The World In The Aftermath (Formerly A World Less Magical)

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Davies
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Newton Riggs (Neutral)

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Newton Riggs
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Let us be very clear -- his name is Newton. Do not call him Newt. Not ever. His mother gets to call him that, and he is happy when she does so, because the sound of his full name spoken in her voice terrifies him beyond rational thought. Nobody else is permitted to imply that he is some sort of fantastic beast, got it? And if you have not known him for a while, you call him Mister Riggs.

Newton Riggs is a well-respected lawyer based out of New York City. Most of his practice involves business law, and he charges high fees for his services and is known for using just about every trick in the book to get his clients what they want. He has made a small fortune this way, and would likely never have to work another day if he wanted. But he enjoys the challenges of his job far too much to even consider retiring.

And then there are the handful of times each year when he works pro bono. These invariably involve criminal defense, most frequently for a client who is a superpower. Whenever Newton hears a report of a superpower being officially charged, he will drop everything to contact them and offer his assistance without expecting any repayment, as long as they maintain that they are being falsely accused. Sometimes this assistance only amounts to arranging a reasonable plea bargain, but he has ensured that countless heroes and villains receive a not guilty verdict.

More than a decade ago, when Newton was just getting started in his law practice, he was assigned to what all the senior partners at his firm considered a losing case involving suing an FBI agent for defamation. Newton was also aware that this case was probably going to end poorly, but he nevertheless gave it his best shot, trying not to be intimidated by the presence of a telepath working for the FBI. He wound up realizing certain things during cross-examination, which in turn led him to ask the right questions to impeach the testimony. This had happened many times before, and so Newton thought nothing of it.

Or at least, he thought nothing of it until Helice approached him to explain that he was also a telepath, albeit an unwitting one, and possessed of much more limited powers than she herself. She was not going to expose him, as she had reached the conclusion that the agent he was suing had gone well past the scope of his duties and so deserved to be held accountable, but she also wanted Newton to be more careful in the use of his talents.

After the case was successfully resolved, Helice helped Newton to gain more control over his abilities and further developed them in the process. For her, this was just a typical day, as she was forever running into people with limited telepathy whom she tried to help or at least prevent from harming themselves or others. For him, though, it was an unprecedented act of charity and compassion; she could easily have ended his career and benefited from doing so, but chose instead to help. Newton resolved that he would strive to pay that forward by helping others.

As long as his ability to read minds reveals that his client truly is falsely accused, he will do everything he can to win them a not guilty verdict in their current case. This has led to him being despised by many in the superheroic community for defending villains, and yet he has also worked mightily to protect falsely accused heroes. He offers no explanation for his actions, and accepts no payment for them. If his client is insistent on repayment, he will recommend one of several charities he supports that can always use more assistance, though he is careful not to do so if he suspects this would lead to them receiving stolen funds.

Newton is not a fighter. If threatened with violence, he will attempt to escape and reach assistance, though he might try talking the attacker down (using his powers if necessary) if he suspects others are also in danger.

Newton Riggs -- PL 6

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

Powers:
Interview Technique: Effortless Mind Reading 6, Auditory Dependent, Investigation Check Required (DC 15), Limited to Surface Thoughts, Insidious, Subtle - 3 points
Psychic Awareness: Senses 2 (acute psychic awareness) - 2 points

Advantages:
Attractive, Benefit 2 (independently wealthy), Connected, Defensive Roll, Fascinate (Persuasion), Improved Defense, Skill Mastery (Persuasion).

Skills:
Deception 3 (+6), Expertise: Civics 5 (+8), Insight 4 (+7), Investigation 4 (+7), Persuasion 6 (+9), Treatment 2 (+5).

Offense:
Initative +2
Unarmed +2 (Close Damage 1)

Defense:
Dodge 4, Parry 2, Fortitude 3, Toughness 3/1, Will 7

Totals:
Abilities 32 + Powers 5 + Advantages 8 + Skills 12 + Defenses 8 = 65 points

Offensive PL: 6
Defensive PL: 4
Resistance PL: 5
Skill PL: 4

Complications:
Professional--Motivation. Non-Combatant. Reputation (defense attorney for the superpowered.) Secret (powers.)

How far that little candle throws his beams!
So shines a good deed in a naughty world.
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Burly (Hero)

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Burly
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Two-thirds actual size

Since she was "born" as an adult and the Dreamrealms have no reliable way of marking time, the pixy known as Burly* has no way of judging how long she has known that she is a misfit. Her people normally react to music by glowing various colors when various notes are sounded. Burly has a completely different reaction, and while she was never teased or bullied for this, it meant that she could not take part in the choirs that her people use to celebrate music. So she got used to spending time alone, exploring the Dreamrealms with a curiosity that was also un-pixy-like.

One of the last surviving members of the previous generation of pixies, something of a mentor to Burly, taught her a bit about things she had learned from a group of travelers from a place they called "the Eighties". That was how she recognized the song that she heard while passing by Castle Don't-Go-Near, as it was one of her favorites, about the greatness and flaws of Mickey. So she promptly ignored the warning implicit in the castle name and went to see who it was that was singing.

It was a woman from the Wake, though she either did not know or would not say why she was being held in durance vile like this. Burly knew that the Dreamdancer would never cast someone into one of these donjons without a good reason, so she was inclined to believe that this person probably deserved to be where she was. But she also knew that some of the more recently recruited servants of the Oneiromancer were ... not so scrupulous.

So, after they talked for a while, the woman asked Burly if she could find a way to get a message to some friends of hers in the Wake. As it happened, Burly knew of one way to get to the Wake and hopefully get back, too. Taking a message was not breaking a rule in and of itself, although going to the Wake without permission definitely was. But the woman looked so sad and so scared and so helpless that Burly felt she had to agree. No one had ever asked her for help before. No one had ever needed her for anything.

The key to the trick was that she would only be able to move between a place in the Dreamrealms and somewhere in the Wake that had the same name. And they would have to pick a place that was near to where her friends lived, because Burly would start to turn to dust as soon as she arrived in the Wake, meaning that she had to find the recipients of her message quickly. So the woman thought a bit, and with some prompting from Burly, she remembered that there was a town called Arcadia not too far from Philadelphia, and there was also a place by that name here.

Burly headed to Arcadia and performed the procedure, arriving in what she thought was the town of Arcadia. Unfortunately, she soon realized that (a) she was in a completely different place called Arcadia, in California, (b) there was most of a continent between her and the place she needed to be and (c) her attempts to get back were coming to no avail. Tearfully, she awaited her demise ... and then added another to her list of realizations: (d) she was not turning into dust after all. Which makes her wonder what else she has been told about her existence might be lies.

Well, regardless, she needs to find someone who can help poor Zamarad!

Burly -- PL 10

Abilities:
STR
9/-2 | STA 9/2 | AGL 3 | DEX 2 | FGT 6 | INT 1 | AWE 2 | PRE 4

Powers:
Power of Music: Enhanced Stamina 7, Fades; Enhanced Strength 11, Fades - 18 points
"Though Hope Is Frail/It's Hard To Kill:" Immortality 5 (one day), Source (music); Immunity 11 (aging, life support) - 16 points
Tiny Size: Permanent Shrinking 8 (10 inches; -2 STR, -4 Intimidate, +8 Stealth, +4 active defenses, -2 size ranks, -1 speed ranks), Innate - 9 points
Wings: Flight 6 (250 MPH), Winged - 6 points

Advantages:
Accurate Attack, Defensive Attack, Interpose, Takedown, Uncanny Dodge

Skills:
Close Combat: Unarmed 4 (+10), Deception 4 (+8), Expertise: Magic 2 (+6), Expertise: Performance 6 (+10), Expertise: Pop Culture 6 (+7), Insight 5 (+7), Intimidation 0 (+0), Perception 7 (+9), Persuasion 4 (+8), Ranged Combat: Throw 4 (+6), Stealth 0 (+11).

Offense:
Initiative +3
Unarmed +10 (Close Damage -2/9)

Defense:
Dodge 11, Parry 10, Fortitude 10/3, Toughness 9/2, Will 8

Totals:
Abilities 40 + Powers 72 + Advantages 5 + Skills 21 + Defenses 11 = 149 points

Offensive PL: 10
Defensive PL: 10
Resistance PL: 9
Skill PL: 5

Complications:
Newfound Conscience--Motivation. Not From Around Here. Power Loss (Power of Music, absence of music.)

* Should someone guess that her full name is "Hurly Burly", she will agree and compliment them on the cleverness of their guess, privately praying that no one ever realizes that it is actually "Beforeall; the hurly-burly of creation". Death would be preferable to being called that.
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Re: The World In The Aftermath (Formerly A World Less Magical)

Post by Davies »

Unfortunately my Ethernet seems to have died so posting will be curtailed for the indefinite future. Posting this from my phone.
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Re: The World In The Aftermath (Formerly A World Less Magical)

Post by EternalPhoenix »

Davies wrote: Sat May 27, 2023 7:38 pm Unfortunately my Ethernet seems to have died so posting will be curtailed for the indefinite future. Posting this from my phone.
Phone hotspot isn't a temporary option?
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Re: The World In The Aftermath (Formerly A World Less Magical)

Post by Davies »

Not with my process, unfortunately. May explain more fully later.
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Re: The World In The Aftermath (Formerly A World Less Magical)

Post by EternalPhoenix »

Davies wrote: Sat May 27, 2023 9:43 pm Not with my process, unfortunately. May explain more fully later.
Ah, well. Best of luck with repairs.
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Re: The World In The Aftermath (Formerly A World Less Magical)

Post by Davies »

And ... it seems to have fixed itself? I don't even know what's going on anymore, but posting will continue tomorrow. I hope.
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Re: The World In The Aftermath (Formerly A World Less Magical)

Post by Davies »

And now, two weeks of posts about the true north, strong and free.
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Donovan Tarkik (Hero, Retired ... Sort-of)

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Donovan Tarkik
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The tragic irony is that the death of his parents, nearly sixty years ago, was not a hate crime. The man who murdered them in an alley off Vanauley Street in Toronto was too lost in a haze of addiction to even realize that the people he was mugging had neither money nor jewelry, and then too frightened of what he had done to even consider eliminating the only witness. And then eight year old Donovan Tarkik, of Frobisher Bay, was given to the tender mercies of the foster care system ... and he considers what happened next to have been a hate crime.

At sixteen, he ran away from home for the last time, and made his way to Asia. He came back five years later, trained in various disciplines and with the seed money for what would become Eclipse Enterprises. Once the company, initially most notable for manufacturing a highly-effective shark repellent, was up and running, Donovan was finally able to adopt the Moonshadow identity that he had envisioned for the first time when he was fifteen. In those waning years of the first age, he was probably the most noteworthy superhero in Canada.

The start of the Pythonian Insurgency sent his career off on a rather different direction from that which it might otherwise have followed. Moonshadow naturally treated the affair as a criminal investigation, rather than a guerilla war, but he also recognized that the case was too big for one man to pursue. So he sought allies, preferring those who had been pushed outside the more conventional responses to the situation, and giving them training in his methods and equipment. The Sunrise Army, as it was unofficially called, would put an end to several major Pythonian bases active in northern Canada, preventing them from reinforcing the American branch of the organization as it fell apart.

Unfortunately, while it is possible for three people to keep a secret without two of them being dead, the numbers involved in this episode were somewhat larger. In the aftermath, Donovan Tarkik and Moonshadow were known to be the same person by far too many people for him to be comfortable continuing a career as a masked detective. Instead, he put the leaders of the Sunrise Army to work as the first employees of Eclipse Security, a new branch of his company in which he was highly involved. Within a few years, Donovan would agree to merge the company with several others in the creation of Argus Security, International, with himself as one of its first Directors.

It did not take him long to grow unsatisfied with how this position kept him from getting as close to the action as he wanted. (He was also developing suspicions about some of the other directors, which he could not quite verify enough to take action.) Observing the mixed successes and failures that the Argus "handler" program had experienced, particularly when it came to dealing with groups of superheroes, led him to the idea of having Argus covertly involved in the formation of one such group right from the very beginning. To his mild surprise, the Director General was entirely in favor of the proposal. In retrospect, Donovan should have found that more suspicious.

Nevertheless, Argus Canada quietly helped to arrange the formation of the Guardians/les Guardiens, and Donovan was able to take the more active role that he had sought in acting as an adviser to the new group. Their eccentricities and enthusiasm charmed him, and he felt that this could be a good finale for his career as a superhero. Good enough, at least. But life had other plans, of course; most of these young people died horribly in 2006, while he himself did not escape unscathed. Horrified at the loss, and devastated that he had failed to deduce or predict any of this, he retired from Argus and returned to the home he had built in Iqualut to live out the rest of his days alone.

Just recently, however, Argus has seen fit to remind him that nobody ever really retires. Coaxed out of his isolation by news that he has been unable to avoid, concerning the Konan invasion and the even more recent arrivals of Tanelorn and the Sprawl, Donovan has agreed to take a position as part of the Canadian diplomatic mission to the island of the superfolk, out of his own curiosity about how such a situation could last for decades without falling apart. While in great shape for a man in his seventies, he has chosen to wear a concealed exoskeleton to allow him slightly greater mobility if such is called for, with even more if real emergencies require it.

So it has come to pass that he has once again met an old friend under surprising circumstances, which may draw him even further into the never-ending struggle ...

Donovan Tarkik -- PL 8

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

Powers:
Concealed Exoskeleton: Removable (-6 points)
* Default Mode: Enhanced Agility 3; Enhanced Dexterity 3; Enhanced Fighting 3; Enhanced Strength 3; Subtle - 25 points
* Overdrive Mode: Variable 1, Limited to Enhanced Physical Abilities, Tiring - 5 points

Advantages:
Accurate Attack, All-out Attack, Benefit 4 (multimillionaire), Connected, Contacts, Defensive Attack, Defensive Roll, Equipment 10, Fast Grab, Improved Defense, Improved Initiative, Inventor, Jack-of-all-trades, Ranged Attack 7, Speed of Thought, Uncanny Dodge, Well-informed.

Equipment:
50 points of equipment as needed.

Skills:
Acrobatics 6 (+8/+5), Athletics 7 (+9/+6), Close Combat: Unarmed 5 (+10/+7), Deception 6 (+11), Expertise: Business 4 (+9), Expertise: Civics 6 (+11), Expertise: History 3 (+8), Expertise: Science 4 (+9), Insight 6 (+11), Intimidation 8 (+13), Investigation 8 (+13), Perception 7 (+12), Persuasion 8 (+13), Sleight of Hand 6 (+8/+5), Stealth 6 (+8/+5), Technology 5 (+10), Vehicles 7 (+9/+6).

Offense:
Initiative +9
Unarmed +10/+7 (Close Damage 2/-1)

Defense:
Dodge 8/5, Parry 10/7, Fortitude 2, Toughness 2/0, Will 11

Totals:
Abilities 28 + Powers 24 + Advantages 35 + Skills 52 + Defenses 19 = 156 points

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

Complications:
Responsibiity--Motivation. Elderly. Secret (ex-superhero, ex-Argus director.)

Note: Based on a character created by Eternal Phoenix, and used with permission.
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Re: The World In The Aftermath (Formerly A World Less Magical)

Post by EternalPhoenix »

My, but that's a fine picture of Donovan. Who is that guy in our world?
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Re: The World In The Aftermath (Formerly A World Less Magical)

Post by Davies »

EternalPhoenix wrote: Tue May 30, 2023 3:06 am My, but that's a fine picture of Donovan. Who is that guy in our world?
Canadian actor Tom Jackson, best known for his work on the drama North of 60, but no stranger to superheroics, having appeared in an episode of Supergirl.
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Chinook (Hero, Retired?)

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Chinook
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Amayah Ryder has always tried to make it clear that her ops moniker is derived the two types of winds known as Chinooks, specifically for that associated with the prairies, not for the Chinookan peoples of Oregon. She did not pick the name, and found the confusion about it to be extremely frustrating. Fortunately, it rarely comes up in conversation these days, since that would require her to meet people more often than she does.

Amayah, born in 1982 to a Dominican family in Regina, claimed to have developed the power to run like the wind while trying to help people during the Cerebron raid, just a bit after her nineteenth birthday. There were two big lies in that statement. The lesser one covered up the fact that she had discovered her abilities (which do not seem to have had an external origin event) when she was sixteen, while on a camping trip with her Guide troop in the Cypress Hills. She kept them secret from everybody, but carefully trained so that, when she was ready, she could use them heroically.

The greater lie covered up her ability to fly. Even in the early days of her explorations of what she could do, it was clear that, while she had to move her legs in order to keep herself in motion, her feet rarely did more than brush against the ground when she was moving. It only looked like running because she got in the habit of remaining at ground level to reduce the likelihood of being spotted while practicing. By the time she was forced to reveal herself -- a bit sooner than she would have liked -- she almost had a psychic block against ascending.

Dubbed "Chinook" by the Leader Post, Amayah accepted the name since it allowed her to keep her identity a secret. Well, sort of a secret -- her family knew, and a good chunk of her community knew, but none of them revealed anything. When the federal government came to ask Chinook to join the team that they were putting together, they found her through the good old fashioned method of faking an emergency to attract her attention. Amayah found that a rather ominous start to the relationship, but chose to ignore her own concerns.

Three years later, when most of her friends were dead and she was critically injured, Amayah promised herself that she was never going to ignore such intuitions ever again. After she got out of the hospital (having endured months of "jokes" about how she ought to be a fast healer) Chinook spent a few months as a solo superhero, based on the Prairies, before she came to the conclusion that she was not doing herself or anyone else any good. So she formally retired, and bought a cabin in northern Saskatchewan, far away from the lands where the Chinook winds blew.

Of course, having gotten into the habit of constantly training in the use of her powers, getting out of that habit has proven to be difficult, and Amayah has grown more adept in their use than she was during her actual superheroic career. She demonstrated that during one of her rare trips away from home when she happened to encounter Karsa Hur-ul early in her own residence in the area. After the predictable misunderstanding and fight, they wound up as friends.

During the Konan invasion, Chinook was drawn back out of retirement, but kept it clear to everyone that she met that this was a one-off. Unfortunately, one of the people she did not meet understandably did not get the message. Her aunt, who moved back to the Republic years ago, recently contacted her to let her know that one of her distant cousins has apparently been kidnapped by some assassin and to demand that she do something about this. She would prefer to refuse, but, well, family is family, right?

Chinook -- PL 10

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

Powers:
Run Like The Wind: Enhanced Advantages 8 (Defensive Roll, Evasion, Improved Defense, Improved Initiative 4, Move-by Attack); Enhanced Defenses 10 (Dodge 5, Parry 5); Flight 8 (500 MPH), Platform - 26 points
Wind Weaving: Array (27 points)
  • Blinding Gust: Ranged Cumulative Burst Area Affliction 6 (Resisted by Dodge, Overcome by Fortitude; Visually Impaired, Visually Disabled, Visually Unaware), Limited to One Sense, Selective - 1 point
  • Bursts of Wind: Ranged Multiattack Damage 9 - 27 points
  • Vacuum Thunderclap: Ranged Burst Area Affliction 9 (Resisted by Fortitude; Dazed, Stunned, Incapacitated) - 1 point
Windbreak: Sustained Immunity 2 (suffocation) - 2 points

Advantages:
Agile Feint, All-out Attack, Connected, Defensive Attack, Defensive Roll, Evasion, Grabbing Finesse, Improved Defense, Improved Disarm, Improved Initiative 4, Improved Trip, Move-by Attack, Redirect, Uncanny Dodge.

Skills:
Acrobatics 8 (+12), Athletics 8 (+9), Close Combat: Unarmed 3 (+8), Expertise: Civics 5 (+7), Perception 8 (+11), Persuasion 6 (+9), Ranged Combat: Wind Weaving 6 (+9), Stealth 4 (+8), Treatment 8 (+10).

Offense:
Initiative +20
Unarmed +8 (Close Damage 1)
Burst of Wind +9 (Ranged Multiattack Damage 9)

Defense:
Dodge 15/10, Parry 13/8, Fortitude 6, Toughness 5/3, Will 8.

Totals:
Abilities 48 + Powers 57 + Advantages 9 + Skills 28 + Defenses 17 = 159 points

Offensive PL: 9
Defensive PL: 10
Resistance PL: 7
Skill PL: 7

Complications:
Responsibility--Motivation. Family. Secret Identity.

Note: For her PL 9 incarnation active as a member of the Guardians, reduce all skills by 2 ranks, drop Connected, reduce Dodge to 8, Parry to 6, Fortitude to 4 and Will to 6.
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Lightstep (Hero, Inactive)

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Lightstep
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Bruno Burton never really planned on being a superhero, so when he managed to survive that brief portion of his life, he was honestly relieved, as was his family. However, they were less than thrilled that Bruno failed to take the hint that he should also abandon all public use of the abilities he had inherited from their ancestors, and kept right on being an entertainer, enhancing his shows with his power to create light and sound. While his popularity has never been as great as other superpower entertainers, he has kept on making music and doing shows right up until the present day.

For Bruno, the story really started when his late mother Evangeline came back after the traditional excursion that the family elders encouraged all the young Burtons to undertake, so that they would realize the safety and security of the family home. Unlike most young Burtons, she came back midway through her first and only pregnancy. She would not speak of the father, but refused to give up the child for adoption and insisted on raising her son herself.

Fortunately for both of them, Bruno demonstrated the family powers when he entered adolescence, forcing the elders to accept him as a legitimate member of the family. Once that happened, Evangeline finally revealed the identity of his father to Bruno. During her excursion, she had wound up traveling with a number of musicians, most notably the great Gordon Lightfoot. Once she realized that she was pregnant with his child, however, she panicked and ran back home.

From that moment on, Bruno knew that he had to be a musician. He found that he did not really care much for the folk-pop genre that his supposed father had helped to pioneer, preferring the neo-disco sound that was becoming popular in his late teens, but adopted the alias Lightstep as a nod to him nevertheless. He had first real breakthrough in 2001, shortly after the attack, when he sang for a benefit and used his powers on stage for the first time. This led to him attending the Junos the next year ...

... which was where he happened to meet Gordon Lightfoot, who immediately noted the resemblance between this young person and Evangeline, whom he remembered fondly. However, Lightfoot was very clear that he had never been intimate with the young lady, having learned painful lessons about this in the past, and could not possibly be the father of any children she might have had. Nonplussed, Lightstep nevertheless thanked him for clarifying the matter and went on his way. (Later, Bruno used some federal resources he accessed as a member of the Guardians to verify this story.)

In 2003, he was recruited into the Guardians; while not exactly thrilled to be drafted into a crime-fighting and disaster relief group, he gave it his best effort in the hopes that it would give him greater publicity. Surviving the destruction of the group, three years later, certainly did that, and it could be said that he came out of it better than anyone. (It could be said, but anyone who said it to his face would be well-advised to be wearing eye protection and ear plugs.)

It has been a while since he last reached out to his fellow survivor, but seeing reports of her in the aftermath of the invasion brought her to mind, and he would certainly try to help her out if she sought it. But that would probably never happen ... right?

Lightstep -- PL 7

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

Powers:
Son Et Lumière: Environment 5 (daylight), Selective; Illusion 7 (audio), Area 12 (500,000 cft) - 94 points

Power Stunt:
Perception Area Cumulative Affliction 7 (Resisted by Dodge, Overcome by Fortitude; Dazed and Perception Impaired, Stunned and Perception Disabled, Incapacitated and Perception Unaware), Extra Condition

Advantages:
Attractive, Benefit 3 (millionaire), Connected, Defensive Roll, Evasion, Improved Defense, Redirect.

Skills:
Acrobatics 3 (+6), Close Combat: Unarmed 4 (+7), Deception 4 (+8), Expertise: Performance 6 (+10), Insight 4 (+7), Perception 6 (+9), Persuasion 5 (+9), Stealth 4 (+7).

Offense:
Initiative +3
Unarmed +7 (Close Damage 1)

Defense:
Dodge 8, Parry 7, Fortitude 3, Toughness 4/2, Will 7

Offensive PL: 7
Defensive PL: 6
Resistance PL: 5
Skill PL: 5

Complications:
Art--Motivation. Secret (family.) Vestigial Sense of Responsibility.

Note: In his peak years (2003-2009) he was PL 8; increase his STA to 3 but reduce his PRE to 3, add Defensive Roll 2, Move-by Attack and Uncanny Dodge but remove Benefit and Connected, and increase his Will to 9.

In loving memory of Gordon Lightfoot.
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Alouette (Hero, Deceased)

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Alouette
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Every year, on the anniversary of that dark day in May, unless physically prevented from doing so, the Little Tramp makes a quiet pilgrimage to the site of her grave, marked with an image of a skylark, in Thunder Bay. In the first few years afterward, the grief he felt was too raw to even allow him to voice it as a howl. While he has made peace with her absence since then, he still does not utter any of the sounds that he can make, but simply curls up on the final resting place of Rebecca Kendall, born 1975, died 2006, and dreams that things are other than they are.

Her father was a park ranger in the Algonquin Provincial Park, and she lived with him there in one of the cabins. (Her mother had disappeared sometime in her early childhood.) He had, by the time she was ten years old, taught her all that he knew about living in harmony with nature, and warned her to avoid other people as much as she possibly could. At the time, Rebecca did not know that her father lived a double life as a member of the Sunrise Army, nor just how much danger that might mean for her.

When she met the Little Tramp for the first time, in 1985, she did not believe that he was really speaking to her. She had already developed some of her talents, but treated her ability to speak to the animals as something that she only imagined happening. Gradually, as both the reality of the situation and the danger they were both in, as he was being hunted by those who would have also hunted her if they knew of her existence, she came to rely on him as a friend. When as much safety as there could be was restored to the world, he apologized for moving on -- for the first time in his life -- and she promised that she would welcome him back if someday he wanted to rest again.

Rebecca and her father both managed to survive the dark years that still lay ahead, and he wound up working first for Eclipse Security and later for Argus. This meant moving back to the city, which was an uncomfortable experience for someone who had been taught to avoid human contact. But she managed to make friends -- both human and animal -- especially as her abilities grew. She began calling herself "Alouette" in 1998, soon after the debut of Paragon made it clear that a new age of superheroics had begun, but never really thought of herself as any sort of a hero. Just someone who helped when she could.

Five years later, she was the first superpower recruited to become a member of the Guardians, and helped to persuade many of the other prospective members, especially her old friend, to stay on. And three years after that, she was the last one to die, shot dead by operatives of Saturn. It is thought that she could have escaped if she had not sent the Little Tramp to get help, but she chose friendship over self-preservation, and no one who knew her doubts that she would always have made that choice.

Alouette -- PL 7

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

Powers:
"Borrowing:" Remote Sensing 1 (all senses; 2 miles), Medium (animal); Variable 1 (animal senses), Only When Remotely Sensing - 10 points
Xenotelepathy: Linked Mental Communication 2 (1 mile), Two-Way; Linked Comprehend Animals 2 - 18 points

Advantages:
Animal Affinity, Assessment, Defensive Roll 2, Fascinate (Persuasion), Hide in Plain Sight, Tracking.

Skills:
Athletics 5 (+5), Deception 4 (+7), Expertise: Survival 6 (+8), Insight 5 (+9), Investigation 4 (+6), Perception 6 (+10), Persuasion 6 (+9), Stealth 4 (+7), Treatment 4 (+6).

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

Defense:
Dodge 8, Parry 7, Fortitude 4, Toughness 6/1, Will 8.

Offensive PL: 2
Defensive PL: 7
Resistance PL: 6
Skill PL: 5

Totals:
Abilities 36 + Powers 28 + Advantages 7 + Skills 22 + Defenses 16 = 109 points

Complications:
Doing Good--Motivation. Relates Better To Animals Than People.
"I'm sorry. I love you. I'm not sorry I love you."
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Davies
Posts: 5081
Joined: Thu Mar 23, 2017 10:37 pm
Location: Edmonton, AB

Superior (Hero, Deceased)

Post by Davies »

Superior
Image
Art by Javier Urena

The sad truth about super teams -- specifically officially established groups, rather than ones that are thrown together in response to a specific situation -- is that there is not always something for them to do in the aftermath of their founding. So it was with the Guardians, who found themselves assigned to a variety of publicity stunts in the aftermath of their introduction to the public. Most of these were, frankly, embarrassing; nobody really needs a large collection of superpowers to rescue a cat from a tree, even if the cat happens to belong to an ambassador. But one of those first missions had some lasting consequences.

Sent to investigate a number of sightings of the chimeric lake monster of Lake Superior, Mishipeshu, the team was surprised to learn that this was neither a hoax nor a cryptid. Initially, the subject of their investigations seemed to be a mutated, fresh water-breathing Atlantean, whose strength and mobility taxed their ability to capture him. But when they finally netted him, a further surprise was in store, for he promptly broke down crying, begging -- in English -- for mercy.

The "Atlantean" claimed to be William Chan, an eighteen-year-old from Sault Ste. Marie. Two years earlier, he and his father had been boating on Lake Superior at the start of the attack by Cerebron. Their boat capsized after being bombarded with odd radiation; his father drowned, but William mutated into his current form. Uncertain whether he could survive on land in this new form, William remained in the lake and survived on a diet of fish. It had not been until just now that he had learned that he was amphibious, becoming slightly weaker out of the water but able to live there indefinitely.

Unfortunately, attempts to reunite William with his family were not successful. His mother refused to accept him as her son, referring to him as a monster. (In her dubious defense, there were and are a number of oddities about his story; mutations of this magnitude almost always take much longer to develop than the few minutes that his account had them taking, usually on the order of days or weeks.) Left alone in the world, William chose to join the Guardians as their first and only non-charter member, naming himself for the great lake where he had his second birth.

Unfortunately, the tragedy of his life was not over. Jocelyn Chan was convinced that Superior was an imposter who had gained the knowledge of her son by eating his brain or something like that, so much so that she was easily recruited by the anti-superpower conspiracy within Argus. On that day in May, she appeared at the secured door of the Justice Annex and claimed to be seeking to reconcile with "William". Believing her, he opened the door -- allowing the armed men accompanying her into the base. He was one of the first fatalities of that episode.

In the aftermath, Jocelyn Chan was arrested, and remains incarcerated to this day. While disowned by her surviving family, they also refused to accept the body of "William". He was ultimately laid to rest in Lake Superior, in accordance with the will he had written.

Superior -- PL 9

Abilities:
STR
10/7 | STA 8 | AGL 4 | DEX 2 | FGT 6 | INT 1 | AWE 2 | PRE 3

Powers:
Aquatic: Enhanced Strength 3, Only When Immersed; Immunity 3 (cold, drowning, pressure); Impervious Toughness 8; Movement 1 (environmental adaptation-aquatic); Senses 1 (low-light vision); Swimming 7 (250 MPH) - 23 points
Tail: Extra Limb 1 - 1 point

Advantages:
Chokehold, Defensive Roll, Diehard, Favored Environment (aquatic), Great Endurance, Improved Grab, Improved Hold, Power Attack, Takedown.

Skills:
Athletics 2 (+12/+9), Close Combat: Unarmed 2 (+8), Expertise: Survival 7 (+8), Insight 8 (+10), Intimidation 6 (+9), Perception 9 (+11).

Offense:
Initiative +4
Unarmed +8 (Close Damage 10/7)

Defense:
Dodge 6, Parry 8, Fortitude 9, Toughness 10/8, Will 7.

Totals:
Abilities 66 + Powers 24 + Advantages 8 + Skills 17 + Defenses 8 = 123 points

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

Complications:
Acceptance--Motivation. Inhuman Appearance. Lonely, But Views This As Weakness.
"I'm sorry. I love you. I'm not sorry I love you."
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