THE LEAGUE BIOGRAPHIES
Episode One
"Field Team"
by
Eric Burns-White
This, for the record, first appeared in a post sent to the Superguy
Community on Livejournal. The graphics listed here are attractively
laid out in that post, so you know. It can be found at:
http://community.livejournal.com/superguy_list/12359.html
However, it behooves us to actually post biographical information
here, where it can maybe -- just maybe -- do someone some *good.*
The League
In order of seniority, more or less:
Hazard
Formerly Known As: Dangerousgirl
Old Series: Adjusted League Unimpeachable
Original Real Name: Danielle "Dani" Potentiate.
Revised Real Name: Danielle P. MacPherson
Current Real Name: The Widow Danielle Nobody
Created by: Eric Burns-White
Picture: http://annotations.com/graphics/league/Hazard.png
Danielle -- called Dani by essentially everyone -- was a tailored
artificial being, largely designed as a clone of Dianna "Spandex Babe"
Potentiate, with significant alteration of her genetic code, fusing
Lars "Dangerousman" MacPherson's DNA into Potentiate's to create a new
being. The experiment was called Project Dangerous II, and was meant
to create an easily controlled, physically mature autonomous weapon
using stolen information and technology from the original Dangerous
Project. The project was spearheaded by the League of Unconcerned
Scientists, who had interfered with the Warrior Woman project that had
given Dianna her Spandex Babe powers. Significant illicit Xolchipalian
technology was also integrated (thanks to the intercession of Jonathan
Frakes (Coincidence)) and the entire project was a front for the evil
genius of Andy Awe-Inspiring, who was directly involved in both
Project Dangerous II and Project: Warrior Woman, from behind the
scenes. Part of the project was attempting to replicate an entirely
submissive personality into the new clone, triggered from a hidden
submissive personality programmed into Spandex Babe during her own
development. However, Potentiate broke through the artificial
personality during the transference, yielding a unique -- and in no
way submissive -- personality to be implanted into the artificial
construct. The result was Danielle "Dani" Potentiate -- emotionally
and physically a teenager, albeit a physically mature and beautiful
one -- who became a younger sister to both Dianna and Lars. (Though in
many ways, her genetic relationship to the two was closer to being a
daughter than a sibling).
Dani had the same incredible thermonuclear powers (though possibly
slightly less powerful overall) as Dangerousman himself, but wielded
them through similar genetic mechanisms as Spandex Babe's 'Neophotonic
Energy.' The result was the ability to produce all the effects of a
nuclear chain reaction -- incredible force, radiation, heat and energy
-- but under Dani's complete control. This allowed her to harness her
powers into 'nuclear firebolts' and explosive charges with the heat
and concussive force of her power but lacking the deadly radiation.
She can also use pure force, pure heat, pure radiation and a
combination of all of the above as she sees fit, and she uses
controlled detonations to 'fling' herself through the air and protect
herself from harm -- more a leaping ability than real flight. She can
also absorb radiation into herself, which she then has to release
through her uniform, converting it into harmless light.
As with her brother Lars, Dani must wear a full body uniform at all
times. She is highly radioactive and her radiation would poison anyone
she was near in a short period of time if she lacked containment. The
uniform is an advanced design -- one that showed both Xolchipalian
enhancements and the genius of Mandy "Mastermind/Ops" Harken in its
improvements -- but is still based on the original uniform Lars
MacPherson wore, converting her radiation into light and color. She
used to wear a green uniform with an orange mushroom cloud logo in
emulation of her brother. With the advent of the League and Dani's
need to at least have *some* plausible deniability, she has changed to
a formfitting orange uniform accented in green, with an orange cling
mask. She has a red and green "Nuclear Hazard/Bomb Shelter" logo on
her chest, and also wears a red headband to keep sweat out of her
eyes. Her dark brunette hair is shoulder length. Though the Mask
Principle would prevent anyone from immediately connecting them, Dani
now looks very close to how Spandex Babe/Exemplar looked at her age,
though her skin tone is several shades darker -- making the nuclear
woman look like she has a perpetually bronzed tan. Of all the members
of the League, she is easily considered the most attractive.
Dani went by "Dangerousgirl" in her Adjusted League days. With the
need to change her identity, she adopted "Hazard" as her new codename.
She is a powerful, popular heroine -- not least of which because she
is, in the words of an unnamed Bostonian, 'Wicked Hawt.' Her biggest
problem as a hero is her severe overconfidence, though it is worth
noting she has the power to back it up.
Dani is very happily married to Roger "Parvenu" Nobody -- who she had
become attracted to when she first met him (after his death) as a
reluctant student at the Adjusted League Unimpeachable Academy. With
the perfection of Nobody's 'undead body' techniques, Dani and Roger
were able to be married, though technically Dani is listed as a widow
-- which amuses the Hell out of her. As Roger is already dead and his
bodies are (mostly) immune to the negative effects of radiation, Dani
is able to have a relatively normal home life with Roger -- though the
house they live in is actually designed to contain her radiation and
prevent an accident from poisoning her neighbors. The pair are given
to public displays of affection and disclosing entirely too much
information about their private lives, much to the annoyance of their
friends and teammates. It has already been mentioned that Dani has no
problem with dressing up like one of the Trudis in the bedroom, which
is knowledge that her teammates can't unlearn, no matter how hard they
try with alcohol and sporks.
Dani's best friend is Maria "Reflects" Mendez, followed closely by
Cairistiona "Incandescence" Richards -- though Cairi's mysterious
'circumstances' put some strain on that last relationship. At the end
of their time at the Academy together, Dani, Maria and Cairi became
the "Chicks With Attitude," a clique reflecting the rather distant
relationship both Dani and Maria had with many of their fellow
classmates (though Cairi acted as a bridge to the rest of the class,
which unfortunately has led to some problems with Cairi's own return
from the dead). Dani is on good terms with all of her former A.L.U.
teammates.
In her day job, she's an office worker at the Consolidated Dalton's
Indigo Barnes and Chapters Noble Walden-Borders Book Imperium regional
headquarters, where she provides administrative and secretarial
support for the bookbuyers. Dani hates her day job with a passion. She
also has an advanced shower that collects the radioactive materials
her body gives off naturally, processes them for shipment, and allows
her to sell them to research companies, universities, hospitals and
the like through a certified courier provided by the Rogers
Foundation. It puts her closer to the Rogers Foundation than she might
otherwise like, given the current tensions between the Foundation and
the League, but provisions in Bruce Rogers's will require the
Foundation to see to Dani's specialized needs in perpetuity.
META/NOTES: Dani's the only active superhero from *Adjusted League
Unimpeachable* to still be an active hero in *The League*. In part,
this is because she was a teenager at the time, which puts her in the
prime of her heroic life right now. Her costume from above is pretty
darn close to how I describe it in the series proper. Her City of
Heroes function, in terms of the overall parody, is Blaster -- though
she's better defended than some blasters, Hazard is there to put the
massive hurt down on their enemies.
Iceweaver
Formerly Known As: Frigid Girl
Old Series: Adjusted League Unimpeachable Academy
Real Name: Lauren Bates
Created by: Bill Dickson (in name only, character development by Eric
Burns-White)
Picture: http://annotations.com/graphics/league/Iceweaver.png
Technically, one of the first heroes in Superguy at all, much less as
in the League, Canadian teenager (and devoted You Can't Do That On
Television Fan) Lauren Bates discovered she had a mutant power to
project both cold and ice around her. Deciding early on to use her
powers for good and justice, the young woman became Frigid Girl, icy
defender of righteousness.
Almost immediately after she started, she got an invitation to the
Superhero Convention in Washington D.C. that almost every hero on the
Superguy mailing list had been invited too. Excited, she attended. And
there she met a man named Mister Cold, and the two of them... well....
According to on-site reports, they managed to freeze over the boiler
to the point that no one in the building had hot water. You get the
drift. (They had *sex.*)
This led to a relationship that spanned years, wherein "Frigid Girl"
completely disappeared from the scene. When we next saw Lauren, she
was the oldest charter student of the Adjusted League Unimpeachable
Academy. Her wide eyed innocence had been displaced by a deep
cynicism, and what was worse she was saddled with her teenaged brother
Darrin -- who not only was also a student at the school, but was
getting significantly higher grades in every subject than she was.
Over the next few years, Frigid Girl acted with distinction at the
school, certainly attending long beyond when a person normally would,
before graduating with honors. She applied to and was accepted by the
Adjusted League Unimpeachable as their first Academy graduate member
(not counting Kid Solipsism, who took courses at the Academy to get
'up to speed' during his probationary period with the A.L.U.
Dangerousgirl did as well, but she actually completed her coursework
and received a degree for her trouble, where Kid Solipsism was already
a masters level graduate student. However, as Fridge graduated from
the Academy before Dangerousgirl did any... look, just give her this,
okay? She *needs* this.) She was immediately thrown into the horrors
of the Genocide war, serving with the A.L.U. with distinction, and was
on hand for the significant shift of its membership in the wake of
Trashman's death, Unorthodoxy's assumption of the League leadership,
and Mastermind's empowerment.
With the dissolution of the League in 2000, Frigid Girl went briefly
independent, then gathered together with some of her friends from the
Academy and the A.L.U. to form the very unofficial League. As the
League has to maintain a degree of anonymity and deniability from
their illustrious past -- and because Lauren was sick of hearing her
brother's jokes about her codename anyhow -- she left 'Frigid Girl'
behind and became Iceweaver.
Iceweaver is a powerful, highly trained cryokinetic who despite years
of setbacks and a late second start truly believes she's doing the
right thing. Having come into the superheroic world as one of the
younger new heroes, she has finally come into her own as one of the
older active heroes. At 32 years of age as of this writing, Iceweaver
is the oldest field member of the League -- a fact her brother never
lets her forget. In her private life, Iceweaver works as a hostess at
Bennigans Begin Again Undead Irish Pub Experience at Quincy Market.
Her job requires her to wear a tight black shirt unbuttoned enough to
be 'welcoming,' which makes Iceweaver one of the first superheroines
on record to wear more in her heroic identity than her civilian
identity. Iceweaver's costume is an advanced material defensive
uniform in black with white 'ice crystal' patterns. She wears mad
scientist goggles and an ice blue trenchcoat, and her long red hair
tends to have strains of frost running through it while she's active.
She actively works out, both to maintain her body's conditioning and
stamina and to work out aggression built up in her life -- something
Iceweaver also gets to deal with when she's freezing Ensemble members
solid.
You may notice a lack of much information about Lauren's personal life
here. We know she has a job, we know she fights crime, and we know she
exercises to get out tension from her job and help keep her in shape
for fighting crime, and that's about it. Lauren is *quite* aware of
the fact that she doesn't have much else going on in her life besides
a TiVo, but having been badly burned (no jokes) in romance, followed
by a 'school' experience where everyone else was 6 to 10 years younger
than she was, she's not so much out of the social networking scene as
its antithesis. She does have several favorite webcomics, however, and
a blog where she uses carefully couched language to try and avoid
outing herself and the League on the Internet.
A blog read, it's worth noting, by more than *twelve people*.
META/NOTES: Iceweaver was my way of taking a one-note joke (and a
couple of names that had never been mentioned since the Flatphoot
Phollies) and making an actual character out of her. She has, until
now, always been in supporting arcs -- beyond a preternatural fear of
rope climbing and a lot of snotty comments, Lauren's never really
gotten to shine in anything. There are plans afoot to change that over
the course of the League. Her costume is pretty close to what I want
for her -- right down to her attitude. Her City of Heroes role is
Defender -- as much protecting her allies and debuffing their enemies
as she is causing direct damage. Interestingly, Lauren is also in a
similar position in the League as Healer was in ALU -- older, wiser,
with some unfortunate elements in her past.
Reflects
Formerly Known As: Reflective Lass
Also Formerly Known As: Mirror Maid
Still Also Formerly Known As: Reflection
Old Series: Teen Team
Another Old Series: Mason's Mazin' Mob and its ilk
Real Name: Maria Mendez
Created by: Mason Kramer
Picture: http://annotations.com/graphics/league/Reflects.png
Ah, Maria Mendez -- a heroine who has been defined as much by tragedy
as... well, anything else. A mutant, Maria manifested the ability to
reflect force back upon itself when she was nearly killed by a truck.
The fourteen year old learned she could reflect any force or energy --
kinetic, light, electrical or what have you -- back where it came at
equal power. To that, she could add her own strength, so she could
actually strike someone with her full strength plus all the resistance
their body gave but reflected back in a feedback look. This could
culminate in the young woman seeming to punch through concrete.
Maria was one of the six teenagers recruited by Melvin the Elf to
become the Teen Team, going initially by "Reflective Lass" before
changing her codename to "Mirror Maid."
All was well, save that Maria had developed a severe crush on Phobos
-- the team's defacto field leader and scientific genius -- which
Phobos neither reciprocated or even noticed. This culminated in Maria
wearing a sequined bikini as a uniform in hopes of attracting more
attention -- particularly from Phobos, who at the time had become
involved with Summer from Team M.E.C.H.A.
This ended up maximizing Maria's exposure to a mutagenic gas that Rush
"Random Encounters" Limbaugh designed to kill the Teen Team in a death
trap with then thirteen year old child actress Christina Ricci as the
kidnapped bait. The gas caused Ricci to explode into living fire,
becoming the heroine Matchstick, and greatly increased Maria's power
-- making her nearly frictionless but apparently made from a silver
metal through which Maria could feel (and taste) absolutely nothing.
Worse, her powers were seemingly unable to be deactivated. As her
primary power was a 'mirror force' that protected her not only against
all harm but all *sensation*, that meant Maria was eternally cut off
from all tactile sense -- up to and including her sense of taste as
even her mouth and tongue were 'mirrored.' (Even Maria's *hair* was
mirrored). It was as if she were sealed in a sensory deprivation tank
and only allowed to view the outside world.
For a brief time, she had a magical ring which gave her some relief,
but the ring was destroyed in a battle. Between that and the horrible
nightmares of the Dreamquake (which is more a Mason thing to explain
than my thing), Maria was in an isolated and traumatized state when
she first met Thomas -- a young self-described supervillain who had
the ability to project physical sensations into the minds of others.
For Maria, the implications were wonderful. The handsome young man
could cause her to feel -- really feel. And he wasn't shy about how he
used his powers, giving her sensations ranging from intoxication to
sheer pleasure.
After she was thoroughly addicted to the sheer thrill of touch, Thomas
-- calling himself Sensation -- began adding pain to the mix. Maria --
still traumatized and desperate for what Sensation had to offer --
proved to be far easier to condition than Sensation or his master --
Random Encounters, once more -- could have hoped. The pair
interrogated Maria, giving her pain for wrong answers or behavior and
pleasure for right ones, and she swiftly betrayed all the secrets of
her friends. She then began to commit crimes for the pair, changed
into a highly suggestive costume on their behalf, and ultimately
fought on their side as they used their illicit knowledge to attack
and nearly destroy the Mob.
How the Mob managed to defeat Maria -- now called Reflects --
Sensation and Random Encounters is not known. It is known that
Sensation apparently did not survive the encounter. It is also known
that Maria's betrayal gave the criminals a terrific ability to hurt
the Mob members, ranging from using Dreamweaver's allergies against
her to triggering a full psychotic episode in the very traumatized
Mental. It is also known that relations between Maria and her closest
friends were strained to the point of shattering after this, leaving
her feeling lost and alone. She relocated to Boston, becoming a full
time student at the Academy -- though even that was fraught with
tension, as several Mob members attended the Academy as well, and some
stalwart classmates (like Capacitor) made it clear they didn't trust
or like Maria. However, Dani "Dangerousgirl" MacPherson -- who had
never been much on the inside with the other Academy members -- bonded
to Maria, and Matchstick -- now called Hellfire -- was willing to work
past Maria's actions, and the three became an infamous clique known as
the 'Chicks With Attitude.' They had leather jackets made up and
everything.
With the ending of the war, the change in the Adjusted League, and
Maria's graduation from the Academy, she applied with little hope to
join the Adjusted League Unimpeachable. To her surprise, even after
her admission that she would betray the Adjusted League if a situation
like Sensation came up again, she was accepted and became a member of
the team. She did have to agree to get psychological counseling and
allow the Adjusted League to employ whatever help they felt was
necessary to give Maria more control over her powers and therefore
enjoy a better quality of life. She joined under the name Reflection.
As of *The League*, those efforts seem to have bourne fruit. She can
deactivate her refective field in whole or in part, though she still
seems sensitive to even the smallest touch. She is a popular member of
the League, with her buddies from the Chicks With Attitude both
members. Other former Mob members like Roger "Parvenu" Nobody seem to
have completely forgiven her, and she enjoys a new confidence in her
friendships as a result.
One glaring exception to this is Darrin "Capacitor" Bates. Darrin
never really forgave Maria for what she did to the League, and any
chance the pair could have to get past that seems shot by their very
different lifestyles. Maria is a Catholic girl who has always felt
herself cut off from those she could love -- both by Phobos not
reciprocating her feelings and later by her field making physical
intimacy impossible. Darrin on the other hand is a complete sybarite
whose charm and attractiveness makes one night stands all too easy for
him. He is easygoing and brash, and has absolutely no compunction
against saying what he thinks about Maria. Suffice it to say, no one
expects the pair to get along any time soon.
Maria currently -- somewhat inexplicably -- goes by Reflects, which
was the name Sensation gave her. Her most current costume is somewhat
more modest than some of the ones she's worn, but not by much. It
consists of a strapless black leotard with a belt for pockets, plus
boots and armcuffs she can clip her L-Phone into. She also wears a
short cape, as she's done since her infamous bikini costume. While
most of the uniforms worn by the League have significant defensive and
environmental policies, Maria's powers usually make such things moot.
Reflects has full control over her mirror-force, which seems to
emanate from all of her body's cells, making her essentially
indestructible when the field is up (though she vulnerable to psionic
powers and some magic). Further, she can control how frictionless her
field makes her, enabling her to skate on her mirror force for speed,
making it next to impossible to hold or imprison her, and meaning she
has nothing to fear from mud. Some special property of her boots and
uniform let her extend her mirror force around them, letting her
perform her skating maneuvers through the boots, for example.
Unlike most of the League, Maria has no need for an outside job. When
close friend Hellfire ascended to the afterlife, she was also declared
dead, and as it had turned out the former child star had invested her
early earnings very wisely. After a few issues with her family and
friends, Hellfire had elected to leave almost all her estate to Maria.
With Incandescence's return, much of her past has been wiped away or
rewritten. Maria is the only person who can remember the 'original'
past, and for whatever reason the fortune she inherited from
'Christina' remains intact now. Though Maria attempted to give 'Cairi'
her money back, the angelic heroine declined. Though Maria is quite
comfortable, she doesn't have the sheer resources to keep the other
League members from having to keep day jobs (and none of the League
are comfortable draining Maria's accounts in this way). Still, Maria's
comparative life of ease means Reflects is actually on call all day.
META/NOTES: One of the least successful City of Heroes costume designs
-- there's no good way to give Maria real metallic skin that doesn't
also make her look like a robot. (I could possibly cobble something
together with the 'shiny' Arachnos Widow costume, but that restricts
my options for putting an overlay down.). So, instead of pale skin,
imagine her skin is all mirrored and shiny and also pretend the whole
thing doesn't kind of suck. Maria's the first of the characters I
inherited from Mason for this here sequel, which means among other
things I needed to at least get beyond *Twisted Reflections*, which
was the Sensation story I mentioned above (and which unfortunately was
never finished. At least, not yet.) Maria, as I see her in City of
Heroes terms, is an Invulnerability/Energy Melee tank, only less
sucky. You see that in her getting paired with squishier characters
like Parvenu or Capacitor, so she can annoy people into attacking her
and ignoring them. As with Lauren above, Maria has a lot of power and
potential but also some pretty deep flaws and psychic scars she has to
get over. I like that kind of character. They're crunchy and fun to
make cry.
Parvenu
Formerly Known As: Nobody
Before That Known As: Deckmaster
Old Series: Mason's 'Mazin' Mob
Seriously Old Series: Teen Team
Real Name: The Late Roger E. Nobody
Created by: Mason Kramer
Picture: http://annotations.com/graphics/league/Parvenu.png
Roger Nobody was a kid on the streets, who was lucky. He found someone
to take him in, raise him, give him a roof and a job and an education.
A lot of kids don't get the chances Roger Nobody got.
On the other hand, as it turns out the person who took him in and
raised him was Mister I. Spy and the job and education were in
thievery, but luck can be capricious.
Despite his larcenous and somewhat rough childhood, Roger was a kid
with a good heart and a yearning for something more. That something,
with time, turned into a growing study of the occult and magic. Roger
was something of a natural mage, though as a young teenager he had
neither the training nor the experience to turn his inclinations into
a proper tradition. Studying in secret -- Mister Spy and his
organization were among the 'anti' side of the magic question in and
around the infamous Industrial Revolution -- Roger learned that one of
the fastest routes to power was the adoption of a focus. Traditional
foci might have included staves or orbs or voodoo dolls, but Roger was
a child of the nineties. His focus was Magic itself.
Magic: The Gathering, that is.
Through use of Magic cards, Roger became Deckmaster. And during a
botched job that Mr. Spy took to eliminate the Teen Team, Roger -- who
had no desire to kill anyone -- risked himself and exposed his magical
nature to save Samantha "Daydream Believer" Beckett, because he was a
kind soul underneath it all. Also, he wanted to have sex with her.
What? He was a fourteen year old kid and Samantha was a hot sixteen
year old who wore a lot of black. It's *natural*. Besides, he never
succeeded, now did he?
Deckmaster became the newest member of the Teen Team, helping the
group find and stop Mr. Spy's organization, and leading the team to
learn the true identity of their most persistent opponent: Rush
Limbaugh, the infamous Random Encounters. His power began to grow, but
Melvin the Elf -- the magical North Pole native who had originally
brought the Teen Team together -- was concerned about Roger's reliance
on his focus. When he used the Magic cards to enact his power, the
cards were consumed, and he had to abide by at least the spirit of the
rules, which meant he needed mana cards to fuel his power, and needed
to build his power base up over time. Melvin was concerned that Roger
would run out of cards when he most needed them, and instructed Roger
to begin the (much harder) path of learning true magic.
Roger, being a teenager, snuck out with Samantha to get more Magic
cards. And while they were out doing this, Adam Douglas of Team
M.E.C.H.A., being a nice guy, tried to put a bullet in Roger's head.
Said bullet was intercepted by Adam's teammate Summer, and there was a
cool action sequence. Long story short, the Teen Team was on its way
to the Industrial Revolution, and they were a large part of the huge
battle to come.
A battle which cost Roger "Deckmaster" Nobody his life, when he was
disintegrated by an alien weapon, leaving only his hand and a burnt
Magic card in his wake.
Needless to say, this wasn't the end of Roger's story. Coming back as
a ghost, he remained a Teen Team member -- albeit one with a few
disadvantages in interacting with the world. He also had some anger
issues and some power issues. And worst of all, he had a hidden deal
with Satan. Only not really.
See, Roger had gone to Heaven. And that was all fine and good, only
he'd left. And at one point he ended up in Hell, and Satan convinced
him the only way he could get out was with Satan's help. And he won a
card game against the scion of evil, and was allowed to leave 'so long
as the Teen Team existed.' Which was fine until Melvin the Elf (who
had formed the Teen Team in the first place) declared the Teen Team
disbanded and Roger 'poofed' back to Hell. He only got out when he
made a new deal -- which is how Roger, sans his memories, found
himself in the body of a hot female mage named Melody Pernicious.
Eventually, they figured out Melody was Roger, went to Hell where they
made some mistakes (and got Matchstick turned into Hellfire), and
Roger learned he was a true Free Spirit, allowed to leave Heaven, Hell
or any other afterlife at his will. He returned with the team, but was
both unable to use his magic or touch the world -- which was hard
given he was starting to make time with a beautiful thermonuclear girl
at the Academy.
Eventually, the same ancient hero who had helped Roger learn the truth
and escape Hell helped him make his first undead golemish body, and
Roger could interact with the real world again. Other things happened
after that, but they're not my story -- at least until we get to
around the era of the League, which brings us full circle, doesn't it?
When the Adjusted League Unimpeachable was leading up to its
retirement, one of its members -- the beautiful and explosive
Dangerousgirl -- retired to marriage. Specifically, marriage to Roger.
The pair are deliriously happy and have been married since June 25,
2000. Roger's sorcery has given them various ways of coping with
Dani's radioactivity, but the most common means of dealing with it is
his golem bodies, which aren't *that* affected by it. However, they're
not entirely immune, and between that and the rigors of superhero life
Roger's bodies tend to burn out two or three times a year,
necessitating his construction of a new one. (He can't store them up
in advance, as without his possessing soul they fall apart within
days.)
With the formation of the League and their need for plausible
deniability, Roger has adopted the new identity of "Parvenu," the
French term for a nouveau riche upstart who exceeds his class. Roger
named himself ironically, having come from a low, criminal background
but ultimately becoming (and dying) a hero. His current body is
slightly pale skinned, with red-brown hair. His uniform is mostly
purples and yellows, with a yellow silk shirt and pants underneath it,
accented in purple. His uniform has magical wards to help protect him
in a fight, and he wears a grey defensive bodysuit not unlike his
teammates' defensive uniforms underneath it. In his own words, since
he doesn't sweat and in fact is mostly immune to temperature
variations, there's no reason not to layer. He wears a full face mask
as well.
His magical abilities are relatively broad, but he needs foci of
various sorts to exercise powerful effects. He is far away from the
days where he used collectible card games for it, but he generally
carries components in his coat or suit to facilitate powerful or fast
effects. Absent these, he can still do magic, but it takes a lot of
strain (and at least once he burnt his body out casting a powerful
spell). When he loses his body he is a disembodied spirit, barely able
to affect the material world, and he can't work magic at all. He tries
his best not to get into that situation.
Roger Nobody's 'day job' is that of a freelance writer. He has written
a series of trashy romance novels under a variety of pseudonyms, as
well as less trashy genre novels, some nonfiction books, articles, and
anything else that'll get paychecks coming in. This gives Roger an
income while allowing him to spend significant amounts of time dead
and in a series of different bodies.
META/NOTES: Roger is something of a catchall. I actually like how his
costume came out, though he may change significantly the next time he
changes bodies. I suspect he uses those opportunities to get advice
from his wife and go a little nuts. In City of Heroes terms, he is a
Controller, using his magic to lock down their enemies -- he is also
the closest thing the team has to a healer and a psi, and he often has
to work to protect or heal his teammates in situations where their
defenses... well, aren't, so much. Roger is also pretty unreservedly
happy, which can be a nice change.
Capacitor
Formerly Known As: Kid Electron
Old Series: Adjusted League Unimpeachable Academy
Real Name: Darrin Bates
Created by: Eric Burns-White
Picture: http://annotations.com/graphics/league/Capacitor.png
On paper, Darrin Bates is a hero for the ages. He is handsome and
strong. He is intelligent and very close to fearless. Pain doesn't
stop him. He can face a hopeless situation with a joke and a smile. He
is utterly loyal to his friends. And he has enough electrical power to
run Boston for five hours and hit on a hot electrical engineer while
he does it. He had absolutely record grades at the Adjusted League
Unimpeachable Academy -- records that stood for years and years. He
aced the academic courses, the athletics, the superheroic courses...
he aced them all.
But, when he applied for membership in the Adjusted League
Unimpeachable, he was turned down.
On paper, Darrin Bates is a hero for the ages. In real life? Not so
much.
Darrin was overconfident, shallow, self-centered, and was in the game
for the chicks and the fame. He knew all the right answers, but in his
heart he wanted to be a superhero because he thought it was a cool
gig. When confronted with real life moral dilemmas, he would make...
well, questionable choices. He cheated on girlfriends. He made fun of
his friends -- and not in the good way. He was, in short, a jerk. His
nickname, based on his Academy codename of Kid Electron, was "Kid-E,"
and that was about right. He *was* a 'kiddie,' and it wasn't hard to
tell.
Life after the Academy was weird for Darrin. College was easy for him
-- and he went to Boston University, so he was still right there. He
was still good friends with some of the Academy students -- most
notably his best friend Rip "Memorex" Davis, born of an incident where
Darrin almost got Rip expelled but managed to come through in the end,
his sister Lauren (AKA Frigid Girl), ex-girlfriend Transit, and the
Sorceress Subternatural known only as Portentous Piranha. He was also
on good terms with many members of Mason's Mazin' Mob, especially
Phobos, Roger Nobody, Tim "Mental" Ward and his wife Samantha
"Dreamweaver" Ward -- Samantha perhaps being the only known female
near Darrin's age not counting Darrin's actual sister that Darrin
*didn't* hit on.
That loyalty led to Darrin firmly snubbing -- and even verbally
abusing -- Maria "Reflection" Mendez, it is worth noting. Maria had
betrayed the Mazin' Mob, with some nasty long term repercussions for
some of the folks Darrin liked most in the world. As we said above --
Darrin lacks a lot of virtues, but he has loyalty in spades.
Darrin's real chance to play hero came with the formation of the
League. Circumstances being what they were, Darrin's power and skill
were all too necessary, and if he had significant character flaws his
friends could watch out for them and help him through them. Needing
the same deniability as the others, Darrin adopted the name
"Capacitor," which fits given one of his powers is the ability to
absorb great amounts of electricity and then release it all at once.
Darrin is an electrokinetic and a natural generator. He both can
create powerful electromagnetic effects and manipulate ambient
electricity. He capacity for absorbing and controlling electricity is
staggering, and as he constantly generates electricity, he is
generally 'charged up' with incredible reserves. He is an accomplished
hand combatant and his neurology is supercharged by said electrical
reserves, which among other things prevents him from ever really
getting fatigued. He can also eat as much as he likes, with the food
providing nutrients but any and all calories being 'burned' into
electricity. As a result, he eats like a five year old with a
tapeworm.
There *is* a down side to his abilities, it is worth noting, but that
is for another day.
Darrin likes the ladies. A *lot*. He is exceedingly handsome and well
built and given to clothing that sets it off. He is known for keeping
six or seven casual relationships going at once, and he has hit on
*almost* every woman he's met. At the same time, he has no real
capacity for relationships. This is just one of the reasons he and
Maria Mendez rub each other so wrong. He has never forgiven her for
betraying Mason' Mazin' Mob -- years after the Mob itself has forgiven
her. The two spar almost all the time, though it is worth noting they
work together surprisingly well. Indeed, Darrin is an excellent team
player. Other than Maria, Darrin gets along with his team mates quite
well. He takes (and gives) a healthy amount of abuse from them, but in
a fight he is rock solid and his loyalty is unquestioned.
His costume is somewhat elaborate, which seems to fit. He wears a
half-mask that covers his ears and the lower half of his head, letting
his well styled blond hair out of the top. His uniform itself is blue
and yellow, with a capacitor symbol on his chest and highly stylized
lightning patterns along the uniform. As with the others, his uniform
is designed to protect him from as much harm as possible, with all the
talents of Mandy "Ops" Harken fueling it. Unlike his fellows, he also
has elaborate metallic epaulets and a very stylized 'electrical'
patterned cape he wears. But then, he does like to make an impression.
Darrin works, somewhat expectedly, as an electrical engineer at the
Awesome Amalgamated Media Computing Research Laboratory in Cambridge.
META/NOTES: Darrin is a paradox, which is always fun. He's flawed, but
cheerful. In a lot of ways, he has the farthest yet to grow, and that
means he's got crunchy conflict. In City of Heroes terms, he's an
electrical/electrical blaster -- his role is to lay down hardcore DPS
and make his enemies cry. His costume is close, if not exact. In ways,
he's meant to be the Jock archetype of the group, as well as the
womanizing jerk. That said, he does have a depth he hasn't had much of
a chance to explore. Stay tuned.
Ordinal
Formerly Known As: Transit
Old Series: Adjusted League Unimpeachable Academy
Real Name: Transit Davis
Created by: Eric Burns-White
Picture: http://annotations.com/graphics/league/Ordinal.png
It is said that some heroes are born to it, while others are forged by
experience. The woman now called Ordinal was grown to it. She was
discovered, grown to her early teens and covered in amniotic fluid in
the wreckage of a laboratory, where she had been bioengineered from
scratch. Taken in by the Adjusted League Unimpeachable Academy, it was
determined that Transit was not, technically, a clone of any one
person, but instead was an entirely artificial person, designed from
every chromosome up. Her genes -- where they could be traced at all --
were traced to brilliant men and women of science, as well as men and
women of power. Most notably, teleportation powers.
The result was a young woman with a truly remarkable mind, especially
for mathematics. To Transit, the entire world was made up of the
interplay of numbers -- and her powers enabled her to sense the
spatial relationships of that world to a tremendous degree, giving her
immeasurable insight into her environment. Further, she has the power
to manipulate the fabric of space/time itself. Even as a newly
decanted student, she could use that power to open 'transgates' --
point to point wormholes that allowed for near instant travel up to
sixty five miles a hop. As she grew older, her abilities and
understanding only increased, and she is now a living mathematical
proof and physics theorem rolled into one. Her teleportation powers
are some of her best, and are remarkably flexible. She can engage in
melee combat from across the room, for example, with the point of
maximum impact being made into a wormhole bridge to the point of
greatest potential damage on her opponents. She can also manipulate
local space/time, altering frames of reference to make it seem like
her enemies are much slower, and she and her allies much faster. And
when she teleports a person or object, she can tailor not only the
location they emerge from, but their vector and speed. This lets her
throw a ball bearing through a gate at a speed of ten meters per
second, only to have it emerge from the farpoint going a thousand
meters per second relative to her enemies.
She has also learned to float in the air.
Transit's perceptions of the universe can also be a negative. If she
is teleported via means other than her own abilities, translated
through altiverses or time, or otherwise put through a sudden shift in
her relative position and understanding, she reacts with discomfort,
nausea, or sometimes even violent illness. If placed in a situation
where reality's laws are unnaturally 'bent' by some force, she can
become ill and potentially even die unless she manages to acclimate.
Even xolchaportation, when that was an option, gave her difficulty,
and she can't utilize the services of Ingress Technology without some
illness now.
As a person, Transit was reserved and an innocent, especially in her
first years. She clung to her friends and fellow students desperately,
having no other people in her life whatsoever. In particular, she
bonded with Rip Davis, whose mother -- the brilliant theoretician Dr.
Laura Davis -- also became one of her closest confidents. Her
relationship to the Davises was formalized on April 23, 2000, her
'birthday,' when she turned physically eighteen years old. She was
adopted by Laura and Daniel Davis, becoming Rip's sister in fact as
well as emotionally, and officially becoming 'Transit Davis.' Her
closeness to Rip Davis -- one of the best known martial artists known
to the League -- has taken the self defense and combat skills she
learned at the Academy and refined and improved them. Though not given
to frontline combat, Transit is one of the best hand fighters in the
League.
When asked why she didn't adopt a more normal sounding name, at least
for her 'secret identity,' Transit has expressed bafflement. She
simply *is* 'Transit.' There's no reason for any other name, by her
reckoning. The only reason she has taken on the codename 'Ordinal' now
is the need for deniability as a member of the League, and even then
she finds the whole affair slightly silly.
Ordinal wears a lavender suit, with a vest with pockets and loose,
flowing silk Chinese pants held with a red metal belt. On her feet she
wears martial arts slippers. She wears silk armbands that hook over
her middle fingers, and a red winged quarter-mask in red. On her chest
one can see a graphical representation of the swirls of an ordinal
well-ordered set up to ω squared. It is not recommended you ask her
about this, as she would undoubtedly explain it to you, and if it's
the sort of thing you want to know, you already know it.
Transit, now appearing to be in her twenties, is a remarkably composed
young woman with dark brunette hair and blue-grey eyes. She is almost
always perfectly well composed, and even in the midst of tense
situations she sounds almost amused. In the absence of Ops she acts as
the field coordinator, directing the League to troublespots in the
city. She also is the core of the League's logistics, using her
teleportation abilities to move teammates where they are needed and
using her perceptions and senses to give tactical information. Though
she is a good combatant and sometimes takes on assignments solo, she
is generally used as support, where she excels. She gets along well
with just about everyone, and deeply likes her teammates. She misses
her brother Rip, who has declined membership in the League, but is
glad that her mother now works for Ingress Technology in Cambridge --
ironically helping them develop stable teleportation technologies.
Transit's day job is as Research Professor of Mathematics at Tufts
University. Her work is purely theoretical, without actual teaching
requirements, though "Doctor T. Davis" does oversee a number of
advanced Graduate students. She also serves on a number of advanced
physics and mathematics journal editorial boards. Her theoretical
output is considerable and universally brilliant, which gives her
significant free time to fight crime.
One of Transit's more persistent quirks -- particularly given the
number of years she has associated with Professor Burns of the
Academy, her friend and ex-classmate Portentous Piranha, and Roger
"Parvenu" Nobody -- is her insistence that there is no such thing as
magic. She will stipulate the rather esoteric effects that some people
can produce, but patiently explains to anyone who will listen that
simply because someone has not yet identified the natural laws that
allow for their abilities does not mean they do not exist. As
observations improve, so too will hypotheses and the opportunity to
measure the effects. Eventually, mathematics will encompass these
effects, they will become explainable, and they will take their proper
place in the pantheon of science. In the meantime, it is
counterproductive to romanticize them.
For whatever reason, where most people 'swear' by Elvis, Transit takes
the name of Michael J. Fox -- the AntiElvis -- in vain. This has
disturbed people in the past.
And, it is worth noting... it is still not known who designed or grew
Transit in the first place... or why.
META/NOTES: Ordinal, in City of Heroes terms, is a controller.
(Gravity/Kinetic, if I had to idenitfy which one.) This is despite the
"Transit" I have played in CoH being a Kinetic/Radiation Defender.
Look, I don't have to be precise. I'm quite happy with how her costume
came out -- even the symbol isn't that far off from the real
representation of an Ordinal number series. As a character, Trans
fills a few needed roles for the team, but has enough mystery
connected to her to give lots of nice potential stories.
Incandescence
Formerly Known As: Hellfire
Also Formerly Known As: Matchstick
Still Also Formerly Known As: Christina Ricci
Old Series: Teen Team
Another Old Series: Mason's Mazin' Mob and its ilk
Real Name: Cairistiona Richards
Created by: Mason Kramer
Picture: http://annotations.com/graphics/league/Incandescence.png
Imagine if you will a popular young actress -- a young teenaged star
of movies and television, who became an icon at an early age. Movies
like *Mermaids*, *The Addams Family*, and *Addams Family Values*
appearing on her resume as she--
What's that you say? You don't have to imagine it? I'm describing
Christina Ricci? You're right, I am. And of course, she went on to
groundbreaking films like *The Ice Storm* and developed her own
production company, doing such work as *Prozac Nation*. She's one of
the great talents of her generation.
Now, imagine that career being stopped short two days before the world
premier of *Casper*
This is, once upon a time, what happened. Ricci had, in 000SUPERGUY,
moved to Austin, Texas. She and the Teen Team were flying back to
Hollywood for the premiere of *Casper* (as a publicity stunt, the
producers had asked the Teen Team to come since they had Roger Nobody
with them -- and he was, in fact, a friendly child ghost. Get it?
Good!) But, she was kidnapped by Random Numbers in yet another attempt
to kill off and/or destroy the Teen Team. The team arrived to save the
actress, but a mutagenic gas was released -- one that both warped
Maria Mendez's reflective powers, making her far more powerful but
incapable of being touched... and one that left Ricci herself a being
of pure flame without a body beneath.
Obviously, in this universe, at that time, she did not go on to film
*The Ice Storm*. She did, however, become a superhero. As Matchstick,
she, Maria "Mirror Maid" Mendez and Mighty Dog went on an open ended
quest, trying to find meaning after being cut off from their old lives
by Random Encounters's gas. They had a series of adventures,
especially in Japan alongside the Super Seven, before coming back to
America and hooking up with some of their old friends to form Mason's
Mazon' Mob. She quickly got to know the others well, and enjoyed her
life, though she missed parts of her old life.
To rescue Roger Nobody -- at that point in the body of Melody
Pernicious -- Matchstick went along with the Mob into Hell itself, to
confront Satan. There, she got caught in a fight scene of epic
proportions. At the end, she and the Mob were victorious, and she
emerged with them, seemingly having taken Satan himself down a notch.
It is worth noting -- Roger escaped Satan's lies. Dani once blew Satan
apart in the epic "Yesterday's Hero" miniseries. And coming up from
the depths of Hell, Matchstick had far better control over her fire --
to the point where she could actually render herself harmless (though
still burning) and generate far more intense heat. She elected to take
the name Hellfire at this point, and she began attending the Academy
in earnest, to learn how to use her abilities.
Then, her closest friend among the Mob -- Maria -- betrayed the Mob
and nearly got them all killed. Maria left the Mob in disgrace and
under tremendous strain. Of the Mob members, only Hellfire -- who
herself understood what it was like to be as isolated by her powers as
Maria was -- remained close to the former Mirror Maid. This in turn
led to Hellfire joining Danielle "Dangerousgirl" MacPherson and Maria
as the leather jacket wearing "Chicks With Attitude," a clique of
their very own.
Also, during this time... Hellfire found herself attracted to, and
ultimately in a relationship with Rip "Memorex" Davis. It was in many
ways one of the most fun times of her life....
...or, at least, what she thought was her life.
When Satan returned, to claim Hellfire -- for indeed, she was composed
of Hellish flames now, an epic battle for the woman's soul took place.
And in the midst of that battle a horrible truth was revealed. When
the gas -- which was supposed to kill 90% of those exposed to it --
had turned Ricci into a woman of flame... it had killed her. Though
burning with fire -- and later a form of hellfire -- she was as much a
ghost as Roger Nobody himself... only she had never gone through the
judgement he had. Satan was trying to do an end run around that to get
the girls's soul.
Freed and saved by her friends, she was finally given the chance to
accept her death, and she ascended to the afterlife. Which is where
the problems started.
You see, she ended up in a relatively bureaucratic Heaven. And the
records in that Heaven showed that 'Christina Ricci' was still alive.
So, to keep things clear, the ancient records were amended, and the
fiery soul was rechristened "Cairistiona Richards."
*After* this had happened, it was determined what the real problem
was. She had been sent to the wrong Heaven -- to an entirely different
Altiverse's incarnation of Heaven. So the recordkeepers transferred
her file to the proper Heaven, and they prepared to give her her
choice of afterlife.
Only... when the record came in, it was the amended record. And that
Heaven had no record of a 'Cairistiona Richards.' So editorial action
was taken, adding her to the records of 000SUPERGUY... but of course,
Cairistiona Richards hadn't died there, so on paper, she had every
right to go back.
For the inconvenience, and out of attunement with the fires that
defined her, Cairistiona -- called Cairi, most often -- was reattuned
and resonated with the purest divine flames. She gained fiery angelic
wings as well -- and most importantly, she gained the ability to
subsume her divine fiery form into a shell of mortality, which she
could tweak in appearance with some effort.
She was thrilled, and descended back to Earth....
...appearing in front of a movie theater which was showing *Black
Snake Moan*. Starring Christina Ricci.
Cairistiona Richards learned that with the reworking of reality to
accommodate her altered records, she gained the ability to return to
Earth... but Earth's history had been altered. Now, Ricci never met
the Teen Team. She was never kidnapped. She never became Matchstick.
Cairistiona Richards was an anomaly.
At the same time, there *had* been a heroine called Matchstick. She
had also been Hellfire. All her adventures *had* happened. And when
Cairi went back to her friends, they remembered those adventures, and
remembered Cairi, and welcomed her with open arms....
...but they couldn't remember any part of their civilian life with
her. Anything that stepped outside of Matchstick or Hellfire's heroic
role... was simply no longer a part of their memory.
Even Rip couldn't remember. He remembered loving Hellfire --
remembered the two of them fighting alongside each other, and he still
had powerful emotion for her... but every date they had been on, every
private moment they had spent together... was gone.
The one exception, for no reason that could be determined... was Maria
Mendez. She remembered every moment the two had had together. And
thanks to a loophole, the activities of the Chicks With Attitude
seemed to also be covered, which meant to a lesser extent Dani could
remember Cairi.
Two years later, Cairi is firmly entrenched in the League. Cut off
entirely from her old life, she valiantly seeks to establish a new one
-- and new memories to go with it. She has no family other than the
League... no sisters other than Maria and Dani. She is a cypher,
caught between two histories. She is well liked by her teammates, of
course, and they are more than happy to build new memories with her,
bit it's hard.
And at the same time, she can see the 'her' she would have been
without superheroism on the big screen. She can watch her career,
watch her choices, watch her *movies*, and though that woman seems
alien to Cairi, it's hard sometimes.
Cairi, in full manifestation, is the glorious manifestation of divine
fire. She can produce intense heat and flame, as well as unleash
explosive fireballs. She can also 'burn' without causing permanent
damage, at will, and can manifest her flames into a holy sword of
fire. Magic and especially demonic powers are horribly disrupted by
Cairi's fire, and one can't help but imagine that vampires would have
a *really* bad day if they met her. Her costume, beyond the fiery
flames of her true form, is a gold and red jumpsuit that can contain
her fires without blocking it. She wears no mask, given that her fiery
face, even without the flame, doesn't look anything like her mortal
shell.
In her day job, Cairi works at McBurger Hut Tacos in the Boston
University area. She has no need to sleep, so she also works a night
shift at the Campus Convenience store, ironically in the very base of
the Rogers Institute for Paranormal Studies -- the building that
League Headquarters is underneath, and which soon will be the base for
Lochaber.
META/NOTES: Incandescence is somewhere between a Fire/Fire Blaster and
a Fire/Fire Tanker, in City of Heroes terms. She can be versatile,
which is a very nice thing. She's also an important character type for
my kinds of Superguy stories -- the heavy angst background character.
Even more than Maria, Cairi has a lot of crap in her life and no real
chance to get rid of it. And yes, I admit it fully -- I wanted
Matchstick/Hellfire in the League -- she was a great character, and
Mason and I worked out the relationship in her and Rip's past, and
there was plenty of potential there... but I really didn't want
'Christina Ricci.' I've dabbled in the celebrity/public figure side of
Superguy (most notably with the Xolchipalians, though they had the
"coincidence" label to keep them safely separated from the source
material), and I gladly indulged in the satirical elements of the
list, but even if I wanted to do satires of Christina Ricci's
career... she's so much a different person and actress now then she
was before *Casper* -- *Casper* for Christ's sake -- that there was
nothing I could do with her. So, with Mason's help and blessing, we
divorced her from Ms. Ricci. Plus, when I get around to detailing this
in more... er, detail in the League itself, it'll give me a chance to
do In Nomine parodies, and that makes me a Happy King. As for the
costume -- this one I'm not too happy with, in large part because it's
not easy to truly make her out of flame. Well, okay, I can flame aura
her if she's a fire tanker, and if I get to 30th level with her I can
full on set her head and even body on fire, but that's a long way to
go to ger a character costume.
These are the field League members. In a later post -- this one's way
long enough as it is -- I'll do the same thing for Kirby Rogers, Mandy
"Ops" Harken, Elizabeth Tirkoff, Alice "Ms." Mercury, Susan "Carillon"
Liddel, and Rip Davis. I also have Lochaber costumes.
But that's for... another day.
