Best not wait on me. I'm on a family vacation and only spotted this during a break. Unless SuperTumbler can pop in and adjust Siphon's stats (I relied on ST for the PL 6 stats) in the next day or so, I probably won't make the deadline.
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If the submission has to be finalized by tonight, I won't be able to. I'm out of town and won't be back home to get the book and update Siphon from PL 6 to PL 10 until the weekend. Hopefully this won't be a deal-breaker, but if so happy gaming!
I hope it's not too late to submit something! Here's my submission: Siphon She's a power/vitality stealer in the same vein as Rogue except that she has control over whether or not she drains someone. Also, she *has* to drain people as a means of sustenance because she can't eat otherwise. She's also a reformed villain. Backstory:
The world sympathizes with a sick child, the Tepes discovered after Valerie was diagnosed with a rare disease that attacked her cellular mitochondria. When the disease confounded local doctors several years ago, Martin and Sonja Tepe resorted to crowd funding to raise money and awareness for their plight. They quickly became enamored of the attention and moderate celebrity, appearing on local talk shows and becoming the topic of various fluff pieces in the media. Valerie became more of an exhibit than a daughter to her parents. Yet all the donations, fundraisers, and awareness campaigns could not actually cure her, and her health deteriorated. Martin and Sonja became more desperate, taking her anywhere someone would offer up a little bit of fame with an unusual diagnosis. But eventually interest in Valerie's condition waned as the quacks and pseudo-scientific hucksters piled up. When Valerie turned fourteen and it became evident that she would not see her fifteenth, Dr. Sange arrived out of nowhere, offering a mysterious treatment that would save Valerie's life. He offered no fame, no publicity, only a chance at her continued living. The Tepes had, ultimately, no choice but to accept. Valerie endured strange treatments, chemical baths, mysterious injections, and esoteric radiation treatments. It was a long, arduous process for her, full of strange sensations, discomfort, and pain. When the treatment finally finished, Dr. Sange returned her to her parents, yet she appeared no better. She was gaunt, weak, and anemic, just as before the treatments. Yet, when they invited a childhood friend over for a visit, the moment she touched her, Valerie became instantly better, though Theresa became ill and sickly. Dr. Sange appeared extremely pleased at this turn of events. Even though Valerie's sudden health began to wane after a few hours, Theresa took weeks to recover. The Tepes were outraged; they couldn't take any fame from Vanessa's unusual recovery if she could only gain vitality by stealing it from others. When Valerie's parents attempted to confront Dr. Sange, he responded by presenting them a bill for the staggering costs of the treatment. He also quietly demonstrated that he had the resources to ensure that either they paid, or would suffer. It was then that he offered them a means to repay him. After some deliberation, Martin and Sonja Tepe agreed. * * * "It's going to be so easy," her mother told her reassuringly. "All you have to do is go with these people to the police station. You touch a few of the police officers, and you'll feel better. They'll go to sleep, and that way, these nice men will be able to recover some property that the police accidentally took. No one will be hurt, and you'll feel so much better." Valerie nodded dutifully as the car door closed. When the vehicle pulled away, she watched her mother and father hugging each other through the window. Then she turned and looked at the men in the car with her. All had been instructed not to touch her skin, so they looked at her uneasily. Her mother was right. It had been easy, and she felt so much better afterward. She was dropped off by herself near the police station, giving her time to be found by an officer taking a smoke break. Her sickly complexion immediately got his attention and she was brought inside. Then she began to drain the life force from the cops, one by one. By the time she had absorbed half the night shift, she felt great. The men who dropped her off showed up and emptied the place of drugs, guns and other bits of vital evidence, and Valerie felt well for a whole week. Dr. Sange came back several times, offering additional debt forgiveness if Valerie would assist various associates of his in the collection of this or that. Valerie would sate herself on security guards, bank employees, computer security chiefs, and others to access restricted areas. The Tepes prospered. Their debts fully paid, they reaped untold profits by hiring out their daughter to whomever needed her special abilities. They moved from their moderate home in the suburbs to a grand estate in the hills. Living in the lap of luxury, Valerie's parents forced out any remorse for her wrongful acts, continuing to broker her villainous activities for their own profit. After a little over a year of these clandestine activities, Valerie, going by the code-name of Siphon, went up against her first super-powered individual. She was brought on to help raid a cargo ship and obtain some black-market weaponry being smuggled in from Santo Elto on behalf of the mysterious Mr. Cane. She was in the process of absorbing the ship's captain when a costumed do-gooder arrived on scene. In a burst of blue energy, the Azure Avenger appeared, sending the mercenaries scattering. Somehow aware of the smuggled shipment of outlaw hi-tech weapons, he effortlessly knocked around Mr. Cane's goons to keep the shipment out of villainous hands. However, not expecting to see such a young girl with these thugs, Azure didn't react in time to keep Valerie from touching him. She siphoned off his blue-spectrum powers, incapacitating him and gaining a rudimentary control over Azure's light. Mr. Cane was able to recover most of the weapons, and Valerie sank the ship with the Azure Avenger aboard using his own energy beams. (He got better.) Suddenly, Siphon was in the big leagues. Her asking price tripled, and that price quadrupled in the days after she had siphoned off one hero's power or another. Any time there was the fear of a super-powered do-gooder who might snoop around, Valerie was called in.
To adjust to the campaign's theme of a super hero high school, let me know if you would prefer Siphon to have put her villainous past away (maybe a hero catches her and pushes her to enroll in Zion since he recognizes that she's been manipulated by her parents), or maybe she's still expected to do villainous things on the side and after school by -- something that would disagree with her new relationships with more heroic-minded classmates. Costume images will be forthcoming, but she usually wears a sleek black catsuit on jobs and will probably stick with that aesthetic.
Too quiet!
Siphon looks for a down spout or interior corner of the building that she could use to make her way to the roof.
"Sounds good." Siphon slips out of the van, stretching. Then she starts looking for a good point of entry where she wouldn't likely be seen.
"I could try the old fashioned way. Just sneak in," Siphon offers. She was getting bored and hungry. And the battery in her phone was almost dead after playing on it for the last three hours. She was ready to do something.
Siphon hangs back with Baxter while the delivery is made. "Well? What next?"
"If you know anyone who can turn invisible, I could borrow their powers. Well, take. Temporarily. But I could."
Siphon helps where she can. When it's time to go, she gets dressed in her black skintight outfit, then throws a baggy set of overalls on to look like an exterminator's assistant.
"And people called me a villain," Siphon smirks as she looks at the alien-looking pods. "I only drain a person's life force."
"I'm usually pretty good at sneaking into places," Valerie offers.
"Did you find a location?" Siphon asks. "I assume you want us to go check it out? See if there are more metahumans they're experimenting on?"
For the next week, Valerie helps out where she can. Baxter would notice a few things pretty early on: she's not squeamish about bugs and rats, she's not very good at numbers, and he doesn't ever see her eat. About every other day, she slips out of the house/office and is gone for a few hours. When she returns, she doesn't say where she's been. When they get the call to meet up, Valerie puts on her sleek black outfit and throws some basic sweatpants and a hoodie on over everything. "Ready."
Valerie blinks in surprise at this turn of events. She doesn't know how to respond to getting sent away or her parents staying in the line of fire. But she does make a face at absorbing life-force from nonhumans. "Gross." But she nods quickly and races upstairs to grab her bug out bag and a few other things that didn't fit but she wants to keep, like her Gucci jacket and Balmain jeans that she got when they were rolling in cash. "Kay, bye. Love you!" Valerie shouts as she rushes out the door. Bug Hunter finally sees the girl rushing out with a armful of clothes and a big pack over her shoulder. "All right, let's go." After throwing her stuff in the back, she sticks out her hand for a shake as she climbs into the cab. "I'm Siphon. And I'm going to try to be a hero."
"He was going to take me too! Sapphire Samurai wanted Sahara and me both." Her self-confidence falters in front of her mother. "At least, that's what I thought. "Anyway, that's it. I f%!+ed up, and we gotta go now 'cause the Samurai is probably coming here now. To 'tie up loose ends.'"
Valerie hedges. "Superhero scraps, I think. I, um, I didn't trust anyone. Looked out for myself."
She can't meet her mother's eyes.
"It went t$@~ up, that's what happened! Samurai came with a flying helicopter thing, he blow up the wall, and a bunch of goons all jumped out, then a bunch of other people showed up and they all started fighting!"
Valerie's throat immediately becomes dry, made even worse because of her sand body. "I... I caught her. I caught her, and then... I don't know." Her initial impulse to throw blame at her parents for being too slow dies under their collective stare. Did I guess wrong? Did I screw up thedeal? "The Samurai. He wasn't going to pay, right? He was just going to collect Sahara and leave us in the lurch. Right? Right?"
She runs inside. "What the hell!?! Why are you still here! That psycho just slit his own goons' throats, so we're probably next!" Valerie shouts as she tries to find her parents.
Valerie rode in the back of the bug truck, her legs pulled up to her chest the whole way. When they reach the house, she looks for signs that her parents are still there as she hops out of the truck.
Siphon sighs when she sees the text. Long story. Don't think he ever planned on paying. Prob was gonna collect me too. Gonna lay low Siphon watches as the speedster runs off, feeling a little covetous of his power. It looked like fun. "Rude," she says when they come upon the bodies of the henchmen. "Where to next?" Valerie wasn't sure how long she should stick with these guys, but being alone was also a risk.
And just to clarify, the team is going to follow Siphon to her house and bring her parents to Bug Hunter's house? I was assuming that they were going to go to ground on their own. But that works too, if they're still there when we swing by the house to check on them!
Siphon moves to stand closer to the magic using guy while nodding her head in agreement. "No cops. They're clueless if not corrupt. I'm with him," she says, nudging her head in Doctor Night's direction. She starts feeling urgent. "So we going to go, or what? 'Cause if you all just want to stand around, then I'll be on my way."
"Whatever," she says to the bug guy. "Fine. If that's your way of offering, then sure. Uh, and thanks."
"Kindness. S~%@." the girl says, avoiding Sahara's eyes. She looks at the magic guy. "Except I'm not safe. Samurai's probably going after my family, and probably wants to make an example of me, which means I need to find some place to lay low."
Siphon cups her hand around the receiver and turns away so the others can't overhear. "You guys got to move. Sapphire Samurai turned on us. Wanted to take me in just like the target. He got away, saying he's going to take care of some 'loose ends.' You gotta get away, now!" The nudge gets her attention. "Oh, no way. I am not 'VampGirl'. I like my name, and it's..." she looks back at Sahara, "...a secret for right now."
Siphon shouts something incoherent as the Sapphire Samurai got away. Loose ends? She quickly pulls out her cell phone and taps out a text to her mother. It's a bust get out! "S%@~ s$*# s+!~!" she mutters when she hits send and then follows up with a call to her dad's burner phone. She paces while waiting for him to pick up.
Siphon yells in fury at the Samurai, diving off the sand disk as her draining aura flares around her. She reaches out at him, trying to draw off his life essence, his powers, and sap his strength.
Siphon continues pursuing on the sand disk while sending bolts of hardened sand after the fleeing hovercraft.
The girl takes a confused glance at the bug man and his question. "Do you know a teleporter? Nevermind. Just hang on! Sahara's tougher than she looks! A crash shouldn't hurt her!"
I put it in my header, under the Mimic spoiler.
"We're not letting him get her! We're not letting him have her for 'study and experimentation'!!" Siphon shouts as she calls a disk of sand to fly her and the bug guy after the hoverjet. While keeping pursuit, she tries to fling a sand missile at the hoverjet's engines.
I'll be willing to spend a hero point to use the sand powers to form the floating disk that Sahara was doing. Is that an option?
"No!!" Siphon shouts as Sahara is about to be abducted. In desperation, she calls upon the sand powers and throws them at the cable attached to the cage, hoping to sever it from the hoverjet.
"Get away from her!" Siphon shouts as Sahara is surrounded by the Samurai's copies. She takes her best guess as to the real one (definitely not picking the one with the acid burns) and darts in to try to drain him.
After two unsuccessful attacks and the injuries the new arrivals were taking, Siphon starts to reevaluate her options. "Maybe we should get outta here?" she says to Sahara.
Siphon blinks in shock when the samurai duplicates, then smiles. "Now that I gotta try." She darts in to the nearest clone and tries to drain it.
I think all that is left now is the hovercraft, the archer on the hovercraft and three copies of Sapphire Samurai. :) That sounds right. Though it begs the question, if Sapphire Samurai was dazed for his turn, how'd he manage to duplicate himself?
Seems like the better option would be the aid another in this case. I've missed my edit window, so I have no problem with you rolling for me.
Dang, maybe she should be aiding me!!
Siphon feels a shiver run up and down her spine as the samurai says he has further plans for her -- including breaking her. She also suddenly realizes that he's going to throw Sahara into the sealed cage and leave if he can. One set of sand powers wasn't enough, but maybe two? "Both of us! Now!" Siphon shouts to the silokinetic, and uses her stolen sand powers at the same time!
"What, don't tell me you were actually planning on paying me?" Siphon jibes as she jumps back in for another attempt at draining him.
"Maybe stopping a crazy psychopath?" Siphon snaps back at Sapphire Samurai. Her eyes have gone fully black as she circles around looking for another opening.
When one of the heroes makes Sahara better, she briefly considers leaving the scene entirely. But just because she was healed some didn't mean she was out of danger. Besides, the Samurai's power looked like fun. Siphon darts out from her hiding place and strikes, hoping to find a gap in his armor where she could drain him.
Siphon stifles a gasp from her hiding place as she watches Sapphire Samurai stab Sahara. What happened to not damaging the merchandise?!? she thinks. Her muscles tense as she contemplates her next action.
"What the hell?!?!" Siphon shrieks when battle erupts all around her. She does what comes natural when the supers are around; hide and wait for the opportune moment to strike. She ducks into a plume of dust and smoke caused by the missiles.
A short cry of shock escapes Siphon's throat when the wall explodes inward. She stands up, looking about wildly as she comes to the realization that Sahara had protected her and that Sapphire Samurai had just made an entrance. She glares at the armored man as she puts a hand on Sahara's shoulder. It almost sounded okay; she'd get a ride back home, get paid, and then she could try to forget about this whole thing. Except. Except there was no reason this guy would take them both to her parents. There were too many things wrong with this scenario. "Confirm payment first. That's Mercenary 101," Siphon spits back. She lets her eyes go black as a demonstration of her power, but doesn't drain Sahara.
Siphon gives the phone a strange look. "Sweetie?" That didn't sound like her parents. The creeping dread grew. She looks at Sahara and her stomach twists more. That couldn't be real concern in her voice, but... she still clings to it like a lifeline. "I-- it's my parents. They're supposed to, you know, arrange the deal. With the Sapphire Samurai. We were going to make major bank. Only..." She stares at the phone but doesn't voice her concern. "What's taking them so long?" She groans in frustration. "It's my fault! I said I could do it! I must've taken too long... or something. I owe them, you know," she turns back to Sahara. "You understand, right? All the sacrifices parents make for their kids? It's only right I pay them back. I was sick for so long, they deserve it." Her shoulders slump. "I just wish the money hadn't run out so fast. I-- I don't think I want to do this anymore," she confesses.
As the anxiousness starts to rise, Siphon taps out a quick text to her mom.
She then snaps her focus back to Sahara, eyeing her to make sure the hero's not trying anything.
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