Continuing with my previous point. Look towards Umbraxis, the current most powerful Villain. Obviously scary and intimidating, but what sum total did he actually do to hurt our heroes? Umbraxis showed up, got his cosmic buttocks squarely kicked, returned to space where he is currently being shot with rays of light and put through an existential crisis.

Where in that does fear take hold? He's the most powerful opponent yet, and he's already been defeated and is stood still in a cosmic standoff.

It's like Galactus compared to Ozymandias.

Galactus shows up, looks really spooky for a bit, then concurrently fucks off after some artifact shows up to prove to be dangerous.

Ozymandias won 35 minutes before you even arrived.

A villain compared to a real villain.

You have to have some sort of impact in the world that you're in, otherwise you're just another common thug who roughs people up in the street. Maybe a little more fancy than common thugs, but still just the same.

NPC deaths hold no real ground, since they're just NPCs. Unless you have time to make some formative emotional connection between them and the player, nobody is going to miss them.

See my point?

<Snipped quote by FacePunch>

To be fair with the Cowl, everyone who has tried to track him down didn't 'fail' just something else happened to them. Out of the three people who specifically called out the Cowl, Ares got beat by Athena before he got the chance, Equilibrium was captured by STRIKE, and Lyger's now embroiled in Pax Metahumana. The only one who still has a beef with him is the Cancer, and we haven't been focusing on a gang war because The Cowl has been primarily focused on keeping his operations in the dark.

It's not like it's going to be easy, but The Cowl's one big success is his smuggling job so far. I'm hoping his open bounty on Jack Grey's head will cause some commotion, but one can only wait and see.

<Snipped quote by Fallenreaper>

Which again, is just great, but I'm starting to see that's a pattern with both existing and new villains. Even on the character page, I count about 6 true-blue villains and 13 heroes. The walking the line characters may occasionally get wrapped up in both, but it leaves those 13 heroes with a lot of people focusing on one or two stories, which is fine. Of course, this doesn't count the unlabeled villains, characters without a CS like Nightmare, Good Doctor, and Forsaken, and Jaqueline, but I'd certainly like to see more public villains with a CS pop up in case we ever want to make a sort of 'Injustice League'. I'm talking about world conquerors, masterminds, people who got henchmen and assassins at their fingertips. Hell, I got some ideas for more villains, and I'm always willing to contribute the foils for my own lore.

However, it's not really a concern, just an observation. I'm not exactly fretting because we're going to run out of ideas, but hey, someone else we can pool into the villain side for the heroes to duke it out with later isn't such a bad thought.

@LeeRoy Umbraxis killed hundreds of people and two city level heroes before he was 'defeated.' That would matter in-universe, even if they were NPCs.

Nightmare has successfully defeated multiple player-controlled heroes and continues to allude capture, murdering dozens as he goes.

Obviously they would be discussed, I'm not a heartless monster. Just your average ordinary monster.

@LeeRoy snip

I mean if you want a Villain, that's MY personal field of expertise. If you really want a villain, you can just ask and I will deliver the deaths of at least three heroes.

@KaiserElectric I totally read this line "she absolutely loves meeting and befriending new people" as. she absolutely loves meeting and beheading new people.

I'm a terrible person.

Finished and submitted for your approval, just before I turn in for the night. I'll address any comments, complaints, and hate mail tomorrow. ^_^

Riley [+]

Character you have created: Subject BPE-45A / 'Riley'
Alias: None yet
Speech Color (Actually say what you're using): 662d91 will do nicely
Character Alignment: Hero?
Identity: Secret
Character Personality: Despite the circumstances of her "birth" and her alien appearance, you'll have a hard time finding someone with as much heart as Riley, alien or otherwise. Facing whatever life throws at her with cheerful optimism and a smile, her easygoing and friendly personality is almost infectious, possibly a side-effect of her powers, and she likes to see the best in everyone she encounters, good or evil. Life's an adventure to her, and she absolutely loves meeting and befriending new people thanks to her natural empathy and sociability, as well as discovering new and interesting things to interact with. Her cheerfulness can be grating at times, and sometimes she can be a bit naive about serious issues, but when the chips are down, she'll knuckle down and get to work like anyone else, and when she gets pushed too far, you'll find that her fury can be just as powerful and infectious as her happiness.

Uniform/costume: Riley doesn't have a superhero uniform just yet, though it's not for lack of trying. If she needs a disguise, a hoodie and scarf combined with a clever use of her powers (see the relevant section below) is sufficient at hiding her identity. Out of costume she looks like this, ignoring the outfit and swapping out the green coloring for purple.
Origin Info/Details: Shortly before the events in Lost Haven began, ESA satellites detected an unknown object crash into the Mediterranean a few miles off the coast of Corsica. After the initial team sent to observe the area mysteriously vanished, the French government deployed an elite GIGN division to secure the crash site. The unknown object was discovered to be an extraterrestrial spacecraft piloted by a lone alien life form. The alien attempted to fight off the GIGN unit using a strange purple energy source, but GIGN managed to subdue the alien and capture its spacecraft in the brutal firefight only to discover that the alien was already dead, probably killed long before the spacecraft reached Earth. Perplexed by how a dead creature could slaughter their initial recovery team and hold its own against an elite spec ops unit, the French government put the alien cadaver in cold storage and quietly covered up the incident until they had the means to uncover the source of the alien's mysterious abilities.

The situation changed after a portal opened up and unleashed an army of demons on an American city known as Lost Haven. Realizing that they were incredibly unsuited to dealing with a similar attack, the French government along with other NATO members spearheaded new military and technology projects that would hopefully better prepare them for similar threats like Lost Haven's D-Day. The mysterious energy that the alien had used to cheat death and defend itself at Corsica was brought up as a possible defensive measure, and after much debate the alien corpse was handed over to Darrow Engineering, a London-based high-technology corporation and defense contractor specializing in the biological and chemical sciences, for further research. Darrow pooled together every resource they had into unlocking the secret behind the alien's abilities, even drawing the CEO's interest in the research, until they began to draw a detailed picture of the capabilities of this mysterious power source, dubbed "psionic energy". It was progress, but unfortunately without a living source of this psionic energy it would be impossible to study the capabilities of this energy any further, let alone harness it. Publicly, Darrow Engineering declared that the project had hit a stalemate, while behind closed doors the creation of a being that could harness this energy was discussed. Many ideas were discussed, but the most radical was the brainchild of Dr. Alaric Gaster, easily the most brilliant and unethical scientist in the employ of the company, who proposed the creation of a human-alien hybrid that could harness psionic energy. Despite heated objections and a few unfriendly comparisons to one Dr. Frankenstein, the CEO of the company himself liked the idea and privately gave his approval to the creation of this new life form, classified under the name Project Forethought. Secretly delivered the alien cadaver and the recently deceased body of a young girl, barely out of her college years, Dr. Gaster went to work, and after many sleepless nights he had succeeded, giving the gift of life to an alien-human hybrid known as Subject BPE-45A.

While Dr. Gaster was elated with his success, especially once the creature's psionic potential became obvious, his assistant Dr. Mina Seidel was less then thrilled about her accomplishments. A talented scientist in her own right, Mina was a relatively new higher to the Darrow science labs but had been specifically requested as an assistant by Gaster so that he could help her achieve true greatness by overcoming the flaws that stood in her way, namely her meek nature and sense of ethics. As she watched Gaster perform dehumanizing tests on Subject BPE-45A and became increasingly guilty because of it, Mina tried to soothe her conscience by thinking of how someone like her could help stop an event like D-Day from happening again, just like the superhumans in Lost Haven. Mina's regrets over how the hybrid creature was treated, and her hopes that the creature could 'save the world' one day, had a dramatic effect on the creature, who had telepathically attached herself to Mina's positive thoughts as the cold and mechanical Gaster tormented her. While Gaster didn't recognize or care about the change, Mina quickly noticed that the creature was becoming more intelligent, learning to speak and think for itself and even developing a personality and conscience of its own, which came as a shock when the creature tearfully apologized to her about how it had been reading her mind. Mina, just happy to have someone to talk to besides Gaster, struck up a friendship with her creation, no longer able to see her as a simple lab animal. Subject BPE-45A in turn was happy to have someone that didn't treat her with cold curiosity, and even chose a human name for herself at Mina's suggestion, Riley.

This was something Dr. Gaster could not ignore, and in an effort to save her from pursuing the 'wrong path', Gaster informed Mina that he had exhausted all possible means of studying the creature, and that they would instead be dissecting it to fully harvest its psionic energy. Gaster made every attempt to persuade her to do the deed, telling her of how she could truly become a great scientist, not just saving the world but paving the way for a brighter future, if she "only had the courage to do what needed to be done", but in the end Mina refused to kill Riley to satisfy his sick curiosity, and bravely told him that she would not stand by silently and let him carry out his evil experiments anymore. Enraged, Dr. Gaster proclaimed that while he had been willing to share in his glory, he wasn't going to let a weak-minded coward like her steal it from him and he promptly attempted to kill her. Riley, who had been anesthetized and restrained to an operating table, woke up at the sound of the commotion, and as she saw Dr. Gaster attempting to strangle Mina, Riley was overcome with fury at Gaster's cruelty and unleashed an uncontrolled burst of psionic energy. The pure psionic power ransacked the lab and utterly destroyed Dr. Gaster, consuming him in a burst of psionic energy that left no trace of him behind. Recovering from the unexpected psionic attack, Riley and Mina were reunited and vowed that they would escape this horrible place together and go somewhere where they could be safe. Mina quickly went to work covering up the incident, doctoring security footage and forging records to show that Dr. Gaster and Subject BPE-45A had been consumed in an uncontrolled psionic blast after one of his tests went wrong. She resigned from Darrow Engineering after presenting the report, saying that she was traumatized by the whole incident, and together with a disguised Riley she fled back home to the United States to ask an old friend for help.

Hero Type (Select one): Psychic/Energy (Psionic)
Power Level (Select one below): City (Currently)
Powers (Be Specific):
Riley's hybrid genetics, in addition to some modest physical advantages, allow her to naturally produce a mysterious power known as psionic energy, which she can tap into at will to harness a variety of psychokinetic abilities. The true capabilities of Riley's powers have yet to be tested, and she will no doubt encounter more abilities and strengthen what she already has as she starts to get into the superhero business. Some of her current abilities include:

Telekinesis- Riley is able to move and manipulate physical objects with her psionic powers. Her telekinesis is generally strong enough to throw cars around and delicate enough to stack coins in a neat pile, though at this stage she needs to be aware of an object in order to manipulate it. While her telekinetic abilities theoretically have no upper limit, she can't push past her strength limit without quickly draining her psionic energy and leaving herself vulnerable. She can also use this ability on herself to fly and hover around, if needed.

Telepathy- Riley's psionics allow her to peer into the minds of other sentient beings and influence their decisions. She is able to detect the superficial thoughts and emotions of others with this ability, giving her an edge when she needs to talk her way out a situation rather then fight. She is also able to plant telepathic suggestions in the minds of other sentient beings to influence their actions, such as convincing a robber to let go of his hostage or encouraging a hammy villain to go into a dramatic monologue to distract himself from her allies. This is not the same as mind control, as she cannot force someone to take an action against their will or out of character through implanting suggestions. She can only target one or two people with a significant suggestion, but she can also implant a trivial one on a larger group within a decently-sized radius around her. She uses this to disguise herself as a human by sending out a mass suggestion to ignore or overlook her facial features.

Relocation- Riley is able to vanish in a burst of psionic energy and reappear somewhere else. The process is instantaneous and marked with an audible burst of purple light, and she can comfortably transport distances measuring a few yards at the most. Longer distances tend to rapidly drain her psionic energy and make her reappear in a less accurate location. She can also bring anyone she touches with her as she relocates, which tends to give the passenger a severe bout of nausea.

Attributes (Select one at each category):

Strength Level: Normal to above average / 50 tons using PSI, potentially higher
Speed/Reaction Timing Level: Peak human / Boosted to a 50 MPH flight speed and 100+ MPH reaction time with PSI
Endurance at MAXIMUM Effort: 3 Hours
Agility: 15x
Intelligence: Normal
Fighting Skill: Untrained

Resources: High
Weaknesses: Psionic energy is a very chaotic source of power, and requires a fair amount of willpower and self-control to use effectively. Keeping it contained comes easier to Riley then others thanks to her half-alien genetics, but if she overexerts herself or loses control of her emotions, her psionic energy can overwhelm her. In a best case scenario her powers would simply shut down and leave her vulnerable, but a loss of control could just as easily lead to an uncontrollable burst of energy, which could have very...unpleasant effects on her or anyone around her at the time.

Supporting Characters:
Mina Seidel: Riley's first and arguably best friend, an incredibly gifted scientist with experience in several fields of technology, most notably biology. Meek, shy, and kind of a nerd, she's very protective of her friends and is regularly haunted by her own guilty conscience and perpetual bad luck.
Jordan Fletcher: An old friend of Mina's who moved to the US a few years ago to take over her birth father's security company, Arbalest. Very tough, very brazen, and very Irish, Jordan is reluctantly allowing Mina and her new friend "Riley" to lie low at her place for the time being.
"Smokey" Van Hassel: Jordan Fletcher's second-in-command at Arbalest, and one of her most trusted friends. Quiet and elusive, Smokey rarely speaks or reacts to anything, and is never seen without a cigarette in his mouth. He's known for being a tinkerer and helps to supply the equipment that Arbalest security personnel use.
Dr. Alaric Gaster: The cruel and brilliantly deranged mind behind Riley's creation, an unethical scientist who will stop at nothing to achieve the greatness he feels he deserves. Thankfully he was killed in that psionic explosion...right?

Do you know how to post pictures on RPG boards?:


Sample Post: It hadn't been a good week for Mina. Newly unemployed and on the run, the only person she could turn to was across the Atlantic Ocean, and thanks to yet another lunatic mad scientist most of the flights to the United States had been delayed indefinitely. And since Mina had moved out of her apartment before checking that fact she had been forced to spend the last few nights in the back of a rental car at the tail end of a predictably cold and wet English winter. Her legendary bad luck seemingly back in full force, Mina, her short dirty-blonde hair messy and damp and her glasses badly smudged, wouldn't be shocked to realize that the ride her friend had arranged for them was delayed by a month, or that Darrow had gotten to the airfield first to ask her some hard questions about what had really happened in the lab.

Riley, on the other hand, was having the time of her life.

"This is AMAZING!" the half-alien girl exclaimed, her purple eyes wide with excitement as she pressed her face against the passenger side window."Does water always fall from the sky like this?"

"More then most of us would like it to," Mina grumbled, trying to drive straight along the narrow pockmarked road to her destination. Riley turned to look over at her, sensing that she was frustrated.

"You do not like this...rain?" she asked innocently. "I do not understand how something so refreshing and energetic could be seen as undesirable."

"I'm not much of an outdoors person," Mina tried to explain. "I was more interested in the job then the weather here, anyway."

"Ah, I see." The pair of them were silent for a moment as the rain drummed hard on the roof of the car, before Riley suddenly squealed with delight and pulled Mina into a seated hug, nearly causing her to lose control of the vehicle.

"Agh, Riley what the hell are you...!?"

"That means you braved weather you disliked to help create me!" Riley shouted gleefully over her friend's protests. "That is so kind and selfless, thank you so much Ms. Mina!" Mina stared blankly back at her friend, rendered speechless with embarrassment and shock at the exaggerated but entirely sincere praise. Riley seemed satisfied with the lack of an answer and returned to looking out the window of the car again as though nothing unusual had happened. Mina pondered once again on how absurd the whole situation was. Even in a world where demons and superhumans and mad scientists were all too common, Riley was probably the strangest thing that Mina had ever encountered personally. She thought back to a few months ago when she first read the reports of the Corsican Engagement and saw the lectures on this strange new power coming from the dead alien, the psionic energy. It was a power that Gaster claimed could move mountains, destroy nations, wipe out whole worlds, and even tear apart the very fabric of reality with a passing thought, and yet the vessel that he had built to channel these powers was sitting in the passenger seat of this lumpy old rental car, utterly fascinated by 'water falling from the sky'. And she was friends with it. She was friends with her. Maybe even best friends. Certainly friends enough to escape across the Atlantic with her.

Riley yelped with excitement as the car turned the corner and the small private airfield came into view, looking like she was five seconds from jumping through the windscreen and running through the mud to get there. The car slowed as Mina cautiously approached the modest little tarmac, her eyes peeled for the familiar black vans with the logo of a sword and shield emblazoned with the letters DE on the side. Out of the corner of her eye, she spotted Riley lean back in her seat and close her eyes, concentrating slightly.

"I think there's only one person outside at this place," Riley revealed as she reopened her eyes and gave her a reassuring smile. "Darrow isn't here, Ms. Mina." While she was a bit annoyed at the thought reading, Mina couldn't help but breath a little easier as she headed towards the only plane currently sitting on the tarmac, a small two-engine passenger plane with propellers painted with red and blue stripes. Taking a look at the airfield itself, it was a pretty dodgy looking location, even when it was partially obscured by the pouring rain. The old gray office building serving as the control center looked like it was two seconds from falling down, and the rusted hangers didn't look much better. As she drew closer and pulled to a stop, she spotted through the rain what looked like smoke rising from the other side of the plane.

"That must be our 'ride', right?" Riley asked excitedly.

"It's supposed to be," Mina said as she checked her watch. "Jordan said the pilot would be here around ten to get us. No one else should be at this dump."

"This Jordan is nice to send someone to help us," Riley said cheerily. "You said you were old friends, is the Jordan like you?"

"Um, no not really," Mina pondered, thinking back to when she last saw her a few years back. "Nothing like me, actually. But I think you'll get along just fine. So long as you don't call her 'The Jordan', I think that's a river."

"O-okay," Riley said, giggling slightly. Bracing herself, Mina kicked open the car door and jumped into the freezing rain, making a mad dash for the other side of the jet plane, her muffled footsteps echoed by Riley who followed close behind. As she stopped on the other end to catch her breath, she thought she saw a statue leaning against the wall of the plane before a second glance told her it was a man. Tall and lean, his chiseled features and perfectly styled short blonde hair were seemingly untouched by the wind and rain, though his long trench coat flapping in the wind revealed that he wasn't entirely immune to the cold. His only reaction upon Mina and Riley's appearance was to focus his emotionless dark eyes on the pair of them, which did little to prove he wasn't some sort of robot. In this day and age, Mina figured, anything was possible.

"You're Mina Seidel?" the man suddenly said, his deep, droning voice piercing through the wind and rain. Mina, taken aback by his forcefulness, merely nodded her head in response. Casually, the man drew and lit a cigarette from his pocket in spite of the elements, taking a long drag before continuing to speak.

"Van Hassel," he said bluntly, offering her a handshake which she reluctantly accepted. His vice-like grip was something of a surprise after hearing his somewhat lazy tone.

"And I'm Riley!" Riley shouted happily. Van Hassel looked over to the girl, whose hood had fallen down and revealed her true features in all of their alien and incredibly damp glory. He only paused for a second before offering his hand to her as well, which she shook awkwardly as she tried to mimic what Mina would have done.

"Better get going," Van Hassel said, jerking a gloved thumb towards the plane. "The situation back home's getting messy, we'd better get you there as soon as possible."

"I c-couldn't agree more," Mina sputtered, somewhat intimidated by his casual yet commanding attitude. Wordlessly, Van Hassel turned and entered the interior of the plane, followed closely by Mina, who was eager to finally get out of the abysmal weather. Riley lingered, however, taking a moment to stare at the world around her, coming to terms with what she was feeling, until she finally took a seat next to Mina just as the engines roared to life.

"We're leaving now," Riley said quietly, turning to look out the window as the tarmac began to move past them.

"Yeah, we're going," Mina said with a relieved sigh. "About time, too. Boy, I'll be glad to-"

"Ms. Mina," Riley interjected, "Are we...safe? From Darrow? From that man? Are we...going to be okay?" If anyone else had asked that question, Mina would have been at a loss for words. But as she looked at Riley and saw the hope welling behind her eyes, an answer came almost naturally to the meek, conflicted scientist who had helped to create her.

"Yeah Riley," she said plainly. "I think we're going to be okay."

Riley smiled warmly.