Ultimate Wonder Twins

[Acroyear]

Alrighty, how's this:

They come from a world with two classes of people. The ruling class, which can transform themselves into the elements (depending ont he person, fire, water, air, etc. Water the most potent since it can take on multiple states of matter most easily). And a servant class that can transform themselves into creatures/bestial things. It's not that difficult to control animals if you can control the elements, right?

You would think, over time, that these types of people would eventually cross populate enough that it wouldn't matter. But, for some reason, "crossbreeds" generally are born with defects that renders them unable to transform into anything. These are, to this race, a terrible tragedy and practically "non human" (comparitively speaking). As such, these unions are forbidden.

Zan & Jayna are the product of one such forbidden union (almost Romeo & Juliet-esque). As subhuman abominations, they are used for testing, caged like other test animals, etc.

However, being twins - rare all by itself, the "missing" genetic material each of them would need to transform is present in the other (something no one would have guessed). With physical contact, they discover they can actually activate their powers.

Shortly after they discover this, they stage a breakout, and free the other lab animals. One of them, Gleek, had formed an attachment to them (er, neighboring cage, perhaps) and followed them.

Their ability to use their powers is almost more horrific to the ruling caste and a nigh-instant death sentence. The twins succeed in freeing their imprisoned parents and the family attempts to escape their world. Much drama and danger as all this occurs. The parents die, sacrificing themselves to ensure the twins get onto the ship.

Off the twins go.... finding a habitable planet that is not developed enough to communicate to their own world.

They land and try to make their home here. But it's not all sweetness and light. Cops from their world are in pursuit. The twins must do their best to fit into this new and alien world and evade their pursuers. However, they frequently break cover to help others and aid in disasters. Their reasons, however, are not the same. Jayna, the more headstrong of the two, is out to prove that she and her brother are not "useless abominations" if only to herself. Zan, however, is actually quite enamored with the idea of doing right for right's sake.

As they get more experience with their powers, they discover that they actually have more options than most of their race. Able to turn into larger/more potent animals or a greater volume of water, for example (in essense, their limitation of requiring contact with the other to activate the power is balanced by their ability to have more potency of others of their race who can transform at will).

[Acroyear]

Start copywriting in case we have spies!

http://www.eonline.com/News/Items/0,1,10072,00.html

[StGrimblefig]

... The conflict will start with Zann making oblique comments about how Jayna is spending her off hours,

Lol! That must be this thread's vocbulary-building word.

All proposals from now on must include the word "oblique" in a grammatically correct sentence.

[palehorse]

All I know is, Gleek would become a 6' tall intelligent blue gorilla if I had my druthers.

[zakueins]

Okay, here's how I'd do the Ultimate Wonder Twins. Zann and Jayna and their pet monkey have been infected/assimilated by a Kryptonian nanotechnology system, formerly used for "adaptive" battle armor. Zann got the weapons nanotech (which he can only use as "forms"), and Jayna got the adaptive armor system (which she can use to turn herself into creatures that could physically exist. She can't become a dragon, but she can become a T. Rex.). The monkey is the sensor/communications system.

In Champions Terms, Zann would have a linked VPP/Transform with a "no ranged attacks" modifier, and Jayna would have a linked VPP/Shapechange with a "only to simulate creature effects" modifier. The monkey has every sensory multi-power known to man, and Universal Translator with the disadvantage "everbody hears him say 'Gleep', but they know exactly what he's saying." Zann and Jayna's powers run off of an END battery, which they can only recharge by touching-the more skin contact they make, the faster their END battery recharges. Dirty minds might be able to contemplate how they could supercharge their powers.

[assault]

All I know is, Gleek would become a 6' tall intelligent blue gorilla if I had my druthers.

Absolutely.

I was thinking about this kind of thing yesterday.

You could make the grown up versions of the younger/stupider Super Friends the current "World's Greatest Heroes".

In this role, Zann becomes a Water Elemental, Jayna a serious Metamorph, and Gleek grows up to his full stature and intelligence, probably losing his "baby tail" in the process.

To expand the team, Marvin and Wendy are now Batman-grade detectives and scientists. The original Wonder Dog is dead, but has been replaced.

If you were subtle, your players might not catch on immediately.

[Highwayman]

The gods are dying. The tyrannical rulers of planet Exor have banned the worship of the Old Gods, and without it, they are passing from existence, one by one. In desperation, the outlawed sorcerer-priests come up with a plan: They will bind the last surviving gods to mortal forms, to allow them to be survive until the day their temples can be rebuilt once more. A pair of twins have been prepared since birth to receive The Twins: The Lady of the Animals and the Lord of the Waters. When they touch and repeat the sacred phrases, they will be able to use a fraction of their deity’s powers.
The ritual is performed, and the High Priest Gleek uses the last fading energies of the spell to transfer his mind into a monkey, since in the myths The Twins were always accompanied by a monkey. The cult smuggles all three to Earth, partially because government troops are closing in and partially because, in the myths, The Twins journeyed to a strange land to battle powerful evils.
The twins are unsure of their new powers, but they had been taught since birth that they were destined to fight evil and protect the innocent, so that is what they are determined to do. Gleek plays the comic relief, but works to covertly steer the twins into situations that match the old myths. The more they act out the myths of the gods, the more powerful they become, and the more the gods’ personalities come to the surface; prideful, vengeful, capricious, contemptuous of mortal law and morality. Perhaps the rulers of Exor were wise to want to be rid of the gods…

[tkdguy]

One of them is gay. Or both of them. Or they have a forbidden love for each other and angst about it often. Or for the monkey...

Or are we trying to NOT be cliche?

You know, I always wondered why Jayna never tried to get into Robin's pants. Or the reverse.

Then again, maybe they did the nasty. Jayna hasn't been seen lately, so maybe she's raising wonder twins of her own.

[levi]

Alrighty, how's this:...However, being twins - rare all by itself, the "missing" genetic material each of them would need to transform is present in the other (something no one would have guessed). With physical contact, they discover they can actually activate their powers...

I LOVE this explanation for all the touching!

I think we all agree that Hydro-Man is a legitimate Spidey-Villain, so all Zan needs is some ability to hydro-blast / Drown opponents to be taken seriously. Also Zan needs to be able to play fast and loose with is mass (as Hydro-Man does). Imagine this from a villain...he turns to steam and fills your lungs, then turns to ice...nasty! Along those same lines, Iceman is a legitimate powerplayer in the X-Men roster.

Jayna could be a mix of Beast Boy and Wolfsbane...able to turn parts of her body into animal forms as well as changing wholly into animals from across the galaxy (inspired by a pic from this thread, posted by ChaosDrgn). Maybe with a touch of Aquaman-esque Animal Telepathy thrown in for measure.

[Supreme]

Stealing an idea from Alan Moore...

Zan and Jana are here to study Earth and it's dominant species, Homo sapiens. Their technology hinges on creating sub-dimensional pockets where bodies can be stored and switched with their bodies in normal space. Rather than giving them destructo-killer bodies to switch with, they are given bodies that allow them to observe without being noticed. Jana can thus become an organic replicant of any animal from Earth (with changes to the brain so it can house her mind). Zan switches with only one body, a bluish colony of nanites which resembles water (even closely imitates it in terms of phase changes etc. in case Zan is ever killed, the humans will never notice the nanites) and can change phase states as well as shape any time.

Things go wrong when they arrive and wind up getting the attention of the news-media. Suddenly the whole world is crying "invasion." The aliens send help in the form of an advisor to help them with their image: Gleek. See, whe this species grows old, they start to look like little blue monkeys. Gleek is too old to switch bodies (dangerous for the heart when they switch back). However he is cute to human eyes and quite wise. Gleek helps the twins spin their presense from mysterious aliens up to who-knows-what to benelovent super-heroes who just want to stop us from destroying ourselves, yada-yada-yada.

The whole "Wonder Twin powers - ACTIVATE!" bit is just something Gleek came up with for the cameras.

[Chuk]

It sounded better in my head than it looks on screen. Eh.

Must have been amazing, then, 'cuz it looked pretty damn good out here.

[oberon]

I remember seeing an adult parody of the Superfriends once. One of the characters was being sued for sexual harassment, and Zann is on the witness stand testifying to something that Wonderwoman did. When he is asked how he knows, cut to a scene in a bathtub. All you see is a woman, back to you, in the bath. The water has a purple colour, and a snickering face

The quote was, "Form of a washcloth!"


oberon

[nexus]

I remember seeing an adult parody of the Superfriends once. One of the characters was being sued for sexual harassment, and Zann is on the witness stand testifying to something that Wonderwoman did. When he is asked how he knows, cut to a scene in a bathtub. All you see is a woman, back to you, in the bath. The water has a purple colour, and a snickering face

The quote was, "Form of a washcloth!"


oberon

Yeah! That was on Harvey Birdman, Attorney at Law right?

"Form of...Wonder Woman's bath water!"

[oberon]

Yeah! That was on Harvey Birdman, Attorney at Law right?

"Form of...Wonder Woman's bath water!"

I'd say so (don't remember the title).

Memorable for the ending.
(Incorrect info DELETED)
She kisses him, he blushes and is suddenly growing through the roof. The sexual innuendo was laid on with a trowel.

oberon

Edit: shows what I get for posting about something I've seen in passing a few years back. Captain Obvious is, of course, correct as to the actual plotline.

[Captain Obvious]

I thought that Apache Chief thing was when he burned his wang with coffee, and was suing for the emotional suffering as well as the loss of his growth powers.

But it's been at least two years since I've seen Harvey Birdman, so I may be wrong.