C H A R A C T E R S U M M A R Y C H A R A C T E R S U M M A R Y
_________________________________________________________ Bruce Wayne _________________________________________________________ 35 | Single _________________________________________________________ Wayne-Powers | American
N O T A B L E A B I L I T I E S & T O O L S N O T A B L E A B I L I T I E S & T O O L S
A B I L I T I E S ▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔ Bruce lacks any superhuman powers, but he makes up for it with...-
T O O L (S) ▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔ ◼ UTILITY BELT The primary tool in his arsenal, Wayne has hidden many gadgets within the band and buckle, in addition to the weapons within the pouches. These include the highly customizable Batarang shuriken, the grapple gun with lines that are interwoven with adamantium, smoke pellets, tear gas, a sonic emitter, a handheld torch, cuffs, a line-launcher, flash grenades, tracers, a forensics kit, explosive gel, a cryptographic sequencer, and EMP grenades.
◼ BATSUIT Originally built off of prototype armor developed by Lucius Fox for a military contract, Wayne's uniform is a tri-weave polymer made up of kevlar, carbon fiber, and injected titanium pockets. Sewn within it are several gadgets controlled via a button at the top of the gauntlet, including a rebreather, nightvision and infrared lenses, several thousand-volt tasers, electric billy clubs, and an electronic disruptor. Perhaps the most advanced element is the A.I. HUD embedded in the cowl, connected directly to a private satellite that allows for interaction with Bat-Drones.
◼ BAT-DRONES The result of Wayne's military contract at work, these drones both resemble Batman's namesake and provide a key function in covertly monitoring Gotham from the skies. Capable of providing 3D mapping of a given area and feeding it directly into the suit's cowl, the drones are also equipped with highly sensitive microphones for eavesdropping, gadget delivery, biometric tracking, and even tear gas dispersal for riot control.
◼ THE BATMOBILE Batman's vehicle of choice, the car has been upgraded significantly over the last five years, with heavier armor and a jet engine capable of reaching over 200 MPH in under twenty seconds. The tires are puncture-proof and able to withstand bullets, and there are many offensive capabilities built within, such as adamantium shielding, a flamethrower, flares, oil slick, an EMP canon, and a massive grapple wench. The most useful feature is the auto-nav computer, which can be activated with voice commands from several hundred feet away.
◼ BATCYCLE A customised armored motorcycle with many of the same functions present in The Batmobile, The Batcycle is more easily hidden and capable of maneuvering much tighter spaces within Gotham. It can be slid into a hollow frame within The Batmobile itself and deployed when activated under emergency ejection.
◼ BATWING A military stealth plane customized to resemble a giant Bat, The Batwing can achieve speeds far greater than The Batmobile or Batcycle while remaining entirely invisible at night. The twin engines are capable of soundless performance and the plane can hover without manual control, in addition to firing missiles and grenades for the purposes of a direct impact breach.
◼ BATBOAT Stored within The Batcave's lowest level, Batman's aquatic rover is able to submerge to highly-pressurized depths and reach speeds of up to 150 MPH both above and beneath any given surface of water. A track connected to Gotham's sewer system exists connected to the cave for easy deployment. -
N O T A B L E S K I L L S & T A L E N T S N O T A B L E S K I L L S & T A L E N T S
S K I L L (S) ▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔ ◼ MARTIAL ARTS MASTERY From within Ted Grant's gym in Chicago and Ricardo Diaz's compound in South America, to various others in London, Africa, India, and the masters across Asia, leading up to The League of Shadows under Ra's Al Ghul, Wayne studied for many years to become a highly adept combatant. He is skilled in over thirty-seven forms of martial arts picked up in some of the most desolate parts of the Earth, with the only combat teachings that completely eluded him belonging to a rumored mystical city hidden in the Himalayas.
◼ DETECTIVE Taught by Detective Harvey Harris of Chicago, Dan Mallory of Manchester, and Henri Ducard of Paris, Wayne has developed an unparalleled deductive mind. And though he's able to pick up on hidden details of a crime freely, his lessons in satellite surveillance and forensic investigation have made him formidable by many standards.
◼ NINJA Taught by Ra's Al Ghul and his followers during a brief stint with the League of Shadows, Wayne can disappear into the darkness as well as improvise effective distractions seamlessly. With enough training, he was also able to learn how to appear anywhere when fully hidden.
◼ MANHUNTER Taught the tenants of rationing and preservation in addition to isolation tactics, desert survival, and all-terrain tracking in Saudi Arabia, Wayne's final stop on his worldwide tour was in Alaska, where the respected chief William Great Eagle furthered his skills in developing herbal medicine, using first-aid, creating traps, and camoflauging himself.
◼ PAIN TOLERANCE Taught by the mercenary David Cain, Bruce can redirect all forms of pain, including physical torture, into the deepest recesses of his mind through intensive meditation, breathing conservation, disengaging his vitals, and other physiological techniques. -
T A L E N T (S) ▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔ ◼ THIEF TACTICS Taught in France to become a master of wall-climbing, repelling, freerunning, pickpocketing, safe-cracking, and committing a breaking and entering, Wayne can make his way into most locked rooms aswell as steal whatever he needs to complete an objective, whether it be a keycard or a set of vehicle keys. However, he only practices these techniques when nessescary.
◼ WHEELMAN Taught under Santiago Vargas and the legendary car thief Don Miguel in South America, Wayne can operate standard and specialty cars aswell as motorcycles with professional racing levels of precision. His vehicle of choice is a custom souped-up military bridging vehicle decked out in bulletproof armor. Or as he's taken to calling it, The Batmobile.
◼ MASTERY OF THE AIR Taught in Munich to maintain and pilot an aircraft, Wayne also took up the sports of paragliding and skydiving in a bid to erase some lingering fears. To make himself appear more like his animal namesake, it was Lucius Fox's idea to employ an electrostatic exoskeleton in the cloak of his uniform, allowing him to glide considerable distances. -
T H E S T O R Y S O F A R... T H E S T O R Y S O F A R...
When his parents were murdered by a mugger, Bruce Wayne stood to inherit a multi-billion-dollar empire. But upon learning about his family history, he also inherited something much darker. For over two hundred years ago, Gotham City's founding families were murdered in a black mass orchestrated by the deranged Deacon Joseph Blackfire. In a fit of religious mania, the madman believed that by summoning the Biblical bat-demon Barbatos, he and his acolytes would become immortal. Only through the intervention of local townsfolk did Blackfire's unholy ritual come to a brutal end, with the standoff resulting in the survival of the Deacon's accomplice, Amadeus Arkham - his disturbed mind manipulated to serve a dark master. After Arkham was sentenced to spend the rest of his days in chains, locked away in the bowels of his ancestral castle on Arkham Island, it was believed that he had scratched a sigil into the walls to enact a curse against Gotham itself - a curse that, for some, had led to the state of the city's rising tide of violence over the last hundred years. Amadeus was a distant ancestor of Dr. Martha Arkham-Wayne, and her son Bruce was now scarred with the knowledge that he had potentially inherited that same madness.
What always stuck out most in Bruce's mind was the etching that was supposedly left in the walls of Amadeus' cell: incantations in Latin written in a pattern, joining into the shape of a massive, monstrous Bat. But his need to heal from the traumatic event that forever altered the path of his life forced Wayne to push the nightmarish image away. His mental anguish consoled by Martha's closest friend, Leslie Thompkins, Bruce was placed under the guardianship of his considerably irresponsible uncle Phillip, who sent the boy to receive his education overseas rather than make any attempt at parenthood.
With maturity, Bruce had quickly made his way across the world. From Africa to Asia and eventually the whole of Europe, he had earned more than enough education to prepare himself for a law degree, modelling a prospective career after his father, District Attorney Thomas Wayne. But the trauma of his parents' murders loomed large over his every decision, plaguing him with recurring nightmares of a man with a gun and monstrous bat-demons. Returning to Gotham in a bid to reconnect with his roots, Bruce sought out an old family friend: Detective James Gordon, a man whom Thomas Wayne had entrusted with his life on more than one occasion. Gordon was low on the totem pole within the GCPD, but he was the one beacon in a sea of dishonesty. As Bruce looked to the Detective for guidance, Gordon instead advised him to stay as far away from law as possible. Every branch of the city's government had become hopelessly corrupt, and he didn't want Bruce to succumb to a system weighed so heavily against the innocent.
Disillusioned, Wayne realized that to save the city from itself, he'd have to circumvent the law. Using his many overseas contacts, he sought out teachers and mentors of a wildly different sort. And within days, he'd left Gotham a second time to begin his true education. Under the tutelage of the world's masters, Bruce made himself into a weapon. He honed his mind and body, becoming a skilled detective in addition to a seasoned warrior. By the time he was twenty-nine, Bruce finally returned to Gotham City for good as a completely changed man. One willing to bring the fight directly to those who preyed on the desperate, taking up a mask and body armor as an amateur vigilante. But one brutal fight after another led to considerable defeat and, eventually, a near-death experience.
It wasn't just the petty thieves, the mob, and corrupt politicians anymore. Now there were those with unusual abilities - "metahumans", as the world had christened them. And some had come to Gotham to feed off of its suffering - particularly a behemoth known as Bane, who'd quite literally broken Carmine Falcone's mob outfit in half and placed himself at the top.
Bruce needed to meet this evolution of criminality on their level. He needed to utilize extreme methods to strike fear into the worst of them, to become an extension of Gotham's own righteous vengeance. A living, breathing symbol that could effectively mount a revolt against the enemies of justice, no matter how powerful. With that in mind, the symbol that Wayne desired became apparent, having haunted him for most of his waking years. The symbol had been etched in stone as an intended curse. He would use that curse as his shield, acting as a Dark Knight to defend the city from its evils. Bruce Wayne would become a Bat.
But The Gotham Bat, or The Batman as he'd become known, knew that he couldn't fight a battle to save the city alone - he'd need soldiers. Drawn to the same sort of victims of crime that he had once been, Wayne began to seek out like-minded individuals to make up an army of informants. He wouldn't place them in the field, preferring to take on the fighting himself, but he would train them to survive. Soon, the wayward youths of Gotham like Jason Todd, Stephanie Brown, Tim Drake, Cassandra Cain, and Duke Thomas would find themselves drawn into his mission.
They would be the hidden weapon of The Batman's arsenal - with them at his side, Bane and his forces would rue the day that they tried to seize the city for themselves.
P L O T ( S ) & G O A L ( S ) P L O T ( S ) & G O A L ( S )
I think the why of me playing this character is apparent, but my motivation is that I always have a decent amount of ideas to reinvent both Batman's world and his rogues gallery for a game like this. It's been a couple of years since I've stepped into the cape and cowl, and I feel like the time is right to seize it again. The motivation of Batman is the same as it's always been, but I'm altering the details. For one, this isn't a version that's keen on throwing children into colorful costumes and sending them into battle against adults with guns. He didn't grow up with a butler father figure or live in a mansion on the outskirts of town. His father was an attorney instead of a doctor, and Gordon is an old family friend. His playboy persona is less of an old-money layabout and more of a modern-day social media figure that seems to spend as much as he makes. And perhaps most crucially, his appearance in Gotham didn't inspire his enemies to escalate things - their presence inspired him to up his game.
Sidenote, but I know that by claiming the Robins as his personal network, I'm limiting the amount of interaction I can readily have. I have a plan to address that, but these games in the past have become rather Gotham-centric at the expense of other corners of a DC and Marvel world. This is both my attempt to explore a concept inspired by Dark Knights of Steel comic and give the other big names some breathing room.
C H A R A C T E R S U M M A R Y C H A R A C T E R S U M M A R Y
_________________________________________________________ 'John Logan' | 141 | Single | Canadian _________________________________________________________ 'Ariel Weaver' | 24 | Single | American _________________________________________________________ Kurt Wagner | 27 | Single | German _________________________________________________________ No Affiliations
N O T A B L E A B I L I T I E S & T O O L S N O T A B L E A B I L I T I E S & T O O L S
A B I L I T I E S ▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔ ◼ REGENERATIVE HEALING FACTOR Abilities, or Superpowers are characteristics that your character possesses which are considered extraordinary when compared to a standard human.
◼ SUPERHUMAN ACUTE SENSES Abilities, or Superpowers are characteristics that your character possesses which are considered extraordinary when compared to a standard human.
◼ BONE CLAWS Logan is physically equipped with two sets of three retractable bone claws stored in his forearms. The claws measure at exactly one foot in length. Both sets of claws and his entire skeleton are laced with adamantium. This makes his bones virtually indestructible. When extended, they tear through the flesh in his knuckles but his healing factor heals the injuries virtually instantaneously. The bone claws are able to tear through most types of flesh and have been able to cut through stone and even steel. Combined with the adamantium, Wolverine's claws are capable of cutting through virtually anyone and anything.
◼ SUPERHUMAN ATTRIBUTES Strength, Speed, Agility, Reflexes, Stamina, Durability. Abilities, or Superpowers are characteristics that your character possesses which are considered extraordinary when compared to a standard human.
◼ ANIMAL EMPATHY Abilities, or Superpowers are characteristics that your character possesses which are considered extraordinary when compared to a standard human.
◼ PSIONIC RESISTANCE Strength, Speed, Agility, Reflexes, Stamina, Durability. Abilities, or Superpowers are characteristics that your character possesses which are considered extraordinary when compared to a standard human. -
T O O L (S) ▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔ ◼ ADAMANTIUM SKELETON Both sets of claws and Logan's entire skeleton are laced with adamantium. This makes his bones virtually indestructible. The adamantium that Wolverine has is a unique type to him. When the metal was grafted to him by the Weapon X program, his healing factor altered the properties of the metal, infusing it with the bone without inhibiting any of his skeleton's functions. The new metal was dubbed adamantium beta. -
A B I L I T I E S ▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔ ◼ PHASING Kitty Pryde can pass through solid matter by allowing the molecules of her body to travel through the space between the molecules of whatever solid she is travelling through. She can also render other people and objects intangible by touching them. When phasing through extremely dense materials, such as adamantium, Kitty experiences pain and disorientation as well as those with dense metals in their bodies should she phase through them. Kitty is capable of phasing any amount of her body through objects as well as humans, leaving them unconscious. Kitty is also capable of killing another being by phasing them into a solid object and then releasing them, causing them to solidify while still within the object. Kitty has trained herself to reflexively assume her intangible state at any indication of danger, such as a loud noise like a gunshot, to protect herself.
Kitty can disrupt electronic devices by passing through them in this manner without harm to herself. When she uses this ability in the opposite direction, she can levitate herself by walking on air, as if she were walking up a flight of stairs. In her intangible state, she is weak against certain energies, psionic and mystical attacks. While in phase form, Kitty has a remarkable resistance to psychic probing and psionic attacks, and she the potential to be able to use her phasing abilities to perform surgery, essentially phasing cancerous growths out of people's bodies.
One theory that could potentially explain Kitty Pryde's power of intangibility is that of "spintronics". This theory is based on electrostatic repulsion, which is the force that keeps subatomic objects from passing through one another. Electrons naturally repel each other and instead of positive or negative charge, electrons have what is called "spin", which is based on a random pattern of up and down. If Kitty can rearrange her molecules into an organized manner so that they are "polarized" with the objects she is trying to pass through, then she can pull her molecules through objects (like a molecular magnet) by controlling the spin on all of the particles in her body. By reversing the polarity on air, she can then air walk by making the air around her much harder. This also explains why she disrupts electronic systems since she basically polarizes the spin of electrons in objects she passes through and drastically changes the conducting forces in circuitry.
◼ LOCKHEED Coming Soon to an IC near you. -
T O O L (S) ▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔ ◼ KATANA Equipped with a pair of katanas during her time as Ogun's Shadowcat, Kitty is an accomplished swordsman due to her programming at the hands of the Samurai Master. Now on the run from the Purifiers, these weapons are always close at hand.
◼ LAPTOP A former computer engineering student, Kitty is a genius with applied technology and computer science and she is especially skilled with computer hardware design and use. -
A B I L I T I E S ▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔ ◼ SUPERHUMAN AGILITY & DEXTERITY In addition to his primary power of teleportation, Nightcrawler's physiology is unique in several different ways. His agility far surpasses that of an Olympic-level gymnast, and his bone structure allows him great flexibility. His spine is more flexible than an ordinary human, enabling him to remain in a crouched position for a long time and perform contortionist-type feats without causing any damage to his spine. Nightcrawler's balance and bodily coordination are all enhanced to superhuman levels. He can cling to surfaces through microscopic suction cups located on the pads of his hands and feet. However, some surfaces are so frictionless that he cannot cling to them. He also possesses superhuman dexterity, being able to manipulate items and fence with either hand as well as his tail.
◼ TELEPORTATION Kurt Wagner is a mutant whose primary mutant power is the ability to teleport himself, his clothing, and a certain amount of additional mass from one point to another virtually instantaneously. He teleports by displacing himself into the Brimstone Dimension, travelling through it, and then returning to his own dimension at a certain distance from his point of departure. He consciously determines his point of return. The entire process occurs so quickly that Nightcrawler is unaware of being in the Brimstone Dimension at all. Nightcrawler guides himself through the Brimstone Dimension by a subconscious, natural direction-finding sense. Although Nightcrawler controls his teleportation ability with his conscious mind, his power to teleport is not psionic. Rather, it is the result of an unknown biochemical/biophysical reaction which he triggers mentally.
He can teleport distances of up to two miles (3 km) under optimal conditions. The longer the distance over which Nightcrawler teleports himself, the harder and more exhausting it is for him to make the teleportation "jump". It is easier for him to teleport between north and south (along Earth's magnetic field lines) than it is for him to teleport between east and west (against the magnetic lines). Under optimal conditions, teleporting only himself and his costume, Nightcrawler can displace himself a distance of about two miles east-to-west, and up to three miles north-to-south. Making a vertical teleportation upwards is difficult and dangerous, fighting against both the electromagnetic and gravitational fields.
He possesses a limited unconscious extrasensory "spatial awareness" ability which prevents him from teleporting into solid objects within his immediate vicinity, but this ability diminishes the greater the distance he teleports. Because teleporting into other solid matter would cause severe injury or death, he will only teleport to an area he is familiar with or that he can see at the time or has seen in the past. His power automatically displaces liquids and gases when he arrives.
The process of teleportation places a strain on his endurance and that of any passengers; carrying mass other than his body and clothing when teleporting adds additional strain to his body. Through practice, he has been able to teleport with a passenger over a long distance without exhausting himself. Extensive training has raised his tolerance for teleportation, but most of his passengers lack this tolerance. Therefore, one of his tactics is to grab opponents and make several quick teleportations with them. They usually become weakened or even pass out from the strain.
After Nightcrawler teleports, he leaves behind the smoke and a faint scent of burning brimstone; this is a small portion of the atmosphere of the dimension through which he travels when he teleports. His teleportation power is due to a biophysical/biochemical reaction he consciously triggers within himself. A loud "bamf" noise is always present whenever he teleports (being the sound of air rushing to fill the space he was just occupying). His teleporting also causes a slight change in the atmosphere before he arrives, although only superhumans with heightened senses can detect it.
◼ UNIQUE MUTANT PHYSIOLOGY Nightcrawler has only three digits (including an opposable thumb) on each hand. He also has only two toes on each foot, each longer than an ordinary human's, with a toe-like protrusion on his heels (which allows him to grip with his feet). He has a prehensile tail, approximately 3'6" long, which could support his own weight. Nightcrawler has pointed ears and pronounced fang-like canine teeth. His spine is more flexible than an ordinary human being's, allowing him to spend much of his time in a semi-crouching position without damaging his posture and enabling him to perform contortionist-like feats. His body is almost entirely covered with a fine blue-colored fur.
He can blend into shadows, both as a result of this indigo-coloured fur and the dimensional portal which always surrounds his body and absorbs photons. The Brimstone dimension he travels through constantly bends the light around him, making him appear in shadow during normal daylight and rendering him nearly invisible in the dark. Nightcrawler's prehensile tail is dexterous enough to allow him to grab onto objects with relative ease. His tail is strong enough to not only support his body weight, but also lift an adult man completely off the ground at the same time, and is deft enough to fight with while wielding a sword or blunt object. He also possesses a degree of heightened night vision.-
T O O L (S) ▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔ ◼ RAPIERS A skilled fencer and swordsman, Nightcrawler is adept at a three-sword style of fighitng and prefers rapiers, foils and other fencing style of swords opposed to heavier blades. -
N O T A B L E S K I L L S & T A L E N T S N O T A B L E S K I L L S & T A L E N T S
S K I L L (S) ▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔ ◼ COVERT OPERATIVE Wolverine has acquired and demonstrated advanced covert abilities during the years he has worked with the Devil's Brigade and Team X. He has trained in the use of and is familiar with many weapons, vehicles, aircraft and computer systems. Logan is also considered a highly skilled assassin and has learned numerous techniques to dispatch enemies.
◼ MARTIAL ARTIST Due to his age and experience, Logan has been able to learn virtually every form of fighting style on Earth, mastering 28 forms of Kung-Fu alone, as well as the pressure points located not just on the human body, but also on some alien bodies as well. Logan can also stop the negative effects of Chi-based attacks by controlling his thoughts and emotions. His skill is honed enough that he is also able to "disappear" to other skilled opponents amid combat.
◼ MULTILINGUAL A polyglot; Logan is fluent in many languages including English, Japanese, Russian, Mandarin, Cheyenne, Korean, Lakota, and Spanish. Logan also has some knowledge of Farsi, French, German, Thai, and Vietnamese. ◼ WEAPONS EXPERT Logan is a trained expert with many guns, blades, explosives, and other weaponry due to his experiences as a solider, samurai, spy and mercenary. -
T A L E N T (S) ▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔ ◼ TRACKING Due to his superhuman sense, Logan is considered to be one of the world's most skilled trackers. -
S K I L L (S) ▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔ ◼ DANCE TRAINING Kitty is trained in ballet and modern dance. She continued to take dance training under the tutelage of Stevie Hunter and was highly agile.
◼ MARTIAL ARTIST Shadowcat possessed moderate expertise of the martial arts of the Japanese ninja and samurai. Shadowcat demonstrated great knowledge of ninja methods of combat when she was mentally possessed by the Ronin Ogun. -
T A L E N T (S) ▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔ ◼ COMPUTER GENIUS Kitty was a student in the field of computer science, demonstrating a genius-level aptitude for programming, modifying, and diagnosing almost any computer system: even those of unfamiliar human and extraterrestrial origin, having a particularly vested interest in learning to protect against aliens such as the Reach. -
S K I L L (S) ▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔ ◼ COMBATANT He is a skilled hand-to-hand combatant and a master at fencing, which he can even perform with his tail, which is strong enough to support his entire body weight. Martial arts training.
◼ MULTILINGUAL Nightcrawler is fluent in various languages due to his youth travelling around Europe as the star performer in a circus, and knowing the language of wherever they were that week was very handy. Kurt also speaks English, French, Spanish, and Italian, as well as his native German. -
T A L E N T (S) ▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔ ◼ ACROBATICS Nightcrawler is an Olympic-class acrobat thanks to his flexible spine that allows him to perform contortionist-like feats and to go long periods in a semi-crouching position without injury. -
T H E S T O R Y S O F A R... T H E S T O R Y S O F A R...
Unlike metahumans, mutants had existed long before the word 'superheroes' became common jargon. James Howlett was one such mutant, born in the mid-1880s in Northern Alberta. Upon the night of his father's murder, James' mutant abilities manifested, and he stabbed his father's killer, Thomas Logan, before fleeing with his caretaker and best friend, Rose O'Hara, into the wilderness, while Thomas' son, Dog Logan, told the police that Rose had murdered Thomas.
The pair were inseparable, and their bond grew and evolved well past friendship while living on the lam. Their time together cemented their love for one another as they found a small mining community and integrated into it. James would go to work in the mines while Rose tended to their home. This all changed when Dog Logan, at the behest of James' grandfather, tracked the pair down. This encounter forced James to put Dog down. Despite having already seen James kill once before, something changed into Rose as James was forced to kill their former friend. She slipped away in the middle of the night, leaving only a note. This, combined with taking another life, broke something inside of James, and he fled into the wild.
Living among the dense Canadian Wilderness, Logan was adopted by a pack of wolves over which he quickly exerted dominance. Living among animals, he became one himself, and the feral man became something of a local legend, at least until his encounter with a small Blackfoot community where the feral James was introduced to a woman named Silver Fox. Due to a combination of his feral period and the trauma, James's mind had regressed to a point where he no longer remembered his name. This led Silver Fox to dub him 'Piinotoyi'.
During this time, a serial killer dubbed 'The Slasher' was working his way across Alberta. Encountering Silver Fox on a trip into town, the incognito killer stalked the woman while she was buying gifts to celebrate Piinotoyi's birthday. The Slasher had other plans and followed Silver Fox from the small town before attacking her. Piinotoyi intercepted too late, flying into a rage over Silver Fox's body and attacking the Slasher. The Slasher ultimately emerged the victor, but not before savouring the fight and promising Piinotoyi their paths would cross again. Devastated by the loss of Silver Fox and having seen Piinotoyi fight against the Slasher, the Black Foot gave Piinotoyi another new name, 'Carcajou', before banishing him not to return until he had properly taken vengeance for Silver Fox's death.
Tracking the Slasher, Caracjou was eventually led back to the Howlett Estate, completely unaware of its significance due to his lost memories. Bearing an undeniable resemblance to both Thomas and Dog Logan, Caracjou was mistaken as the younger Logan and brought before his own senile and aged grandfather, who offered him Thomas' old role of groundskeeper. With the Slasher in the wind and no leads, the newly dubbed 'Logan' accepted the job.
When the Great War rolled about, Logan was drafted and enlisted in the Canadian Expeditionary Force. His mutant abilities were eventually outed, leading to Logan becoming part of the Devil's Brigade. A special unit tasked with the most suicidal missions in the war, the Devil's Brigade was under the command of Silas Burr, another mutant. Logan's time in the Devil's Brigade earned him an invitation to the Weapon Plus Program, where he was assigned to Team X. A part of this special operations, Logan was ever the man on the move, travelling the globe carrying out covert operations. During these travels, he encountered and earned the respect of Ogun Ryu, a martial master and disciplined samurai who offered to train Logan in the ways of Bushido. Logan declined and continued on with Team X, serving the unit through the Second World War, where a special interest was taken in Logan.
Unbeknownst to Logan or the other members of Team X, their memories were constantly being manipulated, wiped and replaced with false ones at the end of every mission. Already a man with a fractured mind, Logan eventually forgot about his mission of vengeance against the Slasher. The Slasher, however, had been going by the alias, Sabertooth and was also recruited to fight on Team X, Logan happily working alongside the man he had promised to kill.
Selected to be Weapon X, Logan underwent an experimental procedure that bonded the metallic alloy known as Adamantium to his skeleton, before fusing completely with him. Under the effects of his healing factor, the Adamantium further evolved, becoming an integral part of him and recognized as Adamantium Beta. During his time with Weapon X, Logan was heavily sedated and controlled through a helmet, giving him false memories and turning him into a sort of puppet for the Program. He was even forced to kill an entire town, wanting to test if Logan would do any assignment. His abilities were put to the test. Eventually, Logan was able to resist the mind-control and break free from the facility. Enraged and more beast than man, he killed nearly anyone who stood in his way, leaving behind a trail of bodies.
Despite his shattered memories, Logan retained Ogun's offer to train him. Finding his way to Japan, Logan mastered bushido, finding peace again to accept love in the form of Itsu, Ogun's daughter. But under the orders of the Weapon Plus Program, Sabertooth had been sent to track Logan down. Unable to best Logan this time, Sabertooth killed Itsu, re-igniting Logan's quest for vengeance while sending Ogun down one of his own. Only this time it was against Logan.
Logan and Sabertooth would go on to tangle several more times, each time bloodier than the last. But neither was ever able to put the other down. Their blood feud even outlasted the Weapon Plus Progam as the events of the Reach's invasion forced the doors to close on the program lest it be compared to the horrors inflicted by the alien insurgents. But in the wake of the Reach came something far worse.
Despite the horrors the Reach inflicted on those they experimented upon, metahumans and mutants alike are viewed as Reach sympathizers, even allies. Repulsed by these 'creatures', a sect of extremists known as the Purifiers began hunting down mutants and metahumans alike, with a special target on Wolverine's back.
But it was not only the Purifiers after Logan. Ogun's chance for vengeance also presented itself when a man named Carmen Pryde found himself in debt to Ogun Ryu. As Ogun had lost his daughter, so too did it cost Carmen his daughter, Katherine, whom Ogun had manipulated and reprogrammed into an assassin of his own before eventually unleashing the 'Shadowcat' against the former Weapon X. During a confrontation in Madripoor, Logan and Shadowcat fought, with Logan eventually able to break Katherine of her programming. Reuniting the girl with her father, Logan promised to find a way to pay Carmen's debt.
Unfortunately, the Purifiers had already discovered their location and to save his daughter, Carmen sacrificed his own life, needlessly jumping in the path of a bullet meant for Katherine, who would have phased through it. With nowhere left to turn and forced on the run, Logan begrudgingly took Katherine on as the pair fled Madripoor, finding themselves on a boat to Germany.
P L O T ( S ) & G O A L ( S ) P L O T ( S ) & G O A L ( S )
Kitty and Logan are a pretty natural pairing in the comics, but I always enjoyed the dynamic that X-Men Evolution presented between Kitty and Kurt. Building on that, Kurt and Logan at times have a fun dynamic, so I figured what better plot than to have this little dysfunctional father-daughter combo running around with a potential love interest.
They're loners who are on the run, they're not affiliated with the X-Men or any other established team. They know they're hated mutants, and they're being hunted. Logan is running from something in his past that has ties to Kitty as well, and Kurt gets pulled into it, eventually proving himself an invaluable ally to the pair. The boon of playing this trio is that they're still able to keep up with some of DC's and Marvel's heavier hitters, allowing the 'Exiles' to crossover into other plots and larger events.
I'm looking forward to playing some new characters while doing world-building in the mutant corner of the 'Verse. Ideally, expanding the world vision that these three currently see and taking them from mutants on the run to something larger than themselves.
C H A R A C T E R S U M M A R Y C H A R A C T E R S U M M A R Y
_________________________________________________________ Reed Nathaniel Richards Susan Storm _________________________________________________________ 34 & 32 | Engaged _________________________________________________________ Former Fantastic Four / The Future Foundation | American
N O T A B L E A B I L I T I E S & T O O L S N O T A B L E A B I L I T I E S & T O O L S
A B I L I T I E S ▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔ ◼ Reed Possesses a hyper-elastic, highly durable physiology that allows for reshaping, elongation, and expansion of his form. ◼ Sue Capable of bending light to become invisible and generating powerful, precise force fields. Her control is both fine-tuned and adaptable, able to protect, shape, or strike with remarkable finesse. -
T O O L (S) ▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔ ◼ Adaptive Nano-Weave Suits Custom-built by Reed using a blend of unstable molecules and nano-reactive fibers. These suits shift with their powers. Reed's stretching without resistance or tearing, Sue's turning fully invisible alongside her, or reinforcing under stress during field ops. They also provide limited environmental protection, minor impact resistance, and a failsafe biometric lock keyed only to them. Reed insists they're "still prototypes." Sue's worn hers through three building collapses and a gravitic field without issue.
◼ Baxcom A cobbled-together comms device built from salvaged Baxter Building components. Originally meant for interdimensional frequency monitoring, it now allows encrypted, short-range communication between allies. It's limited in bandwidth, but nearly untraceable thanks to Reed's quantum scrambling script.
◼ Spectral Lens Array Sue's modified eyewear, built from cracked quantum glass harvested during an early Reach skirmish, allows her to 'see' energy fields, gravitational fluxes, and faint traces of Reach tech. It assists in pinpointing energy signatures and detecting camouflage or cloaked units.
◼ Modular Fabricator Drone ("HERBIE Jr.") Built from the last surviving HERBIE chassis, now stripped down and mobile. HERBIE Jr. can be deployed for remote repairs, data scraping, or 3D-printing mission-critical tools from salvaged parts. Runs on solar/ambient energy and emits a charming chime when it boots up.
◼ The Argo A retrofitted transport built from the remains of an old Fantasticar prototype. A small two seater, the Argo has limited hover capabilities, short-burst cloaking, and a makeshift Faraday cage for keeping sensitive tech off-grid. Reed often calls it a "Death trap on wheels." Sue just calls it "Our ride." -
N O T A B L E S K I L L S & T A L E N T S N O T A B L E S K I L L S & T A L E N T S
S K I L L (S) ▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔ ◼ Reed Quantum engineer, technologist, biophysicist, and inventor; his designs have shaped modern metahuman science, for better and worse. While not a traditional fighter, his battlefield creativity can shift the tide in unexpected ways, especially with the use of his power.
◼ Sue A leading researcher in hard-light physics and biophotonic shielding, with extensive field experience handling emergent phenomena. Sue's time in the field taught her more than physics. She's become a capable field leader. Calm under pressure, quick to assess terrain, and skilled in navigating hostile environments. She's developed an almost spy-like knack for reading rooms, slipping into restricted zones, and managing undercover operations. -
T A L E N T (S) ▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔ ◼ Reed Intuitive systems thinker. Able to conceptualize solutions in moments others would need weeks to formulate. His intellect remains his most formidable trait, being that he is arguably the smartest man on Earth. He is an instinctive builder who can make something extraordinary from virtually nothing. He's rarely without a working solution, even when working out of abandoned garages or alleys.
◼ Sue Strong emotional intelligence and exceptional spatial awareness. She often anticipates conflict before it begins and navigates group dynamics with quiet precision. -
T H E S T O R Y S O F A R... T H E S T O R Y S O F A R...
Reed and Sue met in a think-tank formed by Franklin Storm to nurture some of the worlds greatest young minds. It was the age old tale of unrequited love. Sue was obsessed with the slightly older and brilliant Reed, while Reed was so oblivious that it took a combination of Johnny Storm and Ben Grimm to have him realise all the times she was asking to study together, she was actually doing so to get closer to him, not to learn about thermodynamics.
After their first date they knew it was love. The two of them were an inseperable team, and with Johnny and Ben at their side they were going to take the world by storm...if you'll pardon the pun. Reed's greatest idea was an interdimensional teleporter, something he had worked on from a young age, managing to send items through one end of the machine and out the other. With the resources available at the think tank, he was able to build a much bigger version of the teleporter, and after proposing his device to the US government he was given the backing to launch a space mission, using his technology to send his crew further into space than any human had ventured before. However with one condition, they were to work with the Latverian envoy to the think tank, Victor von Doom. The group had never liked Victor, but the government were insistent due to a conflict arising in the region of Latveria that the US had interests in. The publicity of sending one of their countrymen into space on a monumnetal flight was too good an opportunity to pass up.
Of course, it didn't go to plan. The group that would shortly after become the Fantastic Four were altered on a chemical level by cosmic rays during their trip. They were lucky to make it back alive, and their ordeal only brought them closer together. After the space mission that changed everything, they tried to become something greater: public heroes, pioneers, an inspiration. It didn't hold. The world wasn't ready. And when the Reach arrived just as they were due to make their grand entrance, everything collapsed. They were underprepared and under-equipped. Useless against the advanced technology and might of The Reach.
The team fractured quickly. Johnny wanted fame. Ben wanted stability. Reed wanted answers. Sue tried to hold it together, but after a devastating confrontation between Reed and Ben over a failed attempt to return Ben to normal, and Johnny's reckless behavior nearly exposing Sue's lab, the Four went dark. Officially? They disbanded. Unofficially? They split on bad terms.
Now Reed and Sue operate as a two-person metahuman taskforce: low-profile, always moving, trying to stay one step ahead of Lord's regime. They chase down unstable Reach technology before it can be weaponized or salvaged by the government.
Reed's guilt runs deep. His research, data meant to help locate emergent anomalies and map interdimensional flux was repurposed by Lord's regime to tag and hunt metahumans. Every captured mutant or vigilante with a tracker embedded beneath their skin is a reminder of what he helped build. He's made it his mission to tear it down. no matter the cost.
Sue, meanwhile, has committed herself to building something new. A support structure. A resistance. The Future Foundation. She envisions it as a distributed network for young metas, fringe scientists, and refugees. She has hope that they can provide sanctuary for young Meta-Humans, a place they can escape to when they have nowhere else to turn.
Together, they’ve salvaged pieces of the disbanded Baxter infrastructure, not a proper lab or base of operations, but a hidden basement server hub in Manhattan where the FF once stored early experiments. Now it's their base of operations, a barely-functioning, off-grid digital war room.
They rarely see Ben or Johnny. When they do, it's tense. No one's quite ready to apologize. Maybe one day. But not yet. For now they trudge on, salvaging what they can together and reaching out to those they can.
P L O T ( S ) & G O A L ( S ) P L O T ( S ) & G O A L ( S )
I was recently speaking to my partner about how as a child I never saw the appeal of the Fantastic Four, and especially not Mr. Fantastic. As an adult though, I now realise the driving force behind the best stories are the interpersonal relationships between the characters within, and I honestly can think of few groups that exemplify this dynamic than the Fantastic Four. I've had an idea in my head since the Ultimate One roleplay I was involved in for a heroic version of The Maker. One who had lost Sue, but remained hopeful, albeit jaded and was out to help people.
As I wrote this application though, I realised that without Sue, Reed would have very little left if Franklin and Valeria weren't born. Sue is his driving motivation for what he does more than anything else. I decided that a version of the two of them having lost Johnny and Ben due to family problems would be far more interesting and in line with my vision of these characters than my former idea. They have each other to rely on through and through, even if they are in the shadow of an event that tore their found family apart, and in a world that refuses to accept them.
I see them trying to be a source of hope within the darkness of this world. They are trying to form The Future Foundation to reach out to young meta-humans with nowhere else to turn, and to form a network that can support each other. They might be younger than their usual depiction in the comics, but I intend to write them as the parental figures they are at heart. I want them to be characters that other players can rely on and will turn to for help or advice, and vice versa.
Both of them are motivated in part by guilt. Reed primarily due to his perceived failure with the space misson, during The Reach Event, and because of his work being used by Lord to track young meta-humans. Sue is a lot more hopeful, but the fact she is estranged from her brother plays on her mind.
If it isn't obvious already, I would hope for the two of them to become a driving force in uniting members of the RP under a team at some point down the line. As well as researching the Reach and their technology and having direct conflict with President Lord's forces in doing so.
C H A R A C T E R S U M M A R Y C H A R A C T E R S U M M A R Y
_________________________________________________________ Victor Charles Sage Charles Victor Szasz _________________________________________________________ 30 | Single _________________________________________________________ N/A | American
N O T A B L E A B I L I T I E S & T O O L S N O T A B L E A B I L I T I E S & T O O L S
A B I L I T I E S ▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔ ◼ POWERLESS Vic has no powers to speak of. He's just a normal man. -
T O O L (S) ▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔ ◼ GRAPPLING GUN A gun powered by CO2 that shoots a grappling hook. Designed by the late Aristotle Rodor, it can be used to scale buildings or swing across rooftops.
◼ HACKING KIT A small computer and some cables that Vic can hook up to electronics and use to crack their security. -
N O T A B L E S K I L L S & T A L E N T S N O T A B L E S K I L L S & T A L E N T S
S K I L L (S) ▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔ ◼ HAND TO HAND COMBAT Vic was never trained in any sort of martial art but is still skilled in a fist fight, using down and dirty street brawling techniques. He's prone to using his environment to help him, slamming computer monitor's into heads or tossing vases at groins.
◼ HACKING Vic knows his way around technology, able to hack into computer systems and other electronics using his hacking kit. -
T A L E N T (S) ▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔ ◼ PERCEPTION Vic has a natural affinity for picking up details, from facial twitches to environmental details. This prowess helps him greatly in his detective work. -
T H E S T O R Y S O F A R... T H E S T O R Y S O F A R...
You know the gist of it. Vic was an orphan, he met a man named Aristotle Rodor who helped him go to college, and he ended up working for a local newspaper. With Rodor's help, Vic became the vigilante known as the Question, fighting back against crime and government corruption. Try as he might, Hub City was just too volatile for Vic to save it, and with Rodor's death from cancer, Vic decided to leave the city behind to wander the United States. He finds himself working as a freelance journalist and investigator for cash and living out of hotel rooms (or failing that, his car).
As the Question, he runs a blog dedicated to leaking government documents and projects as well as documenting his vigilante crusades. Operating mostly on the east coast, from New York to Metropolis, Gotham to Washington DC, the Question fights street level crooks between breaking into government facilities to leak information to the public. He's garnered a bit of a following, but to the rest of the superhero community he's an unhinged conspiracy theorist.
P L O T ( S ) & G O A L ( S ) P L O T ( S ) & G O A L ( S )
This iteration of the Question is quite a bit closer to the Justice League Unlimited version of the character, with some sprinklings of Rorschach in there as well. He's not the Zen-like martial artist trained under Richard Dragon, he's an angry and violent vigilante who's probably not really helping the public perception of superheroes. My intention is to open myself up to crossovers and interactions with the rest of the cast, having Vic traveling between several major cities on the hunt for crime to fight and conspiracies to unravel. I'll do very little in the way of solo arcs, instead trying to hop around between different cities teaming up with anyone who'll have me.
C H A R A C T E R S U M M A R Y C H A R A C T E R S U M M A R Y
_________________________________________________________ Alan Ladd Wellington Scott _________________________________________________________ 42 | Divorced _________________________________________________________ Architect | American
N O T A B L E A B I L I T I E S & T O O L S N O T A B L E A B I L I T I E S & T O O L S
A B I L I T I E S ▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔ ◼ ABILITY Mystic Energy Constructs: Forms arcane shields, weapons, and tools with sentient green flame. • Spell-like Abilities: Flight, teleportation, energy blasts, and psychic shielding. • Mystic Sense & Astral Perception: Detects magic, auras, and can interact with the astral plane. • Enhanced Physiology: Peak physical form, ageless, resistant to disease and toxins. • Accelerated Healing: Wounds mend in minutes; immune to most poisons and illnesses. • Starheart Resonance: Constant bond with a semi-sentient magical force; grants cosmic awareness. • Magical Armor: Summons runic armor for enhanced durability in battle. • Energy Deflection: Reflects or absorbs attacks with magical fields. • Emotional Amplification: Power increases or destabilizes in response to Alan’s emotional state. -
T O O L (S) ▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔ ◼ TOOL • Starheart Core: The living magical force fused with Alan's soul, serving as the source of all his power. • Sentinel Ring: A unique mystical artifact that channels and shapes Starheart energy into constructs and spells. • Emerald Mantle: A self-repairing cloak enchanted for stealth, shielding, and minor dimensional resistance. • Warding Sigils: Quick-form runes summoned midair to repel or trap magical threats. -
N O T A B L E S K I L L S & T A L E N T S N O T A B L E S K I L L S & T A L E N T S
S K I L L (S) ▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔ ◼ SKILL Architectural Design: Expert in structural planning, sustainable design, and urban renewal, blending aesthetics with purpose. • Crisis Leadership: Calm under pressure, able to rally allies or civilians in emergencies with clear strategic thinking. • Mystic Lore: Deep understanding of occult phenomena and arcane symbols from years as the Sentinel. • Hand-to-Hand Combat: Trained in basic and improvised martial combat; experienced in close-quarters self-defense. • Public Speaking: Charismatic and persuasive, skilled in rallying both public opinion and morale. • Tactical Analysis: Skilled at battlefield awareness and long-term planning, honed through decades of experience. • Multilingual: Conversational in multiple languages due to international missions and arcane studies. • Green Energy Constructs: Masterful use of willpower to create complex, durable constructs for offense, defense, and utility. -
T A L E N T (S) ▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔ ◼ TALENT Unbreakable Will: Alan's willpower is nearly unmatched, forming the core of his power and mental resilience. • Inspirational Presence: Radiates hope and leadership, often uplifting others even in dire circumstances. • Arcane Attunement: Naturally receptive to magical energies, enabling intuitive control over the Starheart's power. • Moral Compass: Grounded by a strong sense of justice and personal integrity, guiding his decisions as Sentinel. • Adaptive Intellect: Quick to analyze problems and adapt strategies, whether in battle or diplomacy. • Legacy of Heroism: Carries the weight and wisdom of generations, lending depth to his actions and choices. -
T H E S T O R Y S O F A R... T H E S T O R Y S O F A R...
Alan Scott’s journey didn’t begin with a ring—it began with a promise: to build a world better than the one he inherited. Trained as an architect, Alan believed in structure, purpose, and harmony. That belief guided him into the stars when he was chosen—against all odds—as a terrestrial liaison to the Green Lantern Corps. Though not a conventional Lantern, Alan’s exposure to their ethos shaped his early career as a protector, acting as a bridge between Earth’s unpredictability and the Corps’ cosmic order.
During the Reach Invasion, when humanity was seduced by false promises of peace, Alan was among the first to question their intentions. He coordinated underground resistance cells across North America, repurposing ancient ley lines and forgotten geomantic structures as beacons of disruption. It was here, deep beneath Earth’s crust and history, that he uncovered the Starheart—a fragment of raw mystical willpower long buried by the Guardians.
In merging with the Starheart, Alan’s essence was fundamentally altered. He didn’t just gain power—he became a conduit of ancient energy, blending mystical chaos with Green Lantern order. This transformation severed his ties to the Corps but granted him autonomy. He returned to Earth not as their emissary—but as its Sentinel.
Life moved forward. He married a fellow architect and activist, a woman who saw through the mask to the man still aching beneath. They tried to build a future together—literally and metaphorically—but the burden of his dual life, his aging without aging, and the haunting visions from the Starheart fractured their bond. The divorce was quiet but final. For a time, Alan stepped away from the world. He poured himself into reconstruction projects, post-Reach trauma architecture, and preserving what little culture hadn’t been atomized in the wake of meta-bomb paranoia.
But he couldn't stay hidden forever.
As President Maxwell Lord’s Agency swept across the globe, rounding up metahumans under the banner of safety, Alan realized that a quiet life was no longer a moral one. He returned—not with a corps behind him or a title above him—but with a lantern lit from within.
Now, under the name Sentinel, Alan Scott walks between shadows and light. Neither wholly mystic nor wholly alien, not revered nor forgotten—he is a remnant of a nobler era and a warning to those who abuse fear. He does not carry a badge. He carries conviction.
P L O T ( S ) & G O A L ( S ) P L O T ( S ) & G O A L ( S )
It’s been a while since I’ve tried to write for a game like this and I want to take some time and go back to my roots of writing on something like this. One of the first characters that I ever wrote was a Lantern Corps member and I figured that it would be poetic to come back to the first one. Alan and his Sentinel persona has always been fascinating and I plan to play him close to the original with some personal variations of my own.
◼ POWERS AND WEAKNESSES I am going to have him play the mystical version of himself and lean more into Starheart’s abilities rather than the Lantern Corps side of him. Most of his abilities are going to reflect this but his weaknesses will be more mental than the Corps yellow or his original wood weakness (no no.2 pencil deaths for Alan). Starheart is going to be his biggest strength and weakness and in possible plots it’s possible that I may have him be an antagonist in its own right, only time will tell. ◼ PLOTS CHARACTER ARC 1: “The Lantern’s Ghost” Alan must confront his unresolved past with the Green Lantern Corps when the Guardians of the Universe attempt to reclaim the Starheart. Forced to choose between cosmic order and Earth’s freedom, Alan defies the Corps and severs his remaining ties, fully embracing his independent identity as Sentinel.
CHARACTER ARC 2: “Starborn Fallout” After a containment breach scatters fragments of the Starheart, Alan must confront the chaos unleashed by its possession of innocent hosts. To stop further corruption, he risks merging with the Starheart completely—awakening ancient knowledge that may connect it to the Reach’s arrival on Earth.
CHARACTER ARC 3: The Sentinel Accord” As the architect of a secret sanctuary for metas and humans alike, Alan becomes a symbol of peaceful resistance. But when a tragic incident sparks a global crackdown, he must choose between protecting the sanctuary or exposing himself to save its ideals—setting the stage for open rebellion against the regime.
C H A R A C T E R S U M M A R Y C H A R A C T E R S U M M A R Y
_________________________________________________________ Clark Joseph Kent _________________________________________________________ 35 | Married _________________________________________________________ Daily Planet | Kryptonian-born American
N O T A B L E A B I L I T I E S & T O O L S N O T A B L E A B I L I T I E S & T O O L S
A B I L I T I E S ▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔ ◼ FLIGHT Superman has total control over his personal gravitational field, allowing him the ability to fly at speeds up to Mach 20, fast enough to circumnavigate the globe in roughly 5 minutes.
◼ SUPER STRENGTH Superman's cells can generate nuclear fusion, creating tremendous energy output. This allows him to lift objects weighing up to 300,000 metric tons, roughly the mass of the Empire State Building. This works in conjunction with his gravitational field, which can extend into any object he touches to prevent collapse. When focused into a physical strike, Superman can deliver punches and kicks with a force roughly equal to an artillery cannon, though with exertion he can deliver a strike of over a hundred kilotons of force.
◼ INVULNERABILITY Superman's immense strength and gravity manipulation can also absorb tremendous impacts. He is impervious to most conventional weapons, with anything short of high-yield explosives being little more than an inconvenience. He can withstand the impact of a 5-megaton nuclead warhead, though doing so would render him unconscious.
◼ SUPER SENSES Superman is capable of seeing the entire electromagnetic spectrum, focusing his vision to a subatomic level, looking through solid objects, and zooming his vision out to several light years. In addition, his senses of hearing, smell, and touch are superhuman, though not to the extent of his vision.
◼ HEAT VISION Superman can emit energy through his eyes in the form of high-powered lasers. These can be focused with surgical precision, or released in a high-yield blast with a maximum output of 50 petawatts from each eye. These beams can easily cut through anything short of Vibranium or Adamantium. Using his Heat Vision drains Superman's energy reserves quickly.
◼ FLARE STATE In desperate circumstances, Superman can burn through all of his energy reserves at once, entering a temporary “Flare State” that amplifies all of his powers exponentially. In this state, he can move the mass of entire planets, move at a significant fraction of the speed of light, and absorb attacks with the power of a large star. However, he can only remain in this state for a few seconds at a time, and doing so leaves him completely drained of his power- every second Superman spends in the Flare State leaves him powerless for an hour afterward.
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T O O L (S) ▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔ ◼ FORTRESS OF SOLITUDE A massive complex buried beneath the ice near the North Pole, the Fortress was created to be a Kryptonian colony on Earth. With Krypton's destruction, however, its only visitor is Kal-El, who uses it as a headquarters, training ground, information center, and armory. It contains an impossible library of all Kryptonian knowledge, containment units for exotic technology that Superman can't let fall into the wrong hands, and fabricators to create Kryptonian tech in limited amounts, all overseen by the virtual intelligence Kelex. -
W E A K N E S S E S ▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔ ◼ KRYPTONITE Irradiated shards of the lost world of Krypton, Kryptonite crystals are inert in their natural state, but when an electrical current is put through them, they emit waves of radiation that are poisonous to Superman. Exposure to Kryptonite radiation causes the power plants of Superman’s cells to melt down, reducing his powers and causing pain and disorientation. The stronger the current is focused through a crystal, the more intense the effects of Kryptonite poisoning can be. In addition, wounds to Superman caused by Kryptonite weapons do not heal, creating permanent weak spots.
◼ SENSORY MANIPULATION Superman's enhanced senses can be used against him. Sound-based attacks can cause him pain, as well as disrupt his equilibrium and make flight near impossible. In addition, light-based attacks can cause him temporary blindness.
◼ NON-PHYSICAL VULNERABILITY While Superman is nearly invulnerable to physical harm, he has no defenses against attacks that are non-physical in nature, such as psychic abilities, magic spells, or manipulation from supernatural entities.
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L I M I T S ▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔ ◼ NAIVETE Superman strives to embody both the best values of humanity and the people of Krypton. However, his kindhearted nature and optimism, as wells his tendency to rush to action in an emergency, make him susceptible to manipulation from more cynical and cunning opponents. While he isn't stupid and has gotten wise to the likes of Lex Luthor's tactics, he's still liable to be lured into traps or be distracted from larger schemes.
◼ POWER RESERVES While Superman's peak strength may appear to be limitless, his endurance isn't. Clark's cells can store tremendous amounts of energy, but when that energy is spent, it takes time to replenish. Overuse of his powers or exerting them beyond their threshold can leave Clark severely weakened for a time, and burning through it all to enter his Flare State will leave him completely powerless for hours.
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T H E S T O R Y S O F A R... T H E S T O R Y S O F A R...
Most people believe that ‘the Superman’ first made his presence known five years ago, intervening in the Reach’s invasion of Earth to turn the tide in humanity’s favor. Those who have been paying closer attention, however, can see traces of his presence reaching back over three decades. In the spring of 1990, the town of Smallville, Kansas, was rocked by a storm unlike anything on record, with buffeting winds and roaring thunder accompanied by reports of strange lights in the sky. While UFO nuts and conspiracy theorists swarmed the town for a few years, curiosity eventually faded, and the people of Smallville were happy to be left alone.
The outside world didn’t need to know about the mysterious metallic object Jon and Martha Kent found in Miller’s Field the next morning. Or the pod they found inside of it…after all, Clark was such a nice boy, even if he was a little peculiar.
Clark Kent’s childhood was something close to idyllic, his parents working hard to make sure their son got the chance to enjoy the last remaining crumbs of American Pie. For the first thirteen years of his life, young Clark’s only worries were those of any boy: trying to make friends and fit in, standing up to the schoolyard bully, working up the courage to steal a first kiss with his sweetheart Lana. Behind it, though, he always felt a certain unease, a disquiet that kept him up at night, a knowledge that he didn’t truly belong.
This was made stronger by recurring dreams, wild visions of a strange and incredible world, filled with people who worked miracles like it was nothing. The more he dreamed of this world, of these amazing people, the less he felt at home in Smallville.
At age ten, the Kents told Clark the truth of how he came into their lives. They explained that the night he came to Smallville, they saw a hole open up in the sky. That hole had been a tunnel of some kind, and on the other side of that tunnel, they saw what looked like a planet, and before the tunnel closed, they saw that planet explode. The incredible world from Clark’s dreams was real…and it was gone.
Over the next few years, Clark began to change. He found he could see things no one else could see, do things no one else could do. At thirteen, the jack slipped out from under his Pa’s tractor while he was working on it, and Clark caught the tractor with one hand. At fourteen, Lana Lang confided in Clark that her father had abused her, and when Clark glared at the man, Mr. Lang’s clothes caught on fire. At fifteen, Clark slipped and fell off the roof of the barn, and he never hit the ground. At seventeen, a flash flood threatened to devastate all of Smallville…until Clark changed the course of the river itself with his bare hands.
At eighteen, Clark left Smallville, determined to find his place in the world. As he traveled, Clark became fascinated with uncovering the truth about things, which led to him taking up journalism as a career. The Kents’ upbringing instilled in him a strong sense of justice, compelling him to use his abilities to help those who were suffering. Like a wandering cowboy, he went from town to town, country to country, fighting warlords and rescuing disaster victims before disappearing off into the sunset in a uniquely American way. Rumors and urban legends sprang up in his wake, and while Clark always kept moving and tried not to draw too much attention to himself, he found himself hounded by government agencies, military intelligence, and a pair of overly enthusiastic truth-seekers: the excitable photographer Jimmy Olsen, and the fearless reporter Lois Lane.
At twenty-five, Clark found the missing pieces to the mysteries of his lost world. Sneaking into a facility owned by the global megacorporation LexCorp, Clark found the pod that had brought him to Smallville, which had been recovered by the government and eventually wound up in the hands of the controversial billionaire Lex Luthor. Absconding with the pod and taking it far up into the Arctic, Clark was able to unlock the strange craft and communicate with the intelligence inside.
Though the craft was damaged and the information was incomplete, he learned about the lost world of Krypton, and his birth name: Kal-El. He learned of the wonders his people had accomplished, and how his birth parents Jor-El and Lara Lor-Van sent him here to escape the doom that had destroyed them. He learned that his father and several generations of his family had been members of the Sons of Krypton, a righteous order of heroes and warriors who fought to uphold the virtues of their world, to shine as a beacon of hope in hopeless times. And he learned his destiny was to bring the best hopes of Krypton to the people of Earth. As the craft transformed into a sprawling underground Fortress, Clark- or Kal- disappeared into its depths to begin his training and master his innate powers.
Five years later, he emerged, not a wandering do-gooder, but an emissary of a lost world. In the time he was gone, Earth had fallen under the control of the Reach, and the struggle against these oppressors seemed hopeless. It was then that Kal made his presence known to the world, defeating the Reach’s elite warriors with ease and turning the war in Earth’s favor. It seemed his destiny, then, would be to change the world as Kal-El, the Last Son of Krypton. That name, however, wouldn’t stick, as Lois Lane, the reporter who had chased him across the globe for years, gave him a name of his own: ‘Superman.’
Sadly, Kal’s celebration of debuting to the world was cut short. The destruction caused by the conflict with the Reach stretched far and wide, and one of the casualties of the war was the complete annihilation of the town of Smallville, including the Kents. While Kal had saved the Earth, he had failed to save the people who mattered most to him. In effect, he had become the sole survivor of two lost worlds, and he swore to honor them both, living both as Kal-El and Clark Kent.
For the past five years, Clark has grown into his role as Superman, which has been a difficult double life. On the one hand, he tries to fulfill his destiny as a Son of Krypton, to help those in need and fight the forces of evil. On the other, he tries to live the happy, meaningful life the Kents always wanted for him. Both his career as a journalist and his crusade against injustice have led him to the bustling city of Metropolis, which has been molded since the Reach invasion into an oppressive technocracy by Lex Luthor and his all-pervasive AI Brainiac. The advent of the metahumans has brought all manner of challenges, allies, and threats. And his personal life has been no less eventful, as his friendly rivalry with Lois Lane eventually became a whirlwind romance, and the two have recently gotten married.
Superman’s life faces no shortage of challenges ahead, both as Kal-El and as Clark. As the Last Son of Krypton, he wields incredible power. As the Last Son of Smallville, he has incredible strength of spirit. And in the times ahead, he’ll need both.
P L O T ( S ) & G O A L ( S ) P L O T ( S ) & G O A L ( S )
It's been a very long time since I've gotten the chance to try on the big red cape, but Superman is the one character I've spent more time and energy thinking about than any other. I've written and rewritten concepts for Clark and his world more times than I'd care to count, and in that time I've cooked up plenty of concepts that can alter Superman's world while not altering the fundamental character. While I fully intend to portray Clark in a classic vein of being a good-hearted, optimistic, slightly corny but always earnest man who just happens to wield absurd amounts of power, I plan on making significant changes to the nature of his powers, his weaknesses, and most radically, his origins.
◼ POWERS AND WEAKNESSES Rather than drawing his powers from the yellow sun, Kryptonians are instead attuned to the fundamental forces of the universe: gravity, electromagnetism, and the strong and weak nuclear forces. This is partially to address the question of how Superman (in his more insane moments) can pull off universe-level feats if his power source is only a single star, without getting all meta like the comics where he's powered by "the Story of Superman" or whatever.
His powers still manifest in the classical sense, just with a different explanation for them. His flight and lifting strength come from his ability to manipulate his own gravitational field and extend it around anything he touches. His combat strength, durability, and Heat Vision all stem from his cells effectively behaving like microscopic fusion reactors. And his various flavors of super-vision come from being able to sense the entire electromagnetic spectrum, as does his ability to absorb energy like sunlight.
Speaking of absorbing energy, Kryptonite behaves differently as well, as it is effectively inert unless an electromagnetic current is run through it. This is meant to solve how inconsistent Kryptonite is in most media- how sometimes Clark can take a bath in the stuff with barely a headache, and other times a small pebble will put him on his knees. In this take, the more power you put through a Kryptonite crystal, the more damage it can do-- and that damage is permanent. Part of Clark's invulnerability includes a healing factor that will allow him to regenerate from any injury, except injuries caused by Kryptonite, which leave a permanent, de-powered scar. It's going to be an exceedingly rare thing, but the more times Superman or any other Kryptonian is exposed to it, the more permanent weak spots he'll have.
◼ METROPOLIS Following the "fight the power" theme of this game, Lex Luthor has used the devastation of the Reach war to rebuild Metropolis in his image. From the outside, it's a slick, ultra-modern techno-topia, featuring the world's most advanced technology, cutting-edge fashion, and progressive culture. Under the surface, however, it is a brutally oppressive system, with the vast majority of citizens working either directly for LexCorp or its myriad of subsidiary companies, toiling away in soul-crushing jobs for a pittance, taking comfort in empty consumerism and mindless distractions while their personal freedoms and will to resist are slowly eroded. While Luthor looks down on the city from his skyscraper penthouse, his presence is felt in nearly every facet of Metropolis, all of which is monitored and manipulated by his all-pervasive proprietary AI, Brainiac.
Superman's presence isn't just a disruption of Luthor's typical "cause bad things, profit" plan; it's a wake-up call to the city's downtrodden, and the spark of a full-on revolution.
◼ KRYPTON This is the biggest change to the story, one that I'm drawing from the twist-ending of Red Son. Kal-El's capsule that brought him to Smallville wasn't just a spaceship...it was a time machine. In this take, Krypton isn't just a long-lost world of high-tech demigods that happened to look human; it was (or rather, will be) the last surviving outpost of humanity from the distant deep-future. This puts a literal twist to the idea of him being the 'Man of Tomorrow,' as he is not only fighting to save the people he loves here and now, but also to save a future in which the human race thrives and prevent whatever disaster caused its doom. While I don't plan on getting all timey-wimey with it, this also allows for characters like Supergirl or General Zod to hail from other potential Kryptons, which may be better or worse than the one that sent him.
A B I L I T I E S ▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔ ◼ ENHANCED GENES While the full extent of Reach experimentation on Hollow's genetics are unclear, what is clear is that she fits the general profile of a meta-human. She is clearly durable, though that seems primarily a result of her diamond skin (see below). She is also deceptively quick and agile for her size and build, and has the strength of a full grown man.
◼ TELEPATHIC RESISTANCE A strange holdover of Reach experimentation, it seems Hollow is resistant to forms of psychic connection, tracking, and prying. Even basic psychic communication does not seem to work with Hollow.
◼ MILD LIGHT ABSORPTION Hollow seems to subconsciously absorb light wherever she goes, keeping her in a perpetual shade. This is particularly pronounced when she is not in direct sunlight. -
T O O L (S) ▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔ ◼ DIAMOND SKIN Hollow has a red, diamond-like exoskeleton structure that has replaced every inch of her outer body. This "skin" extends into large claws on her hands and feet, and even turn her hair into a mane of spikes. Her Diamond Skin appears to be the source of some of her superhuman powers, and seems to be slightly malleable. She can be seen hardening parts of her skin to cushion blows, or extend/retract her claws and hair with some effort. -
A B I L I T I E S ▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔ ◼ REGENERATIVE HEALING FACTOR As a byproduct of the Super Soldier Serum, a notable side-effect is an impressive healing factor. While not as quick or strong as some meta-humans, this healing factor means most wounds and broken bones heal at an accelerated pace so Bucky is never out of commission for too long after he’s taken out of a fight.
◼ SUPER SOLDIER SERUM Bucky Barnes hits stronger, moves faster, and can jump higher than any normal individual should be able to. He is no Amazon warrior, but he does seem to be able to stop cars with his bare hands, and could slide a truck laterally with some effort. He can jump up nearly a story high, and seems quick enough to be able to block bullets with his Bionic arm after they are fired. -
T O O L (S) ▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔ ◼ BIONIC ARM While the specific components and even materials that compose his bionic arm are lost on Bucky, one thing is clear: it has been upgraded and tinkered with constantly over the last fifty years by almost every shadowy organization and secret governmental department he's worked for. It is incredibly durable and resistant, is outfitted with a modern spy agency's worth of surveillance and sensory equipment, has built in stabilizers to limit recoil, can emit a concentrated electric charge at close range to incapacitate enemies, enhances his already impressive superhuman strength, and can even be removed for charging or easy storage. To top it all off, its metal alloy seems resistant to most weaponry.
◼ OTHER ARMS Of course, what is a soldier without his weapons? Bucky is rarely seen without a Adamantium knife he acquired during WWII, a larger caliber model of the OTs-38 Stechkin Silent Revolver he used during his time with the Red Room, and a modular m16 he picked up as part of his recent work with the US government. -
A B I L I T I E S ▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔ Roy Harper has no superhuman abilities, unless you count an unending refusal to take situations seriously. -
T O O L (S) ▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔ ◼ TRICK ARROWS The most noted tool in Roy’s proverbial tool chest is his personally crafted trick arrows developed during his time with the S.O.V. Trick arrows provide a quick, reliable, and highly-varied payload that can be drawn with a flick of the wrist. Roy’s trick arrows can provide smoke cover, blow holes in walls, deliver a nonlethal blow, or even glue someone in place for a short time. The only limit is Roy’s imagination and his access to highly restricted chemicals/explosives.
◼ THE REST OF THE ARSENAL Of course, Roy doesn’t just use specialized arrows. He still has access to a small armory’s worth of traditional firearms and ammunition. He is rarely seen without a pair of sentimental Beretta M9s from fallen comrades, and can be seen running about with various long-rifles when a more distanced firefight is called for. -
A B I L I T I E S ▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔ ◼ AMAZONIAN PHYSIOLOGY As an Amazon of the proud peoples of Bana-Mighdall, Artemis is physically superior to those of the world of men in nearly every way. Her punches and kicks are stronger than wrecking balls. She moves with the grace of the finest of acrobats, and can truly fight for hours without growing weary. She seems to heal a bit quicker than most, and seems able to stand what would be fatal blows to others. She is a testament to her fallen sisters, and a fierce reminder of the “danger” Amazons could pose on the world of man. While no Superman, she could certainly make a Kryptonian sweat in an arm-wrestling match. -
T O O L (S) ▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔ ◼ MISTRESS Never come between an Amazon and her battle axe. It can cut, rip, and tear. Artemis can summon it from thin air.
◼ ARMOR OF THE SHIM’TAR Lightweight, breathable, and durable. Artemis’ armor compliments her skill as a maneuverable fighter, but is able to be relatively hidden underneath a leather jacket when blending into a crowd.
◼ GOLDEN PROMISE A relic of the late Amazons of Bana-Mighdall, the Golden promise is a magical lasso that appears to be able to compel obedience from most mortals. However, it is mostly used as an invulnerable rope by Artemis for situations when Mistress is not necessary. -
N O T A B L E S K I L L S & T A L E N T S N O T A B L E S K I L L S & T A L E N T S
S K I L L (S) ▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔ ◼ CQC MASTER Bucky is a storied martial artist who has trained and been programmed with a great many styles by a great many assassins over the years. While he is an above-average marksman, his true talent lies in his ability to get up close and personal.
◼ SABOTEUR / ASSASSIN As part of his work in WWII and later work with the Red Room and CIA, Bucky has a knack for slipping into secure facilities unnoticed. While no tech whiz, he does seem to have a basic understanding of where he can cause the most damage. -
T A L E N T (S) ▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔ ◼ PILOT Bucky has trained and flown a number of aircraft over his long career, and is more than capable of operating most modern helicopters and jets.
◼ WELL-CONNECTED When you've been around for over a century executing military operations and serving for several spy agencies, you tend to meet a number of very interesting people: fellow assassins, politicians, meta-humans, and revolutionaries. Bucky is no exception, and happens to have "friends" in high and low places around the world. Some of them are willing to throw him a bone. Some are a little less friendly.
◼ POLYGLOT While Red Room programming further honed this skill, Bucky is a natural at picking up languages after living an abnormally long life. His diction and verbage can seem a few decades out of date when speaking some languages, however. -
S K I L L (S) ▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔ ◼ SHARPSHOOTER Roy Harper is a brilliant marksman and was slated to be a potential Olympic Archer before enlisting in the Army. He specializes in trick shooting, especially in his more recent work as a mercenary. He is probably within the top ten most capable snipers in the world, and easily the top 5 vigilante archers (at least, that's what he tells himself).
◼ TINKERER Roy's more exceptional talent, however, is his impressive self-taught understanding of engineering. He creates all of his own trick arrows, and is capable of creating various gadgets for his teammates with rather innocuous supplies. -
T A L E N T (S) ▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔ ◼ GETAWAY DRIVER Roy Harper is a skilled driver since he was a reckless youth. That talent has only blossomed over the years, especially in his more recent interest in motorcycles and dirt bikes.
◼ HACKER Roy seems to know his way around computer security protocols. Though, he usually just pulls from a number of pre-written scripts loaded on flash drives to get things done. -
S K I L L (S) ▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔ ◼ WARRIOR Artemis has spent most of her life training to fulfill her inevitable, failed role as the Shim'Tar, guardian and leader of the Bana-Mighdall Amazons. She is skilled in a number of martial weapons (including the use of her own fists). Her bravery and skill in the face of grave danger is well-noted. -
T A L E N T (S) ▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔ ◼ BLACKSMITH Artemis is a skilled metallurgist and blacksmith. She has even worked with incredibly rare and exotic materials, including the alloy used to craft her Mistress. Though most of her skill is in creating ancient weaponry and armor. The only curiosity with this skill is the fact that she never received formal training or instruction. It is almost as if this gift is divinely inspired. -
T H E S T O R Y S O F A R... T H E S T O R Y S O F A R...
There is a girl, trapped in a tube. She does not know who she is, what she is, or why she is. She does not recognize her body, nor why it does not feel like hers. The people in white coats refer to her with harsh words. They keep trying to hurt her, but they haven't found a way yet. She is impenetrable, but she fears if they did crack her shell... they would find nothing. For she feels HOLLOW.
There once was a man in a tube, when the world was a button press away from annihilation. But that was years ago. He was a patriot, then an enemy, and then a ghost. He became a specter of the age of information, when wars were fought in palaces and skyscrapers. But he knew this would never last. Against his will, he was made into something more than just a man. His nerves were split and sewn and soldered to replace a part of himself he sacrificed. His country feared what he could be, should his old programming resurface. Once the Reach was driven off, he knew his time was over. He knew what was coming, and knew where to start looking for help. He needed soldiers if he was going to start a REVOLUTION.
A mercenary wipes warm blood from his face, a deluge of pain and resolve washing his soul. He beckons for the civilians to run, even though they sport scales and unusual appendages. They're not quite human, but a kid is still a kid. The money wasn't worth losing his humanity. He strips his comrades of their gear, and loads it all into the last working truck. He hoped the others could see reason over their greed. If they couldn't, he was glad he still had his ARSENAL.
It is rumored the ashes of Bana-Mighdall are still warm. The peaceful nation nestled in the southern reaches of Egypt, untouched by the modern world, was one of the first targets after the meta-bomb went off. The Amazons had never yet known a reason to fear the weapons of men. Their ignorance saw them slaughtered, and their relics ripped from their corpses. A wounded Amazon begged and pleaded with her gods for safety. They answered only the plea of the Shim'Tar. She awoke with her weapons in an unknown desert, lost and alone. She was easy pickings for the mercenaries, and a potential lead on how to locate any remaining Amazons. For she was the last Amazon of Bana-Mighdall, ARTEMIS.
Hollow is a mysterious child, with little known of her origin. She was “liberated” from Reach experimentation recently, only to be placed in a secure facility loosely connected to what is now known as the Agency.
Roy Harper grew up in Star City, but enlisted in the army right out of high school after his aspirations to be on the Olympic team for archery were quashed. He ended up as a Green Beret, but was dishonorably discharged for insubordination and drug use. He ended up as a washout stranded in NYC. He met a woman named Jade, fell in love, and ended up married with a child. He got clean, picked up odd jobs, and had a shot at a happy life. Then the fighting started, and it became clear that the woman he married was an assassin known as ‘The Cheshire.’ She left with their daughter, Lian, after a particularly nasty fight. Needing some semblance of stability, he ended up being recruited for a PMC known as the Soldiers of Victory, or S.O.V. for short.
You know the story of Bucky Barnes. He served in WWII as part of a highly specialized unit of commandos, before mysteriously disappearing off the face of the Earth. He was officially MIA, and eventually became an unwilling subject in early Soviet genetic testing. He was given a serum that enhanced his physical attributes, with a slight draw-back: necrosis of his left arm around the injection site. After an amputation, various further experimentation, psychological programming, and a few cutting edge bio-mechanical procedures later… Bucky Barnes ended up as an assassin for the Soviet Union under the same espionage agency as the Red Room program. When the Iron Curtain finally fell, Bucky was eventually recovered by the CIA. It took decades of de-programming before Bucky recovered and was able to serve his nation again. He became a spy in the information age, and was a key component in the discovery of the Reach’s human experimentation.
Artemis of Bana-Mighdall was born and raised as an Amazon of Bana-Mighdall, an off-shoot of the more prominent Themysciran Amazons. She was raised in the traditions and customs of the people of Bana-Mighdall, and was destined to become the eventual leader of the Bana-Mighdall. She would be the Shim’Tar, and serve as her people’s champion. She has gotten her wish, though not as she expected. Bana-Mighdall was decimated by Quraci forces bearing advanced weaponry, leaving Artemis as one of the only survivors. She now bears the title of Shim’Tar not with honor, but as a reminder of her purpose.
P L O T ( S ) & G O A L ( S ) P L O T ( S ) & G O A L ( S )
If there has ever been a version of these RPs where a team called the Outlaws is more appropriate, I haven't seen it. These characters are proper nomadic vigilantes trying to do what they can to keep people safe and fight back against an oppressive regime, with hints of found family tied in. For Roy and Artemis, I am leaning a lot into their appearance in the New 52 while updating for the setting (while also removing direct connection/association with other potential heroes that might get picked). Hollow is an obscure pull with complicated lore that acts a bit as a stand-in for the types of victims of Reach experimentation, while Bucky serves as a somewhat jaded and timeless soldier trying desperately to fight a losing war. Of course, Bucky is also the only reason this team of rejects can be held together long enough to potentially make a difference in the world. He is a planner by profession, and acts as the team's de-facto leader.
As for plot and goals, I have an opening "coming together" arc in the works that will bring them up to speed, revolving around the destruction of Bana-Mighdall and the accidental liberation of Hollow. In general, I have some minor plot threads I would like to dive into with this group, but they are nomadic and available for crossovers (or to complicate other heroes’ lives). The only major plot thread hanging over the Outlaws constantly is their soured relationship with the S.O.V. (Soldiers of Victory), a former mercenary group with direct ties to the Agency. They will be constantly on the run from former friends and allies.
C H A R A C T E R S U M M A R Y C H A R A C T E R S U M M A R Y
_________________________________________________________ Jackson Hyde _________________________________________________________ 18 | Single _________________________________________________________ Atlantis | American
N O T A B L E A B I L I T I E S & T O O L S N O T A B L E A B I L I T I E S & T O O L S
A B I L I T I E S ▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔ ◼ Atlantean Physiology Although he is only half Atlantean, Aqualad is still blessed with the superhuman senses and physical traits a pureblood possesses. His vision is strong enough to see through the murkiest depths of water and he can hear far better than any human. Additionally, his strength, speed, stamina, and durability are also beyond those of a peak human.
◼ Hydrokinesis Aqualad can mentally control water, utilizing it offensively to overwhelm enemies or defensively to cover himself or disorient enemies while vulnerable.
◼ Electrokinesis Abilities, or Superpowers are characteristics that your character possesses which are considered extraordinary when compared to a standard human. -
T O O L (S) ▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔ ◼ ??? None, for now... -
N O T A B L E S K I L L S & T A L E N T S N O T A B L E S K I L L S & T A L E N T S
S K I L L (S) ▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔ ◼ Swimming Aqualad is incredibly adept at swimming, capable of cutting through the water like a knife through hot butter.
◼ Hand to hand Combat Part of Aquaman's training included learning to fight without the use of his ranged powers. Jackson could hold his own in a fight where water isn't immediately available. -
T A L E N T (S) ▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔ ◼ Hand-Eye Coordination Jackson is naturally good at seeing and visualizing events, then swiftly reacting to them. This translates into his use of water-based projectiles, which he uses with proficient accuracy. -
T H E S T O R Y S O F A R... T H E S T O R Y S O F A R...
Jackson Hyde was born Kaldur'ahm to Lucia Inaego, a homo mermanus from the underwater kingdom Xebel and the treasure hunter David Hyde. The two met when David was exploring Xebel in search for a powerful artifact, the Black Pearl. They quickly fell in love, and it was through that love that Lucia began to help David with his quest. However, Lucia soon realized that his intentions with the pearl were not to merely catalog the artifact. Whoever possessed the Black Pearl would gain control the seas, capable of crushing their foes beneath massive waves. Realizing what needed to be done, Lucia took the map that led to the treasure's burial site and barely escaped with her life from David, who Lucia soon found out was the criminal pirate Black Manta. It was only once she emerged from the water that she found out that she was pregnant with Black Manta's child.
Moving to a land locked location in New Mexico, Lucia gave birth to Jackson and raised him without divulging any knowledge about his true origins. Jackson's early life was filled with questions without answers, like where did those tattoo-like markings on his arms come from, or why do the fish at the aquarium seem to gravitate towards him. When the Reach revealed their ulterior motives, Jackson watched events unfold from the TV. People disappearing with no end in sight, until the work of Superman put an end to the alien's plans. The burgeoning age of superpowered individuals caused by the Meta-Bomb's activation prompted Jackson to explore his own anomalies more intensively. It was while experimenting outside in a field on a rainy night that Jackson set off a chain of events that would change his life forever. Without intentionally trying, the young man activated his hydrokinesis and began gravitating all the raindrops around him, forming a car sized glob of water above himself. A passerby witnessed the phenomenon and posted the display of power online, quickly garnering media attention.
Lucia was shocked by the news. The quiet life she had spent almost two decades to create was suddenly upended. There was no telling what would happen next or who would get to them first: the government or Black Manta. But the video didn't just attract the attention of humanity. A day later, a tall, blonde and bearded man greeted the Hydes at their doorstep. He introduced himself as Arthur Curry, and by the markings on Jackson's arms, they had a lot to talk about. It was then, without any more chances to deflect or delay the conversation, that Lucia revealed the truth about Jackson's identity as part Atlantean and Arthur. While on the surface trying his hand to ease the rapidly xenophobic political atmosphere with diplomacy, Arthur saw the footage of Jackson and tracked him down to New Mexico. And seeing some of himself, a man between two worlds, he wanted to take him under his wing and train him in the use of his powers. And with meta-human sentiment plummeting by the day around the world, Arthur offered his hometown of Amnesty Bay as a place for the Hydes to hide and a suitable spot next to the ocean for Jackson to begin embracing his roots.
Fast forward to a year later, and Jackson is still getting the hang of his powers. He gets visits from Aquaman, but they're becoming briefer and lowering in frequency. As the United States government continues with their use of the Agency and President Lord with his agenda, Atlantis and the people of the sea require his presence more and more as they begin to look at all their options. And as much as Jackson's been listening to his mother keeping his head down to avoid another New Mexico incident, it seems like life is about to thrust him into the light for good this time, whether he's ready for the responsibility or not.
P L O T ( S ) & G O A L ( S ) P L O T ( S ) & G O A L ( S )
With Maxwell Lord's 'Humanity First' platform, I really wanted to play a character with a non-human element in their backstory for some added flavor. And in wanting to try my hand at a subject I don't know much about, my mind zeroed in on the underwater world. After perusing some options, I finally chose Aqualad and worked from there. Having spent most of his life secluded in New Mexico before moving to Amnesty Bay and training with Aquaman, Jackson is ready to spread his wings and explore his place in the world. There's a lot of potential for storylines where the idealistic hybrid seeks to bridge the gap between humanity and homo mermanus, which can produce mixed results like successful interactions or further demonization by the government. For the aquatic royalty, my idea is that Aquaman is King of Atlantis, with Prince Namor controlling his own territory as the second most powerful underwater entity. They both have common ground, but as the leaders on land intensify their efforts, Aquaman's talks of finding peace and Namor's talks of 'proactive defense' sets them apart. As far as a roadmap goes, I have some arcs set up, but I want to focus on writing as many team ups with other players as possible. Jackson is still very wet behind the ears, so I think he'll definitely pick up skills working alongside the different characters in the cast.
A B I L I T I E S ▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔ ◼ Superhuman Spider Physiology As with the regular comics, Cindy has superhuman strength, agility, stamina, speed, durability. She has a Silk Sense that gives her awareness to things around her even if she can't see. Finally, she is able to produce an organic webbing from her fingertips. -
T O O L (S) ▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔ ◼ TOOL None at the moment. -
N O T A B L E S K I L L S & T A L E N T S N O T A B L E S K I L L S & T A L E N T S
S K I L L (S) ▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔ ◼ SKILL Sewing was something she ended up learning to deal with her excessive silk production at the early onset of her powers. When she was in Reach custody, she stitched things by hand out of sheer boredom. Now, however, she has access to better tools and can actually make full costumes. She even made her own! -
T A L E N T (S) ▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔ ◼ TALENT Smarts was something that Cindy was appreciative to have because it made her catching up with school a lot easier. She was at least appreciative that the Reach did allow her some teaching, but catching up to high school was simpler than she had thought! In fact, her time in Reach custody had taught her a few more advance things about automation. She did just join the robotics club this year... -
T H E S T O R Y S O F A R... T H E S T O R Y S O F A R...
Nine years ago, Cindy Moon was living quite content with her family except for her younger brother always going into her room and ruining just about everything. At least that's what she remembers that day when she stormed out of the parent's home in upstate New York, the last time she had been with them. She couldn't even remember what she was mad about and why she thought storming outside was a good idea, but she did remember the Reach. Had they been waiting to abduct her or did they just seize the opportunity to?
Cindy couldn't help but curse herself on that fateful night. Something so stupid had resulted in her being taken away into the Reach's custody for almost six years. Her whole life for that time was contained by one little room, all to experience one bite by a spider and the reaction it would have on her. She mutated, genetically altering from that bite to become what she is now. Why had the Reach approached an experiment like this? Where did that spider come from? Was it genetically altered or something from a different planet? It did look like it could be.
The Reach invested time in Cindy to showcase her abilities and experiment with them for years. Looking back, it was possible that this was one approach that a Reach division was attempting to experiment with human genetic malleability, but Cindy wouldn't really be able to be certain. She was far too young to understand, but when her salvation would come, she'd be able to understand something far more important. With great power, comes great responsibility.
It was Superman that had saved her, and the others that were kept in secret at that facility. She could remember how he effortlessly ripped open that door she had never seen beyond and offered her a hand. She was freed from that room but the life she had known was gone. Cindy would find herself deposited in the nearest city, New York City, with the other victims in that facility. She was passed off to Martin Li, a known philanthropist operating in New York City for many causes but for Cindy's case, New Way was his organization to help runaway teens find a place if they couldn't go back to their old lives. New Way helped her get back into school, helped her find a place to stay and to eventually, hopefully, find her family.
P L O T ( S ) & G O A L ( S ) P L O T ( S ) & G O A L ( S )
So with this story backdrop of a tyrannical government, I thought of Silk instantly. Not because that's the only thing I play, either! I thought of how fun it'd be to play an icon behind that kind of NYC resilience and defiance in the face of unpopular and/or aggressive governing motions. I can only imagine NYC displaying their contempt for government overreach against a particular group of people with fairly regular protesting and presenting themselves as an obstacle. Cindy comes in as the young spider-hero this time as a onetwo-year veteran, able to build up a rapport with the city. Likely they were skeptical at first but given a year of saving people's butts, she has earned her place for the average New Yorker to respect.
Still a high schooler, Cindy gets to find the joys of trying to juggle classwork, a job, and fighting crime while the city juggles constant patrols, police crackdowns, Agency raids, and the odd supervillain. How long can this last? Who knows, Cindy certainly doesn't. New York City, as a result, might be appealing for the odd superpowered hero to migrate to if they can see past all the propagandized news cycles that state NYC is just fine, no protesting here. Ignore the Silk merchandise booth on the corner of the street.
Any other NYC residents? Feel free to say hi. Cindy doesn't have anyone to lean on at the moment. ;;;;_;;;;
A B I L I T I E S ▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔ ◼ None Baseline human. -
T O O L (S) ▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔ ◼ Iron Patriot Mk.I Following the end of the Reach War, at the behest of former president Ellis. A more streamlined version of the War Machine armour, painted patriotic colours. Equipped with a variety of modern weapon systems, with an fortified arc reactor. ◼ War Machine Mk.IV The War Machine armour was but a pipe dream before the Reach Invasion and has been through several iterations, the Mk.IV is the pinnacle of military weapon technology. Designed in the aftermath of the Meta-bomb, it is built to be capable of combating people with varying levels of power and abilities. -
N O T A B L E S K I L L S & T A L E N T S N O T A B L E S K I L L S & T A L E N T S
S K I L L (S) ▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔ ◼ Combat Training During test phases Tony spent a small period of time in the suit, as well as Rhodey. The decision was soon made that 'Rhodeys' physical combat training made him a better candidate. ◼ Pilot A trained pilot, and a skilled aerial combatant. ◼ Advanced Weapons Expert The War Machine and Iron Patriot armours are walking/flying weapon platforms. Through R&D and then the reach invasion he is the foremost expert in the use of the technology. ◼ Maintenance Like most pilots/soldiers he is skilled enough that he can affect basic repairs, and maintenance to all of his equipment. He cannot however build a suit from scratch in a cave, with a box of scraps.
-
T H E S T O R Y S O F A R... T H E S T O R Y S O F A R...
James Rhodes was an outcast. He was bullied for being black from the white kids, and bullied by the black kids who thought he was trying to be better than them by focusing on his education. Really? He just wanted out. As soon as he turned seventeen he enlisted in the Air Force, and never looked back on philadelphia. Leaving his father and sister behind, he entered ROTC with the goal of becoming a pilot.
When he was shot down in his first flight he thought it would be the end of his career, if not his life. Instead it changed in ways he could never imagine. As he was trying to repair his helicopter, to atleaast get the radio functioning something metal and ungainly fell from the sky. The missing billionaire inventor and weapons manufacturer, Tony Stark. The very man that then liuetenant Rhodes had been sent to try and locate. The two of them were reluctant to trust eachother at first, but when attacked by henchmen from the rogue technological society A.I.M the two found common ground and worked together. Powering Tonys exo-suit, the two of them battled their way through the jungle before they were eventually found by none other than Director Nicholas Fury senior with S.H.I.E.L.D.
Fury stole Rhodes for a secondment to S.H.I.E.L.D, where he and Tony worked on the next generation of armour. The project was dubbed War Machine, and it was revealed just in time for the Reach invasion. S.H.I.E.L.D announced War Machine to the world, Rhodes pilotting the suit. Time would continue onwards, and eventually they would add to their arsenal. Parnell Jacobs, Nathan Manning, Jorge Salsero. All these pilots were vetted and chosen by Stark and Rhodes personally, as that was Starks one stipulation on the use of the technology.
They weren't enough though, as humanity continued to lose ground to the reach. Manning and Salsero killed, Jacobs maimed and paralysed. As Superman revealed himself to the world and ended the Reach threat, the War Machine program was shelved when then President Ellis contacted Stark personally. Trying to rebuild American Faith and Strength Rhodes would go on to become the Iron Patriot, much to Furys dismay. Rhodey worked under President Ellis for the remainder of his term, but the tides were changing. Eventually Maxwell Lord became President and everything changed.
He wanted more Iron Patriots, he wanted a legion. Tony continued to push back, their contract clearly stated that any and all pilots had to be hand picked. The Government wanted automation, and Tony didn't. Trask, Hammer, Kord all vying to perfect the technology. The two friends became more and more disgruntled as the Iron Patriot was deployed more frequently within Americas borders at sites of 'mutant' or 'meta' unrest.
P L O T ( S ) & G O A L ( S ) P L O T ( S ) & G O A L ( S )
I've always enjoyed War Machine. I enjoy his own stories, he has all the perks of Iron Man without the sociopathic personality. I always enjoy pushing myself and trying to write different stories, and as such I want to get delved into something I haven't. The political thriller. Will update this here with plots as I go forward. My goals? To push myself as a writer, and write stories that we all enjoy.
Return of War Machine As Tony Stark announces the cessation of the War Machine project, other powers that be aren't happy. Resulting in explosions and chaos, and the U.S. Government coming after the Iron Patriot.
C H A R A C T E R S U M M A R Y C H A R A C T E R S U M M A R Y
_________________________________________________________ Steven "Steve" Rogers _________________________________________________________ 27 | Single _________________________________________________________ United States Army | American
N O T A B L E A B I L I T I E S & T O O L S N O T A B L E A B I L I T I E S & T O O L S
A B I L I T I E S ▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔ ◼ SUPER-SOLDIER SERUM "Professor Eric Schmitt and Doctors Hans Bruder and Abraham Erskine's research for the defunct Project Nietzsche came to fruition. Without their initial research and Erskine's defection to our side, not to mention the seemingly limitless funding from the government, Project Rebirth would not have been possible at all. The subject, code-named Superior Man (the codename for Steven Rogers), has demonstrated remarkable improvements in every exercise conducted compared to those of Olympic athletes. His once frail body has been completely revitalized and permanently enhanced to achieve peak human efficiency. Additionally, his strength, speed, agility, endurance, reflexes, and physical efficiency even exceed the highest levels of human potential through a strict self-imposed regimen of exercise and simulated combat. Our Superior Man is more than ready to join the boys in the front." Declassified OSRD Report, 1943.
◼ PEAK DURABILITY AND HEALING "For the first time, Captain America disobeyed direct orders. He and his Howling Commandos were near Essen amidst a bombing campaign against the local foundry when they were ordered to return to assist with efforts in Remagen. It was only upon the unit's return to base that I became aware of Captain America's absence. Barnes simply said that he was [REDACTED]. None of the other squadmates said much about his whereabouts either. He was gone for four days til he returned with severe burn marks all over his arms and hands. If not for the serum's healing properties, these injuries could have easily escalated to third-degree burns. I confronted him in the medical tent about his unauthorized absence. [REDACTED]. Given the current circumstances, I have decided not to pursue disciplinary action against him for being AWOL. Instead, I suggest immediate redeployment to the Eastern Front to follow up with the alleged HYDRA presence in Peenemünde. [REDACTED]. [REDACTED]." Declassified U.S. Army Report, 1945.
◼ PEAK CONGNITIVE PROCESSING "After a few months of advancing with the Fifth Army in Italy, Superior Man has demonstrated a newfound advancement in his mental performance compared to previous assessments conducted before his deployment. This noteworthy development prompted a covert observation in which the subject demonstrated the ability to disassemble and assemble various weapons that typically took other men weeks to learn adequately. It is evident that he has developed an accelerated learning aptitude since receiving the serum. Even more compelling, he is able to recall information and knowledge with such precision, a trait typically seen in individuals with photographic memory. Given the initial results, I strongly recommend we do not allow such talent to stagnate. Assign him a small, specialized squad to lead, allowing for the potential development of his cognitive and technical skills. He doesn't have to be just brains or brawn; he can be both." Declassified OSRD Report, 1944.
◼ PEAK HUMAN SENSES "Oh, remember when you asked me to ask Steve that question? You know what I'm referring to; don't deny it now. I ended up asking him while on R&R with the fellas in Marseille. He decided to treat us and took us out for drinks at a café. These young French soldiers made the mistake of egging me and him into a drinking contest with their hard-earned money. They lasted six pints before they were pissed drunk. But Steve? He just kept downing them back with this smirk on his face. That made one of the guys mad enough to throw his pint at him. He just caught and redirected it back at him, giving him a busted nose. After we left to avoid more trouble, I asked him how he knew. Apparently, the serum intensified his five senses to the point that he "saw" the pint coming like a baseball. At least, that's how I interpreted it through my drunken haze. So, here's your answer. Oh, and you owe me a pound." 29 August, 1944, Timothy "Dum Dum" Dugan. -
T O O L S ▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔ ◼ SHIELD "Composed of Vibranium and iron alloy, the disc-shaped shield served as Captain America's primary weapon throughout his deployment. It was thought to be virtually indestructible, capable of absorbing a near-infinite amount of kinetic energy from forces directed against it. Most interestingly, it also possessed excellent aerodynamic properties, allowing it to rebound from objects with minimal loss of angular momentum. It is unfortunate that the shield is buried alongside its holder at the bottom of the ocean; it could've been useful in our efforts." Declassified KGB Report, 1946.
◼ HARLEY-DAVIDSON WLA MOTORCYCLE "Captain America was provided with a modified Harley-Davidson WLA, specifically designed for deep incursions into enemy territory during World War II. This motorcycle allowed him to attach his shield to the front, enabling him to block and deflect incoming fire. Additionally, its engines were upgraded with an overhead-valve design featuring high compression and telescopic front forks to improve efficiency compared to other models. The motorcycle was in service for much of the war's final years and ultimately served as a symbolic placeholder for the body at his funeral in Arlington National Cemetery afterward. In a gesture to preserve its historical significance, the bike was later donated to the Smithsonian Institution, where it is currently housed in the National Museum of American History." "Eagle," An Arsenal Fit for a Captain. -
N O T A B L E S K I L L S & T A L E N T S N O T A B L E S K I L L S & T A L E N T S
S K I L L S ▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔ ◼ MASTER TACTICIAN AND STRATEGIST "The shore-up of the Howling Commandos was nothing short of brilliance by the Allied forces. Captain America was already seen as the epitome of the ideal soldier by those who enlisted. His involvement in liberating Italy from fascist control provided a significant morale boost to resistance groups embedded throughout occupied Europe. And he was already a substantial source of propaganda facilitated by the Office of War Information. All of those elements were further amplified when he assumed command of the Howling Commandos. But his leadership was not merely for show; the serum Steven Rogers received enhanced his mental capacity, enabling him to function as a proficient tactician and strategist. And for a year, he and his Howling Commandos orchestrated successful sabotage missions that hindered Axis and HYDRA activities and efforts across the frontlines. Even after he died in April 1945, the Howling Commandos continued their efforts until the end of the war." "Obscured Howls: How the Howlers Faded Into Obscurity," The New Yorker.
◼ MASTER WEAPONARY "The presumption that Captain America relied solely on his iconic shield during combat is understandable, but it is not entirely accurate. He often made use of handguns, particularly the Colt M1911 pistol. Its reliable and robust semi-automatic firing rate made it ideal for close and mid-range combat. He also made occasional use of the Colt Model 1921A Thompson, primarily at the beginning of his deployment. Furthermore, eyewitness accounts and reports have highlighted his proficiency with a variety of weapons, including light machine guns, bolt-action rifles, shotguns, sniper rifles, and automatic rifles. Ultimately, Captain America would be championing the Second Amendment and protecting it against gun control laws, as supported by scholars on the subject and historical evidence." "More Than The Shield: The Truth about Captain America and Guns," NRA-ILA.
◼ MULTILINGUAL "Steven Rogers was not always a captain. As a young child in New York City during the 1930s, he faced the loss of both parents within a few years of each other. And the hardships of the Great Depression forced him to prioritize work over his education. Fortunately, he had a supportive community around him, and living in such a diverse neighborhood fostered compassion and empathy. By the time Steven was selected for Project Rebirth, he had learned to speak Italian while understanding Yiddish from his Jewish neighbors. The experimental serum not only enhanced his physical abilities but also positively impacted his cognitive functions. This mental acuity allowed him to absorb languages more efficiently. Before being deployed overseas to aid in the Allied invasion of Italy, Steven quickly became a polyglot, mastering German, Russian, French, Spanish, Greek, Latin, and Japanese. However, his linguistic prowess was not solely a product of the serum; it had been ingrained within him by his environment." "Words and War: Steven Rogers and the Strength of Community," Power of Language. -
T A L E N T ▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔ ◼ TALENTED ARTIST "Little is known about Sarah Rogers, who grew up in Ireland and entered into an arranged marriage with Joseph O'Brien. The newlyweds relocated to Cork from the countryside before ultimately emigrating to the United States in search of better opportunities. Sarah initially worked as a housekeeper before becoming a housewife after giving birth to Steven. Joseph, likely struggling with post-traumatic stress disorder from the Great War, lost his job and wasn't able to find work. He turned to alcohol as a coping mechanism and then died of liver failure soon after. Left alone with her son, she endured the Great Depression with help from her next-door neighbor, the Barnes. Sarah, to make a few extra dollars, began to draw again, and her few surviving works were noted for their beauty and roughness. Tragically, she died of pneumonia a few years later before fully realizing her artistic potential. But it lived in her son, whose drawings of landscapes and portraits of comrades gave a glimpse into his main inspiration: his mom." "Sarah Rogers and the Artist Who Persisted," New York Times -
T H E S T O R Y S O F A R... T H E S T O R Y S O F A R...
"Duty, bravery, and sacrifice. These are the values that represent Captain America to our nation and democracy abroad. He is a hero to the world, a warrior to our adversaries, and a patriot to us—the American people. This is his story. From a frail child orphaned at a young age, Steven Rogers refused to let them define him growing up. Denied enlistment in the Army, he volunteered for a program conceived during World War II. One that molded him into the world's first super soldier. He fought valiantly against Nazi and HYDRA forces, earning his stripes and proving his mettle on the battlefield. He made the ultimate sacrifice in service to his country, showcasing the very essence of true patriotism and heroism."
The Star-Spangled Man: Captain America's Enduring Legacy.
"A Norwegian oil company has discovered what appears to be a significant number of wrecked aircraft during a recent seabed survey. Although officials have begun mapping the area where the wrecks were found, experts suggest that the planes could date back to World War II."
Underwater Plane Graveyard of WWII-era Aircrafts Found, BBC.
Nick Fury Jr. knows where he was and what he was doing when he got told the news. He was overseeing the final reports of the night in his office when he received news from the Arctic team that had been sent out the previous day. They found him. Frozen. Intact. Alive. A fury of questions, hypotheses, and explanations clogged his mind, ready to burst at the seams. Then, before he had a chance to process it all, he was sent a photo of him. And for a full minute, Nick just laughs. Laughs hard. Laughs out loud. Laughs until he is tearing up and nearly out of breath. The absurdity of it all—of his life at this point—is utterly hilarious.
His father, Nicholas Fury Sr., remained adamant that his brother-in-arms was still alive "somewhere in the cold," insisting it was "his responsibility to bring him back home." Even though he was a highly respected man who had served his country time and time again, those around him thought he was chasing after a ghost to atone for his failure in the Korean War with the Howlers. And when his age was beginning to show, the "burden" was passed onto the son. "Find and bring him back home," he ordered firmly like he always had. Nick couldn't accept what he saw as an old man's delusions, even if those words came from a man he once admired.
That photo, however, vindicated his father and validated every seemingly ludicrous claim he'd ever made about his comrade.
Then there was The Reach, who extended a hand to the world while concealing a scalpel in the other. And as soon as their deception was exposed, they declared war on Earth. Nick fought back against the invaders, of course. It was his home. He witnessed the aliens leave and detonate what was essentially a dirty bomb, altering the genetic code of thousands in an instant. The fallout turned into a national security concern and a grave embarrassment for S.H.I.E.L.D., which failed to act appropriately. Disillusioned, Nick decided to leave and offered his services to The Agency, a decision that didn't sit well with his father at all.
And now, here he is, the only person on the entire planet who knows that he is still, against all odds, alive. And he is still laughing. The only reason he stops is that the Arctic team requests further instructions regarding him. Hell, Nick can't even bring himself to say his name. He composes himself and orders them not to disturb anything until he is personally on site. Then, he contacts his right-hand man, Phillip Coulson, and informs him they are heading for Norway. He doesn't say why. Next, he begins to organize the logistics, from securing a big enough plane to gathering the necessary equipment to safely extract him from the thick sea ice.
Nick makes the conscious decision to keep everything under wraps from his bosses. He knows of the wrath that would await him from The Wall once he sets foot in the Oval Office to deliver his report after his deception is undoubtedly revealed by one of his agents. That, or he manages to keep it quiet long enough to divulge it. Yet, the potential consequences don't faze him in the slightest. He has a plan, one that would finally bring security to the country he and his father bled for so many times. The details are still mostly forming in his mind, but a ten-hour flight would provide him with plenty of time to refine them.
Just as he is about to leave, Nick reaches into his coat pocket and pulls out his phone. He considers calling his father to apologize for ever doubting him, to reveal that he has been found alive, and to ask if he wants to join him. It would be a chance to reconnect after being apart for so long, but instead, he tosses it into a drawer and slams it shut. No, there's too much at stake, especially when Nicholas is still holding the reins of S.H.I.E.L.D. aboard that helicarrier. It would be reckless to reveal him to the world for now. Not until the plan is set in motion. For now, Nick knows he has to leave for the Arctic.
Bring him back home. At least he can do that for his father. He has waited long enough.
P L O T ( S ) & G O A L ( S ) P L O T ( S ) & G O A L ( S )
Of course, my mind went straight to Captain America while reading the summary. But I want to do things slightly differently. The most obvious difference is that our boy hasn't been thawed out. He has only been found by the big baddies, who won't waste such a perfect opportunity. This would allow me to delve into the mystery and thriller genres, with a heavy hand of politics and suspense mixed in to make a good story.
After all, history is written by the victors.
That means Steven becomes an unwitting pawn for the government, being purposefully kept in the dark of its tyrannical nature by The Agency. Every action he takes is meticulously scrutinized, with Nick Fury Jr. monitoring his every move and suppressing any unwanted inquiries. Their relationship will be antagonistic in nature, with occasional moments of conviviality between the two men. Not necessarily full-on friends, that's for sure. And while he will be an essential character to my plot, I don't want to hoard him all to myself, given his importance to the overall Marvel universe.
If it hasn't been made clear, Captain America will be working alongside the Lord Administration via the Agency. I hope he serves as a point of contention with characters who are actively part of the resistance. However, that does not mean abandoning the core aspects of Captain America. He will still stand up for what is right, no matter the consequences, with his unwavering principles and moral conviction shining brightly through the darkness cast by Lord's America.
C H A R A C T E R S U M M A R Y C H A R A C T E R S U M M A R Y
_________________________________________________________ Francis David Castle _________________________________________________________ 41 | Widower _________________________________________________________ Ex-Marine, Ex-NYPD | American
N O T A B L E A B I L I T I E S & T O O L S N O T A B L E A B I L I T I E S & T O O L S
A B I L I T I E S ▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔ ◼ ENHANCED PHYSICALS Even without Ven'ahm fully deployed, all of Frank's physical abilities have dramatically improved. He is stronger, faster, more durable, and with greater stamina than ever, on top of an enhanced healing factor. These abilities only improve with the entire symbiote in play, especially if the creature has been allowed to eat.
◼ LIQUID SKIN The symbiote's skin seems to be a sort of non-Newtonian fluid that can be controlled at will. This leads to a incredible number of applications, including the suits ability to configure into various specifications of armor or disguise at will, as well as the ability to deploy pseudopods that can fire weapons, operate machinery, and even attack on their own. -
T O O L (S) ▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔ ◼ EXPANSIVE ARMORY Over the years, Frank has built up an incredible collection of eclectic firearms of every type for just about every situation. Small arms, long arms, explosives, launchers, and more. Now, thanks to the symbiote, Frank is able to carry more of it on his person than ever. -
N O T A B L E S K I L L S & T A L E N T S N O T A B L E S K I L L S & T A L E N T S
S K I L L (S) ▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔ ◼ WEAPONS EXPERTISE Frank is an expert in the care and use of a plethora of weapons, favoring traditional firearms, though he does have some experience with close quarters combat. -
T A L E N T (S) ▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔ ◼ PAIN TOLERANCE Frank was born with a naturally dulled sense of pain. Even before his bond with the symbiote, he was able to take unbelievable amounts of punishment without faltering. -
T H E S T O R Y S O F A R... T H E S T O R Y S O F A R...
My name is Frank Castle, and before The Reach, I was a lot like you. Stable career. Loving Wife. Ugly dog. Pair of beautiful kids. Living the dream. It can change in an instant at the end of a gun. We were innocent, having a picnic in the park. But we were in the way. Drug deal gone wrong. They died like animals. Sometimes I wish I died, too. Instead I woke up in a hospital a year later.
Next is the part you’ve heard. I had to hurt the men who hurt me. Open and shut revenge. Simple. Except for the part where it didn’t stop. Every door I kicked down, I expected to die on the other side of. Live like that long enough, without anything else to live for, and it quickly becomes all you know. At the beginning I would plan obsessively. Every weapon, every angle, every perp checked meticulously so that I knew, without doubt, that these were the men that deserved punishment. By the end, it was as simple as running into the next room and putting two between the eyes of the next gangbanger I saw. Simple revenge. Haha.
Only reason I figure I got away with it -- being The Punisher, wearing that skull-lookin’ armor, announcing my presence everywhere I went with a burst of machinegun fire -- was on account of the war. The PD and the Feds were spread thin, which gave every scumbag in the city license to do as they pleased. They needed support, and I was all that was coming. Maybe they thought I was helping hold the city together, even as I burned it down.
Next is the part you haven’t. My last weeks of it are the haziest of all. I remember the chug of the gun and seeing, for the first time, the colors of human and Reach blood swirling and mixing on the cracked concrete. I remember that they got me, hit me with some new weapon. I thought when I finally ran into The Reach, I’d die on the spot. Get a plasma hole bored through my guts or become a denatured pile of slime. Instead, I woke up in a cell.
I knew The Reach was experimenting on humans, we all did, but I didn’t think that meant they’d have a gene lab buried under Manhattan. Nothing they did to me seemed to take. I think they only kept me around as a control, a tough old bastard to measure their successes against. Even then, I expected to get binned fast. I know what happens to test animals. But their new subjects were few and far between. Fewer and fewer as the weeks and months dragged on. The Reach scientists spent more time in the facility than ever. They seemed cut off… But they were holding on.
This was the pattern for almost five years -- until last month. An asset transfer from another facility, a rare occasion. A thing sealed in a glass tube, running and shifting inside in inky black detail. The scientists were excited. They tried it on all kinds of things. Poured it over blocks, rocks, technology, weapons, even a few houseplants. No change. Until they started trying the animals. It would sink into their flesh, like it was disappearing against their skin. Then the shaking, the vomiting, the screaming. Then the sleep. You could watch, over an hour, as each strip of muscle and skin and sinew receded and faded until there was nothing left of the animal but a bleached skeleton and a quivering black mass sheltering in its ribcage.
They tried it on us next. There weren’t many of us human prisoners left. Only the hardest and the toughest. But it was the same for each of them. Bleached bones and a grinning skull staring at me from across the lab. Until me. It was almost natural coming onto my skin, pushing its tendrils through the gaps between my cells. It was destroying me. But it was rebuilding me. It spoke to me. There was a voice in my head. It needed to know only one thing. Was I ready to slaughter its captors? Or would it eat me like the rest, and try another?
My name is Frank Castle. Its name is Venom.
Together, we are The Punisher.
P L O T ( S ) & G O A L ( S ) P L O T ( S ) & G O A L ( S )
One of the fundamental tensions of the Punisher when held up against the rest of a superhero universe is: how justified can his actions really be? Here’s a mass murderer presenting himself as a necessary, brutal, bloody solution to problems a dopey teen in spandex could solve in seconds. You can handwave it to some extent with the scope of crime in a comic book universe, but you’ll always be asking yourself why any of a hundred heroes don’t put a stop to the madness. By giving him access to the symbiote, I think I can expose Frank to problems he is more of a justified solution for, especially in the context of Lord’s regime.
More importantly, the most interesting part of The Punisher, at least when talking about a game like this, is whether there could be a good person hiding somewhere in the depths of Frank’s blackened soul. We’ve seen Frank broken down a million times, what if he could be built up? What if he has a chance to grow or change or do something actually positive with his life? To set him on this path, he’s had a long time to think in that cell. Now he’s forced into a role he could never predict, as the adoptive father of a weird alien that lives on his skin that might be the one creature on the planet more naturally hateful than he is.
A B I L I T I E S ▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔ ◼ Flight Kryptonians have total control over their personal gravitational field, allowing them the ability to fly at speeds up to Mach 20, fast enough to circumnavigate the globe in roughly 5 minutes.
◼ Super Strength Kara's cells can generate nuclear fusion, creating tremendous energy output. This allows her to lift objects weighing up to 300,000 metric tons, roughly the mass of the Empire State Building. This works in conjunction with her gravitational field, which can extend into any object she touches to prevent collapse. When focused into a physical strike, she can deliver punches and kicks with a force roughly equal to an artillery cannon, though with exertion she can deliver a strike of over a hundred kilotons of force.
◼ Invulnerability Kara's immense strength and gravity manipulation can also absorb tremendous impacts. She is impervious to most conventional weapons, with anything short of high-yield explosives being little more than an inconvenience. She can withstand the impact of a 5-megaton nuclear warhead, though doing so would render him unconscious.
◼ Super Senses Kara is capable of seeing the entire electromagnetic spectrum, focusing her vision to a subatomic level, looking through solid objects, and zooming her vision out to several light years. In addition, her senses of hearing, smell, and touch are superhuman, though not to the extent of her vision.
◼ Heat Vision Kara can emit energy through her eyes in the form of high-powered lasers. These can be focused with surgical precision, or released in a high-yield blast with a maximum output of 50 petawatts from each eye. These beams can easily cut through anything short of Vibranium or Adamantium. Using her Heat Vision drains Kara's energy reserves quickly.
◼ Flare State In desperate circumstances, Kara can burn through all of her energy reserves at once, entering a temporary “Flare State” that amplifies all of her powers exponentially. In this state, she can move the mass of entire planets, move at a significant fraction of the speed of light, and absorb attacks with the power of a large star. However, she can only remain in this state for a few seconds at a time, and doing so leaves him completely drained of her power- every second Kara spends in the Flare State leaves him powerless for an hour afterward.
◼ Enhanced Intelligence Either the result of natural affinities or her father's genetic modifications, Kara has comprehensive intelligence that is advanced at a baseline level. -
T O O L (S) ▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔ ◼ Kryptonian Codex Kara carries a codex with her to integrate with other systems. -
W E A K N E S S E S ▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔ ◼ Kryptonite Irradiated shards of the lost world of Krypton, Kryptonite crystals are inert in their natural state, but when an electrical current is put through them, they emit waves of radiation that are poisonous to kryptonians. Exposure to Kryptonite radiation causes the power plants of Kara’s cells to melt down, reducing her powers and causing pain and disorientation. The stronger the current is focused through a crystal, the more intense the effects of Kryptonite poisoning can be. In addition, wounds caused by Kryptonite weapons do not heal, creating permanent weak spots.
◼ Sensory Manipulation Kara's enhanced senses can be used against her. Sound-based attacks can cause her pain, as well as disrupt her equilibrium and make flight near impossible. In addition, light-based attacks can cause her temporary blindness.
◼ Non-Physical Vulnerability While Kara and other kryptonians are nearly invulnerable to physical harm, she has no defenses against attacks that are non-physical in nature, such as psychic abilities, magic spells, or manipulation from supernatural entities. -
L I M I T S ▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔ ◼ Inexperience The universe is a lot more lively in this century than it was in Kara's time. She may be accustomed to baseline levitation and other Kryptonian powersets, but not with the immense capabilities she will be gifted by her DNA. The raw speed, power, and sensory overload will take some time getting used to and narrowing down to a comfortable level.
◼ Age The difference between an adult and a teenager with the same powerset are immense in terms of precise control, strength, and endurance. While Kara has the vigor and impulsive tenacity of youth, she does not have Clark’s raw volume of strength and power. She can exert herself to push herself to his level, but it does take a considerable amount of stamina. Consider her power threshold halved at the baseline level in contrast to her cousin.
◼ Power Reserves While her peak strength may appear to be limitless, her endurance isn't. Kara's cells can store tremendous amounts of energy, but when that energy is spent, it takes time to replenish. Overuse of his powers or exerting them beyond their threshold can leave Kara severely weakened for a time, and burning through it all to enter her Flare State will leave her completely powerless for hours. -
T H E S T O R Y S O F A R... T H E S T O R Y S O F A R...
In the mind of Kara-El, the people of Earth were a footnote in the history of Krypton, a template for what once was and never could be again. If she knew her father was going to extradite her to another place in time for hope to avoid the fate of their world, well, she would’ve prepared herself for it a little better.
Young, inexperienced, and consumed by guilt she finds herself jettisoned into a temporal rift as Krypton itself fell into chaos and destruction. Kara, now alone and consumed by grief that she will never see her family and friends again must try to find a way to secure the future of not only herself but heed her mission to ensure the fate of Krypton never comes to be.
Where her temporal pod lands will dictate how her story truly begins...
P L O T ( S ) & G O A L ( S ) P L O T ( S ) & G O A L ( S )
Taking lead from Andy's Krypton changes, I was inspired this morning to return to one of the characters I feel I can write in my sleep.
The major crux of this Supergirl, outside of the provided changes, is that while she is inexperienced she isn’t particularly ignorant, serving as kind of a middle point between traditional concepts of the character and New 52/Adventures versions.
What I hope to achieve is, well, actually writing in this game on a weekly or bi-weekly basis (as time and energy allows). I’ve spoken with Andy to some length about what we could do going forward and if things don’t work out if circumstance strikes I have some solo villains lined up that don’t dip into Superman’s pie. Coordination and collaboration is the key of my strengths, after all. If this seems to be acceptable I can start discussing introduction plans with Andy and more precise integrations going forward. Thank you for your patience as always.
M O C K I N G B I R D M O C K I N G B I R D
"Sometimes the truth hurts. In these situations, I recommend lying."
C H A R A C T E R P O R T R A I T C H A R A C T E R P O R T R A I T
C H A R A C T E R S U M M A R Y C H A R A C T E R S U M M A R Y
_________________________________________________________ Barbara "Bobbi" Morse _________________________________________________________ 34 | Single _________________________________________________________ ex-CIA, United States Government | American
N O T A B L E A B I L I T I E S & T O O L S N O T A B L E A B I L I T I E S & T O O L S
A B I L I T I E S ▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔ ◼ Genetically Modified Physique Bobbi was afflicted by The Reach's attack on Earth which has unknowingly genetically modified her DNA, giving her enhanced strength and reflexes as well as a regenerative healing factor. -
T O O L (S) ▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔ ◼ Mockingbird's Sidearm Mockingbird carries a modified Sig Sauer P229 DAK as needed.
◼ Mockingbird's Battle Staves Mockingbird carries two hollow steel-alloy poles or battles staves, each extending up to four feet. She uses these staves as fighting clubs; she screws them together to be used as a bo-staff or javelin, or extends them to an eight-foot vaulting pole. -
N O T A B L E S K I L L S & T A L E N T S N O T A B L E S K I L L S & T A L E N T S
S K I L L (S) ▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔ ◼ Biochemistry Knolwedge Bobbi graduated with a PhD in Biochemistry before she could legally rent a car.
◼ Espionage Bobbi is a skilled spy and fundamentally aware of the tools of the craft. She is fluent is over five languages including Korean, Chinese, Iranian, Spanish, and Russian.
◼ Intelligence Gathering Bobbi is adept at computer technologies and techniques to access data.
◼ Expert Hand-to-Hand Combatant Bobbi is skilled in multiple martial arts and several forms of hand-to-hand combat, including Kung Fu, Aikido, and Taekwondo. She is known to be extremely dangerous when fighting in close quarters. -
T A L E N T (S) ▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔ ◼ Athleticism Bobbi was born with a physical gifts which she has shaped into skills such as acrobatics. She was a elite gymnast during her High School years and that was long before her training by the CIA. -
T H E S T O R Y S O F A R... T H E S T O R Y S O F A R...
Barbara Morse was recruited by the Central Intelligence Agency while she was a student at the Georgia Institute of Technology. Looking for mercurial problem solvers, they saw Bobbi as one of the brightest recruits they had found in quite some time. A PhD in biology, unfortunately, didn’t really have much use in the intelligence gathering business, but what was useful was how quick Bobbi was in her feet as well as in the head.
She was 22.
Over the next twelve years she became one of the elite spies in the agency, traveling across the world in the best interests of the United States government and generally getting the job done–with efficiency and deadly accuracy. Considering herself a patriot and in the cause, when the cynicism resulting from experience turned its head she tried to keep her feet planted in the ground. The world was changing, and not for the better. She lived through the housing crisis, the recession that resulted from it, the rise of even more terrorist cabals, and reactionary cultural sentiments that seemed to go global.
With the CIA depowered and run through by President Lord and a new agency erected above it, Morse is starting to wonder where Lord’s administration is taking America. Still nursing the effects of The Reach Invasion, she’s in a tough spot.
P L O T ( S ) & G O A L ( S ) P L O T ( S ) & G O A L ( S )
The appeal of Mockingbird in a comic-oriented jab at contemporary politics escalating to a boiling point of chaos and paranoia, largely, is to play from a perspective from the inside.
The decision to keep her in the CIA/Agency route instead of moving her to SHIELD is largely to keep her still relatively in line with supporting the government in spite of the early lunacies of the Lord Administration. I hope to interact and collaborate with both ex-government types as well as figures like Captain America. I do better role-playing, anyway, which I’m sure you agree with as an assessment.
A B I L I T I E S ▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔ ◼ ABILITY Acrobatics - Her agility, speed, and reaction timing are faster than a normal humans.
T O O L (S) ▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔ ◼ TOOL Soultaker -The ancient mystical katana blade named Soultaker is her main weapon of choice which she has used at times to kill without second thought. The sword has various mystic properties which give it unique capacities. First off it is nearly indestructible, coming into contact with high impacts and not receiving any damage. It is also able to cleave through most material's with amazing ease, its mystical sharpness never ebbing. The Katana sword also contains the souls of any being ever killed by its blade, and over the centuries of use it retains quite an amount of souls. The wielder of the sword may also call forth the entities of the sword to manifest on the blade and speak to the current wielder, giving as much help as they do in begging for mercy from the swords limbo.
N O T A B L E S K I L L S & T A L E N T S N O T A B L E S K I L L S & T A L E N T S
Weapons Expert - Not only is Katana proficient with swords, she is also skilled in wielding traditional weapons from her homeland; namely bows, shurikens, daggers, and such.
T A L E N T (S) ▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔ ◼ TALENT Ninjitsu(Stealth and Swordplay) Tatsu Toro is trained and has mastered this art ever since she was a child. Sneaking up and slashing people with her sword when they least expect it is her bread and butter.
-
T H E S T O R Y S O F A R... T H E S T O R Y S O F A R...
"I will not fail again dear Husband. This blade hungers sinners and I am vengence incarnate" - Katana, talking to Soultaker.
The new world is cruel to those who are gifted and seek justice. The aftermath of the Reach leaves a huge power vacuum among the crime syndicates across America. Ever since the decree of the anti-metahuman law, those who operate in the shadows are free to function without the fear of the government monitoring them.
Multiple factions that are skilled with the Blade, Espionage, and Stealth have been taking over the streets. (The Sword Clan, The Dagger Clan, The League. etc.)
The land of the brave has regressed into a feudal Japanese setting, where in every city there's a swordmaster/ninja/mercenary operating as a henchman/clan lord in a minor/major crime syndicate.
Some of which came from Japan, Villians that specialize in the art of the blade and deceit; Serving as bodyguards to high-profile crime lords and Politicians around Lord's Circle as a safety protocol ever since the resistance has been growing in numbers.
Katana, who was presumably killed by Lady Shiva returns to America.
She now works as a masterless samurai: A ronin. A shadow that hunts down those who are on the wrong side of history.
P L O T ( S ) & G O A L ( S ) P L O T ( S ) & G O A L ( S )
Daggers, swords, shuriken, nunchucks, and other pointy things!
I would like to introduce some glorious steel-on-steel clashing of swords, street-level action in this setting while putting some respect in one of DC's silent and deadly fighters: Katana. Separating her apart from the suicide squad.
My intention and goals are simple, a loose retelling of Miyamoto Musashi in the shape of Katana which involves Fighting numerous duels, meddling in turf disputes, some Clan vs Clan scruffle, collaborating with some resistance fellas and running a gauntlet on how far she can go battling some sword-wielding baddies in this oppressive setting.
Plot:
Ever since the ruthless Amanda Waller became VP, Task force X has gone through a shake-up. Those who she deems unworthy lose their head as she makes room for other more useful metahumans in Belle Reve Prison to do their bidding for her.
Katana, being a part-timer in this band of dangerous misfits draws the line and made a choice on where she stands. Tatsu Toro is playing a dangerous game between her temporary faction and her morals.
Katana is involved in killing a corrupt public official and is being hunted by Lady Shiva for her bounty.
After being presumably killed by the deadliest assassin on the planet, Tatsu Toro barely survives and returns to Japan to recuperate. Only to realize that her job of mowing down criminals is not finished. Soultaker's hunger has never been satiated ever since she left America.
With her identity erased Katana returns to the USA and now works as an independent mercenary and is a part of the resistance. Disrupting the government on a smaller scale as a vigilante.
It's a samurai showdown somewhere at the land of the free, and Katana takes center stage! Claiming the lives of the swordmasters who oppose the resistance one soul at a time.
C H A R A C T E R S U M M A R Y C H A R A C T E R S U M M A R Y
_________________________________________________________ M’gann M’orzz _________________________________________________________ Approx 19 years old mentally and biologically (technically 48 rotations around the sun) | Relationship Status _________________________________________________________ Affiliation(s) [If Applicable] | Nationality
N O T A B L E A B I L I T I E S & T O O L S N O T A B L E A B I L I T I E S & T O O L S
A B I L I T I E S ▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔ ◼ ABILITY Dazzling psionic powers that include: The ability to read minds, project thoughts, alter memories, create illusions, turn invisible, and induce sleep.
Shape shifting! She can change the proportions and color of her body at will. New outfits and a new face on the spot, shrink down small or grow up big. Extra limbs! Long limbs! Density manipulation, for intangibility (at the cost of no power) or super durability (at the cost of no speed.) Almost anything she can think of. Hint: telekinesis + shape shifting wing cape + lower density = flying!
To top it all off, a hefty, healthy dose of super strength, durability, and super duper telekinesis.
Martians can shapeshift, but they have three key internal organs that must remain consistent in shape and general location. Mind, Heart, and Key. The Heart is the sustaining organ that provides life and sustenance to M'gann's body via a blood-like liquid that absorbs throughout her entire form. It generates life energy via an efficient process similar to photosynthesis. This was easier on Mars, so she needs to supplement herself with more complex sugars...Choco cookies are pretty good, huh?
The Mind is the center of her psychic powers and allows her to experience the world. This one needs to be near her senses, so its usually behind the eyes. It requires a connection of some kind to the Heart so it can be sustained by it. While her natural biology makes this a lot harder to occur, if the Mind is somehow physically rattled she can still suffer concussive like effects.
The Key is how Martian's can regenerate some physical wounds and also responsible for how they reproduce. It creates new life. If necessary, it can be used to reproduce asexually, though the process is extremely demanding.
Each Vital Organ is about the size of an apple. If M'gann loses one, she might be able to recuperate alright in some way or another. Two is big long coma territory if she's lucky. Three is obviously game over. They're called vital organs for a reason! -
T O O L (S) ▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔ ◼ TOOL Kinda…nothing? -
N O T A B L E S K I L L S & T A L E N T S N O T A B L E S K I L L S & T A L E N T S
S K I L L (S) ▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔ ◼ SKILL Cooking! (She is not good at cooking) Punching things? Make-up? Hiding! She’s very good at hiding. -
T A L E N T (S) ▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔ ◼ TALENT Cooking. Let’s make sure to get cooking on there again. (No, she is not good at cooking.) Math! A regular math genius.
Oh, as a Martian, she also has more senses.
She has the usual; sight, hearing, smell, touch and taste. On the whole, most of them are equal to or even worse than the average humans. The exceptions being her sense of touch, which is extremely refined; and her hearing, which is pretty bad. Her most said word is probably ‘What?’
But she does have three more: a sixth sense, that allows her to detect spirits and the rhythm of the other side.
A seventh sense, connected to gravity and the stars that allows her to navigate even in the depths of blackest space without a map.
An eighth sense, that allows her to detect and see the psionic ‘auras’ of other lifeforms. The one that defines her as a ‘Pale’ Martian as opposed to a ‘Green’ Martian.
And a ninth sense, that allows her to ba tu’anthrmag’iag with ba ta onron’y’aban po helvek’maelans. Uhh, that one’s a bit hard to translate into English. Regardless, this is the one the Reach hijacked to make her feel sick, weak, and faint whenever she gets too close to fire. It’s also the same sense the philosophers of her people tapped into to begin to discover the Life Equation. It also allows her to sense where the exact ‘physical location’ of state borders are. Like, you know that place in America with the Four Corners? Look, it’s hard to explain, okay? It’s the ninth sense! -
T H E S T O R Y S O F A R... T H E S T O R Y S O F A R...
M’gann M’orzz is a Pale Martian, growing up in a time of racial tension on her homeworld of Mars. She grew up ostracized from her peers, growing up in dominant Green communities. As a result she has low self-esteem, and even the smallest words of encouragement will get the lonely girl excited. Her life on Mars was unremarkable in many ways. She grew up in an alien culture. Lies were impossible. Connections between people happened fast. Art, music, and philosophy were thriving. In faraway places, Greens and Pales threw parties of reconciliation and peace with each other, but where M’gann grew up she had no such luck. The Life Equation philosophy began to spread, promising to prove that free will and spiritual freedom could be demonstrated as a mathematical proof. M’gann managed to find a pamphlet with some of the equation written down on it. Can you imagine seeing something like that? It was astonishing. But perhaps it was too late. Before Martian society could repair itself, an unforeseen threat emerged and decided its best option was to fan the flames.
It was this time of tension that the Reach exploited, turning different sides against each other so they could do their research on the martians psionic and shape-shifting abilities in the chaos. During this time of secret abductions, one M’gann M’orzz numbered among the victims. They came for her in the night and snatched her from her home, often targeting Pale Martian communities due to the lack of security and attention.
They enhanced her abilities, giving her telekinesis and enhancing her other powers, but the same psychic strength they increased made them unable to control her. The closest they could do was program into her with a psionic weakness to fire and heat so they wouldn’t phase-shift away from their experiments. Satisfied with their results and having no more use for her, they put M’gann into cryogenic storage. At least they weren’t wasteful.
When the Reach came to Earth, they brought M’gann with them, deep in their vaults of experiments. During the battle, the ship was destroyed by Superman. He later recovered some of the wreckage and experiments within, and brought them to his fortress for safe keeping. M’gann’s damaged pod was among them. The kryptonian technology within sustained and slowly began to repair her pod to bring her out of cryogenesis without physical or mental damage. Years passed, and eventually, M’gann would wake up on a new world.
But not just any new world. Tens of thousands of years had passed! Her homeworld, Mars, is now desolate and abandoned, the fate of the Martian people a mystery. Were they wiped out by the Reach? Made extinct later by an unlivable environment? Or did they pack up and move, for one reason or another? It’s impossible to know.
Stranded on an Earth divided, she knows from her past that division and rejection only leads to a weaker society, one that could be exploited by the Reach should they ever return. Earth and its people must be united if they are to survive. And there’s no better way to do that than to become a superhero, just like Superman! An emissary of the Martian people, Miss Martian will take to the skies and do what she can to bring some light into the world.
When she describes herself as a White, or Pale Martian, astute observers might point out that she is, in fact, very green. Martians actually have “nine” general senses as opposed to humans “six.” Yes, six. M’gann can tell with her “eighth” sense that some humans have latent psionic potential. And that same eighth sense is what gives her away as ‘Pale’ as opposed to ‘Green’. It’s as obvious to her and other Martians as skin color is to humans, but to humans, well, she just looks green. And it’s something innate about her she can’t just shape shift away from.
P L O T ( S ) & G O A L ( S ) P L O T ( S ) & G O A L ( S )
This Miss Martian is going to be kind of a combination between Miss Martian and Martian Manhunter. Originally, the Manhunter himself was brought into this space and time by a science experiment of some random human guy that died of a heart attack right after. So such an origin is still technically possible, but basically, I’m playing an amalgam of both characters. I’ve also toyed around with Martian society and lore a little bit.
I wanted a heroine that can exist in any space of a superhero world. Street level, cosmic level, magical level. Someone that can fly around and meet all the other player characters in an attempt to learn more about the world and herself. And obviously she already has a connection to Superman. In terms of overall plot, I’m kind of planning on free wheeling it and seeing how the world evolves. Though I do have some ideas based on an old comic run about VULTURE. I might combine that with AIM or something, to give M’gann an evil org to go up against on her worldly adventures. Evil science organizations are always fun.
I’m nerfing her powers somewhat, to make her more interesting. The whole “Martians are as strong as Kryptonians” thing always struck me as untrue, in practice. Like is it really true? I'm not so sure. Besides, the flying brick powerset is the least interesting thing about the Martian!
I also wanted to play a silly billy. I like it when the Martians do things like learn the true meaning of Christmas. I'd like her to be an implacable bright spot in any room. She has her own problems to sort out but she's a good person and an optimist at her core, because she has to be! And wants to be. While obviously she does have a certain sadness about her, being isolated from her origins, she does hold onto hope that the Martian people live on, somewhere, in some capacity. Or at the very least, weren’t all wiped out by the Reach. So that brightens up her spirits. That, and remembering that snippet of the Life Equation she managed to find.
Due to a sense of Martian pride and being perhaps the last Martian, and in the hope of helping human society unite, M'gann only disguises herself as a human if she really needs to go undercover. For example, to solve a crime or find missing people. Otherwise, she prefers to be herself.
C H A R A C T E R S U M M A R Y C H A R A C T E R S U M M A R Y
_________________________________________________________ Benjamin 'Peter' Reilly _________________________________________________________ 25 | Single _________________________________________________________ Manhattan | American
N O T A B L E A B I L I T I E S N O T A B L E A B I L I T I E S
A B I L I T I E S ▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔ ◼ SUPERHUMAN PHYSICALITY Enhanced twice over, once by his mutated genetics and again by the Reach's experiments at his creation, Ben is stronger, faster, more durable, more agile, with faster reflexes and more stamina than any non-metahuman individual could ever imagine, and rivalling or even surpassing many other powered beings as well. This additionally extends to his body's injury response, able to heal and regenerate far quicker than humanly possible, recovering from wounds in a matter of minutes and hours, rather than days and weeks.
◼ WALL-CRAWLING Thanks to the genetic changes brought on by the spider's toxin, Ben is able to cling to any surface - regardless of orientation - and crawl or climb along or up without risk of losing purchase or falling. Ceilings, walls, metal, plaster - it doesn't seem to matter how it's laid out or what it's made of; Ben can adhere and navigate as easily as putting one foot in front of the other.
◼ SPIDER-SENSE Ben possesses a psuedo-precognitive alert ability, dubbed 'Spider-Sense', that warns him of any incoming danger and allows his reflexes to enable him to dodge, evade, or counter any blow, projectile, or even more esoteric forms of danger or harm that may attempt to befoul him. Working in a full 360-degree span around him, the strength of the alert response is also proportional relative to the severity of the danger; the most extreme responses can react intensely enough to cause physical pain. While it does not trigger while unconscious, it remains while Ben is sleeping, or when stunned or otherwise paralyzed but still conscious. To a certain extent, Ben can also wilfully exert his spider-sense and tune into his surroundings, through walls, floors, ceilings, or around corners, and 'probe' for potential threats and individuals, although this is hazier and not as fine-detail as the reflexive alert response, and required significant mental concentration to achieve and maintain.
◼ WEBBING Part of the Reach's improvements to Ben's cloned biology, the experiment that lead to his creation also introduced natural, organic web-spinners to his body, able to secrete upon demand a natural and proportional reproduction of spider-silk. With adhesive qualities and tensile strength rivalling steel wire, this silk enables Ben to swing - his main method of transportation - as well as quickly zip-line to other points, and can additionally be used as an entrapment, weaving, or sculpting substance to suit many, many requirements. -
N O T A B L E S K I L L S & T A L E N T S N O T A B L E S K I L L S & T A L E N T S
S K I L L (S) ▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔ ◼ GIFTED INTELLECT Peter had a natural talent and aptitude for the sciences, marked as one of the single most well-graded students in the history of his high school and flagged for an Oscorp internship and research role before his abduction; Ben has inherited this great mind, gifted with one of the keenest intellects on the planet, though slightly atrophied from the half-decade abduction, experimentation, and clone-growth process.
◼ MASTER ACROBAT Mostly provided by the combination of his physical enhancements, Ben is the premier acrobat and gymnast on the face of the Earth, able to twist, turn, balance, swing, and stunt beyond limits thought possible. -
T A L E N T (S) ▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔ ◼ PHOTOGRAPHY With am inherited passion, a keen eye, and the ability to get places and angles others can't, Ben is inadvertently quite the dab hand at photography, capturing images that dazzle and amaze; something he's used to his advantage in a world growing ever-more-obsessed with the activities of particular notable individuals... -
T H E S T O R Y S O F A R... T H E S T O R Y S O F A R...
Peter Parker, 15, a young and exceedingly clever high-school student in Queens, is invited to an exclusive guided tour through the Oscorp research centre in Manhattan, attending a program created for the best and brightest, intended to afford New York's most intelligent youth a window into the foremost scientific hub in New York State, and a lifeline opportunity to join their ranks upon completion of their studies. Unbeknownst to either Oscorp or Peter himself, a spider - subject to genetic research and experimentation within the bowels of the site's laboratory, aided by early technological exchange with the Reach - escaped its enclosure. It found Peter, using its final gasps of life to deliver a single bite, and introduce a toxin to Peter's body that would prove to be the fateful pivot upon which his entire life would spin.
Struck down by a debilitating illness, Peter spent weeks wracked with agonizing pains, migraines, nausea, fading in and out of consciousness as his very genetic makeup was rewritten, pulled apart and knitted back together. When he finally recovered, he found himself in possession of strange, unexplained powers; stronger, faster, tougher; quicker reflexes, and and ability to cling to any surface regardless of orientation; most peculiar of all, an almost pre-cognitive warning of incoming danger or harm, allowing him to twist and react to evade or counter. Giddy from what these new powers meant for him, Peter was reckless; he bounded into the city, engaging in nothing more than simple play around the urban landscape of Manhattan, a new sandbox opening up before him. Visions of a reinvented life swam before him: the Amazing Spider-Man! Stronger than you, faster than you! Witness his incredible wall-crawling! Laud his inability to be hit! See how he swings from web of his own creation! Watch how robbers and bullies cower at his feet, and the ladies swoon beneath him! Spectacular, Sensational, Superior...!
And then Uncle Ben was murdered. And then Aunt May had a stroke. And then Peter Parker was abducted as the Reach War erupted.
Five long years took their toll on a teenager. Kept in a half-conscious state of suspended animation, Peter's DNA was harvested again and again for hideous experiments into neogenics, the Reach sure that this mutated boy's cells held the key to turning the tide of the war and conquering Earth. All manner of tests and trials were held; reproducing the original spider, creating biologic serums out of Peter's genetic makeup, direct transfusion, even cross-gene grafting. Frustrated by failure at every turn, the Reach rounded on a new avenue; direct genetic cloning. The logic held up: Peter, by some unknown quantity or quality, had accepted and melded with the original spider's toxin, an against-the-odds alchemy that improved him beyond the scope of Human, rather than destroy him at the cellular level like so many other subjects since. Reproduce that, and the Reach had an army that could seamlessly hide within Humanity's ranks, under their direct control, and ready to destroy their enemy from within. The science was agreed on; the experiment approved. The cloning began.
The plan never saw itself realized; five years into the crisis, the Superman appeared, and the Reach were driven from Earth entirely. In the carnage, Peter awoke from his suspension, five years older and his memories murky and muddled since the abduction. He broke containment easily, assisting and rescuing others as he escaped the research station amidst a distracted and routed Reach - including, to his distress, a solitary, perfectly identical copy, withered half-lame from incomplete growth, and equally confused. Together, they returned to Earth, and watched the sky clear of their tormentors, fleeing on their heels faced with the might of Earth's new defender.
And then the bomb went off.
Only in the wake of fresh calamity was the truth revealed; this wilted, languishing Peter was no half-finished clone, no incomplete experiment. This was the original Peter Parker, the abductee, drained and harvested and picked at for the Reach's heinous purposes; the Peter who had escaped, who had broken containment and rescued the others, was the singular successful, stable reproduction in their myriad cloning attempts. The original begged the clone to understand - he was stronger, faster, tougher, a Spider-Man Improved, a terrible reckoning created by the Reach but never utilized. He had to be better; he had to be greater. He had to take to heart the lessons the Reach had not, the lessons Peter had learned so dreadfully, the lessons the Superman demonstrated so nobly.
With Great Power, Comes Great Responsibility.
Peter was buried with his Uncle and Aunt. Ben Reilly attended from a distance, and then disappeared into New York City. He spent five years travelling, discovering the Earth that only existed in memories that weren't even truly his; five years discovering himself, and what he stood for. Five years watching the consequences of the meta-bomb, of the Reach's incursion against the planet. Five years watching men like Maxwell Lord wash over society and stain everything they touched.
After five years, Ben returned to New York City, ready to face whatever the teeming masses had to offer. In his first week, he stopped a mugging, then a burglary; and it had been so easy. So natural. A piece of biology embedded even further than his abilities; even five years post-mortem, Ben was reminded where he came from. And Peter had been proven right: there had to be a Spider-Man. Ben couldn't ignore it. Whether they wanted it or not, the people needed a protector.
But it would have to be on his terms.
P L O T ( S ) & G O A L ( S ) P L O T ( S ) & G O A L ( S )
I love Spider-Man but honestly, Ben Reilly and the Scarlet Spider have always been cooler. The identity struggle, the suit, even the alias are all just a bit more interesting and have a bit more edge on the age-old tale of Peter Parker. My main issue with ever writing a Spider-Man story is also what do you write that hasn't been written already, with what's one half of the two most successful comic book properties on the planet? I don't have anything for Peter and re-doing a classic origin would put me to sleep; but Ben? Ben's cool. Ben's trying to fill a hole Peter never had the chance to drill in the first place. Ben's trying to figure out who he is, if he's not Peter. With Peter dead, maybe he is Peter, just by default. But does he want to be Peter? Does he want to be Spider-Man? I don't know, but we can sure find out.
▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔ ◼ CRYOKINESIS Capable of manipulating thermal energy by reducing the kinetic energy of atoms, and thus making things colder. The extent of this ranges from subjective feeling of cool to absolute zero. Can then use the cold to create, shape, and control ice, including in the form of ice constructs. Completely immune to cold.
▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔ ◼ ASTRAL PROJECTION Capable of separating her soul from her body, which takes on an ethereal, golden visage. Being in her astral form allows her to fly, turn invisible, and control her molecular density. The latter allows her to either be intangible or interact with the physical world at will.
▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔ ◼ PYROKINESIS Capable of manipulating thermal energy by increasing the kinetic energy of atoms, and thus making things hotter. Can use this heat to combust objects and project powerful flames. Completely immune to heat.
▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔ ◼ ACCELERATED ROTATION Capable of spinning parts of, or his entire body, at superhuman speeds. This allows him to surround himself in a personal vortex, create localized tornados, and launch strong bursts of air.
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T H E S T O R Y S O F A R... T H E S T O R Y S O F A R...
Ten years ago, Leonard Snart and Mick Rory were nothing but juvenile delinquents. The arrival of The Reach did nothing to stay their young anger and budding criminal activities. If anything, the sudden upheaval in society made it easier for the pair to get away with their petty antics.
Five years ago, recent high school graduate Leonard picked up his best friend from a detention center where Mick had spent the last month. Tagging along was Leonard's younger sister, Lisa, who excitedly pointed out the brilliant light show in the sky above to the two hoodlums. They watched in stunned silence as the heavens exploded with The Reach's final 'gift' to humanity, bathing all three in cosmic warmth.
One year ago, with dangerous rhetoric on the rise and hate crimes against metahumans becoming all-too-common, the trio made a decision: they would not be victims.
Five months ago, three metahumans struck an Agency detainment facility in Central City where they stole classified military intel and freed an illegally imprisoned mutant, Roscoe Hynes.
One month ago, Colonel Wade Eiling, commander of The Agency's Central City division, gave a press conference about the metahuman threat within the city and announced an increased military presence to combat this. Four unknown individuals, reported to be highly dangerous terrorists, were named as public enemy number one. Colonel Eiling swore that, one way or another, he would put an end to these metahuman Rogues.
P L O T ( S ) & G O A L ( S ) P L O T ( S ) & G O A L ( S )
This RP has a unique premise and setting, and so I wanted to design a concept that doesn't merely exist within but exists because of the world. It wouldn't be fun to merely run a superhero that does general superhero things all while the country falls to fascism. In a world where the president is essentially enacting martial law and declaring war on metahumans, it would only be natural for certain metahuman elements to react. Realistically, it would be the roguish elements that would lash out first. Who better than to resist than the honorable Rogues themselves?
The Rogues in this world never formed as villains because, simply, the heroes didn't exist in any meaningful form. Not until after the world was already changed, twice. Instead, their criminal behavior lies in their adolescences and as current enemies of the state.
I intend to fully explore this premise of a United States falling to fascism, a purely fantastical concept never seen before in reality, and what resistance might actually look like in such a world. I have a general plot line for this team that can carry them through solo posts as well as collaborative ones, though Central City will be the primary backdrop for some time.
C H A R A C T E R S U M M A R Y C H A R A C T E R S U M M A R Y
_________________________________________________________ Oliver Jonas Queen _________________________________________________________ 40 | Single _________________________________________________________ The Agency | American
N O T A B L E A B I L I T I E S & T O O L S N O T A B L E A B I L I T I E S & T O O L S
T O O L (S) ▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔ ◼ LONGBOW Ollie prefers the classics. He’d die before using a compound or a gun.
◼ ARROWS Starting out, Ollie stuck to the basics: broadheads. Over the years he began experimenting with a variety of trick arrows using the limited resources available to him. Now that he’s with the Agency, only the sky—and his principles—are the limit.
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N O T A B L E S K I L L S & T A L E N T S N O T A B L E S K I L L S & T A L E N T S
S K I L L S ▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔ ◼ FIGHTER Ollie loved watching the fights as a kid. He’d joined a boxing gym in college, but that was as short lived as any of his hobbies back then. During his time away, he’d gotten through close quarters encounters on sheer survival instinct. Upon his return, he figured it was about time he learned properly. He’s not half bad in a scrap these days. -
T A L E N T S ▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔ ◼ ARCHER As a kid, his father’s wealth got Ollie private lessons with the best archery teachers money could buy. He had a talent for it. Next to running his mouth, it was probably the only thing he was good at. But like his youthful rebellion, he gave up on this, too... until his time away saw to it that he either pick up a bow or die. In the years since, he’s honed his archery to an extreme degree. It’s his meditation. His most dangerous weapon.
◼ HUNTER Ollie discovered another talent during his time away. His quarry’s different now, but it makes no difference. It’s what makes him such a valuable asset to the Agency: there’s nothing—no one—he cannot hunt.
◼ SURVIVOR Doesn’t matter what you do; doesn’t matter how badly he’s hurt; doesn’t matter how badly he may want otherwise. Oliver Queen is doomed to survive. It’s just the way he’s built. -
T H E S T O R Y S O F A R . . . T H E S T O R Y S O F A R . . .
Born into the richest family this side of America, he grew up keenly aware of his privilege, wanted to do something about it—but was chewed up and spat out by the money that made him, growing disillusioned and ultimately toeing the line as a good little capitalist. He turned from activism to thrill-seeking, charity to booze, going from one near-death experience to the next in constant search of his next shot of adrenaline. Living to die. When his head of security came to him with what most would call a shady business proposition, Ollie thought hey, what the hell. It’s something to do. Could even be fun.
But he got himself too involved. He was only supposed to be a silent partner, provide some funding, but he insisted on being there for the deal. He threatened knowing too much, and the deal’s benefactors weren’t willing to take the risk. It was on the yacht heading there, in the middle of the Pacific Ocean, that his head of security tried to kill him.
The water welcomed him with open arms. He wasn’t quite ready to go. Call it luck, call it fate, he washed up on a beach with nothing but Howard Hill’s old bow, won at auction weeks ago, lungs full of water and heart full of spite. Ollie didn’t care if he died... but he would be damned if he let these people beat him.
* * *
Ten years ago, Ollie came back to a world in crisis. Humanity was under attack, too busy waging war against the stars to care about his return, which suited him just fine. His time away had reinvigorated him, lighting a fire within he’d thought long since gone. Reinstated at the helm of his father’s company, he aimed to transform it into a force for good. He was done toeing the line. As the world fought back against the Reach, Ollie fought a losing battle against a system that refused change. Ousted and sued by his own board of directors, Ollie lost everything for trying to play by the rules.
With his fortune reclaimed by the machine he tried to change, Ollie set his sights on helping others within his new means, taking on an administrative position at the Star City Youth Recreational Center. When he wasn’t there, he was at the local archery range, honing the childhood skill that had kept him alive during his time away.
Something lost, something gained. Not long after coming to the Youth Center, a young boy walked through its doors asking for Ollie by name. His name was Connor Hawke, he said, and he was Ollie’s son. Ollie remembered the boy’s mother, Moonday—a brief romance from his college activist years at Hudson University. She left shortly after their fling, and never mentioned any pregnancy to him. But here Connor was, seeking Ollie out after seeing his legal battle on the news. Although shocked, Ollie welcomed Connor into his life, determined to make up for lost time and be a father to his son.
Ollie felt good about the work he was doing, where his life was heading. He lost everything, but gained a son—and compared to seeing the kids at the Youth Center smile, making a tangible difference in their lives, it all seemed ashes. In the time since his dismissal from Queen Industries, Ollie felt something he couldn’t remember feeling before… Fulfilment. Finally, he was doing work that’s worth a damn.
But it still wasn’t enough. Something kept gnawing at him, persistent, a feeling that he couldn’t let go. Ollie had seen firsthand what happens when you try to solve problems with money. At best, you’re treating a symptom. At worst, the machine fights you, devours you whole. He watched it leech from the city around him, from his son, from the kids he was trying to help, and wondered: what can one man do?
Oliver Queen felt a call from within.
He picked up a bow.
* * *
As Superman took flight in Washington, Ollie took to Star City’s streets. With nothing but his longbow and quiver full of arrows, “Green Arrow” made waves as the underground champion of those the system forgot and ignored, clashing with the law just as often as he targeted organized and white collar crime alike. All the while he grew closer with Connor and continued his work at the Youth Center, where another kid entered his life: this time a runaway he’d helped as Green Arrow, a young girl named Mia Dearden. Like him, she was a survivor, and though he didn’t know her for long, he soon found that he’d gained a daughter, too.
Ollie had opposed the idea of a Lord/Waller government since the moment they announced their candidacy. He could see the writing on the wall, and he was angry. When they announced the establishment of the Agency and its military checkpoints, he wasn’t surprised. He’d long decided how to voice his displeasure.
Three months ago, Green Arrow attacked a Star City Agency facility to free its metahuman captives and send a message: Maxwell Lord and his cronies were not welcome here.
They were ready for him. As far as the world was concerned, Oliver Queen died a domestic terrorist that night. In the Agency’s custody, he was given a choice: serve their interests as an Agency asset, or let his family suffer the consequences of his actions. To Ollie, there was no choice to make.
Oliver Queen was a sellout.
P L O T ( S ) & G O A L ( S ) P L O T ( S ) & G O A L ( S )
I don’t know if you guys know this, but I like Green Arrow. It would’ve been easy to play it straight and run the character relatively close to canon—he’s made for this kind of premise—but I want to do something a little different here. Ollie is, at his core, a leftist superhero who loves his family more than anything else. The idea of using his family against him, driving him to act against everything he stands for, is a compelling one to me. And so he’s here: dead to the world, forced to act in the Agency’s interests.
I’ve got ideas for where to take his personal arc as he navigates his... unfortunate position, but as far as RPing goes I’d love to get him involved with both Agency and non-Agency characters. The benefit of this concept is that it leaves Ollie primed for interactions that are ripe with conflict from all sides, which is pretty exciting to me!
To clarify Ollie’s standing with the Agency at large: Ollie is an Agency asset. His only point of contact with the wider organization is via his handler, Fyers. When he’s not on a mission, he’s stationed at an Agency black site. He’s not privy to its inner workings because he is its tool, not its agent. Occasionally he’ll be assigned to work with other Agency assets, such as Poindexter or Arachne. Their little branch of the Agency is overseen by Sarge Steel. Ollie is not aware of this.
Character portrait art by Dan Mora and Alejandro Sánchez from Absolute Power #1.
1x Thank
