WWYCD #115: Xerox Paradox...Baby Blues!

[ParitySoul]

Problem : Dr. Destroyer/Demon/Viper/what have you has found a way to copy your character. But not only have they gotten this process down but they can do it in BULK!!! There is only one glitch to the process: It creates a lesser/younger version of you with only a mere fraction of your memories and abiltiles. ie. A younger/childlike version of you. These clones DO have power and in numbers can prove to be a problem, and all signs show that in time they will indeed grow into a full fledge copy of your character...save loyal to your foes. Currently there is a half dozen active and you 'might' have time to save them. But signs show the process is done in another location. Do your stop the copies, the system that copies you, and what do you do with them afterwards?

[S7Michelle]

::chuckles:: If my GM reads this and suddenly Mini-Io's (with pink hair, an attitude much like Chibi-Usa from the Sailor Moon series, and that think they are in love with Bladestar) start showing up....I am so going to blame you. :mad:


I'm going to have to think about this one.

[BcAugust]

... Ouch. Luckily, her clones can't pass for her at home(ie, she has had several things done that can't be cloned that will confirm her idenity) Plus, given her upbringing... Being raised by Dr. Destroyer might be an improvment. Cyrande would ask Starguard to go with her to collect the children, asking the rest of the team politely to take care of the factory, then semi retire and raise them as unofficial daughters and younger sisters, in a place preferably far from civilization. Of course, given even minor versions of her power is still impressive, that might cause some difficulties...

[Reaverofpeace]

For the warmaster he would first rescue the kids and begin there training in the path, and be surprised that someone was able to successfully clone a non mind blind Ceran. Then he'd track the factory down, then calmly rip out all the information pertaining to this from the persons mind making sure that no way to copy this exists.

[WhammeWhamme]

Flippant:
Well, this is... bad. A master villain with an army with the innate power to traverse dimensions? Excuse us while he conquers the multiverse...
Shut down the cloning facility with all undue haste. Destroy it, raze it, and take steps to make sure the mastermind can never repeat the process. If thaing him for the local equivalent of a lobotomy... well... sacrifices have to be made for the safety of, uhm, everything.

On the other hand, he's good with training kids. (professiGymnastics Coach, but it's a knack too)

So he picks up half a dozen kid sidekicks. Who will be pressed to enjoy superheroics, as athletics aren't an option for them. He'll claim they're his nephews from his homeland. (Undecided; somewhere in eastern Europe)

Estatua:
Well, for the clones to have powers, they must have cloned the skin donor,be full-blown 'superman' types. This not good. This verrrry bad. Defeat them with a bit of difficulty, and have the team locate the base STAT.

[OddHat]

Style – “Wonderful. Just wonderful. Demon now has a small army of magelings based on me, all of them doomed.” Watches with interest as the forces of the Dragon, Viper, Takafones, the Crowns, and the Circle of the Scarlet Moon pour their wrath down upon Demon and a half dozen younger versions of him, none of whom have mastered the Light of Heaven series of spells that are the only thing that has kept him alive in the face of enemies like these. Tries to make sure that this does not lead to the end of the world. If the “Mother” of the clones was once human, tries to redeem her through mental transformation; if they were grown from an Edomite Life Pool, tries to destroy it, and to reclame whatever artifact Demon has stolen to give them the imprint they’re using to duplicate him. Tries to make sure that none of his “brothers” ends up in the hands of his enemies, but knows that’s not going to happen.

Flesh – “Captain Flesh Gordon Junior Youth Squad Assemble!” Kids -“We look so good!” “Look, I can fly! Ow! OK, I can’t fly!” “Hey man, stop touching me!” “Watch me juggle flaming knives!” “Look, I can get my foot behind my head!” Doctor Destroyer, realizing his mistake, destroys the factory himself. Flesh now has six kid sidekicks, all super-strong, lucky, and clueless. Flesh Gordon Family adventures ensue.

[SKJAM!]

The Mask of Justice: The major, major problem here is that whoever did this now knows how the Mask's powers *work*. Thus, they can neutralize the Mask at any time. The kids themselves would probably be trained more as spies than anything else, as that's the quickest application of the vision abilities. (The Mask's superior combat ability took years to train up.) Given this is the Golden Age, the Mask is quickly able to convince his "offspring" to turn to the side of good. They smash the Nazi copy machine, the mad scientist who invented it accidentally kills himself trying to use a new weapon against them, and the kids are adopted by anonymous families across America.

Rock Bottom: Well, the New Guard might be able to smash the TAROT facility, but they're cunning, so it's unlikely we'll be able to stop them from trying again elsewhere. Better let the Global Guardians know about this problem. And the Venture Institute will be just thrilled with six junior living statues, I'm sure. (Rock's young enough that he'd consider himself more a big brother than a father figure.)

Calculus: Six Brain Boys, huh? (His hero name as a kid.) He will use logic to show them that working for the baddies is an inefficient use of their powers. With their combined brainpower, it should be a snap to make sure no more copies are made. Then it's off to home and trying to explain to the wife why they now have seven children. Calculus is *not* going to let anyone else raise these little geniuses.

Kira Midori: Is very worried for these children, as Earth's current society isn't like her own, where psychic powers are extremely common, so kids with them are raised correctly. After stomping Dr. Strangeclone and putting him behind bars (forever this time, she hopes), Kira will devote her time to raising her little sisters right. Probably, she'd finally accept a marriage proposal so that the kids have a father too.

Talion: Cringes. Six brats, with his powers? (Admittedly at reduced levels, but that's not saying much.) Nuke the "factory" from orbit. This will probably *not* kill the children, but should discourage anyone from trying the experiment ever again. Then try to find the little monsters good homes, reminding the prospective parents of how his lousy childhood made him turn out so badly.

[Metaphysician]

Microman II: Well, Mechanon is probably the only one who could do this one, so defeating him and destroying the equipment will be difficult. Whats more, its alot easier to part hard and fast controls into androids than clones. And the only viable choice to "father" them is Dr Collins.

I have a feeling this would turn out bad in the end. . .

[ParitySoul]

Flesh – Flesh now has six kid sidekicks, all super-strong, lucky, and clueless. Flesh Gordon Family adventures ensue.

I think this is the most terrifying of all.

[Veavitdpoh]

Ian would be very concerned. He's still holding out for old age, but as far as he knows, he can't die, period. And if someone starts mass-producing Ians, that's quickly going to lead to an exponential population boost that will overrun the earth in a few generations... doesn't take long when it's one-way. So priority one would be to find that factory and shut it the hell down - as well as figure out just how they got a sample in the first place! (The answer is unnecessarily biological and we will not go into it here.) If he latched onto any of his mini-mes in the process, he'd end up being the "cool uncle" type, correcting misconceptions but not doing anything in particular to keep them out of trouble or from seeing what the world is like.

Once the factory gets shut down, he'll ship the whole lot off to a village in Brazil where he spent a few years. Ian's not going to raise 'em - he never asked for 'em, and he knows he won't be able to handle 'em alone. It takes a village! ...sorry. Had to be done.

[dbsousa]

Golden Eagle is not concerned, beyond the outrage at the breach of ethics. 6 kids with the "power" to invent a battlesuit seem a poor use of his cloning resources.

[Blue]

Anthem is a kid. And her powers did not develope so long ago. So a lesser, younger, version of her would not have powers. It would still be disturbing. Of course she couldn't hurt them. And as a result there would forever be a group of people like my character running around in the game. She'd do her best to teach them how to behave appropriately and train them, since they wouldn't have benefit of her sensei that trained her. (On a side note, as a player, I'd hate having a wholly non-unique character; It's one thing to have an evil twin, it's another to be another face in the crowd.)

Uncle Slam is not a young man, and he has had his powers a long time, so a younger version of him is still considerable. He's been cloned before (back in WW II), and back then he and another hero put that clone out of business for good. Now he's a different guy. He'd try and have them rounded up by PRIMUS then they'd go in force as a team to stop the madness. Then he'd have them trained by the agency, who would love having an army of Slams.

Audra Blue would detest the loss of uniqueness. But they would not have her technological implants nor her life experiences. So they would never really be her, they'd just look like her.

[farik]

Well on one hand this is pretty simple Kenneth uses the anti Husky serum regularly to change back from being Husky stopping the young Huskys will consist of the use of copious amounts of serum darts. Destroying the reproduction process will probably involve smashing equipment and liberal application of computer viruses and possibly a tailormade bio-weapon designed to corrupt the replication process before life intiates. Now the really young super intellectual children who have already been produced are a completely different matter. Kenneth will realize they'll be super geniuses even if they don't have the Husky serum. They might develop power armor, super weapons, or their own unique serums if they aren't monitored. I guess it's time to add another wing to the Fortress of Huskitude and start building Mentor Robots. Tune in next month for the First issue of "The Clarke Institute for Gifted Children."

[Veavitdpoh]

Golden Eagle is not concerned, beyond the outrage at the breach of ethics. 6 kids with the "power" to invent a battlesuit seem a poor use of his cloning resources.

So he wouldn't be chuffed about someone having their own gadgeteer think tank? Mass production of doomsday weapons begins tuesday...

[PoorWandering 1]

Rocketman- Well seeing how he is nothing more than a guy wearing a golden age surplus jet-pack and seeing how his last opponents were riding bleeding edge tech flying platforms he would rejoice that the baddies apparently suffered a major budget shortfall. As for the clones out fly or out fight them and toss 'em in a holding cell for air-traffic violations. Take apart the packs to see if there are any design improvements i can make use of. I doubt i'd notice the kids resemblance until it was pointed out to me. At that point i'd be wondering why Viper et al was going to the trouple to clone mooks. Surely it's cheaper to just hire them. Hmmmm i wonder what effect this will have on the unemployment rate?

[Pulsar]

The Factory once located woudl go BOOM, The "children" would be harder, if Evil was hardwired into them so to speak, then they would have to be taken care of. If there was a chance that they would not automatically be evil then they would have to be cared for.

[Q-Aleph]

I'm fairly new at this board (which is obvious from my enourmoust amounts of posts)... but what does WWYCD stand for?

Dave

[The Watcher]

What Would Your Character Do?

The idea of these threads is to propose a premise that one or more of the posters Champions character is involved with, and then you post how they deal with it.

[Ghost Archer]

Ghost Archer:
"It would solve the problem of all of Raven's clones being in love with me. Now they could each have their own copy. As for the facilties, destruction is a given. Once that was complete it would be a good way to prove the nature or nuture question but that would depend on how long the clones had been under the Clonemaster's influence. I have always known that by nature, I am a force of good, I never had to learn that. Could that 'natural' tendency be altered by Clonemaster?"

[nexus]

Shidoku: A small army of mini me's. Cool! Given Iron Age tech tends to be a bit more realistic she's got some time to consider since the clones have to grow up normally. She'd likely try to find them good homes and watch them over the years to make sure they don't go bad. Secretly, she wanted a family anyway. The person behind it would have to be eliminated, either locked up or more permantantly. A brain like that needs to be locked up or in a jar not running around on the loose.

Valkeyrie: Would find the entire idea deeply troubling but wouldn't accept any harm coming to the clones. They haven't done anything but be created. She'd want to see to raising them personally, but really wouldn't have the financial resouces to handle 6+ nearly indestructible superstrong children and have to settle for looking over from the from afar.

Tao:Since this would likely be the original plan for her coming to fruition she'd look forward to getting matters settled finally. The kids would be turned over to the Venture Institute, hopefully to be taught to use their powers responsibly. It would feel good to have more "family" in the world.

[Whitewings]

Shellrider: This could be... extremely bad. In a high-tech enviroment, her younger sisters would be nearly unstoppable spies and covert operatives. She'd shut down the factory by any means possible, get a patent on the cloning and speed-growth processes if possible, hire a number of top biotech researchers and lab techs, and put the factory back into operation, growing organs to order instead of entire humans. As for the clones themselves, she'd ask her parents to legally adopt them, then hire a nanny or two and move them into a "cabin" on the Sunshine Coast so they can have a more nearly normal life, in an environment where their powers can't wreak havoc easily.

[ParitySoul]

Guess I'm not immune to my own question:

Brand X - Would be terrified. It would mean that Viper finaly got their hands on a copy of his 'Father's notes or found some of the survivors from the previous Project: Hermes. He personaly destroyed the lab, but maybe some of the data leaked out.

Destroying the factory would be secondary. The clones need to be saved before the 'imprinting' process turns them into deadly drones. He wouldn't be suprised to see them with serial codes like his. X002, X003, etc. They might be the missing embryos his father couldn't account for when he snuck away from the project. Seeing as how his father is dead now (assassinated) he would turn to UNTIL to find home and cover identies for them. THen calling in his local crew or UNITY for back up, he would hunt the cloner down and destory the Hermes notes once and for all.

[CrosshairCollie]

And, of course, as my character is named Blues, this would make an excellent pun-title for an issue. ;)

However, he would have to wonder just what the antagonist in question was thinking in cloning someone whose only really useful 'powers' derive from cybernetics. ;)

But, past that, sabotage the machinery, most definitely. Not sure what to do with the little freaks o' nature, though ... maybe find some way to ship 'em back to the year 3K (heck, maybe one of them is actually a young him! ... stupid time travel).

[S7Michelle]

Cannis, less than amused, starts out by finding and dealing with the lab where her clones are being created. Once she finds it, she slips in quietly when no one is there, and takes all of the notes while smiling to herself. ~It might be interesting to see how the City’s Champions react to having clones of themselves running around.~ Once that is done, she takes any equipment that is readily portable and destroys the rest. Depending on what other types of research activities the company or lab is engaged in, the building itself just may end up burned to the ground once she makes sure no one is in it. Once that is done, she sets about finding the clones. After they spend about six months or so with Cannis and the rest of her packmates learning the proper way of viewing the world, Cannis asks for Adam to arrange for them to be sent to the equivalent of Professor X’s School for Mutants. She still spends time with them, though the relationship is more sister/friend than maternal.

Sailor Io focuses her attention on the six younger versions of herself. She and her teammates track them down, she freezes them, and then the Senshi take as much time as necessary to talk some sense into the new young Senshi. Ultimately, the older senshi and the younger senshi work together to deal with the individual copying them and insure that it won’t happen any more. Once the problem is resolved, Io looks at the six children, ponders, and then picks up the phone. “Mom, Dad….”

[Metaphysician]

Out of curiousity, what exactly is the relationship between Adam and his group and your Xavier analogue. I get the impression its relatively non-antagonistic, with the conflicts being arguments of ideals rather than battles, usually.

[S7Michelle]

Out of curiousity, what exactly is the relationship between Adam and his group and your Xavier analogue. I get the impression its relatively non-antagonistic, with the conflicts being arguments of ideals rather than battles, usually.

So far we haven’t actually gotten to interact with Donald Henderson and the students of the Arcadina Academy, though I really do wish we could and have tried hinting as much to our GM. Unfortunately, she doesn’t seem interested in bringing them into an active role in the game. So far we’ve just had a reference to them while we were attending a dance in our secret identities. Since we game via internet, and I saved all the text from the dance, it will be easy to copy and paste it in here.

“Vivian squeezes Jasen's arm and bops Adam "Oooh look look Adam." This man seems older then he looks. His aura seems to say wisdom and power, but he seems distant and aloof. He is wearing a long sport tux with a western flair....the thin bolo tie and a belt with a large sterling silver buckle. That’s Donald Henderson, another multi-billionaire, and the sole owner of Henderson International and all its various affiliates. Adam has known him and done business with him for ages and they are on good terms. He has a lavish mansion in the Pacific Heights area as well as ones in Manhattan and other places around the country and world. Lately he has been the talk of the upscale community by becoming a more visible participant in social galas and winding his way through a flurry of surprising romances. Still...his most outstanding feature is one of hidden value. He is the main financier of the Arcadian Academy....which is a school for gifted youth or rather ... mutants. Adam have tried several times to support this and donate money too since that school is a huge monetary sinkhole but Don always refuses....not like he needs help, but Adam would give him his support if he’d let him.”

Our primary opponents are the City’s Champions. They are a group of non-mutants consisting of Santana (cybernetic brick/power armor type that never shows emotion) Wheeler (flirtatious speedster, gained powers through an accident), McCray (proper and composed teleporter/martial artist. Powers via science I think), and Stokes (gadgetteer who has a definite prejudice against mutants).

We have a decent relationship with them, mainly because they haven’t caught us doing anything all that evil. They’ve even cooperated with us once to rescue a large three-headed fire breathing dog. Cannis dragged her packmates into that one. She likes dogs. Though as a result of that battle, Cannis now owes her life to Wheeler and McCray (they each saved her once). She’s still figuring out how best to pay that debt back.

Wheeler has a tendency to flirt with any woman that’s at least moderately attractive, and our group has four villainesses in it, each with a high Com. So there is definately a lot of flirting going on during the encounters. He has even taken Cannis out to dinner once in an attempt to talk her into turning good. It had a slight effect, but I don’t see him “redeeming” Cannis anytime soon. She’s positive she doesn’t need redeemed.

[S7Michelle]

If we encountered students from the Arcadian Academy (and they were very like the traditional X-Men), Cannis’ would probably see them as naïve and rather foolish and probably try talking a bit of sense into them with statements like these.

After they protected some anti-mutant types: “You know, I just can’t understand why you are out here risking yourselves to protect them. While I think the City’s Champions are foolish, at least the city financially supports them and they get praised and loved for their actions. Meanwhile, your doing this for what…the off-chance that maybe you’ll change one of their minds about you. It won’t work, they don’t hate mutants because of something mutants did, they hate mutants because of what we are—Superior.”

“Don’t you get it. Mutants are wolves among sheep. We are stronger, faster, more dangerous. And humanity fears predators and tries to destroy them or at least cage them. Look at the wolf after all, bounties put on its head, hunted to near extinction not that many decades ago. You seem to think that if you pretend that you aren’t wolves, if you try to act as guard dogs, they will accept you.” She shakes her head, “It might seem to work for a while. They may tolerate you because you are useful. But they’ll still fear you, still hate the fact that they are weaker than you. You’ll never truly be one of them.”

If someone tries the “with great power, comes great responsibility line”: Cannis laughs. “Oh, I’m sorry….you were serious? Ok, I suppose you are partially right. In order to keep the pack strong, strong members should help those that are weaker. But just because one is superior in some way doesn’t mean that they owe the entire world something. Are professional athletes expected to perform hard labor for people just because they have better bodies? Is the high school brain obligated to use his superior intellect to do his classmates homework as well as his own? Of course not. So why should mutants feel obligated to serve humanity just because we have an ability they lack. If anything it should be the reverse. Throughout history the weak have served the strong, not the other way around.”

[The Watcher]

Warp: When his mutant power were originally stimulated he just developed teleportation, Spatial Awareness, and his Defensive Spatial Shunt. All the other applications of his Dimensional Manipulation came from experimentation and practice.

So younger versions of himself won't pose that big a threat, though they'd be very hard to round up. A chase could range over the entire world. Daniel might have to figure out a dimensional anchoring application of his power to successfully catch them all.

He would catch them all eventually and then get his team mates to help get rid of any brainwashing or programming they might have undergone. Then he'd raise them all in secret as best he could, hopefully with help from the rest of the Sentinels.

What really hurts is that whoever did this could now very likely know Warp's secret id. It all depends on how young the clones are and whether the one responsible noticed a certain ressemblence to a famous multi-billionaire playboy.

Oh, and whatever else happens, Tesserect would be in heaven. Due to the interaction of their powers proximity to Warp gives her a pleasurable sensation and active use of his powers makes it stronger. So Warp chasing half a dozen mini-versions of himself would be pure bliss as far as she's concerned.

Spectrum: Since the duplicates have some of his memories this obviously was an attempt by Spectrum's Mystery Hunted to access the Progenitor Knowledge downloaded into his subconscious.

Spectrum would try to get the government to put as many resources as it could to help him capture and deprogram them, as due to both their powers and his memories they would be serious security risks.

Mystic: Would try to ascertain the nature of his duplicates before he decided how to deal with them. Are they clones who are truly individuals, or aspects of himself somehow mystically split off by an arcane opponent?

Clones or other free-willed entities would be dealt with by freeing them from the control of malevolent entities or hostile spellcasters, and then taking them on as apprentices.

Split off aspects of himself he'd deal with by cleansing them of any mystic taint or influence, and then absorbing them back into himself.

[dbsousa]

So he wouldn't be chuffed about someone having their own gadgeteer think tank? Mass production of doomsday weapons begins tuesday...
He's Destroyer, he is a gadgeteer think tank. And the forces that made Golden Eagle a battlesuit wearing gadgeteer could not be reproduced genetically. If the kids have the potential, they would still need to be educated, trained, and brought up to resist their inner impulses to make the world a better place.

Having said that, he would try to destroy the factory, rescue the kids, and probably put them in the young superhero prep school in Westchester (which, in the GGI Universe, is not for mutants only...)