Search the Community

Elsewhere Test Site I Freedom Hall Blue Jay woke up in a ditch, the smell of ashes in her mouth. She was in her costume and fully armed, the quiver at her back weighted with arrows. Raising her head, she found herself surrounded by a vision from Hell: a bombed out Freedom City laden with debris, ashes, and the broken remains of what once might have been bodies. She'd seen the effects of power pikes well enough to recognize their work. And there, screaming down from the sky like the armies of the damned, came the all-too-familiar sight of an Omegadrone troop carrier, big as a small jet liner but covered in the spikes and weapons she knew all too well. It roared overhead, antiproton engines screaming loud enough to nearly deafen her, and headed for what looked like Freedom Hall. Baxter awoke from a dream, and found himself in Hell. Bee-Keeper III felt the vibrations in his suit before he saw the ship come roaring down out of the sky; a monstrous vision of technological hell as it swooped overhead and plowed into a nearby street hard enough to rattle his teeth, careening along a street to plow into a nearby building. He noticed the apocalyptic surroundings next; the ruined Freedom Hall behind him, the smashed windows and fallen bodies of what looked like the aftermath of a grim and terrible battle here at the heart of Freedom City's heroing, and then finally what looked for all the world like a shattered city all around them. Jill O'Cure's eyes snapped open and she found herself in an empty hospital. She could tell that right away; the red, flickering emergency lights exposed a scene of wild chaos, torn and fallen beds and equipment in a mad jumble, but no sign of life, or death, for that matter. She knew this place, the waiting room of the clinic in City Center just down the street from Freedom Hall. She was in costume, not her scrubs, but before she could take further stock of the situation there was the brief scream of mighty engines and then a nearby BOOM, as if a plane had hit the ground just a few blocks away. Bones. Bones bones bones. Wander had seen plenty of those in her life, but the pile she was standing over was impressive. Smashed and broken, they were scattered over the front steps of the City Center Clinic like a child's much-abused toys. She could make out the familiar sight of skulls and other big bones, but these bones hadn't rested easy: something had disturbed the remains, if they'd come here first inside bodies. The ossurary at her feet was new; the burning city all around her wasn't. Suddenly, the familiar sight of an Omegadrone troop carrier roared overhead and disappeared over the nearest high-rise with a BOOM that shook the ground beneath her feet. When Harrier awoke, strapped into the recharging station of a heavy combat Omegadrone, Steve found himself frozen to the spot in the mortal terror of an awakened nightmare. He wasn't conscious of anything about his surroundings, only the sudden, horrible surety that his life was a dream and he was about to be taken away and dissected by the Physician. WAKEUPWAKEUPWAKEUPWAKEUPWAKEUP-the crash interrupted his frenzied mental shouts and tore him loose from the station, sending him bowled end over end against a hard steel wall before he realized the ship had crashed and that he was all alone inside it. Taking a moment to steel himself, and think of Gina, the Omegadrone chose to meet his fate head-on: armored up, he blasted out the nearest hatch and burst forth onto a murdered Freedom City street. It wasn't so strange, really, he'd seen many of those in his time. He distantly saw an armored figure in yellow and black nearby, and moved towards him with pike raised defensively.

December 21, 2012 An ancient civilization on an isthmus much to the south of Freedom City had called this day the end of the world, but for one visitor to Freedom City, their culture had provided the theme for an interesting Christmas party. As Feliz Navidad played over the speakers, the roughly-scarred second in command of HAX security was dishing out cups of Mayan hot chocolate with festive peppermint canes in them. "The bitter goes well with the sweet," he said to one of the programmers, the obviously memorized speech not doing much to impress the weedy-looking fellow. With a sigh, the man working the hot chocolate machine moved onto his boss. "A festive crowd," he offered to the chief as she approached, handing her cup and cane to go with the festive holiday theme. In a puffy red sweater with a white reindeer on it, the drone looked downright Christmasy himself. "I did not think so many would show, but I suppose those with family parties will make them on the day in question." Gina had put him off plans to spend the holiday together, but he had his own ideas about how he and his girlfriend would share each other's company over the holidays. "Is your young man coming?" he asked curiously, not wanting to pry when he already could guess the answer. "I know Mara is bringing her young woman."

May 2012 Steve Murdock had never gotten a driver's license. It wasn't necessary for him; he preferred to walk and lived in a city with good public transit. So instead Roger Wheeler, the computer science teacher at the Nicholson School, was driving the minivan while Murdock himself sat in the shotgun seat. To the rear were the four children he, Miss Americana, and Dragonfly had rescued from the Moon nearly a year ago now: Pluto, who was thirteen, Mars and Venus, a boy and girl eerily alike and probably about twelve, and Demeter, the youngest of them at ten. Their long stay in Antarctica over, with the League sure they wouldn't they would all start at the Nicholson School over the summer, letting them settle in to what an Earth school was like before they would be among people who would fear and hate them for what they'd once been. The marks of Omega were clear on all the children with just a look, their cybernetic alterations deep enough that even Miss Americana had hesitated to remove them. She'd found enough booby traps in Harrier's systems that there was no knowing what lay beneath these half-assimilated drones. Demeter's eyes glowed red like LED lights while her voice was obviously synthetic, the Mars and Venus's innate subspace link meant they often spoke in unison, while Pluto's cybernetic arm, looking precisely like an Omegadrone's, were the most obvious. They were more like regular children than the victims of horror they'd once been, looking around and peering out the windows for the man their teacher had told them to look for, but Harrier could still see the memories of pain and solitude about them. Even in a group, these children were alone. None of them had said a word since they'd gotten in the car. Once they reached the base parking lot, Steve led the four kids, and their future teacher, through security. Roger was mostly taking the kids' measure today, supporting their usual authority figure rather than trying to replace him. "We should see Victory soon," he told them with as much warmth as his own dry voice could muster. "He will be here for us." Victory was the most cybernetically altered human being Steve had met on this Earth: the human pilot, with his popular acclaim, was the best example he could think of to show the kids that they could be successful here. However they looked, and whatever had happened to them.

April 2012 Steve Murdock didn't have a lot of friends, which was really no surprise. It wasn't that he was anti-social so much as social and he simply weren't on the same team. Of course, that meant when it was time for something important, as in subtly finding out how he should go about pursuing a romantic relationship with his new girlfriend, he had a difficult task before him. Though watching television had taught him a great many things about how the people of Earth-Prime socialized with each other, as had occasional invisible observation, he just didn't know enough. He did know some things, however; a man looking for advice on women certainly never went to his female friends, so Miss Americana, Fleur de Joie, and Dragonfly were out; he'd have to talk to the men he knew like Jack of all Blades and Gabriel. He knew how men were supposed to talk to each other, in smoky bars where sporting events were playing on the television, but one thing he didn't know was how to contact all the people he cared about directly. He'd made a conscious effort to avoid learning the secret identities of his fellow supers, which while good for his peace of mind did make it tough when he wanted to talk to them. So instead, using the new cellphone Gina had repaired for him, he sat in a quiet corner of the bar and called the contact number he'd exchanged with Jack of all Blades after they'd had a few adventures together. This was a social call, but Jack hadn't mentioned this was a line for emergencies only. Some heroes preferred only to be called for emergencies. (Some had stressed that to him specifically) "Hello, Jack?" he said, his slightly mechanical voice sounding much more confident than the last time he'd spoken to the swordsman. "It's...Steve."

April 2012 It's a typical day at Hallomen's Advanced Experts. The boss is working on a consulting project sent her way from Blackstone Prison, where a seized artifact from a long-imprisoned prisoner has begun to malfunction. Dr. Gateway was briefly a terror in the early 1990s; a former archeologist whose alien battlesuit allowed him to banish his enemies into the Zero Zone, Gateway actually soloed against the Freedom League for a while before Daedalus succeeded in deactivating his stolen technology and freeing the policemen, bank tellers, and superheroes he imprisoned there. Gateway's been in jail ever since, the death of one of his early test subjects having given him a life sentence. With his suit deactivated and the man himself in jail, he had slipped out of the public eye. Until now. It's coming up on the second time the Gateway suit will become active in Mara's custody, and while she works on it, her two top security guards are hanging around in the event that the formerly dangerous piece of supertech comes to life in an inopportune moment. You can't be too careful when it comes to get sucked into another dimension. Looking confident in his security guard uniform, Steve stood by the door with Erin, drinking break room coffee from his new mug. "Your young man's blend is very flavorful," he commented to Erin as he watched Mara at work. "You should give him my thanks."

Harrier, Jack of all Blades, and Gabriel learn that in vino, danger!

April 2012 The HAX crew vs. the Terminus

Mara had been rather dreading this moment. Setting up the business was a lot of annoying logistics and paperwork; interviewing her new employees was just this side of headache-inducing stress and anxiety. But at some point a couple of the local newsgroups had caught wind that a 20-year-old was starting a successful new technology company, and with Halloween just ended and Thanksgiving too far away they'd decided to make a thing out of it. She wasn't quite sure how word had gotten to them. She rather suspected a couple of her failed interviewees; the one with the neck tattoo especially had seemed a little vindictive when she (figuratively) tore his work apart. It wasn't her fault his technology was lethally radioactive.... right - public speech - focus She took a deep breath for about the fifteenth time, adjusting her suit jacket for the twentieth. probably something witty to say here - 'showtime'? - note to self - think up wittier lines

Late July 2011 The Lab As secret as the arrival of Entity 31966 had been kept, the fact that the Lab crew had made the initial discovery and that their ranks held some of the finest scientists in the world meant that they were in a position to both know what was coming and have something to do about it. Harrier felt uneasy as he sat in the big conference room with Miss Americana waiting for the others to arrive: for all that his experience with Terminus technology gave him insights unmatched even by Earthly scientists, he was no Earthly technician to know how to build a solution for this crisis: the Terminus solution, to evacuate valuable assets from the threatened world and leave poisons in their place, was hardly viable for an inhabited planet. Instead he studied the yellow legal pad before him, making tentative notes with the white blue-inked pen in his hand, and nervously awaited the others. "I am sure you will solve this," he said to Miss Americana. Fresh from his now-frequent visits to Antarctica, Murdock looked tired. "The heroes of this dimension are extremely capable."

There was an Omegadrone below. He was screaming. Flying overhead as the crowd on the street shouted in terror and fled the grim reminder of the horror of Freedom's past, Caradoc came to a fast decision: he came in low and plowed into the lost drone, plowing both men into the side of a nearby Taco King, the fast food joint already smashed in by looters from the great collapse of the 22nd century. Inside, both of them out of the sight of the crowd, he turned and fired a blast that collapsed the storefront behind them before dropping his disguise. Inside, he tackled the screaming drone. Unbidden, combat lessons came back to him: _Strike beneath the neck. The weak point of the armor is where the head meets the shoulders._ But he wasn't striking to kill today; Harrier had vowed that he would kill no more. Omegadrones were not part of that vow. But Omegadrones didn't scream. Not in words. The man beneath the helmet was pale-faced and shake, tears falling from eyes-too-wide _ocular implants forced beneath the skin_... as he looked up at what he thought was his tormentor. "Do it!" He screamed. "Do it, you metal-faced bastard! I'm not afraid of you anymore, do you hear?" Harrier's metallic face pulled away, revealing the man beneath, and he spoke with urgency as he grabbed the man's arms. "Listen to me! Listen to me!" He hesitated, almost called the man 'subunit', and added, "You're safe! If you can think, if you can talk, the link has been broken! You are safe here! Tell me your name!" he shouted, his metallic voice raised against the emergency as it almost never was. This was no place for his usual humility. "It...it...you're right!" the man cried. And he was human, from his facial features perhaps Euro-Caucasian; his skin the color of one of the front-line drones, not the heavy combat units that Harrier once had been. "It's gone, that terrible voice is..." He took a deep breath, then another, and said, "I...my name is Kurt Waid. I live in Freedom City. I live in Hanover. Yes...I...god..." He shook, all over, his armor clanking. "Get me out of this! Please, get me out of this!" Harrier knew that the sub-units could not live long without their armor, but with his power pike he did what he could, cutting open steel and slicing free the man within. _There are treatments now,_ he thought a little desperately. _Another can be built for him..._ "Listen to me, Kurt," said Harrier firmly. "My name is Stephen," he confessed. "I once was like you, a man, taken by the Terminus. But as I am freed, so you are freed. You have been the victim of a temporal anomaly." He'd seen them appearing in the sky over Champions, and gone out to do all he could to make things right. "The armies of Omega have been repulsed from this city. What date is it?" "The date?" Kurt was taking shallow breaths: eventually the residual energy in his diaphragm would fade, and within days he would suffocate without connection again to the power battery in his armor. "It...it's..." He gave a date Harrier knew down to his very bones: the date of the first day of the Terminus Invasion. "I was out shopping with my wife and my kids when those...those damned Omegadrones were suddenly everywhere! I told my family to run and I went the other way to try and ward them off and...and they caught me and they did..." He looked down at himself and shuddered all over, but Harrier's horror was growing. "Tell me about your family," he said suddenly, "tell me what they are like." And he listened, he listened intently as he desperately began to summon his friends by radio, finding them busy, gone, or finally only able to tell him what he already knew of temporal matters. The past could not be changed. Nor could one be plucked from the past, like a soul half-in and half-out of the coil, without terrible consequences. When the current anomalies were restored, all would be as it once had been. _All of it_. And a freed Omegadrone with memories of the future would be dropped into Omega's lap on the first day of the Terminus Invasion. For the future to be saved, the iron logic of time said this man had to die. But... "My wife's name is Jillissa," said Kurt, obviously using her as a beacon to compose himself. "We have a daughter named Hannah, she's twelve, and our son Edward is ten. Jillissa is a nurse at McNider General and Hannah and Edward are kids, they're at...God, what's this going to mean? How long have I been gone?" When Harrier told them, he screamed again, but more in surprise than horror. It had been a very long time since 1993. Before he could speak again, Harrier interrupted him. "Listen to me, Kurt," he said with great firmness. "The process of transformation is irreversible. Though you can be freed from your armor, your body is dependent on it. Your organs have been replaced, and they cannot be replaced in time. You have only a few hours, perhaps days to live. I know this is very hard to hear, but you must understand it, and believe it, or all...all will be lost. Do you understand?" Kurt looked him in the eye, his face stricken for a moment, before finally, reluctantly...he nodded. "I made peace with death when I felt those machines pull me open like a ragdoll. I know I won't get out of this one alive. Will you take me to my family?" It was the question Harrier had been waiting for; it was one he could answer. "Yes." - As hero fought time-lost villain and as time itself warped and changed around Freedom City, Caradoc flew invisibly through the sky, carrying with him his ill, pale companion on a mission to find the family he'd lost twenty years earlier. Harrier knew with the iron logic of an Omegadrone that it was foolish to look: that it was entirely likely the man's family had died with him, or just a little later...but sometimes that iron logic wasn't always true. With a little help from Miss Americana by text message, they found Jillissa Waid, still in Hanover, and by the time they landed she and her adult children were waiting on the lawn for the father they hadn't seen in so very long. Secure in his Caradoc identity, Harrier stood back and watched the reunion as children saw the father they'd lost, as a woman saw the love she'd left behind. Jillissa had eventually remarried, as one might expect, though her second husband was out of the country; their children were married as well, and at a signal from his father Kurt B. Waid came running out of the house to greet his time-lost grandfather. There were tears, and emotion, and meanwhile Harrier was again confirming that nothing could be done. But there was a little time left. They went everywhere, the chaos of the day meaning that no one looked too closely: at the Super Museum to watch the death of the Centurion, at Champions where Kurt could eat a last burger and fries (and later, Caradoc held him as he vomited; as he'd warned him, his stomach was gone...), and Harrier told his own story as well, the grim legacy of the Terminus that perhaps only another Omegadrone could fully understand. It was a long and glorious day until finally, as sun set, Harrier's radio clicked to life. "The anomalies are going away." "...that...that means me, doesn't it?" Kurt was looking at the setting sun on the horizon, leaning against a lampost as his muscles began to fade. "Anomalies going home...and I don't belong here..." "Yes." In his hand, Harrier's pike whined to life. "You know the fate that awaits you. And what that fate would mean for all of us. When you return, Omega will gain knowledge of the future. I cannot allow that to happen." "Or...or maybe they'll just...they'll just kill me." Kurt gave Harrier a haggard smile. "You said that's what...happened to you, right? An...Omegadrone who leaves the hearing of...the voice of Omega is blasted to pieces by the others as a...oh God, that hurts...fail-safe system. Omega won't...know I was there." He slumped to the ground, still sitting, and looked up at Harrier. "Yes. That is what happened to me. But I cannot guarantee the same will happen to you." Disappearing from view, he aimed his pike at Kurt's face. "The iron logic..." "Wouldn't you have...have killed me when we met, if you really believed in that?" He looked at him above the pike. "You let me live before, you...you said, because you wanted proof that the power of...of the Terminus was a lie. If you kill me now, doesn't that mean you believe it's true?" Harrier looked at him, his face invisible behind his armored plate, and tightened his grip on the pike... --- Some days later It had taken Stephen Murdock, with his limited research skills, quite a while to get into the library at the Super Museum and into the long, long list of those left missing and dead by the Terminus Invasion of 1993. He went through the pages slowly until finally he found what he was looking for. A man, a name, and a cause of death. Kurt Ross Waid: Killed by Omegadrone. 1993. He studied the words, then with a small sigh, he closed the book. Freedom had triumphed.

Late November 2010 After an exhaustive background check, Harrier had been granted permission to meet with someone who he'd first heard of some weeks after his arrival on Earth-Prime. Prometheus was like him, an Omegadrone, but free from the power of Omega! But of course Prometheus himself had been terrified at the thought of meeting another drone, and truthfully Harrier had needed to work up his nerve to even ask. But his background had been checked and his mind probed by psychics, and so on the edge of the Claremont campus he'd been introduced to the boy who was Prometheus. It had been heartening and disheartening all at once. Prometheus looked tired and sick outside of his armor, the way all the lesser drones did, and his mind wasn't terribly sharp. Murdock wasn't at all sure what future the boy had...but at least it was the future of a free man, making his own choices and living his own life, and never again forced to kill and die at Omega's whim. Prometheus was a lucky boy; his mind was free of any memories of the Terminus, those circuits destroyed by the powerful gravitic blast that had blasted him free of the control of Omega in the first place. Truthfully, Harrier was a little envious of him. After their meeting, the two drones headed to the gym to work out, something Harrier hadn't had the opportunity to do in months, Prometheus stopping to change into his now-camouflageable armor along the way. Prometheus, like Harrier, was a firm believer in wanting to know how to kill Omegadrones, and Harrier's more recent liberation and his programming as a heavy tactical unit meant that he knew better that most sacred of arts. They stood together in the boxing ring, one in his armor and with Harrier's covering his arms and legs so he could wield his own pike. "Remember. Under the chin. Destroy the brain. Even the heavy units are underarmored there." He said, gesturing with a hard upwards gesture. Prometheus watched avidly, as he always did when taught. Neither drone noticed the heroine watching them from the door.

Power Level: 12 [15] (250/250PP) [280] Trade-Offs: None Unspent PP: 0 In Brief: Omegadrone turned Hero Name: Harrier Alternate Identities: Steven Murdock Identity : Secret Birthplace: Nihilor, the Terminus Occupation: Deputy Chief of Security at HAX Affiliations: HAX, Omegaorphans, the Americana Family, Deep One orphans Family: Dead Age: 100 Apparent Age: 40 Gender: Male Ethnicity: Terminus Height: 6'4" Weight: 600 lbs. Eyes: Black Hair: None Description: Murdock is a brown-skinned man with no visible body hair, just like all combat drones. His face is generally non- descript, save for the small, hair-thin lines that run over most of his body. They look like tribal tattoos, and he will not correct anyone who makes that assumption. He speaks in a flat monotone occasionally leavened by a wistful regret. Harrier is a monster. Clad in black and red armor that bursts out from his back to cover his whole body, he is clearly recognizable as an Omegadrone, fully armed and ready for battle beneath his faceless armor. He prefers to let his fists, and his power pike, do the talking for him if forced into his armor. He flies with the help of the red and black jetpack that erupts from his back with his armor, spewing hellish gouts of flame as it propels him into the stratosphere. Power Descriptions: Harrier is a wrecking machine, a goonsweeper capable of going toe-to-toe with some of the toughest customers in the World of Freedom. Unarmed, blasting or cutting with his pike, he's a powerful threat to almost anyone; a hard, cold blade designed to cut deeply and painfully. History: Once, there was an Earth. It was defended by the greatest heroes of the world, champions of justice and right, avengers of evil: Earth's mightiest superheroes. And then that world died, screaming, as its heroes died and it was sucked into the Terminus. Sally and Ben, survivors of that world, were part of the personal retinue of Steelguard, once friends who became slaves of Shadivan Steelgrave. Steelgrave liked having some around who remembered the old world, and enjoyed reminiscing with them as they tried not to weep at the slayer of billions that their friend had become. He forced them to take anti-aging drugs so they would live as long as he did, and denied them the quick deaths they craved after watching the deaths of their families and the assimilation and corruption of all they loved. When he began to mutter about what a shame it was that there were no more children from their world, in their terror they conceived and gave birth to a son. In one last act of defiance, they named him Stephen, after the man who had once been their captor and tormentor's best friend, then his first victim as Omega corrupted him. Steelgrave was...amused, and gave them something of what they wanted. Stripping them of their immunity to aging, he hurled them into the pits of Nihilor, where the once-favored slaves learned to scrape and fight like the proles they now were. After all, they lacked the courage to die if it meant the death of their son. Stephen Murdock grew up in the pits, the great black castle of Shadivan Steelgrave overhead, with memories of a dead world loud in his ears. He learned to survive in the grim surroundings of Nihilor, the hearthworld of the Terminus, to run and hide from drones, to fight for food, to survive in a world of pure death. When his parents died, Stephen assembled a gang of likely toughs and began doing what he could to make himself master of the pits: not to overthrow the drones, but simply so that the people there could live without having their neigbor as their enemy. When he came to the attention of Steelgrave, as all such visionaries do, he pleaded for mercy, begging for help from the last survivor of their world of marvels. He got that help, oh yes. The process of assimilation into the armies of Omega is a horror best not described in these pages. Bones are removed and replaced with black, terrible Terminus metal, parts of the brain replaced with transceivers to receive the VOICE of Omega, and the body itself is infiltrated with a thousand different pieces of nano-technology. The subject is conscious to the end, naturally, so that when the torment and mutilation ends, he will cling to the VOICE in his head as the voice of his god. Steve Murdock died that day. He became a combat drone, a specially augmented unit designed to fight superhumans. And that was precisely what he did in a dozen different worlds. He was in at the death of mega-billions, a cold, merciless killing machine and agent of assimilation. A particularly powerful and skilled unit, he was traded from Annihilist to Annihilist, even starring in several battles in the arena. His armor was an experimental variety, designed to burst from under his skin when necessary, something which he used to great effect in combat again and again. Until one day, when it all changed. He was leading a squadron of Omegadrones through the Hundred Worlds when an alien starship decloaked just above them and opened fire. The big combat drone at the lead took the brunt of the damage, the tremendous magnetic charge scrambling his circuits...and severing his connection with the Terminus. Heavily damaged and outnumbered, he managed to fight off the lesser drones who attacked him when he was severed from the VOICE, their blasts giving him the drive to escape. And from there he fled, deep into the Void, screaming. It was through great good luck that he stumbled across a Furion raiding party, and even better luck that they didn't kill him out of hand. And when Freedom Bird disarmed him and beat him to his knees, the former drone looked up at the Furion and screamed "I die free!" And that was when Freedom Bird and the others wept, because if a drone could be freed, who knew what freedom could do? The Furions took him in and taught him, teaching him something of himself and of what it meant to be a free man, but he really had no place among those shining symbols of virtue. They knew him too well, and had fought too many drones, to ever fully trust him. Luckily, Freedom Bird knew people who could help, and the former Omegadrone (now calling himself Harrier, after Harriet Tubman), was delivered to the Freedom League, who (after _extensive_ tests), delivered him to the world, with a fake ID and fake name, the better for him to learn about freedom. What better place than Freedom City? It's been quite a ride for the walking embodiment of pain and loss; embraced by some as the ultimate hard-luck hero and others as a symbol of all that is evil and horrible. He is still the monster people tell their children will come for them at night, but he's a hero too. It's a good feeling. He has a woman he loves and a job he cares about, friends and comrades with whom he would fight the worst of monsters with. But the road to redemption is a long one, and Harrier knows better than anyone the perils that lie along the way. After all, blood will tell. Personality & Motivation: Harrier is cold. It's not that he's unfeeling, by no means, but rather that the horrors of life as an Omegadrone have layered depths of memory and grief between himself and the rest of the world. He cares intently for the suffering of others, but shows this by action, not words. He speaks with a slow, deliberate monotone occasionally leavened by moments of wistful emotion. In his civilian ID, he keeps to himself, sometimes in a slightly creepy way. His small apartment has no decorations and sparse furniture. When he's not working, eating, or sleeping, he watches television, doing his best to absorb the reality of this world that's now his home. Otherwise he walks the streets, pike fastened subtly at his side, and tries to learn what he can about humanity. He opens somewhat around his close friends and his lover, but there is still no denying the fact that the scarred-faced drone is _other_, even if most people might not be able to sort it out. Powers & Tactics: Harrier prefers not to use his armor if the situation calls for it, and against many foes he can actually get away with that. Generally he fights silently, his face composed in a flat mask, but when angered by a particularly vile enemy his face contorts into a mask of utterly infuriated rage. He'll usually attack the strongest-looking enemy first, hitting them as hard as he can, not retreating unless absolutely necessary. His staff lets him hurt almost any foe, whether with blasts of Terminus energy or strikes with a devastatingly fast, powerfully charged blade at the head. If forced into his armor he's a terror on the battlefield. He usually fights from the air, blasting away at lesser foes, before landing to begin a slow, methodical elimination of the enemy. He'll allow weaker enemies to shoot him a few times, the better to spread _fear, before landing to begin their punishment. If forced into his armor, he does not linger, and will leave as soon as possible (or at least change back) so as not to attract attention. Complications: Enemy: This is something separate than just people being scared of him. There are people, a lot of people, who'd see a free Omegadone as an opportunity for some free payback. Friends: Wander, Jack of all Blades and company, Dragonfly, and the rest of the HAX and Interceptors crew are people Harrier would walk through fire for. Immigrant: Harrier is still adjusting to local customs and society in Freedom City. He's learned a lot as he's gone, but this is indeed a strange world. Love: Harrier loves Gina Evans, for all that it's a deeply fraught relationship. Double Secret: Harrier has more than one identity to worry about now that he has the Caradoc name. Job: Harrier is frightened of losing his job, as it's one of his connections to the world around him. Monster: Harrier is an Omegadrone. Cops will shoot at him on sight if he's in armor, civilians will run screaming or attack him if they're brave enough. Only a Mother: Even outside of his armor, Steve is no prize. Collector: Between the Omegaorphans that he rescued from a crashed Terminus ship, Yolanda Morales, and the Deep One babies he helped save during the Archevil invasion, Harrier is something of a collector of lost and bereft children. The World I Left Behind Me: The Terminus knows those who escape, and has terrible plans for them. Abilities: 14 + 6 + 14 + 0 + 6 + 0 = 40 pp STR 32/24 (+11/+7) DEX 16 (+3) CON 24 (+7) INT 10 (+0) WIS 16 (+3) CHA 10 (+0) Combat: 8 + 8 = 16 pp Init: +11/+3 ATK: +4 (+7 Melee) [+6 (+9 Melee) w/Armor, +12 Blast with Pike, +18 Blast/+16 Strike w/No More Holding Back] DEF: +9 (+3 Dodge Focus, +2 from Armor, +4 Base, +2 flat-footed) [+15 w/No More Holding Back] Grapple: +14/+22 Knockback: -13 Saves: 3 + 5 + 7 = 15 pp TOU +15/+11/+9/+7 (+7 Con, +2 Density, +2 Protection, +4 Force Field [10 Impervious]) FORT +10 (+7 Con, +3) REF +8 (+3 Dex, +5) WILL +10 (+3 Wis, +7) Skills: 68 r = 17 pp Disguise 0 (+0/+50) Intimidate 10 (+10/+20, SM) Knowledge (Cosmology) 10 (+10/+15) Knowledge (Tactics) 15 (+15) Knowledge (Technology) 10 (+10) Language 1 (English, Base: The Black Speech of the Terminus) Notice 7 (+10/+20, SM) Sense Motive 7 (+10/+20, SM) Stealth 7 (+10/+15, SM) Survival 1 (+4) Feats: 15 pp Attack Focus: Melee 3 Dodge Focus 3 Interpose Leadership Master Plan 2 Second Chance (Saves vs. Fear) Skill Mastery (Intimidate, Notice, Sense Motive, Stealth) Takedown Attack Ultimate Save (Will) Uncanny Dodge (auditory) Powers: 6 + 14 + 30 + 31 + 13 + 30 + 1 + 2 + 1 + 12 + 1 + 2 + 8 = 151 pp Communication 4 (technological, 1 mile, radio, PFs: Selective, Subtle [Encrypted]) [6PP] Container 3 (15PP, No More Holding Back, training, Drawback: Power Loss [When Not Inflicting Lethal Damage, -1]) [14PP] Attack Specialization 3 (Terminus Blast Array) [3] Enhanced Defense 6 [12] 3+12=15 Container 5 (25PP, Terminus technological, Omegadrone Armor, Extra: Duration [Continuous]) [30PP] Enhanced ATK 2 [4] Enhanced DEF 2 [4] Flight 3 (50 MPH/500FPM, PF: Move-By Action) [7] Immunity 4 (disease, poison, sleep, starvation and thirst, Flaw: Limited [Half-Effect]) [2] Immunity 6 (Environmental Cold, Heat, Pressure, Radiation, Suffocation) [6] Protection 2 [2] 4+4+6+2+7+2=25 Container 6 (30PP, Terminus technological, Alpha Omegadrone, Extra: Duration [Permanent], PF: Innate) [31PP] Enhanced Feats 10 (Affects Insubstantial 2 [Unarmed], Challenge 3 (Fast Startle, Mass Intimidation, Powerful Intimidation), Improved Initiative 2, Luck, Quick Draw [Draw], Startle) [10] Enhanced Skills 40 (Intimidate 10, Knowledge [Cosmology] 5, Notice 10, Sense Motive 10, Stealth 5) [10] Impervious Toughness 8 [8] Super-Strength 1 (Effective STR 42, Heavy Load: 3 tons) [2] 11+10+8+2 Density 4 (Terminus technological, Permanent, PF: Innate [+8 Strength, Protection 2 (Impervious), Immovable 1, Super-Strength 1, x3 mass]) (13 pp) Device 9 (45PP, Terminus technological, Omegadrone Pike, Flaw: Easy to Lose, PFs: Restricted 2 [Harrier Only], Subtle [Collapsible]) [30PP] Concealment 2 (normal vision, Flaw: Passive) [2DP] Enhanced Feats 3 (All-Out Attack, Power Attack, Takedown Attack [2]) [3DP] Force Field 4 [4PP] Super-Senses 4 (Detect Weakness [3], radio, Enhancement: Analytical) [4DP] Terminus Blast Array 14 (28PP, PF: Alternate Power 1) [29DP] BE: Blast 12 (entropic blast, PFs: Accurate 3, Improved Crit) {28/28} AP: Strike 4 (blade strike, Extra: Autofire [10], Penetrating 5 [as DMG 20], PFs: Affects Insubstantial 2, Extended Reach 1 [5 ft], Improved Crit 2, Mighty, Precise, Variable Descriptor 2 [any technological]) {28/28} 2 + 3 + 3 + 4 + 4 + 29 = 45 Feature 1 (mutation, Temporal Inertia) [1PP] Immunity 4 (mutation, disease, poison, sleep, starvation and thirst) (Flaw: Limited [Half-Effect]) [2PP] Leaping 1 (mutation, x2, RLJ 34 ft, SLJ 22 ft, V 8 ft) [1PP] Morph 10 (Caradoc, technological, Disguise Bonus +50, PFs: Covers Scent, Precise) [12PP] Speed 1 (mutation, 10 MPH/100FPM) [1PP] Super-Senses 2 (Terminus technological, Darkvision) [2PP] Super-Senses 8 (mutation, Detect Terminus [3], mental: Enhancements: Acute, Extended 2 (1000 ft range increment), Radius, Ranged) [8PP] Drawbacks: -2PP Weakness (magnetism, uncommon, minor) [-2PP] Abilities (40) + Combat (16) + Saves (15) + Skills (17) + Feats (15) + Powers (139) - Drawbacks 2 = 250/250 pts