Mithril Age -- DC/Marvel Fusion Universe

[Davies]

That would have been another groovy model for her, yeah.

[Davies]

Anyway, starting on Monday, the Fantastic Five. Some I bet people will predict. Some I think they won't.

[Thorpocalypse]

Anyway, starting on Monday, the Fantastic Five. Some I bet people will predict. Some I think they won't.

Hmmm...consider me intrigued. I may come back for some guesses later...

[Davies]

Frank Richards -- only his mother calls him by his full first name, Franklin -- is the leader of the Fantastic Five and one of the de facto leaders of New York's large superhero community. From the moment of his birth, twenty-five years ago, it was apparent that the radiation-granted powers of his parents resulted in his birth with enormous mutant powers, which he struggled with throughout his childhood and adolescence. After a few years spent in the company of the Power children, with whom he is still close friends, his parents were persuaded to send him to the Xavier Institute in Genosha in the hopes that this would help him to master his enormous and largely uncontrolled gifts.

This worked, but meant that he was not on hand when his father met his end during Götterdämmerung. Horrified, and certain that he could have prevented this given the opportunity, Frank departed the Institute on somewhat poor terms -- relations have been mended in the years since then -- and returned home to take up a position within the Fantastic Four. (He initially used the nomme de guerre "Psi-Lord", but regards that as an embarrassing relic of his adolescence.) Ironically, given his stated belief that the team had to have four members to survive, the group would become a Fantastic Five three years later when his younger sister Val joined.

Since then, he has watched his mother slowly retire from active duty to run the charitable endeavors of Fantastic Solutions and seen his uncle Johnny depart from Earth to have wacky adventures alongside the Guardians of the Galaxy. His other uncle has politely declined the idea of running the show -- been there, done that, got the T-shirt he couldn't wear because of the spikes, no thank you -- so that left Frank in charge. He has done his best to recruit capable companions to fill out the roster, but still lives in his father's shadow. At least he didn't have to deal with a zombie version of the man during the Darkest Night, though finding out why that didn't happen last year further rocked him.

Since Val has the team role of 'obsessive scientist who occasionally remembers how much they love their family' all wrapped up, Franklin has accepted the 'team nurse' role that their mother used to fill. He's everyone's best friend but never allows them to goof off for too long. (That said, he has problems dealing with Julie, and is glad that Uncle Ben is helping to help her.) This leaves him with little time for a social life, though he and Kate Power dated for a bit before they mutually called it quits.

Lately, he's been having strange dreams about a red-haired woman and odd facial tattoos, but he can never quite remember the substance of them. They're nothing like the prophetic dreams he used to have (and still does have, from time to time, though he's learned to induce the visions during consciousness with difficulty.) He's not sure what to make of this, and went to the lengths of consulting with Dr. Grey about them. She reassured him that they were probably just lingering effects of the universal merging that occurred when he was six, and nothing to worry about. But they haven't stopped ...

Frank Richards -- PL 12

Abilities:
STR 2 | STA 3 | AGL 2 | DEX 2 | FGT 5 | INT 8 | AWE 9 | PRE 3

Powers:
Astral Projection: Remote Viewing 18 (250,000 miles; all senses), Side Effect (body is defenseless and immobile, always); Mental Communication 4 - 70 points
Foresight: Senses 4 (precognition), Tiring - 2 points
Telepathy: Array (24 points)

• Constant Scan: Continuous Close Selective Burst Area Mind Reading 5, Limited to Surface Thoughts, Subtle 2; Senses 1 (danger sense) - 1 point
• Mind Blast: Perception Range Damage 8, Resisted By Will, Tiring - 24 points
• Mind Probe: Cumulative Mind Reading 12, Close Range - 1 point

Rarely Used Power Stunt Combining Astral Projection and Telepathy:
Focused Totality: Flight 5 (60 MPH); Perception Range Damaging Move Object 15; Sustained Impervious Protection 12

Advantages:
Assessment, Benefit 4 (multimillionaire), Connections, Contacts, Defensive Roll, Equipment 5, Evasion, Fast Grab, Improved Defense, Improved Disarm, Improved Initiative, Improved Trip, Improvised Tools, Jack-of-all-trades, Leadership, Teamwork, Trance.

Skills:
Athletics 6 (+8), Close Combat: Unarmed 6 (+11), Deception 6 (+9), Insight 5 (+14), Investigation 7 (+15), Perception 4 (+13), Persuasion 9 (+12), Stealth 7 (+9), Technology 5 (+13), Treatment 3 (+11), Vehicles 8 (+10)

Equipment:
Protective Costume (Protection 4, Subtle) and 20 points for team equipment budget.

Offense:
Initiative +6
Unarmed +11 (Close Damage 2)
Mind Blast -- (Perception Range Damage 8, Resisted by Will)

Defense:
Dodge 9, Parry 11, Fortitude 5, Toughness 9, Will 15

Totals:
Abilities 68 + Powers 96 + Advantages 24 + Skills 33 + Defenses 21 = 242 points

Offensive PL: 12
Defensive PL: 10
Resistance PL: 10
Skill PL: 10

Complications:
Responsibility--Motivation. Family (large one.) Prejudice (mutant.) Temptation of Power.

[EternalPhoenix]

This worked, but meant that he was not on hand when his father met his end during Götterdämmerung.

Is there a post coming at some point on this? I know it's from that Wagner play, Ring of the Nibelungen, but the only specific thing I know is that absolute massive corporate city ship from Xenosaga. A little quick research says it was Twilight of the Gods. Since it was Norse it was definitely a Thor event. The German translation of Ragnarok, so it was a BIG Thor event.

[Davies]

Is there a post coming at some point on this?

Ye short version: It was something like the War of the Gods event at DC mixed with the Fear Itself event event at Marvel, completely rewriting the rules -- or rather guidelines -- of magic. So it was a Thor/Wonder Woman/Dr. Strange/Dr. Fate event.

[EternalPhoenix]

That sounds like a huge event, all right. Whew.

[greycrusader]

Does Franklin Richards still have his full complement of powers, in a currently suppressed state, or is this version not the potentially omnipotent being he's usually portrayed as being?

[Davies]

Does Franklin Richards still have his full complement of powers, in a currently suppressed state, or is this version not the potentially omnipotent being he's usually portrayed as being?

He's still potentially omnipotent, but only at the start of a very long journey to the point where he can be treated as a peer of Galactus. Some of the stunts that some of his incarnations have demonstrated (like spacewarping or editing reality) are not yet available to him, though whether he just hasn't yet developed them, has suppressed them himself, or been subjected to a suppression by a being of similar power with red hair and no facial tattoos, is unclear.

I feel like I typed something in that last sentence that I can't see or remember typing, for some reason ...

[greycrusader]

Heh. I liked that last bit. Wait, what?

Now, the red-haired woman WITH facial tattoos...is that going to be Medusa, or Frankie Raye (hmmm, both were lovers of his Uncle Johnny, once, whom he REALLY resembles).

So is Julie Powers on the Fantastic Five team? And Ben Grimm is still in the larger, spiky form he briefly developed in the 616 universe?

All my best.

[Davies]

So is Julie Powers on the Fantastic Five team? And Ben Grimm is still in the larger, spiky form he briefly developed in the 616 universe?

Interesting guesses.

[Ares]

Heh. I liked that last bit. Wait, what?

Now, the red-haired woman WITH facial tattoos...is that going to be Medusa, or Frankie Raye (hmmm, both were lovers of his Uncle Johnny, once, whom he REALLY resembles).

I'd bet folding money he's talking about Rachel Summers, powerful uber-psychic and Phoenix Force host from the future that Franklin has occasionally been tied to romantically.

[Davies]

<whistles innocently>

[Davies]

Even as a chid, Val Richards displayed signs of scientific genius and an extremely orderly personality. Whenever she set a goal for herself, she would write it in marker on a small whiteboard that she carried with her, adding the steps needed to achieve that goal beneath it and erasing them and the goal itself once she had been achieved. When asked why she didn't use an electronic tablet for this, she would politely explain that she wanted a physical reminder of something she needed to do.

On the horrible day when she was eleven, after she looked in on her mother who was curled up weeping inside a force field ignoring Uncle Johnny trying to offer comfort, and noted the images of her uncle Ben on TV trying to commit suicide by Hulk, she went into her room and calmly erased from the whiteboard any goals she had set for herself recently, and put a new one on it instead. "Kill Mordru," she wrote. Those words remain inscribed there to this day, though the subsidiary goals beneath that one have changed quite a bit over the past decade.

Soon after that -- a little too soon, in the estimation of her mother and a few other concerned adults -- she manifested a mutant superpower of her own. Essentially, her mind is permanently "cloaked" so that it cannot be detected or targeted by the majority of psychic powers, so that not even her older brother can read or communicate with her mind. (Dr. Grey managed it, though.) This has the beneficial side effect of making her invisible to mutant detection devices, which detect the psychic waves emitted by most mutant brains. Of course, as the family member of a well-known mutant, she would be targeted by anti-mutant bigots regardless, but she has found ways to put this little talent of hers to good use.

As already mentioned, Val has taken up the team role of "obsessive scientist who occasionally remembers how much they love their family", but unlike her brother (who considers everyone who has ever been a part of the Fantastic Four or even closely associated with it to be part of the family) she has a much narrower definition of the term. Her family are her mother, her brother, and Uncle Ben -- if her father were to miraculously returned to life, a project she considers unfeasible, he would also be there. She treats Julie with polite courtesy, recognizing that this situation is not of the girl's making, but has nothing but silent contempt for Uncle Johnny, though she suppresses that (with difficulty) when talking with her mother.

Val has known that she is asexual since early adolescence. She is not aromantic, however, and has had chaste relationships with a number of infomorphic entities over the years, most notably an extended liaison with a subsidiary node of ISAAC, the Titanian super-computer. Her worst "dating experience" involved a similar software avatar of the Supreme Intelligence, who attempted to seduce her into giving up her body to join its collective. She despises Supremor only a little less than she despises Mordru.

Val Richards -- PL 12

Abilities:
STR 0 | STA 2 | AGL 2 | DEX 4 | FGT 3 | INT 10 | AWE 4 | PRE 3

Powers:
Force Field Generator: Array (38 points); Removable (-7 points)

• Personal Field: Deflect 12; Sustained Impervious Protection 12, Subtle 2 - 38 points
• Projected Field: Create 12, Impervious, Subtle 2 - 1 point

Gadgets: Variable 5 (technological); Removable (-7 points) - 28 points
Invisible Mind: Permanent Concealment 2 (mental) - 4 points
Really Big Gun: Ranged Damage 10; Easily Removable (-8 points) - 12 points

Frequent Variable Settings:
Goggles: Senses 5 (analytical visual, darkvision, microscopic vision 1) - 5 points
Jetpack: Flight 8 (500 MPH) - 16 points
Radar Scrambler: Concealment 2 (radio) - 4 points

Advantages:
All-out Attack, Benefit 4 (multimillionaire), Eidetic Memory, Equipment 5, Improved Aim, Inventor, Ranged Attack 2, Skill Mastery (Technology), Teamwork.

Equipment:
25 points for team equipment budget.

Skills:
Expertise: Galactic 4 (+14), Expertise: Science 7 (+17), Investigation 5 (+15), Perception 9 (+13), Ranged Combat: Really Big Gun 8 (+12), Technology 6 (+16), Treatment 2 (+12), Vehicles 7 (+11).

Offense:
Initiative +2
Unarmed +3 (Close Damage 0)
Really Big Gun +14 (Ranged Damage 10)

Defense:
Dodge 8, Parry 8, Fortitude 4, Toughness 14/2, Will 12

Totals:
Abilities 56 + Powers 76 + Advantages 17 + Skills 24 + Defenses 21 = 194 points

Offensive PL: 12
Defensive PL: 12
Resistance PL: 8
Skill PL: 12

Complications:
Discovery--Motivation. Family (brother and mother and Uncle Ben and that is IT.) Hatred (Mordru.) Obsessive Tendencies.

[Goldar]

So....is the hatred for this Modru....the Master Sorcerer Modru of the Legion of Superheroes timeline?