phoenix240

She is The Mechanic !
 
Where she comes from is unknown and telepathy resulted in the telepath foaming at the mouth and bleeding from the eyes. In fact mental powers have a rather bad effect on the one using them. If it is broken then she can fix it. Only it might have a few different effects than it did before. One way to really get on her nerves is to make Star Trek references, MacGyver references or other engineering related references. Despite her appearance she is not a robot nor is she subject to any anti mechanical effects. She can take quite a bit of energy damage and uses her golden rod as a hand to hand weapon to either deliver damage or keep an opponent at bay. 

Squirm: Edward was an odd boy, tall, lanky and withdrawn. He never made any friends in the orphanage where he was raised after being abandoned at a local ER. Even the staff found the boy's brooding silence and intense, seemingly contemptuous stares off putting. They were profession enough not to let their personal feeling interfere with his care. He wasn't abused or neglected but mostly ignored. Left to his own devices Edward mostly sat alone in the institute's yard, silently staring at the ground, sometimes muttering to himself or contorting his unusually flexible limbs and body, year after year. 
  No one truly missed the strange silent boy when he came up missing on his 13th birthday. He was assumed to be another runaway,  one of those tragic cases. The paperwork was filed, reports written and Edward was swiftly lost in the cracks, another statistic. For years, he lived on the street, a vagabond; one of those mumbling crazed individuals that people cross the street to avoid. He never begged as he never thought that much about others to consider asking them. He stole what he needed, using his increasingly inhuman contortionist abilities to get in and out of otherwise impossible to reach locations.    As his abilities increased the voices in his head grew more insistent. Not louder, they were always like wordless suppuration, a chorus of alien background noise that he could almost understand. That he needed to understand but constantly eluded him. Until it all came to a head one rainy night in a muddy lot where Edward was accosted by a gang of young thugs looking for some cheap thrills. Kicking around a crazy bum was good enough. Edward fought back with surprising ferocity but little experience and ended up on the receiving end of a savage beating  But even through the pain and terror the voices remained and, in desperation, he cried out to them.    The muddy ground churned, grew thicker and wetter as millions of worms burrowed to the surface, turned the dirt under his assailant's feet to worm ridden thick slime. When they feel, those worms both normal and huge bloated pale thing that didn't look to be from world dug into their flesh. It was all over in moments, their gnawed bodies dragged down and buried. Edward heard the voices even more clearly now. They whispered the dead boys' secrets and knowledge eaten from their dying brains and flesh.    And more...   Now he could understand it all. The voices were the collective chorus of the Worm, those things that crawled and burrowed,the slugs, the earthworms, tube-worms, maggots, the bottom of the cycle of life and its base. Humans in their arrogance thought they were the masters of the Earth. They were nothing, just a step in the cycle. Worm food.    The Worm told Edward his purpose. To move among the humans, to learn their weaknesses, their tactics and to prepare for the Worm's resurgence and dominance. He'd always known he wasn't human and didn't belong among these sack of bones. He was of a higher order of life as demonstrated by his abilities and that voice of the Worm that spoke to him. He could use these abilities to perform his mission too.    Emptying the dead thugs bank accounts and homes (he knew their pin numbers, had their keys and access to most of their funds), Edward cleaned himself up and made himself look respectable. The costume was found on the undiscovered body of a failed vigilante or would be super criminal (It didn't matter to Edward) that the maggots lead him too. He modified it somewhat adding the symbol of his true heritage. Foolish humans would take it as a joke, an eccentric affectation. Until it was too late.    And so the latest local superhero was born: Squirm. To the public he is amiable if somewhat silly "rubber man". He has hyper contortionist abilities, powerful muscles and almost unbreakable green wood flexible bones that not only allow him to contort his body but to extend his limbs and reach. Squirm is also exceptionally agile and dexterous and able to use all his limbs even his tongue as essentially extra hands. He can regenerate up to and including lost limbs and is almost impossible to kill without extreme physical destruction such as being burned to ash.    His less physical powers are far stranger. Squirm can communicate with worms and other similar forms of life. Though communicate might be too generous. These being don't have minds as such but, according to Edward, they share an consciousness which he is in touch with and serves. He can extend his awareness through it, sensing his surroundings through his senses and mystically enhanced versions of a worm's. He can summon worms by the thousands which seem to borrow in from the ground, swarm out of pipes. etc even if no worms inhabit the location. If there is semi reasonable way, the unearthly annelids will come to his aid. Edward can draw the memories and see the past of any flesh they can consume, even draw on the victim's skills for a time. He can also implant worm like organisms born from his body into a victim and control them as the parasites slowly consume them.    Squirm keeps these more grotesque powers strictly hidden, presenting himself as strange martial artist with extreme durability and borderline superhuman strength; basically a somewhat comical (as most are) but very effective "rubber man" type super hero with a friendly low key personality. As Squirm has figuratively and literally wormed his way into the superhuman community some have sensed something off about the unassuming hero. Most of them assume his amiable but quiet attitude is a cover for some tragic past and have no idea of the inhuman crawling horror lurking behind his eyes.    What is the Worm?   It could be just what Edward thinks it is, some demonic entity using a deranged mutant as a pawn or even the Slug, perhaps Edward is an experiment of it's to see if the monkeys can be made into something useful. The Worm could even be a complete delusion, a product of Edward's damaged psyche.    Other connections:   Squirm has met Leech and they seem to share a bond, perhaps even serving similar masters and purposes. 

Squirm: Edward was an odd boy, tall, lanky and withdrawn. He never made any friends in the orphanage where he was raised after being abandoned at a local ER. Even the staff found the boy's brooding silence and intense, seemingly contemptuous stares off putting. They were profession enough not to let their personal feeling interfere with his care. He wasn't abused or neglected but mostly ignored. Left to his own devices Edward mostly sat alone in the institute's yard, silently staring at the ground, sometimes muttering to himself or contorting his unusually flexible limbs and body, year after year. 
  No one truly missed the strange silent boy when he came up missing on his 13th birthday. He was assumed to be another runaway,  one of those tragic cases. The paperwork was filed, reports written and Edward was swiftly lost in the cracks, another statistic. For years, he lived on the street, a vagabond; one of those mumbling crazed individuals that people cross the street to avoid. He never begged as he never thought that much about others to consider asking them. He stole what he needed, using his increasingly inhuman contortionist abilities to get in and out of otherwise impossible to reach locations.    As his abilities increased the voices in his head grew more insistent. Not louder, they were always like wordless suppuration, a chorus of alien background noise that he could almost understand. That he needed to understand but constantly eluded him. Until it all came to a head one rainy night in a muddy lot where Edward was accosted by a gang of young thugs looking for some cheap thrills. Kicking around a crazy bum was good enough. Edward fought back with surprising ferocity but little experience and ended up on the receiving end of a savage beating  But even through the pain and terror the voices remained and, in desperation, he cried out to them.    The muddy ground churned, grew thicker and wetter as millions of worms burrowed to the surface, turned the dirt under his assailant's feet to worm ridden thick slime. When they feel, those worms both normal and huge bloated pale thing that didn't look to be from world dug into their flesh. It was all over in moments, their gnawed bodies dragged down and buried. Edward heard the voices even more clearly now. They whispered the dead boys' secrets and knowledge eaten from their dying brains and flesh.    And more...   Now he could understand it all. The voices were the collective chorus of the Worm, those things that crawled and burrowed,the slugs, the earthworms, tube-worms, maggots, the bottom of the cycle of life and its base. Humans in their arrogance thought they were the masters of the Earth. They were nothing, just a step in the cycle. Worm food.    The Worm told Edward his purpose. To move among the humans, to learn their weaknesses, their tactics and to prepare for the Worm's resurgence and dominance. He'd always known he wasn't human and didn't belong among these sack of bones. He was of a higher order of life as demonstrated by his abilities and that voice of the Worm that spoke to him. He could use these abilities to perform his mission too.    Emptying the dead thugs bank accounts and homes (he knew their pin numbers, had their keys and access to most of their funds), Edward cleaned himself up and made himself look respectable. The costume was found on the undiscovered body of a failed vigilante or would be super criminal (It didn't matter to Edward) that the maggots lead him too. He modified it somewhat adding the symbol of his true heritage. Foolish humans would take it as a joke, an eccentric affectation. Until it was too late.    And so the latest local superhero was born: Squirm. To the public he is amiable if somewhat silly "rubber man". He has hyper contortionist abilities, powerful muscles and almost unbreakable green wood flexible bones that not only allow him to contort his body but to extend his limbs and reach. Squirm is also exceptionally agile and dexterous and able to use all his limbs even his tongue as essentially extra hands. He can regenerate up to and including lost limbs and is almost impossible to kill without extreme physical destruction such as being burned to ash.    His less physical powers are far stranger. Squirm can communicate with worms and other similar forms of life. Though communicate might be too generous. These being don't have minds as such but, according to Edward, they share an consciousness which he is in touch with and serves. He can extend his awareness through it, sensing his surroundings through his senses and mystically enhanced versions of a worm's. He can summon worms by the thousands which seem to borrow in from the ground, swarm out of pipes. etc even if no worms inhabit the location. If there is semi reasonable way, the unearthly annelids will come to his aid. Edward can draw the memories and see the past of any flesh they can consume, even draw on the victim's skills for a time. He can also implant worm like organisms born from his body into a victim and control them as the parasites slowly consume them.    Squirm keeps these more grotesque powers strictly hidden, presenting himself as strange martial artist with extreme durability and borderline superhuman strength; basically a somewhat comical (as most are) but very effective "rubber man" type super hero with a friendly low key personality. As Squirm has figuratively and literally wormed his way into the superhuman community some have sensed something off about the unassuming hero. Most of them assume his amiable but quiet attitude is a cover for some tragic past and have no idea of the inhuman crawling horror lurking behind his eyes.    What is the Worm?   It could be just what Edward thinks it is, some demonic entity using a deranged mutant as a pawn or even the Slug, perhaps Edward is an experiment of it's to see if the monkeys can be made into something useful. The Worm could even be a complete delusion, a product of Edward's damaged psyche.    Other connections:   Squirm has met Leech and they seem to share a bond, perhaps even serving similar masters and purposes. 

Squirm: Edward was an odd boy, tall, lanky and withdrawn. He never made any friends in the orphanage where he was raised after being abandoned at a local ER. Even the staff found the boy's brooding silence and intense, seemingly contemptuous stares off putting. They were profession enough not to let their personal feeling interfere with his care. He wasn't abused or neglected but mostly ignored. Left to his own devices Edward mostly sat alone in the institute's yard, silently staring at the ground, sometimes muttering to himself or contorting his unusually flexible limbs and body, year after year. 
  No one truly missed the strange silent boy when he came up missing on his 13th birthday. He was assumed to be another runaway,  one of those tragic cases. The paperwork was filed, reports written and Edward was swiftly lost in the cracks, another statistic. For years, he lived on the street, a vagabond; one of those mumbling crazed individuals that people cross the street to avoid. He never begged as he never thought that much about others to consider asking them. He stole what he needed, using his increasingly inhuman contortionist abilities to get in and out of otherwise impossible to reach locations.    As his abilities increased the voices in his head grew more insistent. Not louder, they were always like wordless suppuration, a chorus of alien background noise that he could almost understand. That he needed to understand but constantly eluded him. Until it all came to a head one rainy night in a muddy lot where Edward was accosted by a gang of young thugs looking for some cheap thrills. Kicking around a crazy bum was good enough. Edward fought back with surprising ferocity but little experience and ended up on the receiving end of a savage beating  But even through the pain and terror the voices remained and, in desperation, he cried out to them.    The muddy ground churned, grew thicker and wetter as millions of worms burrowed to the surface, turned the dirt under his assailant's feet to worm ridden thick slime. When they feel, those worms both normal and huge bloated pale thing that didn't look to be from world dug into their flesh. It was all over in moments, their gnawed bodies dragged down and buried. Edward heard the voices even more clearly now. They whispered the dead boys' secrets and knowledge eaten from their dying brains and flesh.    And more...   Now he could understand it all. The voices were the collective chorus of the Worm, those things that crawled and burrowed,the slugs, the earthworms, tube-worms, maggots, the bottom of the cycle of life and its base. Humans in their arrogance thought they were the masters of the Earth. They were nothing, just a step in the cycle. Worm food.    The Worm told Edward his purpose. To move among the humans, to learn their weaknesses, their tactics and to prepare for the Worm's resurgence and dominance. He'd always known he wasn't human and didn't belong among these sack of bones. He was of a higher order of life as demonstrated by his abilities and that voice of the Worm that spoke to him. He could use these abilities to perform his mission too.    Emptying the dead thugs bank accounts and homes (he knew their pin numbers, had their keys and access to most of their funds), Edward cleaned himself up and made himself look respectable. The costume was found on the undiscovered body of a failed vigilante or would be super criminal (It didn't matter to Edward) that the maggots lead him too. He modified it somewhat adding the symbol of his true heritage. Foolish humans would take it as a joke, an eccentric affectation. Until it was too late.    And so the latest local superhero was born: Squirm. To the public he is amiable if somewhat silly "rubber man". He has hyper contortionist abilities, powerful muscles and almost unbreakable green wood flexible bones that not only allow him to contort his body but to extend his limbs and reach. Squirm is also exceptionally agile and dexterous and able to use all his limbs even his tongue as essentially extra hands. He can regenerate up to and including lost limbs and is almost impossible to kill without extreme physical destruction such as being burned to ash.    His less physical powers are far stranger. Squirm can communicate with worms and other similar forms of life. Though communicate might be too generous. These being don't have minds as such but, according to Edward, they share an consciousness which he is in touch with and serves. He can extend his awareness through it, sensing his surroundings through his senses and mystically enhanced versions of a worm's. He can summon worms by the thousands which seem to borrow in from the ground, swarm out of pipes. etc even if no worms inhabit the location. If there is semi reasonable way, the unearthly annelids will come to his aid. Edward can draw the memories and see the past of any flesh they can consume, even draw on the victim's skills for a time. He can also implant worm like organisms born from his body into a victim and control them as the parasites slowly consume them.    Squirm keeps these more grotesque powers strictly hidden, presenting himself as strange martial artist with extreme durability and borderline superhuman strength; basically a somewhat comical (as most are) but very effective "rubber man" type super hero with a friendly low key personality. As Squirm has figuratively and literally wormed his way into the superhuman community some have sensed something off about the unassuming hero. Most of them assume his amiable but quiet attitude is a cover for some tragic past and have no idea of the inhuman crawling horror lurking behind his eyes.    What is the Worm?   It could be just what Edward thinks it is, some demonic entity using a deranged mutant as a pawn or even the Slug, perhaps Edward is an experiment of it's to see if the monkeys can be made into something useful. The Worm could even be a complete delusion, a product of Edward's damaged psyche.    Other connections:   Squirm has met Leech and they seem to share a bond, perhaps even serving similar masters and purposes. 

The Scaler
 
Some say he is a villainous mime. He seems to be able to affect reality around himself so that he can literally climb thin air. This makes him a nuisance to fight unless you are a flier or have levitation. he gi the name as it was his most notable trick. Some believe he is working for Slug and the Elder Worm thus the emblem on his chest. He can take a bit of punishment and is stronger than most martial artists.

I can not identify the sings on his chest unambigiously, so I will be going with the funniest interpretation I can imagine
 
Megadril (litereally "Big Worm") aka the Earthworm King.
 
While earthworms do not evoke feelings of dread the same way a eagle, badger, wolverine, ant or even platypus does, a humansized version should no be understimated. Frankly, he is the bane to many a martial artist:
Earthworms are mostly muscles. Accordingly the MD has considerable superstrenght, wich he can use defensively.
The ability to breath through his skin makes him resistant to practically any form of choking.
The highly distributed nervous system and internal organs, mean that nerve strikes and similar attacks aming for "human like physiology" fail to find their marks.
And the redudant circulatory system rounds up the defense against blood flow impeeding attacks.
The hydrostatic skeleton (wich makes breaking bones impossible) and regenerative abilities round up the full set of brick abilities.
As "minor" powers he has a tremor sense, the ability to shrink to the size of a literal earthworm, and the ability to communicate with earthworms (granted that is hardly as usefull as communicaiton with ants would be).
 
For obvious reasons, he prefers to go by the name Megadriles, as that evokes a lot more power then "earthworm king".
And no, he is NOT a hermaprodite. He is really tired about being asked that!

Masque: A raccoon/human hybrid pc from our Bay City Blues Champions game, escaped Viper experiment  Masque has grown into a heroine in her own right, recently returned from a rollicking adventure across several dimension in time to help her team to (hopefully) save Bay City (and possibly the world). 
 

 
 
 

Masque: A raccoon/human hybrid pc from our Bay City Blues Champions game, escaped Viper experiment  Masque has grown into a heroine in her own right, recently returned from a rollicking adventure across several dimension in time to help her team to (hopefully) save Bay City (and possibly the world). 
 

 
 
 

There are allot of little details and Easter eggs, such a cute picture. click for a larger version. 

Stars. They come in many sizes, weights and especially spectral classes. The Solar Suit is designed to simulate the properties of a Blue Supergiant or Red Dwarf, depending on wich option the user chooses. Depending wich option is choosen, the blue and red color of the suit switch places and the powers granted change drastically.
 
Red Dwarfs are cool, small and longelived. They are also somewhat hard to spot due to their low luminosity. But only a fool would think about getting to close to one. While in this mode, the Solar Suit grants the wearer increased endurance and durability. It also granst longelevity and the ability to survive hostile environments. This form is shown in the image above.
 
Blue Supergiants like all Supergiants are violent, powerfull and especially shortlived. In this mode the suit grants incredible attack powers, at the cost of exhausting his wearer quickly and not granting nearly as much durability.
 
Of course both modes still grant some level of superhuman ability, just where teh focus lies varries greatly. Oddly they grant almost no heat based powers, instead focussing on the secondary properties of their parent stars (endurance/lifespan).
 
The current wearer is perhaps the last person you would expect, because he is a "inverse Captain Marvel": He is actually over 80 in his civil Identity.
While using the Red Dwarf Form, the suit turns him into his younger self - including restoring his original red haircolor - and allows him to take it up with the best of them. While a bit of the power is drained into that transformation/reverse aging, he learned to compensate for it with his life experience. He eshews using the Blue Supergiant form at all, as he would be much closer to his original age when using that option and simply could not use it anywhere near it's full potential.
Also he is in a "kind of" secret identity despite not hiding his face: As few people still remember how he looked when he was that age originally and even fewer people listen to those people, enemies have yet to piece together his real identity.

Nobu Okabe was a brilliant Japanese engineer who designed and built the Nihon battlesuit in hopes of making his country a better place for his wife (Dublin Ireland-born Kate) and their son (Kengo "Ken" Okabe, who was attending college in America).  Unfortunately, the Yakuza learned Nihon's true identity and kidnapped Nobu and Kate in an attempt to get the battlesuit for themselves.  Knowing the terrible ways they'd use the battlesuit, Nobu refused to tell them where it was hidden, even when they tortured and eventually killed his wife.  He also resisted when they tortured him, eventually dying of a heart attack.
 
When Ken heard of his parents' deaths, he rushed back to Japan.  Not a fool, Ken contacted UNTIL for protection, telling them of his father's secret and offering his services as an UNTIL-registered superhero for five years in exchange for their protection while he recovered the hidden battlesuit.  All went well, and soon Ken Okabe was operating as the new Nihon (though some wags in UNTIL refer to him as the "Rising Son").  Realizing the Yakuza would surely realize who he was, Ken eschewed the face mask his father wore and operates as a public hero.
 
The Nihon battlesuit has enhanced strength, bootjets, and pulse blasters mounted on the backs of his hands.  When activated, a force field also protects his otherwise-exposed head.  A pretty good engineer in his own right (Ken was attending MIT prior to his parents' deaths), he's added a few tricks of his own to the battlesuit, such as the ability to super-heat the battlesuit's exterior to help escape from grabs and entangle. 

Copperhead: Being the younger sibling of super villain had its perks, one of them being an inconsistent but copious flow of money from a protective older brother among them. But Joy Jannick would have given all of them up and more to see her brother leave the crazy dangerous life he was leading. 
  Little chance of that though, Roy had inherited their father's macho streak and hardheadedness; the thing that had gotten him killed in a pointless bar fight when she and Roy were kids, her barely walking. Their mother had taken over as best she could. She had a stubborn streak too and worked herself to the bone to support two kids and give them the best home she could.    Her brother, Roy had decided early on that he had to be the man of family and take care of them. There weren't many ways for a kid to earn substantial money, not many legal ways so Roy got mixed up in the bad stuff. Unfortunately it stuck with him. He quit school and took on string of small time crimes, mostly heists and burglaries. He was caught fairly often, served some time but went right back to crime, too stubborn and headstrong to even consider giving up.    Then came that fateful encounter with Defender...   Driven to avenge himself on the armored hero,  the high school drop out built a powered exoskeleton and became the villain Exo. While not exceptionally powerful, he was good enough to perform several high profit crimes and sent most of his gains to his mother, then his sister when she passed away. Joy shared her brother incredible talents and used the money along with generous scholarship to get into MIT.    Then her brother was caught again, set up by Viper as a patsy and distraction possibly even targeted as there were parties that worried about Exo's talents and what he might grow into. This didn't sit well at all with Joy, especially after years of seeing her brother derided as a “C-lister” among villain fandom. Her own hotheaded streak took over. Using her brother's notes, some covert help from him and the innate inventive genius they shared Joy not only recreated the Exo suit but improved it, adding more armor and systems.    Unlike her brother, she wasn't driven by her short fuse and realized that going at Viper head on wouldn't end well for her and possibly her brother. But if she could gather allies while she picked at their operations and harassed them she could slowly do some major damage to the organization. So Joy became the newest local superhero, hoping to befriend some other heroes to help in her fight against Viper. She decided to call herself “Copperhead” reflecting her armors coloration and vaguely reptilian styling. It also fits her sense of humor to use Viper's snake motif against them.    Exo can be found on page 72 of Villains vandals and Vermin

Needs an acronym
 
General Utility Nexus - National Emergency Response

Copperhead: Being the younger sibling of super villain had its perks, one of them being an inconsistent but copious flow of money from a protective older brother among them. But Joy Jannick would have given all of them up and more to see her brother leave the crazy dangerous life he was leading. 
  Little chance of that though, Roy had inherited their father's macho streak and hardheadedness; the thing that had gotten him killed in a pointless bar fight when she and Roy were kids, her barely walking. Their mother had taken over as best she could. She had a stubborn streak too and worked herself to the bone to support two kids and give them the best home she could.    Her brother, Roy had decided early on that he had to be the man of family and take care of them. There weren't many ways for a kid to earn substantial money, not many legal ways so Roy got mixed up in the bad stuff. Unfortunately it stuck with him. He quit school and took on string of small time crimes, mostly heists and burglaries. He was caught fairly often, served some time but went right back to crime, too stubborn and headstrong to even consider giving up.    Then came that fateful encounter with Defender...   Driven to avenge himself on the armored hero,  the high school drop out built a powered exoskeleton and became the villain Exo. While not exceptionally powerful, he was good enough to perform several high profit crimes and sent most of his gains to his mother, then his sister when she passed away. Joy shared her brother incredible talents and used the money along with generous scholarship to get into MIT.    Then her brother was caught again, set up by Viper as a patsy and distraction possibly even targeted as there were parties that worried about Exo's talents and what he might grow into. This didn't sit well at all with Joy, especially after years of seeing her brother derided as a “C-lister” among villain fandom. Her own hotheaded streak took over. Using her brother's notes, some covert help from him and the innate inventive genius they shared Joy not only recreated the Exo suit but improved it, adding more armor and systems.    Unlike her brother, she wasn't driven by her short fuse and realized that going at Viper head on wouldn't end well for her and possibly her brother. But if she could gather allies while she picked at their operations and harassed them she could slowly do some major damage to the organization. So Joy became the newest local superhero, hoping to befriend some other heroes to help in her fight against Viper. She decided to call herself “Copperhead” reflecting her armors coloration and vaguely reptilian styling. It also fits her sense of humor to use Viper's snake motif against them.    Exo can be found on page 72 of Villains vandals and Vermin

Copperhead: Being the younger sibling of super villain had its perks, one of them being an inconsistent but copious flow of money from a protective older brother among them. But Joy Jannick would have given all of them up and more to see her brother leave the crazy dangerous life he was leading. 
  Little chance of that though, Roy had inherited their father's macho streak and hardheadedness; the thing that had gotten him killed in a pointless bar fight when she and Roy were kids, her barely walking. Their mother had taken over as best she could. She had a stubborn streak too and worked herself to the bone to support two kids and give them the best home she could.    Her brother, Roy had decided early on that he had to be the man of family and take care of them. There weren't many ways for a kid to earn substantial money, not many legal ways so Roy got mixed up in the bad stuff. Unfortunately it stuck with him. He quit school and took on string of small time crimes, mostly heists and burglaries. He was caught fairly often, served some time but went right back to crime, too stubborn and headstrong to even consider giving up.    Then came that fateful encounter with Defender...   Driven to avenge himself on the armored hero,  the high school drop out built a powered exoskeleton and became the villain Exo. While not exceptionally powerful, he was good enough to perform several high profit crimes and sent most of his gains to his mother, then his sister when she passed away. Joy shared her brother incredible talents and used the money along with generous scholarship to get into MIT.    Then her brother was caught again, set up by Viper as a patsy and distraction possibly even targeted as there were parties that worried about Exo's talents and what he might grow into. This didn't sit well at all with Joy, especially after years of seeing her brother derided as a “C-lister” among villain fandom. Her own hotheaded streak took over. Using her brother's notes, some covert help from him and the innate inventive genius they shared Joy not only recreated the Exo suit but improved it, adding more armor and systems.    Unlike her brother, she wasn't driven by her short fuse and realized that going at Viper head on wouldn't end well for her and possibly her brother. But if she could gather allies while she picked at their operations and harassed them she could slowly do some major damage to the organization. So Joy became the newest local superhero, hoping to befriend some other heroes to help in her fight against Viper. She decided to call herself “Copperhead” reflecting her armors coloration and vaguely reptilian styling. It also fits her sense of humor to use Viper's snake motif against them.    Exo can be found on page 72 of Villains vandals and Vermin

There are allot of little details and Easter eggs, such a cute picture. click for a larger version. 

There are allot of little details and Easter eggs, such a cute picture. click for a larger version. 

Gunner
 
While rumoured to be part of an army or air force project, the Gunner armoured suit is actually nothing of the sort. It is true that it is piloted by soldiers, marines, sailors or airmen. The cost is thought to be prohibitive which is why there are no other suits in use. But the heavy weaponry means it must be in the control of the services. It has not been used abroad but has been in use in the desert of the United States, at altitude in the Rockies and has come ashore from the Great Lakes, in San Francisco Bay and in New York harbour.
It has sustained high impacts, energy discharges and concentrated fire but details are unavailable as to the condition of any pilot. Use of the suit seems to be in support of small unit actions much to the gratitude of police forces across the country who have benefited from its presence.

I only see 5 as well.  I think the thumb, folded down, might be confusing people.
 
As for the next pic, how about this one:
 

Two of my teeth got loose just looking at this picture. 
 
And I love it. 

Eve: the girl robot: combat mode
 
 

Posting this character again. She's from the collective Champions game I and a couple of others run. Eve: the girl robot.
 
She's the developed of a German American scientist Erik Kreuger and is one of the first true strong  AI in the setting. Eve has a child like persona (mentally about 8-10) because he believed an AI couldn't be properly programmed, at least not this point, because we don't know about human psychology to create a stable adult persona whole cloth so it must be allowed to develop "naturally". She is also a psychological fill in for his own daughter that died very young though the doctor Krueger isn't fully aware of that himself..    Eve's body resembles a Royo "Sexy robot" (silver skin, anatomically correct, facial features with expression, etc) for a few reasons. One, is the replacement daughter angle, two, her father  let her assist in designing her it and she took her inspiration from Barbie Dolls and third: he wanted to make her very human in form and performance both for the design challenge and psychological reasons (he wanted her to as full  a life as possible).    Her inhuman features are concession to design needs and an attempt to avoid the "Uncanny Valley" where things modeled on humans become repulsive when they get "close to but not quite human enough" and general aesthetics. She can consume organic material both for pleasure and to analyze them or use them for repair and sustenance for her biomechanical parts and perform other biological functions but doesn't need to like an organic lifeform. .   
 
 

 
 
 
Older Image 1
 
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"Behold, the power of... Marvolo the Strange!"
 
Micah Stevens shook his head as he took the stage.  A man of his intelligence and schooling, reduced to doing tricks as a stage magician!  Sure, he had always had a knack for sleight of hand and a flair for the dramatic, but he really wished he could have turned his PhD in Sociology into a teaching position, or indeed any paying job at all, instead of being reduced to... this.  Performing legerdemain for drunk, bored gamblers at a second-string casino outside Providence.  It was enough to drive a man to drink.
 
He was halfway through his mind-reading trick when the door burst open and a half dozen VIPER agents rushed in followed by... oh, my God, is that Rhode Island Red?!  People were already scrambling for cover as the man-rooster did his famous Crow of Justice, causing one VIPER agent to run screaming to escape through the stage door.  Unfortunately, he tripped on the stage stairs and face-planted, causing his blaster rifle to go off while pointed at the stage magician.  Stevens was sure he was going to die, but his hands moved instinctively, creating a magical shield that deflected the photonic energy.  "What the..."  Stevens said as he stumbled backward.  As the agent got to his feet and moved toward the stage magician, Stevens' hands again seemed to move of their own accord, casting another spell that caused mystic bands to encircle the Goon in Green, wrapping him tight.
 
Once all the VIPER agents were dealt with and the police were called, Rhode Island Red walked up to shake Stevens' hand.  "Marvolo, is it?  Good work taking on that agent.  It's always good to have another superhero on the job."  Stevens pondered his situation.  Somehow, he was able to cast honest-to-God magic (though damned if he knew how he had done it).  Not one to look a gift horse in the mouth (and reasoning that several dozen people had seen him cast magic), he told the press that he was Marvolo, the newest superhero to protect Providence, RI.  (He was sure there had to be some way he could turn this into a profitable venture.)
 
Through trial and error (mostly error), Marvolo has learned he can cast a handful of spells.  Most of his successes are instinctive (borne of desperation) rather than the result of practice, though he's trying to replicate some of his "oh-shit" spells (with varying degrees of success).  A mis-cast levitation spell caused his cape to animate, giving him an ally of sorts (though Marvolo isn't sure the cape is always on his side).  The wands and staff he carries and the "mystic amulet" at his neck are mostly props, though one of his wands is secretly a high-tech taser.   He supplements his spells with smoke bombs, flash bombs, and other covert tech trinkets.  And hopes desperately that he can pull off this "junior superhero" gig without losing his head... literally.

Posting this character again. She's from the collective Champions game I and a couple of others run. Eve: the girl robot.
 
She's the developed of a German American scientist Erik Kreuger and is one of the first true strong  AI in the setting. Eve has a child like persona (mentally about 8-10) because he believed an AI couldn't be properly programmed, at least not this point, because we don't know about human psychology to create a stable adult persona whole cloth so it must be allowed to develop "naturally". She is also a psychological fill in for his own daughter that died very young though the doctor Krueger isn't fully aware of that himself..    Eve's body resembles a Royo "Sexy robot" (silver skin, anatomically correct, facial features with expression, etc) for a few reasons. One, is the replacement daughter angle, two, her father  let her assist in designing her it and she took her inspiration from Barbie Dolls and third: he wanted to make her very human in form and performance both for the design challenge and psychological reasons (he wanted her to as full  a life as possible).    Her inhuman features are concession to design needs and an attempt to avoid the "Uncanny Valley" where things modeled on humans become repulsive when they get "close to but not quite human enough" and general aesthetics. She can consume organic material both for pleasure and to analyze them or use them for repair and sustenance for her biomechanical parts and perform other biological functions but doesn't need to like an organic lifeform. .   
 
 

 
 
 
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Well, since my last post may have been misconstrued let me try to be clearer. If there is an official setting I'd think it should be designed to highlight Hero System innate flexibility and inclusiveness so cotain a variety of special effects, races, etc, similar to some of the more 'gonzo' setting like Rifts. 
 
 I don't think the construction elements should be totally hidden or even jettisoned. Pared down or references more as suggestion and example than part and parcel with play but not abandoned as, IME, that was an is, still a major draw to Hero System over House Systems.