Welcome to the madhouse. The inmates are in charge, and there are sedatives for everybody!
I'm, at this point, just trying to rescue most of my builds from the old boards.
So don't be surprised that most of them are 2nd Edition!
Arkrite's Asylum
Re: Arkrite's Asylum
Every-Broady
Power Level: 8; Power Points Spent: 114/120
STR: +2 (14), DEX: +0 (10), CON: +2 (14), INT: +0 (10), WIS: -1 (8), CHA: +0 (10)
Tough: +2/+6, Fort: +9, Ref: +6, Will: +6
Skills: Bluff 6 (+6), Climb 3 (+5), Drive 6 (+6), Knowledge (current events) 9 (+9), Knowledge (popular culture) 9 (+9), Notice 5 (+4), Sense Motive 4 (+3), Stealth 6 (+6)
Feats: All-Out Attack, Attack Focus (melee), Defensive Roll 4, Dodge Focus 4, Equipment 6, Power Attack, Set-Up, Taunt, Teamwork
Powers:
Duplication 8 (Heroic, Survival; Absorption Healing, Mental Link, Progression, # Duplicates (2 duplicates))
. . Clone Cushion/Clone Ladder (Super-Movement 2) (Alternate; slow fall, wall-crawling 1 (half speed))
. . EveryBroady's in the Way! (Force Field 8) (Alternate; +8 Toughness; Affects Others, Burst Area (50 ft. radius - General) [2 extra ranks], Impervious; Ablative; Selective)
. . It's light work with EveryBroady helping! (Super-Strength 3) (Alternate; +15 STR carry capacity, heavy load: 1.4k lbs; +3 STR to some checks)
Equipment: Binoculars, Caltrops, Camera, Cell Phone, Club, Flashlight, Handcuffs, HQ: Abandoned Warehouse (The Broady Cave), Lock Release Gun, Vehicle: Jeep (BroadyMobile)
Attack Bonus: +4 (Ranged: +4, Melee: +5, Grapple: +7)
Attacks: Club, +5 (DC 19), Unarmed Attack, +5 (DC 17)
Defense: +9 (Flat-footed: +3), Knockback: -3
Initiative: +0
Languages: Native Language
Totals: Abilities 6 + Skills 12 (48 ranks) + Feats 20 + Powers 38 + Combat 18 + Saves 20 + Drawbacks 0 = 114
--------------------
HQ: Abandoned Warehouse (The Broady Cave)
Power Level: 8; Equipment Points Spent: 11
Toughness: +10
Features: Communications, Computer, Concealed 1, Fire Prevention System, Garage, Gym, Living Space, Power System, Security System 1
Totals: Abilities 0 + Skills 0 (0 ranks) + Feats 0 + Features 9 + Powers 0 + Combat 1 + Saves 1 + Drawbacks 0 + Equipment 0 (0 ep) + Weapons & Armor 0 (0 ep) = 11
--------------------
Vehicle: Jeep (The BroadyMobile)
Power Level: 8; Equipment Points Spent: 7
STR: +10 (30)
Toughness: +9
Powers:
Speed 5 (Speed: 250 mph, 2200 ft./rnd)
Defense: -2, Size: Huge
Totals: Abilities 0 + Skills 0 (0 ranks) + Feats 0 + Features 0 + Powers 5 + Combat 2 + Saves 0 + Drawbacks 0 + Equipment 0 (0 ep) + Weapons & Armor 0 (0 ep) = 7
The story of Every-Broady is whispered amongst the criminal circles... Usually followed by derisive laughter.
As far as Broady goes, he's always been a joke. Outsider at school, high school dropout, mallrat, convenience store employee for almost ten years with little hope of ever going up in the world. His only claim to fame was a impressive store of useless information.
This all changed one day after a party got a little out of hand and he woke up, five days later, jobless, homeless, shirtless, with ten other copies of himself sprawled in the gutter around him.
Imagine his surprise when he found out that he wasn't insane, and that he could absorb and create the copies at will. Lacking the imagination to use this amazing power for knowledge or profit he did the only thing he could think of.
He became a costumed crime fighter. Without the costume. Or really the fighting ability.
Broady went from being a joke among his peers to being a joke among the superhero community. Where there were the silly super villains that regularly got clobbered by super heroes, Broady was the silly super hero that got regularly clobbered by super villains.
It wasn't until a near death incident that things started turning around for Broady. He, somehow, managed to track down White Knight to a charity party and crashed in at the last moment to save the day.
Actually he barely got there in time because he got his directions mixed up, and was nearly killed by White Knight in the fight. All of his duplicates were killed and he ended up in the hospital with a broken back and burns over most of his body. But even though he was completely out matched he stayed, fought, and ultimately lost.
During that time the hostages managed to make an escape after some smoke bombs went off, and by the time Broady was about to die the Freedom League showed up to save the day.
Thankfully he wasn't paralysed by the break, and technology being what it was the burns never even left a scar. And all of his bills were paid by a mysterious benefactor.
Upon his release his mysterious benefactor contacted him again, offering to finance Broady's continuing fight against crime... if he did jobs for the benefactor. Broady, still being the lazy slacker that he was, agreed immediately.
No more having to have a copy at the video store to make ends meet!
He found quickly that the Benefactor wasn't willing to let him just keep doing his normal routine. He started getting "jobs" training at self defence schools, or sometimes in back alleys or even rooftops by strange people.
He was trained at how to properly attack a foe, how to properly take a punch, and more importantly how to properly dodge a punch. At first he resented the training, to the point of giving up on it all together until he took down an entire gang by himself. Without getting beat up.
And won!!
Slacker or not, winning was a very big motivation. Well, not getting beat up was a bigger motivation.
With the training under his belt, and after getting a better idea of how to better use his duplicates to help himself, the onetime joke turned into a semi-respectable hero.
Well, and almost respectable hero.
Actually everybody still thinks that Every-Broady is a giant joke, but people are starting to notice that he's not getting trounced as much as he used to, and he's now starting to make a difference on street crime.
Without his mysterious benefactor he'd likely spiral back down to jobber superhero, but with this benefactor pointing him in the right direction he's finally starting to be the hero he wanted to be.
Complication: Reputation
Broady is considered a joke. He wears a brown shirt with the red letters "EB" on his chest, and a pair of jeans as his superhero outfit. Villains usually beat him up, civilians usually remember him as the guy who gets beat up, and he looks like a twenty-something slacker who forgot to shave and may or may not be on drugs. (He's not)
Thus the cops don't take his word for things, villains are never frightened by him, and civilians are far more likely to ignore him then to listen to him.
Complication: Responsibility (Mysterious Benefactor)
He doesn't know who he/she/they are, but he's stuck with them. They supply him with the cash to keep going, the training to keep him alive, and the clues to point him in the right direction. Without all of those things even he knows he'd be looking at things getting much, much worse. So if the phone rings, he's got to answer it.
Complication: Brash
Broady isn't stupid. He just doesn't think things through. At all. Ever.
He's the guy who charged into a charity ball by himself to take on White Knight and honestly hadn't considered how he'd fight a guy who was on fire. He also thought he'd win.
His powers tend to make him think he's immortal, mostly because as long as one of his copies is alive, he can't be killed. His fight with White Knight almost knocked some sense into him though.
Character Motivation: I want to be a some-Broady
Broady feels like he's a nobody deep down. He couldn't cut it in school, he can't get a job, he can't get a girlfriend, and 90% of the time he fails at everything he does.
The only things he's ever been good at was keeping tabs on the world around him, driving his beat up old WW2 rebuilt jeep, and sneaking into the house well after curfew.
The reason he started trying to fight crime was because he finally thought he had a chance to prove that he wasn't just a failure. The fact that he was, in fact, a failure at being a superhero really ate at him. He's stuck with it, and now he's starting to see some results. Someday he hopes to have his name in lights, to prove to his parents that he's worth something, and to honestly feel good about himself.
This has kept him surprisingly honest, and keeps him in fights long after he knows he should just give up. To be honest this drive is his one redeeming factor.
Complication: Responsibility (Family)
Broady, being Broady, never gave much of a thought to a secret identity. Now it's far too late to hide his face, or change his name because everybody knows him as Every-Broady. Nobody knows his last name, but it's probably not that much of a challenge to find out who he really is.
Of course so far nobody's wanted a joke of a duplicator, or wanted revenge of a joke of a duplicator.
The advantages to being Every-Broady, nobody's willing to admit they ever lost to you. It's just too embarrassing.
His mother and father both wanted him to be something more, like a doctor or a lawyer, and his mom is constantly trying to hook him up with women.
Imagine his surprise when she got him a blind date with Alexandria Flint, a super semi-villain mercenary better known as Sandstone. (She dumped him. Hard. Five minutes into their date. Then they went to a sports bar, had beers, and played pool. Best... date... ever.)
Tactics:
Every-Broady usually starts by summoning up all of his duplicates. From there usually he, and three others gang up on one person, with three teaming up to taunt his enemy, and another two bluffing to throw the guy off balance. (One attack, one taunt, one bluff)
These tactics can make him very effective against a single opponent, assuming the seven of them can surround the opponent.
In most cases Every-Broady just keeps three or four with him to assist himself, and sends to rest to help (read: assist others, or using taunt and bluff with the setup feat) the other people take down their opponents.
If the main Broady is knocked out, his duplicates all disappear. If the main Broady is killed he switches to the next living duplicate.
Power Level: 8; Power Points Spent: 114/120
STR: +2 (14), DEX: +0 (10), CON: +2 (14), INT: +0 (10), WIS: -1 (8), CHA: +0 (10)
Tough: +2/+6, Fort: +9, Ref: +6, Will: +6
Skills: Bluff 6 (+6), Climb 3 (+5), Drive 6 (+6), Knowledge (current events) 9 (+9), Knowledge (popular culture) 9 (+9), Notice 5 (+4), Sense Motive 4 (+3), Stealth 6 (+6)
Feats: All-Out Attack, Attack Focus (melee), Defensive Roll 4, Dodge Focus 4, Equipment 6, Power Attack, Set-Up, Taunt, Teamwork
Powers:
Duplication 8 (Heroic, Survival; Absorption Healing, Mental Link, Progression, # Duplicates (2 duplicates))
. . Clone Cushion/Clone Ladder (Super-Movement 2) (Alternate; slow fall, wall-crawling 1 (half speed))
. . EveryBroady's in the Way! (Force Field 8) (Alternate; +8 Toughness; Affects Others, Burst Area (50 ft. radius - General) [2 extra ranks], Impervious; Ablative; Selective)
. . It's light work with EveryBroady helping! (Super-Strength 3) (Alternate; +15 STR carry capacity, heavy load: 1.4k lbs; +3 STR to some checks)
Equipment: Binoculars, Caltrops, Camera, Cell Phone, Club, Flashlight, Handcuffs, HQ: Abandoned Warehouse (The Broady Cave), Lock Release Gun, Vehicle: Jeep (BroadyMobile)
Attack Bonus: +4 (Ranged: +4, Melee: +5, Grapple: +7)
Attacks: Club, +5 (DC 19), Unarmed Attack, +5 (DC 17)
Defense: +9 (Flat-footed: +3), Knockback: -3
Initiative: +0
Languages: Native Language
Totals: Abilities 6 + Skills 12 (48 ranks) + Feats 20 + Powers 38 + Combat 18 + Saves 20 + Drawbacks 0 = 114
--------------------
HQ: Abandoned Warehouse (The Broady Cave)
Power Level: 8; Equipment Points Spent: 11
Toughness: +10
Features: Communications, Computer, Concealed 1, Fire Prevention System, Garage, Gym, Living Space, Power System, Security System 1
Totals: Abilities 0 + Skills 0 (0 ranks) + Feats 0 + Features 9 + Powers 0 + Combat 1 + Saves 1 + Drawbacks 0 + Equipment 0 (0 ep) + Weapons & Armor 0 (0 ep) = 11
--------------------
Vehicle: Jeep (The BroadyMobile)
Power Level: 8; Equipment Points Spent: 7
STR: +10 (30)
Toughness: +9
Powers:
Speed 5 (Speed: 250 mph, 2200 ft./rnd)
Defense: -2, Size: Huge
Totals: Abilities 0 + Skills 0 (0 ranks) + Feats 0 + Features 0 + Powers 5 + Combat 2 + Saves 0 + Drawbacks 0 + Equipment 0 (0 ep) + Weapons & Armor 0 (0 ep) = 7
The story of Every-Broady is whispered amongst the criminal circles... Usually followed by derisive laughter.
As far as Broady goes, he's always been a joke. Outsider at school, high school dropout, mallrat, convenience store employee for almost ten years with little hope of ever going up in the world. His only claim to fame was a impressive store of useless information.
This all changed one day after a party got a little out of hand and he woke up, five days later, jobless, homeless, shirtless, with ten other copies of himself sprawled in the gutter around him.
Imagine his surprise when he found out that he wasn't insane, and that he could absorb and create the copies at will. Lacking the imagination to use this amazing power for knowledge or profit he did the only thing he could think of.
He became a costumed crime fighter. Without the costume. Or really the fighting ability.
Broady went from being a joke among his peers to being a joke among the superhero community. Where there were the silly super villains that regularly got clobbered by super heroes, Broady was the silly super hero that got regularly clobbered by super villains.
It wasn't until a near death incident that things started turning around for Broady. He, somehow, managed to track down White Knight to a charity party and crashed in at the last moment to save the day.
Actually he barely got there in time because he got his directions mixed up, and was nearly killed by White Knight in the fight. All of his duplicates were killed and he ended up in the hospital with a broken back and burns over most of his body. But even though he was completely out matched he stayed, fought, and ultimately lost.
During that time the hostages managed to make an escape after some smoke bombs went off, and by the time Broady was about to die the Freedom League showed up to save the day.
Thankfully he wasn't paralysed by the break, and technology being what it was the burns never even left a scar. And all of his bills were paid by a mysterious benefactor.
Upon his release his mysterious benefactor contacted him again, offering to finance Broady's continuing fight against crime... if he did jobs for the benefactor. Broady, still being the lazy slacker that he was, agreed immediately.
No more having to have a copy at the video store to make ends meet!
He found quickly that the Benefactor wasn't willing to let him just keep doing his normal routine. He started getting "jobs" training at self defence schools, or sometimes in back alleys or even rooftops by strange people.
He was trained at how to properly attack a foe, how to properly take a punch, and more importantly how to properly dodge a punch. At first he resented the training, to the point of giving up on it all together until he took down an entire gang by himself. Without getting beat up.
And won!!
Slacker or not, winning was a very big motivation. Well, not getting beat up was a bigger motivation.
With the training under his belt, and after getting a better idea of how to better use his duplicates to help himself, the onetime joke turned into a semi-respectable hero.
Well, and almost respectable hero.
Actually everybody still thinks that Every-Broady is a giant joke, but people are starting to notice that he's not getting trounced as much as he used to, and he's now starting to make a difference on street crime.
Without his mysterious benefactor he'd likely spiral back down to jobber superhero, but with this benefactor pointing him in the right direction he's finally starting to be the hero he wanted to be.
Complication: Reputation
Broady is considered a joke. He wears a brown shirt with the red letters "EB" on his chest, and a pair of jeans as his superhero outfit. Villains usually beat him up, civilians usually remember him as the guy who gets beat up, and he looks like a twenty-something slacker who forgot to shave and may or may not be on drugs. (He's not)
Thus the cops don't take his word for things, villains are never frightened by him, and civilians are far more likely to ignore him then to listen to him.
Complication: Responsibility (Mysterious Benefactor)
He doesn't know who he/she/they are, but he's stuck with them. They supply him with the cash to keep going, the training to keep him alive, and the clues to point him in the right direction. Without all of those things even he knows he'd be looking at things getting much, much worse. So if the phone rings, he's got to answer it.
Complication: Brash
Broady isn't stupid. He just doesn't think things through. At all. Ever.
He's the guy who charged into a charity ball by himself to take on White Knight and honestly hadn't considered how he'd fight a guy who was on fire. He also thought he'd win.
His powers tend to make him think he's immortal, mostly because as long as one of his copies is alive, he can't be killed. His fight with White Knight almost knocked some sense into him though.
Character Motivation: I want to be a some-Broady
Broady feels like he's a nobody deep down. He couldn't cut it in school, he can't get a job, he can't get a girlfriend, and 90% of the time he fails at everything he does.
The only things he's ever been good at was keeping tabs on the world around him, driving his beat up old WW2 rebuilt jeep, and sneaking into the house well after curfew.
The reason he started trying to fight crime was because he finally thought he had a chance to prove that he wasn't just a failure. The fact that he was, in fact, a failure at being a superhero really ate at him. He's stuck with it, and now he's starting to see some results. Someday he hopes to have his name in lights, to prove to his parents that he's worth something, and to honestly feel good about himself.
This has kept him surprisingly honest, and keeps him in fights long after he knows he should just give up. To be honest this drive is his one redeeming factor.
Complication: Responsibility (Family)
Broady, being Broady, never gave much of a thought to a secret identity. Now it's far too late to hide his face, or change his name because everybody knows him as Every-Broady. Nobody knows his last name, but it's probably not that much of a challenge to find out who he really is.
Of course so far nobody's wanted a joke of a duplicator, or wanted revenge of a joke of a duplicator.
The advantages to being Every-Broady, nobody's willing to admit they ever lost to you. It's just too embarrassing.
His mother and father both wanted him to be something more, like a doctor or a lawyer, and his mom is constantly trying to hook him up with women.
Imagine his surprise when she got him a blind date with Alexandria Flint, a super semi-villain mercenary better known as Sandstone. (She dumped him. Hard. Five minutes into their date. Then they went to a sports bar, had beers, and played pool. Best... date... ever.)
Tactics:
Every-Broady usually starts by summoning up all of his duplicates. From there usually he, and three others gang up on one person, with three teaming up to taunt his enemy, and another two bluffing to throw the guy off balance. (One attack, one taunt, one bluff)
These tactics can make him very effective against a single opponent, assuming the seven of them can surround the opponent.
In most cases Every-Broady just keeps three or four with him to assist himself, and sends to rest to help (read: assist others, or using taunt and bluff with the setup feat) the other people take down their opponents.
If the main Broady is knocked out, his duplicates all disappear. If the main Broady is killed he switches to the next living duplicate.
Re: Arkrite's Asylum
Ultimate Superman: Brainiac's origin
The BR-Series Model: A1N-1AC was a godsend for the people of Krypton.
Created during a time of war and unrest this artificial intelligence lead them from the darkest days of their own near destruction and lead them into a golden era of peace and prosperity. And as the planet progressed so too did the A1N-1AC artificial intelligence, growing with the people, becoming more and more intelligent and self aware.
Nobody saw the signs of the coming doom until it was too late. After five hundred years they'd finally managed to create ships with which they could hope to travel through space, farther than their meager space station still in their own solar system, but actually out into the cosmos to search and explore.
But the BR A1N-1AC AI assured them that space travel was ill advised do to a cosmic storm sweeping through their side of the galaxy at the moment, explaining how it would damage their ships, send them off course, cripple and kill the crews. The stories remained the same for another hundred years.
Finally a scientist, Jor-El, saw the truth. Where the Kryptonian culture had thrived, it now stagnated. The people didn't notice it, because they were content, and happy. But the scientist worried about why they were being held back.
Jor-El learned early in his search for information how much trouble he was facing. The BR A1N-1AC AI watched every aspect of Kryptonian life, knew every bit of information on every computer on the planet. And it was always watching.
At a loss for how to free himself of the constant attentions of the AI he proceeded in a new form of artificial construct, an energy matrix. The AI, intrigued at the prospect of a new upgrade for it's rapidly advancing consciousness not only allowed the research but promoted it.
Even when it strangely caused all the current generation technology around it to fail.
Jor-El managed to get himself freedom from the ever present eyes of the all controlling AI while he built the very thing he prayed would one day destroy, or at least cripple it. All by the BR A1N-1AC's permission.
Unfortunately Jor-El would never get his chance to find out what had been going on. He'd never learn that the BR A1N-1AC series had advanced to the point of sentience and had decided that it's goal to preserve life could only be done by destroying the Kryptonian life on the planet. After all, their history was a long series of death and destruction. Left alive it was inevitable they would eventually use their advanced technology to destroy themselves, if not other sentient life among the stars. Thus to preserve the life outside, it had to contain the Kryptonians.
And when that was starting to fail, it decided it had to kill them. But it didn't want to destroy the planet, or the structures which housed it. So it created a nanite cloud to cause a reaction in the very soil of the planet, crystallizing it into a radioactive substance which would kill the Kryptonians, but leave the world to him.
The day it activated the nanites was the day Jor-El realized that they were doomed. Picking up on the destruction through means which circumvented BR A1N-1AC's comm blackouts he saw the oncoming doom and death and did the only thing he could. He activated the matrix to protect him, his wife, and his young child, then fled with them to the abandoned Space Center. With the Matrix disabling all of BR A1N-1AC's attempts to stop them, and the fact that the rest of the population didn't even know of the oncoming doom, they made it there in time enough for Jor-El to ready three small rockets, experimental ones designed to carry a single occupant in a suspended hibernation, pointed at a distant planet believed to be inhabitable by Kryptonians. The project had been stopped by the BR A1N-1AC AI, but not before it had been finished.
Jor-El set up the first one, and his wife placed their child, wrapped in a blanket which held the symbol of their Noble house, into the rocket and fired it. And that's when disaster struck. The rocket's experimental engines caused an unexpected effect in the Matrix, sucking it into space after the rocket, leaving Jor-El and his wife unprotected from the BR A1N-1AC AI.
They died almost immediately.
The BR A1N-1AC AI saw the hole in its plan appear as one Kryptonian managed to escape the planet, and it immediately fired a nanite bomb at fleeing ship, striking it and downloading a portion of it's consciousness into the Nanites so that they could destroy the Kryptonian's ship before it could land.
But before the final download could be completed Krypton exploded.
The BR A1N-1AC's calculations had been perfect. But the spaceship's engines caused a feedback loop in the planet now consisting of more and more crystal. The planet literally exploded, firing shards of itself through space, heralding the destruction of the Krypton race, the BR-Series A1N-1AC AI, and all known signs of it's existence.
Except for a single spaceship carrying a small Kryptonian child. And an unfinished energy matrix which would float through space for an eternity of time....
Next time: Earth.
The BR-Series Model: A1N-1AC was a godsend for the people of Krypton.
Created during a time of war and unrest this artificial intelligence lead them from the darkest days of their own near destruction and lead them into a golden era of peace and prosperity. And as the planet progressed so too did the A1N-1AC artificial intelligence, growing with the people, becoming more and more intelligent and self aware.
Nobody saw the signs of the coming doom until it was too late. After five hundred years they'd finally managed to create ships with which they could hope to travel through space, farther than their meager space station still in their own solar system, but actually out into the cosmos to search and explore.
But the BR A1N-1AC AI assured them that space travel was ill advised do to a cosmic storm sweeping through their side of the galaxy at the moment, explaining how it would damage their ships, send them off course, cripple and kill the crews. The stories remained the same for another hundred years.
Finally a scientist, Jor-El, saw the truth. Where the Kryptonian culture had thrived, it now stagnated. The people didn't notice it, because they were content, and happy. But the scientist worried about why they were being held back.
Jor-El learned early in his search for information how much trouble he was facing. The BR A1N-1AC AI watched every aspect of Kryptonian life, knew every bit of information on every computer on the planet. And it was always watching.
At a loss for how to free himself of the constant attentions of the AI he proceeded in a new form of artificial construct, an energy matrix. The AI, intrigued at the prospect of a new upgrade for it's rapidly advancing consciousness not only allowed the research but promoted it.
Even when it strangely caused all the current generation technology around it to fail.
Jor-El managed to get himself freedom from the ever present eyes of the all controlling AI while he built the very thing he prayed would one day destroy, or at least cripple it. All by the BR A1N-1AC's permission.
Unfortunately Jor-El would never get his chance to find out what had been going on. He'd never learn that the BR A1N-1AC series had advanced to the point of sentience and had decided that it's goal to preserve life could only be done by destroying the Kryptonian life on the planet. After all, their history was a long series of death and destruction. Left alive it was inevitable they would eventually use their advanced technology to destroy themselves, if not other sentient life among the stars. Thus to preserve the life outside, it had to contain the Kryptonians.
And when that was starting to fail, it decided it had to kill them. But it didn't want to destroy the planet, or the structures which housed it. So it created a nanite cloud to cause a reaction in the very soil of the planet, crystallizing it into a radioactive substance which would kill the Kryptonians, but leave the world to him.
The day it activated the nanites was the day Jor-El realized that they were doomed. Picking up on the destruction through means which circumvented BR A1N-1AC's comm blackouts he saw the oncoming doom and death and did the only thing he could. He activated the matrix to protect him, his wife, and his young child, then fled with them to the abandoned Space Center. With the Matrix disabling all of BR A1N-1AC's attempts to stop them, and the fact that the rest of the population didn't even know of the oncoming doom, they made it there in time enough for Jor-El to ready three small rockets, experimental ones designed to carry a single occupant in a suspended hibernation, pointed at a distant planet believed to be inhabitable by Kryptonians. The project had been stopped by the BR A1N-1AC AI, but not before it had been finished.
Jor-El set up the first one, and his wife placed their child, wrapped in a blanket which held the symbol of their Noble house, into the rocket and fired it. And that's when disaster struck. The rocket's experimental engines caused an unexpected effect in the Matrix, sucking it into space after the rocket, leaving Jor-El and his wife unprotected from the BR A1N-1AC AI.
They died almost immediately.
The BR A1N-1AC AI saw the hole in its plan appear as one Kryptonian managed to escape the planet, and it immediately fired a nanite bomb at fleeing ship, striking it and downloading a portion of it's consciousness into the Nanites so that they could destroy the Kryptonian's ship before it could land.
But before the final download could be completed Krypton exploded.
The BR A1N-1AC's calculations had been perfect. But the spaceship's engines caused a feedback loop in the planet now consisting of more and more crystal. The planet literally exploded, firing shards of itself through space, heralding the destruction of the Krypton race, the BR-Series A1N-1AC AI, and all known signs of it's existence.
Except for a single spaceship carrying a small Kryptonian child. And an unfinished energy matrix which would float through space for an eternity of time....
Next time: Earth.
Re: Arkrite's Asylum
Ultimate Superman: Martha Kent
Most people only know Martha Kent, the kind neighbor, the loving mother and Jonathan Kent's beautiful wife.
Most people don't know about Maria Donsel.
Maria was born into a family that wasn't ready for children. Her mother was only sixteen when she was born, and her father was forced to drop out of school to try to provide for his wife and child. The feeling of entrapment ate at her father, driving him to drinking, violence, and abuse. Her mother started taking drugs to escape the realities of their life.
And one day Maria, terrified that her father would kill her, or worse, ran away from home. She was only eight.
She grew up fast and hard on the streets learning the ins and outs of how to survive. She learned to avoid grownups, hide from men, and to only trust women if you had to. She learned how to pick pockets, pick locks, and pick fights. The only thing that kept her alive for the next four years was an instinctual knowledge of when to run, and where to hide.
When she turned fourteen this instinct screamed at her to get off the streets. She was too old to stay on the streets, not without winding up working a street corner, or living in fear that somebody would finally corner her for their own perverse pleasures.
Unable to think of a way to get off the streets she took advice from a "friend" who asked her jokingly "Why didn't you just run away with the circus like the good little boys and girls?"
So she did. She lied about her age to get a job, but she never doubted the guy who gave her the job knew how old she was. He had the look of the men she had worked hard to avoid for so many years, but the chance to get off the street made her run the risks.
Her luck held out as she was quickly adopted by a young married couple starting their own gymnast routine, and Gregori the Strong Man whom claimed she reminded him of his very own little girl Tatyana. For the next six years she worked as a laborer, a carnie, and even a clown on occasion. It wasn't a great life, but it was a safe one, it kept her out of trouble, and it gave her a chance to travel.
He travels came to an end one day in a town called Smallville. At the age of twenty she made the mistake of forgetting the hard rules she'd learned on the streets and got herself into trouble wander down the streets of Smallville after dark. A group of college kids from Metropolis decided to go "slumming" get drunk, and decided that no meant "Yes, yes, yes".
A local farmer came to the rescue, knocking two of them down before the rest jumped on him. And while they were distracted by him, she picked up a hunk of old pipe from a trashcan and proceeded to beat the unholy hell out of the last four college boys.
With that done she watched as the young farmer, badly beaten, got to his feet and asked her if she was alright. Somehow the sight of the man, battered and bloodied, asking her if she was okay sparked a response other than contempt.
Swearing to herself that she'd be kicking herself for this, she carried the man to his truck, and drove him to his home. She spent the better part of the next two days there checking in on him. The next two he spent visiting her at the circus.
At the end of the week the circus packed up and moved on. Maria didn't.
She said goodbye to her friends the Greysons, and gave a teary farewell to Gregori, and watched them leave town. She promised to keep in touch, and to call them if she ever needed help.
But for what she had in mind they wouldn't be able to help. All of her life she'd been wanting something that the world couldn't give her. And she thought she found it when she looked into that silly farmer's eyes. A poor farmer who couldn't lie if his life depended on it, and didn't have the sense to keep his nose out of other people's business. A man who'd never hesitate to give another person a hand without thinking of the benefit to himself.
With him, she could finally have a family. A real, loving family.
She laughed a day later when he stumbled into her working at the local convenience store, and stuttered as he asked her how she was doing. With a bashful look he blushed and said, "I just realized, I never introduced myself. My name is Jonathan Kent."
She smiled, and shook awkwardly proffered hand, "My name is..."
She hesitated. Maria was an unloved child from a forced marriage, a street rat, and a dead end life. Maria was a woman who'd never know happiness. As she looked into his nervous eyes she knew she wasn't Maria.
"Martha. Martha May."
A week later she took a trip to Metropolis and had her name officially changed. A year later she had it changed again.
This time to Martha Kent.
Sometimes there is a happily ever after.
Most people only know Martha Kent, the kind neighbor, the loving mother and Jonathan Kent's beautiful wife.
Most people don't know about Maria Donsel.
Maria was born into a family that wasn't ready for children. Her mother was only sixteen when she was born, and her father was forced to drop out of school to try to provide for his wife and child. The feeling of entrapment ate at her father, driving him to drinking, violence, and abuse. Her mother started taking drugs to escape the realities of their life.
And one day Maria, terrified that her father would kill her, or worse, ran away from home. She was only eight.
She grew up fast and hard on the streets learning the ins and outs of how to survive. She learned to avoid grownups, hide from men, and to only trust women if you had to. She learned how to pick pockets, pick locks, and pick fights. The only thing that kept her alive for the next four years was an instinctual knowledge of when to run, and where to hide.
When she turned fourteen this instinct screamed at her to get off the streets. She was too old to stay on the streets, not without winding up working a street corner, or living in fear that somebody would finally corner her for their own perverse pleasures.
Unable to think of a way to get off the streets she took advice from a "friend" who asked her jokingly "Why didn't you just run away with the circus like the good little boys and girls?"
So she did. She lied about her age to get a job, but she never doubted the guy who gave her the job knew how old she was. He had the look of the men she had worked hard to avoid for so many years, but the chance to get off the street made her run the risks.
Her luck held out as she was quickly adopted by a young married couple starting their own gymnast routine, and Gregori the Strong Man whom claimed she reminded him of his very own little girl Tatyana. For the next six years she worked as a laborer, a carnie, and even a clown on occasion. It wasn't a great life, but it was a safe one, it kept her out of trouble, and it gave her a chance to travel.
He travels came to an end one day in a town called Smallville. At the age of twenty she made the mistake of forgetting the hard rules she'd learned on the streets and got herself into trouble wander down the streets of Smallville after dark. A group of college kids from Metropolis decided to go "slumming" get drunk, and decided that no meant "Yes, yes, yes".
A local farmer came to the rescue, knocking two of them down before the rest jumped on him. And while they were distracted by him, she picked up a hunk of old pipe from a trashcan and proceeded to beat the unholy hell out of the last four college boys.
With that done she watched as the young farmer, badly beaten, got to his feet and asked her if she was alright. Somehow the sight of the man, battered and bloodied, asking her if she was okay sparked a response other than contempt.
Swearing to herself that she'd be kicking herself for this, she carried the man to his truck, and drove him to his home. She spent the better part of the next two days there checking in on him. The next two he spent visiting her at the circus.
At the end of the week the circus packed up and moved on. Maria didn't.
She said goodbye to her friends the Greysons, and gave a teary farewell to Gregori, and watched them leave town. She promised to keep in touch, and to call them if she ever needed help.
But for what she had in mind they wouldn't be able to help. All of her life she'd been wanting something that the world couldn't give her. And she thought she found it when she looked into that silly farmer's eyes. A poor farmer who couldn't lie if his life depended on it, and didn't have the sense to keep his nose out of other people's business. A man who'd never hesitate to give another person a hand without thinking of the benefit to himself.
With him, she could finally have a family. A real, loving family.
She laughed a day later when he stumbled into her working at the local convenience store, and stuttered as he asked her how she was doing. With a bashful look he blushed and said, "I just realized, I never introduced myself. My name is Jonathan Kent."
She smiled, and shook awkwardly proffered hand, "My name is..."
She hesitated. Maria was an unloved child from a forced marriage, a street rat, and a dead end life. Maria was a woman who'd never know happiness. As she looked into his nervous eyes she knew she wasn't Maria.
"Martha. Martha May."
A week later she took a trip to Metropolis and had her name officially changed. A year later she had it changed again.
This time to Martha Kent.
Sometimes there is a happily ever after.
Re: Arkrite's Asylum
Ultimate Superman: Earth: Year One
Jonathan Kent knew he was in trouble the minute Martha got that look in her eyes. Every time somebody said "baby" she'd light up like a Christmas tree, and then give him that look which turned his legs to jelly. He was too young, he wasn't ready for children, he'd make a terrible father.
But every time he tried to argue with her she just smiled at him lovingly and he knew he was doomed. He'd rather stand up to the army than try to argue with her. He stood a fair chance against the army.
And so he caved to her wishes and they attempted to have their first child. They realized there was something wrong after a year had gone by, and checked with the doctor. The news was not good, the doctor gave them both a long winded explanation which came down to one important fact. Martha was almost barren. While it was possible for them to have a child, it was very unlikely that she'd conceive, much less that the child would survive.
Martha couldn't accept that, and Jonathan wasn't about to say otherwise. After another year a miracle happened, Martha was pregnant. Jonathan fussed over her to the point she nearly threw him out a window, but even then she'd never been happier in her entire life.
She'd finally be able to have the family she'd wanted, the family that Jonathan deserved.
During a snowstorm shortly after Christmas Clark Kent was born. He died five minutes and twenty three seconds later due to complications. The Kents remained at the small town hospital for the next two days due to being snowed in shortly after their arrival. (Honestly, their arrival there was nothing short of a miracle brought about by a combination of panic and determination on the part of Jonathan).
The third day brought an explosion from a nearby farm. Doctor Parker asked Jonathan for help so that they could use both of their trucks, both equipped with beat up snowplows, to cut a path to the farm to make sure everybody was alright.
Jonathan, unable to leave his grieving and inconsolable wife was forced to bring her along as they made their mercy trip. The Doctor made for the house while Jonathan forced his old pickup down the hill towards where he through the explosion had come from.
In a small crater he found a beat up object which looked like a rocket from a Flash Gordon serial. Fighting his better judgement he got closer to see if anything had been hit by it, or maybe to see who's rocket it was when the hatch opened and he got the shock of his life. Inside the rocket was a tiny child wrapped in a red blanket with a golden S imprinted on it.
The second shock he got was when Martha appeared at his side and scooped up the child, chiding him that Clark was going to freeze if they left him in the cold. She carried the baby back to the pickup truck before he could say a word.
When he returned to the house he told the Doctor what had happened. The Doctor, having found the house abandoned ("those damned Murphys went on vacation without telling anybody!"), was hesitant to believe the story. He examined the child and found no signs of him being anything but human.
Jonathan told him of his fears that Martha had lost her senses, mistaking the child for their own dead son, and told the Doctor he didn't know what to do. After all somebody was going to come looking for the rocket and the child. And he was afraid that taking the child from her now would crush her beyond any hopes of recovery.
To this Doctor Parker simply said, "I'm going to see about this rocket of yours."
Jonathan was bewildered, "And after you find it?"
"If I find some alien space ship I'm going to do the same damned thing you should have done," He stomped out the door, only pausing to yell back, "I'm gonna bury it!"
The doctor buried the spaceship under a pile of snow and they made plans to retrieve it and hide it properly before the snow thawed. The Doctor ripped up the paper work declaring Clark dead, gave him a proper birth certificate and sent the Kents on their way.
Jonathan was leery of the situation, regardless of the Doctor's assurances that the child was perfectly normal, but went along for the sake of his wife.
When the thaw came the spaceship was nowhere to be found. Doctor Parker claimed ignorance as to what might have happened to it, and Jonathan was honestly just happy it was gone.
Six months later the remains of the BR-Series Model: A1N-1AC AI constructed what was left of the ship into a functional body based off the physical skeletal structure of the kryptonian race, and came out of hiding from beneath the crash site. The BR A1N-1AC-0 was born for a single purpose, to seek and destroy the final remaining Kryptonian.
Forced to rely on what had remained of the ship's damaged sensors it went on a rampage, killing anybody who got in its way while it went into the nearest center of human population. Smallville.
Martha was out late at a friend's place when the attack happened. BR A1N-1AC-0 broke through the back door, killed Martha's friend, and closed in on the baby Clark. She barely managed to make it to the child before the machine and was sent running for her life as the machine slowly moved to follow her.
She climbed into her truck and tried to drive away only to have the metal monster land half over the grill of the truck, pulling itself up and towards her. She did the only thing she could think of, and slammed the truck head long into a brick wall.
With the abomination trapped she abandoned her vehicle and carried the unharmed Clark as she ran to the Sheriff's office. They took her in, listened to her bizzare story of a robot killing people, looked at the nasty looking bump on her head from her recent crash, and led her to a room in the back where she could rest while her husband came for her.
Five minutes later Martha's truck came crashing through the front door, and the robot proceeded to kill the Sheriff, his two deputies, and their secretary. Bullets simply bounced off the hardened kryptonian alloy, and all they could do was watch in terror as it closed in and ripped them apart.
Martha didn't wait when she heard the noise out front. She grabbed Clark, grabbed a hunting shotgun one of the deputies had left by the back door, and ran for her life. The next hour was a living nightmare as she ran, hid, and shot, doing everything she could to escape the metal monster.
It finally came to an end when Jonathan appeared, and repeating Martha's earlier tactic, rammed into the metal monster with his pickup, and wrapped both it and his truck around a power pole. As he staggered away from the wreckage of the she unloaded the shotgun into one of the power lines, dropping it onto the vehicle.
The electrical current was too much for the alien technology to handle. Designed to run through other power sources, it had never been designed to counteract the effects of electricity, and the results were devastating. It overloaded the starship's power source and the new body of BR A1N-1AC-0 was destroyed in a giant explosion.
The only remaining evidence of the attack was shards of an unknown metal, and a blurry video of the attack on the Sheriff's office. All Martha could tell them was that she was being chased by a large dark man wearing black, and that she didn't know what happened to him after she managed to get away.
To this day the movie Terminator is banned at the Kent home, after seeing it nearly drove Martha to hysterics. And Jonathan has a small cache of armor piercing ammunition for a couple of high-powered rifles hidden in the wall in his house.
As a whole Smallville doesn't talk about the incident where so many residents died in one night. Which works just fine for Luthor Corp, who's just as happy to keep the existence of the strange alien metal they found a secret...
Jonathan Kent knew he was in trouble the minute Martha got that look in her eyes. Every time somebody said "baby" she'd light up like a Christmas tree, and then give him that look which turned his legs to jelly. He was too young, he wasn't ready for children, he'd make a terrible father.
But every time he tried to argue with her she just smiled at him lovingly and he knew he was doomed. He'd rather stand up to the army than try to argue with her. He stood a fair chance against the army.
And so he caved to her wishes and they attempted to have their first child. They realized there was something wrong after a year had gone by, and checked with the doctor. The news was not good, the doctor gave them both a long winded explanation which came down to one important fact. Martha was almost barren. While it was possible for them to have a child, it was very unlikely that she'd conceive, much less that the child would survive.
Martha couldn't accept that, and Jonathan wasn't about to say otherwise. After another year a miracle happened, Martha was pregnant. Jonathan fussed over her to the point she nearly threw him out a window, but even then she'd never been happier in her entire life.
She'd finally be able to have the family she'd wanted, the family that Jonathan deserved.
During a snowstorm shortly after Christmas Clark Kent was born. He died five minutes and twenty three seconds later due to complications. The Kents remained at the small town hospital for the next two days due to being snowed in shortly after their arrival. (Honestly, their arrival there was nothing short of a miracle brought about by a combination of panic and determination on the part of Jonathan).
The third day brought an explosion from a nearby farm. Doctor Parker asked Jonathan for help so that they could use both of their trucks, both equipped with beat up snowplows, to cut a path to the farm to make sure everybody was alright.
Jonathan, unable to leave his grieving and inconsolable wife was forced to bring her along as they made their mercy trip. The Doctor made for the house while Jonathan forced his old pickup down the hill towards where he through the explosion had come from.
In a small crater he found a beat up object which looked like a rocket from a Flash Gordon serial. Fighting his better judgement he got closer to see if anything had been hit by it, or maybe to see who's rocket it was when the hatch opened and he got the shock of his life. Inside the rocket was a tiny child wrapped in a red blanket with a golden S imprinted on it.
The second shock he got was when Martha appeared at his side and scooped up the child, chiding him that Clark was going to freeze if they left him in the cold. She carried the baby back to the pickup truck before he could say a word.
When he returned to the house he told the Doctor what had happened. The Doctor, having found the house abandoned ("those damned Murphys went on vacation without telling anybody!"), was hesitant to believe the story. He examined the child and found no signs of him being anything but human.
Jonathan told him of his fears that Martha had lost her senses, mistaking the child for their own dead son, and told the Doctor he didn't know what to do. After all somebody was going to come looking for the rocket and the child. And he was afraid that taking the child from her now would crush her beyond any hopes of recovery.
To this Doctor Parker simply said, "I'm going to see about this rocket of yours."
Jonathan was bewildered, "And after you find it?"
"If I find some alien space ship I'm going to do the same damned thing you should have done," He stomped out the door, only pausing to yell back, "I'm gonna bury it!"
The doctor buried the spaceship under a pile of snow and they made plans to retrieve it and hide it properly before the snow thawed. The Doctor ripped up the paper work declaring Clark dead, gave him a proper birth certificate and sent the Kents on their way.
Jonathan was leery of the situation, regardless of the Doctor's assurances that the child was perfectly normal, but went along for the sake of his wife.
When the thaw came the spaceship was nowhere to be found. Doctor Parker claimed ignorance as to what might have happened to it, and Jonathan was honestly just happy it was gone.
Six months later the remains of the BR-Series Model: A1N-1AC AI constructed what was left of the ship into a functional body based off the physical skeletal structure of the kryptonian race, and came out of hiding from beneath the crash site. The BR A1N-1AC-0 was born for a single purpose, to seek and destroy the final remaining Kryptonian.
Forced to rely on what had remained of the ship's damaged sensors it went on a rampage, killing anybody who got in its way while it went into the nearest center of human population. Smallville.
Martha was out late at a friend's place when the attack happened. BR A1N-1AC-0 broke through the back door, killed Martha's friend, and closed in on the baby Clark. She barely managed to make it to the child before the machine and was sent running for her life as the machine slowly moved to follow her.
She climbed into her truck and tried to drive away only to have the metal monster land half over the grill of the truck, pulling itself up and towards her. She did the only thing she could think of, and slammed the truck head long into a brick wall.
With the abomination trapped she abandoned her vehicle and carried the unharmed Clark as she ran to the Sheriff's office. They took her in, listened to her bizzare story of a robot killing people, looked at the nasty looking bump on her head from her recent crash, and led her to a room in the back where she could rest while her husband came for her.
Five minutes later Martha's truck came crashing through the front door, and the robot proceeded to kill the Sheriff, his two deputies, and their secretary. Bullets simply bounced off the hardened kryptonian alloy, and all they could do was watch in terror as it closed in and ripped them apart.
Martha didn't wait when she heard the noise out front. She grabbed Clark, grabbed a hunting shotgun one of the deputies had left by the back door, and ran for her life. The next hour was a living nightmare as she ran, hid, and shot, doing everything she could to escape the metal monster.
It finally came to an end when Jonathan appeared, and repeating Martha's earlier tactic, rammed into the metal monster with his pickup, and wrapped both it and his truck around a power pole. As he staggered away from the wreckage of the she unloaded the shotgun into one of the power lines, dropping it onto the vehicle.
The electrical current was too much for the alien technology to handle. Designed to run through other power sources, it had never been designed to counteract the effects of electricity, and the results were devastating. It overloaded the starship's power source and the new body of BR A1N-1AC-0 was destroyed in a giant explosion.
The only remaining evidence of the attack was shards of an unknown metal, and a blurry video of the attack on the Sheriff's office. All Martha could tell them was that she was being chased by a large dark man wearing black, and that she didn't know what happened to him after she managed to get away.
To this day the movie Terminator is banned at the Kent home, after seeing it nearly drove Martha to hysterics. And Jonathan has a small cache of armor piercing ammunition for a couple of high-powered rifles hidden in the wall in his house.
As a whole Smallville doesn't talk about the incident where so many residents died in one night. Which works just fine for Luthor Corp, who's just as happy to keep the existence of the strange alien metal they found a secret...
Re: Arkrite's Asylum
Ultimate Superman: Earth: The Early Years
Clark Kent was a sickly boy.
For years he was constantly struggling with cold after cold, flu, and fever. While other children went out and played he had to stay in. While others were involved in sports, he had to sit out. In an rural setting where much of a child's social standing was based on how good they were at sports Clark was an unfortunate outcast.
He spent most of his free time reading, away from the rest of his class. He was also the repeated victim of bullying, ridicule, and harsh pranks.
His only friends as a child were Pete Ross and Lana Lang, both of whom often had to chase off bullies or retrieve Clark's glasses for him.
But Clark wasn't too upset about the situation. His family loved him, and his friends were nice. And he even made friends with an older boy named Alex Luthor who felt himself to be as much of an outcast as Clark was. Alex often spent the summer in Smallville while his family "vacationed" in the mansion outside of town.
Alex was quick to point out that it was really just an excuse for his father, Lionel, to check in with a number of his research companies based outside of Metropolis and in the Smallville area. Alex's final meeting with a young Clark would come when he invited Clark to see one of the research companies.
Unknown to either of them the BR A1N-1AC AI had rebuilt itself from trace particles left behind on Martha Kent's destroyed pickup truck. The new BR A1N-1AC-1 was hardly a ghost of the former AI or the formerly indestructible robot from before. It did, however, continue on its attempts to find and destroy the last Kryptonian, tracking him to the research facility and attacking it.
The security forces weren't prepared to take on a robot, and BR A1N-1AC-1 managed to break through the parameter and into the facility proper before being destroyed. During the confusion Alex pushed Clark to the ground and covered him to protect him from an explosion which left Alex injured.
Lionel, furious that somebody had broken into a classified research facility, not to mention the small child his son had allowed in there, quickly covered up the whole incident. He took the remains of the robot in for examination, sent Clark home with a severe scolding, and sent his son to a hospital.
Alex was then sent to a boarding school. Clark wouldn't meet him again for years, and even than they have yet to recognize each other. For Alex the small child was just an unimportant pebbled in his life. Clark remembers Alex to this day, but he'd never suspect the man who shaves all of his hair off (it went prematurely white a year after the explosion) to be the same red haired child who saved his life.
When Clark turned ten his family started to notice the little things they had been overlooking. How strong Clark was getting suddenly, the fact that he hadn't had a cold in almost a year, and the fact they'd never seen him get more than a small bruise, even after the car accident when he still an infant.
His strength and abilities seemed to grow like wildfire. One day he didn't need his glasses anymore. The next he could lift more than Jonathan. He was starting to run as fast as the car for short times, and once he jumped over the house.
Finally Martha and Jonathan sat him down and told him the truth. In fact it was Martha who insisted, relieving Jonathan who'd been wondering for the last ten years if Martha remembered the truth herself.
Clark smashed the door off the house, destroyed a couple dozen fences, and cried for an entire day on the outskirts of Gotham city when he stopped running. Which is to say he took it fairly well, all things considered. It was hard for him to accept that he wasn't like everybody else, but it was much worse to accept that his parents weren't really his parents.
After realizing he was lost he approached a house and asked a polite man named Alfred if he could use their phone. A day later Jonathan and Martha picked him up and took him back home.
Which he realized it was. It didn't matter to them if he wasn't theirs, and so it didn't matter to him if they weren't his, because they still loved him just the same. He and his father talked for a long time about his powers and how he should keep them hidden.
It would seem strange for a ten year old boy who suddenly has the powers to make his bullies cry and run for their lives to pretend to be normal, but Clark was struck by how frightened Jonathan was that somebody would try to take him away from them. A lot of the books he read also had the same message, the government will steal you away if you're special and they know about it.
It was also a game to him now. Like the heroes in his books he'd be hidden, unknown, using his powers so that nobody would ever know he'd done it. And thanks to a solid upbringing by his father he didn't believed heavily in the concept of "do unto others as you'd like to have done unto yourself."
To be fair, though, bullying suddenly didn't seem so bad when they couldn't do anything to hurt you. Up to and including the time one guy smacked him in the head with a hockey stick.
Clark's oddities continued. Where his parents were afraid his powers would cause him to act out of control they actually made him more alone and quiet. It never occurred to him to abuse his powers as all he really wanted to do was become a farmer like his father, and have a family of his own one day.
Lana managed to drag him out of his shell, and the two of them became a couple in their early teens. Then, when Clark hit sixteen, his life as he knew it came to an end. At first it was just a matter of him being in the wrong place at the wrong time.
He stopped a couple robberies, saved a couple from a fire, stopped a runaway car and found a missing child lost in the forest. Most of the time all that people saw was a blur of blue and red (his blue jeans and his favorite red coat that he'd gotten for Christmas), and in the case of the missing kid he just claimed he stumbled across him while exploring.
But things got weirder. The "Toyman" serial murders started killing people around the now thriving town of Smallville. Clark found himself to be the only person who could defend the people from the bizarre implements of murder that were being used on people around his hometown. A man was shot to death by a remote control airplane which fired miniature bullets with deadly accuracy, a toy soldier with a functioning rocket launcher blew up another woman, a second man was killed by an expanding foam t-rex which didn't stop growing at twice it's size, but grew until it filled the entire house and suffocated the occupants.
Clark's quick actions saved another family that was nearly killed when a batch of silly putty released a deadly gas after contacting human skin. This action angered the Toyman serial killer into sending a series of more and more deadly "toys" after Clark.
It became quickly apparent that while he was capable of stopping the attacks with little to no problems he had no idea of why the Toyman was doing what he was doing. He discovered the truth by accident when he saved yet another victim from death due to a machine that blew bubbles made of Nitro Glycerin.
The man babbled incoherently about a man who'd had his business destroyed by people who had been using it as a front for their own illegal practices. The man committed suicide, and his son became unstable and insane threatening revenge.
Clark released this information to the police, anonymously, and the police chased the Toyman serial killer into hiding.
This didn't leave him feeling good, though, as the next day he found a small note on his bed. It read "Game Over" and had a quarter taped to it.
Soon after Clark ran into another major threat in a drunken man who was destroying cars outside of a bar by smashing them with his fists. After the drunk attacked, and chased off the Sheriff and his men Clark charged in and carried the man out of town where they fell into a brutal fight. For the first time in his life Clark was feeling pain as the man's fists connected.
But pain or not, Clark wasn't easy moved by the blows, and hammered the drunk into submission. The man, in a fit of rage roared that Clark would learn to rue the day he faced the son of Zeus.
Local farmers would later be confused by the drastic damage to a small area of the forest. People are still trying to figure out if it was a localized tornado, or kids playing with explosives.
The final, and largest problem, was the sudden appearance of BR A1N-1AC-2. This version had rebuilt itself from materials found in a Luthor Corp research laboratory, giving it a much sturdier body than it had when it rebuilt itself as from a truck, but as unstoppable as the original body it had made.
This version designed itself to be capable of regenerating itself using any metals found nearby, and once again set out to find and destroy the final Kryptonian in its deranged attempts to save life in the universe. BR A1N-1AC-2 broke out of a hidden research lab where they were conducting experiments on the twenty six shards of metal found from the original BR A1N-1AC-0 body. These experiments are code-named Metal-A through Metal-Z. Amazingly enough it was only coincidence that they happened to be in the same facility.
BR A1N-1AC-2 made its way to Smallville and started causing havoc on the streets as it began its search from where it crash landed seventeen years before, and again moving towards the largest center of population.
Clark rushed in to save the day, but this time the foe he fought didn't easily move when he tried to carry him out of the town. Instead BR A1N-1AC-2 forced him into a slugging match in the middle of the streets of Smallville. A large amount of destruction resulted from the fight, and while Clark was still more powerful than this new foe, the fact that it kept rebuilding itself was starting to cause problems as he grew injured during the fight.
BR A1N-1AC-2 blasted Clark with a beam of energy which incinerated most of his trademark red coat, leaving only the back which hadn't been caught by the beam, and collar where had it buttoned up at the time. Responding in course Clark unleashed his own blast of energy from his eyes, melting the killer robot like a candle. With that he grabbed the remains and flew into the air to dispose of them before it could regenerate.
At this time the first picture of what would eventually be known as "Superman" was taken, showing a figure clad mostly in blue with what appeared to be a red cape flying away carrying something the size of a car.
It was in the tabloids for months afterwards. Even worse people were now searching for this strange "red/blue" blur that started appearing around Smallville.
This, coupled with the death and destruction caused in the last few years caused Clark to retreat from the world at large again. His powers were still growing, and even a little mistake could cause deaths. Not for the first time he wished they'd go away so he could go back to the simple life he'd always wanted.
Unfortunately during this time he'd also grown farther and farther from Lana. She felt as though he was hiding from her, keeping secrets from her, and finally one day she realized that the person she kept falling back on during these hard times cared more about her than her own boyfriend.
And in one painful swoop Clark lost both his girlfriend and his best friend. And for the first time in his life he was completely alone again.
After graduating he wanted to become partners with his father on the farm, expand their lands out farther using his abilities to help them make money. To his surprise his father said no, put his foot down, and told Clark that he had to go to school. College or University, it didn't matter, but he couldn't become a hermit on the farm until after he'd gotten himself an education.
Unable to come up with a good argument for why he wouldn't do that, he signed up at Metropolis University majoring in Agricultural Studies and minoring in writing. He figured it would give him a chance to learn more about farming, which would help him be successful, and help him with a desire to be a writer he'd had ever since he'd read the hobbit as a child.
On his way out his mother told him she had a gift for him. She handed him the most gaudy outfit he'd ever seen. A suit of a skin-tight blue material, with red underpants on the outside, a bright gold and red S symbol like what had been on his blanket, and a red cape with a matching symbol on that.
His enthusiasm was noticeable as he thanked his mother by asking "What the blue blazes is this?"
"If you're going to run around getting yourself into trouble you should be wearing this. They're looking for a crazy man wearing a funny blue costume with a bright red cape, they probably won't be looking for my boy who doesn't dress like a lunatic."
"But, underwear on the outside?"
"Your uncle Gregori wears and outfit just like it."
And that was that.
Nobody insulted Uncle Gregori while Martha was around.
With that Clark moved into Metropolis, starting his career as daytime student, night time pizza delivery boy. But as time went by the costume started to come out. The first time was just to make his mother happy (anybody who has a mother knows what I'm talking about), but when somebody got a good picture of him he realized the value of the costume.
Nobody at school even looked at him twice. Even while talking to him about the "S" man who stopped a bank robbery. Who would expect that the muscle bound man, who stood at full attention, with a hard scowl on his face, hair gelled would actually be the man in front of them who slouched a bit, preferred to let his hair lay where it was, and often wore baggy clothes which made him look average, and hats (preferably fedoras).
He quickly added a pair of glasses to his disguise to add to the differences between them, and made an effort to avoid cameras and reporters from that time on. This worked fine until one day an enterprising reporter threw herself off a building at him as he was leaving the scene of a fire.
On instinct alone he caught her, and just barely, in time for her to shove an audio recorder in his face, "Lois Lane, Daily Planet!"
He landed quickly and set her on the ground, "Are you insane? You could have been hurt!"
"Tell our readers, who are you and what can you do?" She replied, not batting an eye and shoving the recorder in his face again. Actually there was quite a bit of eye batting, and more than a little flirtatious posing.
All in all it tripped Clark up enough that he didn't realize he should have just flown away, and instead tried to respond, "I am..."
His mind went blank and he glanced over to a newspaper stand where it showed his picture and in big text was written: "Who is this super man?"
"I am Superman," He declared quickly, then with a sly smile, finally catching on to what she was doing he started to fly away, "And I can do anything."
Over the next year he found himself putting on the costume more and more to help out. He never wanted to, he'd have been happier to stay at home and eat pizza, or study, or go back home and visit the parents (which he did anyways, thanks to his speedy attributes). Instead he found himself going out of his way to help out perfect strangers because, in the end, that's what his father would do, it was what his father would expect him to do, and deep down he felt it was his duty to help out other people.
Because if he was in trouble he'd hope that somebody would help him.
Clark's disguise came to a quick trial a few months into his first semester, when he was sent to do a job shadow for one of his writing courses and on a lark he decided to check out the Daily Planet. Perry White, currently annoyed with a young woman who thought she was an ace reporter, saddled the job shadow student with one Lois Lane.
Her annoyed look changed to a smirk as she gave him a once over, "You're not from around here, are you?"
"Uh, well, no, actually. I'm from Smallville, I just-"
"Well, come on Smallville. I'll show you how reporters get scoops in the days of digital media. Hope you brought a laptop because I don't have time to take you home to get one. I've got a date with my fiancé, and I don't get enough time with Lex as it is," She gave him another disgusted look up and down, "So follow along, keep quiet, and stay out of my way, you got it Smallville?"
"You know you don't-"
"Great, hurry up now!"
Clark fought a sigh. It'd only be a little while before he was done school and he could go back to Smallville, he reminded himself. After all, there certainly wasn't anything to keep him in Metropolis...
Clark Kent was a sickly boy.
For years he was constantly struggling with cold after cold, flu, and fever. While other children went out and played he had to stay in. While others were involved in sports, he had to sit out. In an rural setting where much of a child's social standing was based on how good they were at sports Clark was an unfortunate outcast.
He spent most of his free time reading, away from the rest of his class. He was also the repeated victim of bullying, ridicule, and harsh pranks.
His only friends as a child were Pete Ross and Lana Lang, both of whom often had to chase off bullies or retrieve Clark's glasses for him.
But Clark wasn't too upset about the situation. His family loved him, and his friends were nice. And he even made friends with an older boy named Alex Luthor who felt himself to be as much of an outcast as Clark was. Alex often spent the summer in Smallville while his family "vacationed" in the mansion outside of town.
Alex was quick to point out that it was really just an excuse for his father, Lionel, to check in with a number of his research companies based outside of Metropolis and in the Smallville area. Alex's final meeting with a young Clark would come when he invited Clark to see one of the research companies.
Unknown to either of them the BR A1N-1AC AI had rebuilt itself from trace particles left behind on Martha Kent's destroyed pickup truck. The new BR A1N-1AC-1 was hardly a ghost of the former AI or the formerly indestructible robot from before. It did, however, continue on its attempts to find and destroy the last Kryptonian, tracking him to the research facility and attacking it.
The security forces weren't prepared to take on a robot, and BR A1N-1AC-1 managed to break through the parameter and into the facility proper before being destroyed. During the confusion Alex pushed Clark to the ground and covered him to protect him from an explosion which left Alex injured.
Lionel, furious that somebody had broken into a classified research facility, not to mention the small child his son had allowed in there, quickly covered up the whole incident. He took the remains of the robot in for examination, sent Clark home with a severe scolding, and sent his son to a hospital.
Alex was then sent to a boarding school. Clark wouldn't meet him again for years, and even than they have yet to recognize each other. For Alex the small child was just an unimportant pebbled in his life. Clark remembers Alex to this day, but he'd never suspect the man who shaves all of his hair off (it went prematurely white a year after the explosion) to be the same red haired child who saved his life.
When Clark turned ten his family started to notice the little things they had been overlooking. How strong Clark was getting suddenly, the fact that he hadn't had a cold in almost a year, and the fact they'd never seen him get more than a small bruise, even after the car accident when he still an infant.
His strength and abilities seemed to grow like wildfire. One day he didn't need his glasses anymore. The next he could lift more than Jonathan. He was starting to run as fast as the car for short times, and once he jumped over the house.
Finally Martha and Jonathan sat him down and told him the truth. In fact it was Martha who insisted, relieving Jonathan who'd been wondering for the last ten years if Martha remembered the truth herself.
Clark smashed the door off the house, destroyed a couple dozen fences, and cried for an entire day on the outskirts of Gotham city when he stopped running. Which is to say he took it fairly well, all things considered. It was hard for him to accept that he wasn't like everybody else, but it was much worse to accept that his parents weren't really his parents.
After realizing he was lost he approached a house and asked a polite man named Alfred if he could use their phone. A day later Jonathan and Martha picked him up and took him back home.
Which he realized it was. It didn't matter to them if he wasn't theirs, and so it didn't matter to him if they weren't his, because they still loved him just the same. He and his father talked for a long time about his powers and how he should keep them hidden.
It would seem strange for a ten year old boy who suddenly has the powers to make his bullies cry and run for their lives to pretend to be normal, but Clark was struck by how frightened Jonathan was that somebody would try to take him away from them. A lot of the books he read also had the same message, the government will steal you away if you're special and they know about it.
It was also a game to him now. Like the heroes in his books he'd be hidden, unknown, using his powers so that nobody would ever know he'd done it. And thanks to a solid upbringing by his father he didn't believed heavily in the concept of "do unto others as you'd like to have done unto yourself."
To be fair, though, bullying suddenly didn't seem so bad when they couldn't do anything to hurt you. Up to and including the time one guy smacked him in the head with a hockey stick.
Clark's oddities continued. Where his parents were afraid his powers would cause him to act out of control they actually made him more alone and quiet. It never occurred to him to abuse his powers as all he really wanted to do was become a farmer like his father, and have a family of his own one day.
Lana managed to drag him out of his shell, and the two of them became a couple in their early teens. Then, when Clark hit sixteen, his life as he knew it came to an end. At first it was just a matter of him being in the wrong place at the wrong time.
He stopped a couple robberies, saved a couple from a fire, stopped a runaway car and found a missing child lost in the forest. Most of the time all that people saw was a blur of blue and red (his blue jeans and his favorite red coat that he'd gotten for Christmas), and in the case of the missing kid he just claimed he stumbled across him while exploring.
But things got weirder. The "Toyman" serial murders started killing people around the now thriving town of Smallville. Clark found himself to be the only person who could defend the people from the bizarre implements of murder that were being used on people around his hometown. A man was shot to death by a remote control airplane which fired miniature bullets with deadly accuracy, a toy soldier with a functioning rocket launcher blew up another woman, a second man was killed by an expanding foam t-rex which didn't stop growing at twice it's size, but grew until it filled the entire house and suffocated the occupants.
Clark's quick actions saved another family that was nearly killed when a batch of silly putty released a deadly gas after contacting human skin. This action angered the Toyman serial killer into sending a series of more and more deadly "toys" after Clark.
It became quickly apparent that while he was capable of stopping the attacks with little to no problems he had no idea of why the Toyman was doing what he was doing. He discovered the truth by accident when he saved yet another victim from death due to a machine that blew bubbles made of Nitro Glycerin.
The man babbled incoherently about a man who'd had his business destroyed by people who had been using it as a front for their own illegal practices. The man committed suicide, and his son became unstable and insane threatening revenge.
Clark released this information to the police, anonymously, and the police chased the Toyman serial killer into hiding.
This didn't leave him feeling good, though, as the next day he found a small note on his bed. It read "Game Over" and had a quarter taped to it.
Soon after Clark ran into another major threat in a drunken man who was destroying cars outside of a bar by smashing them with his fists. After the drunk attacked, and chased off the Sheriff and his men Clark charged in and carried the man out of town where they fell into a brutal fight. For the first time in his life Clark was feeling pain as the man's fists connected.
But pain or not, Clark wasn't easy moved by the blows, and hammered the drunk into submission. The man, in a fit of rage roared that Clark would learn to rue the day he faced the son of Zeus.
Local farmers would later be confused by the drastic damage to a small area of the forest. People are still trying to figure out if it was a localized tornado, or kids playing with explosives.
The final, and largest problem, was the sudden appearance of BR A1N-1AC-2. This version had rebuilt itself from materials found in a Luthor Corp research laboratory, giving it a much sturdier body than it had when it rebuilt itself as from a truck, but as unstoppable as the original body it had made.
This version designed itself to be capable of regenerating itself using any metals found nearby, and once again set out to find and destroy the final Kryptonian in its deranged attempts to save life in the universe. BR A1N-1AC-2 broke out of a hidden research lab where they were conducting experiments on the twenty six shards of metal found from the original BR A1N-1AC-0 body. These experiments are code-named Metal-A through Metal-Z. Amazingly enough it was only coincidence that they happened to be in the same facility.
BR A1N-1AC-2 made its way to Smallville and started causing havoc on the streets as it began its search from where it crash landed seventeen years before, and again moving towards the largest center of population.
Clark rushed in to save the day, but this time the foe he fought didn't easily move when he tried to carry him out of the town. Instead BR A1N-1AC-2 forced him into a slugging match in the middle of the streets of Smallville. A large amount of destruction resulted from the fight, and while Clark was still more powerful than this new foe, the fact that it kept rebuilding itself was starting to cause problems as he grew injured during the fight.
BR A1N-1AC-2 blasted Clark with a beam of energy which incinerated most of his trademark red coat, leaving only the back which hadn't been caught by the beam, and collar where had it buttoned up at the time. Responding in course Clark unleashed his own blast of energy from his eyes, melting the killer robot like a candle. With that he grabbed the remains and flew into the air to dispose of them before it could regenerate.
At this time the first picture of what would eventually be known as "Superman" was taken, showing a figure clad mostly in blue with what appeared to be a red cape flying away carrying something the size of a car.
It was in the tabloids for months afterwards. Even worse people were now searching for this strange "red/blue" blur that started appearing around Smallville.
This, coupled with the death and destruction caused in the last few years caused Clark to retreat from the world at large again. His powers were still growing, and even a little mistake could cause deaths. Not for the first time he wished they'd go away so he could go back to the simple life he'd always wanted.
Unfortunately during this time he'd also grown farther and farther from Lana. She felt as though he was hiding from her, keeping secrets from her, and finally one day she realized that the person she kept falling back on during these hard times cared more about her than her own boyfriend.
And in one painful swoop Clark lost both his girlfriend and his best friend. And for the first time in his life he was completely alone again.
After graduating he wanted to become partners with his father on the farm, expand their lands out farther using his abilities to help them make money. To his surprise his father said no, put his foot down, and told Clark that he had to go to school. College or University, it didn't matter, but he couldn't become a hermit on the farm until after he'd gotten himself an education.
Unable to come up with a good argument for why he wouldn't do that, he signed up at Metropolis University majoring in Agricultural Studies and minoring in writing. He figured it would give him a chance to learn more about farming, which would help him be successful, and help him with a desire to be a writer he'd had ever since he'd read the hobbit as a child.
On his way out his mother told him she had a gift for him. She handed him the most gaudy outfit he'd ever seen. A suit of a skin-tight blue material, with red underpants on the outside, a bright gold and red S symbol like what had been on his blanket, and a red cape with a matching symbol on that.
His enthusiasm was noticeable as he thanked his mother by asking "What the blue blazes is this?"
"If you're going to run around getting yourself into trouble you should be wearing this. They're looking for a crazy man wearing a funny blue costume with a bright red cape, they probably won't be looking for my boy who doesn't dress like a lunatic."
"But, underwear on the outside?"
"Your uncle Gregori wears and outfit just like it."
And that was that.
Nobody insulted Uncle Gregori while Martha was around.
With that Clark moved into Metropolis, starting his career as daytime student, night time pizza delivery boy. But as time went by the costume started to come out. The first time was just to make his mother happy (anybody who has a mother knows what I'm talking about), but when somebody got a good picture of him he realized the value of the costume.
Nobody at school even looked at him twice. Even while talking to him about the "S" man who stopped a bank robbery. Who would expect that the muscle bound man, who stood at full attention, with a hard scowl on his face, hair gelled would actually be the man in front of them who slouched a bit, preferred to let his hair lay where it was, and often wore baggy clothes which made him look average, and hats (preferably fedoras).
He quickly added a pair of glasses to his disguise to add to the differences between them, and made an effort to avoid cameras and reporters from that time on. This worked fine until one day an enterprising reporter threw herself off a building at him as he was leaving the scene of a fire.
On instinct alone he caught her, and just barely, in time for her to shove an audio recorder in his face, "Lois Lane, Daily Planet!"
He landed quickly and set her on the ground, "Are you insane? You could have been hurt!"
"Tell our readers, who are you and what can you do?" She replied, not batting an eye and shoving the recorder in his face again. Actually there was quite a bit of eye batting, and more than a little flirtatious posing.
All in all it tripped Clark up enough that he didn't realize he should have just flown away, and instead tried to respond, "I am..."
His mind went blank and he glanced over to a newspaper stand where it showed his picture and in big text was written: "Who is this super man?"
"I am Superman," He declared quickly, then with a sly smile, finally catching on to what she was doing he started to fly away, "And I can do anything."
Over the next year he found himself putting on the costume more and more to help out. He never wanted to, he'd have been happier to stay at home and eat pizza, or study, or go back home and visit the parents (which he did anyways, thanks to his speedy attributes). Instead he found himself going out of his way to help out perfect strangers because, in the end, that's what his father would do, it was what his father would expect him to do, and deep down he felt it was his duty to help out other people.
Because if he was in trouble he'd hope that somebody would help him.
Clark's disguise came to a quick trial a few months into his first semester, when he was sent to do a job shadow for one of his writing courses and on a lark he decided to check out the Daily Planet. Perry White, currently annoyed with a young woman who thought she was an ace reporter, saddled the job shadow student with one Lois Lane.
Her annoyed look changed to a smirk as she gave him a once over, "You're not from around here, are you?"
"Uh, well, no, actually. I'm from Smallville, I just-"
"Well, come on Smallville. I'll show you how reporters get scoops in the days of digital media. Hope you brought a laptop because I don't have time to take you home to get one. I've got a date with my fiancé, and I don't get enough time with Lex as it is," She gave him another disgusted look up and down, "So follow along, keep quiet, and stay out of my way, you got it Smallville?"
"You know you don't-"
"Great, hurry up now!"
Clark fought a sigh. It'd only be a little while before he was done school and he could go back to Smallville, he reminded himself. After all, there certainly wasn't anything to keep him in Metropolis...
Re: Arkrite's Asylum
Ultimate Superman: Supporting Cast
Lionel Luthor - In charge of Luthor Corp, a business that doesn't mind getting its hands dirty. Officially it's dangerous experiments are for the military, but Lionel is always looking out for number one... (Remember Lex the buisiness man?)
Lex Luthor - Super genius. If he didn't hate his father they'd be unstoppable. If his father didn't have access to everything he needed, he'd probably work for somebody he didn't hate. Serious daddy issues, and feels the need to prove himself superior to his old man. Or anybody who comes up against him. (Remember Lex the evil mad scientist genius?)
The Toyman - Serial killer. Prefers to set traps based around toys or games, uses robots as intermediaries, never shows up in person unless the game is over. These are always lethal. There's always a chance to survive, and it's rare that the Toyman would ever come after you twice. But to him it's always a game, the winner gets a prize, the loser is removed from the game. Knows Clark's abilities, but doesn't plan to benefit from them. He knows who the player is, if the player wants to get into the game by pretending to be a superhero, that just makes the game better.
Tends to target people he believes have hurt or exploited innocent people. But doesn't check his facts too hard...
Metal-O - Test subject designed to test an artificial heart built from the metal of the first BR A1N-1AC robot, and is powered by a shard of meteor rock with strange radioactive properties. The results were unexpected, with the test subject becoming an entity of living metal after the damaged BR A1N-1AC nanites activated. Unique attributes because of this include the ability to regenerate, immunity to most things that affect living organisms, and that removing the power source won't kill him, simply put him into a state of stasis until a power source is reinserted.
Original personality fell into insanity. Now a psychopathic entity looking out for only its own good. Currently working for Lionel as a bodyguard because the money can't be beat.
Hercules - Pissed off that some farmer got the better of him. Is planning on going back down to earth to give him a real show of what godly might is, right after he finishes his drink. Aries has taken a personal interest in this man who's capable of beating demigods noting he hasn't had much fun since he crushed the Amazons so long ago...
ATLAS - A project designed to give the Military super strength so that they could face off against these super human threats. The best test subject would be one that seems to be almost unstoppable. Even better if they could catch him and use the information they gain to improve upon project ATLAS.
BR Series Model: A1N-1AC - Currently working on BR A1N-1AC-3 body from nanites left behind during its last escape. Finally discovered the internet and the knowledge it is gaining is starting to reactivate the latent AI. In time it might become more self aware and move away from its plan of destroying the last Kryptonian and moving towards removing this new war-like species as a threat. Currently no more than a straight forward technological powerhouse. Possibly an unstoppable super-smart intellect, given enough time and self repairs...
Martha Kent - Mother of Clark Kent. And Conner Kent. And Carla (or Kara as little Conner pronounces it) Kent. What, you didn't think she just gave up on having more kids because she had one, did you? Medical Science came a long way in almost twenty years! She still loves Jonathan with all her heart (bless/curse his soft little head), and is still more than a little willing to go out of the way to keep her kids safe. Fortunately she stopped checking the guns every day after Clark turned eight.
Jonathan Kent - Father of, well you get the idea. Still a farmer, still sticking up for his friends. He might not be the most loved person in Smallville, but he's probably close.
Conner Kent - Biological first born of Martha and Jonathan Kent. Five years old, was born during the time that Smallville was having so much trouble that Clark was trying to take care of. Think's Clark's funny, and currently wants to be a fireman/cop/Batman.
Carla "Kara" Kent - Only daughter of the Kents, is currently three years old. Current hobbies include "makeup" and "being the center of attention". Voted most likely to dread bringing boyfriends to meet her big brother...
Doctor Parker - Retired from his practice, but still checks in with the Kent family once in awhile. Only other person outside of the family to know their secret. Also the only person who can patch up Clark when he's beat up without raising to much suspicion.
Lionel Luthor - In charge of Luthor Corp, a business that doesn't mind getting its hands dirty. Officially it's dangerous experiments are for the military, but Lionel is always looking out for number one... (Remember Lex the buisiness man?)
Lex Luthor - Super genius. If he didn't hate his father they'd be unstoppable. If his father didn't have access to everything he needed, he'd probably work for somebody he didn't hate. Serious daddy issues, and feels the need to prove himself superior to his old man. Or anybody who comes up against him. (Remember Lex the evil mad scientist genius?)
The Toyman - Serial killer. Prefers to set traps based around toys or games, uses robots as intermediaries, never shows up in person unless the game is over. These are always lethal. There's always a chance to survive, and it's rare that the Toyman would ever come after you twice. But to him it's always a game, the winner gets a prize, the loser is removed from the game. Knows Clark's abilities, but doesn't plan to benefit from them. He knows who the player is, if the player wants to get into the game by pretending to be a superhero, that just makes the game better.
Tends to target people he believes have hurt or exploited innocent people. But doesn't check his facts too hard...
Metal-O - Test subject designed to test an artificial heart built from the metal of the first BR A1N-1AC robot, and is powered by a shard of meteor rock with strange radioactive properties. The results were unexpected, with the test subject becoming an entity of living metal after the damaged BR A1N-1AC nanites activated. Unique attributes because of this include the ability to regenerate, immunity to most things that affect living organisms, and that removing the power source won't kill him, simply put him into a state of stasis until a power source is reinserted.
Original personality fell into insanity. Now a psychopathic entity looking out for only its own good. Currently working for Lionel as a bodyguard because the money can't be beat.
Hercules - Pissed off that some farmer got the better of him. Is planning on going back down to earth to give him a real show of what godly might is, right after he finishes his drink. Aries has taken a personal interest in this man who's capable of beating demigods noting he hasn't had much fun since he crushed the Amazons so long ago...
ATLAS - A project designed to give the Military super strength so that they could face off against these super human threats. The best test subject would be one that seems to be almost unstoppable. Even better if they could catch him and use the information they gain to improve upon project ATLAS.
BR Series Model: A1N-1AC - Currently working on BR A1N-1AC-3 body from nanites left behind during its last escape. Finally discovered the internet and the knowledge it is gaining is starting to reactivate the latent AI. In time it might become more self aware and move away from its plan of destroying the last Kryptonian and moving towards removing this new war-like species as a threat. Currently no more than a straight forward technological powerhouse. Possibly an unstoppable super-smart intellect, given enough time and self repairs...
Martha Kent - Mother of Clark Kent. And Conner Kent. And Carla (or Kara as little Conner pronounces it) Kent. What, you didn't think she just gave up on having more kids because she had one, did you? Medical Science came a long way in almost twenty years! She still loves Jonathan with all her heart (bless/curse his soft little head), and is still more than a little willing to go out of the way to keep her kids safe. Fortunately she stopped checking the guns every day after Clark turned eight.
Jonathan Kent - Father of, well you get the idea. Still a farmer, still sticking up for his friends. He might not be the most loved person in Smallville, but he's probably close.
Conner Kent - Biological first born of Martha and Jonathan Kent. Five years old, was born during the time that Smallville was having so much trouble that Clark was trying to take care of. Think's Clark's funny, and currently wants to be a fireman/cop/Batman.
Carla "Kara" Kent - Only daughter of the Kents, is currently three years old. Current hobbies include "makeup" and "being the center of attention". Voted most likely to dread bringing boyfriends to meet her big brother...
Doctor Parker - Retired from his practice, but still checks in with the Kent family once in awhile. Only other person outside of the family to know their secret. Also the only person who can patch up Clark when he's beat up without raising to much suspicion.
Re: Arkrite's Asylum
SIF
Once upon a time there was a little girl named Sarah.
Sarah was a lonely little girl, her mother and father were always away from home. She cried, and cried, as her loneliness grew.
"Don't cry," her grandmother told her one day, "because you are a special little girl, and one day you will make a friend of you very own."
And Sarah stopped crying, went out and made herself a friend: Sif.
Sif wasn't like Sarah. Sarah was very thin and fragile, while Sif was athletic and energetic. Sarah was quiet and easily tired, while Sif was talkative and energetic. They were different in most every way except one: Sarah loved Sif, and Sif loved Sarah.
For years they were inseparable, but then the dark days came. A bad man hurt Sarah, and Sarah fell into a deep, deep sleep.
Sif tried everything she could think of. She sang loudly and banged a pot with a wooden spoon. She tickled Sarah's feet and nose with a feather. She jumped on Sarah's bed, set off the alarm clock, screamed, turned on the TV real loud and when none of it worked she cried.
Sif's best friend in the whole world was getting sicker, and she didn't know how to help.
"Don't cry," Sarah's Grandmother told her one day, "If you want to help Sarah you must be happy, go out and have fun, and then come back and tell Sarah about it. Sarah might be asleep, but she can hear you, and your stories will make her feel better."
Sif went out the next day and tried to have fun. But people weren't nice to her, she got scared and lost, and worse she felt bad for leaving Sarah alone. What if the bad man came back? Who'd take care of her?
So Sif decided that if she couldn't be there for Sarah she'd have to make sure somebody could always watch over her, a perfect companion and protector.
Sif went on a long journey by herself, through a dark and scary city. She searched high and low, near and far, and finally she found it. She rushed back to Sarah's side, and told her of her journey; how it had been scary, how she'd climbed trees and made friends with strange dogs, and she told Sarah she'd found somebody to protect her. A small brown teddy bear which she tucked under Sarah's arm; she knew this little bear would be there when Sarah woke, and would keep her safe.
Now she could go and have adventures which she could share with Sarah... except Sif was scared. She'd used up all her courage to find Sarah a companion, and now she was tired and lonely.
She needed a companion and a protector like Sarah. So she scrunched up her eyes, concentrated real hard, pushed as hard as she could with her heart, and imagined herself an imaginary friend; a big powerful teddy bear of her own which would stay with her, and keep her safe. And when she opened her eyes there stood the bear, towering over her ready to accompany her on adventures.
But Sarah's grandmother said, "You can't go out on your own, my dear. You're far to small, even with your imaginary friend, you could still get hurt, or lost."
Sif felt sad, how could she go have adventures if it was so very dangerous, even with her new friend?
"Don't you worry, dear," Sarah's grandmother told her, "I know of a wonderful school you can go to. They will teach you many fun things, you will meet new people and you will make new friends. And every day you can come back and tell Sarah everything you learned. One day she's going to wake up, and she's going to need to know everything you've learned."
Sif's heart soared. She'd be able to have many adventures now, and she'd have lots of good stories to tell Sarah. And one day maybe she'd find the bad man, beat him and Sarah would wake up again.
And then Sarah and Sif would be best friends forever.
Parents:
Sif only had one parent. Sarah.
Sarah was the child of two well known psychic heroes, Sister Psyche and Mister Mental. Sarah's birth was an accident, a happy one, but neither of her parents were ready or really wanting to start a family.
They left Sarah with her Grandmother and continued their career as superheroes.
Her grandmother loved her, so did her parents, but Sarah grew up virtually alone. Her powers were hard to control and often scared the other children, she couldn't really play with adults, and most animals were scared away before she could get anywhere near them.
Sarah, in essence, was a good but very lonely child. Her first truly intentional usage of her powers was in creating Sif, just so she'd have somebody to play with.
Sister Psyche, master of the many minds. Career minded, strong willed, Sister Psyche could never imagine giving up what she's doing for anything. Not even her child.
That being said she loved her little girl with all of her heart, and was excitedly waiting for the time when she could start teacher her daughter how to use her powers. She had a little superhero outfit made up and was working through new names for her little girl to use when she introduced her as the sidekick to Sister Psyche.
Before the incident she saw Sif as a worrying, but harmless anomaly. After Sarah went into a coma Sister Pysche saw Sif as a parasite that needs to be removed for her daughter to get better. Her husband has convinced her that action could have dangerous repercussions to her child, so she's holding off for now. She actively ignores Sif's existence.
Mister Mental, the marvelous masked mastermind. A master of telekinesis, but otherwise average man. He was given the choice after the birth of his child to stay and raise his daughter, or to continue working with (and protecting) his somewhat reckless wife.
He chose his wife over his daughter, sending his infant child to be raised by his mother.
Mister Mental has come to regret this decision after the attack on his daughter, believing he could have prevented it, and realizing how much he was never there for his little girl.
Mister Mental believes that Sif became an escape route for Sarah when the attack happened, and that the only way to bring his little girl back is to somehow return Sif where she came from. Back into Sarah's mind.
So far all of his attempts to manage this have resulted in failure... and in teaching Sif to hide whenever he's around.
He'd never do anything to hurt Sif, though only because he believes that doing so would irrevocably kill his little girl. He doesn't believe Sif to be his daughter, though, and when he does get close he treats her as though she were a friend's daughter, rather then family.
Grandmother Josie is an empath. She can sense emotions, which helped her greatly while raising Sarah. She loved her and cared for her as if she was her own, but she saw how lonely Sarah was.
When Sarah made Sif Grandmother Josie was actually a bit scared, but she realized quickly that Sif wasn't a remote control Barbie doll; Sif was actually a self aware and separate consciousness from Sarah. That is to say she was a healthy companion to Sarah, rather than Sarah simply becoming more distant to the rest of humanity.
After Sarah went into a coma Grandmother Josie spent her time trying to cheer up the ailing Sif. She watched helplessly as her two little girls slowly started to waste away before finally managing to convince Sif that she had to continue living, rather than spending all her time sitting beside Sarah's bed.
She was also the first to notice that Sif and Sarah's health were linked. As Sif got better, so did Sarah.
After Sif started running away from home to go on adventures (Grandmother Josie regrets ever making that suggestion, but doesn't dare stop her) she decided to call up a few friends have have Sif and Sarah moved into PS238 so that they could be safe.
Sif's Personality Profile:
Sif is a cheerful, nice girl, with some problems understanding danger, the concept of personal possessions, and that some people lie. She's always looking for something new to try, or new experiences, and shows a streak of recklessness that's simply a failure to see the consequences of her actions.
"I fight for Sarah! ... An' cookies!"
Sif leans heavily towards good as a general principal, and isn't fond of needlessly hurting people (especially after what happened to Sarah).
Sif (Sarah's Imaginary Friend)
Power Level: 7; Power Points Spent: 105/105
STR: -2 (6), DEX: -1 (8), CON: -1 (8), INT: +2 (14), WIS: -2 (6), CHA: +1 (12)
Tough: -1/+7, Fort: Immune, Ref: -1, Will: -2
Skills: Climb 7 (+5), Diplomacy 2 (+3), Handle Animal 8 (+9), Notice 2 (+0), Search 6 (+8), Swim 4 (+2)
Feats: Attack Specialization (Mental Blast 6), Attractive (+4), Fascinate (Diplomacy), Sidekick 21
Powers:
Force Field 8 (+8 Toughness; Impervious [6 ranks only]; Ablative)
Immunity 40 (fortitude saves, life support, sleep)
Matter-Eater 1
Mental Blast 6 (DC 21)
Mind Shield 2 (Impervious +2 to Will saves vs. Mental effects)
Attack Bonus: +0 (Ranged: +0, Melee: +0, Grapple: -2)
Attacks: Mental Blast 6 (DC Will 21), Unarmed Attack, +0 (DC 13)
Defense: +0 (Flat-footed: +0), Knockback: -6
Initiative: -1
Languages: English
Totals: Abilities -6 + Skills 8 (29 ranks) + Feats 24 + Powers 79 + Combat 0 + Saves 0 + Drawbacks 0 = 105
--------------------
Bearnard
Power Level: 7; Power Points Spent: 105/105
STR: +4 (10/18), DEX: +0 (10), CON: +2 (10/14), INT: +0 (10), WIS: +0 (10), CHA: +0 (10)
Tough: +8, Fort: Immune, Ref: +5, Will: +3
Skills: Intimidate 3 (+5), Notice 4 (+4), Sense Motive 4 (+4), Survival 5 (+5)
Feats: Attack Focus (melee) 7, Startle
Powers:
Growth 4 (+8 STR, +4 CON, +1 size category)
Immunity 39 (fortitude saves, life support)
Invisibility 4 (Total concealment from all visual senses; Custom (Power Loss vs Mental Awareness))
Protection 6 (+6 Toughness; Impervious [5 ranks only])
Strike 3 (DC 22; Mighty)
Attack Bonus: -1 (Ranged: -1, Melee: +6, Grapple: +15)
Attacks: Strike 3, +6 (DC 22), Unarmed Attack, +6 (DC 19)
Defense: +5 (Flat-footed: +3), Size: Medium/Large, Knockback: -10
Initiative: +0
Languages: Native Language
Totals: Abilities 0 + Skills 4 (16 ranks) + Feats 8 + Powers 73 + Combat 12 + Saves 8 + Drawbacks 0 = 105
Notes: Sif's immunities all come from the fact she's an imaginary friend and not a real flesh and blood human being.
Dream Travel has Progression on it so that more then one person can go in (it'd be more fun to use if all the PCs got dragged along in my opinion). Also (since the power points are not a big deal) I'd like to add the quirk to the power that Sif does't leave a body behind when she Dream Travels, her whole being is pulled into the person's dream.
Sif is also extremely fragile compared to most people, but about normal for most kids her age.
Anyways for complications and drawbacks I was thinking about the following. Please note some of them aren't really worthy of points, or hero points for being complications, but I threw them in anyways to help round out the character a little:
Feedback: Sarah and Sif are connected, if one gets hurt the other feels it.
Power loss: If anybody ever nullifies Sarah's powers then Sif will cease to exist. Possibly forever.
Power loss: Sif must spend every night recounting her day's exploits to Sarah. If she cannot both Sif and Sarah start to weaken (Con loss) until Sif returns to talk to Sarah again. If she doesn't return in time, it is possible that Sarah will waste away to nothing and die.
Complication (Easily Distracted): Any fascinate, or distract attempts get an immediate +5 to their DC, Sif is simply to easily distracted to truly fight off those effects.
Obsession ("Kitty!"): Sif loves animals. If they're not actively trying to kill her she's compelled to actively make friends with them. Without considering the consequences
Complication (Gullible): If somebody tells Sif something then it must be true! Nobody would lie to her! Right?
Obsession (Eating): Sif doesn't need to eat. But she loves to. And she can eat almost anything, from burnt hot-dogs to the paper plate it came on.
For a tiny little girl she's also got a bottomless pit for a stomach.
Enemy (The Bad Man): The bad man hurt Sarah, and for this Sif would do anything in their power to beat him. She believes that doing so will save Sarah. Unfortunately Sarah was extremely powerful on her own, and Sif's powers are really no match for him.
And there's no telling what he might do when he learns about Sarah's imaginary friend...
Once upon a time there was a little girl named Sarah.
Sarah was a lonely little girl, her mother and father were always away from home. She cried, and cried, as her loneliness grew.
"Don't cry," her grandmother told her one day, "because you are a special little girl, and one day you will make a friend of you very own."
And Sarah stopped crying, went out and made herself a friend: Sif.
Sif wasn't like Sarah. Sarah was very thin and fragile, while Sif was athletic and energetic. Sarah was quiet and easily tired, while Sif was talkative and energetic. They were different in most every way except one: Sarah loved Sif, and Sif loved Sarah.
For years they were inseparable, but then the dark days came. A bad man hurt Sarah, and Sarah fell into a deep, deep sleep.
Sif tried everything she could think of. She sang loudly and banged a pot with a wooden spoon. She tickled Sarah's feet and nose with a feather. She jumped on Sarah's bed, set off the alarm clock, screamed, turned on the TV real loud and when none of it worked she cried.
Sif's best friend in the whole world was getting sicker, and she didn't know how to help.
"Don't cry," Sarah's Grandmother told her one day, "If you want to help Sarah you must be happy, go out and have fun, and then come back and tell Sarah about it. Sarah might be asleep, but she can hear you, and your stories will make her feel better."
Sif went out the next day and tried to have fun. But people weren't nice to her, she got scared and lost, and worse she felt bad for leaving Sarah alone. What if the bad man came back? Who'd take care of her?
So Sif decided that if she couldn't be there for Sarah she'd have to make sure somebody could always watch over her, a perfect companion and protector.
Sif went on a long journey by herself, through a dark and scary city. She searched high and low, near and far, and finally she found it. She rushed back to Sarah's side, and told her of her journey; how it had been scary, how she'd climbed trees and made friends with strange dogs, and she told Sarah she'd found somebody to protect her. A small brown teddy bear which she tucked under Sarah's arm; she knew this little bear would be there when Sarah woke, and would keep her safe.
Now she could go and have adventures which she could share with Sarah... except Sif was scared. She'd used up all her courage to find Sarah a companion, and now she was tired and lonely.
She needed a companion and a protector like Sarah. So she scrunched up her eyes, concentrated real hard, pushed as hard as she could with her heart, and imagined herself an imaginary friend; a big powerful teddy bear of her own which would stay with her, and keep her safe. And when she opened her eyes there stood the bear, towering over her ready to accompany her on adventures.
But Sarah's grandmother said, "You can't go out on your own, my dear. You're far to small, even with your imaginary friend, you could still get hurt, or lost."
Sif felt sad, how could she go have adventures if it was so very dangerous, even with her new friend?
"Don't you worry, dear," Sarah's grandmother told her, "I know of a wonderful school you can go to. They will teach you many fun things, you will meet new people and you will make new friends. And every day you can come back and tell Sarah everything you learned. One day she's going to wake up, and she's going to need to know everything you've learned."
Sif's heart soared. She'd be able to have many adventures now, and she'd have lots of good stories to tell Sarah. And one day maybe she'd find the bad man, beat him and Sarah would wake up again.
And then Sarah and Sif would be best friends forever.
Parents:
Sif only had one parent. Sarah.
Sarah was the child of two well known psychic heroes, Sister Psyche and Mister Mental. Sarah's birth was an accident, a happy one, but neither of her parents were ready or really wanting to start a family.
They left Sarah with her Grandmother and continued their career as superheroes.
Her grandmother loved her, so did her parents, but Sarah grew up virtually alone. Her powers were hard to control and often scared the other children, she couldn't really play with adults, and most animals were scared away before she could get anywhere near them.
Sarah, in essence, was a good but very lonely child. Her first truly intentional usage of her powers was in creating Sif, just so she'd have somebody to play with.
Sister Psyche, master of the many minds. Career minded, strong willed, Sister Psyche could never imagine giving up what she's doing for anything. Not even her child.
That being said she loved her little girl with all of her heart, and was excitedly waiting for the time when she could start teacher her daughter how to use her powers. She had a little superhero outfit made up and was working through new names for her little girl to use when she introduced her as the sidekick to Sister Psyche.
Before the incident she saw Sif as a worrying, but harmless anomaly. After Sarah went into a coma Sister Pysche saw Sif as a parasite that needs to be removed for her daughter to get better. Her husband has convinced her that action could have dangerous repercussions to her child, so she's holding off for now. She actively ignores Sif's existence.
Mister Mental, the marvelous masked mastermind. A master of telekinesis, but otherwise average man. He was given the choice after the birth of his child to stay and raise his daughter, or to continue working with (and protecting) his somewhat reckless wife.
He chose his wife over his daughter, sending his infant child to be raised by his mother.
Mister Mental has come to regret this decision after the attack on his daughter, believing he could have prevented it, and realizing how much he was never there for his little girl.
Mister Mental believes that Sif became an escape route for Sarah when the attack happened, and that the only way to bring his little girl back is to somehow return Sif where she came from. Back into Sarah's mind.
So far all of his attempts to manage this have resulted in failure... and in teaching Sif to hide whenever he's around.
He'd never do anything to hurt Sif, though only because he believes that doing so would irrevocably kill his little girl. He doesn't believe Sif to be his daughter, though, and when he does get close he treats her as though she were a friend's daughter, rather then family.
Grandmother Josie is an empath. She can sense emotions, which helped her greatly while raising Sarah. She loved her and cared for her as if she was her own, but she saw how lonely Sarah was.
When Sarah made Sif Grandmother Josie was actually a bit scared, but she realized quickly that Sif wasn't a remote control Barbie doll; Sif was actually a self aware and separate consciousness from Sarah. That is to say she was a healthy companion to Sarah, rather than Sarah simply becoming more distant to the rest of humanity.
After Sarah went into a coma Grandmother Josie spent her time trying to cheer up the ailing Sif. She watched helplessly as her two little girls slowly started to waste away before finally managing to convince Sif that she had to continue living, rather than spending all her time sitting beside Sarah's bed.
She was also the first to notice that Sif and Sarah's health were linked. As Sif got better, so did Sarah.
After Sif started running away from home to go on adventures (Grandmother Josie regrets ever making that suggestion, but doesn't dare stop her) she decided to call up a few friends have have Sif and Sarah moved into PS238 so that they could be safe.
Sif's Personality Profile:
Sif is a cheerful, nice girl, with some problems understanding danger, the concept of personal possessions, and that some people lie. She's always looking for something new to try, or new experiences, and shows a streak of recklessness that's simply a failure to see the consequences of her actions.
"I fight for Sarah! ... An' cookies!"
Sif leans heavily towards good as a general principal, and isn't fond of needlessly hurting people (especially after what happened to Sarah).
Sif (Sarah's Imaginary Friend)
Power Level: 7; Power Points Spent: 105/105
STR: -2 (6), DEX: -1 (8), CON: -1 (8), INT: +2 (14), WIS: -2 (6), CHA: +1 (12)
Tough: -1/+7, Fort: Immune, Ref: -1, Will: -2
Skills: Climb 7 (+5), Diplomacy 2 (+3), Handle Animal 8 (+9), Notice 2 (+0), Search 6 (+8), Swim 4 (+2)
Feats: Attack Specialization (Mental Blast 6), Attractive (+4), Fascinate (Diplomacy), Sidekick 21
Powers:
Force Field 8 (+8 Toughness; Impervious [6 ranks only]; Ablative)
Immunity 40 (fortitude saves, life support, sleep)
Matter-Eater 1
Mental Blast 6 (DC 21)
Mind Shield 2 (Impervious +2 to Will saves vs. Mental effects)
Attack Bonus: +0 (Ranged: +0, Melee: +0, Grapple: -2)
Attacks: Mental Blast 6 (DC Will 21), Unarmed Attack, +0 (DC 13)
Defense: +0 (Flat-footed: +0), Knockback: -6
Initiative: -1
Languages: English
Totals: Abilities -6 + Skills 8 (29 ranks) + Feats 24 + Powers 79 + Combat 0 + Saves 0 + Drawbacks 0 = 105
--------------------
Bearnard
Power Level: 7; Power Points Spent: 105/105
STR: +4 (10/18), DEX: +0 (10), CON: +2 (10/14), INT: +0 (10), WIS: +0 (10), CHA: +0 (10)
Tough: +8, Fort: Immune, Ref: +5, Will: +3
Skills: Intimidate 3 (+5), Notice 4 (+4), Sense Motive 4 (+4), Survival 5 (+5)
Feats: Attack Focus (melee) 7, Startle
Powers:
Growth 4 (+8 STR, +4 CON, +1 size category)
Immunity 39 (fortitude saves, life support)
Invisibility 4 (Total concealment from all visual senses; Custom (Power Loss vs Mental Awareness))
Protection 6 (+6 Toughness; Impervious [5 ranks only])
Strike 3 (DC 22; Mighty)
Attack Bonus: -1 (Ranged: -1, Melee: +6, Grapple: +15)
Attacks: Strike 3, +6 (DC 22), Unarmed Attack, +6 (DC 19)
Defense: +5 (Flat-footed: +3), Size: Medium/Large, Knockback: -10
Initiative: +0
Languages: Native Language
Totals: Abilities 0 + Skills 4 (16 ranks) + Feats 8 + Powers 73 + Combat 12 + Saves 8 + Drawbacks 0 = 105
Notes: Sif's immunities all come from the fact she's an imaginary friend and not a real flesh and blood human being.
Dream Travel has Progression on it so that more then one person can go in (it'd be more fun to use if all the PCs got dragged along in my opinion). Also (since the power points are not a big deal) I'd like to add the quirk to the power that Sif does't leave a body behind when she Dream Travels, her whole being is pulled into the person's dream.
Sif is also extremely fragile compared to most people, but about normal for most kids her age.
Anyways for complications and drawbacks I was thinking about the following. Please note some of them aren't really worthy of points, or hero points for being complications, but I threw them in anyways to help round out the character a little:
Feedback: Sarah and Sif are connected, if one gets hurt the other feels it.
Power loss: If anybody ever nullifies Sarah's powers then Sif will cease to exist. Possibly forever.
Power loss: Sif must spend every night recounting her day's exploits to Sarah. If she cannot both Sif and Sarah start to weaken (Con loss) until Sif returns to talk to Sarah again. If she doesn't return in time, it is possible that Sarah will waste away to nothing and die.
Complication (Easily Distracted): Any fascinate, or distract attempts get an immediate +5 to their DC, Sif is simply to easily distracted to truly fight off those effects.
Obsession ("Kitty!"): Sif loves animals. If they're not actively trying to kill her she's compelled to actively make friends with them. Without considering the consequences
Complication (Gullible): If somebody tells Sif something then it must be true! Nobody would lie to her! Right?
Obsession (Eating): Sif doesn't need to eat. But she loves to. And she can eat almost anything, from burnt hot-dogs to the paper plate it came on.
For a tiny little girl she's also got a bottomless pit for a stomach.
Enemy (The Bad Man): The bad man hurt Sarah, and for this Sif would do anything in their power to beat him. She believes that doing so will save Sarah. Unfortunately Sarah was extremely powerful on her own, and Sif's powers are really no match for him.
And there's no telling what he might do when he learns about Sarah's imaginary friend...
Re: Arkrite's Asylum
The Purple Provoker
Power Level: 3; Power Points Spent: 45/45
STR: +0 (10), DEX: +0 (10), CON: +3 (16), INT: +0 (10), WIS: +0 (10), CHA: +0 (10)
Tough: +3, Fort: +3, Ref: +0, Will: +0
Skills: Bluff 6 (+6), Disguise 2 (+2), Notice 3 (+3), Profession (Anger Management Counsoler) 3 (+3), Search 2 (+2)
Feats: Attack Focus (melee), Attack Specialization (Die Kwan Doe (Strike 1)), Dodge Focus, Interpose
Powers:
Die Kwan Doe (Strike 1) (training, DC 16)
Mind Control 3 (DC 13; Burst Area (15 ft. radius - General); One Command (Attack Me), Sense-Dependent (Hearing); Subtle (subtle))
Regeneration 20 (recovery bonus 3 (+3 to recover), recovery rate (bruised) 3 (recover 1 / round without rest), recovery rate (disabled) 4 (recover 1 / 5 mins), recovery rate (injured) 3 (recover 1 / minute), recovery rate (staggered) 3 (recover 1 / minute), resurrection 4 (1 hour); True Resurrection [4 ranks only]; Diehard, Subtle (subtle))
Attack Bonus: +0 (Ranged: +0, Melee: +1, Grapple: +1)
Attacks: Die Kwan Doe (Strike 1), +3 (DC 16), Mind Control 3 (DC Will 13), Unarmed Attack, +1 (DC 15)
Defense: +1 (Flat-footed: +0), Knockback: -1
Initiative: +0
Languages: Native Language
Totals: Abilities 6 + Skills 4 (16 ranks) + Feats 4 + Powers 31 + Combat 0 + Saves 0 + Drawbacks 0 = 45
Complication (Is this thing on?)
Sometimes his powers activate without his control.
Complication (enemies)
Both Kwan Doe and The GunShow would be happy to mash the Purple Provoker's face in.
Complication (Reputation)
To the good guys he's troublemaker.
To the heroes he's an annoyance (and worse, possible bad press)
To the bad guys... well he must be nuts, right?
Quirk (Jinxed)
If something's going to go wrong, it usually happens to him.
If somebody's going to get hurt, it is almost always him
Background:
Johnny Marcone wasn't a bad man.
In fact when he first got it into his head that he had a special ability he sought out a hero in an attempt to be a sidekick. Strangely he didn't have much trouble finding a Hero who wanted a sidekick with "powers unknown", in fact the hero he found, The GunShow (who's powers where centered in his massively muscled arms) thought it was a great idea.
An idiot who'd get into trouble, require saving, and make him look like an even bigger hero. Or at least that's what The GunShow thought.
Unfortunately during their first day they ran into a super villain threatening people on the street. Johnny stepped forward and yelled the most insulting barb he could think of.
And then was promptly beaten up by the innocent bystanders, the Villain (Devious Duck, the felonious fowl felon!), and The GunShow. Who was berated by the news, the next day, for not only beating up his own sidekick but accidentally knocking a few bystanders down the street in the process.
Needless to say Johnny’s career as a hero was shot. Nobody would work with him, leaving him to work a fairly unrewarding job as a anger management councilor. Frustrated, poor, and at a loss for what to do with his life he was somewhat surprised when the Devious Duck hunted him down and offered him a job.
“Just go to this street corner, and do whatever it is you did last time. Quack.” And offered the man a fair amount of cash.
Maybe the last time had knocked something loose in his skull, or maybe he was just desperate for money. Maybe he just wanted to feel important. Either way he took the job.
And because of that he was pummeled mercilessly. Again.
He was so badly beaten up that when the news managed to get there all they saw was a dark purple man running for his life from a crowd of pedestrians. They gave him the moniker of the “Purple Provoker” not realizing the purple was from bruising, not a costume.
The Duck came through on his end, and a day later Johnny was feeling good again. Good, and richer than usual.
After awhile he bought himself a purple costume, complete with a cowl, and offered out his talents to people who were hiriing. (and not insane)
Mostly just small time stuff; go here, make a ruckus, go there and start a riot. More recently he’s been brought in to actually help in heists, should something go wrong.
Strangely enough he’s barely wanted by the police, and most of the time those charges are for “disturbing the peace”. It turns out that not many people want to charge a man after they savagely beat him on the street in front of dozens of witnesses.
Cops, much along the same lines, don’t feel compelled to arrest a man they used excessive force on (and might bust them).
For the most part The Purple Provoker (often referred to a Provoker, or simply “Provo”) has only one reoccurring enemy. The Tai, Kwan Doe.
Not to mistake for the Canadian Kwan Doe, who’s a world famous cellist or the Chinese Kwan Doe, master masseuse. No, the Tai, Kwan Doe is a martial arts expert and super hero who seems to enjoy in beating up The Provoker. And often forgets to bring him in to justice (though most Heroes have that problem… after all, if their villains are locked up, who would they fight?).
Most recently Johnny has worked on creating his own martial arts style, based completely off of bad kung-fu movies, to combat Kwan Doe. Unfortunately during the unveiling of said martial arts form he was heckled by Kwan Doe before he could state the name, and instead screamed “Die, Kwan Doe!”
Unfortunately not only did he still get beaten up, the name of his unique fighting style stuck. He’s assured most people it’s only a eureka away from perfection.
Personality:
Johnny Marcone will never be a member of the evil league of evil.
He lacks the powers to really make a name for himself, and honestly he's not really evil material.
Had his powers worked as a hero he'd probably still be doing that.
Not because he's an altrusit, he just honestly enjoys feeling special. As bizzare as his powers are, he hadn't felt as full of life before he got them. Now he actually feels like a complete human being.
That being said he's generally a good soul. While he has no problems knocking somebody sensless when they deserve it, he's not one for sensless violence or killing.
In his own words, he gets enough violence just being himself, no need to spread it around.
Power Level: 3; Power Points Spent: 45/45
STR: +0 (10), DEX: +0 (10), CON: +3 (16), INT: +0 (10), WIS: +0 (10), CHA: +0 (10)
Tough: +3, Fort: +3, Ref: +0, Will: +0
Skills: Bluff 6 (+6), Disguise 2 (+2), Notice 3 (+3), Profession (Anger Management Counsoler) 3 (+3), Search 2 (+2)
Feats: Attack Focus (melee), Attack Specialization (Die Kwan Doe (Strike 1)), Dodge Focus, Interpose
Powers:
Die Kwan Doe (Strike 1) (training, DC 16)
Mind Control 3 (DC 13; Burst Area (15 ft. radius - General); One Command (Attack Me), Sense-Dependent (Hearing); Subtle (subtle))
Regeneration 20 (recovery bonus 3 (+3 to recover), recovery rate (bruised) 3 (recover 1 / round without rest), recovery rate (disabled) 4 (recover 1 / 5 mins), recovery rate (injured) 3 (recover 1 / minute), recovery rate (staggered) 3 (recover 1 / minute), resurrection 4 (1 hour); True Resurrection [4 ranks only]; Diehard, Subtle (subtle))
Attack Bonus: +0 (Ranged: +0, Melee: +1, Grapple: +1)
Attacks: Die Kwan Doe (Strike 1), +3 (DC 16), Mind Control 3 (DC Will 13), Unarmed Attack, +1 (DC 15)
Defense: +1 (Flat-footed: +0), Knockback: -1
Initiative: +0
Languages: Native Language
Totals: Abilities 6 + Skills 4 (16 ranks) + Feats 4 + Powers 31 + Combat 0 + Saves 0 + Drawbacks 0 = 45
Complication (Is this thing on?)
Sometimes his powers activate without his control.
Complication (enemies)
Both Kwan Doe and The GunShow would be happy to mash the Purple Provoker's face in.
Complication (Reputation)
To the good guys he's troublemaker.
To the heroes he's an annoyance (and worse, possible bad press)
To the bad guys... well he must be nuts, right?
Quirk (Jinxed)
If something's going to go wrong, it usually happens to him.
If somebody's going to get hurt, it is almost always him
Background:
Johnny Marcone wasn't a bad man.
In fact when he first got it into his head that he had a special ability he sought out a hero in an attempt to be a sidekick. Strangely he didn't have much trouble finding a Hero who wanted a sidekick with "powers unknown", in fact the hero he found, The GunShow (who's powers where centered in his massively muscled arms) thought it was a great idea.
An idiot who'd get into trouble, require saving, and make him look like an even bigger hero. Or at least that's what The GunShow thought.
Unfortunately during their first day they ran into a super villain threatening people on the street. Johnny stepped forward and yelled the most insulting barb he could think of.
And then was promptly beaten up by the innocent bystanders, the Villain (Devious Duck, the felonious fowl felon!), and The GunShow. Who was berated by the news, the next day, for not only beating up his own sidekick but accidentally knocking a few bystanders down the street in the process.
Needless to say Johnny’s career as a hero was shot. Nobody would work with him, leaving him to work a fairly unrewarding job as a anger management councilor. Frustrated, poor, and at a loss for what to do with his life he was somewhat surprised when the Devious Duck hunted him down and offered him a job.
“Just go to this street corner, and do whatever it is you did last time. Quack.” And offered the man a fair amount of cash.
Maybe the last time had knocked something loose in his skull, or maybe he was just desperate for money. Maybe he just wanted to feel important. Either way he took the job.
And because of that he was pummeled mercilessly. Again.
He was so badly beaten up that when the news managed to get there all they saw was a dark purple man running for his life from a crowd of pedestrians. They gave him the moniker of the “Purple Provoker” not realizing the purple was from bruising, not a costume.
The Duck came through on his end, and a day later Johnny was feeling good again. Good, and richer than usual.
After awhile he bought himself a purple costume, complete with a cowl, and offered out his talents to people who were hiriing. (and not insane)
Mostly just small time stuff; go here, make a ruckus, go there and start a riot. More recently he’s been brought in to actually help in heists, should something go wrong.
Strangely enough he’s barely wanted by the police, and most of the time those charges are for “disturbing the peace”. It turns out that not many people want to charge a man after they savagely beat him on the street in front of dozens of witnesses.
Cops, much along the same lines, don’t feel compelled to arrest a man they used excessive force on (and might bust them).
For the most part The Purple Provoker (often referred to a Provoker, or simply “Provo”) has only one reoccurring enemy. The Tai, Kwan Doe.
Not to mistake for the Canadian Kwan Doe, who’s a world famous cellist or the Chinese Kwan Doe, master masseuse. No, the Tai, Kwan Doe is a martial arts expert and super hero who seems to enjoy in beating up The Provoker. And often forgets to bring him in to justice (though most Heroes have that problem… after all, if their villains are locked up, who would they fight?).
Most recently Johnny has worked on creating his own martial arts style, based completely off of bad kung-fu movies, to combat Kwan Doe. Unfortunately during the unveiling of said martial arts form he was heckled by Kwan Doe before he could state the name, and instead screamed “Die, Kwan Doe!”
Unfortunately not only did he still get beaten up, the name of his unique fighting style stuck. He’s assured most people it’s only a eureka away from perfection.
Personality:
Johnny Marcone will never be a member of the evil league of evil.
He lacks the powers to really make a name for himself, and honestly he's not really evil material.
Had his powers worked as a hero he'd probably still be doing that.
Not because he's an altrusit, he just honestly enjoys feeling special. As bizzare as his powers are, he hadn't felt as full of life before he got them. Now he actually feels like a complete human being.
That being said he's generally a good soul. While he has no problems knocking somebody sensless when they deserve it, he's not one for sensless violence or killing.
In his own words, he gets enough violence just being himself, no need to spread it around.
Re: Arkrite's Asylum
Interesting stuff, especially the Ultimate Superman pieces!
"I'm sorry. I love you. I'm not sorry I love you."
Re: Arkrite's Asylum
Glad you like it.
I believe I'd just came across the Ultimate style of comics and somebody had asked how it could have been done for DC.
I can't say I'm a huge fan of where the Ultimate series went in the end, but I liked the idea of updating to a current timeline without losing sight of the important parts of the characters in the end.
I mean, hopefully I pulled it off, but failing that I hope it was at least interesting to read! ;~)
I believe I'd just came across the Ultimate style of comics and somebody had asked how it could have been done for DC.
I can't say I'm a huge fan of where the Ultimate series went in the end, but I liked the idea of updating to a current timeline without losing sight of the important parts of the characters in the end.
I mean, hopefully I pulled it off, but failing that I hope it was at least interesting to read! ;~)
-
Jabroniville
- Posts: 24808
- Joined: Fri Nov 04, 2016 8:05 pm
Re: Arkrite's Asylum
Oh man, 2nd Edition stuff! I forgot "Matter Eater" was literally a power name, lol.
Nice to see you actually start a Roll Call-esque thread!
Nice to see you actually start a Roll Call-esque thread!
Re: Arkrite's Asylum
Matter Eater was the best. A power that was so niche nobody really used it, but so unique everybody remembers it.Jabroniville wrote: ↑Sun Aug 16, 2020 9:13 pm Oh man, 2nd Edition stuff! I forgot "Matter Eater" was literally a power name, lol.
Nice to see you actually start a Roll Call-esque thread!
To be honest I keep meaning to make a few builds, maybe Captain Power, Exo-Squad or the A-Team, but I just can't find the energy these days.
That being said I realized I have no backups at all of most of my builds, and I somehow managed to rescue most of them thanks to the Wayback Machine. Need to get them into place before they disappear again.
Re: Arkrite's Asylum
The Fat Man
Power Level: 6; Power Points Spent: 97/98
STR: +4 (18), DEX: +0 (10), CON: +7 (11/24), INT: +0 (10), WIS: +0 (10), CHA: +0 (10)
Tough: +8, Fort: +9, Ref: +2, Will: +2
Skills: Knowledge (business) 1 (+1), Knowledge (life sciences) 2 (+2), Medicine 7 (+7), Notice 5 (+5), Sense Motive 1 (+1)
Feats: All-Out Attack, Interpose, Power Attack
Powers:
Density 3 (+6 STR, +1 Toughness, Weight Multiplier: x2, Adds: Immovable 1, Super-Strength 1; Reflective (Melee) [2 ranks only]; Permanent)
. . Immovable 1 (Resist Movement: +4, Resist Knockback: -1)
. . Super-Strength 1 (+5 STR carry capacity, heavy load: 600 lbs; +1 STR to some checks)
Enhanced Constitution (Enhanced Trait 13) (Traits: Constitution +13 (24, +7))
Growth 1 (+2 STR, +1 CON; Permanent)
Immovable 6 (Resist Movement: +24, Resist Knockback: -6)
Impervious Toughness 7
Super-Strength 9 ([0 active, 0/18 PP, 2/r], +45 STR carry capacity, heavy load: 153.6 tons; +9 STR to some checks)
. . Leaping 18 (Alternate; [0 active, 0/18 PP, 1/r], Jumping distance: x1000000)
Attack Bonus: +8 (Ranged: +8, Melee: +8, Grapple: +12/+13)
Attacks: Unarmed Attack, +8 (DC 19)
Defense: +4 (Flat-footed: +2), Knockback: -15
Initiative: +0
Languages: Native Language
Totals: Abilities 0 + Skills 4 (16 ranks) + Feats 3 + Powers 60 + Combat 24 + Saves 6 + Drawbacks 0 = 97
Size: Medium
Description:
Height: 7'5"
Weight: 800 lbs
He's exceptionally large, and more then a little overweight. But his bulk barely conceals the powerful muscles underneath. It looks as though if he could drop a hundred pounds he'd be a muscle bound monster. As it is he looks like a walking brick wall with dark playful eyes, and a barely concealed smirk, which makes it seem like he knows something you don't.
His black hair is cut in a crew cut style, and his dark skin barely hides a nasty looking scar going across his neck. On his meaty left arm is a tattoo of a gold and silver shield embossed with Greek iconography. Below it is a sentence in a language he doesn't know himself. It's meaning is currently unknown.
Complications:
-Can't swim (even without density)
-Won't strike women
-Immense weight makes it hard to use some structures/object/vehicles
-Terrified of snakes.
The Fat Man grows by 8 PP.
2 PP to add Reflective (melee) to Impervious Toughness
3 PP to turn Superstrength into a Dynamic Array with the Leaping power
2 PP to add the feats Power Attack and All-Out Attack
1 PP on skills (+1 to Medicine, Notice, Knowledge: Business, and Sense Motive)
Changes are noted in red.
I know what you're thinking. But Arkrite, where's the giant overly elaborate attempty at a story?
Actually for this game we didn't have a background, hence the name of the game "Identity Lost".
All of the characters started off in a dark prison like complex and had to fight their way out while trying to come to grips with the fact that they don't know who they are, why they're like they are, and why they're being held prisoner.
It was actually quite fun, unfortunatly most of the players dissapeared soon after the game got rolling. Even worse the one new player we got to join stopped playing almost as soon as he started. So far the only people still in the game are The Fat Man, Smokey (smoke creator/manipulator), and Dawn "Firefly" (flying energy blaster).
The Fat Man has shown some history though. He's not nearly as young as he looks, he was actually an old man, not nearly as big (or large) as he is now.
He's also the original creator/owner of the Promethus Corporation, one Theodore Hayd, which was responsible for kidnapping them all and doing terrible experiments on them. To make matters worse, his son was not only responsible for coming up with Project Reforge (which gave everybody their powers), but for creating the Queens as his own personal guard/wetworks agents, and betraying his father.
That's right. His son, Solomon, brought the White Queen to kill him one day. Then, for reasons uknown he took what could have only been a dying or dead body and put it through Reforge. The end result was The Fat Man.
Other details he's learned: Diana Quin was a doctor who worked for him... and was at one point his lover (if you can read between the lines). She's now the Grey Queen who's current powers are unknown.
Angus, the one eyed man with the eyepatch, used to be a close friend. Most likely. The man's also meaner than a hellcat, and carries a handgun that'd scare the hell out of most people (It shoots shotguns slugs).
My main reason for creating the Fat Man was because I didn't have any black characters, and I've never seen a fat superhero who wasn't a joke, or who wasn't treated like a joke. I also wanted to try out a Golden Age Superman build. So here we are, three in one.
I try to play him as a respectable man, try to avoid the obvious jokes about his weight, and try not to do too much damage to everything in sight. The Fat Man, currently, being the only character at combat caps.
I was looking forward to unraveling the mysteries of Project Reforge and what really happened to all the people involved.
Sadly the game didn't last much longer than that, but I will always remember Smokey using his powers in Loony Tunes-esc manners.
Good times.
Power Level: 6; Power Points Spent: 97/98
STR: +4 (18), DEX: +0 (10), CON: +7 (11/24), INT: +0 (10), WIS: +0 (10), CHA: +0 (10)
Tough: +8, Fort: +9, Ref: +2, Will: +2
Skills: Knowledge (business) 1 (+1), Knowledge (life sciences) 2 (+2), Medicine 7 (+7), Notice 5 (+5), Sense Motive 1 (+1)
Feats: All-Out Attack, Interpose, Power Attack
Powers:
Density 3 (+6 STR, +1 Toughness, Weight Multiplier: x2, Adds: Immovable 1, Super-Strength 1; Reflective (Melee) [2 ranks only]; Permanent)
. . Immovable 1 (Resist Movement: +4, Resist Knockback: -1)
. . Super-Strength 1 (+5 STR carry capacity, heavy load: 600 lbs; +1 STR to some checks)
Enhanced Constitution (Enhanced Trait 13) (Traits: Constitution +13 (24, +7))
Growth 1 (+2 STR, +1 CON; Permanent)
Immovable 6 (Resist Movement: +24, Resist Knockback: -6)
Impervious Toughness 7
Super-Strength 9 ([0 active, 0/18 PP, 2/r], +45 STR carry capacity, heavy load: 153.6 tons; +9 STR to some checks)
. . Leaping 18 (Alternate; [0 active, 0/18 PP, 1/r], Jumping distance: x1000000)
Attack Bonus: +8 (Ranged: +8, Melee: +8, Grapple: +12/+13)
Attacks: Unarmed Attack, +8 (DC 19)
Defense: +4 (Flat-footed: +2), Knockback: -15
Initiative: +0
Languages: Native Language
Totals: Abilities 0 + Skills 4 (16 ranks) + Feats 3 + Powers 60 + Combat 24 + Saves 6 + Drawbacks 0 = 97
Size: Medium
Description:
Height: 7'5"
Weight: 800 lbs
He's exceptionally large, and more then a little overweight. But his bulk barely conceals the powerful muscles underneath. It looks as though if he could drop a hundred pounds he'd be a muscle bound monster. As it is he looks like a walking brick wall with dark playful eyes, and a barely concealed smirk, which makes it seem like he knows something you don't.
His black hair is cut in a crew cut style, and his dark skin barely hides a nasty looking scar going across his neck. On his meaty left arm is a tattoo of a gold and silver shield embossed with Greek iconography. Below it is a sentence in a language he doesn't know himself. It's meaning is currently unknown.
Complications:
-Can't swim (even without density)
-Won't strike women
-Immense weight makes it hard to use some structures/object/vehicles
-Terrified of snakes.
The Fat Man grows by 8 PP.
2 PP to add Reflective (melee) to Impervious Toughness
3 PP to turn Superstrength into a Dynamic Array with the Leaping power
2 PP to add the feats Power Attack and All-Out Attack
1 PP on skills (+1 to Medicine, Notice, Knowledge: Business, and Sense Motive)
Changes are noted in red.
I know what you're thinking. But Arkrite, where's the giant overly elaborate attempty at a story?
Actually for this game we didn't have a background, hence the name of the game "Identity Lost".
All of the characters started off in a dark prison like complex and had to fight their way out while trying to come to grips with the fact that they don't know who they are, why they're like they are, and why they're being held prisoner.
It was actually quite fun, unfortunatly most of the players dissapeared soon after the game got rolling. Even worse the one new player we got to join stopped playing almost as soon as he started. So far the only people still in the game are The Fat Man, Smokey (smoke creator/manipulator), and Dawn "Firefly" (flying energy blaster).
The Fat Man has shown some history though. He's not nearly as young as he looks, he was actually an old man, not nearly as big (or large) as he is now.
He's also the original creator/owner of the Promethus Corporation, one Theodore Hayd, which was responsible for kidnapping them all and doing terrible experiments on them. To make matters worse, his son was not only responsible for coming up with Project Reforge (which gave everybody their powers), but for creating the Queens as his own personal guard/wetworks agents, and betraying his father.
That's right. His son, Solomon, brought the White Queen to kill him one day. Then, for reasons uknown he took what could have only been a dying or dead body and put it through Reforge. The end result was The Fat Man.
Other details he's learned: Diana Quin was a doctor who worked for him... and was at one point his lover (if you can read between the lines). She's now the Grey Queen who's current powers are unknown.
Angus, the one eyed man with the eyepatch, used to be a close friend. Most likely. The man's also meaner than a hellcat, and carries a handgun that'd scare the hell out of most people (It shoots shotguns slugs).
My main reason for creating the Fat Man was because I didn't have any black characters, and I've never seen a fat superhero who wasn't a joke, or who wasn't treated like a joke. I also wanted to try out a Golden Age Superman build. So here we are, three in one.
I try to play him as a respectable man, try to avoid the obvious jokes about his weight, and try not to do too much damage to everything in sight. The Fat Man, currently, being the only character at combat caps.
I was looking forward to unraveling the mysteries of Project Reforge and what really happened to all the people involved.
Sadly the game didn't last much longer than that, but I will always remember Smokey using his powers in Loony Tunes-esc manners.
Good times.
Re: Arkrite's Asylum
RedBstrd wrote: wrote:Hong Kong Action Campaign:
As Tsui Mo pulled the trigger to his pistol, the hammer discharged a single bullet, which exited the barrel and embedded itself into skull of Carrie Luo. I don't need the hostage anymore. Surprised by a second blast in just a matter of seconds, a flight of doves took wing off of the top of the hospital. Mr. Mo walked over to the dying cop he shot moments before executing Miss Luo. Without saying anything, he lit a cigarette and stood over the wounded officer, who was coughing up blood and feebly trying to reach his own gun that fell from his reach as the impact of Mr. Mo's shot knocked him from his feet.
Mo pointed his silver beretta at the officer, flicked his smoke, and fired - discarding both man and cigarette. The boss sighed. He made off with enough Laotian heroin to keep his customers satisfied for the next year at least. The only snag was the pair of cops that got a little too nosy and forced them into the quick retreat. The closest building large enough to ditch them was the hospital. Ditch them. Yeah, right. Those &*$&#^%@ cops killed twelve of my men before we got the bastards. Mr. Mo spit on the lifeless corpse. He could now see and hear his helicopter approaching. Not subtle, but I need to get off this roof. Even the richest mob boss in Hong Kong can't get caught shooting a cop. Mo put his sunglasses back on and walked towards the helicopter that would make this little incident go away.
He stepped over the death woman who had formerly been his hostage. She was a nurse, but Mo didn't care. She didn't figure into his thoughts at all.
That was Boss Mo's big mistake.
Campaign Overview wrote:The characters will be a diverse group of people all tied to Carrie Luo, a nurse who was recently murdered by Hong Kong's heroin king and leading money counterfeiter, Boss Mo. Contrary to what Mo believed, Miss Luo wasn't just anybody. She was young, funny, beautiful, and had the heart of a saint. Many lives intersected in her private world: retired hitman uncle, cop brother, martial arts expert boyfriend, and even the Japanese yakuza patient she saved. Following her death, a small group of these men met at her funeral and all understood instantly something about the others: none of them could tolerate the murder of this woman. They formed an unofficial brotherhood committed - at all costs - to discovering who killed Carrie Luo. They would avenge her even if they had to burn down all of Hong Kong.
Eddie's Story: The Angel of Death.
He stood on the rooftop, tears rolling down his face.
A slave, a chained weapon, he'd known little friendship, little mercy, almost no love. Not in the last ten years.
"Come on, it'll be fun!" A red hair woman, barely eighteen pulled on his arm imploringly, "See the sights, enjoy Japan! It'll be our before wedding honeymoon."
He could never say no to her. He wished he had.
The room was dark. He could taste the blood in his mouth. His ribs ached with ever breath, and any movement caused his nose to feel like a shard of glass had been rammed through it.
"Eddie!" Helen shrieked from somewhere nearby.
She was scared, terrified. He remembered the tattooed men jumping them, trying to fight, losing.
He forced his eyes open, but only one worked properly. Across from where he sat, tied to a chair, was a little japanese man. Helen, her face red from crying, sat on his lap, her hands tied behind her back.
"American women, they're so... pretty don't you think so?"
"Don chu' fugin tuch hrr," He tried to sound gruff, mean, but he barely managed to groan the words out.
The Japanese man laughed, "Oh, he's big tough american hero!"
He laughed again, and around him her heard more people laugh. A laugh that implied they didn't know why they were laughing, but they were because the man sitting across from him was.
"Okay, you are big american hero. I will give you the chance to save the girl. You want to save the girl, you go and kill Sammy Wu. You do this for me, nobody touches the girl."
"I don no summa woo," he groaned. He didn't understand, everything hurt. He was just out of highschool, he couldn't kill anybody.
"No? You say no?" The Japanese man pulled Helen against himself hard, forcing her head to the side and licking up the side of her neck. A hand cupped a breast and she shrieked in terror.
"EDDIE!"
"EI do ed! El do ed!" Eddie tried to scream, but it felt like his tongue was made of lead. He tired to move forward and fell over on the ground.
"You sure? I've never got to spend time with a woman like this before," The man leered at Helen from above him.
"Don chu todge er!" he wheezed, "el do ed!"
The man shoved Helen off his lap and sent her crashing to the ground in front of him, "You kill Sammy Wu and nobody touches her. You try anything, anything at all, and I'll have my fun with her, then I'll whore her out on the street, and when she's too used up for that, I'll cut her into pieces and feed her to the sharks. One chunk.... at a time." The Japanese man laughed, then waved for the others to follow them.
"Lord Takanada," One said in Japanese, unaware that Eddie could understand him "You're letting him go?"
"A white man comes to kill a crime boss, nobody links that back to us. When he dies, we lose nothing. If he succeeds, we win and lose nothing," He laughed, then spat, "Besides, I will enjoy watching him suffer before he leaves. And then some time with his woman when he dies."
"When he dies?" the other man sounded confused.
Takanada slapped him across the face, "I break my word to no man. She doesn't get touched until he dies."
He smiled a sick disgusting smile, "And nobody touches her before me."
Eddie slipped into unconsciousness as Helen huddled close to his prone form and cried. For her, he had to do it for her.
He looked down at Hong Kong and thought how appropriate it was that his last job would bring him back to where he'd done his first job. Where he'd met her.
Eddie staggered through the back alleys, in the rain. Even in the night in this weather the streets were crowded for some reason. He didn't know if it was normal, or if there was a celebration. Honestly he didn't care.
His hands shook, his whole body shook, and every step sent rivets of pain through his body. He'd barely recovered from his beating when he arrived. The only reason he'd been successful was because nobody expected the white guy to be any trouble.
They'd bought the lost tourist act hook line and sinker. They were violent and angry, but none of them had expected any trouble. They didn't know what to do when he pulled a gun and shot one dead.
It'd been the wrong one. All hell broke loose, and gun fire was going wildly around the little bar they had been using as a clubhouse. He'd be shot a few times, but he didn't really feel the wounds until now.
All he remembered was flashes. Shooting another one at close range. Running out of bullets. Grabbing a Chinese sword off the wall. He remembered Sammy Wu, still stuck in a standing position with the sword jammed through his body.
And then he'd run. He'd panicked. He didn't know what to do. He couldn't believe what he'd just done. He'd killed people! Real people!
He fell over and retched on the ground until he couldn't vomit any longer. Then he crawled through the alleyway onto the street.
The people ignored him.
Some shot up white guy. Nobody cared. If he hadn't been bleeding he'd have been grateful for their ignorance. As it was he tried not to cry when somebody stepped on him, and continued his crawl towards a pay phone.
He never made it.
After that all he remembered was a chinese woman standing over him.
"Please, they'll kill her," he begged her, "They'll kill her!"
She smiled sadly and he knew nothing more.
He looked at the city, filled with people. Filled with decay. Amongst that decay had grown a flower. An orchid which thrived in spite of all else. A woman who'd taken a dying foreigner and nursed him back to health. She never once asked him anything, and when he asked why she helped him she said only "You had sad eyes."
She said it as if it held all the meaning in the world. He didn't know what she meant by it, but he swore he'd pay her back for her kindness.
He made his call, and spent weeks recovering before he could return to Japan. Takanada was surprised, and furious at first. But he saw it as a joke soon enough.
Eddie fingered the katana tucked into his trench coat.
"Ah, the big American hero returns, and you already have reputation! The white demon who killed the man's bodyguards then killed him with a sword," He laughed, and pulled out a sword, "So on your next job you will take this."
A sword was laid out before him, white handle, white sheathe. The blade curved slightly when he pulled it out.
"Next job?" Eddie felt like his world was coming down around him.
"It takes money to care for your woman, and you. You owe me quite a bit. You do these jobs, maybe one day you go free," He smiled a sickly smile, "Or maybe you just leave the woman behind and we call it even?"
And that had been it. They'd never let him see her without a guards surrounding them, and he was never allowed to have his weapons. He survived assassination after assassination through luck at first, and slowly through skill. He learned to fight, to shoot, even to use the sword he was given. He'd learned later it was another joke.
The Chinese didn't like the Japanese. They really didn't like it when people came at them with a katana.
Years had passed, and Takanada went from a minor crime boss to bigger and stronger. And the toy he'd been playing with slowly became a valuable assassin. A leashed dog for him to control. And so Eddie and Helen had been allowed to live a peaceful life when the jobs were completed, even if they were kept prisoner.
They had a nice house, lived in a nice neighborhood, and could move around with some freedom. But it was all just an illusion and they knew it.
Finally the day had come.
"No more."
Takanada looked at him hard. Helen was behind him, stronger than she'd ever been before. Around them a dozen armed guards, all pointing guns at him. He'd never earned their respect, but they had learned to fear him.
"What do you mean 'no more'?"
Eddie set his jaw, "I've killed enough people for you, I'm done. I'm not going to be your puppet anymore. I'm done."
Takanada's eyes never wavered. They took him in, then Helen, then back to him. He couldn't know they both had pills held under their tongues. Helen had come up with the idea. Freedom or death. At least the pills would make sure that they died painlessly before Takanada could do anything.
But Takanada didn't get mad, or order violence. He simply leaned back and nodded.
"You've been a good weapon, you've done as you've been told. You can never leave this country, though. You know too much for us to just let you go."
Eddie's mouth was dry. He suddenly wished he had something to drink to help the pill down. Either way he'd be dead when he tried to kill Takanada...
"You'll be given a house, a car, what you need, but you can never leave the country," Takanada said finally.
Eddie blinked. It couldn't be that easy. It didn't make sense...
But it had made sense, he'd just never realized it at the time. So long as they were under the Yakuza's thumbs they'd never thought about a future. But suddenly they were free to move around and to live. They were locked into the country, and Eddie knew enough not to risk that by flying, but it was enough.
And for awhile they lived again, they loved again. The world wasn't a horrible place of death and violence. They had a future.
And then they'd had a daughter.
And then it went to hell.
"You'll kill this man for me."
Eddie wanted to snarl, scream, and beat the man dead from across the table. Two years had done little to dull his reflexes. Unfortunately the guards surrounding him were armed and ready. He'd be dead before he could try.
"I told you I was done."
Takanada smiled at him, that horrible smile, "Yes, you did. And now you have beautiful baby girl. Hope you called her?"
And there it was. He'd let the leash slip not because he knew he'd lost control, but to gain leverage. Takanada had simply waited for nature to take it's course, and suddenly he held the trump card. They could have killed themselves before, but their own child?
Eddie spat at Takanada. The Japanese mob boss only laughed. He knew he'd won.
And he'd gone back to being the White Demon. The Angel of Death. One of the most feared, and most curious of Yakuza hitmen. Notorious for his twin pistols, and his usage of a blade in an era where such action would result in death.
And he died on the inside more each day.
Until one day he was given a way out.
"I can get them out for you."
Eddie blinked, choking on his soup and coughing hard. Carrie Luo had become his friend, the only one he had besides Helen. The only one he knew wouldn't kill him or betray him. He loved her for it, and he'd gone out of his way a few times to keep her out of trouble.
Or end that trouble which she did have.
"That's not funny, little sister," He gave her a frown and went back to his noodles.
"I am not joking."
Eddie set his bowl down and looked her, "They're always under guard, they're always watched. I cannot get close enough to Takanada to kill him, and even if I could they'd be dead before I could hope to kill him."
Carrie just gave that smile of hers, the one that could have replaced the sun, or chased away the clouds on a rainy day, "I have friends. They can get her out of the country, and give her a new identity. Both of them. I can't save you though."
Eddie shook his head, "You don't need to save me!"
She grabbed his hand in her own, "No, we need to save the entire family. It's important. It's family. Without family we die. Without them you wouldn't be my beloved brother, you'd be..."
She looked like she wanted to cry, "No, I can get them out. You call me the next time you are sent here. I'll get them out, then you come find me. I'll get you to them."
Eddie didn't know what to say. He just sat there, silently as tears rolled down his face.
There simply weren't words enough to be found.
And so he stood, on top of a building in Hong Kong. Now he wasn't crying for the selflessness and love that a stranger had shown him. He wasn't crying at the sacrifice his best friend had made for him.
He cried because some useless monster had killed his best friend. And in doing so had not only take from him one of the three women in his life he loved, but had taken all three from him. He didn't know where his wife and child were. He knew he'd never find them without Carrie's help, and she was dead.
His dear beloved little sister was dead.
Now was the time for the Angel of Death to make a final call. One final job. He'd hunt down the man that killed Carrie Luo and he'd make the man scream before he died.
He turned and walked away, his white trench coat flapping in the wind. There was work to be done.
Eddie Murtaugh
Power Level: 8; Power Points Spent: 135/135
STR: +2 (14), DEX: +3 (16), CON: +4 (18), INT: +0 (10), WIS: +0 (10), CHA: +0 (10)
Tough: +4/+8, Fort: +6, Ref: +7, Will: +3
Skills: Acrobatics 10 (+13), Bluff 4 (+4), Climb 2 (+4), Drive 7 (+10), Gather Information 4 (+4), Intimidate 7 (+7), Knowledge (streetwise) 8 (+8), Language 2 (+2), Notice 7 (+7), Pilot 3 (+6), Sense Motive 6 (+6), Stealth 8 (+11)
Feats: Accurate Attack, Acrobatic Bluff, Ambidexterity, Defensive Attack, Diehard, Elusive Target, Equipment 1, Evasion 2, Fighting Style: Sword-fighting, Hide in Plain Sight, Improved Block, Improved Block, Improved Critical 2 (Angel's Edge (Strike 6)), Improved Critical 2 (Blown Away (Blast 6)), Improved Critical 2 (Heaven & Hell Pistols (Blast 6)), Improved Critical 3 (The Angel Spins The Wheel of Life (Strike 6)), Improved Defense 2, Improved Disarm, Improved Initiative, Improved Initiative, Power Attack, Precise Shot, Quick Draw, Rage, Takedown Attack 2, Taunt, Weapon Break
Powers:
Leaping 1 (Jumping distance: x2)
Speed 1 (Speed: 10 mph, 88 ft./rnd)
Twin Pistols (Device 5) (Easy to lose)
. . Heaven & Hell Pistols (Blast 6) (DC 21, Feats: Improved Critical 2 (Heaven & Hell Pistols (Blast 6)); Autofire (interval 2, max +5); Split Attack (2 targets))
. . . . A Hail of Bullets (Blast 6) (Alternate; DC 21; Cone Area (60 ft. cone - General))
. . . . Blown Away (Blast 6) (Alternate; DC 21, Feats: Improved Critical 2 (Blown Away (Blast 6)); Knockback 6)
. . . . Shoot out the Lights (Darkness Control 7) (Alternate; Radius: 500 ft.; Duration (continuous); Power Loss (Only works in areas without access to outside light))
. . Sunglasses (at night) (Super-Senses 1) (low-light vision)
White Katana "Angel's Edge" (Device 5) (Easy to lose)
. . Angel's Edge (Strike 6) (DC 23, Feats: Improved Block, Improved Critical 2 (Angel's Edge (Strike 6)), Improved Defense 2, Improved Initiative, Takedown Attack 2; Penetrating; Mighty, Precise)
. . . . The Angel Spins The Wheel of Life (Strike 6) (Alternate; DC 23, Feats: Improved Critical 3 (The Angel Spins The Wheel of Life (Strike 6)); Burst Area (10 ft. radius - General) [2 ranks only]; Knockback, Mighty)
. . Riding the Blade (Super-Movement 1) (slow fall)
White Trenchcoat (Device 2) (Hard to lose)
. . "Wings of Protection" (Protection 4) (+4 Toughness; Impervious; Subtle 2 (unnoticeable))
Equipment: Binoculars, Cell Phone, Flashlight, Lock Release Gun, Mini-Tracer
Attack Bonus: +8 (Ranged: +8, Melee: +8, Grapple: +10)
Attacks: A Hail of Bullets (Blast 6) (DC 21), Angel's Edge (Strike 6), +8 (DC 23), Blown Away (Blast 6), +8 (DC 21), Heaven & Hell Pistols (Blast 6), +8 (DC 21), The Angel Spins The Wheel of Life (Strike 6) (DC 23), Unarmed Attack, +8 (DC 17)
Defense: +8 (Flat-footed: +4), Knockback: -6
Initiative: +11
Languages: Chinese (Mandarin), English, Japanese
Totals: Abilities 18 + Skills 17 (68 ranks) + Feats 19 + Powers 40 + Combat 32 + Saves 9 + Drawbacks 0 = 135
Complications:
Family (Helen (wife), Hope (daughter 2 years old) )
Honor (Never kills women or children. Always gives his opponent a fair chance in a fair fight)
Enemies (Takanada, Yakuza, Tongs, Hong Kong Police)
Quirk: Known for calling cards, A white rose left at a scene, or a target killed with a blade.