Mutants & Masterminds: Lake City Universe - LCU - Volt

[Doctor Varroxxian]

NAME: Volt (secretly Jason Garman)

ORIGIN: Alien (technologically evolved ancient humans, he keeps this secret)

POWERS: Space Time Folding via Evolved Bio-Energy Metabolism

THEME: High Energy, hence VOLT. His powers tend to look a bit electrical, even if they are not – and given their exotic origins going with the ‘look’ as an explanation works for him.

TITLE: Defender? Guardian?

GENDER: Male

AGE: 18 (looks 20-ish, but he still gets carded once in a while)

PERSONALITY: He has gotten by on looks and athletc talent, but has a good heart. He is not ready to be a leader, and is still a bit overwhelmed by who he has become

POWER LEVEL: 8

APPEARANCE: https://sites.google...inetemplar/volt

COMPLICATIONS:

- Motivation: Responsibility – Trying to live up to the people who have inspired / raised him – those people who are gone, those who still watch over him, and those that someday he will watch over and hopefully inspire.

- Motivation: Doing Good – This is the moral code that his adoptive parents and uncle Uri have impressed into him.

- Identity: Secret Identity as Jason Garman, Orthi Corp ‘researcher’

- Lost Culture: He has a strong desire to uncover the history of his people, of his ancient family

ABILITIES: 52 PP

STRENGTH 9 (18 PP) [10 enchanced] - 25 tons

AGILITY 4 (8 PP) [5 enchanced]

FIGHTING 5 (10 PP) [6 enchanced]

AWARENESS 0 (0 PP) [5 enchanced]

STAMINA 9 (18 PP) [10 enchanced]

DEXTERITY 0 (0 PP) [0]

INTELLECT -1 (-2 PP) [-1]

PRESENCE 0 (0 PP) [1 enchanced]

DEFENCE:

Dodge 5

Parry 5

Toughness 10 [impervious 5]

Fortitude 10

Will 7

OFFENCE:

Unarmed +8 Damage +10

TRADEOFFS: AGI -2 / STA +2; FGT -2 / STR +2

SKILLS: 7 PP <59>

- Acrobatics 1 (+6)

- Athletics 5 (+10)

- Insight 1 (+6)

- Perception 1 (+6)

- Stealth 3 (+8)

- Unarmed Combat 2 (+8)

- Vehicles 1 (+1)

Not very experienced, Jason was not eligible for a more central Alliance team – even with eight months of extensive training. He is secretly relieved, since he feels that being a guardian in Lake City is a better starting point for him. This feels like a way he can learn more about the role everyone expects him to fulfill.

ADVANTAGES: 10 PP <69>

- Uncle Uri – Benefit 2 (status related to the Orthi, reflecting the fact that Uncle Uri is family, and the Orthi have a vested interest in him)

- Improved Grab 1 (tentacle training)

- Luck 2

- Uncanny Dodge 2 (a subtle manipulation of time for self defence)

- Hide in Plain Sight 1 (a slight bending of time affecting perceptions)

- Attractive 2

Lucky, very attractive, in large part raised by Uncle Uri, and trained by him in some ways of using his powers over the last 8 months … but again just 18 and not very accomplished in too many ways.

POWERS: 51 PP <120>

- Enhanced Traits (4 PP <4>)

- STRENGTH (1 rank)

- STAMINA (1 rank)

- Extra Limbs (Extras: Projection, Affects Insubstantial 2) (1 ranks / 4 PP <8>) - long tentacle(s) with 'suction points', all made of dynamic looking electric-blue energy that originate from the small of the back and extends in roughly the same sphere as his arm reach, usually 'resting' in body cavities just behind the upper glutious maximus. In lab conditions at Orthi corp he has been able to produce two extra tentacles by 'pushing' more energy into the tendril cavities (extra effort).

- Elongation 2 ranks (Limited - Tentacles only) (2 ranks / 1 PP <9>) - when he wills it, the tentacle(s) can really stretch out to about 30 feet ... In lab conditions, extra energy devoted to his tentacles(s) can allow for longer extension (extra effort).

- Features (Temporal Inertia) (ranked 1 / 1 PP <10>) - His people were masters of time, and it is part of their bio-energetic essence to be unchanged by timeline shifts.

- Immunity (Life Support, Aging, Critcal Hits) (ranked 10. 1, 2 / 13 PP <23>) - His people, while human, have a Bio-energetic physical form ... a step along the line toward evolving into beings of energy that lay dormant during his childhood until released by his mental contact with parents ‘orbs’ from the distant past - this also completed his apparent biological development so he looks more early 20s than the 18 he really is (Yes they had much cooler orbs, having been ancient and wise before they sacrificed themselves).

- Impervious Toughness (5 ranks – 5 PP <28>) – he is tough due his bio-energy ‘aura’ which infuses his human biology and tends to operate like a sort of natural always on force-field. This field is an Impervious Defence – as a cosmetic effect, it also protects clothes and personal items like his teleport does.

- Regeneration (1 Rank / 1 PP <29>) – From his demi-human Bio-energetic nature.

- Power Array: Time-Space Folding (6 PP <35>)

Primary Power - Flight (3 ranks) – bending the fabric of space, but not folding

- Teleport (AP - 1 rank - Extras: Extended +1, Safe +1, Easy +1, Change Velocity 1) – 3-D Space Folding

- Dimension Travel* (AP - 3 ranks – Portal +2, Selective +1, Feature 1 – Distracting -1, Increased Action -2, Inaccurate (Quirk) 1 – Linked with 1 pt appropriate Dimensional Sense) – N-Dimensional Space Folding to open a portal that looks into other dimensions.

- Time Travel* (AP - 3 ranks – Portal +2, Selective +1, Feature 1 – Distracting -1, Increased Action -2, Inaccurate (Quirk) 1, – Linked with 1 pt appropriate Temporal Sense) – Folding Time to open a portal that looks into other times.

- Summoning** (AP - 6 ranks – Increased Action -1) – Drawing in orb(s) from the myriad unrealized timelines … where they are potentially present and reality is merely lending temporal energy to make them temporarily real. Folding other time-spaces into this one.

* His temporal and dimensional travel powers are very dangerous to use because he has no experience with them … not only are the senses in these areas very undeveloped but his control over the powers themselves needs a lot of work. The one use they do have is that he can instinctively sense how to get ‘home’ (the Feature extra). The senses 'bundled' into the power are embryonic right now, but will expand over time - they are linked as they are part of the same AP. In the case of these portal powers, the inaccurate is a quirk that means these powers lead to places the plots wants to go, not so much the character. Extra effort thus far has served to sharpen the associated senses. The IC explanation that Uri has offered is that the powers are largely being directed by Jason's subconscious ... a tricky thing indeed.

** See Orb descriptions for more, but as he is beginning his career as a public guardian he can only summon the orb which holds the ‘shadows’ of his ancient mother and father. The orbs are living technology, tied to him and growing with him – providing ever increasing variants as his control over time-space folding increases.

Much of the 'research' that Jason ostensibly does at Orthi corp as an 'intern' (which is not much, he is far from being a scientist) involves the use of this power, and having Uncle Uri analyse it. Sending probes to other dimensions, usually at random - and scanning through the portals. Jason and Uri speculate that many of his people did not use some of these powers due to the difficulty of their use, though the issue could also be a lack of proper training methodologies from that age.

- Power Amplifier Side Pack (16 PP <51>) Remvoable

Ehnanced Traits

- AWARENESS (5 ranks / 10 PP)

- PRESENCE (1 rank / 2 PP)

- AGILITY (1 rank / 2 PP)

- FIGHTING (1 rank / 2 PP)

Senses (2 ranks - 2 PP)

- Ultra Vision

- Ultra Hearing

Will Defence +2 (2 PP)

Savings From REMOVABLE side-pack item (4 PP) This item which was developed by his people millennia ago during the invasion. Because not everyone develops the same abilities but military team work benefits from some uniformity ... this is a prosthetic that works with the body and mind to provide any missing capabilities and round out the individual. The belt and left side pack are just for carrying things ... and to provide important / realistic looking decoys in case items are targeted … an idea from Uri. This is actually 'living' technology made of blue crystal alloys (about as tough as 'super-alloy'), ‘seeded’ for him by the orbs he first summoned and then nurtured by own his bio-energy over weeks … he even gave one to Uncle Uri and seeded a new one just to see how it works. This is the way that all of the ancient technology of his people was made once their culture matured … and the same technology that is used in the orbs.

ORBS: Stats Coming Soon …The only orb he can reliably draw in at the moment (without more training) is that imprinted with the shadow intelligence of his ancient mother - an AI created by the same super scientist who saved him as an infant.

[Doctor Varroxxian]

BACKGROUND:

It was a time he dimly remembered, and even then only in the images of a child mind. Humanity had a great city, perhaps many, but he could only remember one. It was long ago, and and it looked so different from the cities of today – as if it were raised with minds alone. His parents had known the end was coming for them, they were great and powerful scholars who had studied the evil ones. So they locked him in time, with their great power he would survive the war with the evil ones – survive until e could once again find a home and a family. None of the others would follow, they forbade it as a waste of resources and said that untied the people would prevail over the other-worldly invaders. Yet his mother had seen the future, and her visions of shifting events saw that only one had the chance to survive: her son. In secret, they prepared the child and hid him in the streams of time and space. Civilization fell to the evil ones, and though they were driven away the people were scattered … their great works sundered and shattered.

A great many ages later, 1904 – The heroic age of antarctic exploration was in full swing, and it was the last season of the Southern Cross Expedition. This legendary journey made the first ascent of the Western Mountains in Victoria Land, and discovered the polar plateau. Its southern journey set a new Farthest South record, 82°17'S.[21 Many other geographical features were discovered, mapped and named. This was the first of several expeditions based in McMurdo Sound. This was also the first expedition, at least to the knowledge of the Royal Museum Curators, to have smuggled an artifact back in secret.

A globe, 0.49 meters in diameter and made of blue crystalline material that could not be drilled – even scratched. The orb was of great interest to the war department, initially. After years of trying to heat it, crack it, cut it – all to no avail – they abandoned hope of developing the project and it was given back to the museum. They had also made little headway in deciphering the strange tiny iconography that filled its surface, and then the war came. So much destruction, and only the real treasures of London could be saved underground – the orb was lost in bombings and fires. The expedition members never divulged where they had found this treasure, or the other objects that made them incredibly rich men.

1993 – the orb is recovered by an Alliance team who's Nameless agent picks up a telepathic signal from a living, but 'static' mind. Together with the Orthi, they manage to decipher the orb's puzzle – and discover a human infant inside as the orb simply vanishes. A human infant that has been in stasis for longer than their equipment can reasonably determine – and the child has powers. The benevolence of the Orthi works in young Jason's favor, when they ensure his adoption into a good family – the Garmans.

2010 – Jason has led a fairly normal life, graduating high school dead average in everything excepting his remarkable athletic accolades. With a eye towards college - notably college football, since he was already scouted - he decided he needed a break. He would spend a few weeks backpacking through Europe to see new things. He has been raised well, as an upstanding young man comfortable with the Alliance scientists who have kept tabs on him – even the strange looking Orthi. His decision to backpack was typical of the open-minded young man Jason was becoming as most would have simply went to the beach and drank till they stank. Not Jason, he wanted to experience life. In Europe he was expanding his horizons, when he received a message from his favorite (adoptive) uncle, the Orthi scientist who's name translates best to “Uralatalitkai” or as many people call him on earth “Uri”. His parents had been killed in a bank robbery gone wrong.

The strain was too much for him, and in the mountains – holding his O-phone and not believing the message he blacked out. In his delirium he was calm, somehow not in the mountains but standing in a beautiful city under familiar starry skies – with strange misshapen constellations. In it he was approached by a man and woman in dark blue clothing. They smiled, and he felt they were close to his heart somehow … when the woman spoke “I am , she who is your mother of birth. You do not know us, and we are long gone but shadows of us remain for you. He is , your father of birth and together we sense that you have become a man. Yet your heart is heavy, you are in pain – and have lost the mother and father you knew. You have lost those that loved you very much.” … Jason replied “Somehow, I know you both. Somehow I understand you, and I say that my heart is broken. My parents died senseless deaths, and I feel pain, loss, and anger.” At this the man who was his father spoke “We sense this also, and we sense that there is good in you. If you swear not to give into hate, we wish to give you a gift. You must swear in your heart to use it with all the wisdom you have, to use it for good – for it is power, it is our legacy. Beware, we can sense your heart, your inner most thoughts – so pledge truthfully.“

Jason knew, somehow, that they spoke the truth and he said “If had it my way, I would protect them. I feel anger, maybe even hate – but they raised me better than that. They taught me right from wrong, they taught me that hate is wrong and since they are gone that is the most important legacy of theirs I have. This power you talk of, I don't know about – I don't even know if this is real or a dream.” The woman, his mother, said “This is both reality and dream, and neither son. You speak the truth, that we can feel – and those who you have just lost did raise you well, with love and wisdom.” … the man, his father, added “So we judge you ready – use the power, the ability we unlock for you today, for good. Use it for the good of the people.” With that, he awoke awash in blue radiance – transformed with power.

2011 – It had been a tough year, but he had come to grips with the loss of his family as best he could - better than most would have. He had also worked with the Alliance to learn his newfound powers. His Uncle Uri, the closest thing to family he has – managed to make his experience with the Alliance a positive one. Jason became an 'intern' and his powers were kept a top secret. Training happened under the guise or Jason becoming an 'intern' researcher ... and recently developed the Hero persona of Volt. However, Jason was still young – only 18 and so the powers that be decided that he would best serve on a local level ... he was just too young to be working on a main Alliance team. His assignment: Lake city, as the registered public defender “Volt” - even though his powers weren't electrical ... the look of them fit and it was an easier name to grasp than many of the others they considered. After eight months of solid training, trying on various costumes (he just didn't like the cape, so it is removable and bundles into a slim fanny pack... more of a cloak), and getting his first apartment ... Volt arrived in Lake city.