Special Agent 'Manny' Marquez's page

About Special Agent 'Manny' Marquez

Agent Manuel ‘Manny’ Marquez

PL 8 (120 pp)
Abilities: Str 22, Dex 12, Con 20, Int 12, Wis 12, Cha 12 [30 pp]

Attack: Melee +8, Grapple +16, Ranged +9 [16 pp]
Defense: +7 (+3 flat-footed) [10 pp]
Initiative +5

Damage: +6 punch, +8 claws, +3 pistol, +1 bone needle (+3 paralyze)

Saves: Toughness +7 (2 Impervious), Fort +8, Ref +3, Will +5 (+10 with Mind Shield) [10 pp]

Skills: Bluff 6 (+7, +11 vs. Swarm creatures), Computers 1 (+2), Diplomacy 3 (+4, +8 vs. Swarm creatures), Drive 1 (+2), Gather Information 3 (+4), Intimidate 2 (+3), Investigate 5 (+6), Knowledge (behavioral sciences) 2 (+3), Knowledge (civics) 1 (+2), Knowledge (current events) 1 (+2), Knowledge (streetwise) 1 (+2), Languages (Swarm, native, English, Spanish), Notice 4 (+5), Profession (government agent) 2 (+3), Search 4 (+5), Sense Motive 6 (+7) [11 pp, 44 ranks in skills]

Feats: Attack Focus (ranged) 1, Benefit 2 (Swarm Empathy*, Swarm Leader*), Chokehold, Dodge Focus 2, Equipment 2, Improved Grab, Improved Initiative 1, Improved Pin [9 pp]

Equipment: pistol (+3 damage), handcuffs, camera, cell phone, notebook computer

Powers:
Blast 1 (bone needles that fire from palms, Link: to Paralyze), [2]
Paralyze 3 (Poison, Ranged, Link: to Blast, Drawback: Range limited to Blast range), [11]
Communication 3 (radio), [3]
Mind Shield 5, [5]
Protection 2 (Impervious), [4]
Super-Strength 1 (heavy load: 1040 lbs), [2]
Shapeshifting 1 (Limited: only to take on Swarm abilities listed below*) [7]

Abilities 30 + Atk/Def 26 + Saves 10 + Skills 11 + Feats 9 + Powers 34 = 120 pp

*Blast +2 (Drawback: range remains as if rank 1, larger bone spears) [3]
*Corrosion 2 (acid secretions) [4]
*Flight 1 (Power Loss: when wings cannot be used, large flaps of skin that ripple and are filled with lighter-than-air gases) [1]
*Growth 1 (+2 Str, +1 Con) [3]
*Protection +1 or +2 (Impervious, segmented chitinous plates cover skin) [2 or 4]
*Speed 1 (legs elongate and grow claws for traction) [1]
*Strike 1 or 2 (mighty, oversized bone claws replace fingers, prominent fangs) [2 or 4]
*Super-movement 2 (wall-crawling, adhesive secretions) [4]

Benefit – Swarm Empathy (can use Bluff, Diplomacy and Gather Information on Swarm creatures, with whom he can communicate via his Communication power),

Benefit – Swarm Leader (gains +4 to Bluff and Diplomacy checks versus Swarm creatures)

‘Manny’ Marquez was a junior agent during the Swarm invasion, until he had the misfortune to be targeted for replacement by a Third-Generation Swarmling, and was consumed, his knowledge and memories stolen and programmed into the creature that then was grown in his form, and sent to take over his role within the FBI. ‘Agent Marquez’ soon became Special Agent Marquez, as several of his co-workers lost their lives in raids against the alien hives, often only discovered through his ‘diligence’ and ‘hard work.’ After the Swarm Mother left earth behind, the many Swarmlings of all stripes were left at odds, severed from a connection that they had no experience existing without. Special Agent Marquez collapsed and was diagnosed as having suffered a nervous breakdown, as a result of delayed post-traumatic stress from the loss of so many of his colleagues over the course of the Swarm invasion.

Trapped with alien memories filling his mind, and an aching emptiness within his alien soul, the creature once known as Tkltri Chktla has abandoned his alien heritage, having almost convinced himself that he *is* Manuel Marquez, and that he was merely captured and experimented upon by the Swarm, in an attempt to turn him into one of them! Deep down, he knows the truth, and he returned to work and continued serving as a specialist on Swarm-related incidents, being said to have a ‘unique gift’ for finding and dealing with the confused Swarm creatures left behind. He has very carefully ‘outed’ himself as having been captured and experimented upon by the Swarm, and despite countless medical tests, psych evaluations and lateral transfers, bewildered superiors have (apparently) accepted this story. It comes as no surprise, however, that he has since found himself transferred yet again, to liaise with the S.C.A.R.E. taskforce, and he knows it has much less to do with inter-agency cooperation and much more to do with his co-workers not fully trusting him and being glad to pawn him off on another agency.

His memories of the life of Manny Marquez are spotty, although he still manages to spend a certain amount of time visiting ‘his’ sister and her son, who recognize that he has grown distant and somewhat absent-minded, but are still happy to see him. Despite his attempts at fitting into this human life, there are times when he is working, and he makes contact with another abandoned Swarm creature, as a prelude to luring it out for capture or extermination, and he feels a brief moment of connection that he knows he will never feel with a human being. Part of him remains conflicted that he lives a false life, hunting down and eradicating the only true family he has ever known.

As a result of his insistence upon keeping a few specimens for study, he has managed to preserve a pair of Pack Predators alive, although they remain in a military laboratory. He has begun to float suggestions past his superiors that these Pack Carnivores could be trained and used to track down and eliminate other, more dangerous, Swarm remnants, although he knows that they wouldn’t be any more effective than he at such a task, and that his primary motivation is his own growing discomfort with hunting his own kind.