COMPROMISOS CON LA TRANSPARENCIA

Here are some facts characters and NPCs might know about Hummingbird if they succeed with an appropriate Skill Roll:

N/R: Hummingbird’s a member of the GRAB team of super-thieves; she has the power to shrink down to about 2 inches tall and to fly.

K/R: When shrunk, Hummingbird also has some psionic powers.

-2: Hummingbird only has two psionic powers when shrunk, a direct mental assault and mental control.

-6: Hummingbird is a mutant.

-8: Chemical and biological attacks are particu- larly effective against Hummingbird; she suffers increased injury from them.

Champions Villains Volume Two: Villain Teams n Grab 133

Val Char Cost Roll Notes

10 STR 0 11- Lift 100 kg; 2d6 HTH damage [1] 24 DEX 28 14-

18 CON 8 13-

10 INT 0 11- PER Roll 11- 18 EGO 8 13-

15 PRE 5 12- PRE Attack: 3d6 7 OCV 20 9 DCV 30 6 OMCV 9 6 DMCV 9 5 SPD 30 Phases: 3, 5, 8, 10, 12 8 PD 6 Total: 16 PD (8 rPD) 8 ED 6 Total: 16 ED (8 rED) 8 REC 4 35 END 3 10 BODY 0

30 STUN 5 Total Characteristics Cost: 171

Movement: Running: 12m

Flight: 50m

Cost Powers END

45 Hummingbird Size: Shrinking (.064m tall [about 2.5 inches], .0032 kg mass, -10 to PER Rolls to perceive character, +10 DCV, takes +30m KB) 0

Reduced Endurance (0 END; +½)

50 Neural Cohesion Powers: Multipower, 62-point powers

All Linked (to Shrinking; -¼)

5f 1) Mental Attack: Mental Blast 5d6 2

Reduced Endurance (½ END; +¼); Linked (to Shrinking; -¼)

5f 2) Mental Domination: Mind Control 10d6 2

Reduced Endurance (½ END; +¼); Linked (to Shrinking; -¼)

16 Bulletproof Costume: Resistant Protection (8 PD/8 ED) 0

OIF (-½)

12 Neural Cohesion: Mental Defense (12 points) 0 50 Small But Speedy: Flight 50m 2

Reduced Endurance (½ END; +¼); Linked (to Shrinking; -¼)

Skills

6 +2 with Neural Cohesion Powers Multipower 8 +4 with Flight

3 Acrobatics 14- 3 Breakfall 14- 3 Charm 12- 3 Conversation 12- 2 KS: Gems & Jewelry 11- 4 KS: Popular Music & Culture 13- 4 PS: Shopping 13-

3 Security Systems 11- 3 Stealth 14-

Total Powers & Skills Cost: 225 Total Cost: 396

400 Matching Complications (75)

10 Distinctive Features: Mutant (Not Concealable; Always Noticed; Detectable Only By Unusual Senses) 20 Hunted: PRIMUS (Infrequently, Mo Pow, NCI, Capture) 20 Hunted: Justice Squadron (Infrequently, Mo Pow, NCI,

Capture)

10 Physical Complication: Tiny Voice (-3 to Hearing PER Rolls to hear her speak when she’s Shrunk below 1m tall) (Infrequently, Slightly)

20 Psychological Complication: Code Versus Killing (Common, Total)

10 Psychological Complication: Insatiable Curiousity About Others’ Secrets (Common, Moderate)

10 Psychological Complication: Airhead (see text; Common, Moderate)

15 Social Complication: Secret Identity (Melissa Saunders) (Frequently, Major)

20 Vulnerability: 2 x STUN from Biological or Chemical Attacks (Common)

20 Vulnerability: 2 x BODY from Biological or Chemical Attacks (Common)

Total Complications Points: 75 Experience Points: 0

Membership: Stareye, Piledriver, and the Cahokian.

Background/History: The seeds of Merc-Force 1 were planted in 2002 with a rejection — the rejection of Gregory Robinson, codenamed “Stareye,” from the Ameriforce One project to create a new team of superhumans for the US government. Enraged at being denied a place on the team despite his obvious superiority to the “dolts” they’d chosen, Stareye decided that if Uncle Sam wasn’t going to give him the job he deserved, he wouldn’t work for the US at all. He went AWOL, embarking on a career of crime instead of superhuman-soldiering.

After a couple years of solo supercrime sprin- kled with periodic team-ups and working for the occasional master villain, Stareye decided it was time to form a team of his own — one that would show the Army just what a mistake it made when it didn’t give him a place on Ameriforce One. He recruited two villains he’d read about (illegally) in classified government files during his training: Piledriver, an energy-infused, superhumanly- strong man originally from Seattle; and a man codenamed “the Cahokian” who apparently was from some sort of alternate Earth.

Finding Piledriver took a little work. He’d broken out of the government’s secret “holding facility” for military superhumans some time ago and gone on the run as a supervillain. After calling on all of his underworld contacts and spending thousands of dollars on unscrupulous private investigators, Stareye finally caught up with him on the outskirts of Chicago and made his pitch. The suspicious Piledriver took a little convincing, but he was smart enough to know he’d stay free and rich a lot longer as part of a team than he would on his own. Finding the Cahokian, on the other hand, was easy — he was still in that same “holding facility” after all these years. Stareye and Piledriver broke him out and arranged to have his signature weapon rebuilt for him by Wayland Talos; the grateful Cahokian readily signed up for the team. Stareye christened them “Merc-Force 1” as a slap in the face to the Ameriforce One brass. Since then the three of them, often with two or three more villains as short-term allies or hire- lings, have committed a series of crimes across the US and fought several superhero groups.

Group Relations: The members of Merc-Force 1 get along pretty well. Being in charge makes Stareye happy, and for the most part he’s not a harsh or demanding leader so Piledriver and the Cahokian don’t mind letting him take control (though the Cahokian thinks he’d actually be a better leader most of the time). When they’re “off- duty,” they usually socialize together; they often go to movies, live sporting events, or bars.

Tactics: Since they’ve all had some amount of military training, the members of Merc-Force 1 have spent a lot of time and effort developing tactics that play to their strengths as a group — the way their respective powers and preferred moves can work together to maximum effect. They maintain a Mind Link between them at all times when on a mission so they don’t need to commu- nicate verbally, though they’ll drop it if they think an enemy mentalist is “tapping in” and listening to them. They have a fairly extensive “playbook” of maneuvers, each with a simple one- or two-word code name (the team periodically changes these names to avoid becoming too predictable). Some of these tactics include:

„

n Beta Green: the Cahokian Holds his Action in

the hopes of picking off a target who tries to Dodge or Dive For Cover out of the way of the others’ attacks

„

n Theta Mind [name of target]: Stareye captures

the designated target in a Mental Paralysis, then the Cahokian concentrates his fire on that target. (Iota Mind means for Piledriver to attack the paralyzed victim, usually using downward blows to avoid having to chase the target down after doing Knockback to him.)

„

n Lambda Twelve [name of target]: The Cahokian

uses his Flash on the target, then everyone hits that target hard while he can’t see.

„

n Omicron Fats [name of target]: Use your most

powerful attack on the designated target.

„

n Upsilon Peter [name of target]: Piledriver should

perform a Move Through on the designated target, and if possible try to hit him at such an angle that he can Knock him Back into another enemy.

Champions Villains Volume Two: Villain Teams n Merc-force 1 135

Campaign Use: Unlike many supervillain teams, Merc-Force 1 doesn’t have any sort of agenda or ulterior motive — they’re a “plain vanilla” bunch of supercriminals who are just interested in making money, having fun, and staying out of prison. You can use them for nearly about any plot you envision, whether that involves working for some other villain, spearheading a major crime on their own, or being hired by an anonymous adver- sary to take out the heroes once and for all.

Merc-Force 1’s obvious weak spot is its rela- tively small roster, so the best way to make the group more of a threat to your heroes is to add more permanent members. (See the next section for some potential new recruits.) If the team already seems too powerful, get rid of their Tactics and Teamwork Skills, or send the Cahokian back home.

Associates, Allies, And Adversaries: Since the team only has three core members, Stareye often arranges to hire “support personnel” (other super- villains) to work with the team for a particular crime or series of crimes. The group prefers to work with other super-mercenaries who have strong reputations for professionalism — the Steel Commando, Mechassassin, Lazer, Hazard, and the like — but when it comes right down to it what the members of Merc-Force 1 want first and foremost is the right superpowers for the job. For example, if a crime involves tapping a computer, they’ll hook up with a cyberkinetic; if they need a lot of tricky technical work done, Utility’s tops on their list. Other villains they’ve worked with from time to time include Brainchild, Devastator, Exo, Fenris, Frag, Grenadier, Mantisman, Pulsar, Python, Smoke and Mirrors, Wildeye, and ZigZag.

As its name implies, Merc-Force 1 willingly takes jobs for hire. They’ve worked for VIPER, the Warlord, the Ultimates, ARGENT, and several organized crime syndicates, usually receiving excellent reviews for the quality of their job performance.

Background/History: Gregory Robinson was one of those lucky people who grew up to get his dream job: astronaut. He didn’t make many friends in the Air Force, what with his arrogant manner and undisguised superiority complex, but there was no denying his physical and mental qualifications for the space program.

In 2000, Robinson was chosen to fly a special solo mission — NASA’s first manned orbital solar surveyor. Everything was going superbly when the Agency’s sensors picked up some sort of odd energy flare. Most analysts later concluded that it was an unpredictable solar flare of a type never before observed, but some claimed it simply couldn’t have been from the sun — on some instruments’ readings it didn’t even seem to come from the sun. Robinson himself later testified that he didn’t see where it came from or what it was. All he knew was that the electronics on the ship went wonky, then the cabin was filled with this ultra-bright light that seemed to be no color and every color at once, and then a burst of intense pain knocked him unconscious.

Robinson awoke two hours later to find many of the ship’s systems only partially functional. After some effort he re-established contact with Houston and began the long, arduous task of getting home with a crippled ship. When he made it back to Earth safely, the newspapers hailed it as a miracle.

But to NASA, the real miracle was that Robinson not only seemed completely unharmed, he was actually better — stronger, faster, tougher. When his eyes began to change color, the doctors realized there was even more going on: he was rapidly developing superpowers. He soon displayed a wide range of energy projection and mental powers, thus adding even more fuel to the speculative fires about what that energy flare was and where it came from.

When the government realized it had another genuine superhuman in its military ranks, it arranged to have Robinson transferred to the Ameriforce One project post-haste. Robinson didn’t like it one bit; he wanted to stay with NASA, not join a bunch of “ground-pounding yahoos wearing capes” (as he put it). But he didn’t have any choice. He did well in the training program and found that he actually enjoyed combat — something about hurting people appealed to him, an emotion he’d never experienced before. But his superiors noticed his violent attitude and soon realized that despite his versatile and powerful superhuman abilities, he wasn’t right for the team they were assembling.