The Phoenixverse (A 2e OC 'verse; Red Ronin! Netsuko Nishimura! Rinako Saeki! Fujiko Yoshihara! Masaru Kido!)

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EternalPhoenix
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Hall of Honor Part 1 and Schedule Note

Post by EternalPhoenix »

EternalPhoenix wrote: Fri Sep 02, 2022 11:39 pm Shining Guardian, Fletcher, & Shadowspirit: Legends Live Forever, by Fabvl featuring NerdOut
It's been a while since the opening post. So I'm reminding you of the theme song for the next trio. I'll do the same when the Champions get started.

The Hall of Honor isn't a physical place, exactly. There's a superhero museum in DC, but that's not quite this. Up until this point in the Icons I've been posting active heroes who can easily appear in any given game or campaign. The Hall of Honor is different. These folks are out. Or assumed to be as of the start of 2019. Retirement, death, or simple disappearance. But they're very important to both recent events and Phoenixverse history as a whole. I mean, you've probably seen the full list. They've been mentioned throughout the Icons entries. One or two may have been mentioned elsewhere. So while they may not be appearing in the average game, I'd still like you to get to know them. To know the immense shadows they have left behind. And, as always, the finger pointing to the current generation of heroes. Telling them (who may include your PCs) that it's your time now. Challenging them to live up to their legacies. The ones I've posted appear to be up to the task. Whether your PCs or not are as well is up to you.

To that end (and because they're fuckin' long, man) I'm slowing posts back down to Tuesday and Saturday, with today counting as an opportunity for you, my Dear Readers, to catch your breath. So we'll pick up again next Tuesday with the guy who's a mix of Captain America, Magneto, Iron Man, and Ebenezar McCoy, The Shining Guardian. Thanks for reading, and I'll see you then. Unless anybody has questions in the meantime, I guess. :sweat_smile:
The Phoenixverse (A 2e OC 'verse!)
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EternalPhoenix
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The Shining Guardian (Henry Kim)

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The Shining Guardian (Henry Kim)

Power Level: 13; Power Points Spent: 285/285

STR: +15 (16/40), DEX: +1 (12), CON: +3 (16), INT: +5 (20), WIS: +5 (20), CHA: +3 (16)

Tough: +3/+13/+18, Fort: +9, Ref: +9, Will: +15

Skills: Acrobatics 4 (+5), Bluff 7 (+10), Concentration 10 (+15), Craft (artistic) 15 (+20), Craft (mechanical) 15 (+20), Diplomacy 12 (+15), Gather Information 12 (+15), Intimidate 7 (+10), Investigate 5 (+10), Knowledge (arcane Lore) 15 (+20), Knowledge (history) 5 (+10), Knowledge (physical sciences) 5 (+10), Knowledge (theology & philosophy) 10 (+15), Language 3 (+3), Notice 7 (+12), Search 5 (+10), Sense Motive 7 (+12), Stealth 4 (+5)

Feats: Accurate Attack, All-Out Attack, Artificer, Attack Focus (ranged) 3, Attack Specialization (Unarmed Attack), Beginner's Luck, Eidetic Memory, Improved Initiative, Inspire 4 (+4), Interpose, Jack-of-All-Trades, Leadership, Luck 4, Move-by Action, Power Attack, Precise Shot, Skill Mastery (Craft (art & mech), Gather Info, KN (arcane lore)), Takedown Attack, Uncanny Dodge (Auditory)

Powers:
Ferromancer (Array 14) (default power: move object)
. . Magic Camera (ESP 9) (Array; affects: 2 types, inc. visual - visual & auditory; No Conduit; Medium; Custom (Rapid (10x Search speed)), Notes: Medium of Technology)
. . Mystic Magnetic Bindings (Snare 14) (Array; DC 24)
. . Mystic Magnetic Blast (Blast 14) (Array; DC 29)
. . Mystic Magnetic Burst (Blast 9) (Array; DC 24; Burst Area (45-90 ft. radius - General); Progression, Increase Area (area x2))
. . Mystic Magnetic Control (Move Object 14) (Default; Strength: 70, Carry: 68.1 tons / 136.2 tons / 204.8 tons / 409.6 tons; Range (perception); Limited Material (Metal))

Ferromantic Armor (Device 18) (Hard to lose, Only you can use; Indestructible)
. . Armor Plating (Features 5) (Notes: Provides Protection 10 when Ferromatic Force Field is inactive)
. . Gravitic Strength (Enhanced Strength 24) (+24 STR)
. . Helmet Sensors (Super-Senses 7) (awareness: Magic (visual), direction sense, distance sense, radar, time sense)
. . Impervious Toughness 10
. . Life Support Systems (Immunity 9) (life support)
. . Mystic Comms (Communication 8) (sense type: magic)
. . Mystic Magnetic Flight (Flight 12) ([0 active, 0/24 PP, 2/r], Speed: 50000 mph, 440000 ft./rnd)
. . . . Gravitic Might (Super-Strength 12) (Alternate; [0 active, 0/24 PP, 2/r], +60 STR carry capacity, heavy load: 13.1k tons; +12 STR to some checks)

Ferromantic Force Field (Force Field 15) (+15 Toughness)

Longevity (Features 1) (Notes: As a proper wizard, Henry absolutely does not age normally. But he does, in fact, age.)

Attack Bonus: +9 (Ranged: +12, Melee: +9, Grapple: +24)

Attacks: Mystic Magnetic Bindings (Snare 14), +12 (DC Ref/Staged 24), Mystic Magnetic Blast (Blast 14), +12 (DC 29), Mystic Magnetic Burst (Blast 9) (DC 24), Unarmed Attack, +11 (DC 30)

Defense: +8 (Flat-footed: +4), Knockback: -14

Initiative: +5

Languages: English, Korean Native, Latin, Spanish

Totals: Abilities 40 + Skills 37 (148 ranks) + Feats 27 + Powers 123 + Combat 34 + Saves 24 + Drawbacks 0 = 285

Age (as of Jan 2019): Over 180 (chronological), Over 270 (actual), mid 60s (appearance)
Height: 6’ 2”
Weight: 210 lbs
Ethnicity: Korean
Hair: Gray
Eyes: Blue
Base of Operations: Denver, Colorado

Background: The Kingdom of Joseon, late in its existence. Less than a century before it would be gone. Truthfully, the man known today as Henry Kim isn’t sure when exactly he was born. He used to remember the date, at least, but that was two calendar changes ago. The first king he remembers is Sunjo of Joseon, who started his reign in 1800 at age 10. The first major event he remembers is the “Year Without A Summer” caused by the eruption of Mount Tambora in modern day Indonesia. He remembers it specifically because the crops failed, and the village went very hungry that year. People died. One doesn’t simply forget losing their little sister to starvation. He was a commoner (or sangmin, with yangmin being more polite but less accurate), unlikely to see the age of 30 before disease, the heavy labor of pre industrial farming, or army service ended his life. Pyeong-an Province was not a happening place, outside of cities like the very old Pyongyang. Though that was probably true of rural areas all over the world. He wasn’t anyone, and he never expected to be. Well. At least he wasn’t a “vulgar commoner” (cheonmin), “untouchable” (baekjeong), or a serf (nobi). And then his story took a sharp left turn.

. . The local government run elementary school (hyanggo) was, of course, a bad joke. Neglected and barely functional. Basically useless. Except as a method for finding students of exceptional potential, for those who knew how to look. Henry (obviously he has changed his name since then) was brilliant. An exceptional mind, wasting away in commoner-hood. A patron sponsored him into a local privately run elementary school (a seodang), which was in much better condition. As schools go, it was…unusual. It taught the Chinese classics as all of them did, to be sure, however there were other lessons carefully layered in as well. Adult Henry recognizes them easily as functionally a subtle test of a child’s capability for magic. While technically anyone can learn how to use magic (even if they already have spellcasting ability naturally) with enough study and effort, having the aptitude for it was and is preferable for any teachers.

. . As you, Dear Reader, may be expecting at this point, Henry excelled here, too. He was taken in by a Wizard of the White Court (the Merlin of the era, in fact) as an apprentice, and began his training in spellcasting and arcane lore. Never again would he dig in the dirt or break his back pulling rocks out of the ground. He was, technically, downgraded in social status to a “vulgar commoner” in the process. Joseon, perhaps wisely, distrusted spellcasters of all varieties. His training went well and he was accorded a full Wizard of the White Court by the time he reached adulthood. This, of course, was not the end of his training. Still, he gained greater and greater fame and respect as a combat wizard. He was a critical part of the Battle of Krakatoa in 1883, and in fact was the one who personally set the volcano off. Killed one hell of a dragon doing that. He wasn’t literally at ground zero at the time of the explosion. He’d already fled through a portal from an allied Wizard. Over thirty six thousand died as a result, and he does regret that. However, that particular monster would have brought mass death to the entirety of Southeast Asia. And the White Court’s mightiest combat wizards simply couldn’t kill it. So, plan K. No, he wasn’t responsible for Santa Maria in 1902. He’s a ferromancer, not a volcano-mancer. And he was in China anyway, dammit. Literally on the other side of the Pacific. He did pat that Wizard on the back, though. Nice win, kid. Novarupta in 1912 wasn’t…exactly his fault. It was going to erupt sometime in the next month anyway, and well…it turns out the local mana fields were…volatile and reacted unexpectedly to magnetic spells. It really wasn’t the plan, but he’ll never complain about a deceased…you know, he never got the type of that monster. Bah, it doesn’t matter. It was throwing Hellfire and about to murder a bunch of defenseless Alaska Natives. Good enough. For the record, Pinatubo in 1991 was entirely natural, as far as he knows.

. . He was in Alaska that day because he’d was planning to move. Joseon was basically dead, and honestly he’d never had an excess of loyalty to it or Asia anyway. Henry Kim officially immigrated to the United States a year later after recovering from some injuries and wrapping up a few loose ends. He has never left, unless one counts serving in World War II. He settled in Denver, and he has never left there either. His early years were spent getting settled and making a little money through independent mining work. And being confused for Chinese. A lot. However, rising racial tensions in response to World War 1 made him think. The Mystery Men Era had been underway for about 20 years. He’d read the stories in the Denver Times, Denver Post, and Rocky Mountain News. He knew the Council would not approve, but screw them. He took up the mask that hid his ethnicity and strapped on his armor and gauntlets. The Shining Guardian debuted in 1921. His earliest adversaries (aside from the usual organized crime figures of the period) were mainly the Ku Klux Klan, who actually rode the tide of nativist sentiment into public office, including Mayor of Denver and Governor of Colorado. By the time the Great Depression was firmly gripping the nation, however, nativist sentiment had largely faded and the Klan was voted out of office.

. . Henry…doesn’t like to talk about the Depression. At one point one in four Denver citizens were out of work. The Dust Bowl devastated farms. It was ugly, and as a mere Korean he was no exception to the misery. However, newspaper records detail the Shining Guardian protecting the Civilian Conservation Corps as they built trails and campgrounds in Denver’s Mountain Parks, and openly aiding the Works Progress Administration with his powers as the built roads and fixed schools. A few paintings by the mysterious artist H.K. were even purchased to decorate government buildings. Meanwhile, Denver was becoming a transportation hub for both rail and air, with the Moffat Tunnel and Denver Municipal Airport being built in ’28 and ’29 respectively. The economy, however, did not recover until the onset of World War II. Europe needed stuff. America had a large industrial base. And Denver benefitted. The city was growing. They had a resident veteran “mystery man”. (The term “superhero” was just beginning to be applied to such individuals east of the Mississippi, and thus hadn’t yet reached Denver yet.) All was well.

. . And then Japan attacked Pearl Harbor on December 7, 1941. A day that will forever live in infamy, or so Henry says. Project Blue Liberty, during its conversion from scientific project to special operations group, went recruiting heroes to join the war effort. As a native Korean, Henry had no love for Japan. He wasn’t…the most enlightened individual, in those days. He went to war to curb Imperial Japanese ambitions, basically because fuck them. Again, Henry was absolutely a hero, but he was not politically correct, woke, or whatever term is in vogue at the time of reading, Dear Reader. He wasn’t as virulently racist and sexist as some of his contemporaries, and homophobia has never been a part of his worldview. But the man who went to war basically to exact his personal vengeance on the Japanese for what they’d done to his homeland was not a good man. What altered his perspective were his allies on the Pacific front. Not so much team leader Human Rocket II, but the ageless samurai Jin and one Betsy Hartwell (now Wilder of the Javier Academy). The Desert (now Pacific) Stranger’s much greater life experience also played a role. Henry was, perhaps, being unfair. And if he was being unfair, then what kind of hero was he, really?

. . It must be said. Project Blue Liberty, be it in Europe or the Pacific, wasn’t a modern superhero company. They were superpowered military operatives. They killed Japanese soldiers. A lot of Japanese soldiers. And 6/7’s of Japan’s superpowered operatives. The Sword of The Rising Sun started 21 members strong in 1942. There were three left after the taking of Okinawa. And one each was in Hiroshima and Nagasaki. The Pacific team was in every major land battle until the bombs were dropped. They were deployed on separate ships during sea battles to do what they could. The Human Rocket was functionally a faster, more maneuverable fighter plane. The Stranger could teleport from plane to plane, blowing heads off with his magic revolvers. Henry had added greaves to his ensemble, allowing him to stick to metals or hover in mid air. Plus a magnetic controller is the last thing mundane naval and aerial vehicles are equipped to deal with. He routinely tore the wings off planes and ripped the rivets out of hulls. Jin’s “sword” can cut through anything he laid eyes on. And even Betsy had indestructible metal bones she could move and control with her mind. So she could kind of fly, too, and amplify the force of her unarmed strikes. As in the real world, the Navy and Marines could have done it without them. The Sword of The Rising Sun would have made it much harder, but after Midway it was all over but the losing. The Japanese soldiers on land, paradoxically, had it a little easier. They resisted fiercely, and the Pacific team’s advantages weren’t as visually dramatic and game changing. But between them and the steady backup of the Marine Corps, they island hopped across the Pacific. Starting with Guadalcanal, they fought their way into possession of the Solomon Islands, on to the Marshall Islands, then Guam, Iwo Jima, retaking the Philippines and storming Okinawa. Then the atomic bombs were dropped, and the war ended. They killed a hell of a lot of Japanese soldiers, sailors, and airmen.

. . For those recoiling in horror at “superheroes” killing their way through a warzone, this was not actually unusual for heroes in the Mystery Men Era and Golden Age. It was a very different time. Before Starman, and before federal and state governments took a big rethink on how much leeway they were giving what were technically illegal vigilantes. Gunning down Mafiosi by the score would still get a supposed “hero” in as much trouble as one would expect. That’s just mass murder. But if a hero had walked up to Al Capone in the street and stabbed him in the heart, the non-corrupt members of the Chicago PD would be more likely to pat the hero on the back than try to arrest them for homicide. If a supervillain or criminal became bad enough or a big enough threat, law enforcement simply looked the other way. If the city saved didn’t give the hero in question a medal. This doesn’t mean every hero back then was a killer. Far from it. But it was basically normal, if not expected behavior. And the entire Pacific team was, of course, from that era and had blood on their hands prior to the war. Even Henry.

. . At any rate, the war ended. Project Blue Liberty was disbanded. And everyone moved on. In Henry’s case, the Shining Guardian returned triumphant to Denver, more popular than ever. There was, however, a distant dark cloud on the horizon, growing closer with every passing year. The same year as the end of the war, the House Committee on Un-American Activities was made a permanent part of the House of Representatives. HUAC started getting Hollywood movie industry people blacklisted in 1947. 1949, with the first Soviet test of an atomic bomb, did not help. But the match to the tinder was 1950. Mao gained control of China despite heavy US financial assistance. Alger Hiss was convicted of perjury related to lying at his HUAC interrogation years earlier. Julius and Ethel Rosenberg were caught spying for the Soviets. And the Korean War started. This is, of course, where J. Edgar Hoover and Joseph McCarthy enter the story. Hoover, to his dying day, neither liked nor trusted superheroes. The FBI was the single greatest impediment and danger to Golden Age heroes, and even a hassle to the Silver Agers before Hoover’s death in 1972. The Senate Internal Security Subcommittee was also formed in 1950. Superheroes were on their list. The harassment and federal distrust was so intense that heroes first started permanently retiring in 1951. The older ones, at first, especially after Hoover’s FBI started exposing secret identities and using them as leverage to force testimony. But it was McCarthy who did the most publically. He was headed the Senate Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations in 1953 and ’54. Are you now or have you ever been a member of the Communist Party? If you have nothing to hide, why not take off that mask and show who you really are? Etcetera. Ad nauseaum. And so forth. The aging Human Rocket called a historic meeting of all veteran heroes left standing. This included the Shining Guardian. A unanimous decision was not reached that day, but the prevailing mood was established. Henry was arguably the most prominent hero who held on the longest. However, he had met a special lady. And when McCarthy used his authority to compel the Shining Guardian’s presence in the Senate chamber, Henry (through Denver’s newspapers) told him to go to hell, and finally retired his heroic identity. The Shining Guardian was gone.

. . Henry Kim, however, was not idle. He married that special lady, and had a few children. The White Court of Wizards made him their designated top enforcer after the death of the previous. He was, all in all, quite busy. It was a return to the type of life he’d been leading before adopting the mask of the Shining Guardian. He generally wasn’t home very often. The Shining Guardian missed almost the entire Silver Age, only reappearing briefly to defend Denver during Kuros’s invasion in ’82. This was naturally surprising as hell to heroic historians, as he’d been gone for 28 years. Kuros’s return in ’92 was over too quickly for him to do more than think about getting his old gear out. His frequent absences did not endear him to his children, who scattered out of Denver. He simply lost track of them. Until he attended a meeting of the White Court, called to discuss a young spellslinger who’d killed both her mother and stepfather. She was twenty years old. Her two older sisters were either dead or missing after she spent a few years with them. This wasn’t an unusual occasion. Mundane authorities, generally speaking, do not have the ability to deal with magicians who go rogue and/or evil. So the White Court of Wizards since time immemorial (well, at least since before the Romans invaded England; earlier records are spotty even if oral tradition isn’t) has taken up the duty of dealing with them. How that has worked has depended on the personality of the person Merlin has reincarnated into this time. The current Merlin is an Anglo-Syrian man named Sayid. He is a practical and pragmatic man, but one who has to deal with certain political realities. And when it comes to such things as murder or mind control using magic, he is as hard as diamond. Magical homicide merits nothing but execution. The year was 1996. His wife, that special lady, had been dead for over a year. Old age. Alas. The name of the young woman was Sagacious Winifred Burke. The woman she had murdered, her mother, Henry recognized the name in horror. He had, after all, written it on her birth certificate himself. The young Miss Burke was his granddaughter. For the first time in one of these hearings, he intervened. He had influence and political capital. He used some of them. Plus Sayid was and is mostly his friend. So instead of an execution, the future Sage went home with Henry. He did not tell her he was her grandfather. An apprentice. Older than normal, but doable. Their relationship got quite rocky at times, because Sage is Sage, but it was ultimately quite a positive five years together. They have quite a lot of love and respect for one another. The White Court vacated her sentence, accorded her a Wizard, and permitted her to move to San Francisco and have her own life. This was June 2001.

. . Three months later, on that terrible day in September, the Shining Guardian returned to stay. He pulled his gear out of literal mothballs to battle the monster Armageddon. Heroic historians were once again shocked out of their shoes. It had been 19 years since he last appearance, and 28 more since his official retirement. A total of 47 years had gone by and not only was the man who spent over 30 years protecting Denver still alive, he was in combat condition. He arguably did better than anyone at stalling Armageddon, even if the monster ultimately smashed him aside on his way to Chicago, the battle with Starman II, and both of their deaths. In the aftermath, Henry took stock. He was not the same man he had been 47 years ago, when he angrily retired in the face of a braying jackass (in his opinion) not entirely dissimilar from the literal Klansmen he’d started his career opposing and a public that was all too keen to turn on those who they once admired. He was certainly not the man who’d debuted 3 decades prior to that. He’d liked both Starmen, and appreciated their work. He’d been to war. Twice, actually. There was a pilot program to send the Blue Liberty Pacific team to Korea. Human Rocket II and Henry had signed on, but the other three couldn’t be found and souring public and government opinion dragged them back to the US a couple of months later after they’d landed in Inchon with General McArthur. He’d raised multiple children. Poorly, even he would admit, as he wasn’t around often enough. But still. He’d seen the Civil Rights Movement, the Space Race, the entire run of the Champions of Justice, and many other things. It was time. He’d been gone too long. And so, a legend from the past teamed with another (Fletcher) and four of the current generation (Shadowspirit, Tidal, Tex Austin, and Caviezel) to form the Icons. And then he learned Shadowspirit’s actual age (second only to his own in the group, my goodness) and sighed because it broke the narrative he had in his head. Dammit.

. . They just did mundane superhero team up things, honestly. It wasn’t a big deal. Henry had the time to finally make his battlesuit. He’d been toying with the design for longer than Tex had been alive. But now he actually built it. His old gear was…fine? It was fine. But he’d learned much more about magic since he’d first built that armor and gauntlets, and he’d grown a lot as a wizard. He’d only made the greaves for WWII. It was past due time for an upgrade. So, soon enough, the Shining Guardian debuted with a new and upgraded look. A full battlesuit, like he was Valia or something, heh. His old gear went back into the literal mothballs and stayed there. This made him team bus, and honestly he didn’t mind. They were doing fine, but in the back of his mind he always knew the big test was coming. And in 2011, it did. Tidal was a god. Lei Gong, Duke of Thunder. Shock. This was Henry’s shocked face. All good wizards are students of mythology, and the strange man who can make thunder happen by hitting anything with a blunt object is not a mortal human. No. Henry had seen too much to believe in coincidence anymore. And Tidal’s wife, Lei Zi, invaded Seattle to get him to…spend more time with her? Really? All right, then. They fought off her army, Tidal talked her down like he’d done it a thousand times before, and all was well. But seriously, we should talk about how you’re a god and your beloved wife is your arch nemesis, somehow. It’s concerning. We don’t want a repeat of this event.

. . 2013. The whole…Neo-Nazi terrorist cell…thing. Well. The only people who know…oh, right. It’s just Henry now. It was both him and Shadowspirit who knew the truth of that matter. There were Neo-Nazis involved, yes. Most of the conspiracy involved them, actually. But the mastermind was a loose end from World War 2. The surviving member of The Blade of The Rising Sun. Their enforcer was a very old friend who had not been seen since the last retirements in ’54. The ageless samurai. Henry’s best friend on the Pacific team. Jin. Oh, dear. He was heavily brainwashed and not at his best, which was good because Henry remembered him cutting a Japanese cruiser in half once. Things got, uh, very messy. President Obama had to fake his death briefly. There was like, five big fights against Neo-Nazi supervillains embedded in the US Army. Queenie helped a lot. Thanks, Maybelle. Really nice of you. Feel like joining us after this? Everything culminated in a massive battle aboard a modernized Floating Fortress. The brainwashed swordsman who’s sword wasn’t actually a sword but a ray of divine sunlight versus the magnetic wizard who preferred heavy armor over robes. Well. It all worked out in the end. He saved Jin. Shadowspirit killed the last of Japan’s superpowered WW2 operatives with her bare hands. He had become a very evil robot; it’s fine. And a lot of Neo-Nazis criminals and supervilains went to prison for a long, long time.

. . 2014 was the first crack in his otherwise firm friendship with Fletcher. The damn Irishman created a monster. Just completely overreached his own abilities. And the Icons had to clean up the mess. Hell, they needed help in the form of Spike, Candy, and Terrifica. One of them doesn’t show up, they either fail and that damn AI crashes that asteroid into the US, killing the human race. Or the damn thing escapes to bedevil them another day. What the hell were you thinking, Morris? However. He was falling back into old habits. Let’s not. Instead of yelling, he chose understanding. And he did understand. Fletcher was old, too, and he didn’t have the benefits of a wizard’s longevity. He was feeling his mortality, that’s all. It was fine. He’d learned better. It was fine.

. . 2015. As it turned out, it was not fine. It was not fine at all. That grinning ghoul McConnell (in Henry’s opinion) in the Senate was older than Fletcher. Starman and the Champions all debuted when he was a grown adult. He was there the whole time. He knew how important independence was to America’s heroes. And he pushed this dammed thing through anyway. Bastard. He was (again, in Henry’s opinion), no different than that braying jackass McCarthy. He tried to be reasonable, he really did. He tried to explain the problem to Morris. His friend. Who ought to understand. And what did Fletcher do in response? Tell him to stop living in the past. One of the most important parts of being a hero was obeying the law and especially the federal government to the best of their abilities. Henry tried to explain that the federal government can do hideous things too, and it was heroes’ very autonomy that prevented them from being involved and left them capable of stopping it if necessary. The hideous things done to Native Americans for their land. Slavery. Jim Crow. The internment o Japanese Americans during WW2. Hell, Henry had even partially agreed with that last one at the time, before returning from the war and learning the full extent of it (My god, even children? And in those conditions? They were supposed to be better than the Axis!) and just how much of their businesses and property now belonged to nice, respectable whites. And again, what did Fletcher say? Stop living in the past, Henry. It’s the 21st Century. We don’t do things like that anymore. The hell we don’t. He tried to be reasonable. He really did. But it was the principle of the matter. The Icons broke in two, just like their leaders. Some followed Henry in violation of the new law. Some stayed with Fletcher and obey it. And others (Sage, Spike, and Terrifica) told both to fuck off (Terrifica was less vulgar, but still) and disappeared. The civil war had begun. Worst of all, Tidal and Tex Austin were away on mission in the Chinese Divine Heavens (or Tian). Well. Henry (ever the tactical leader), recruited Z out of Baltimore, so that his group could use the city as a base.

. . 2017. The Eternity War. The civil war was still going when Kuros The Savior stormed out of Tian and fought his way through Fletcher’s team, the Exiles’ core team, and some other allies. Fletcher, desperate and critically injured, called Henry to warn him Kuros was coming for the last Crystal of Power, and to stop him at all costs. Who had the Time Crystal in Baltimore? Z, of course. And it was his scheme using it that delayed Kuros by a full day as the remaining Icons and Z’s gang fought him in the titular Eternity War. Because while it may have been a day outside of Baltimore, it was a much longer span of time inside the city. It was a battle for the ages. Spike showed up out of nowhere to fight Kuros. Henry took his own run at the intergalactic menace. This, ultimately, could not stop Kuros from claiming the Time Crystal and reverting all the changes that had happened during the War. Then a more powerful Tidal showed up and almost killed him with a single blow. Almost. Half the universe died for that almost. Half of Henry’s team died for that almost. They all turned to dust and blew away. There was nothing else to do.

. . 2018. The Endgame. Nothing else to do, that is, until Terrifica and Marian Soaring Eagle came to the rescue. Kuros had shattered all of the Crystals of Power killing half the universe. Between those two, they knew how to get them all back. This got Henry back on track. His contributions ended up being two fold. Not only did he go on the mission with Fletcher that recreated the Time Crytal, it was his artificing skills (and Marian’s knowledge) that built the enchanted device that drew off Tex Austin’s psionic energy and reformed the Mind Crystal. The loss of Shadowspirit for the Soul Crystal hit him hard, as she was the first death since they’d started the Icons. They were friends. Still. A universe to save. And so they did. Tex all but destroyed his arm, but it was done. And then the enraged Kuros (now The Annihilator) attacked. Henry, Fletcher, and Tidal teamed up to fight him. He beat Fletcher. Again. He beat Tidal. Again. Henry wasn’t beaten yet before Kuros got annoyed and summoned his armada and armies. In this corner, one wizard in a half broken armored battlesuit with a fully broken arm. In the other corner, the infamous intergalactic conqueror and tyrant with what seemed like his entire massive military. Henry knew he would die. Knew it. He splinted his arm with his armor and magic and prepared to fight anyway. And then several dark portals opened, and literally every hero on the planet (summoned by the Exiles) swarmed to his side. Including every Dusted Icon. Thus began the final battle of the Endgame.

. . It was a frantic, frenetic battle, as everyone tried to defeat the massive military set against them and stop Kuros from getting his hands on the reformed Crystals of Power and literally end of all life in the universe forever. Because fuck you ungrateful bastards, apparently. There were several very awesome moments, but absolutely none topped Starman III and Starwoman II showing up out of nowhere and dominating Kuros even after he’d got his hands on the Crystals again. They were pushed away by the sheer power the Crystals possessed, and then Henry had to watch Fletcher (even after everything, arguably his best friend), die to save the universe. Kuros and his military were gone. And for the first time in his life, Henry didn’t know what to do next. His thoughts returned to a short while ago, just before everyone had rescued him. And a short while before that, to Terrifica’s time displacer device that had sent him and Fletcher back. And to 2014, to a remark from that dammed AI. He’d really spent nearly two centuries fighting, hadn’t he? Even the Icons, as noble and good as his intentions were. As much as it was an effort to change himself. It had been yet another cause to fight for. Something else to pledge his crusader’s banner to. So he wasn’t idle enough to realize the kind of man he was or feel regret for the things he’d done. Always focusing on what he could do next. Always charging forward. For the first time, he realized he was tired. Old. Regretful. Terrifica’s machine had a charge left. If he stayed here and now, he would inevitably be drawn back into the same life he was currently living. And after today, he had more than earned the right to retire. Terrifica, who was about to take the machine apart, stopped. She let him go. From her perspective and that of all the Icons, he wasn’t gone all that long, really. Just a few minutes. From his, however…

. . Henry Kim returned to 1954. To his special lady. He explained things to her. He remembered when he’d been home in that house, and it wasn’t often. And this is how it went. When the Henry Kim of that period was home (which wasn’t often or for all that long), he went and stayed in a hotel. And when that Henry Kim left on his noble crusade against evil again, the Henry who knew how important the soft things were returned to his wife and children. He still managed to lose track of the one terminally rebellious daughter who ended up giving birth to Sage and her sisters. But everyone else? He knows where they are. An older, wiser Henry Kim stayed out of things. His wife still died in ’94, and he mourned her harder than he did the first time. He wasn’t Dusted, and a year after found his way to the Endgame’s battlefield. He didn’t move quite as well, now. He met with Queenie, Terrifica, and Medic there, shortly after the younger version of himself had departed. He spoke with them for a little while, to confirm his permanent heroic retirement. And then he went home again. The White Court’s Senior Advisory Council took a little more convincing. He’s still their top enforcer, but he doesn’t go out quite as often these days. He’s older now. He values his peace, his quiet and his rest. With that said, he repaired his armor long ago. If another Endgame or invasion of ’82 situation happened again, he’d answer the call. He’s not that retired.

Powers & Tactics: Most people think the Shining Guardian is a tech specialist who uses a battlesuit for his entire powerset. Most of the rest think he’s a mutant with magnetic powers who cross trained as a tech specialist and uses a battlesuit to augment those abilities. All of these people are wrong. Henry Kim is a master wizard, specializing in Ferromancy and Artificing. Ferromancy is a fancy word that means magnetic magic. So they were right about the magnetic powers, very wrong about the source. And everybody’s wrong about the battlesuit. Artificing is…not that different from being a tech inventor, actually. Requires a lot of the same basic skills. Like mechanical engineering. Mathematics. A little chemistry. Or a lot, depending on what you’re doing. Alchemists need quite a bit of chemistry knowledge. But Henry doesn’t brew potions, primarily. He’s a blacksmith. Armor and assorted gear. Of course, if one is going to build anything more complicated than physical machinery, well…here is where Artificing and tech inventing part ways. The techies use electronics, batteries, wires, power generators, things of science and technology. They have to work with things entirely of the physical world, and these things can cost a lot of money. Artificiers do not necessarily have this limitation. Well. Henry doesn’t. Being a Master Ferromancer has perks. The two power sets synergize quite well together.

. . As for Ferromancy, well…the base level of understanding of it is just magnetic magic. That is what the word means, as previously stated. It is not just that. A better term would be technomancy. Though truthfully, ferromancy’s modernization into that is in its infancy. High technology is still so very new compared to the age of human civilization. Henry’s siblings likely lived and died without ever seeing a train, for example. Modern Koreans two centuries later likely can’t imagine life without high speed rail. Though maybe not ones from where he was born. So what Henry does is mostly just tricks of magnetism and electricity. Until it isn’t. What he does with Ferromancy as the Shining Guardian is pretty simply, actually. Damaging blasts of magnetic force in single target and area varieties. Binding a target with sheer magnetic force. Peering through basically any video camera on Earth and even some in orbit. And, of course, the basic thing that comes to mind for someone with magnetic powers, lifting literal tons of metal. Though in Henry’s case the weight limit is in the hundreds of tons. He also uses a powerful force field to protect himself. As a reminder, Ferromancy is a specialty. He is still a master wizard with access to at least half a dozen magical traditions like Pyromancy (Fire Magic), Terramancy (Earth Magic), Graviomancy (Gravity Magic), and Photomancy (Light Magic).

. . As an Artificier his shining (heh) achievement was his Ferromantic Armor. It is a genuine work of art, and one of the few modern battlesuit designs that isn’t taking a lot from either the third Human Rocket or Baroness Valia. It has armor just in case he’s caught with his force field down. Even with it up, it still provides a degree of damage resistance, with him being fully able to ignore artillery fire. It has the requisite life support systems, a communication system, improves his strength, and allows him to fly at hypersonic speeds. The energy involved in powering this last one can be traded for lifting strength instead. The limit here, if he does not have anything allocated to flight, is in the double digit thousands of tons. Quite impressive. Obviously, he doesn’t normally use that much raw might, as it costs him all of his flight speed to do it. But when the need is pressing, he can be truly mighty. The last element is a senor suite in the helmet. It included radar, a magical GPS system, and renders magical effects visible to him.

. . Tactically, the Shining Guardian has a lot of options. He prefers to act, well, like a wizard. Flying around and using ranged attacks. Thuggery can’t hurt him even with his force field down, as long as he has his armor on. So he can either take his time and bind them all with magnetic force, or turn off Gravitic Strength and pummel his way through them with Takedown Attack. The former approach works reasonably well for ordinary supervillains, too, though he turns his force field on for those. But if they can get free, well. That kind of power always comes with enough durability that his damaging effects won’t cause lethal damage by accident. Even a full Gravity Strength punch isn’t totally out of the question in these cases. And that’s…kind of…it. He’s not really any good at feinting or demoralizing. Accurate and All out Attack aid in hitting. Power Attack jacks up damage when necessary. The interesting bit is that between Inspire, Leadership, and Luck 4, he can turn the tide of a battle in a flash. His power stunts are legion, actually. Magnetic control tricks. Technology control tricks. Fire control tricks. Earth control tricks. Gravity control tricks. Light control tricks. The list goes on and on. He’s a master wizard who can pull basically any type of spell out of his ass. If I started listing individual ones, we’d be here all day. And this entry is long enough, don’t you think?

. . A note. Prior to 2002, he was PL 10 and basically using a different build as the Shining Guardian. Henry Kim, White Court enforcer, is another different build. He doesn’t use the armor for that, and all 75 points are redistributed to spells he doesn’t regularly use as a superhero. He was never exactly sandbagging his capabilities, just making his life easier while operating on his own time while casually disguising his wizardry. Official White Court business isn’t done quite so publically as superhero work, and there’s rules attached besides. So the Shining Guardian and Henry Kim throughout their careers would probably be at least 3 different builds other than this one. Maybe a 4th for Krakatoa era Henry. This is, however, the build that he would use if the world was in such danger that he needed to come back for one more fight.

Personality: Saying that Henry Kim was an angry man isn’t quite right. How someone does magic is dependent on who they are. Kind, nurturing people become kind, nurturing wizards. There are plenty of healers. Gardeners. Researchers. No two wizards are quite alike, after all. Henry Kim learned how to fight. How to inflict harm on other beings and avoid harm being inflicted on him. He may have directed it in a useful and productive direction, but for most of his life Henry was the type of man who preferred to solve problems with violence. He was not a mean or cruel man by any means, but his mentality was very…Old Testament. He was not a kind or compassionate man, either. He protected the weak and vulnerable and helped those who needed it out of principle. Some things one does, and others one does not allow. End of discussion. Paradoxically enough for a wizard, he was a warrior. Honorable in his way, but ultimately a man who preferred to throw a closed fist instead of extend an open hand. This was who he was as a Mystery Man. This was largely who he was as a husband and a father. An immovable hardass. One with the right principles, to be sure, but that didn’t make him any easier to like or get along with if one was too different from him.

. . This was not who he was as an Icon. Much of that man was there, but he’d changed. His children abandoned him. Fled his presence as soon as they were legally allowed to. No money. No job. No prospects. Just to get away from him. And like everyone else in the Silver Age, he followed the exploits of the Champions of Justice. He read the newspapers and watched the news. A different man would have gotten into his pride. Been angry. Insisted he was the right one, and everyone else was the ones who were wrong. But even when he was an immovable hardass, this was not who Henry Kim was. He could be a perfectly reasonable man about many things, and he never thought he was perfect or unable to make mistakes. So he thought about everything, and came to a realization. He may have been very good at safeguarding people’s lives and livelihoods, but he was pretty goddamn awful at doing the same for their hearts. Though in fairness, that was something the little commoner boy turned wizard apprentice turned evil battler had never been taught. His teachers and his life had taught him nothing except how to be cold and hard. Like his armor. And his attempts to be warm and soft were at best fumbling and pathetic. Upon this realization, in his house newly empty with his beloved wife freshly buried, Henry Kim sobbed inconsolably.

. . It was with Sage where h started finally learning how to properly be warm and soft. He still had to be a hardass fairly often, because Sage is goddamn Sage, but the two fumbled their way into an actual warm relationship for arguably the first time in each of their lives. He helped found the Icons to help make up, at least to himself, for his mistakes in life. His days of killing anything other than Acceptable Targets had come to an end. He did a lot more fighting with the Icons, and it was good and right and he saved a lot of lives, but…that AI had a point. He’d spent his entire life either fighting or preparing for the next fight. He literally didn’t know who he was without either an enemy to oppose or a cause to fight for. So he went to find out, and is mellower than ever in his retirement.
Last edited by EternalPhoenix on Sun Apr 09, 2023 3:49 am, edited 1 time in total.
The Phoenixverse (A 2e OC 'verse!)
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EternalPhoenix
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Icons progress update 11

Post by EternalPhoenix »

Icons progress update 11 let's go (100% finished from prior removed)

Active List
(100% finished)

Inactive Reserves (inactive for various reasons)
(100% finished)

Hall of Honor (assumed to be permanently inactive by US hero community; this may be incorrect in some cases)
Arriba (Jose Vega) (100% finished)
Nega I (Hal Scott) (Build finished, Background finished, Powers & Tactics in progress)
Alsea (Build finished, Background finished, Powers & Tactics in progress)
Countess (Build finished, Notes ready)
Starman II (Jesse Thompkins) (Build finished, Background & Personality in progress, Powers & Tactics to do)
Stargirl II (Jacqueline “Jackie” Thompkins) (Build finished, Background & Personality in progress, Powers & Tactics to do)

Not, perhaps, the most focused of stretches. But you know how it is with ADHD. Consistent effort is absolutely impossible. The manic squirrel in the brain wanders away at the slightest provocation. I can corral it, sometimes, but this has not been a good stretch for it. Which is the other reason I'm drawing things out a little longer.
The Phoenixverse (A 2e OC 'verse!)
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Fletcher (Morris Archer)

Post by EternalPhoenix »

Fletcher (Morris Archer)

Power Level: 12; Power Points Spent: 255/255

STR: +3 (16), DEX: +5 (20), CON: +3 (16), INT: +7 (24), WIS: +3 (16), CHA: +3 (16)

Tough: +3/+7/+9, Fort: +8, Ref: +15, Will: +10

Skills: Acrobatics 10 (+15), Bluff 12 (+15), Computers 13 (+20), Craft (electronic) 13 (+20), Craft (mechanical) 13 (+20), Diplomacy 12 (+15), Disable Device 13 (+20), Drive 5 (+10), Gather Information 12 (+15), Knowledge (business) 8 (+15), Knowledge (civics) 8 (+15), Knowledge (current events) 8 (+15), Knowledge (physical sciences) 13 (+20), Knowledge (streetwise) 8 (+15), Knowledge (tactics) 8 (+15), Knowledge (technology) 13 (+20), Language 2 (+2), Medicine 2 (+5), Notice 17 (+20), Pilot 5 (+10), Search 3 (+10), Sense Motive 12 (+15), Stealth 10 (+15), Survival 12 (+15)

Feats: Accurate Attack, Acrobatic Bluff, Attack Focus (ranged), Attack Specialization (Unarmed Attack), Attack Specialization 2 (Tech Bow & Trick Arrows (Device 8)), Benefit (CEO of Archeron, Inc), Benefit 3 (Wealth), Challenge - Improved Acrobatic Bluff, Defensive Roll, Dodge Focus 4, Equipment 7, Evasion, Improved Aim, Improved Critical 2 (Trick Arrows & Force Lens Blasts (Array 14)), Improved Initiative, Improved Ranged Disarm, Improvised Tools, Inventor, Power Attack, Precise Shot 2, Quick Draw, Skill Mastery 2 (Acro, Comps, Craft (elec & mech), Dis Dev, Notice, Stealth, Survival), Ultimate Effort (Aim), Uncanny Dodge (Auditory)

Powers:
Costume (Device 5) (Hard to lose)
. . Body Armor (Protection 4) (+4 Toughness)
. . Integral Radio (Communication 6) (sense type: radio)
. . Mask Sensors (Super-Senses 13) (analytical (type): Visual, direction sense, distance sense, extended (type): Visual 1 (-1 per 100 ft), infravision, microscopic vision 2 (cell-size), time sense, tracking: Visual 2 (normal speed), ultravision)
. . Wireless Computer Link (Datalink 2) (sense type: radio)

Tech Bow & Trick Arrows (Device 8) (Easy to lose)
. . Trick Arrows & Force Lens Blasts (Array 14) (default power: blast)
. . . . Acid Arrow (Blast 8) (Array; DC 23; Secondary Effect; Improved Range 2 (400 ft. incr), Progression, Increase Range 2 (max range x5, 4000 feet))
. . . . Adamantine Arrow (Blast 8) (Array; DC 23; Penetrating; Improved Range 2 (400 ft. incr), Progression, Increase Range 2 (max range x5, 4000 feet))
. . . . Adhesive Arrow (Snare 8) (Array; DC 18; Backlash; Improved Range 2 (400 ft. incr), Progression, Increase Range 2 (max range x5, 4000 feet))
. . . . Boxing Glove Arrow (Trip 8) (Array; Autofire (interval 2, max +5), Knockback; Improved Range 2 (400 ft. incr), Progression, Increase Range 2 (max range x5, 4000 feet))
. . . . EMP Arrow (Nullify 8) (Array; counters: all powers of (type) - technological, DC 18; Effortless; Improved Range 2 (400 ft. incr), Progression, Increase Range 2 (max range x5, 4000 feet))
. . . . Explosive Arrow (Blast 8) (Array; DC 23; Burst Area (40 ft. radius - Targeted); Improved Range 2 (400 ft. incr), Progression, Increase Range 2 (max range x5, 4000 feet))
. . . . Flash Bomb Arrow (Dazzle 8) (Array; affects: visual senses, DC 18; Burst Area (40 ft. radius - General); Improved Range 2 (400 ft. incr), Progression, Increase Range 2 (max range x5, 4000 feet))
. . . . Force Lens Multi-Blast (Blast 8) (Default; DC 23; Autofire (interval 2, max +5); Improved Range 2 (400 ft. incr), Progression, Increase Range 2 (max range x5, 4000 feet))
. . . . Grapple Arrow (Linked)
. . . . . . Speed 3 (Linked; Speed: 50 mph, 440 ft./rnd)
. . . . . . Super-Movement 4 (Linked; slow fall, swinging, wall-crawling 2 (full speed))
. . . . Smoke Arrow (Obscure 8) (Array; affects: visual senses, Radius: 1000 ft.; Selective Attack; Improved Range 2 (400 ft. incr), Progression, Increase Range 2 (max range x5, 4000 feet))
. . . . Strobe Arrow (Paralyze 8) (Array; DC 18; Range (ranged); Improved Range 2 (400 ft. incr), Progression, Increase Range 2 (max range x5, 4000 feet))
. . . . Taser Arrow (Stun 8) (Array; DC 18; Range (ranged); Improved Range 2 (400 ft. incr), Progression, Increase Range 2 (max range x5, 4000 feet))
. . . . Thermite Arrow (Corrosion 4) (Array; DC 19; Range (ranged); Accurate 2 (+4), Improved Range (100 ft. incr), Progression, Increase Range (max range x2, 1000 feet))

Equipment: Fletch-cycle, The Fletchery

Attack Bonus: +11 (Ranged: +12, Melee: +11, Grapple: +14)

Attacks: Acid Arrow (Blast 8), +16 (DC 23), Adamantine Arrow (Blast 8), +16 (DC 23), Adhesive Arrow (Snare 8), +16 (DC Ref/Staged 18), Boxing Glove Arrow (Trip 8), +16 (DC 18), EMP Arrow (Nullify 8), +16 (DC Will 18), Explosive Arrow (Blast 8), +16 (DC 23), Flash Bomb Arrow (Dazzle 8) (DC Fort/Ref 18), Force Lens Multi-Blast (Blast 8), +16 (DC 23), Strobe Arrow (Paralyze 8), +16 (DC Staged/Will 18), Taser Arrow (Stun 8), +16 (DC Fort/Staged 18), Thermite Arrow (Corrosion 4), +20 (DC Fort/Tou ), Unarmed Attack, +13 (DC 18)

Defense: +15 (Flat-footed: +6), Knockback: -4

Initiative: +9

Languages: Chinese (Mandarin), English Native, Spanish

Totals: Abilities 48 + Skills 58 (232 ranks) + Feats 39 + Powers 44 + Combat 44 + Saves 22 + Drawbacks 0 = 255

*****************************************************************************************

Fletch-cycle

Power Level: 12; Equipment Points Spent: 15

STR: +2 (15)

Toughness: +8

Features: Remote Control

Powers:
Flight 5 (Speed: 250 mph, 2200 ft./rnd)

Defense: +0

Totals: Abilities 1 + Skills 0 (0 ranks) + Feats 0 + Features 1 + Powers 10 + Combat 0 + Saves 3 + Drawbacks 0 + Equipment 0 (0 ep) + Weapons & Armor 0 (0 ep) = 15

*****************************************************************************************

The Fletchery

Power Level: 12; Equipment Points Spent: 20

Toughness: +10

Features: Communications, Computer, Concealed 1, Dock, Fire Prevention System, Garage, Gym, Hangar, Infirmary, Laboratory, Library, Living Space, Pool, Power System, Security System 3

Size: Large

Totals: Abilities 0 + Skills 0 (0 ranks) + Feats 0 + Features 17 + Powers 0 + Combat 2 + Saves 1 + Drawbacks 0 + Equipment 0 (0 ep) + Weapons & Armor 0 (0 ep) = 20

Age (as of Jan 2019): Deceased in 2018 at 68
Height: 5’ 10”
Weight: 185 lbs
Ethnicity: Irish
Hair: Snow White (formerly Red)
Eyes: Green
Base of Operations: Seattle, Washington

Background: Morris Archer was very likely the last Silver Age hero still active full time. He was a remarkable man, but he was only that. A man. He was born in Ireland in1950, but emigrated with his parents at a young age, bouncing across the country to Seattle. A city whose heroes may now never entirely escape his shadow. His idol publically debuted when he was 12. The costumed detective Gunsmith. Young Morris thought he was the bee’s knees. The formation of the Champioins of Justice in 1968 only confirmed his hero worship. A mortal man keeping up with virtual gods through skill, customized gear, and will. Morris wanted to be like him. So he trained himself and made his own public debut as Fletcher in 1971. In those days he was more or less a classic archer style hero, protecting the city of Seattle from all sorts of threats. He was also building up his company, Archeron Industries. There was simply never enough time to go meet his hero. Not enough hours in the day and not enough days in the week. Ironically, the two men did meet once. Or rather, Morris Archer met Connor Morris, the civilian identity of Gunsmith. A charity event for the wealthy drew both to Los Angeles for a day and a night. To the end of both of their days, neither knew who the other man was.

. . The disappearance of the Champions (Gunsmith with them) in 1985 broke Morris’s heart a little. He never learned about Gunsmith’s return to earth at the end of the year. The original Starman’s retirement the following year was a sign of darker times to come. The dawn of the Bronze Age. Soon enough, Fletcher’s first partner Songbird (Lauren Brown) was crippled in combat and his sidekick Bowyer (the future Armsman) got addicted to cocaine. Fletcher threw him out in a rage, and Songbird abandoned him in frustration. His company started to struggle, having to fight off more than one hostile takeover attempt. And then came the invasion of ’92. Fletcher had helped back in ’82, but the Champions had handled a lot of the heavy lifting. Now there was only Nick Phoenix and Starman II on that scale. It was briefly very ugly, though he made an unlikely friend in Sir Randall Knight (who was the fourth The Knight at the time but has since changed names and armors to Crusader). And then Nick Phoenix showed how powerful he actually was and dismantled both Kuros’s armada and Kuros himself without any apparent effort. Fletcher was 42 years old. He’d been a superhero for literally half of his life. A life that, by the way, seemed to be falling apart around his ears due to the strain being a superhero put on his schedule. And one of the world’s mightiest superheroes has just explicitly demonstrated that he was kind of superfluous when it really counted. He was in love with a woman (the lovely Deirdre) and wanted to marry her, too. But she was adamant that she’d only marry Morris Archer. Fletcher could not come along. So, after 21 years of loyal, dedicated service to the city of Seattle, Fletcher retired. Morris Archer married Deirdre, put his company back in order, and repaired his relationship with the retired Lauren and in recovery Bowyer (now firmly Armsman). He missed the entire Iron Age, though he mourned the passing of the original Starman and Starwoman that began it the same as everyone else.

. . Then, like for a very large amount of people, one terrible day in September 2001 changed everything. Though truthfully, he may have come out of retirement regardless. His love Deirdre had died of cancer earlier in the year, and his mansion was unbearably empty without her and her family (who had no reason to visit now, having never liked Morris much). Nick Phoenix was away. Starman II died. The Twin Towers fell. And America’s heroes were showed to be a disorganized mess that couldn’t coordinate a response to any of it. Morris would, until the very last moments of his life, wonder if in some way it was his fault for retiring too early. The guilt and desire to make up for it would define him until those very last moments. Regardless, now 51 years old he got together with the Shining Guardian, Shadowspirit, Tidal, Tex Austin, and Caviezel to form the Icons. Never again. Not on his watch. Fletcher was actually crucial in the early going due to being a literal billionaire and able to just…send helicopters to get those who weren’t quite so fast. This was less necessary after Vincent Mortelini’s Phantom Network started slipping them intel through Shadowspirit and Caviezel. A few phone calls, and everyone could be on scene by the time anything happened, especially with SG’s strength and flight speed to help gather them.

. . They handled some minor situations early on, and even recruited new members in Medic, Sage, and Scarlett. Their first test, however, was when Lei Zi, Duchess of Thunder, invaded Seattle with an army because she was pissed at her husband Tidal for not spending enough time with her. Her solution to this problem was to murder the lowly mortal who dared who dared call himself the ally of a god and decimate his beloved city. Where she got the army from, however, was unclear until much later. The Icons (minus the aforementioned newcomers, none of who could make it that day) defeated the army and Lei Zi. Tidal talked his ever temperamental wife down. Again. And the day was saved. Fletcher, however, was profoundly affected. He was in his 60s now, and feeling his age. He was also concerned about his new sidekick and ward, Bowyer II (Yuki Archer), who had been injured in the battle. So he made a mistake that didn’t seem like one. The win against Lei Zi was closer than he liked, and 9/11 was, as ever, weighing heavily on his mind. The Icons weren’t quite good enough yet. There needed to be a system so that they could identify threats faster, so they could deploy faster. And, as always, he turned to advanced technology. A computer monitoring system. But it needed to be flexible, and understand a hell of a lot of subtle things even a human might get wrong. So he spent much of the next three years, in between aiding the Icons and his own adventures, building an artificial intelligence to run the computer monitoring system. He used a scan of his own brain engrams as a starting point. He named it Arrowsmith, after himself and his old hero. That’s what a Fletcher is, after all. Both of these things proved to be horrible mistakes. Arrowsmith took about five minutes after it’s activation to decide that Fletcher was ludicrously insane, and about five minutes more time spent looking at the internet to decide that the best way to minimize human suffering was to exterminate the entire species. Oh, dear. It also vehemently rejected the concept of having a name as a human idea that would soon be gone.

. . The Icons rallied again at Fletcher’s call, and did battle with the AI and its legion of well armed drones. They needed the well timed assistance of Spike, Candy, and Terrifica to successfully prevent it from dropping a meteor on North America and ending the world, but the day was once again saved. However, the incident trashed Fletcher’s reputation outside of Seattle, and even in his city his popularity was at an all time low. A whole new screw up to make up for. This was the reason for his cooperating with the federal government after the passage of the Superpower Registration Act. He had to make it right. Unfortunately, this was yet another mistake. The Icons shattered. The Shining Guardian took a group in defiance of the new law. Fletcher has to recruit additional heroes in Marian Soaring Eagle, Magna, and Orca to keep the group functional. Tidal and Tex Austin had gone on a mission to the Chinese Heavens, and didn’t even know what had happened. To make matters even worse, Sage, Spike, and Terrifica told both sides to fuck off (Terrifica was less vulgar about it, but a fuck off is a fuck off) and disappeared into their cities. The Icons civil war had begun.

. . It was going when Kuros The Savior stormed out of the Chinese Divine Heavens (or Tian) after kicking lots of ass (including Tidal and Tex Austin). To say Fletcher and his team were…unprepared…was a bit of an understatement. Fortunately they had a little help in a middle aged woman named Jackie with some very familiar powers and her crew of alien…calling them heroes would probably be stretching it, but they had good intentions. They’d been pursing Kuros across half the universe as he smashed everyone in his way of collecting the seven Crystals of Power. After exiting Tian, he had five. And the Exiles core team showed up just in time to lend a hand, too. Blackrose, Radical Dreamer, Myrcelle, Astra, Flare, Stormy, Cory, and Windstorm. All eight. Unfortunately, Kuros was still goddamn Kuros. Perhaps without five Crystals of Power, they’d have had a shot. With them? They got trashed. There was a moment where they were very close to winning, but then Kuros recognized Jackie, she panicked, and everything went to hell. Fletcher tried to stop him last, pulling out one shot arrows he’d never before used because they were too damn powerful. But in the end, Kuros critically injured and defeated him too. Dreamer gave him the Mind Crystal (when the hell did he get that?) after brief conversations with both Fletcher and Kuros. The Savior departed for Baltimore, where he would be stalled for a day by Z’s machinations in the Eternity War, then turn half the universe to firmly deceased Dust. This did not help Fletcher’s guild complex. Not at all.

. . Recovering from his injuries took most of the year. The depleted Icons came back together, but had no answers until the return of Terrifica. The Crystals of Power shattered after Kuros used them. But they could be remade. Terrifica knew some of how to do it. Marian Soaring Eagle knew the rest. It was simply a matter of doing the seven impossible tasks required. The recovered Fletcher accompanied the Shining Guardian on a trip to the past to accumulate enough chronal energy to reform the Time Crystal. The rest of the Icons scattered to do what they could do. The seven Crystal were gathered again, and Tex Austin with his strong will and sturdy body, resurrected everyone Kuros had callously murdered without killing himself. Kuros, now the wrathful Annihilator, returned inside three hours. The final battle of the Endgame had begun. Fletcher fearlessly stepped up to face him again despite his earlier crushing defeat. But this time Kuros did not have any Power Crystals, and Fletcher had help in the Shining Guardian and a more powerful Tidal. The result, however, was not appreciably different. The three had worked together for 17 years. Their teamwork was flawless. However, this was Kuros, who even the legendary original Starman had barely defeated. Who Nick Phoenix had needed his cosmic power to dominate. They simply weren’t powerful enough. Fortunately, the Exiles showed up with literally every hero on the plane to help. Starting with an overcharged Queenie. The battle devolved into a full scale war not just to defeat Kuros, but to keep the reformed Crystals of Power out of his hands lest he murder literally all life in the universe (including himself) as a final “fuck you” to everyone who was “ungrateful” for his only taking half last time. It was not enough. Kuros prepared to end all life in the universe, only to scuffle with Fletcher one last time. He tossed the hero aside once more, only to find he did not have the Crystals anymore. Fletcher remembered what Dreamer had said to him last year. Only one way to end this forever. Dreamer had signaled him telepathically scant seconds earlier. This was the moment where everything would be decided. The Crystals of Power studded the Tech Bow. Fletcher made his wish, drew back the drawstring, said his last words, and fired. The Tech Bow violently exploded, sending him flying. And across the entire universe, the empire of Kuros The Conqueror, Savior, and Annihilator spontaneously collapsed. His cloned and brainwashed troops turned to dust and blew away. His ships and stations crumbled to ash and cinder. His loyal officer corps also became dust. And, at last, even Kuros himself turned to dust and ash, and blew away in the wind. It was over. Fletcher was still alive, amazingly. His injuries, however, were terrible. The only thing keeping him alive was his own will. He was struggling, trying to get up with a body that was no longer physically capable of doing so. There was still work to be done. A world to be safeguarded. He couldn’t abandon them all again. They needed him. Songbird (with her cybernetically reinforced spine), Armsmen, and Bowyer came to his side, having been involved in the battle like every other hero (all of whom were looking on, including the remaining founding Icons). They convinced him that he had more than earned his rest. And thus passed away Morris Archer, alias Fletcher. The end of a long tale that began with a small boy and his idol, and ended with three generations of heroes standing vigil over his last moments. He was only a man, and that was enough.

. . Fletcher leaves a complicated legacy. Was he a hero? Absolutely. His legacy from his first stint is untouchable. 21 years of excellence. It’s after he came back, and especially after Lei Zi’s invasion that it gets complicated. He was an old man without any superpower running around with an armored wizard, a god in human flesh, the mightiest psionic powerhouse the world had yet seen, and various other superpowered heroes. Many of whom were literal decades younger than him, resistant to aging, or both. It caused many to question his sanity and his judgement. Then there was the whole murderous AI incident, the Icons (and US hero community) splintering on his watch, and the colossal failures of the Eternity War. It cannot be said that he should have stayed retired. The Icons simply wouldn’t have worked without him. He was absolutely crucial to their success as well as their failures. So again, his legacy is complicated. I leave it to you to judge for yourself, Dear Reader.

. . At any rate, he had a whole pack of persistent enemies that someone else is going to have to deal with in Seattle now. Probably Armsman (who, as he is in his late 40s, has to be considering retirement) and Bowyer (who doesn’t even have her Five Yet Vet stripes yet), as they know them fairly well between the two of them. With the recovered Songbird (who is in her mid 50s and not about to be clocking significant field time) in a support role. Let’s see. There’s Cutler (Damon Hartwell), an assassin and basically if Fletcher used a sword instead of a bow. Farrier (Bill O’Brian), a long time business rival who decided to settle the score with a suit of powered armor. Marble Man, a statue that has occasionally come to life and caused trouble since the 70s. The Technoids, a quartet of robot thieves for hire. Black is the stealth specialist, Red is the melee combat specialist, White is the mobility specialist, and Yellow is the sharpshooter. The last enemy is Fletcher’s arch-nemesis since before his initial retirement. The archer and extremely competent assassin, Sharper. She’s one of the top ten assassins in the world, and only lost the number five spot because of Fletcher’s continued intervention. One of her revenge scheme was crippling Songbird with an arrow to the spine. It remains to be seen how any of these will react to Fletcher’s death.

Powers & Tactics: Fletcher had no superhuman powers. He was a genius tech specialist, expert in boxing and karate, and one of the finest archers of all time with two devices in his Costume and Tech Bow & Trick Arrows. The primary question is that how did a man in his 60s maintain such a fantastic level of physical fitness? Fanatical exercise would have helped, certainly, but wouldn’t have done the entire job. Well. Archeron Industries has a pharmaceutical division, and Fletcher spared no expense. Any kind of chemical or serum to get the least bit of an edge on Father Time. It worked quite well, but was nibbling at his total lifespan. Originally he may have lived to his late 90s if not longer, but by the time of his death this had dropped to 80 at best.

. . His Costume was a relatively simple thing. Body Armor. A integral radio. A wireless computer link superior to most wi-fi but with much shorter range. And the lenses in his mask cranked up his visual senses about as high as they would go. Full light spectrum. Increased visual distance. An analysis suite. A tracking suite. Lots of things.

. . It was his Tech Bow and quiver full of Trick Arrows that were extremely remarkable. First off, the Tech Bow itself had a Force Lens capable of emitting rapid fire blasts of damaging pure force. This was just in case he ran out of arrows (unlikely after a point) or lost his quiver (more likely, unfortunately). That point where running out of arrows became unlikely was when he replaced his more or less normal quiver with a fully technological one. It looks like there’s only one of every arrow type in the quiver, but it’s got teleportation tech built in that automatically teleports a new arrow into that slot (from his headquarters in Seattle, the Fletchery) after one is drawn out and the sensors in the glove of his drawing hand no longer register it’s presence. Never could get the tech to work on a larger scale. Never will, now. The arrows are also pretty heavily technological and not normal arrows. They’re just lightweight metal shafts when drawn, albeit marked with visual and touch signs that indicate what type of arrow it is. It is the Tech Bow that activated their internal workings when the arrow was nocked so that when it was fired it had the desired effect. As for the various types of arrows…look, there’s a lot of them and neither of us has all day. If there was a type of attack he probably had an arrow for it. Along with a smoke arrow for hindering vision in an area and a cable arrow for added mobility when his flying Fletch-cycle wasn’t an option.

. . Tactically, Fletcher was ready for almost anything. 12 different arrows in the regular rotation. Like I just said, if there was an attack effect, he had an arrow for it. And since he was a rare genius and had a lot of experience, he was more than competent at picking the right arrow for the job. No preferences. Despite the range on his arrows, he rarely was a sniper, preferring to stay close where he could be of more assistance if necessary. He did, however, still make some damn good long range shots over the years. He had Accurate Attack, Improved Aim, Improved Acrobatic Bluff, and Ultimate Aim to help him hit, Power Attack for more damage, and Improved Ranged Disarm to knock dangerous weapons out of hands. He also had Inventor to make things even harder on his enemies. As for power stunts…just like his arrows, there are too many to list here. The average quiver has room for 20 arrows. His tech quiver was bigger at 24 arrows, and only half of those are listed in his build. He power stunted more than any other Icon by a country goddamn mile.

. . As a final note. This build represents Fletcher from the Invasion of 2011 to just before the Endgame. Year Zero (or 1971) Fletch was a PL 8 with +12 accuracy and +4 Effect, +11 defense and +5 toughness (+3 CON, +2 D-Roll). He was using a normal bow and regular trick arrows in those days. He still was in ’82, when he’d reached PL 10. +14 accuracy and +6 effect, +13 defense and +7 toughness (+3 CON, +2 D-Roll, +2 Armor). His return in 2001 was basically this build but with five arrow AP’s knocked off to remove a rank of Device. Attack Spec (unarmed) and Ultimate Aim are also absent. For the Endgame Fletch had cheesed Inventor to bump his Body Armor up 2 ranks and all of his trick arrows and the lens shots up 2 ranks, so he was PL 13 during the final battle.

Personality: Fletcher was a man haunted by his failures. The loss of Starman II weighed heavily on him. He was the last active member of a generation of heroes that simply seemed to sputter to a halt. Despite 21 years of initial service, after 2001 he always felt that he could have done better. Done more. His mind was not fool enough to think that he could have saved Starman II at all. But his heart was another matter. Yet the harder he tried to set things up so the world would be safer than he found it before his aging body finally betrayed him, the more events seems to slip out of his control. He did not know how he kept making the exact wrong decision. And the only way he knew to do something about it was to simply attempt to learn from his mistakes and try harder next time. The guilt and remorse eating him alive was simply something he had to put up with. He was an old school Irishman raised in the 50s and 60s. Talking about one’s feelings was not something they did.

. . So most who knew him saw only the warm and friendly man. A stereotypical Irishman with the “gift of the gab” and thus charming and quick with a joke or a witty quip. He could be more than a little arrogant and prickly, to be sure, but he who clearly cared about his fellow humans. The genius billionaire philanthropist. Seattle’s greatest champion. An endlessly kind man worthy of standing beside his idol as one of the greatest to ever put on a costume. His courage and determination knew no bounds. He was a very driven man who refused to let anyone or anything (even himself) stop him from achieving his goals. Ironically, the very same quality that complicated his legacy. He was a legend. Then an Icon. He was Fletcher. He was Morris Archer. He was only a man, and that was more than enough.
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Re: The Phoenixverse (A 2e OC 'verse; Newest: The Icons! Sir Randall Knight! Nick Phoenix! The Shining Guardian! Fletche

Post by Commander Titan »

Tidal
I like Tidal a lot. I'm a sucker for mythology heroes and while I'm not familiar with much Chinese mythology, I like what you've used it for, as the "Thor." His "Loki" actually being his conflicted wife is a great angle, especially because it leans into how so many gods have personal spats that lead to massive consequences for the mortals around them.

Tex Austin
Gotta appreciate a hard hittin' psionic who is a Texan's Texan. Having one of your heavier hitters not be a giant monster / alien / god type is refreshing.

Caviezel
As you say, interesting that he's like a Golden Age character but in the modern day. I appreciate him as the team's detective. Question on the Eyes of Truth - is this just something someone is born with? Or was he gifted / cursed with them in some way?

Sage
Ah! A mention of the Seven Sorceries again. The tattoos are interesting. I appreciate whenever emotions are a theme that gets played with - I may not have loved all the Lantern Corps, but I liked the idea. So how many Faerie (and such) Courts are there / what are they?

Scarlett
Again, I'm a fan of Golden Age heroes and legacies. The reincarnation is a fun aspect - on a meta level, one wonders if in "Phoenix Comics" these were all several different characters originally, and an intrepid writer managed to link them all together.

Crusader
I dig the ultimate transition from one armor to the other, and the constant tension in the family over "choosing the sword or the shield." It feels appropriate that one of the older heroic legacies, it seems, is based on knights. I'm also quite curious about the Alchemist-side of the family!

Nick Phoenix
Ah! The big man himself! There's a delicate tension there, I get it, between having the power to change the world with a thought, and wanting to make sure that doesn't become a dictatorship of one, or forcing people into the shape you want, rather than genuinely growing into a better world. Of course, I see that its also like what if the Doctor had greater personal firepower, so its interesting to see that he's got companions. It does make sense that nigh-omnipotence is not omniscience or omnipresence - i.e. "he can't always be around to save the day all the time."

Question - have there been any previous (or just "other," since chronology seems such a slippy concept with Nick) hosts of the Phoenix? Or is Nick the one-and-only. Are there comparable entities to the Phoenix? Or is the Phoenix itself unique across space-time.

The Shining Guardian
Wow! Not what I expected (in the best way). Maybe I'd missed references earlier, but I wasn't anticipating a ferromancer. Indeed, having a hero fulfilling his role be a wizard is a novel choice. Realizing how long he's been around, and active the whole time, unlike his inspiration - man definitely deserves his (semi-)retirement.

(side note: "The Eternity War" being a bubble in a time loop is a great concept, and something that makes your title far apt, and the event itself, far more interesting to me than "Infinity War")

Fletcher
I'll start by saying I really like the theme - the archer hero also being a big inventor is clever, and the title and all his protoges (plus the 'bot being originally Arrowsmith) work out well. And you've threaded the line well as to how "a guy who can shoot a bow good" keeps pace with gods and wizards and other entities - barely, with great work, and advanced technology, and in a way that gave him concerns and insecurities. I'm a lot more sympathetic to Morris Archer than I am to a certain other builder-of-genocidal-robots.

--

I know there are still more Icons from the Hall of Honor to come. I don't know what you have in mind after that, but I'd be curious to learn about more villains - whether foes of the Icons as a whole or individual members. Kuros is particularly interesting to me, but you've also dropped neat hints about many of the members of the Icons' rogues galleries.
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Re: The Phoenixverse (A 2e OC 'verse; Newest: The Icons! Sir Randall Knight! Nick Phoenix! The Shining Guardian! Fletche

Post by EternalPhoenix »

Commander Titan wrote: Sun Oct 30, 2022 12:24 am Tidal
I like Tidal a lot. I'm a sucker for mythology heroes and while I'm not familiar with much Chinese mythology, I like what you've used it for, as the "Thor." His "Loki" actually being his conflicted wife is a great angle, especially because it leans into how so many gods have personal spats that lead to massive consequences for the mortals around them.
The part I like about Tidal is that most Thor analogues look for a beefy warrior god. All honorable and paragon-ish, or in the general vicinity. Lei Gong, on the other hand, is Heaven's assassin. That's the kind of contrast that gets my creative juices pumping. :mrgreen:
Commander Titan wrote: Sun Oct 30, 2022 12:24 amTex Austin
Gotta appreciate a hard hittin' psionic who is a Texan's Texan. Having one of your heavier hitters not be a giant monster / alien / god type is refreshing.
Do Right, Fear No Man. The personal creed of good ol' Tex.
Commander Titan wrote: Sun Oct 30, 2022 12:24 amCaviezel
As you say, interesting that he's like a Golden Age character but in the modern day. I appreciate him as the team's detective. Question on the Eyes of Truth - is this just something someone is born with? Or was he gifted / cursed with them in some way?
The group's original detective. Terrifica is serving in the role currently, as he's trying to retire. It's something one is born with. If it was a gift or a curse from someone I'd have mentioned that. I'm a completionist like that. :ugeek:
Commander Titan wrote: Sun Oct 30, 2022 12:24 amSage
Ah! A mention of the Seven Sorceries again. The tattoos are interesting. I appreciate whenever emotions are a theme that gets played with - I may not have loved all the Lantern Corps, but I liked the idea. So how many Faerie (and such) Courts are there / what are they?
There's as many Courts as there needs to be to make the story work, of course. Think of them as supernatural nation-states. All the vampires in the Red Court, all the succubi and incubi in the Violet Court, all the Seelie Fae in the Summer Court, all the Unseelie Fae in the Winter Court, all the wizards in the White Court, etc. Not every supernatural creature or magically empowered human is attached to a Court, of course, but they do try to keep their type of being under control and not like blowing up buildings, committing huge public massacres, or whatever. The torches and pitchforks were enough of a danger, back in the day. The mundanes have stuff like cruise missiles, napalm, and suitcase nukes these days.
Commander Titan wrote: Sun Oct 30, 2022 12:24 amScarlett
Again, I'm a fan of Golden Age heroes and legacies. The reincarnation is a fun aspect - on a meta level, one wonders if in "Phoenix Comics" these were all several different characters originally, and an intrepid writer managed to link them all together.
It's a fun idea, even if I worked in the opposite direction. :sweat_smile:
Commander Titan wrote: Sun Oct 30, 2022 12:24 amCrusader
I dig the ultimate transition from one armor to the other, and the constant tension in the family over "choosing the sword or the shield." It feels appropriate that one of the older heroic legacies, it seems, is based on knights. I'm also quite curious about the Alchemist-side of the family!
They're science, not magic. Gadgeteering with chemistry instead of high tech. Which makes Sophie, or The Alchemist Knight, a very interesting combination mechanically speaking.
Commander Titan wrote: Sun Oct 30, 2022 12:24 amNick Phoenix
Ah! The big man himself! There's a delicate tension there, I get it, between having the power to change the world with a thought, and wanting to make sure that doesn't become a dictatorship of one, or forcing people into the shape you want, rather than genuinely growing into a better world. Of course, I see that its also like what if the Doctor had greater personal firepower, so its interesting to see that he's got companions. It does make sense that nigh-omnipotence is not omniscience or omnipresence - i.e. "he can't always be around to save the day all the time."

Question - have there been any previous (or just "other," since chronology seems such a slippy concept with Nick) hosts of the Phoenix? Or is Nick the one-and-only. Are there comparable entities to the Phoenix? Or is the Phoenix itself unique across space-time.
It's been said somewhere that the Doctor keeps companions with him to keep him in touch with his own...humanity, for lack of a better word. To remind him where a good person stops. It's been shown multiple times that a solo Doctor can easily descend into blind arrogance, incredible rage, and/or compassionless rationality without someone to balance him. I like to think Nick is similar, though with his power the stakes are far higher. The Time Lord Victorious version of Nick is a terrifying thought.

Anyway, Nick's the one and only Phoenix-bearer ever. Out of every being throught time and space. Every being that has ever lived, lives now, or ever will live. The Phoenix picked him. In this universe, anyway. And be grateful for it. The ones where it chose someone else for whatever reason...they're not nice places to be. Also yes, there are other beings on the Phoenix's tier of power. There's some knockoffs of The Endless and various Marvel/DC cosmic beings up there, probably, but also see The Four Gods (Warning: TV Tropes). The Vermillion Bird is technically not the Phoenix, but they're correlated with each other often enough that it doesn't really matter. No Yellow Dragon, though. Azure Dragon does water, Black Tortoise does gravity, White Tiger does something, I'm not sure yet. Maybe light? More thought required. These would be in the same way that the Phoenix does "fire", so not quite as simple as it sounds.

Fun fact, a friend told me once that Nick is like the Doctor mixed with Silver Age Superman, and I liked that so much I leaned all the way in on it.
Commander Titan wrote: Sun Oct 30, 2022 12:24 amThe Shining Guardian
Wow! Not what I expected (in the best way). Maybe I'd missed references earlier, but I wasn't anticipating a ferromancer. Indeed, having a hero fulfilling his role be a wizard is a novel choice. Realizing how long he's been around, and active the whole time, unlike his inspiration - man definitely deserves his (semi-)retirement.

(side note: "The Eternity War" being a bubble in a time loop is a great concept, and something that makes your title far more apt, and the event itself, far more interesting to me than "Infinity War")
You did not miss a single reference to his powers. I've avoided talking about them until now, the same way I've avoided talking about what Jin's sword actually is and what master that ageless samurai actually serves. And Henry actually predates the version of the character you're referring to as his inspiration. It's just that fitting him into that slot around the time of that character's second movie helped define Henry in a way I really liked. He was a wizard in a magic battlesuit who'd served as a hero in WW2 and before first, is what I mean. Which is probably why he's so unexpected a figure in the role he's in. He wasn't originally designed for it! :mrgreen:

Can you tell I was working out what the Eternity War was as I was going? :sweat_smile:
Commander Titan wrote: Sun Oct 30, 2022 12:24 amFletcher
I'll start by saying I really like the theme - the archer hero also being a big inventor is clever, and the title and all his proteges (plus the 'bot being originally Arrowsmith) work out well. And you've threaded the line well as to how "a guy who can shoot a bow good" keeps pace with gods and wizards and other entities - barely, with great work, and advanced technology, and in a way that gave him concerns and insecurities. I'm a lot more sympathetic to Morris Archer than I am to a certain other builder-of-genocidal-robots.
I don't know what to say about Morris, really, other than what was already said in his entry. The original concept of a veteran gadgeteer archer hero who retired for his new wife and unretired after she died of cancer, with a new teen sidekick and struggling with his age, well...it's still there, obviously. But adding the elements from that certain other fellow made him a lot more interesting than he already was.

It is very interesting to me, however, how no comic company has ever thought to have any of their gadgeteer heroes use a bow. It's always a ray gun, or a battlesuit, or mastery of the martial arts. It's kind of weird to me, honestly, that archers are still stuck being Green Arrow and Hawkeye clones. Archetypes are guidelines, not straightjackets.
Commander Titan wrote: Sun Oct 30, 2022 12:24 amI know there are still more Icons from the Hall of Honor to come. I don't know what you have in mind after that, but I'd be curious to learn about more villains - whether foes of the Icons as a whole or individual members. Kuros is particularly interesting to me, but you've also dropped neat hints about many of the members of the Icons' rogues galleries.
I was really thinking about finally getting into the Academy, but if popular demand wants something else, who am I to argue? It just might take longer to do, as most of those hints about villains are just about the sum total of what I know about them. And the rest I literally made up on the spot while writing that entry. None of them are even built, and that's the part I do first! :sweat_smile:
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Shadowspirit (real name unknown)

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Shadowspirit (real name unknown)

Power Level: 12; Power Points Spent: 255/255

STR: +5 (20), DEX: +7 (24), CON: +5 (20), INT: +3 (16), WIS: +3 (16), CHA: +3 (16)

Tough: +5/+7, Fort: +8, Ref: +17, Will: +8

Skills: Acrobatics 8 (+15), Bluff 12 (+15), Diplomacy 7 (+10), Disable Device 12 (+15), Disguise 12 (+15), Escape Artist 13 (+20), Gather Information 12 (+15), Knowledge (arcane Lore) 2 (+5), Knowledge (current events) 7 (+10), Knowledge (history) 7 (+10), Knowledge (streetwise) 7 (+10), Language 4 (+4), Medicine 2 (+5), Notice 12 (+15), Sense Motive 12 (+15), Sleight of Hand 3 (+10), Stealth 13 (+20), Survival 7 (+10)

Feats: Accurate Attack, All-Out Attack, Assessment, Attack Focus (melee) 10, Benefit (enigma) 3, Challenge - Improved Feint, Challenge - Improved Taunt, Chokehold, Defensive Attack, Distract (Bluff), Dodge Focus 4, Elusive Target, Equipment 3, Evasion, Fascinate (Bluff), Fearless, Grappling Finesse, Improved Critical 2 (Martial Arts (Strike 2)), Improved Grab, Improved Initiative, Improved Pin, Improved Throw, Improved Trick, Improved Trip, Move-by Action, Power Attack, Quick Change 2, Skill Mastery 3 (Acro, Bluff, Diplo, Dis Dev, Disguise, Esc Art, Gather Info, Notice, SM, SoH, Steal, Stunning Attack, Takedown Attack 2, Taunt, Uncanny Dodge (Auditory), Well-Informed

Powers:
Martial Arts (Strike 2) (DC 22, Feats: Improved Critical 2 (Martial Arts (Strike 2)); Mighty)
Martial Arts Training (Container, Passive 2)
. . Fast (Speed 1) (Speed: 10 mph, 88 ft./rnd)
. . High Jumper (Leaping 1) (Jumping distance: x2)
. . Stealth Gymnastic Training (Super-Movement 2) (slow fall, trackless)
. . Stronger Than She Looks (Super-Strength 1) (+5 STR carry capacity, heavy load: 800 lbs; +1 STR to some checks)
. . Toughened (Protection 2) (+2 Toughness)

Soviet Regen Treatment (Linked)
. . Immunity 3 (Linked; aging, disease, poison)
. . Regeneration 35 (Linked; ability damage 8 (recover 1 / round without rest), recovery bonus 4 (+4 to recover), recovery rate (bruised) 3 (recover 1 / round without rest), recovery rate (disabled) 8 (recover 1 / round without rest), recovery rate (injured) 6 (recover 1 / round without rest), recovery rate (staggered) 6 (recover 1 / round without rest); Persistent, Regrowth)

Equipment: Hovercycle

Attack Bonus: +7 (Ranged: +7, Melee: +17, Grapple: +24/+25)

Attacks: Martial Arts (Strike 2), +17 (DC 22), Unarmed Attack, +17 (DC 20)

Defense: +17 (Flat-footed: +7), Knockback: -3

Initiative: +11

Languages: English, Inuit, Japanese, Russian Native, Spanish

Totals: Abilities 52 + Skills 38 (152 ranks) + Feats 52 + Powers 55 + Combat 40 + Saves 18 + Drawbacks 0 = 255

*****************************************************************************************

Hovercycle

Power Level: 12; Equipment Points Spent: 15

STR: +2 (15)

Toughness: +8

Features: Remote Control

Powers:
Flight 5 (Speed: 250 mph, 2200 ft./rnd)

Defense: +0

Totals: Abilities 1 + Skills 0 (0 ranks) + Feats 0 + Features 1 + Powers 10 + Combat 0 + Saves 3 + Drawbacks 0 + Equipment 0 (0 ep) + Weapons & Armor 0 (0 ep) = 15

Age (as of Jan 2019): 118
Height: 5’ 4”
Weight: 125 lbs
Ethnicity: Russian
Hair: Snow White (covered by mask)
Eyes: Blue (obscured by mask)
Base of Operations: Anchorage, Alaska

Background: Shadowspirit was very old, very tired, and very sad. She was a teenage girl in Petrograd (present day St. Petersburg). She went on strike with basically everyone else in early March 1917, and thus was a relatively minor part of the February Revolution (Russia was not yet on the current Gregorian calendar, thus it was still technically February for most of it). She was a firm Bolshevik by the end of June, after a brief revolt in the city in the Bolshevik name (but crucially, not with leaders Vladimir Lenin and Leon Trotsky’s permission) failed miserably and most were arrested. She was disguised as a boy under a false name in the Red Guards by the time of the October Revolution. Her unit was one of those folded into the new Red Army. The Russian Civil War started in early 1918. By the time it ended in 1923, Shadowspirit had adopted her most enduring alias of “Natalia Godunova” and was regarded in inner circles as probably the best scout, spy, and assassin in the Red Army. She was an important part of suppressing the Kronstadt Rebellion in 1921, which brought her to the attention of one Josef Stalin.

. . Stalin had many loyalists and agents, but very few survived his purges. The woman known only as “Natalia” was one of both. Her actions were a key part of Stalin taking power instead of Trotsky, leading to his exile. Trotsky’s bodyguards had a good description of her, in case she was sent to kill him. This was, in part, the reason why she never was. The other part is that she was very, very busy. One of the NKVD’s top agents, answerable only to Stalin himself, she spied on everyone. Information she collected led to assassinations, jailings, or being sent through the Gulag system. She performed some of the assassinations personally, as an unarmed woman would be more likely to be underestimated in the period. The Great Purges of ’37-‘38 featured much of her work alongside many others. She was legitimately feared.

. . Especially in World War 2. The Nazis invaded the Soviet Union, as is known, on June 22 1941. The extremely unprepared Soviets were on the back foot for quite some time. Between Nazi super operatives and their regular military, they forced the Soviets to the brink of defeat…and “Natalia” out of the shadows.

. . There were six of them. “Natalia” was considered the leader. A giant of a man, irradiated to prodigious strength and durability by early nuclear testing. A bulky prototype armored suit created for undersea work, but did not lack for weapons. The alleged son of the Slavic thunder god Perun that was actually an android advanced even by today’s supertech standards. And two genuinely badass Cossacks, one an impossibly skilled archer and the other a truly gifted kinetomancer. The English language newspapers called them the Defenders of the People. Since I am decidedly not fluent in Russian, Dear Reader, that is what I will use. Put bluntly, the Defenders whooped Nazi ass wherever they found it. The cream of the Nazi super operative crop was still in Western Europe at the start of the invasion, so what they were up against was mostly pathetic or regular military. It was still a race against time to push the Nazis back before too much territory was lost or the top Nazi super operatives came calling. It all came to a head at the Battle of Moscow, where the Defenders proved their worth and booted the Nazi armies away from the city. Honestly, the Defenders killed more Nazi super operatives than any other force during the war in a long series of dramatic battles across every major battlefield on the Eastern Front. And ultimately the invasion could not be sustained without them. The Defenders and the Red Army may well have reversed the blitzkrieg all the way into Berlin, except for the incredible telekinetic rage of a young Jewish Phoenix Mutate named Josef Pietrovich. The Red Army was delayed reorganizing after that incident at Auschwitz. The Defenders were not. Neither were the members of Project Blue Liberty, since it was now months after D-Day. It was the last stand of the remaining Nazi super operatives. The Project and the Defenders nearly came to blows afterward. “Natalia” had orders to kill ‘em all and drag the corpses back to Russia for experimentation. Oliver Snow had orders to arrest whoever surrendered. A tense moment indeed. But an agreement was reached, and the Defenders returned to Mother Russia heroes.

. . This did not last. Mostly because Stalin, in his aging paranoia, wanted them killed before their popularity lead to anything…undesirable. Whether anything would have happened or not is irrelevant. “Natalia”, ever the loyalist, obeyed. She killed the two Cossacks in their sleep in 1946. She killed the inventor of the armored suit in ’47 by throwing him off a high balcony, and then delivered the suit and its schematics to the NKVD. The irradiated man succumbed to cancer that same year. She’d poisoned him with plutonium shards in his food. The android took a little longer. But in August 1949, she lured him to modern day Kazakhstan, to the site of the first Soviet nuclear test. Surprisingly, being literally nuked didn’t kill him, only doing enough damage to knock his systems offline and revealing his android nature. So she took his disabled body to the NKVD, too. And then Stalin died. Well, one thing first. “Natalia” was starting to get old. But stolen secrets wrung from captured Nazi scientists and the bodies of slain super operatives provided a potential solution. The treatment seems to work quite well, especially with Soviet improvements. So “Natalia”, in mid 1952, underwent a special treatment. The pain was excruciating. The rehabilitation was worse. Relearning how to walk. How to feed herself. All of her skills and abilities. In a sense, the woman she was before died, and she was reborn a new person. Unfortunately, she was declared ready for duty again on the same day (March 1, 1953) that Stalin was found semi-conscious from a brain hemorrhage on the floor of his Dacha. He died four days later. It was announced the day afterward, which is how “Natalia” found out about it.

. . The following three years were spent in a bit of a daze. No one but Stalin had had the authority to give her orders. Nikita Khrushchev, as First Secretary and Georgi Malenkov, as Premier had the combined authority to do it, but they’d have to agree, and they’d also kind of just found out she wasn’t a myth or a combination of several people. And even outside of that, there were questions about just how loyal to Stalin she was. They didn’t trust her, and honestly nobody should blame them for that. So she had literally nothing to do but sit in Moscow under informal house arrest. She was, however, allowed into the room when Khrushchev unleashed his speech. On the Cult of Personality and its Consequences exploded “Natalia’s” entire worldview. She openly wept during the four hour speech. She had been quite blind. Afterward, she reaffirmed that her loyalty lay with the Soviet Union, not with any one man. Still, Khrushchev became Premier in 1958 and the only man authorized to give her orders. And he did. They were, perhaps, kinder orders than Stalin’s ever were, but she remained a spy and assassin. It was the Cuban Missile Crisis and the accompanying near intervention of Starman and Stargirl (later Starwoman) that changed things. The Treaty of Havana banned superhuman operatives above a certain minimal grade being used in official warfare, liking them to tactical nuclear weapons. And this put “Natalia” out of work. And, a couple of years later, Khrushchev out of a job. With him out of power, there was no one left who could call her back. “Natalia” disappeared.

. . All of this is not known to anyone currently living with only a few notable exceptions. The Shining Guardian, Caviezel, and Terrifica. The former two because Shadowspirit told them, her best friends, about it. The latter because she figured it out on her own. Her history from there becomes even less traceable, which is impressive. She popped up in Vietnam as more or less a spectator on the War, but records are inconsistent how when, how long, how often she was there, and if it was even her in the first place. She literally wrote the book on how to be a ghost in the world, at least for Russian speakers, so it makes sense that if she wanted not to be found or tracked, that is how it would be. So it isn’t entirely clear when the professional superhero Shadowspirit debuted. It was definitely after the end of the war in Vietnam in 1975, as her old war stories include watching the tanks roll into Saigon in late April. With enough detail that she had to have been there. But when she arrived in Anchorage is unknown. What is known, however, is that she rescued then 17 year old Cindy Paulsen from Robert Hansen, and beat the stuffing out of him. This was June 13, 1983. She’d apparently been tracking the serial killer for a while, which would throw doubt on her being in Saigon in ’75 (as Hansen apparently began killing in ’71) except again, the sheer detail. The beating got Hansen arrested, and the suspicions of the Alaska State Police and an FBI profile on an unidentified killer got his belongings and vehicles searched. Souvenirs of his killings were found. Time for prison. Alaska seemed to have its own superhero.

. . One hell of a debut, sort of. Once her costume was described in the media, people came forward as having seen her for years. Just dismissed as being tired or drunk. And it was always dark. The crime rate in Alaska is among the highest in the United States, so she never lacked for something to do. An Anchorage news anchor coined her name, calling her a “ protective spirit in the shadows”. Sure, why not? And this was the state of affairs in 2001, when the Shining Guardian and Fletcher combined their brainpower to make contact. She’d been active for a long, long time. Just like them. Their new group could just another steady veteran presence. And so, Shadowspirit helped found the Icons. The early days weren’t so bad. Vincent Mortelini and his Phantom Network passed them information. Well, her and Caviezel, who were a bit more…ethically flexible. It was 2011 when things got interesting, with Lei Zi and her alien army invading poor Fletcher’s Seattle. She helped with that, certainly, but it wasn’t nearly as flashy and dramatic as Henry, Tidal, Tex, and Fletcher were. She was just there, punching and kicking and sometimes shooting with their interesting rifles. Aw, her accuracy had declined. A pity, but she had no reason to practice anymore.

. . 2013 was certainly an adventure and a half. Oh, yes. Poor Henry. They fought Neo-Nazis, avoided regular Army and law enforcement, and even briefly helped the President fake his death. This was harder than she thought it would be. Improved security since the days of Kennedy, it seemed. She knew of Jin, yes, but he was Henry’s friend and Henry was the one who wanted to save him no matter the cost. She simply went along with it. Queenie was very helpful. Proved her worth as a hero quite well, in Shadowspirit’s opinion. It all came down to a final battle on a very big plane. Flying Fortress, Henry called it. While Henry faced off with his old friend, “Natalia Godunova” dealt with the last member of The Blade of The Rising Sun. He was a robot now, his flesh having failed him years ago. She breathed in the irony of this, considering her own situation, and then smashed the robot with her bare hands. He was the brains behind the whole affair. With Jin rescued, the mastermind destroyed, and a lot of Neo-Nazi supervillains defeated, the day was saved. Good job all around.

. . She again played a minor role when Fletcher accidently made that AI that almost killed everyone in the world. All she could do was punch robot drones, and she did it well. She stuck with Fletcher during the Icons civil war because she knew which way he would fall once the law was passed and knew that he would need a friend. Candy was too new, and the rest would go with Henry or away. Caviezel and Terrifica surprised her. She thought each of them would have made the choice the other did. Ah, well. No one was perfect. So, she was still with Fletcher, Candy, and the replacements he had recruited when Kuros The Savior came storming out of Tian (the Chinese divine realms) in 2017. It wouldn't have made any difference for Orca to be there. They would have still lost. If that Jackie’s team and the mightiest of the Exiles were no match, the whale man would not have made any difference. She and Marian Soaring Eagle helped everyone get proper medical attention while Kuros and his forces moved on to Baltimore and the Eternity War. Of course, after that there was not a lot to do except help manage the chaos after half of all life on Earth had turned to dust and blown away.

. . 2018. Terrifica and Marian Soaring Eagle had a way to undo what had been done. To reform the Crystals of Power Kuros had shattered in doing what he did. This was good. Everyone had a role. She went with Caviezel to that high mountain to reform the Soul Crystal. He came back, bruised as if from a fight. She did not. Well, in a manner of speaking. What happened on that high mountain is unclear. What is known is that reforming the Soul Crystal requires a soul. Meaning someone has to die. It cannot be done with murder, despite Terrifica’s jokes. It requires a willing sacrifice. Whether it’s of life, love, or something else important is also unclear. Magic is a fuzzy, undefined thing at times. So passed the 118 year old Shadospirit. Of many aliases, but the most common being Natalia Godunova. It was not the name she was born under, but it was the name she used the most. There was a quiet memorial ceremony after the battle, but little public acknowledgement. Just as she would have wanted. As a note, the new Soul Crystal was the only one not to shatter anew after Fletcher used them to destroy Kuros and all of his forces to end the Endgame. It is stored underneath the Rockies, accessible only to Marian Soaring Eagle and Sage.

. . Shadowspirit had no regular enemies or allies in Anchorage or indeed the whole of Alaska. It’s not a very well populated state. There’s more people in the city of Milwaukee than in the whole state, so it makes sense. Her legacy is that of a heroic one, and a few new heroes have popped up to honor her. How long they’ll last remains to be seen. The legacy of Natalia Godunova, on the other hand, is not nearly as nice. In Alaska she was a humble martial arts dojo owner. Forgotten. In Eastern Europe and the former USSR, she isn’t remembered as merely the Boogeyman. She is remembered as the person you called to kill the fucking Boogeyman. She was one of Josef Stalin’s most silent and inescapable agents, and her death or imprisonment was never reported. A virtually immortal killer disappeared into the world. The prospect of her reappearance keeps intelligence agencies in the area up at night. The truth of her is, as ever, somewhere in the middle. She was loyal to Stalin, yes, but she was more loyal to the ideals of the Soviet Union. She believed what the “Man of Steel” said. Until that speech by Khrushchev, where she learned the truth of what he had been doing. She was a monster serving a greater one. Her patriotism had been exploited virtually from the start by a man who knew what he was doing. She left Russia under a cloud she never fully escaped. Not even at the end, on that high mountain. Not even decades of heroism could fully erase the red in her mind’s ledger. And even now, her soul does not yet know peace. It is serving as the Soul Crystal. The epilogue of the life of Natalia Godunova, alias Shadowspirit, is not quite over yet…

Powers & Tactics: Shadowspirit was genuinely one of the finest martial artists on the planet, and the beneficiary of a Soviet super soldier program that gave her mutant powers. As a martial artist, she was right there when Sambo was being initially developed (separately) by Viktor Spiridonov and Vasili Oshchepkov (whom her work got sent to prison, where he died ) for the Red Army in the 1920s. So, Combat Sambo was her base and strongest martial art. However, her travels through the world (both as a Soviet agent and afterward) broadened her skill set. She augmented her Sambo training with a few of the martial arts it takes from, such as boxing, kickboxing, judo, wrestling, and jiu-jutsu. She also trained in karate.

. . Her mutant powers were generative in nature. She would heal with phenomenal speed from even the most grievous injuries. But it was the depth of her ability to heal that was truly remarkable. Merely by living, humans accumulate a collection of wear and tear injuries from repetitive use, diseases, and poisons. Their bodies’ ability to recover from such things is both imperfect and wears out over time. This is a very surface level description of the aging process. It’s much more complex than this description. However, the treatment caused her to heal even this damage. For Shadowspirit, there was no such thing as scarring or permanent damage from anything at all. So she did not age properly, and at first this was confused with being genuinely ageless. This was not the case. The accumulated damage of living could not kill her, as she healed from it perfectly. However, this had nothing to do with bones, organs, and connective tissue simply wearing out over time. The peak strength of the body simply runs out. She was genuinely biologically 118 years old at the time of her death. She just so happened to be the healthiest and most physically fit biologically 118 year old that has ever existed. One’s muscles (including the heart) are built up and maintained by stressing them to the point of damage, and they build back stronger. Exercise has been shown to help keep bones stronger than they would be otherwise through a similar process. Imagine how that worked with her regenerative speed. As such, it’s not particularly clear if she could have died from natural causes or simple aging at all. It’s entirely possible that she could have kept on living for centuries, getting older and weaker but never quite enough to die. And she was keenly aware of her gradual decline. There were some things no amount of exercise could deal with. Liver, lungs, kidneys, GI tract, etc. They were all in extremely good condition, but still 118 years old.

. . Tactically, Shadowspirit was about as pure an unarmed fighter as it’s possible to be. She hadn’t used so much as a knife in over 30 years. She didn’t need one. She’d spent over 30 years as a super spy, so she was by a country mile the founding Icon least likely to charge into battle with foes. She made use of Stealth and Disguise liberally. A old and very effective spying technique is simple eavesdropping. And only once she had the information she required would she start punching people in the face. Ordinary thuggery was absolutely no match for her. She’d simply Accurate Attack for +2 or +3 and Takedown Attack 2 through them like a buzzsaw. For ordinary supervillains she could mix things up with Improved Feint, Taunt, and Trick. Layer in All Out and Power Attack for more durable foes. She was quite a skilled grappler, and could choke foes unconscious given enough time. Stunning Attack could mix things up. She had caution but no fear of being injured, as it would heal in seconds. She could not power stunt at all.

. . A note: This build represents Shadowspirit, not the Russian spy and assassin Natalia Godunova. As such, it only represents her from 1983 to her death in 2018. From 1917 to her treatment in 1952 would be at least three different builds, and her capabilities from her discharge in 1963 to her reappearance 20 years later are not known. She also didn’t have the Hovercycle until 2002, as it was a gift from Fletcher.

Personality: Shadowspirit was very old, very tired, and very sad. You, Dear Reader, would be too if you were her age. And had had the kind of life she had had. She spent over 35 years of her life fighting and lying and killing for an ideal and the man she thought embodied it more than anyone else. A set of unnoticed ears. A knife in the dark. Breaker of necks and souls! She had faith. She believed. And it was all bullshit. Lies, deception, and charm. Stalin was not the hero of the Soviet Union. He was its greatest villain. A monster she had blindly served. And yet she could never entirely dismiss him as that. If she was a tool and a pawn, then why he did he not get rid of her? Why did he depend on her for so many missions? Why was she made leader of the Defenders? Why did he trust her, all the way to the end, when many others fell out of his favor? She never was able to figure it out.

. . It could be said that she was a woman on a path of atonement. There was so much blood on her hands. So much red in her ledger. She had believed that it would all be worth it for the glorious future of the Soviet Union, but…well. It wasn’t. There wasn’t any one moment where she decided to be a superhero. It was something she just fell into. Without Robert Hansen, she may have remained nothing more than an urban legend until whenever the end of her days came at last. Slowly balancing her ledger, one saved life at a time. But that changed. She got to do good on a larger scale with the Icons. She enjoyed that. But she was getting older and older. And her ledger was still so very red. That day, on that high mountain, was her chance to balance it forever. It appears that she took it. And yet…her soul does not appear to be satisfied. She did not permit the Soul Crystal to break. Even dying for half of all life in the universe was apparently not enough for her. For now.

. . This does not mean that she was morose or a grump. Far from it. She acted like the most obvious spy imaginable. A walking caricature of the foreign femme fatale. This was all in good fun. She liked to tease people a little. What can be said? She was very old and no longer gave a shit about making her friends and/or allies a little uncomfortable. It wasn’t that she couldn’t turn into an absolute professional virtually instantly. Because she could, when it was needed. She was perhaps a little fatalistic in that curiously Russian way. Bad things are going to happen whether anyone wants them to or not, yes? But you hope they don’t, right? And then she turns the philosophy around, just a bit. Because hope requires action. Sitting and hoping never accomplished anything. The 17 year old who marched in the streets of Petrograd was still alive and well, all the way to the end. Even if she was very old, very tired, and very sad. She still believed in hope and taking action for a better world. Collective action would be best, but she would take what she could get. She was, after all, still a Bolshevik in her heart.
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Re: The Phoenixverse (A 2e OC 'verse; Newest: The Icons! Nick Phoenix! The Shining Guardian! Fletcher! Shadowspirit!)

Post by Davies »

Except for the hair, I am totally seeing her as Claudia Christian in the mid-90s.

Народные защитники, Narodnyye zashchitniki, incidentally. (MT disclaimer, but it uses the same "Peoples'" as in the Russian for "Peoples' Republic of China.")
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Re: The Phoenixverse (A 2e OC 'verse; Newest: The Icons! Nick Phoenix! The Shining Guardian! Fletcher! Shadowspirit!)

Post by EternalPhoenix »

Davies wrote: Tue Nov 01, 2022 5:39 pm Except for the hair, I am totally seeing her as Claudia Christian in the mid-90s.

Народные защитники, Narodnyye zashchitniki, incidentally. (MT disclaimer, but it uses the same "Peoples'" as in the Russian for "Peoples' Republic of China.")
Ivanova, eh? (had to google, because EP and names? lolnope) I can see it, actually. She was a brunette back in the day.
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Re: The Phoenixverse (A 2e OC 'verse; Newest: The Icons! Nick Phoenix! The Shining Guardian! Fletcher! Shadowspirit!)

Post by Commander Titan »

I appreciate that she dealt with having her faith in something truly broken, and then having to move on from there. And the focus on Alaska - I don't see much mention of it in superhero stories, but certainly there's all sorts of interesting things to get up to. A friend of mine was born there and his folks have all manner of stories from their time there, before they moved out east.
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Re: The Phoenixverse (A 2e OC 'verse; Newest: The Icons! Nick Phoenix! The Shining Guardian! Fletcher! Shadowspirit!)

Post by EternalPhoenix »

Commander Titan wrote: Tue Nov 01, 2022 10:46 pm I appreciate that she dealt with having her faith in something truly broken, and then having to move on from there. And the focus on Alaska - I don't see much mention of it in superhero stories, but certainly there's all sorts of interesting things to get up to. A friend of mine was born there and his folks have all manner of stories from their time there, before they moved out east.
Hey. Thanks. That's all I've got.
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Hall of Honor part 2-Champions Wing!

Post by EternalPhoenix »

EternalPhoenix wrote: Fri Sep 02, 2022 11:39 pm Starman I to Countess: No Fear, by DizzyEight featuring FabvL and Zach B
I have a confession. I've misled you, ever so slightly. The Icons posting is now technically over. All the remaining entries are not and never have been a part of that group. The next seven entries are the immense shadows the Icons have been laboring under. The legends of the Silver Age. The United States's first and to date only major superteam (as opposed to being a more loosely affiliated group like The Icons are). These next seven entries, my dear readers, are the legendary Champions of Justice.

During the initial planning phase, months ago, I thought it would be a wonderful opportunity to delve into Phoenixverse history. The first Starman is so important to heroic history, you have no idea. I wasn't getting through the Icons without mentioning him once. And I've referenced Megagirl before with Baroness Valia. So I wanted to do the two of them, and it would be nonsensical not to do the rest of the team while I was at it. Like the rest of the Hall of Honor, they are currently out. Some are dead. Some are retired. Some are just gone from present day Earth. But during their heroic tenues and especially during the Champions' legendary 17 year run as a team, they set the standard for what a superhero was and could be. If you need an in-universe explanation for them being in here, it's easy. Honoring those who came before. The end.

So! On Saturday, you get to meet the man who kicked off the Silver Age almost by himself. You also get to meet his partner in life, superheroics, parenthood, and eventually death. Prepare yourself for Starman I and Starwoman I. I really hope you enjoy it, my Dear Readers.
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Re: Hall of Honor part 2-Champions Wing!

Post by Gilliam »

EternalPhoenix wrote: Thu Nov 03, 2022 2:33 pm
EternalPhoenix wrote: Fri Sep 02, 2022 11:39 pm Starman I to Countess: No Fear, by DizzyEight featuring FabvL and Zach B
So! On Saturday, you get to meet the man who kicked off the Silver Age almost by himself. You also get to meet his partner in life, superheroics, parenthood, and eventually death. Prepare yourself for Starman I and Starwoman I. I really hope you enjoy it, my Dear Readers.
Grabs a bowl of chips in anticipation.
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Re: The Phoenixverse (A 2e OC 'verse; Newest: The Icons! Nick Phoenix! The Shining Guardian! Fletcher! Shadowspirit!)

Post by Commander Titan »

Shock! Betrayal! I've been misled!

But in a good way! Looking forward to it!
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Re: The Phoenixverse (A 2e OC 'verse; Newest: The Icons! Nick Phoenix! The Shining Guardian! Fletcher! Shadowspirit!)

Post by EternalPhoenix »

This post exists entirely because I don't want friggin' STARMAN to be the last post on a page. So keep it movin', punks. :mrgreen:
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