identity.[1] If deprived of any witchbrew for periods of about a week, the Night Hag will also suffer Power Loss for her Derangement. She'll still be a sociopath, though.</blockquote>

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