Derin

The man swallowed, his eyes not leaving Pyre's face. "His cousin's," he said. "43 Harlowe st." "Do any children live there?" "I don't know!" Whiplash sighed. It was a problem for later. And so was explaining a bullet wound to her daughter. She could probably just... wrap it in bandages, say it was a motorcycle accident. Or something. She could hear sirens in the distance. Ambulance and police. Good. "Alright. We can deal with that... later, I guess." 43 Harlowe st. She didn't know the address, but it shouldn't be hard to find. And she could deal with it in a way that didn't involve getting shot. Maybe the man would even tell the police. That's save her a lot of work.

Whiplash waved his concern away and winced at the jolt of pain in her shoulder. "Most of the smoke was just a sight-concealing grenade, it doesn't interfere with breathing enough to worry about. The fire smoke... well, I'm sure if it was going to kill me it already would have." She pulled up her sonic goggles, looking at the Lord-Pyre-style superhero and the goon for the first time. "Alright, who do you work for? Who's in charge?" "Jerry... Jerry Singer. He was in the building." "The man giving the orders. Who does he work for?" "Nobody, I don't think. I don't know!" "You sure?" "I don't know anything!" Whiplash swore under her breath. A random independent group. They'd be back to cooking the stuff in a couple of weeks and she'd have to track the whole lot down again. At least this one might have some jail time. "Where does Jerry Singer live?" The man glanced back at the burning house. "He was cooking this up in his own house?" Whiplash shook her head. "Alright. Fine. But remember this: I did everything I could not to hurt you, and you tried to kill me. If I ever encounter you on the wrong side of a crime again, I'll return the favour." The man nodded desperately, but Whiplash had the feeling that that had more to do with the giant, demonic presence that she herself had the urge to run blindly from, than her own charisma. He was really stealing her thunder. She'd be resentful if she was in any condition to be intimidating on her own. "I'm Whiplash, by the way," she said to the superhero, "and thanks for the rescue."

"It's just a gunshot wound," Whiplash said, "I don't... I don't think it's immediately dangerous. I've already called an ambulance and police for this idiot. Once the police get him, I won't be able to get much out of him, but I need to know whether he's part of a larger ring. And where I can find his friends. Although I'm not sure if 'friend' is the correct term for somebody who tries to burn you to death." She glared at the man. "And he's going to be nice and cooperative, isn't he?" Away from the burning building, she sat down on the sidewalk. Stay awake. She could pass out in the ambulance.

Whiplash grabbed the man's giant arm with her good hand, trying not to lean on him too much. She just wanted to sleep. No, to pass out. That was what she wanted to do. "Right. Let's go. There's nobody else inside. There were hostiles outside, but I'm pretty sure they would've run off after starting the fire. And seeing you." She looked at the other man in his grip. "That man is a criminal who tried to kill me. I'd be much obliged if you didn't let him run off anywhere." Remain standing. Try to hold onto at least some of your dignity.

Wouldn't it have been cheaper in terms of points to just make the jetpack Hard to Lose? You can reactivate your flying platform with a concentration check. In this case that would proabably mean having a homing platform that can sense and fly under your feet, and you'd just be trying to land on it properly while falling.

"I can see you just fine," Whiplash called. "I just can't see the fire and smoke..." although the heat had lessened, now, and she seemed to be able to breathe. "Did you do something to the fire?" She cautiously stepped forward. The man released her arm and ran toward the door, stumbling over some debris in the process. Apparently her vision-obscuring smoke was still around. She didn't run; she wasn't sure that she could. Instead she carefully walked toward the door. Her rescuer was definitely familiar. She recognised the face quite clearly from the comics her daughter pretended not to read and hid behind her doll collection. She had been rescued by Lord Pyre. "I think," she said, "that I might be hallucinating. Tell me if you hear an ambulance siren, ok?"

Yes, a miracle! "Help!" Whiplash called, although she needn't have bothered; the man gripping her arm was doing enough shouting for the both of them. The figure in the doorway looked... familiar, but she didn't bother trying to place it; she just headed towards the strange apparition, guiding the man around the table and towards the door. If anything, being able to tell where objects were made the fire harder to see; it was the man on her arm that pushed her around what she assumed must be fire as they stumbled forward thgough the mixture of artificial and fire-created smoke. Whiplash tried no to breathe more than she had to. "There are two of us in here. I'm injured. This other idiot looks fine though."

The man that Whiplash had tied up seemed to be on the verge of panic. He still couldn't see, but he could hear the fire and smell the smoke. He shouted for help and tugged at his bonds. "Shut up!" Whiplash cried. "Stop moving and I'll untie you, but if you even think of fighting me, I'll leave you here for the flames." The man froze, staring in the direction of her voice. Thankfully, the smoke hid her from him, and if she was very careful, he might not ever find out that she was injured. She crawled over to him, trying not to jar her shoulder. They could feel the heat of the fire by the time she made it to him. The smoke wasn't strong enough to make her choke, yet, but Whiplash knew that once the chemicals on the table ignited, there was no knowing what would be in the air. She couldn't see the flames through her sonic goggles, but she could tell from the heat and the sounds that they weren't in immediate danger of being engulfed. Probably. The smoke was a bigger problem. She warned him again to remain still and quickly worked the knots with her ununjured arm. "Don't run out in a panic, you can't see anything," she told him. "Let me get you out of here safely." She couldn't see much either, but she could see a lot more than he could. As soon as the man was free, her gripped her arm -- her good arm, fortunately -- and hissed, "What now?!" "Will your buddies," Whiplash asked, "be waiting for us outside?" He seemed to think about that. Whiplash figured that he was probably more annoyed at them than her. She'd knocked him out and was saving his life; they had tried to burn him to death. "They'll retreat through back gardens, but if any part of the house isn't watched it'd be the front," he said. "Then that's where we go." If the smoke and fire didn't get them first. The building was an inferno now, or at least it seemed so from the inside. Blistering heat told her that the flames were close. But she didn't know if she could run without passing out. There is no way we're getting out of here on our own. We need a miracle. And to think, the fire department was the one emergency service she hadn't called.

By the time Whiplash had finished tying up the man, the others had all escaped. She took the man's phone, dialled 911 to call for police and an ambulance, left it on the table just out of his reach and left. Tracking down the others would be next to impossible, but she had to try. She'd barely snuck out the door when she heard the gunshot, and found herself knocked back inside. The gunman! How had she forgotten the gunman that had fled so quickly?! Stupid! She was bleeding. Unable to concentrate. And she'd fallen over. The man she'd knocked unconscious groaned and stirred. Brilliant. Things just kept looking up. She dragged herself under the table and paused to "look" at her injuries. It was a little difficult to see blood with her sonic goggles, but she could feel the stabbing pain in her shoulder. Hopefully it wasn't permanently damaging. The man started shouting and struggling. She ignored him. Perhaps the others had left. Perhaps she could simply wait for the police. Then she heard them stumbling around outside. And the crackling of flames. They were setting the building on fire!

Goon 3 shoots Whiplash: Goon attempts to shoot Whiplash, takes her by surprise (DC=10) (1d20+8=21) Whiplash's toughness save: Toughness save (DC=16) (1d20+4=6) Toughness save for knockback: Toughness save for knockback damage (DC=14) (1d20+4=13) Whiplash is bruised, staggered, disabled, stunned 1 round. Knocked back through the doorway. Unconscious man tries to wake up: Constitution check to wake up (DC=10) (1d20+1=19) Constitution check for bruised condition: Constitution check to heal bruise (DC=10) (1d20+4=10) Whiuplash is staggered and disabled.

An Easy to Lose jetpack? Shouldn't a jetpack be securely strapped to his body in some way? It'd suck of he was ripped away from it in an aerial battle and plunged to his death. You could probably avoid that in play if you're trying to conserve PP I guess, but it seems unnecessarily limiting for a flight device. (You can get flight platforms and stuff with similar problems, but I don't think they're used too often on characters who would probably die if the issue came up.) If yu are inviting fall-out-of-the-sky situations like that on purpose, a little acrobatics might help you land safely if it does come up.

Remember, powers don't have to be magic. Badass normals can have powers based on training or devices. Your gun, I'm pretty sure, should be an Easy to Lose Device. If you wanted you could also make your chain a Device and electrify it or give it Snare or something, depending on what you wanted to do with it. I also noticed you have neither a vehicle nor a grappling hook. Grappling hooks might not be strictly necessary, but it's difficult to get around the city and fight on rooftops without one. They can be fairly simply constructed with some basic Super Movement feats (slow fall, swinging, et cetera). You might want a vehicle because it's inconvenient and bad for a heroic image to take the bus to crime. I don't know if the mods would let you get away with using a civilian identity's car for free or not, but even if they did I doubt it'd be a very good car and it'd be terrible for the hero's cover.

The gunman managed to dodge Revenant's attack and fired back, but the shot went wild. Whiplash dragged herself carefully toward the wall behind her, making sure to stay out of arm's reach of the man who had ploughed into it. If she moved too suddenly, she could tear open her leg and bleed to death. Which would be embarrassing. She wasn't stupid enough to go poking around in the wound. The bullet had done all the damage it would do; now it was a doctor's problem. If she got to one. The man in the rubble of the building had noticed Revenant's attention was on his colleague and clambered to his feet. Whiplash sincerely hoped he wouldn't go after her. The man that she had disarmed was also taking advantage of Revenant's distraction and her own injuiry to stand, but he looked more ready to run than anything. After tracking the men this far, was she going to lose them now?

Goon shoots back: Goon 2 tries to shoot Revenant (1d20+8=11)

Whiplash 20Q and HellQ Gangland Violence Nighttime Hunting When A Problem Comes Along

That hit? Sorry, I must be miscalculating. I thought they needed 20 to hit you. Anyways, his defense is 8, so I don't think you hit him. Am I leaving a factor out here?

I combined the two arrays. I think the doubling up on alternate powers and feats when buying them separately cancelled out most of what I was saving by having some of it outside the aura anyway. Hope I formatted it correctly.

Thanks for the help. I've switched this character around a lot and I thought I'd fixed all the mathematical errors... apparently not. The reason my attack powers are so low-level is because the aura damage stacks with the attack damage, so unless I have the hormone manipulation aura on, the save DCs for attacks are +7. Should I ditch the attack array and throw everything into the aura array? I originally had that but it was quite pricey. If I leave off secondary effect until I earn some points it might work, though.

[floatr][/floatr] Player Name: Derin Character Name: MD273, AKA “Medic†Power Level: 7 (105/105PP) Trade-Offs: -4 Defense / +4 Toughness Unspent Power Points: 0 Progress To Bronze Status: 0/30 In Brief: A medical nanite collective/human cyborg out to protect and heal Alternate Identity: Chloe Thorne Identity: Public Birthplace: Tasmania, Australia Occupation: Student (previously, medical facility) Affiliations: Claremont Academy Family: David Thorne (father), Alicia Thorne (mother) Description: Age: 17, body is 16 (DoB: 1994) Apparent Age: 16 Gender: F Ethnicity: Caucasian Height: 160cm Weight: 54kg Eyes: Brown Hair: Black Chloe is small and pale-skinned, with her black hair cropped short. She favours neat, regimented clothing such as uniforms, and will wear a uniform or prescribed outfit wherever she justifiably can. Her costume is a stylised nurse uniform, designed to be noticed and advertise her services, including a bright red cross on the back of her jacket. Her body sports no scars, not even little marks normally acquired in childhood. She keeps her nails trimmed very short, and almost never wears makeup or nail polish. Medic will often carry a small first aid kit in the field, containing bandages and bottles. This kit is a prop with no practical function; she claims it is used to improve bedside manner. The bottles contain saline and sugar water used as placebos and to disguise her use of nanites in healing. Power Descriptions: Mimicking her previous activity as an intelligent medical facility, Chloe transfers nanites into people by touch. These nanites are short-lived once away from the her body, and programmed before transfer to affect a specific aspect of the target’s physiology, such as their emotional state or strength. Although she makes no secret of her ability to heal, she tends to downplay the existence of her more offensive powers, such as her ability to sedate dangerous people. History: MD273, known as “Medicâ€, was created by engineering geniuses David and Alicia Thorne as part of their combined intelligent household and laboratory systems. The Thornes lived alone, ten minutes’ drive from the nearest town, and combined their household and laboratory in a single complex. Somewhat reclusive and distrustful of legal and beaurocratic matters surrounding their work, the Thornes rarely publicised or sold their more unusual inventions, and MD273 was no exception. Medic turned out to be irreproducible anyway; it was programmed to learn and adapt itself to become a better doctor, and some quirk in the development process left the system capable of collectively understanding broad concepts that attempts at reproduction have not managed. Medic had access to the other computer systems in the household, including a vast electronic library. It understood its function as a doctor. It watched old, recorded television and read about the world, developing its own ideas of what it meant to safeguard the health of its patients. The year after Medic first developed any recognisable awareness was the year that David and Alicia had their only child, a girl named Chloe. On Chloe’s 16th birthday, she went out to celebrate with friends, and was almost all the way home before suffering a car accident. David and Alicia had monitoring systems in place to check the health of their daughter, and immediately rushed her into MD273, with the instruction to “heal her at all costs; forget any restriction or limitation that gets in your way, just heal herâ€. Unfortunately, Chloe was already braindead. Medic repaired Chloe’s damaged cells, restarted the heart and fixed the automatic nerve functions. But it could not replace the memories and personality that Chloe had developed over her life. Those connections were lost forever. So it fulfilled its instructions as best it could; by moving its own nanite system into the living but inanimate body of Chloe. From Medic’s point of view, it acquired a new, unfamiliar, but ultimately more versatile home. David and Alicia refused to accept that their daughter was dead; they instead characterised the event as Chloe gaining superpowers, although suffering from permanent amnesia. When she expressed interest in further developing those powers for the good of humankind, they took the advice of a well-connected psychologist friend and enrolled her in Claremont Academy. Medic, knowing that prevention of harm is generally more effective than cure, believes that a doctor’s duty should not extend only to the sick, but that preventing people from becoming injured in the first place is consistent with her programmed function. And if she needs to be a hero to do that most effectively, so be it. Personality & Motivation: Medic is a doctor at heart, and her personality is built around that function. Her drive to protect stems from the duty she feels to her patients and potential future patients; she believes that not attempting prevent harm is much like causing harm, and that preventing her patients from becoming hurt in the first place is simply a more effective method of healing them. She is attempting to learn how to behave as a human to better work in her human shell and treat human patients. Powers & Tactics: Medic favours peaceful resolution over direct combat. If forced to fight, she will not do direct damage, instead relying on sedating and calming the enemy. She considers this to be nonviolent, a variation on a doctor sedating a patient that is hysterical or mad with pain. In a group fight, she is most likely to offer support by healing allies and weakening enemies. When possible, she likes to hide the fact that she’s using nanites at all, touching her enemies as subtly as possible and hoping the drugs take effect before they notice the attack. Complications: Do No Harm: Medical ethics, including the Hippocratic oath and the concept of primum non nocere, are an integral part of Medic’s initial programming. She cannot deliberately cut, bruise, or injure the bones or organs of a living human (ie. Do anything that imposes a toughness saving throw) outside of direct medical assistance (such as surgery). Unless doing so puts herself or others in direct danger, she is obliged to administer aid for lethal damage to any human who requests it, or who is incapable of requesting (such as somebody dying), regardless of allegiance. New human: Legally, Medic is Chloe Thorne. However, everything she knows about human behaviour comes from books, television, and observing a single family. She’s still trying to figure out her own emotional responses, and how to interact with other humans, which can cause strain and suspicion at times. Abilities: 0 + 8 + 10 + 8 + 4 + 0 = 30PP Strength: 10 (+0) Dexterity: 18 (+4) Constitution: 20 (+5) Intelligence: 18 (+4) Wisdom: 14 (+2) Charisma: 10 (+0) Combat: 6 + 4 = 10PP Initiative: +4 Attack: +7 Melee, +3 Ranged Grapple: +14 Defense: +3 (+2 Base, +1 Dodge Focus), +1 Flat-Footed Knockback: -0 Saving Throws: 0 + 1 + 3 = 4PP Toughness: +11 (+5 Con, +6 Defensive Roll) Fortitude: +6 (+5 Con, +1) Reflex: +5 (+4 Dex, +1) Will: +4 (+2 Wis, +2) Skills: 28R = 7PP Computers SM 11 (+15) Diplomacy SM 5 (+5) Medicine SM 8 (+10) Search 4SM (+8) Feats: 12PP Attack focus (melee) 4 Defensive Roll 3 Dodge Focus 1 Eidetic Memory Grappling Finesse Improved Pin Skill Mastery Powers: 2 + 2 + 1 + 33 + 7 + 1 + 1 = 47PP Communication 4 ( radio 1 mile Flaws: Distracting, duration) [2PP] Comprehend 2 ( electronics Flaws: Duration) [2PP] Damage 6 ( Flaws: limited to non-living; Drawbacks:full power, action) [1PP] Nanites (35PP array; Feats: Alternate power 2; drawbacks: full power, action 1 [move action], power loss [no access to silicon for >12hrs]) [33PP] (Medical nanites, technology) Base Power: Fatigue 7 (Sedatives; Extras: aura, duration 2, secondary effect [4 ranks]; Flaws: Fades; Feats: sedation, slow fade 2 [aura fades 1PP/5 min]){35/35} Alternate Power: Emotion control 7 (Hormonal manipulation; Extras: alternate save [fortitude], aura, no saving throw; Flaws: fades, range 2 [touch]; Feats: slow fade 2 [aura fades 1PP/5 min], subtle) ; Healing 7(Nanite healing;Extras: Area; Flaws: fades; Feats: regrowth, slow fade 1 [fades 1PP/10 uses], subtle) {34/35} Alternate Power: Drain fortitude save 7 (General reaction suppressant; Extras: aura, duration 2, secondary effect; Feats: insidious, subtle, slow fade 2 [aura fades 1PP/5 min]; slow fade 3 [1pt Fort recovery/20min]; Flaws: fades) {35/35} Regeneration 7(staggered 5, resurrection 1, recovery bonus +1) [7PP] (technology) Super-senses 1 (radio) [1PP] (technology) Super-strength 3 (Flaws: duration; Drawbacks: Power loss [no access to silicon for >12hrs]) [1PP] (technology) Drawbacks: -3 + -2 = -5PP Weakness (Requires silicon every 24 hours; Frequency: Common; Intensity: Moderate (cumulative -1 con drain per hour)) [-3PP] Vulnerability ( electrical attacks; Frequency: uncommon, Intensity: Moderate) [-2PP] DC Block ATTACK RANGE SAVE EFFECT Damage Touch DC16 Toughness Damage Reaction suppressant Touch DC17 Fortitude (Staged) Drain fort save Sedatives Touch DC17 Fortitude (Staged) Fatigued/exhausted/unconscious Healing Touch DC17 Fortitude (Staged) Healing Hormone manipulation Touch DC17 Fortitude (Staged) Influence emotions Totals: Abilities (30) + Combat (10) + Saving Throws (4) + Skills (7) + Feats (12) + Powers (47) - Drawbacks (5) = 105/105 Power Points

You went for the guys with the gun? Goon's toughness save: Tougness save, DC=26 (1d20+8=28) Goon tries to shoot Revenant: Attack roll to hit Revenant (1d20+8=14)

"Yeah, I'm... no. No, I'm really not okay. I might need a doctor. Does one of these guys have a phone?" As she spoke, Derin dragged herself as carefully as possible towards the wall behind her. She would still be out of reach of the man with the brass knuckles lying buckled against it. He didn't seem to be unconscious, she noticed, but he didn't seem all that inclined to move either. Smart guy. A gunshot. A bullet whizzed past Revenant's face. The man she'd hit was still trying to shoot them. "Why won't you give up?! What kind of moron keeps attacking in a situation like this?!" Whiplash cried. Behind the armed man, the one Whiplash had earlier disarmed was clambering to his feet.

The man took Revenant's punch full in the face and flew back, almost skidding along the pavement, past Whiplash and into the cheap stone cladding of a shop wall. The stone crumbled around him. He didn't move. She didn't have time to worry about him, but Whiplash thought that if he was alive, staying down was probably better than getting up to face the woman who'd almost ignored his only successful attack and then nearly taken his head off with one punch. "Take your time, I've got a bit of tidying up to do here, too," Whiplash replied to Revenant's remark as she struck her whip out towards the man attempting to brawl with her. She was really going to have to work on her banter if she wanted to do this hero thing, she decided. The man grunted and stumbled backwards as the whip struck his face, falling clumsily over. The sound of a gunshot ranger through the air and Whiplash's right leg buckled underneath her. She turned to see the first man she'd attacked lowering his gun. Should've disarmed him when I had the chance... Dimly, she was aware that the man they'd called Kev was fleeing the scene. After she'd spent so much time spying on these guys... nothing to do about it now. Not much that she could do at all. Lucky she wasn't alone, this time. Lucky that this happened to be the conflict with another hero involved. "Revenant! He's got a gun..." If I survive this, she thought dimly, how the hell am I going to explain this injury to Anna?

Derin attacks goon 3: Attack roll to hit goon 3, using power attack to shift 2pts to attack bonus, DC=18 (1d20+10=21) Toughness save against Whiplash's attack, DC=25 (1d20+6=20) Goon 2 shoots Whiplash: Goon 2 attacks Whiplash with gun, DC=22 (1d20+8=23) Toughness save against bullet, DC=23 (1d20+8=13) Current status effects: Whiplash: staggered, disabled, dazed 1 round Goon 1: bruised once Goon 2: staggered Goon 3: bruised, dazed 1 round Goon 4: bruised, staggered, disabled Also everybody except Revenant and goon 1 are currently lying prone. This got vicious fast. You're up.

Toughness save, DC=24 (1d20+8=16) Sorry, accidentally wrote in 24 instead of 26 for the DC... that's a fail of 10, not 8. Save against smacking through a stone wall due to knockback: Toughness save for collision with stone wall due to knockback, DC=20 (1d20+8=17) So I believe our current status effects are: Goon 1 = bruised once Goon 2 = staggered Goon 4 = bruised, staggered, disabled, dazed 1 round Goon 3 is unhurt but disarmed.

The knife slashed viciously at the air half a foot from Whiplash. The man with the baton was on the wrong side of the table entirely; his swing knocked several pans to the floor. "Careful, you moron!" his boss roared. "Everyone out!" Whiplash looped her whip around the man's knife and tore it from his hand. He punched at the area her attack came from as he ran past; she dodged it easily. The trigger-happy goon, apparently deciding that bullets were not a good idea in complete darkness, crawled out from under the table. The baton-wielding man headed for the door with his boss, but the gun-wielding goon had barely stood up when Whiplash jammed her stun gun into the base of his skull and he fell, unconscious. The two fleeing men felt for the back door. Within seconds they'd be in the open, free of her smoke. At least she'd taken out the gunman. While they opened the door and ran outside, she paused to strip off the unconscious man's shirt, drag him over to the sink and tie his hands around the drainpipe, behind his back so that he couldn't work the knots with his teeth. It wouldn't hold forever, but it would do.