Psillias

I admit, all I know is what was in the 1e AD&D Deities & Demigods rulebook.

Re: Create a Villain Theme Team!
 
Fancy superpowers: a few million US $ for your local mad scientist
Sexy female villian costume: 500 $ per version.
"Buisiness Cards" with your vilanious ID on it: 50$
 
The Headline you get because you didn't notice that the printer misheard "Villanious Waitress" and instead wrote Villian Mattress: One membership in the Rough Sects.

Re: Create a Villain Theme Team!
 
The B&E specialist in Rough Sects is Ramon Enriquez, a young man with minor cyberkinetic powers. He can bypass any alarm and unlock any electronic lock, and has the lockpicking skills to bypass most mechanical locks as well. An excellent sneak thief, he was known in the Spanish B&E trade as Entrada Trasera, but when he moved to the US and his nickname was translated to Rear Entry, he took far more than his share of ribbing. Unfortunately, the name has stuck and he was approached to join Rough Sects.

Re: Create a Villain Theme Team!
 

 
Henry Kingston was a rotund devotee of all things Star Wars, including their comic lines. But not for him the dull jedi or the self righteous rebellion/republic. No, Henry came to the con with red face paint and a redder double saber! Henry would often go into how the Sith were right, that the darkest motvations were the strongest ones and how they should be embraced if one was to TRULY Live.
 
Most folks, hearing his philosophical diatribes, simply shook their heads, or kept a good ten feet away from him as best they could. But then the change came over him... and suddenly he was graced with the powers of the dark side of the Force! He wanted to call himself Darth Henry, but as his first use of his power was to whisk someone's fast food drumstick to his hand he gained a different nickname. He would now be known as
 
Henry the Sith!
 
He points out that Henry the 8th was the one who was the famed glutton (and thus the parody on Henry V making no sense) to little avail, ultimately having to choke folks with a "I find your lack of historical knowledge disturbing" speech

Re: Create a Hero Theme Team!
 
"But Mom," Meg groaned in her best put upon teenage voice, "I don't want to go to the family reunion. It's so Boooring!! All we do is stand around with a bunch of people we never hear from."
 
"Megan Ophelia Harding," Mom came back in that voice that sounded like I was stepping on her last nerve or something. "You will mind your manners and be on your best behavior and the reunion. Now get your brother Karl together. It's a three hour drive to the lake, don'tcha know, and Daddy wants to get a jump on the traffic."
 
I only had one chance of escape left as I frantically looked around the kitchen. Karl, of course just sat in his high chair and burbled at me. Cute kid, but I wasn't having any of it. Flora and I were supposed to go to the mall today. Okay, sure, we go to the mall almost every day, but I really ddin't care. This was my free time we're talking about.
 
"Daddy?" I called out in desperation.
 
"Mind your Mother," a reply came from the living followed by the front door slamming shut.
 
With sullen eyes I turned to look at Mom and had to groan inside. She had that look on her face. Yeah, you know the one. Sighing my best sigh I picked on the drooling machine and headed for the Explorer.
 
You know a three hour drive can be almost like forever. Karl sat in his car seat making bubbles with his drool while Daddy drove like a man possessed. As for me, thank God I had my Ipod and my tunes. Sixteen towns, countless cows that Karl got so excited about seeing, and only one potty break, thank you Daddy so much, we were at the lake. A huge banner proclaimed "Harding Family Reunion."
 
I slammed the door to the Explorer and stalking towards the lake furious that they made me come. I saw Grandpa H. sitting by himself in his chair, but I ignored him. Senioritlity, don'tcha know. I picked up a few rocked and skipped them across the still waters.
 
"Hey you're pretty good at that," a male voice came from behind me. I casually looked over my shoulder to see a boy about my age with a wide grin on his face.
 
"Thanks," I said, "I was thinking about trying out for it in the Olympics."
 
We both had a laugh over my joke.
 
"I'm Myles Harding," he said offering a hand, which I shook.
 
"I guess we're cousins." I said lamely.
 
Again came the laugh.
 
"Want to get something to eat?" Myles asked. "Seeing how much food our mothers brought it would be a shame if we didn't eat some of it."
 
I eyed Myles before shouting, "I'll race you!"
 
I sprinted towards the picnic tables with Myles hot on my feet. However, we didn't get far. There was this streak of light over the park followed by an explosion on the lake. Myles and I were thrown to the ground. I thought I heard a dog barking or wimping nearby. And then we were soaked to skin as a tsunami of lake water rolled over us like a drunk in a mosh pit. I gagged on the foul tasting water.
 
My clothes were ruined. I got to my feet suprised I wasn't hurt in anyway.
 
"Myles!" I shouted seeing that he was still on the ground, looking out of it. In a blink I was next to him checking for a pulse. Oh no, Myles wasn't breathing. Immediately I bent over giving him mouth-to-mouth. It wasn't until later that I thought how weird it was. However, it only took one breathe to revive him.
 
I leapted into the air in joy at saving him. The people in the plane looked almost as surprised as I was as I flew by their windows. Without thinking I waved at them and a few of them waved back. Scared out of my mind, but excited all the same I flew back to park.
 
I felt so powerful. On impulse I want to the lake and picked up a boulder and skipped it across the water.
 
"Myles" I said turning to look for my cousin. "Did you see that? Did you?"
 
However, Myles wasn't there anymore. I later learned that he had ran over three states away before coming to a stop.
 
My life has changed since that day at the lake. Several members of the Harding family have gained superpowers from getting drenched. My friends are so jealous. I even got a super hero costume that makes me look, oh so mature, and the coolest code name ever. People call me Omega, can you believe it. Maybe going to that lame family reunion wasn't so bad after all.

Re: Create a Hero Theme Team!
 
It began as a dimness, a shadow obscuring certain stars, and only astronomers noticed. It seemed to vanish, only to be found occluding a slightly different patch of sky. The Occlusion, as they dubbed it, was moving. And growing. No, not growing - growing closer. Moving in a helix, spiralling down towards the heart of the Solar System. Tacking, they realized eventually, against the solar wind. It was not just astronomers who took notice now.
Probes were sent, from NASA, JSA, ESA. The images were awe inspiring, the data intriguing and baffling. When telemetry from the first probe abruptly stopped, the course of the great cloud of dust and gas changed - taking it straight towards the next two. A course it continued after it did whatever it did to the next two probes. Whatever it was, it was heading towards Earth. Not towards where the Earth had been when the probes were launched; but on a course to intercept. It was insubstantial as smoke, but it moved as if with intelligence and purpose. And indications were that it had destroyed the probes.
But then came broadcasts; snippets of everything from popular television to the coded transmissions that had been directed at the probes. As if it meant to communicate.
The experimental vehicle named Goliath (after Arthur C. Clarke's fictional space vehicle) was sent next, under the command of Captain Mercedes MacCleod. Goliath was manned - and armed. The mission was to try to persuade this intruder to the solar system to change it's threatening course or, if it were not intelligent or could not communicate or would not be persuaded, to attempt to destroy it with nuclear weapons.
No one was prepared for how fast it could move. When they began trying radio transmissions at two light minutes away, the entity changed course and speed yet again - and the astronauts and their ship were engulfed.
Stunned and helpless listeners at Mission Control heard one of the crew scream "The Captain! She's GONE!" Then nearly ten minutes of radio silence, punctuated by explosions. The spacecraft Goliath was no longer visible on instruments.
 
 
"I was fascinated by these objects. Even taking them apart molecule by molecule, I could not determine what they were. I looked for the source. That is when I first heard your people...perhaps I began to suspect that the probes had been made, and to some purpose. I thought Goliath was another probe. I had taken apart one of the most fascinating pieces when I realized, all at once - this thing, although made of solid matter, incredibly, it was alive, it was a thinking being. I can't explain what I did when I realized I was killing someone, but the only way I saw to save me in that instant of my disintegration was to become me. I...We...fused. And I realized somehow I had become this thing we came out to talk to or to stop, and I saw that I had already disassembled too much of Goliath and the crew were on their suit oxygen, we had to get to Earth. But that took energy, and I was heading towards a star to replenish - but there was plenty of energy right there! All I had to do was put myself between the solid people and those little stars-on-demand, and trigger them, and I could reach Earth before their oxygen ran out!"
 
 
"This is...Captain...uh..." Both staticky and hesitant, confused sounding, the voice was still recognizable, and cries of "She's ALIVE!" mingled with cheers, quickly silenced as all wanted to listen, intently. "The crew are in shock, may have radiation poisoning, we're coming back as fast as possible." In response to questions from Ground Control."The Goliath...the ship is destroyed. We're coming back without it."
 
Following the announcement that the astronauts were returning without their spacecraft, there was a moment of stunned silence. Then someone said "The lag is wrong. They are almost 7 light minutes out, but that last response took less than one minute. How!?"
 
"I come in peace for all mankind." Those words, so familiar to everyone present, riveted their attention. "I come in peace for all mankind." Later it would be realized that the broadcast had been on every radio frequency in use, and in several languages. "I come in peace for all mankind." Every channel used for visual images bore an image of the Earth, growing rapidly larger.
 
Mission Control - and much of Houston - was enveloped in a pearly, radiant mist. Fortunately, before too many accidents occurred on the streets of Houston, the unnatural fog withdrew, shrank.....in the infirmary the babbling crew appeared as the obscuring light vanished....and finally became a swirling tornado of light right right in the heart of Mission Control. And then finally resolved into the familiar form of Captain Mercedes MacLeod.
 
But this was not the same person they knew. And she would never be the same again.
 
 
I remember being Mercedes MacLeod. I remember growing up in New Mexico and spending time with my mother's family in Old Mexico...I remember, the first time I made the trip, wondering how the place I had always known could be “newer” than this strange place I was going to. I remember playing with the way stars look and sound.....if I was full of energy I could shift speed and direction just to distort the colors and....the radio waves sound so funny if I do that. I remember my father's gray eyes so light in his dark face. I remember when I told him I wanted to go to the stars – I'd been reading Heinlein, and Norton, and Asimov - he said “Maybe you will. Remember, folks gonna try to hold you down, just 'cause a my color, just 'cause your ma wasn't even born in this country, just 'cause you're a girl...but really, just 'cause they's jealous or ignorant.” I remember, he put his hands on my shoulders and looked so serious “Misty – don't ever believe 'em when they say 'you can't do that!'” I remember daring myself to go to planets, much bigger worlds than this...feeling the awful weight, the pull on every part of my body, not nearly as great as the draw of a star, but without that glorious counterthrust of energy pouring out in the other direction. The stories I loved were First Contact stories....where aliens meet for the first time. I joined the Air Force and learned to fly, I joined the Navy and saw the world, I learned about languages and cultures, I learned about space. I remember the taste of that first strange object....the metal so pure, the shapes so regular and logical, the weird ways electricity flowed in it. And there were more like it! I noticed this world was singing to them. I didn't understand your transmissions, I don't think I really knew it was even meaningful...but I sang back, as I sing back to stars sometimes, as I would sing back to one of my own kind. I'd written papers, I'd been the main author of a report for NASA on the theoretical situation of a First Contact. Sometimes people said things like “Here comes Captain Kirk. Excuse me, Captain MacLeod.” or “First Contact Protocol – Nuke it from orbit, it's the only way to be sure!” but I just remembered what my father said. Then, when they began to think the Occlusion might actually be an alien or a vessel or something of the sort, I was the first choice to command the mission. I had never felt such pride and happiness. I had barely started to take apart this new object when I realized there were things inside very different...I burned with curiosity, I took one apart eager to know what it was, and then the answer came like a nova inside me – it was alive! And I was killing it! I had never felt such shame and sorrow. I don't think my kind usually put together physical objects we've taken apart....I don't know how I did what I did next. But everything that had been Mercedes MacCloud, down to the energy state of every neuron on her brain, was part of me now – and I saw a way to make it so, to keep it so, to....fuse with her. But I don't remember everything. I speak fluent German, I was stationed there, I have a map of the country in my head – I don't remember the name of a single person I met in Germany. And...I feel differently about things. I remember that I have known other beings like me, made of stardust and vapors and patterns of force – but I don't remember them clearly. I think I am less than I was. I feel differently about things. I remember the oath I swore, becoming an officer. But the United States seems like such a small thing now; I remember what it feels like to let a world bigger than Neptune pass through my body.And is an oath sworn by a human, binding on...something else? My name was Mercedes MacLeod. My name was something that cannot even be spoken in sound waves, only in pulses of energy in wavelengths your kind have never measured.I will need a name, for I mean to stay in this system for a long time. Matter in your world comes in such complex, intricate forms! I am sorry I destroyed the shield you meant to use to protect your world. I will take its place for you. Anything smaller than your moon, I can deflect or destroy! Because I could not bear to let some disaster befall a world full of things like you solid people and slugs and volvox and the songs of whales and the Moody Blues.... Call me after what I destroyed unthinkingly, so I never forget and become careless again. Call me Goliath.

 
Lucius Alexander
 
The palindromedary notes that we're not completely happy with this name.

Re: Create a Hero Theme Team!
 
Pioneer
 
My name is Tenk. Clan names are believed to distract from one's loyalty to the Pyrknot Empire and are thus discouraged. My grandfather , three gods bless his spirit, informed me that our clan name was Cralk. Then again, Grandfather told me many things that the Sci-crat council would not approve of. He told me that in HIS grandfather's time, the Empire was a republic in which ANY being of sufficient age and sanity could vote. He told me that we were not always bent on conquest, nor would we have considered sending thousands to their deaths just to get a handful of 'superior men'. Somehow I doubt this last one. Despite the implants that are put in each applicant's brain to insure loyalty or death, there is no more honored or coveted position than being a 'Superior Man' and they never want for volunteers. Their strength is astounding, they are nearly invulnerable, and best of all, they can fly at great speeds and survive even the depths of space. Of course, only the most obedient are accepted. I am not obedient, and this will never be for me. Still, I shall be drafted for standard legion duty. I have entered my 12th cycle. Conscription is mandatory.
 
My name is Tenk. Cycles have passed, and my insubordination demerits have reduced me to the lowly task of gathering space scrap for deconstruction. If the Empire thought my grandfather's termination would free me from his 'wrong think contamination', they have misjudged. I will not partake in the genocide of planets under the name of 'biosphere cleansing' or any other such thing. I will not abandon my faith of the three gods. If they do not exist, then the government has no need to be so frightened . I dare not speak my mind, or even think too loudly among the reader-supervisor probes, but I will hold to old dreams long dust. My ship's sensors pick up something on the fringe. I go to retrieve it like a good worker despite what my heart says. I am brave in my heart, but my hands? They are cowards
 
For the last four mini cycles I have studied this. It is amazing. Some species was foolish enough to send knowledge of themselves hurtling into the void? Did they not suspect others would not share their apparent love of exploration, but rather see them as weak and naive, and ready for conquest? I have hidden this 'Pioneer' and its data as best I could. The plaque of precious metal is lovely, not for its substance, but for the trust, however stupid, it shows. I am not stupid, merely disloyal, so I learn what I can from it. So much data... so much hope, so much striving for the better. I wonder if the forgotten Republic was like this once? I wonder about this 'Earth'
 
Another four minicycles. I can bear it no longer here. If there is a rebellion, I cannot find it to join it. Instead I must escape. Somehow. I will go to this Earth, whatever it is, it MUST be better than this. Younger, newer, still having a future that need not be trapped in the rigid rulings of those who dub themselves 'elite'. I worry that the naivety contained in this prize is contagious. So be it, if this is fever, I would rather burn than be 'healthy and accepting of the Empire'. I want a new home. This Earth may yet be it. But how? My ship, like all others, is chipped. If I go half a parsec without authorization, it WILL be noted, the fail safes will be triggered, and I will die. I must get my hands on the authorization bypass... I must steal. It means death if I am caught. So be it.
 
One minicycle later. This is insane. I have rifled data, but the wrong sort. Alpha Clearance? Coordinates and a key code of some sort to a building I didn't even know existed. Still, what other lead do I have?
 
Three Gods preserve me! It's the Empowerment Chamber. That drunken fool left data on the Empowerment chamber laying about! This is where common men become 'Superior', only one in a thousand survives. Yet... applicants are chipped. I am not. My dreams are braver than I am. If I take this chance, IF it works, I will gain the ability to fly on my own! Perhaps I can find Earth. Maybe I can warn them? The system is automated. The key will start it up. I am scared and that more than anything sets me on this last path. I am so TIRED of being afraid. Is a life of slavery, of constant fear, worth preserving? For once, my heroic heart and my coward hands work together. I start the empowerment procedures.
 
Time passed, unknown. I have awakened after what felt like a life time of pain and I am strong. The strongest polyfiber materials bend in my grip. Even their jagged edges do not pierce me! Perhaps my grandfather was right, the Three love fools and children. This cannot be the only empowerment chamber, but if I can slow down them down at all, I may have done SOME world out there some good. I set an old style explosive in the right place. The fire it starts will draw the Council's attention allowing me time to flee. It would seem I still have something of a coward in me. Either that, or I'm not a total fool.
 
Three Full Cycles... I do not eat. I do not drink. I rarely sleep. Mostly, I fly, carrying a part of the treasure that inspires me. I have fought some Superior Men, but only by luck have I triumphed, and never more than two at a time. They are chipped. They may only go so far. This worked in my favor. One died painfully as I tricked him out of his safe zone.
I have lost them.
I MUST believe that
Otherwise, I am damning the home I seek.
 
 
Another full cycle, I think. I am long gone from the homestar of the Empire, so who can be sure? Please, let this be the right system. I look for the third planet and it is beautiful. Blue with white wisps adorning it. Oceans, clouds, but knowing what causes these colors does not diminish it. I fly downward but before I enter the atmosphere, I see something drifting by in the corner of my eye. A crude craft, a shuttle that makes my old junk collector look like a top of the line battle cruiser in comparison. It is leaking gasses, no doubt its life support. They are trying to get down to the surface as well, but at the rate of the leak, they will never make it, not without help. This, I gladly provide, though the looks on their faces are amusing. Amazing how like
Pyrknotians they look. I only hope they have not followed us in otherways. I see no weapons on this vehicle. No doubt, the humans are now wondering why I am smiling.
 
Soon I am placing the vessel gently down on a primitive and seemingly unused road. The men and women leave the ship, one of them HUGS me? They talk, but I don't understand. I reach for my back and pull out from a casing the plaque I took so long ago from their creation and lay it down before them. I speak the only 'English' word I am sure I know as I do so
 
"Pioneer"
 
A cycle, no.. a year later. My name is Tenk, but even my friends and coworkers on Saturn Five often call me by my 'superhero' name Pioneer. I have learned three Earth Languages, though I am told my English has something of a Polish accent. Ironic, as Polish is not one the languages I was able to learn. The United States is no utopia, but compared to the Empire? it is a paradise. I worship the three gods unhindered. I speak my mind as I NEVER could before. I pick my own meals as long as I can pay for them (Though I do not really NEED to eat), and I try to be a good superhero. Between traditional superheroics, I help retrieve satellites, repair devices, and deal with any space emergencies. I have tried to share what I know, but sometimes I look down on the planet and worry.
 
IF the Empire finds this Earth, am I preparing my new home to face them? Or have I somehow insured that the question is not "if" but "when"?

Re: Create a Hero Theme Team!
 

 
ok this is great...but I do have to bring up the fact that in a Night Court episode Harry dated an adult film star who's stage name was Amber Waves.
*giggle*