Cubist

To Xavier's eyes, the interior decor said yeah, I got mass quantities of money, but I see no point in being blatantly obtrusive about it. He decided he approved. "Yes, I gotta go, I have an important meeting. Always next Tuesday. Goodbye my friend." Okay, dude's bilingual at minimum, probably more than two. Gosh, what a surprise. And either he's an infojunkie, or his interior decorator wanted to create that impression. Xavier waved it away, saying, "Eh, il ne semble pas comme quelque chose d'important." The cheetah executed his peculiar version of a shrug. "Go for it, if you like." Let's see what he does. I got a high-speed metabolism that burns off alcohol in record time; how does he handle booze? "Okay; that works, too. Let's hear your pitch." Because there's not a chance in Gehenna that he doesn't have a presentation prepped and ready to roll.

Xavier's furry face lacked distinct eyebrows, so in response to van Cleef's 'executive summary' of the dossier she'd collected on him, he merely raised one eyelid in an expression that would hopefully convey the same sentiment. Well, well: The woman gives as good as she gets. He gave her a subtle smile that left his teeth decently concealed, and said, "Okay, I think I've got all the info I need at the present moment. Thanks, Ms. van Cleef. Be seeing you!" And with a decent approximation of a Village-style salute, Xavier entered the hallway. Fifteenth floor, good. And… hm. 1527's right here, and there's a desk right beside the door. "Signs point to, RECEPTIONIST". Except they're not there right this second. Great timing, whoever you are. The cheetah took the few steps required to bring him before the closed door to (what he presumed to be) al-Misri's office. He took a small rubber-faced mallet from one vest-pocket, and used it to rap on the door…

Xavier smiled without letting his fangs show. "No worries—I thought it might be something like that. Don't self-flagellate over screwing up, because let's face it: You are a total novice, so you will screw up, end of discussion. The good news is, if you don't rub it in their faces, there's a better than even chance that the audience won't notice you've screwed up. So just wear the mask of confidence, and when you screw up, learn from it so you won't repeat that mistake. Okay?" The feline's shoulders moved forward-and-up, in his version of a shrug. "Yes, there are, so I didn't want to assume. And… iPhone, great." "Let's try Bluetooth first. What flavor of encryption?"

It was hard to tell, what with the lack of any physical presence to observe, but Jay Xavier had tentatively concluded that Constance was growing accustomed to her bizarre current state of existence. Good, because I have no friggin' idea whatsoever what to do when a friggin' soundwave goes ape[bg=black]xxix[/bg]. And if it turns out that she's stuck as she is… well… it's good that she's getting a head start on acclimation. The music did not affect Xavier; he didn't allow himself to be affected. He focused his attention everywhere except the stage Riff was performing on. Strictly speaking, he really shouldn't ought to be leaving that sort of blind spot in his surveillance, but since this particular "blind spot" was occupied by a hero with a good deal more experience than him, Xavier figured it was okay. The feline kept a watchful eye on the crowd, and hoped this would be one of the times when his well-honed pessimism proved to be unfounded…

I never signed up for this. Damnit, al-Misri, I'm a troubleshooter, not a PR operative! Jay Xavier hadn't expected he'd ever wear a suit again, let alone one that was hand-tailored to his distinctive form. Of course, the hand-tailoring was a flat-out necessity, because all off-the-rack clothing was designed and sewn for wearers with normal human anatomy… Xavier's cell phone pulsed at him, a two-minute warning before he was scheduled to jump into the spotlight. He hrrphf out a small breath. Right. Showtime. And Jay Xavier, who was also publicly known as the heroic speedster Jubatus, stepped out of the private room in which he'd gotten dressed… …and into a veritable ocean of paparazzi. Some people enjoyed being the center of attention; Xavier wasn't among that number. Fortunately, he didn't actively hate notoriety, but, rather, that in his view, being a public figure tended to have side-effects which got in the way of doing the job, for almost any value of the word "job". Here and now, however, those side=effects were the job, so he made a point of swallowing his reflexive snark, and generally doing as best he could to be a solid, respectable figure. Like that's gonna work. Well, maybe… having Mr. Moneybags here as a "fame attractor", to pull everyone's eyeballs away from me, sure won't hurt… As was his habit, Xavier had made a point of researching the people he was working with. There was Amir "Asad" al-Misri, energy-absorbing hero of Middle Eastern descent with a ten-digit bank balance; Lady Winter, a Russian cryo-type super with greater-than-normal-human strength; and Catherine Fields, only child of an Australian technocrat. Xavier wasn't sure why Fields had chosen to move to Freedom City, but if he could judge from the available data, her reasons did not involve being on the outs with Daddy. Noting that Fields wasn't feeling confident in her ability to carry off her role in the affair, Xavier said, "Hello, Ms. Fields. I'm Jay Xavier, ay-kay-ay Jubatus, and if you don't recognize this face, you must not watch the news at all." Hope I didn't come off too disapproving. "As for the presentation, I have a pretty damn solid grasp of the technical details—but I'm also enough of an asshole that me standing in for you is probably Plan E or F. So how about this for a Plan B: If you've got a text-capable phone I can hook up with, I can feed you answers to pretty much any question the newsthings drop on you. Think that'd be worth trying?"

Interesting. There's a fine line between "silence to encourage underlings to do their own research", and the "mushroom" style of management; wonder which side of that line al-Misri falls on? Xavier's immediate response, delivered deadpan: "Well, sure—even I can't run faster than the speed of rumor." Note to self: Ask her about my rep. With any luck, her answer will tell me something about the data-sources she accessed when researching me. Her explanation of the company policy regarding photograph made sense, but Xavier wondered about the details of how the company enforced it—after all, the old Soviet Union had a Constitution which guaranteed its citizens all kinds of rights. On paper, anyway. In reality, well… Okay, I think I like this one. And that a woman like her holds a position of high-end responsibility at Summit, is a point in al-Misri's favor. "Good to know. If we end up working together, it might be interesting to compare notes." And since she's saying she did the research on her own intiative, I really want to know— "Speaking of notes, what info have you acquired on me? If any bits of it are outdated or just wrong, maybe I can set you straight." Let's if she groks me well enough to realize I will be truthful, even when the truth doesn't reflect well on me.

Jay Xavier made a point of paying attention to how normal humans reacted to his blatantly non-human self. Okay… the guard-things get twitchy on sight of me, but van Cleef, there, takes it totally in stride. Point for her. Hmm… not exactly a pleasant expression; no wonder the financial press calls her "the Wicked Witch of Summit Transnational", the feline thought to himself. Kind of mixed signals for greeting a scheduled guest, though… "That's me!" he replied, returning her handshake. "It's good to be recognized." "I do, and it's not a problem." Let's see what happens when I poke a little, and whether she notices that the poke could also apply to me… "Can't imagine why he'd object to yet another photograph, though. You'd think the guy's used to it by now. Still, his house, his rules, right?" Once the two were safely enclosed in the elevator, Xavier decided on a separate verbal jab, just to see how she'd respond: "Interesting reaction. Did al-Misri brief you about me, or is your poker face just that good?"

Jubatus Edit done by Ecal, very very quickly Root of the changes: Jube's Timeshift is getting stronger, from an upper limit of a tempo of 40 to an upper limit of a tempo of 80. This means his TImeshift container is bigger, and his DEX has risen a bit. Like so: Jube's 'speech' is derived from the fact that cheetahs are good at sound effects. He should logically be able to put this trick to wider use. Like so: There are some Feats I felt it was appropriate for the cheetah to have. Like so: On the assumption that the above-listed items are all okay, I've incorporated everything into the character sheet, inside the Spoiler tag. Hopefully with proper formatting and all…

By rights, the email should have ended up in Jay Xavier's Spam folder. Its body contained an offer of employment (an archetypal subject for spam emails); its 'From:' line proclaimed it to have come from the Summit Transnational financial organization (spammers loved to make their messages appear to originate from Very Important Sources); the email claimed it had been written by one 'Amir ibn Jafar ibn Abd al-Aziz al-Misri', the filthy rich CEO of Summit Transnational (spammers loved to make their messages seem to have been sent by Very Important People). So the message should have been routed directly to Xavier's Spam folder. It wasn't—because the email's headers displayed no indication whatsoever of tampering or forgery. And there were other aspects of the email which argued against its being spam. For instance, the body of the email employed grammar, vocabulary, and sentence structure that were all broadly consistent with those of statements al-Misri was known to have made to the press, not to mention there weren't any errors in spelling nor grammatical errors. So Xavier's email-handling algorithms routed the message to his Not Spam? folder, which he'd set up for 'false positives', emails that just might be genuine in spite of displaying spam-like characteristics… To reply, or not to reply… Xavier was of course aware of al-Misri's public image: The man was a filthy rich playboy whose nocturnal exploits fueled any number of breathless 'reports' in tabloid 'newspapers'—and a superhero whose powers were apparently based on the absorption and release of energy. An interesting dichotomy, that. Hm… sure doesn't seem like he does the hero thing while he's drunk… Xavier went digging through public data, financial records and press releases; what companies and projects Summit Transnational had invested in since al-Misri took over, which people had accepted what positions in Summit's organizational chart, and so on and so forth. As Xavier pored over the information he'd acquired, he gradually came to suspect that al-Misri's public image as a feckless fop might be nothing more than a role he played for public consumption. Which made sense; an opponent who believed you were an ineffectual pleasure-hound was an opponent who'd be that much easier for you to triumph over. For all Xavier knew, the man might actually have been a feckless fop before that supercollider incident. Even so, it was hard to make al-Misri fit that profile now. So okay, the 'playboy' is a mask, Xavier mused. What sort of man is hiding behind the mask? By default, Xavier accepted Balzac's notion that 'behind every great fortune lies a great crime'; however, he regarded this as a tentative presumption, not an unshakable fact. Anyway, he only inherited it, so Amir ain't guilty of whatever crime-or-crimes lie behind behind the al-Misri fortune. Which says nothing about whatever other crimes he may be guilty of… It seemed likely (albeit not overwhelmingly so) that whatever al-Misri had in mind, it involved Jubatus; among other things, that hypothesis went a long way towards explaining the near-complete absence of detailed information in the man's email. But what does he want? Could be he's thinking 'hero team', fine. Say it's that. Is it a team of heroes who work for the greater public good, or a bunch of bought-and-paid-for flunkies who do what's good for Summit and blow off the rest of humanity? And maybe it's not a hero team he's looking for… In the end, Xavier wrote and sent a reply: As part of Xavier's preparations before appearing at Summit Transnational, he made damn sure to wear his Vest of Many Things (the primary tool he used in his superheroing), and likewise, he made damn sure the Vest's many pockets were all filled with useful tools and other items. Whatever al-Misri's game was, Xavier couldn't come up with a scenario in which it would be bad to be prepared in case things turned sour… The feline blurred to a stop before the imposing edifice of Summit's Freedom City HQ. 10:15 AM, good. Let's see how this is gonna work. He walked in through the automatic doors—No evident pressure-sensors. IR, maybe?—and up to the receptionist, who goggled at his approach. Oh, great… hope she's not a fangirl or a human-supremacist freak… "Hi, there. My name's Jay Xavier, and I'm here for my 10:30 appointment."

"You and a lot of other people," Xavier replied. "Not the first time I've guessed wrong about what other people will like." "Possible, yes, but far from required. Like I said: Whatever happened here, it was pretty low-intensity." Radio? Hm. Not sure what she's picking up on, Xavier thought to himself. In answer to Constance's question, he said, "I don't know what Riff can do for you—hell, it might be that he can't do a damned thing to help you out." He spoke quietly, trusting that the involuntary soundwave would be able to filter out his words from the ambient crowd-noise, and acknowledging his fans with silent gestures of his arms and hands. "What I do know, is that if there actually is some way to help you, Riff is much more likely to have that solution on tap than I am. And I know that he's a hell of a lot more knowledgeable about sound than I am, so he'll have a hell of a lot better idea of what your options are. Let's put it this way: The situation you're in is a crapshoot, and if I was making a list of people who can load the dice in your favor, Riff would definitely be on that list. He's not the only one, just the most readily accessible at the moment. Okay?" As the two wended their way through the throngs of music-lovers, Xavier kept a watchful eye out in all directions. If he and/or Constance was surprised by some hostile entity, it wouldn't be for want of his attention!

Character concept: A seeming mega-ninja who is, in reality, a technogeek who's faking it with holographic illusions & other such light-based gadgets.

I'm mostly happy with Jube's sheet as it stands, but there are some things I'd like to add and/or change. This is basically a wish list of all such things; while it'd be nice if I could do them all in one fell swoop, I won't kvetch if that isn't doable… Jube is PL12. With his trade-offs, his caps are +14 Attack; +10 Damage; +14 Defense; and +10 Toughness. I'll have to keep these figures in mind when I'm tweaking things. I think it's appropriate for Jubatus to have raised the top end on his Timeshifting. He started out with an upper limit of 40* normal speed; let's raise that to 80 or so. This means buying up Jube's Timeshift container from its current cost of 30 pp: Timeshift (35PP Container [Active]) [35pp] [[+5 pts spent!]] [*:14p1wdbc]Enhanced Feats 7 (Improved Initiative 7) [7pp] Raises Jube's Initiative bonus from +31 to +35 [*:14p1wdbc]Enhanced STR 14 [14pp] Raises Jube's STR from 18 to 20 [*:14p1wdbc]Quickness 7 (x250) [7pp] [*:14p1wdbc]Speed 7 (1,000 MPH/10,000 ft per Move Action) [6pp] And since his Timeshift effectively boosts his DEX, let's raise his DEX from 24 to 28. [[+4 pts spent!]] This gives Jube a DEX modifier of +9, which is under his caps, so that's fine. Since Jube can be literally quicker than the eye can follow, it would make sense for him to have Invisibility/Concealment with the flaw "Only when Speed 7 is active". Am inclined to think that this should really cover all senses, since the rationale behind the 'concealment' is that Jube isn't staying in one place long enough to register on an observer's senses. By the same token, this 'concealment' should be ineffective against anyone with Mental Quickness, because those people think fast enough to notice very short-duration events, which looks to me like another Limited flaw. So in theory, this is the maximum 10 ranks in Concealment, with a pair of +1 Flaws, which should add up to 5pp. 5 pts spent here Since cheetahs are pretty good with sound effects just because, I want Jube to have Feature (Mimicry) to cover his ability to imitate any sound. 1 pt spent here Points spent on Powers: 15 Feats: The house rules explicitly allow Online Research, from the Mecha & Manga rulebook, and that feat is very appropriate for Jube. 1 pt spent here Throw one pp into a 2nd rank of Benefit: Wealth. 1 pt spent here Dude really ought to have Well-Informed. 1 pt spent here Jube should have Fearless, on the grounds that he spends so much time being frightened of himself, it's kind of hard for any external fear-source to make an impression. 1 pt spent here Takedown Attack is close to mandatory for a speedster. 1 pt spent here Improvised Tools seems right for Jube. 1 pt spent here Eidetic Memory, too, seems right for Jube. 1 pt spent here Total points spent here: 7 Since I've got 29 pts unspent, the 22 pts' worth of "wish list" here are okay on that criterion. Now to incorporate this stuff into the character sheet… Players Name: Cubist Characters Name: Jubatus Power Level: 12 (180PP/187PP) Trade-Offs: +2 Attack / -2 Damage, +2 Defense / -2 Toughness Unspent PP: 7 Progress to Silver Status: 37/60 In Brief: Speedster who is his own worst enemy -- his toughest challenge will be overcoming 'the demons within' Alternate Identities: Jay Nelson Xavier Identity: Public (it's kind of hard to maintain a Secret Identity when you're blatantly Not Human...) Birthplace: San Francisco Bay Area Occupation: Freelancer specializing in technological troubleshooting and tech writing Affiliations: Sometimes works with Martin Brandtford of ASTRO Labs for scientific purposes Family: Parents: Albert Xavier (father -- dead), Rebecca Xavier (mother -- Alzheimer's-stricken 105-year-old in nursing home). Siblings, in birth order: Corrie Xavier (sister, 86), Maxwell Xavier (brother, dead), Dan Xavier (brother, dead), Elaine Xavier (sister, 79), Nancy Xavier (sister, dead), Randolph Xavier (brother, 64). Jube is aware that he has several more-distant relatives (cousins, etc) in various parts of the US and Europe, but has never attempted to build relationships with any of these persons Age: 65 (DoB: September, 1946) Apparent Age: Young adult (how old does a cheetah look..?) Gender: Male Ethnicity: Cheetah (formerly Caucasian) Height: 6'1" Weight: 102 lbs Eyes: Green Hair: Fur w/ typical cheetah markings -- sandy-yellow w/ black spots all over, with white on the torso's front side Description: First impression: The guy's a cheetah, end of discussion. A closer look reveals that his braincase is rather larger than that of a 'real' cheetah, and the digits on his forepaws are a fair amount longer, slimmer, and more dexterous than those of a 'real' cheetah (which isn't saying much). He typically doesn't wear anything more than a khaki vest that's got ridiculously many (gadget-filled) pockets. Power Descriptions: Jubatus' only exotic ability is what he calls "Timeshifting", the power to control how quickly Time flows for himself. He calls it 'upshifting' when he's running faster than normal, and 'downshifting' when he's running slower than normal. This ability has some innate side-effects. One, gravity becomes weaker (when he upshifts) or stronger (when he downshifts). Two, it 'Doppler shifts' all wavelengths (of light or sound or whatever else); when he's running X* faster than normal, he percieves all wavelengths as 1/X of their 'normal' value. History: With an IQ around 140, Jay Nelson Xavier has been 'the smartest kid in the room' for most of his childhood (and a good fraction of his adult life). Thanks to an intermittent, continuing series of abusive incidents at the hands of his so-called 'peer group', incidents which were either ignored or dismissed as "kids playing around" by adults who were nominally in positions of responsibility, Jay learned early on that most people are stupid or crazy or both... a conclusion which was only reinforced during his adolescence and later years. For the past 30-40 years, Jay has been a technocrat, specializing in troubleshooting and technical writing; his life was a comfortable routine of accepting, and fulfulling, freelance contracts. That comfortable routine ended a few months ago. Unknown to Jay, he'd been chosen by a Grue sleeper agent as a suitable test-subject for biological experimentation... so one day, Jay went to sleep normal, and woke up with a five-o'clock shadow that just wouldn't quit. Overnight, his body had changed from 'normal human' to 'almost-normal cheetah'. As if the associated changes to his vision, hearing, and other senses weren't bad enough, he also found himself 'floating', as if gravity had somehow been reduced to 1/6 of its customary strength. Confused and disoriented by this radical transformation, Jay managed to dial 9-1-1... and that freaked him out even more: There was no person on the other end of the line, just a slow basso droning. Even worse, Jay discovered that he was no longer capable of speech -- all that came out of his mouth were animal noises! In desperation, Jay barked out the classic SOS code. Then he lost consciousness... Jay woke up in a hospital room, tied to a bed by loose restraints. During the week or so he spent in hospital, Jay learned about his new, highly cheetah-esque body; what he could and couldn't eat safely, that he was permanently stuck at 6* faster than the rest of the world, etc etc. As well, he figured out how to talk with a vocal tract that can't produce speech (the secret is, make a series of carefully-selected sound effects that sound like human words), and how to 'downshift' (slow himself down) to the same speed as everybody else. At which point, he returned to his normal life, as best he could. A week after his release from hospital, Jay happened to be passing by the site of a five-on-one mugging. Ordinarily, Jay would have just dialed 9-1-1 on his cellphone and let the police handle it... but this time, he couldn't just let the victim suffer, because he was a by-God human being, not a friggin' animal! Jay thought his monstrous appearance would be enough to drive the thugs away. Wrong: Inhuman he might seem, but he was also obviously scared & underconfident, and he appeared to be a scrawny little bugger (6' tall and 100 lbs). So the thugs figured a weak, frightened animal (albeit one that was a little bit larger than the last animal they'd tortured) would be easy meat. The thugs were very wrong: In the ensuing scuffle, Jay 'upshifted' for the first time, and his 'beast side' took over for the first time... or at least he friggin' well hopes it was his 'beast side' taking over. Because when it was over, Jay was horrified to see all five thugs sprawled out on the asphalt, unmoving, in puddles of their own blood. Jay called for ambulances, and spent the next several minutes puking his guts out. All five of the thugs were alive when the ambulances arrived. Jay reported the incident to the police, who assured him that there would be no legal repercussions -- it was a clear case of self-defense on behalf of an innocent victim -- which made Jay feel a little better about his having ripped and torn and shredded and... anyway, Jay resolved that the next time he came across a crime-in-progress, he would let the police handle it. Then the parents of one of the thugs insisted on charging Jay with assault and battery! However the judge might have originally planned to handle this case, Jay derailed that plan by pleading guilty. So the judge was forced to come up with a 'plan B'. Well, it was pretty clear that Jay wanted to be a good citizen... but it was also clear that he was having problems dealing with his newly-transformed body, and that he could be a danger to the public, if those problems weren't dealt with. In the end, the judge ordered Jay to get the psychological help he so clearly needed. Now, some few months of treatment later, Jay still has bad days from time to time... but his mental condition is sufficiently improved that when his therapist suggested Jay put his special abilities to public-spirited use, Jay agreed. And now Jay battles injustice with the blazing speed of... Jubatus! Personality & Motivation: Jay Nelson Xavier has never been anyone's idea of a superhero. He's a cynical, hardshell pragmatist, and while he does have altruistic impulses, his life experiences have forcibly taught him that acting on said impulses usually has a bad outcome. However, he has recently come to understand that the results of ignoring altruistic impulses can be worse. Jay has few friends, and he likes it that way -- especially now that his brain has been rewired to add cheetah traits/instincts, such as their generally solitatry nature. Jay, a detail-oriented fussbudget, is aware that he's more competent than most people, but where some might think "damn, I'm great!", Jay wonders "why can't they do it, too?" Part of the reason Jay acts as a superhero is because he believes his cheetah-like body is doomed to die of old age within 2-3 years, and he's determined to make as much of a difference as he can, while he's still capable. In reality, Jay's accelerated metabolism heals the ravages of Time as quickly they occur, so he's effectively immune to aging -- he just doesn't know this yet. Powers & Tactics: Jube is about speed and precision, not brute force. He prefers the surgically exact strike to carpet-bombing, pre-planned activity to improvisation. Complications: Can't Touch Me: Jube's Danger Sense is permanently active -- he cannot shut it down -- and whenever the DS thinks there's trouble inbound, it actives his Timeshift for Jube... The Nature of the Beast: Jube's eyes and ears are cheetah-normal; thus, he has lousy color discrimination, and he cannot hear any sounds below 100 Hz or so. The digits on his forepaws are longer and slimmer than those of normal cheetahs, but nowhere near as good as human fingers; hence Jube's manual dexterity suffers at times. Obligate carnivore; chewing on one leaf won't hurt him, but a whole salad would give him horrible diarrhea. Human-style clothing is very uncomfortable -- it chafes against his fur and makes him overheat, not to mention his skeletal structure is all wrong for it -- so he wears as little of it as he can get away with. Jube's voice sounds terrible; he can't actually speak, so he strings together carefully-selected sound effects to produce 'speech' which is easy to comprehend. Jube is naturally quadrupedal, but he insists on standing up on his hind legs anyway, no matter how much it hurts. Thou Shalt Not...: Jube is very very very opposed to killing anything, and takes a rather dim view of even inflicting injury; he's scared spitless that the scent of blood might allow his 'beast side' to take over. Time Will Let Me: Jube's Timeshift affects gravity (Timeshifting slower = stronger gravity; faster = weaker gravity). He can Timeshift to slower than normal, with the accompanying effect on personal gravity. As well, the Timeshift affects anything with a wavelength; when Jube is running N* faster than normal, he percieves the frequency of an X-Hertz sound as (X/N) Hz, and analogous color-shifts affect light. This quirk affects Jube's Infravision, Ultravision, and Ultrasonic Hearing, and he may eventually learn to exploit it for X-ray Vision. Too Darn Fast: Jube's bodily processes (metabolism, nerve impulses, etc) are permanently stuck at 6* normal speed; in order to interact with normal-speed characters, he must use his Timeshift power to slow down to their speed. As well, he needs to eat 6* more than anyone else; Jube going 1 day without food affects him much the same way a normal person would be affected by not eating for 6 days straight. Similarly, Jube's sleep cycle is 1/6 as long as that of any normal person. Abilities: -4 +18 +4 +8 +6 +2 = 34pp Str 18/06 (+4/-2) Dex 28 (+9) Con 14 (+2) Int 18 (+4) Wis 16 (+3) Cha 12 (+1) Combat: 12 + 20 = 32pp Initiative: +9/+37 Attack: +6 ranged, +12 melee Grapple: +16/+10 Defense: +10 (+10 Base), +5 Flat-Footed Knockback: -5, -1 Flat-Footed Saving Throws: 4 + 0 + 6 = 10 Toughness: +10 (+2 Con, +8 Defensive Roll) / +2 Flat-Footed Fortitude: +6 (+2 Con, +4) Reflex: +7 (+7 Dex, +0) Will: +9 (+3 Wis, +6) Skills: 32R = 8pp Knowledge: Business 4 (+8) Knowledge: Current Events 4 (+8) Knowledge: Technology 5 (+9) Knowledge: Theology and Philosophy 5 (+9) Language 2 (English [native], Spanish, French) Notice 6 (+9) Sense Motive 4 (+7) Stealth 2 (+9)9 Feats: 24PP Attack Focus (Melee) 6 Benefit: Wealth 2 Defensive Roll 4 (+8 Toughness) Eidetic Memory Environmental Adaptation (Low gravity) Evasion Fearless Improvised Tools Jack of All Trades Master Plan Online Research Stunning Attack Takedown Attack Uncanny Dodge (Motion Sense) Well-Informed Powers: 5 + 1 + 6 + 2 + 2 + 5 + 6 + 1 + 7 + 1 + 1 + 35 = 72PP Concealment 10: (vs all senses except tactile, Complications: Power Loss [Only active when Speed 7 is in play], Power Loss [Doesn't affect observers with Mental Quickness]) [5PP] Feature 1 (Mimicry: Jube's throat produces excellent sound effects) [1PP] Gadgets 1 (easy to lose; incomplete listing of Jube's toys is hidden under a Spoiler tag) [6pp] Immunity 2 (aging, cheetah-specific & human-specific diseases) [2pp] Regeneration 2 (Recovery Rate: Bruised 1 [1 round], Staggered 1 [20 minutes]) [2pp] Strike 4 (Feats: Mighty) (Claws, fangs) [5pp] Super-Movement 3 (Safe Fall, Sure-footed, Wall-Crawling) [6PP] Super-Movement 1 (Water Walking, Complications: Power Loss [Only active when Jube is Timeshifted faster than his default tempo of 6]) [1PP] Super-Senses 7: (Danger Sense (Motion Sense), Low-light Vision, Motion Sense [Tactile, Extras: Ranged], Normal Olfactory Sense [Extras: Acute, Tracking], Ultrasonic Hearing) [7PP] Super-Senses 1: (Infravision, Complications: Power Loss [Only active when Jube is Timeshifted slower than normal]) [1PP] Super-Senses 1: (Ultravision, Complications: Power Loss [Only active when Jube is Timeshifted faster than his default tempo of 6]) [1PP] Timeshift (35PP Container [Active]) [35pp] [*:14p1wdbc]Enhanced Feats 7 (Improved Initiative 7) [7pp] [*:14p1wdbc]Enhanced STR 14 [14pp] [*:14p1wdbc]Quickness 7 (250) [7pp] [*:14p1wdbc]Speed 7 (1,000 MPH/10,000 ft per Move Action) [7pp] DC Block: ATTACK   RANGE   SAVE vs.          EFFECT Unarmed   Touch   Toughness, DC19 (15+4)   Damage (Physical) Strike   Touch   Toughness, DC23 (15+8)   Damage (Physical) Blast    Range   Toughness, DC17 (15+2)   Damage (Physical) / from Gadgets Snare    Touch   Reflex, DC20 (15+5)     Entanglement / from Gadgets Abilities (34) + Combat (32) + Saving Throws (10) + Skills (8) + Feats (24) + Powers (72) = 180pp/187pp

I'm willing to throw Jubatus into this thread, but given his innate cynicism, "please save my dad from reaping the evil that he sowed" is… not the sort of call for help he's likely to say 'yes' to. So here's an alternative route to pull the kitty into this plot: Franklin Moore is a deceitful, manipulative scuzzbucket who got elected Mayor, back in the 1980s, on a platform of "zero tolerance" for crime and vigilantism. So he could be just the sort of person to try exploiting this dangerous situation for personal gain. Scheme: Ask various heroes for help. If they don't remember the 1980s, great! If they do, he can make noise about how his daughter might be in danger of getting caught up in this mess, and even if Moore deserves to lose, can't the hero find it in their heart to protect little Alicia? Once he's got a patsy, I mean 'hero', in his corner, Moore offers whatever help he can, in the form of information, resources, whatever. The gameplan here is to slowly corrupt the hero, getting them to do increasingly icky stuff, starting with trivial offenses and building up (down) the moral scale, always providing the hero a plausible rationale for whatever-it-was—until Moore has enough info on the hero's misdeeds to blackmail said hero into submission. Thus does Moore end up with a superpowered henchman at his beck & call! Or at least, that's what Moore thinks… Moore talks to Jubatus early on. One, Jube has Public ID, so Moore can get in touch without calling in favors. Two, Jube has saved Butterfly's butt once before, in circumstances that were sufficiently public that Moore could plausibly know about it, and Moore might think Jube feels responsible for the woman whose life he (Jube) saved. Three, Jube is a weird-looking freak, so Moore might believe it would be easy for him to win Jube over with shows of friendship and support that the feline isn't likely to get anywhere else—and hey, it's easy to whip up public opinion against weird-looking freaks, right? Four, Jubatus is a cat, so Moore might well underestimate Jube's intelligence, thinking the feline is gonna be an easy mark. For his part, Jube agrees solely and entirely for the purpose of making sure Butterfly doesn't get hurt. As for the rest of it… we'll just have to see how Moore's scheme unfolds during play. Yes? No?

This response was unexpected, but not implausible; Xavier sold his CDs online, and he knew that some of his customers wanted their discs sent to addresses beyond U.S. borders. "Yeah, Running With the U-Boat," he said with a smile. "Never could figure out how that one got as popular as it did; I always saw it as a fluffy little joke, myself." "More like 'lying with the truth'," Xavier replied. "The Freedom City greater metropolitan area is a few hundred square kilometers, okay? So: At any given moment, there is a decent chance of some kind of super-involved incident happening somewhere within those few hundred square klicks. But that sentence is equally true if you swap out 'super-involved incident' for pretty much any kind of event, so just how meaningful a statement is it? All of which said and acknowledged, yeah, it sounds like there might have been a super-fight. However, it doesn't seem like there's any other sign of the fight than just people talking about it—no wreckage, no overturned cars, none of that kind of stuff—so I'm thinking it must not've been a bad one." And the feline scanned the surrounding area with his eyes, looking for indications of what might have actually happened…

The character Jenny Everywhere, aka "The Shifter", is an attempt to apply Open Source software-development techniques to a fictional character. Given the basic premise quoted above, it's clear that (an avatar of) Jenny must necessarily exist in Freedom City's universe, so I thought it might be interesting to work up her MnM character sheet. So… I'm thinking this character's FC-avatar could work best as a "guardian of the multiverse"-type NPC, somewhere in the general vicinity of Dr. Who. When a threat to cosmic/multiversal stability arises, Jenny knows it; she knows who can best deal with said threat; she can provide any and all required transportation, between any two locations anywhere in the multiverse. Whenever "who can best deal with it" means Jenny herself, she does deal with it herself; otherwise, she "calls for the cavalry", i.e. she recruits PC heroes to do what she herself cannot. That way, Jenny won't upstage any PCs "on camera". Transportation: Dimensional and Temporal Movement, of course. 3 ranks in Dimensional; 2 ranks in Temporal. Since she can carry other people along with her, slap Affects Others and some Area on it. The base cost of Super-Move is 2 pts/rank; Affects Others raises that to 3 pts/rank; Area boosts it to 4 pts/rank. So this is a (5 ranks, at 4 pts/rank) 20-pt power. Area comes in several flavors, distinguished by the shape of the area; since this is Jenny's transportation, let's make it Burst—"circular area with a 5-foot radius per rank", which works out to a 25-foot radius. Hmm… that seems big enough for most purposes, and if it's not Jenny can use a Power Stunt to throw some Progression on that Area. Detecting threats to multiversal stability: Multiverse Awareness, with Acute, Analytical, Accurate, Radius, Tracking, and enough Extended to cover everything. I think Jenny should have this awareness regardless of what her mundane senses happen to be doing, so let's assign this to the 'special' sense type. Extended works in an interesting way: Your range increment with the sense is increased by a factor of 10. Each additional time you apply this option, your range increment increases by an additional factor of 10, so one increase makes the range increment 100, two makes it 1,000, and so on. I want this sense to be operative over distances that are literally astronomical, so I need more than one or two ranks in Extended. 1 light year is 9.5*1015 meters; five ranks in Extended yields a range increment of 1015, which is fine for a range increment of 1 light year. But the observable universe has a radius of about 46 billion light years, and Metron only knows how much more universe there is outside our 'light cone'! So let's give her six ranks in Extended, for a range increment of 1021; that should be good enough to cover the entirety of the Milky Way Galaxy and then some. I'm unsure about whether or not to throw in some Dimensional. On the one hand, it would certainly make sense for Jenny to be able to detect multiversal-stability-threats in other dimensions; on the other hand, that's why Kenson invented power stunts, right? "accumulated wisdom of all her other selves": Since these "other selves" are all Jenny-avatars, in any and every universe whatsoever, I'm thinking Variable (All Skills) here, at the 6 pp/rank level. Yes, this is something that the rednames would rightly be very leery about allowing any PC to have, assuming they don't just disallow it outright—but Jenny is an NPC, so that's okay. 2 ranks yield 10 points' worth of skills, which, in turn, buys a total of +40 in whichever skills; that seems like it should be adequate for just about anything. Apart from skills, there are some feats which would be appropriate in this context. Inventor (because some Jenny-avatars live in super-science worlds), Artificer (Jenny-avatars in magic-dominated worlds), Ritualist (see above), Ambidexterity, Eidetic Memory, Fearless, Animal Empathy, Improvised Tools. It should be clear that Jenny knows every language in the multiverse. Comprehend/Language 3, that is. "shape or change dimensional properties": This gets weird, but I'm thinking Environmental Control (pg 48 in ULTIMATE POWER) is the keystone of this ability. And here's the (incomplete, work in progress) character sheet… Player Name: NPC—inapplicable Character Name: Jenny Everywhere, aka The Shifter Power Level: (7 or 10) (105/105PP or 150/150PP) Trade-Offs: +/-0 Attack / +/-0 Damage, +/-0 Defense / +/-0 Toughness (or "None") Unspent PP: 0 Progress To Bronze Status: 0/30 In Brief: Guardian of the multiverse whose mind has access to all the knowledge/memories of all her alternate-dimension avatars Alternate Identity: Identity: (Public or Secret) Birthplace: Occupation: Affiliations: (People and/or groups you work with) Family: Age: ??? (DoB: Month [Optionally, Day & Month], Year) Apparent Age: (if applicable) Gender: Ethnicity: Height: Weight: Eyes: Hair: Description: Power Descriptions: (if applicable) History: (Please remember we are a relatively family friendly site. Your story should be PG-13 at most. If your character wouldn't fit in an episode of Justice League Unlimited, The Dresden Files, or Buffy the Vampire Slayer, please rethink it.) Personality & Motivation: Powers & Tactics: Complications: Name: [Description] Example: Secret: Identity. Abilities: 0 + 0 + 0 + 0 + 0 + 0 = 0PP Strength: 10 (+0) Dexterity: 10 (+0) Constitution: 10 (+0) Intelligence: 10 (+0) Wisdom: 10 (+0) Charisma: 10 (+0) Combat: 0 + 0 = 0PP Initiative: +0 Attack: +0 Grapple: +0 Defense: +0 (+0 Base, +0 Dodge Focus), +0 Flat-Footed Knockback: -0 Saving Throws: 0 + 0 + 0 = 0PP Toughness: +0 (+0 Con, +0 [Other]) Fortitude: +0 (+0 Con, +0) Reflex: +0 (+0 Dex, +0) Will: +0 (+0 Wis, +0) Skills: 0R = 0PP None (see her Variable (Any & All Skills) power) Feats: 0PP Ambidexterity Animal Empathy Artificer Eidetic Memory Fearless Improvised Tools Inventor Ritualist [Feat Name] [Feat Name] [Feat Name] Examples: Accurate Attack Dodge Focus 2 Luck 2 Example: Please note that the Equipment quoteblock is only applicable if your character has the Equipment feat. Powers: 0 + 0 + 0 = 0PP Power/Array Name (Extras: ???, ???, Flaws: ???, ???, Feats: ???, ???, Drawbacks: ???, ???) (Descriptive Name, Descriptors) [XPP] Base Power: Power Name (Extras: ???, ???, Flaws: ???, ???, Feats: ???, ???, Drawbacks: ???, ???) (Descriptive Name, Descriptors) [XPP] Alternate Power: Power Name (Extras: ???, ???, Flaws: ???, ???, Feats: ???, ???, Drawbacks: ???, ???) (Descriptive Name, Descriptors) [XPP] Device 1 (5PP, Extras: ???, Flaws: Easy/Hard-To-Lose, ???, Feats: ???, Drawbacks: ???) (Descriptive Name, Descriptors) [3/4PP] Power Name (Extras: ???, ???, Flaws: ???, ???, Feats: ???, ???, Drawbacks: ???, ???) (Descriptive Name, Descriptors) [XPP] Examples: Comprehend 3 (Understand all languages, speak all languages, literate in all languages) [6PP] Environmental Control 10 (Any effects appropriate to the ability to "shape or change dimensional properties") [20PP] Super-Movement 5 (Dimensional Movement 3, Temporal Movement 2 Extras: Affects Others (+1), Area/Burst (+1)) [20PP] Super-Senses 11 (Multiverse Awareness (sense type: Special), Acute (Multi. Aware.), Analytical (Multi. Aware.), Extended 6 (Multi. Aware.), Radius (Multi. Aware.), Tracking (Multi. Aware.)) [11PP] Variable 10 (Any and all skills, re-assignable at any time) [60PP] Base Power: Blast 10 (Extras: Autofire, Flaws: Action [Full], Feats: Accurate, Drawbacks: Full Power) (Chain Lightning) [20PP] Alternate Power: Blast 10 (Extras: Area [General, Burst], Flaws: Distracting) (Ball Lightning) [20PP] Alternate Power: Stun 6 (Extras: Range [Ranged]) [18PP] Device 2 (10PP, Flaws: Hard-To-Lose, Feats: Indestructible) (Mighty Shield) [9PP] Damage 3 (Feats: Improved Critical, Mighty, Thrown) [6PP] Force Field 2 [2PP] Shield 2 [2PP] NOTE: If your powers do not have any Extras, Flaws, Feats or Drawbacks, you do not need to include those categories. I.e., if you have a plain Blast 10 (a bolt of fire), all you need to write is "Blast 10 (Fire Bolt) [20PP]." Drawbacks: (-0) + (-0) = -0PP Drawback (Description, Frequency: [uncommon, Common, or Very Common], Intensity: [Minor, Moderate, or Major]) [-XPP] Example: Vulnerability (Fire, Frequency: Common, Intensity: Major [x2 DMG]) [-4PP] (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) NOTE: The easiest way to get your DC Block to line up is to write it out in a word processor in a Courier font, then just copy/paste it into your post. Abilities (0) + Combat (0) + Saving Throws (0) + Skills (0) + Feats (0) + Powers (0) - Drawbacks (0) = 105/105 (or 150/150) Power Points

Thrumming? Ringing? Whatever the sound was, it didn't much resemble anything Xavier had heard before; his ears flicked without conscious volition, reflexively attempting to zero in on the source of the peculiar noise. Yeah, she's a living soundwave, alright. Probability of that just cracked the "perverse not to grant provisional assent" barrier. He was acutely aware that his ears just didn't register anything below 100 Hertz or so, and he wondered what he was missing on the low end… Damn. I was afraid she'd ask that. The question hardly hurt at all, so Xavier decided to answer honestly, rather than provide any sort of evasive un-response: "These days… Not a lot of contemporary tunes, hip-hop or rap or like that. I, hrrrm… My ears have been crap for lower frequencies ever since I went through some pretty extensive changes a while back, so anything that's built on serious percussion, I can't hear a good chunk of it. I'm listening to instrumental stuff, mostly." And will she connect the dots from how [bg=black]xxix[/bg]ty my voice sounds? "The kind of things Tomita and Wendy Carlos have done with Bach, for instance—and if you've never heard any of those names, yes, I do have old-fashioned tastes in music. Hrr… Ever heard of Jinx?" he asked. 'Jinx' was the name under which Xavier had recorded and self-published seven CDs of his own music; it would be interesting to find out if Constance knew anything about Jinx.

Jubatus didn't raise his eyebrows at this reply—but only because he didn't have eyebrows to raise. Hm. Wasn't that many clock-seconds ago, she was practically nailed to this spot. She's getting used to her condition? "Okay, sounds like a plan," the feline said. He started moving at normal-for-a-civilian walking speed, and asked, "What sort of music d' you like?" In part, the intent of his question was to continue giving Constance other things to think about than her bizarre state of existence; in part, Jube wanted to see if she actually could move from this spot, which she hadn't been able to before. Not gonna upshift on her—assuming she truly is a living sound-wave now, my top speed is four, five times greater than hers.

It's a swarm of bees. X hundred (thousand?) of them alight on the steering wheel, grab on with all six legs, and buzz their wings to provide sufficient thrust to turn the wheel. An analogous solution should work for the acceleration pedal.

Jubatus The 'census figures' for each thread may not be completely up to date, so it'd be prudent to confirm them independently… Canon threads Crashing In // 1 post Medical Maladies Riffsational! // 7 posts Too Good to Be True? Naaaaah // 7 posts Ventures Interrupted // 4 posts Walk and Squeak and Squawk // 1 post NPCs Acinonyx

Philos hadn't said anything that was new to Jubatus. The feline had a well-informed layman's grasp of ecological realities, and he knew very well that Nature often was "red in tooth and claw", as the maxim went… "I get that. 'Rabbits to australia', invasive species, I grok. And for all I know, that poor bastard may actually be enough of a problem, in and of itself, that killing it is the least-worst way to handle the situation. I'm just saying… before anybody pulls the trigger, let's at least consider other options, okay?" Putting Sharktopus in an aquarium? Jube's detail-oriented mind immediately reviewed the practical difficulties that would have to be overcome before that was a viable option: How much food does that monster need—don't think it masses as much as a blue whale—how do you make an enclosure for an aquatic beastie that size—dear Artemis, the cost of it all— That careening train of thought wasn't helpful, so Jubatus stifled it. He had plenty of practice not-thinking about unpleasant topics; the trick was to focus your attention on a different topic. Such as the task of accompanying Philos to the Freedom League! One quick mental review of what little data he had on Philos later, the cheetah spoke: "Riding shotgun won't be a problem for me, either, Philos. Just one thing: It doesn't seem all that likely that landing here was part of your actual flight plan. Which is why I'm thinking it'd be prudent to assume you've got an enemy who sabotaged your ship, so you didn't have any choice in the matter. Can you think of anyone who might want to screw up your life?"

Stupid question: Will each hero be sucked into a single-player game, or will they all end up in the same (multi-player) scenario?

Edge shouted for everyone to hang on, and then— —weirdness— —What the hell just happened!? Jubatus thought. He had no words to describe it, only the inadequate label 'weirdness'. But whatever it was, it had literally made his hackles rise, and made his instincts trigger a very strong Timeshift. That was… teleportation? But Edge isn't a teleporter, he's a transmuter… Suddenly, a chill crept down the cheetah's spine, all the way to the tip of his tail. He, could have, converted the matter of my body to air, and simultaneously converted some air in this location to an exact molecular copy of my body… Unbidden, Jube's brain started playing out scenarios, all the different ways in which this sort of 'teleportation' could go horribly wrong… No. Get a [bg=black]xxxx[/bg]ing grip, Jube. Whatever Edge did, it worked. And it worked without any glitches. He didn't reduce me to free-floating atoms and leave it at that, because I'm here to worry about it. He didn't edit my brain to make it impossible for me to think ill of him, because if he had done that, I wouldn't be scared [bg=black]xxix[/bg]less. He didn't do any of that nasty stuff. Calm the [bg=black]xxxx[/bg] down, Jube… Several very deep breaths later, Jubatus was back to… somewhere in the general vicinity of normal. The fear was still there, granted, but it had receded to somewhere within the usual background range that he had lots of practice ignoring. He wasn't panting in fear, wasn't shuddering, wasn't even twitching a little. Okay. I'm as good as I get. Time to rejoin the others. When he downshifted, Edge was in the middle of a sentence: "—with a little more respect. Sea monsters, what can you do?" The ET's reply was just as long-winded as had been his little speech to Jubatus; for the ET's sake, Jube hoped the motormouth thing was just an emotion-driven reaction to stress, and not a standard personality trait. Dude's name is "Philos"? Okay. Animal handler, his reaction to me sort of makes sense. You'd think the bipedal posture and speaking would make a difference, though. Eh, whatever. "I got a better idea," Jubatus replied. "How about you transport that sucker out into the open ocean, far away from shipping lanes? Assuming you can do that, I mean. If killing it is the only viable option, that's one thing. I just don't like the idea of wasting a dumb animal for the 'crime' of doing what comes naturally to it."

Absolutely!

Absolutely!

Jubatus' first impression of the vessel-occupant, when he got a good look, was Ye gods, this guy's as thin as I am! However, he recovered from this minor surprise before he downshifted and said his piece. Fortunately, the ET's reaction wasn't hostile; he might even have understood Jube's words, praise Thoth for small favors. Oh, frigging joy. Your ship is sinking, dude! At least he speaks English… "Yes, I am. Now—" "Good question, but—" Sigh. Dude's not even listening. Might as well wait it out. A few clock-seconds more or less shouldn't make any significant difference; if it does, I can drag him up topside real fast. And if he doesn't mind losing all his stuff except what's on him, that's his business. The presumed pilot continued to babble, until an ominous creaking noise forcibly dragged him back to reality. "Yes it is, yes it is, and yes we should. Again: Anything you want me to bring with us when we go?" The feline performed his distinctive variation on a shrug. "I'm stronger than I look. But if you're okay with abandoning everything, fine. It's definitely time for us to bug out." Jubatus allowed the ET to exit the vehicle first, after which he blurred up onto the top of the hull himself. Ya think? No [bg=black]xxix[/bg], Sherlock. "Agreed. Two final questions before we get the hell out of here: One, is there anybody else on board who should be extracted? Two, does your vehicle contain anything that could be dangerous if it breaks, like maybe a stardrive or hypercapacity battery or some such?"