Ari

Azuth: Sorry about that! Thought you were busy, But didn't know how much. See you around 6is then! fF: It will be done. Feel free to weigh in on events whenever. Quote: Yeah, should've made it more clear that Marcy's question was in earnest, an d not just filler :? . Alright, thanks everybody, thought you guys were busy with other threads, Let's say Jubatus acts as de facto diplomat in this instance, and in a couple GM posts we'll get back to conversing as almost usual. Sound good?

So, anyway, this is extremely unfinished. All criticisms welcomed and appreciated. If you see a place that seems underdeveloped, that would most likely be on purpose. The Complications bit isn't something I've paid much attention to, for example. All will be filled in and reconfigured in good time, once I have all bumps and niggles that need to taken out removed.

Player Name: Arichamus Character Name: Sub Soter Power Level: 10 150/150PP Trade-Offs: +2 Defense / -2 Toughness Unspent PP: 0 Progress To Bronze Status: 0/30 In Brief: Outwardly placid yet inwardly driven Lor biologist come to Earth to study the marine life there. Alternate Identities: Muir Av/Paul Sayer Identity: Secret Birthplace: Horeesh Colony, Piscea VI(known on Earth as 55 Cancri f) Occupation: Marine biologist/exobiologist Affiliations: Lor Science Division, Freedom CIty Marine Center Family: Paric Av(Mother), Samtea Av(father), Hreel Av(Sister). Age: 31 Apparent Age: 31 Gender: Male Ethnicity: Gray-blue skin/deeply tanned Caucasian Height: 5' 3"/6' in human form Weight: 148 Lbs. Eyes: Black/dark gray in human form. Hair: Light green/black in human form. Description: Muir is on the short side, with a stocky, powerful build and dressed in a neatly-fitting wetsuit-like article colored various grays with narrow white geometric shapes added at random intervals. His hair is permanently spiked, and pays little heed to the skull's shape whenever it can, which is always. He has a short, narrow fin on each limb near the extremity, which folds into small pockets in the skin when he turns himself human. He also has a long fin running down his back in his true form, his hands and feet are both webbed, with the webs decreasing to normal human size when shape-shifted and his facial features are elongated(his nose and jaw especially) almost to the point of deformation. As a human, Paul Sayer is lean, gangling in fact, with a long narrow nose and short and extremely carefully combed hair, which seems to be painted onto his scalp, and wears neat white coats and black pants no matter the weather or occasion. He speaks with a smooth, drawling accent in his native Lor that marks him instantly as an emigrant from a Piscean colony, though when talking through his Universal Translator he can assume nearly any dialect. Power Descriptions: Experimentation into the make-up of extraterrestrial marine life has led to Muir's discovery of a chemical compound that when injected into the bloodstream of a Piscean grants immense physical power, hardihood and therefore increased swimming ability. His mastery of some of the more obscure areas of biological chemistry has wrought him a drug that can transform him into a human for brief periods(longest it can go is about twenty-seven hours), as well as several serums that when injected can paralyze, regenerate or cease the regeneration of the subject. Additionally, Muir has a standard-issue Universal Translator, a white and red colored mechanism that is attached to his jumpsuit's collar, is 3" long and 4"wide and allows him to both communicate with nearly any species in nearly any language, and be understood in nearly any. Finally, he has a black, oblong tube 2" long capped syringe that is filled with a self-replenishing chemical that when injected into his bloodstream allows him to transform into the guise of a human. History: The far-flung Lor colony of Horeesh, fifth expedition to the planets orbiting Cancrius,established in 1894 A.D. is a small city of less than 100,000 people from the various differing strains of Lor space, gathered there for the general purpose of investigating a possible new energy source for Lor weaponry. Among its occupants was a young couple named Paric and Samtea Av, who were chemical experts brought along with the first occupiers of the city to establish a water filtering system for the non-amphibian Lor to use. The planet was idyllic, with no predators, vast forests of marine plant life, and immense schools of dazzlingly-hued fish species. Their second child, a little bundle of wide-eyed joy they named 'Muir' after their maternal ancestor, who was one of the first marine biologists to discover the origin of schooling. They had a happy life on new home, a quiet world where nothing at all seemed about to go wrong. And nothing did! The planet of Piscea IV has remained a peaceful world to this day, though there is one thing that separates them from the other colonies: their education level. On average, a Cancrian Lor has a better education by age 12 than most do by age 20, and that has bred resentment. This was all unknown to young Muir, who went all his life until he turned 18 thinking he had a life everyone else had. In his early life he often wondered at the sorties made by the Grue against the Lor, and [i]vice versa[/i], asking his parents why they did so, and why they didn't just stay home instead of hurting each other. His parents knew that answering:"The Grue are a hive-mind led by a ruthless master-brain who wishes only to expand its territory" would probably be too much for him to visualize, and simply told Muir he'd understand when he was older. He did learn the reason for the constant war later in life, when he left his homeworld to get his(by then entirely perfunctory) graduate diploma on Piscea Prime. He found upon his arrival his peaceful, languid life before his trip there had left him ill-prepared for the rapidly changing environment of Piscea Prime, and it was only in four nerve-wracking years that he managed to get the much-needed diploma. While there, Muir had absorbed much of the culture around him as unthinkingly as trees breath carbon dioxide; simply accepting that it was the way it was and therefore needing no approval. As a result, for most of his time at the great and chaotic University of Depthar, he became less and less the gregarious and playful boy he'd been all his life, and learned to be utterly unmoved at the most shocking of sights. This translated into two direct shifts in his personality: the first, and more positive, was that he became far more accepting of things he himself disapproved of in others, while at the same time he became much cooler and more distant in his relationships with others. As a result, he made few lasting friendships at school, preferring to wander the waters alone to study the local fish species in peace. On the plus side, this helped him immensely with his schoolwork, as the hands-on practice of basic investigative techniques let him in on tricks he would have needed to wait sometimes for months to be taught in school. On the other hand, these sojourns often resulted in him getting little of his schoolwork done, so he had to drastically cut back at his 'me' time, leaving him even less opportunity to make friends(or even enemies). This left him pretty lonely, but nothing his steeling heart couldn't manage. As the years had gone by, he had seen more and more of the city that lurked under the surface of the dark blue sea, swimming its yawning metal canyons and drifting about its mountain ranges of towers. The sights deeply affected him, and he sees them clearly to this day. However, this peace didn't last. After getting his diploma(the equivalent of a Masters degree), ten days before he was set to return home, the Grue attacked Piscea Prime. They came to the system without any warning from any advance-warning buoy, and all the city stared in horror at the sight above them while what few defenses they had ready scrambled for a desperate assault. The Grue were at the verge of firing a salvo that would have wiped at least half of the submerged citadel from existence, when something darker than the emptiness of space sliced through their weapons, crushed their engines and drew them beyond the planet's gravity well, without the Unity ships managing to score a single hit on the swiftly-moving and seemingly impermeable target. It was only six hours later, when the strange being appeared on the main viewscreen of every building. The being introduced himself as Dark Star, a man from the planet Earth which Muir had heard of in his exo-paleontology courses. Dark Star had then explained both what had happened to the Grue fleet(ships were to be taken apart to check for any changes in Grue tech, and all Drones were being taken to a station to be deprogrammed)and in some detail how the Grue had managed to get past the advance warning systems in place around the star system, assuring the Lor planetside that he and the best technicians in the Lor Fleet Science Division were even then working to amend the fatal flaw. Deeply moved by this display, Muir left Piscea Prime with only a few words to the friends he had made at the University. On the trip back home, he thought a great deal on how Dark Star's exploits clashed with what his more cynical friends had taught him about the actions and motives of those with power. The fact was that this Earthman, with all the powers he possessed, had chosen to aid others at little if any profit to himself. Deciding that the example set by the sable guardian was one he could hardly do evil in following, Muir threw himself into amassing the research portfolio needed for entry to the Lor Science Division and applied at the local biological research facility. His aim: to use the knowledge he could acquire in the field to improve the lives of those in the Republic. He got in easily, and advanced with little difficulty for six years until he was the overseer of the marine department. In that position, he master-minded dozens of serums, medical drugs and an entirely new species of edible plant-life. It was in this part of his life that one half of his most vital discovery was found: a serum that when injected into the pituitary gland sported by all Piscean Lor, increased the speed at which muscles could exert their force, and even increase the force exerted itself. However, heavy testing on himself has led to numerous slight deformities on his body, and the drug was deemed insufficiently stable for wide-spread use. His work got him the attention of Lor Science Division High-Command, who offered him a position in field work for gathering data on genetic mutations within existing populations, and how that affected possible changes in future possible genetic mutations. His field was selected as one close enough to home for him to visit his family whenever he chooses to with minimal danger. The field in question was Earth. Curious to see the civilization the humans had built, not to mention the intricate ecosystem the planet was said to have, Muir agreed readily, adopting the sleek uniform of a field marine biologist at the appropriate ceremony with all the dignity he could muster, thinking his stay there would be harmless and soon over. He has so far proved himself deeply wrong. His first week of installing himself on the sea bed near one of the humans' larger cities nearly ended with his untimely death at the hands of a monstrous shark, and his first month ended with him driving away a mess of giant crabs from a cruise ship. Ever since he has arrived on Earth, he has found himself almost constantly around humans(and the odd mer-folk or Atlantean) in peril, and feeling compelled to help them placing himself in harms way. In the plus side, he is a vastly better fighter now than when he arrived; on the other hand, he knows that the delay to his work is slowly pushing away at his time, and that someday he'll have to choose to either drop the heroics, or abandon his research. Personality & Motivation: Muir Av is a generally cool and polite person, ready to deliver the appropriate measure of social graces to anyone interacting with him. He conceals his frozen hatred for the Grue, of which passion drives much of his research, under as many layers of smooth gentility as he can, a natural thing for him, as he still acts as distantly as he did back at school, and thus is a poor empathizer, so going to him for help with emotional troubles is unlikely to do any good. He is otherwise a stalwart ally in battle, as he sees it as a matter of deepest principle to aid others against people who wish them harm. His loneliness, sadly, keeps him from trying to become anything other than he is, as he believes that if he were to become like he was when he was younger, he would forever lose his vital edge, and thus would become less worthy of others' respect. Hampering this aspect in making him sympathetic is his nearly-stereotypical Lor cultural snobbery, which he is slowly coming to see as wrong-headed, due to it dawning on him that if Earth culture could produce so many paragons of virtue, they can't be that bad. Powers & Tactics: Muir is a scientific analyzer first and foremost, meaning he is unlikely to dash into battle. He will, if in open battle with no noncombatants in danger, observe his target's behavior for a Round, dodging if he can, then commence his attack. If near water, and the target is not at least amphibious, he'll try to carry them as far as he can in a round, then leave them their and return to the fight(if target isn't alone). If not near water, or if that would be ineffective. he will simply try to either defeat his enemy with sheer strength. If a Grue, he will immediately try to neutralize the drone's connection to the Meta-Mind, or kill them if that proves futile. Complications: Death to the Unity! As far as Muir is concerned, all Grue should either be forced out of the Unity or killed on sight. This translates into automatic hostility to almost any Grue he meets. The Bioengineer's Lament Muir's body is sometimes afflicted with painful growths and occasionally small internal injuries from his habit of experimenting on himself, they have a nasty habit of appearing at times when speed is critical. Abilities: 2 + 6 + 4 + 8 + 2 + 0 = 22PP Strength: 12[30] (+1/+10) Dexterity: 16 (+3) Constitution: 14[26] (+2/+8) Intelligence: 18 (+4) Wisdom: 12 (+1) Charisma: 10 (+0) Combat: 16 + 16 = 32PP Initiative: +11 Attack: +8 Base, +10 Melee Grapple: +13/+17(with Super-Strength)/20(with Enhanced Strength) Defense: +12 (+8 Base, +4 Dodge Focus), +4 Flat-Footed Knockback: -1/-4 Saving Throws: 2 + 4 + 4 = 10PP Toughness: +2/+8 (+8 Con, +0 [Other]) Fortitude: +3/+10 (+1/+8 Con, +2) Reflex: +7 (+3 Dex, +4) Will: +6 (+1 Wis, +4) Skills:40R = 10PP Computers 4 (+8) Craft(Chemical) 8 (+12) Knowledge(Life Sciences) 8 (+12) Language 2 (Lor(Native), Grue, Latin) Notice 4 (+5) Pilot 2 (+5) Profession 8 (Biologist) (+9) Sense Motive 4 (+5) Feats: 20PP Accurate Attack Attack Focus 2: Melee Assessment Contacts Dodge Focus 4 Equipment 5 = 25 EP Environmental Adaption: Underwater Improved Initiative 2 Improvised Tools Inventor Luck Powers: 19 + 3 + 3 +14 + 4 + 6= 49 PP Artificial Muscular Enhancement 9(18 PP Array, PFs: Alternate power 2)[19 PP] BP: Enhanced Strength 18[18PP] Super-Strength 4(Feat: Super-Breath)[9PP]Device 1(Lor Universal Translator, Easy-to-Lose)[3PP)] Comprehend 2(All languages heard understood, be understood in any language, Feature: Regional Accent)[5PP] Device 1(Human Transformation Drug Kit(HDTK), Easy-to-Lose)[3PP] Morph 5(Form of a specific human)[5PP] Enhanced Constitution 14[14 PP] Immunity 3(Cold Environments, Drowning, High Pressure)(Innate, Natural)[4 PP] Regeneration 6(+2 Con Check, +2 Recovery Rate for Brusied, +1 Recovery Rate for Injured)Power feat: Regrowth)[6PP] Swimming 6(100 MPH)[6PP] Drawbacks: (-0) + (-0) = -0PP Weakness(must be submerged in water)Frequency: [uncommon, Common, or Very Common], Intensity: [Minor, Moderate, or Major]) [-PP] (Please note that you can only have a number of drawbacks equal to your PL, not including power drawbacks. Also, power drawbacks, such as Full Power or Power Loss, should be listed on the power, not here.) DC Block: ATTACK RANGE SAVE EFFECT Unarmed Touch DC15 Toughness (Staged) Damage (Physical) Abilities (22) + Combat (32) + Saving Throws (10) + Skills (10) + Feats (19) + Powers (49) - Drawbacks (0) = 142/150 Power Points

Alright, should I PM them? Let them know we're waiting for them? I think the window should be about until 5 o'clock, Sound good?

Uh, should we wait for the others? I don't want this to turn into the "Jubatus and crazy shadow things" show, fun as that may be.

[OOC Should at least get one reaction from Marcy, eh?] IC:Marceau had been leaning slightly, in order to maintain eye-contact with Sam, and thus the jolt had rapped his head against the handle bar on the seat before him. Stunned for a moment by the pain, he hadn't seen the initial attack by the smoke-like creatures, but he had seen the lightning speed of Lady Liberty's attempt to free them. For the several seconds he had had to observe it, he was filled with a dizzying array of questions, identical to the ones rushing through the heads of the other passengers curious enough to spend time pondering the bizarre and potentially dangerous circumstances they were in. He had spent the time Brian had used to test the bonds their captors had bound them in nursing the bruise on his head, though at Jubatus's question(the oily thing didn't so much as rustle) he sprang to his feet, looking both determined and deeply uneasy. He decided that he could do worse than follow the more experienced hero's lead, and relaxed, though his legs remained tense for a sudden spring. //////////////////////////////////////////// GM:The oily creature gave no immediate response, in fact he looked utterly shocked to heard the question, and looked carefully at Jubatus, as if to ascertain that the had indeed spoken. The words that came out of his mouth were as strange and alien as the rest of his appearance, he spoke with a quiet, almost kindly voice with a strong German accent, though his voice sounded as though many spoke at once: "Eech am der Half-Schatten, sunn aff de Emprer off dies d'menssionn. You alle ver chosen to be brought zu mine fatter's palsss, tsu antwort hees kestons. Many cr'mnalss half escpade to deine welt, aun meer fatter villt justiss t'be donn". That said, the thing then formed a throne from somewhere under his cloak, and seated himself upon it, looking as though he expected more questions, and was ready for them.

The air inside the bus was now much warmer, and Jubatus could smell easily the scent of fear(what does it smell like? They never do say, so we'll never know) and sweat increasing in the now claustrophobic confines of their metal prison. Several of the passengers were trying desperately to lever the doors open, and Norman was pulling ao hard on the door every single muscle on his body stood out like a mass of ropes, his face beet-red from exertion with sweat dripping down in slowly growing cascade. In fact, everyone was either huddled on their seat, trying to open the doors and windows of the bus, or otherwise occupied that Brian's firing out the window with water went entirely unnoticed. Brian's shot went quite well, hitting the bizarre substance covering the bus squarely. However, instead of bouncing off, punching through or even being absorbed, a hand had formed from the stuff and caught the water! The hand neatly put the captured liquid into the water bottle, screwed back on the lid and formed itself into a series of letters in the air that read: Don't try that again, please. With that, the letters retreated into the main mass of the black stuff, which changed at Brian's window into a sort of crowbar that gently levered the window back into place. Just before the window was back into its groove, the tool outside the bus stopped moving just long enough to let in a stream of the substance, with one crucial difference between it and the mass covering the bus: the stuff inside the bus was like a cloud of liquid oil, shining and much less ghostly than what confined them. As well, this stuff quickly and smoothly transformed from an inchoate cloud into a definitely human-like creature, to the point where it had eyes and hair only barely identifiable as inhuman. The tell was that the eyes had no pupils, and the hair moved with a strange exaggerated motions, like it was made of gelatin. It looked carefully at the humans, its eyes stopping abruptly when it saw Jubatus and Zap. It walked slowly forward until it reached the mid-section of the bus, tendrils of blackness like that seen on the spectral abductors reaching out tentatively at its surroundings. It stopped suddenly, drew on a massive cloak from apparently nowhere, and put on a crown that reached past the roof of the bus, giving an effect like he was clipping through terrain in a video game.It bowed and watched them expectantly.

Will save. (3+2) I'll use a Hero Point to re-roll. (18+2) Hoorah.

Alright, sorry about the confusion. This won't happen again. Let's post our reactions to this untoward and lamentable event.

Initiative. [2,2] = (4)

No, I'm going all ranged from here on out. Sidekick is going to be the tank.

Aye, what I was planning on doing. If you'd like, I could delete that post and we could just continue as if nothing happened, then have something else happen at a later date.

I'm sorry, I should have remembered to mention that this was an instance of GM fiat. So, belatedly, this an instance of GM fiat, meaning a Hero Point for all! Except KoS, because there has to be some penalty for this lapse, and as this isn't face-to-face, you can't give me icy stares while I fumble around for an excuse. So again, sorry for not mentioning that actually pretty important piece of information, I'll be sure to ask for more feedback in the future, not to mention making clear whether what's happening is interactive or not. ASTRO Geek's name is, uh, Martin Brandtford.

Alright, new plan! And this time it will stick! First, removing Array, use 18 of those points to buy an identical number of ranks in Sidekick. Then remove all Grappling assist feats and Chokehold and Power Attack and All-Out-Attack, plus a rank in Equipment(removing Binoculars, Commlink, Gas Mask, Night-Vision Goggles and Re-Breather). Instead buying 2 ranks of Throwing mastery, and Precise shot. Also buying 4 ranks in Knowledge(Current Events), 8 in Craft(Chemical) and increasing Will, Reflex and Fortitude by 2, Attack Focus(Ranged) and Beginner's Luck.

As Brian returned to the seat he had left moments ago, a sudden jolt alerted those aboard the bus that they had stopped. Looking outside, the passengers could see with utter clarity a dozen figures like humanoid smoke, all surrounding the bus. They had their hands extended extended outward, and a large semi-opaque rope seemed to come from them, wrapping itself about the vehicle before them at greater and greater speed, shutting out the light and covering the windows it came through. Norman had tried, when he first felt the jolt, to open the door of the bus to let out those inside. It was wrapped too tightly even by then, however, and all efforts to do something about the fix they was in proved futile. From within the prison, most of the passengers began to panic until a blazing spear tore through the enshrouding coil with a force that sent the thing writhing like a dying snake, but this proved only a momentary respite. As Lady Liberty shot like an arrow towards the imperiled bus, the figures recovered from the pain her attack had caused and formed themselves into a gigantic hand and arm, rooted to the ground, that swung at the super heroine. Lady Liberty dodged with ease, and with a single blow smashed the structure, sending its components flying to the ground. All but one, who had remained behind while the others distracted the valiant defender of Freedom, and who had repaired the bond with its own body and dragged the bus through an enormous doorway that opened beneath them. They fell quite peacefully, with only a sudden and subtle change in pressure, and a cessation of all the sounds heard before the drop telling those on board the bus that they were no longer on Earth. All that could be heard was the sound of the other occupant's heartbeats, and the voices whispered in fear. It had taken about half a minute all for this to happen.

Great! sorry for the delay, I'll put up a GM post in the next few seconds and we can get started on the next leg.

Whoops! Sorry for the metagaming! Should I amend my post?

Alright, if everyone is quite cool with it, I shall commence the main meat of the thread, all in favor of continuing the story?

At the horrendous noise, Marceau sprang ungainly to his feet. Still bleary from the rude awakening, he nevertheless grabbed his heavy cloak and slid over to the window where Blueshift was, and poked just enough of his head over to see without being seen. The sight outside the Command Center deeply confused him, and he looked over at Jubatus and Blueshift "So, what do you think is going on?" He hoped this was just a problem of land ownership confusion or something like it. On the other hand, maybe they had come to help..nah, that'd never happen.

Thank you all for the extremely helpful suggestions! I'll put them into practice right away. How does this sound? 1.Removal of the Array with 'Boost' as the Base Power(keeping Super-Strength, just 'cause). Remove 'Subtle' extra. 2. Remove Climb ranks and the Grapple assist feats(Chokehold, Improved Pin, et al...) and also remove All-Out Attack along with Set Up. 3. Remove a rank in Equipment, taking out the Binoculars, Commlink, Gas mask, Re-Breather and Multi-Tool. 4. Put some of those reacquired points into expanding the Fool's Deck Array, adding Nauseate, Dazzle and Stun. (6 PP's) 5. Buy 8 ranks in Craft(Chemical) and Sense Motive. Buy Beginner's Luck and Luck 2. (7 PP's) 6. Put whatsoever is left into increasing his Charisma and Dexterity scores by 2. Buy Enhanced Trait: Counter Obscure[Limited]. (5 PP's) Edit: Forgot, but also planning on buying Attack Focus(Ranged).

These are some very good plans, Cubist! And I'd say that Jubatus has Marceau pegged pretty fairly as the group's least able member, due to him relying on stealth rather than straight-up attacks, not to mention that being a guerrilla fighter in this environment would be nearly impossible for him due to his nearly crippling phobia of forests :roll: Actually re-doing his powers, feat and skill setup to make him a bit more useful and specialized, not much call for jack-of-all-trades when I can just go all stealthy ranged fighter, eh? I'll put up the edits once this thread's done to avoid confusion.

Thanks very much for these suggestions! To Supercape: Pruning Survival, while sensible, kind of goes against the character concept of a guy who has spent most of his life on his own in the wilderness between cities. Removing Climb is entirely logical, however, and shall be done. Agree entirely with removal of the Grapple feats and Chokehold and Set Up, but would you mind explaining to me how what is listed in the book as a feat can also be an advanced trait? Finally, yeah, going to go with you and Quotemyname's suggestion and cut Boost. Use those extra PP's to jazz up the Fool's Deck Array with some extra effects like Nauseate, etc, etc... To Quotemyname: Yeah, Boost really wasn't working out, just plain not any reason to use it except to boost skill or save checks, and even then the points I put into it could be spent upgrading the saves and skills directly. On the third point, that's one of those things I wish I has thought of when I was starting this guy out. I had a hazy idea in my head that I could go both ways, like Batman, only now I realize that Batman is(last I checked) almost wholly a close-quarters fighter, with the batarangs and such just for softening up targets before the beatdown. So, that said, I think I'll focus on ranged attacks. Plays better into the idea of s stealth type, and him being a normal man means it doesn't make any sense to try and slug it out when he could reduce risk of injury by finding a hiding place and throwing cards out of it. On the Second point, yeah, I'll go with Raveled's suggestion of Immunity:Own Powers. To Raveled: That's a very elegantly simple solution, though I think lowering the rank of the Obscure power and giving it Slow&Total Fade works too, and with the array gone, I can well afford it. To Ecalsneerg: I wasn't aware of that option, is it from Ultimate Power? Thank you for bringing it up.

Hola, all who glance in here! After refusing to face facts for far too long, I'm going to redo the powers(possibly up to and including complete removal of his shallow and almost useless array) and feats of Marcy's to make him somewhat useful, and not more a liability than anything. The simple fact is that his powers are overly-limited, and the sole useful item, the Super-Strength, is unlikely to stand him in good stead if fighting anything a thrown rock won't faze. His only saving grace, his Grapple, is only useful when used in conjunction with the aforementioned Super-Strength, meaning his only really viable tactic is using his gas-grenade cards and sneaking around to strangle people in the ensuing confusion. This on it's own would be fine, but it isn't much when faced with robots, things stronger than he, or anything intangible or otherwise not easily Grappled. And as it is unlikely that he will never be in a situation where this can't happen, I need to re-think how this guy is going to be built. The original idea behind his construction was that of the perennial Badass Abnormal, someone who has heavy reliance on skills and feats, but can whip out a power or two in a pinch. On itself that would be fine, but I have since realized that he is going to be on teams, and a team needs people to fulfill various niche roles to allow for greater efficiency of action. Having a Jack-of-All-Trades who can do no one thing well might be fine for a solo superhero, but unless I specialize him, he'll have little to offer to any team-up. So, in order to realize this goal of specialization, I'm angling for suggestions of what I ought to focus on, more emphasis on powers, or more on skills and feats? And yes, I now understand why starting with a PL 10 hero is suggested. If re-doing him as a PL 10 is the best solution, I'll gladly follow that course. Sheet is below, cut from it is the excessively long and badly-written History section.

Marceau had started at Brian's cheerful shoulder-slap and thanks for breaking the ice. At the moment he had done so, Marceau had been deep in thought about which of the precious metals that covered his prized souvenir antique door would be easiest to pry off, and so he was thoroughly unprepared for the sudden interaction. "I, wha-qu'e-oh! No problem, Brian, glad to help with that. Usually these places are utterly dull to wait in, happy to relieve the boredom." smiling politely he had stood aside while he fumbled in his manifold pockets for his trusty bus tokens. Finding one, he leapt nimbly up the steps and dropped the token into the proper receptacle. A quick scan of the seats unfilled revealed one two rows down from where the reserved cheetah speedster and the now-voluble and eloquent undergrad were discussing the details of how to proceed with their experiments, one row up from the three teenagers and just across from the Russian emigrate with the bird on his chest. Seating himself as quickly as he was able, Marceau payed close attention to the conversations around him, knowing that it would be a while before he heard a clear and coherent discussion again. He had little knowledge whatever of what Jubatus and the undergrad were talking about, and had none of the cultural background to discern quite what Brian and Mz. Knight were talking about. Deciding he and the other displaced European would probably have the most to talk about, he turned to him and said "Excuse me, but I believe you mentioned you were from Nadhodka, right? I've been to Russia before, but mostly the south-western area and Chechnya, so I've never been there in particular. What's it like, if that isn't a rude question, that is?"

Sounds good to me, glad there isn't a problem!