
New Warriors
(Team profile #2 - Growing up)
Context
- This profile contains major S P O I L E R S.
- This team profile is meant to be read after the previous team profile for the New Warriors.
- During the period covered by this profile, the storytelling gets more realistic. The characters face dramatic dilemmas and the responsibilities for their choices (Namorita’s hearing, Vance’s trial…). Their injuries take several issues to heal.
- It may inspire a GM looking to involve their players in deep role-playing and character building: political, religious and personal.
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Sequencing
The team profile is broken into multiple parts. The sequence goes :
- New Warriors part #1 – Year One. (start there !).
- New Warriors part #2 – Growing up years.
- New Warriors part #3 – The fading years.
Organization
Full Name:
The New Warriors.
Purpose:
Night Thrasher first created The New warriors to help him in his personal crusade against street crime. He gave them a purpose: “to fight the kind of crime heroes like The Avengers never touch”. He trained them in the use of their powers and to work as a team. He spent most of this period a step back from the team, but the purpose remained, and the team carried on without him.
Modus Operandi:
With all the members now knowing each other’s secret identities, the teams’ operations became simpler. The New Warrior also became a much more important part of their lives (except for Night Thrasher who was already much more involved in it). They spent much more time together, assembled at their headquarters.
They pretty much came and went in the crash pad, using it as a meeting point just to hang out together. They also had some kind of regular meetings. It all made it easier to gather the team when a crisis arose.
They were still mostly leaving at their parents’. While their families were aware of their powers, the heroes were keeping a rather low profile on their involvement with The New Warriors. When any of them suffered from a hard personal situation, they were first relying on each other, more than their “civilian” entourage… except Night Thrasher.
During an argument, Night Thrasher’s slammed the door on the team, expecting it to disband after his departure.
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Extent of operations:
Mainly around New York City. The cleansing of The Taylor Foundation sent them to Colorado, Japan, Hong-Kong and Cambodia, taking advantage of the transportations provided by The Taylor Foundation… or finding other ways… not always very legal. They still dealt with petty street (Poison Memories) or organized crime (Gideon), but they were now more ambitious when dealing with it.
They responded to super-powered terrorism (Sea Urchin, Cardinal) or threats (Tai, Darkling). They got involved in foreign politics when they agreed to extract Force of Nature from a middle-eastern country’s civil war.
Bases of Operations:
New Warriors Crash Pad near the Brooklyn Bridge.
Major Funding:
The Taylor Foundation and Oracle, Inc.
Known Enemies:
Folding Circle, Tai, The Sphinx, Gideon, Cardinal and Air Force, Darkling/Asylum, Poison Memories.
Known Allies:
The New Mutants/X-Force, Spider-Man, Doctor Strange, Cloak and Dagger.
Membership
Number of active members:
Eight.
Number of reserve members:
Two (Darkhawk, Turbo).
Organizational structure:
As Night Thrasher had left, and Marvel Boy was in jail, Namorita filled the void of leadership. Night Thrasher was still providing resources to the team. Namorita also used her executive position at Oracle, Inc. Later, her contact with Project: Earth provided intelligence.
Original Roster:
- Night Thrasher (Dwayne Taylor).
- Nova (Richard Rider).
- Marvel Boy (Vance Astrovik).
- Firestar (Angelica Jones).
- Namorita (Namorita Prentiss).
- Speedball (Robbie Baldwin).
- Silhouette (Silhouette Chord).
- Rage (Elvin Haliday).
Membership requirements:
Being co-opted and introduced by another member (Rage), being caught in the action and impressing the team (Darkhawk, Turbo). There is not much stricture except getting the approval of the rest of the team. Members didn’t keep their identity secret among themselves.
Support personnel:
- Andrew Chord: training coach, tactical advisor, intelligence gatherer and assistant among The Taylor Foundation’s board.
- Tai (at first): keeper for the facilities, cook, physician.
- Sprocket: Taylor Foundation’s ace pilot.
Equipment:
Well equipped and stocked headquarters with computers, living quarters, training ground and workshop. Taylor Foundation’s private jet, helicopter or cars. Unstable Molecules™.
History
Previously
See New Warriors (year one) for the previous story.
Cleaning The Taylor Foundation
After the confrontation with Proteus, Dwayne Taylor investigated potential ties between The Taylor Foundation and Ophrah Industries. His investigation revealed involvement with, and even responsibility for, illegal activities.
Unknown to Dwayne, it had dealings with Ophrah, Stane (from the Star Thief episode in the “year one” profile) and Justin Hammer. It was part of a worldwide money laundering system for drug-lords and corrupted politicians.
Confronting Chord
Night Thrasher went to Andrew Chord for answers. Chord denied and ran away. With the help of Silhouette, Night Thrasher investigated Chord’s route. They confirmed his involvement in The Taylor Foundation’s corruption.
Meanwhile, Chord gathered The New Warriors. He convinced them Night Thrasher was somehow controlled by an external influence. The New Warriors shortly fought Night Thrasher and Silhouette. Night Thrasher and Silhouette fought very defensively, trying to expose Chord. Chord fought desperately, but still going easy, trying not to hurt anybody permanently.
In the end, The New Warriors trusted Night Thrasher and neutralized Chord.
Pushed in a corner, very afraid of what “She” would do to him, Chord took his gun. To everyone’s horror, he shot himself in the head. Marvel Boy used his telekinesis to prevent Chord from dying and Nova carried them to the hospital. When they returned, Night Thrasher decided to send The New Warriors to Ophrah and its CEO – Gideon.
Facing Gideon
The New Warriors didn’t know Gideon has been a powerful mutant: one of the Externals. Gideon easily defeated them by duplicating their powers and using them in creative ways.
Once The New Warriors were fully restrained, he tortured Marvel Boy with his own telekinetic power. When he started to torture Firestar, Marvel Boy told him they were looking for answers about The Taylor Foundation. Gideon played more mind games with them. When he got satisfied, he gave bits of information.
Against the Yakuza
Gideon informed them The Taylor Foundation had ties with the Yakuza. So they went to Japan to investigate. Marvel Boy and Namorita, having mid-term exams closing by, stayed behind.
The New Warriors made contact with the Yashida Clan, whose head, Mariko Yashida, was opposing the Yakuza. Faced with Mariko herself, Night Thrasher agreed to rid her of a rival clan in exchange of the information he required: the Tatsuo Clan. When disrupting a Tatsuo heroin delivery, they confronted Tatsuo’s augmented hitmen: the Cybersamurai.
Tatsuo himself offered The New Warriors a deal: he will give the information they were looking for, if they left Japan and his operations alone.
Night Thrasher and Nova agreed. Thus, they got the information they came for and they avoided two powerful mob families in a foreign country. Firestar, Silhouette and Speedball refused to let a heroin smuggler get away that easily.
But Taylor was not fond of democracy when it involved his purpose. Outvoted, he resigned from The New Warriors. The New Warriors left Japan, leaving Night Thrasher behind. Somehow satisfied with this outcome, Tatsuo gave Taylor a piece of clue to further investigate.
The Folding Circle
Night Thrasher’s investigation led him to Hong-Kong, where the Folding Circle soon confronted him. Their leader was the Left Hand, who had gathered a particular list of augmented humans. In their midst was Midnight’s Fire, whom the Folding Circle helped escape from jail.
The Left Hand wanted Taylor to join. He knew Night Thrasher’s secret identity. He told him of a Pact, made by their parents, which led to assembling the Folding Circle’s members. Taylor joined. The Left Hand led them to Cambodia.
Tai’s secret
Tai revealed to be the powerful being that Chord was so afraid to confront. With a scheme she called The Pact, tracing back to Dwayne’s father’s youth. She had been the one behind The Taylor Foundation’s toxic assets.
Chord’s suicide attempt attracted Tai’s attention. She discovered Silhouette and Midnight’s Fire’s mother was not dead. The twins had been the gifted children Tai was looking for to pursue her power lust. While she killed their mother with her bare hands, we shockingly learn that she has been their grandmother.
Chord’s head injury had been critical, but Tai needed him alive. She used her powers to make him recover. At his bedside, she confronted Silhouette, freshly back from Japan. She shocked her with another revelation: Chord has been the father Silhouette and Midnight’s Fire had thought dead.
Silhouette used her shadow walking power to escape when Tai tried to get rid of her. Silhouette took refuge to the newly appointed New Warriors’ headquarters near Brooklyn Bridge.
She and the team went back to Chord. On his sickbed, he told them where they could find Tai, in Cambodia. He also confessed that to fulfill a mysterious pact, he had to kill Dwayne’s parents.
They contacted Darkhawk for reinforcement for this upcoming confrontation. Without Taylor’s or Chord’s backup, they lacked transportation to go to Cambodia. They contacted Rage, and convinced him to help them steal one of the Avengers’ Quinjet to get there.
Firestar didn’t come along. She wanted to stay with her boyfriend who was facing his most challenging ordeal.
Marvel Boy’s trial
Meanwhile, Vance Astrovik came back home from Colorado seriously injured. He could no longer hide his activities from his parents, particularly his abusive father. In a very violent tantrum, his father hit him one time too many, one time too hard. Vance, losing control, retaliated with a deadly use of his powers, all this in front of his helpless mother.
Arrested
Vance was taken into custody, without any resistance.
Unfortunately, Vance’s father died from his severe injuries. With his death, the charges went from assault to murder. A driven and cold district attorney, Rachel Dreyfuss, was making sure this trial would count.
As she had stayed in New-York, Namorita hired Nelson & Murdock to defend him. When the team came back from Japan, she rallied them around Angelica to support him.
The trial
The trial got extensive media coverage. The defense solely revolved around emotional arguments: the hard history of abused childhood for Vance, domestic violence from his father, and lack of interference from his mother.
The accusation cleverly focused on the hard facts: the excessive force of Vance’s self-defense act. She even managed to trap Firestar in recognizing Vance could have controlled himself.
In a dramatic moment, the jury convicted Marvel Boy for negligent homicide. He went to the Vault: the jail designed to keep super-powered villains away.
Aftermath
The arrest and the trial made Marvel Boy’s identity public. But far worst, he left a desperately crushed Firestar behind him. On this occasion, Angelica’s father confessed he had known she was using her powers again but didn’t mind. This provided her with a strong support in this difficult time.
Later, Firestar, Nova and Namorita attempted a jailbreak during Vance’s transport to the Vault. They would have succeeded if Vance hadn’t scolded them. He had to go to jail to prove the system worked. Otherwise, The New Warriors made no sense.
Vance’s sentence at the Vault went smoothly. He made friends with the guards, trained with them. He even successfully mediated between the prisoners and the administration during an uprising.
The Well of All Things
The Left Hand guided Night Thrasher and the Folding Circle to the mysterious Temple of the Dragon’s Breadth. Here, the no less mysterious Pact had been concluded and should reach its end. They first defeated cultists dressed as ninja.
Then warriors wearing armor with the same design as Night Thrasher’s welcomed them. Dwayne’s armor’s design was Chord’s. It confirmed him of Chord’s involvement into all this.
While progressing inside the temple, the sudden appearance of Tai, materializing out of smoke, stopped them.
History unfolds
Along this episode, Tai told her stories, hers, the Folding Circle’s, Silhouette’s, and finally Chord and Taylor’s.
At first, the temple of the Dragon’s Breadth was the site of a cult. They worshipped the Well of All Things: an extra-dimensional power source that grants enough power to control the whole world. The cult was waiting for westerners to mate with their Daughters of the Dragon to produce an offspring of mixed blood and culture.
These, through their sacrifice, would provide the control of the Well. Soon, Tai took control of the cult, so she wouldn’t have to share the power of the Dragon.
During the Vietnam War, a patrol of American soldiers ventured near this temple. They were: Diego Casseas, now known as the Left Hand, Andrew Chord, Daryl Taylor (Dwayne’s father), and the fathers of all the members of the Folding Circle. As they approached the temple, a younger Tai greeted them. She displayed powerful magic and instantly captured them.
She offered them a choice between dying, and marrying the Daughters of the Dragon. She wanted the westerners to provide the announced children. The children would have part of the Well’s power: that’s how Midnight’s Fire and Silhouette, as well as the rest of the Folding Circle, got their powers.
The Left Hand told his story how he ended up with the power of the Well instead of the child he had with the Dragon’s daughter.
Miyami, Tai’s own daughter, who married Chord and gave birth to Silhouette and Midnight’s Fire, ran away to save her children from the mad woman. She faked their death in a car accident. Chord, believing his wife and children dead, wandered the world as a gun for hire. Until his wanderings brought him back to the temple.
Tai welcomed him and imagined a scheme to compensate for the loss of the twins. Chord returned to the United States. He reacquainted with Daryl Taylor and became very close to him and his family. Five years later, Tai came to Chord, ordering him to take back his place in the Pact. He refused.
She controlled his mind to force him to kill the Taylors in front of their son. Then she erased Dwayne’s memories, so he wouldn’t remember his parents’ murderer.
Later, she pushed Chord to encourage Dwayne in forming The New Warriors. That way, she could dispose of powerful beings to sacrifice to the Well, so she could use the true children as avatar to her world domination.
The New Warriors’ arrival
Namorita led The New Warriors inside the temple, guided by Chord’s sickbed confessions, and thanks to Rage’s stolen Quinjet.
Tai’s deception and Left Hand’s lust for the power of the Well led Night Thrasher and the Folding Circle to battle The New Warriors. Taylor switched sides. Then they allied against Tai. Despite his will to spare her, Night Thrasher had to shoot her at point blank in the back. Tai and the Left Hand fell into the Well, lost into the inter-dimensional nexus.
In the confusion of the aftermath, the Folding Circle stole the Quinjet, leaving Rage in deep trouble. Later, The Avengers will kick him out for this. Speedball will make him a New Warrior.
Dwayne gone solo
This whole adventure left Dwayne Taylor in a hell of a place: his whole life had been a lie. He left the team and went solo for a time.
Chord was recovering, but Dwayne had not forgiven him.
The Sphinx comes back
With the help of Spider-Man, they defeated a scheme by The Sphinx, who was secretly leading a strange consortium of borderline military-industrial companies. His allies included Justin Hammer, Roxxon, Stane International… It allowed The Sphinx to get part of his powers back. To defeat him, Speedball unleashed all his power in one devastating burst. The Sphinx disappeared in the rubble.
Back to your average life
We got a glimpse of the day to day life of The New Warriors. Some of these apparently insignificant moments are foreshadowing important things to come.
Firestar
Angelica Jones missed Vance. Her father lost his job. They support each other.
But fatherly love was not enough. Firestar will attempt to jailbreak Marvel Boy from the Vault.
Nova
During the Sea Urchin episode, Silhouette convinced Dwayne to make peace with Richard. And as a vouch of good will, he offered him a revamped, though less powerful, version of his former Nova costume.
Before the second Terrax confrontation, his parents discovered he was Nova again. And though they encouraged him, and had been proud of him, they worried for their own safety and the neighborhood’s. They kindly asked him to leave their apartment. He made his own crash pad out of the abandoned factory Taylor recently gave to The New Warriors.
Richard’s day job was to drive trucks. While daydreaming in a traffic jam, he got rear ended by a very attractive young woman. Laura Dunham was a Yale’s student at home for summer. They began a relationship. She will be the third point of Nova’s love triangle.
Silhouette
Silhouette felt bad about the way Dwayne got her an Unstable Molecule™ outfit. She felt she needed to return her costume to Reed Richards. He kindly let her keep it, as long as she used it for the good reason. He made her a new unstable molecule costume by her own design.
She took care of Chord, her father, on his sickbed. She acted as messenger between him and Dwayne, still pissed at his “uncle”.
Speedball
Robbie Baldwin’s parents were having a divorce and were going to live in separate towns. He decided to live in Manhattan, with his mother (closer to The New Warriors too).
Namorita
Namorita attended the Manhattan Federal Criminal Courthouse, both for academic and personal reasons. The defendant was Sea Urchin, arrested by The New Warriors.
During a recess, Project: Earth’s leaders approached her. They tried to convince her to join her team with theirs. After all, they were fighting the same despicable individuals, except not with the same means. She rejected their offer, still enough trusting the legal system to avoid using their methods.
But the judge released Swimming Bear, because of the way he was arrested. Disgusted by the verdict, she gave her Oracle’s card to Barreños on her way out.
This will move her further along emotional dismay. It will incite her to help Firestar in her jailbreak for Astrovik, and push her along more radical political postures.
Night Thrasher
Dwayne Taylor had no real life outside of his crime fighting activity. He continued his audit of The Taylor Foundation’s assets.
He ran a wild goose chase, orchestrated by Chord and Silhouette. It went between various members of Taylor Foundation’s board members. It forced Dwayne to retake control of his life. He faced the Vietnamese gang Poison Memories several times, defeating them and making their leader lose face. He evicted Gideon’s scheme to take control of the Foundation. He made peace with Chord.
He recruited Sprocket, as an alternative for Chord, to pilot The Taylor Foundation’s various flying assets.
Namorita’s run
Namorita assumed leadership of The New Warriors. The disappearance of her cousin reinforced her executive position at Oracle, Inc.. She discretely started to use Project: Earth’s information network. The New Warriors actions bent toward her political drive. She built a lot of pressure on herself.
Evil doppelgängers
The New Warriors took a minor part in the Infinity Wars .
The Magus sent evil doppelgangers of Earth’s heroes to fulfill his plan. Rage fought and defeated his by absorbing it. It made him more prompt to anger and… rage.
Speedball’s evil twin devastated Springdale. Robbie had to get cover from the police, attacking him in numbers and led by… his own father. He barely reached his mother before she got attacked by his evil double. Speedball had to lash out all his kinetic power to destroy the creature. This outburst scared him.
Unfortunately, his father saw it all. Speedball dared his father to oppose him. As a District Attorney, Justin Baldwin was opposing everything vigilantes like Speedball were standing for.
Turbo, the woman
While interfering with one of Sea Urchin’s smuggling operations, The New Warriors confronted Cardinal. Pushing their investigations, they received the support of Turbo, a young woman wearing a very advanced set of powered armor.
When Namorita had to choose between stopping Cardinal, or stopping Sea Urchin, Turbo offered her help. Namorita trusted her in pursuing Sea Urchin. That way, they took them both down.
Turbo was not ready to become a super-hero yet. She turned down Namorita’s offer to join The New Warriors.
Trans-Sabal
As part of her dark alliance with Project: Earth, Namorita agreed to bring back Force of Nature from the Middle-East fictional country of Trans-Sabal, locked in a civil war. To get to Force of Nature, Namorita had to take a side.
She faced a Mexican stand-off between Aqueduct, General Halladah and Araq Mezdbadah. She knew the US were sponsoring Halladah. She thought Mezdbadah was fighting for his people. Her hesitation let Aqueduct kill General Halladah.
Then, she learned that neighbor countries were sponsoring Mezdbadah. She understood there was no good side to pick. Disgusted, she got back to the US, taking Force of Nature into custody with them.
She faced an inquiry by the Commission on Super-human Activities, led by Henry-Peter Gyrich. She took the blame for Halladah’s assassination, and the debacle of The New Warriors’ interference. Her Atlantean citizenry, and membership in the royal family, avoided her further troubles.
Death of the Hellions
When Fitzroy killed The Hellions, Firestar went with X-Force to Nova Roma. There, she helped uncover Empath’s charade.
When she got back, to move along from that past, she changed her costume, as her current one dated from her recruitment in The Hellfire Club.
Force of Darkness, Force of Light
The New Warriors allied with Darkhawk, Spider-Man, Doctor Strange, The Thing, some Avengers and Cloak and Dagger. Together, they defeated a mysterious dark force: Darkling. It was a very troubled mutant, Henrique Gallante, a patient at the Smyther’s Rehabilitation Clinic.
His powers over the Darkforce dimension, aggravated by his very troubled childhood, had driven him insane. He unconsciously unleashed the Darkforce onto our dimension.
He used characters linked to the Darkforce Dimension (Silhouette, Cloak, Darkstar…), and those with a prominent dark side (Archangel, Namorita…) in a fierce battle over Manhattan.
The powers Dagger and Firestar, light-side oriented as they were, allowed the heroes to defeat the entity. Then, Doctor Strange induced Gallante in a fit of self-conscience and understanding of his powers. He reclaimed all the dark energy he had released and he collapsed into the Darkforce Dimension.
Potential recruits
- During the Gallante episode, they were introduced to the male version of Turbo.
- Darkhawk also made serious contacts with The New Warriors. Together, they later defeated Zarrko, Tomorrow Man. He tried to trick them in believing he could send them back in time to fix their more disastrous choices.
- They thought about permanently including Turbo into their rank. But first Nova had to train them, particularly the male turbo, who wasn’t mastering his suit as well as the female one. During the training session, they fought Cardinal, back for revenge, and his buddies of Air Force. The female Turbo displayed great resources when she defeated them without wearing the Torpedo suit.
- Night Thrasher, thinking about getting back in business with the Warriors, offered Cloak and Dagger to join. They refused.
- Carlton LaFroyge, new neighbor to the Baldwins, discovered Speedball’s secret identity. He started to harass him to join the Warriors. He will even blackmail him.
Poison Memories
Kimeiko Ashu took the lead of the Asian street gang. He wanted to take revenge on Night Thrasher, who had humiliated him and his gang. He seduced an unsuspecting Namorita in a night club, and stole New Warriors’ critical data from her desk before leaving at dawn. He thus knew the secret identities of all the Warriors. He ordered to kidnap The New Warriors’ families.
Some of his gang got carried away and killed Edna Staples, Rage’s grandmother. They also critically wounded Bart Jones, Firestar’s father. They got the other preys alive: Robert Rider, Nova’s brother and Justin Baldwin, Speedball’s father. Ashu chastised the gang members who killed his two potential hostages. He killed them in front of other gang members, to set an example.
He used the hostages to blackmail The New Warriors into surrendering. He cut Robert Rider’s finger to prove his seriousness. After a short argument between a desperate Namorita and the rest of the team, they agreed to surrender. Ashu used AIM power dampeners to neutralize them.
Using data from Robbie Baldwin’s computer, Carlton LaFroyge made contact with Night Thrasher. He explained the situation. Night Thrasher went after Poison Memories.
Ashu received more weaponry from AIM, including a set of armor much like Night Thrasher’s. His revenge turned to obsession over the gang’s honor. It turned to madness. He launched a faithful lieutenant, wearing the armor, after the gang members. He killed them because they were not driven enough on avenging the gang, the family.
In these conditions, Night Thrasher easily got the location of The New Warriors, and freed them.
Together, they freed the Hostages. They found Kimeiko Ashu, alone, who had just donned a set of AIM heavy armor. Ashu’s madness made him push his armor too far, but he was ready to die to take his opponents with him, to cleanse his family’s honor. Rage got him out of the wreckage, and snapped his neck.
Edwin stood in front of a federal criminal court for that. The shady circumstances, the nature of the victim, and a bit of cover up from Taylor and Chord managed to let Rage free. Chord and Taylor took Rage into their custody, as he was still minor, and now without known relative.
Epilogue
- Speedball went to his father’s and together, they rebuilt the house, damaged after the attack of the evil doppelgänger.
- Firestar went to her father’s bed, still struggling to survive the gunshot. Vance was not really here to support her, but her friend Jupiter, now aware of her secret identity, was there. Her father woke up when she was at his side.
- Rage, with the help of Dwayne, grieved the loss of his grandmother.
- Night Thrasher was back to lead The New Warriors.
- Nova visited his brother, feeling wrong about letting him get involved like this. His brother reassured him, the loss of his finger was a small price to pay to have a hero like Nova saving lives.
- Namorita was harrowed, feeling guilty her bad choices led to this situation. She decided to leave New York and The New Warriors, to go back to Atlantis, to get a chance to think her life through. Before leaving, she exchanged a passionate kiss with Nova. This was a farewell kiss.
Kymaera
Namorita’s way to seek solace in Atlantis was blocked. As it was recently discovered she has been a clone, Lord Vashti banned her from the city. That was one emotional shock too many. It triggered a painful physical transformation. Her skin turned blue and her body features became more animalistic.
She retired at the bottom of the ocean, banned from Atlantis, ashamed to get back to the surface. Namor convinced her to get back to her friends.
Supernova
Garthan Saal was the only survivor of the destruction of Xandar by Nebula. Last member of the Nova Corp, he received all their power. Grief and power had driven him mad. The Avengers convinced him to explore the timestream in search of Nebula.
Calling himself Supernova, he came back in this universe and homed on the last trace of the Nova Power: Nova of Terra.
Richard Rider was having a date with Laura Dunham. He was struggling with his feelings for her and his feelings for Namorita, who had just left The New Warriors. Supernova attacked Nova, stole his powers, and nearly killed him. Laura didn’t know Richard was Nova. While he died in her arms, she freaked out.
Led by Night Thrasher once more, The New Warriors allied with Firelord and Air Walker, former heralds of Galactus. First they arrived in time for Air Walker to resuscitate Richard. Then, with the now depowered Richard, they went after Supernova. He was rampaging in the Shi’ar Empire.
Supernova grabbed the powerless Richard Rider and fled to Xandar. The New Warriors went after him, thanks to Firestar who plugged enough energy in a Shi’Ar star gate to power it.
Saal had all the Nova power, Rider had all the soul of the Nova Corp. Supernova merged with Richard in a suicidal attempt to resuscitate The World-Mind’s biosphere. Richard, imbued with so much power, unable to harness it, was going insane.
Meanwhile, the return of all the Nova power in this universe triggered the rebirth of Adora, Queen of Xandar. She convinced Richard to relinquish the Nova power to relive the World-Mind, even though it might kill him. He did, and survived.
As a reward to his selfless sacrifice, Adora reinstated him as First Centurion of the reborn Nova Corp, Protector of the Terran Sector, and with much increased powers.
Afterwards, Richard went on with his life. He resumed his solo carrier as reappointed protector of Earth. He founded the Nova Express transportation company. He tightened his bonds with Laura Dunham, soon telling her he was Nova. Then Namorita returned as Kymaera. She and Nova resumed where they had left, with a passionate kiss.
Game Stats — DC Heroes RPG
Tell me more about the game stats
Genre
Mock-Real biased Action: use the Action Genre from BoH: SE p226 but set:
- Killing: yes.
- Recovery: 16 (see below).
- LDD: 2 for Killing Damage, as suggested in Killing Combat addendum
- Use the « Overkill » option from the same home rule.
The authors bend the storytelling toward more realistic actions. It’s still super-heroic action, but we can see it getting harder on the characters:
- Killing damage causes real injuries (ex: Terrax’s assault on Marvel Boy broke his arm in #16 and he still wears his caster when facing Gideon in #19, Gideon’s torture session left bruises and scars on Marvel Boy from #19 to #26, ditto for Tai’s assault on Silhouette or Chord’s head wound…).
Anytime a character receives Killing Damage that is not canceled by LDD, the GM is encouraged to interpret it as a real injury. Evaluate the seriousness by comparing the damage to the Body Attribute (1-2 RAP vs Bod 8 for Namorita outside water are big bruises like when Sea Urchin beat her. 1-2 RAP vs Bod 4 for Marvel Boy is a broken arm when Terrax knocked him violently). The GM may induce light penalties, easily overcome by HP (grit your teeth and do the job!). - Killing Damage seems to take longer to fully heal. Recovery Checks may be rolled against the number of Body points lost from Killing Damage instead of the usual opposite of current Body condition. If the GM uses this option, then the Genre Recovery value should get back to 15.
- The characters face realistic consequences for their actions (ex: Namorita’s hearing after their interference in Trans-Sabal, Vance’s trial after accidentally killing his father, Rage is kicked out of The Avengers for the Quinjet and he faces trial for killing Ashu, Speedball puts his father in an ambiguous position…).
Thus, the GM should not let the player get away too easily: lawsuits for property damage, mistrials on villains, police interference, negative publicity after collateral damage…
Support Personnel
Chord
During this time period, we learn the full story of Chord’s past.
Dex: 05 | Str: 04 | Bod: 05 | Motivation: Responsibility of Power |
Int: 05 | Wil: 05 | Min: 04 | Occupation: Taylor Foundation’s Executive |
Inf: 04 | Aur: 04 | Spi: 04 | Wealth: 007 |
Init: 016 | HP: 025 |
Skills:
Charisma: 05, Detective (Law, Police procedure): 04, Martial artist: 06, Medicine (First aid): 04, Military science: 05, Scientist (Drawing plans, Computers, Hacking): 05, Thief (Forgery, Security systems, Stealth): 05, Vehicles (SEAL): 04, Weaponry: 06
Advantages:
Rich friend (Taylor Foundation).
Connections:
Mercenary underground (Low), New Warriors (High), Night Thrasher (High), Silhouette (High).
Drawbacks:
CIF (Tai), Guilt (Dwayne’s parents’ death), Dark secret (The Pact).
Equipment:
- Medium Caliber Semi-Auto [BODY 03, Projectile weapon: 04, Ammo: 15, R#03].
- Assault Rifle [BODY 04, Projectile weapons: 06, Ammo: 08, R#02, Advantage : Autofire].
Background
Real Name: Andrew Chord.
Known relatives: Miyami (wife, deceased), Silhouette (daughter), Midnight’s Fire (son).
Tai
Tai requires an entire writeup. She became a major powerful villain.
Advantages
As the Ambrose Building was compromised by The White Queen and The Hellions’ assault, they moved their base to an abandoned building, property of The Taylor Foundation. This Expansive Headquarters (Crash Pad near Brooklyn Bridge) is fitted with a gadgetry workshop (8 AP), computer room.
Equipment
Through The Taylor Foundation, the team has access to various regular vehicles, especially air vehicles:
- PRIVATE JET [STR 08 BODY 08, Flight: 08, Radar sense: 17, Limitation: Flight needs a runway to take-off and landing (-1), R#2].
- HELICOPTER [STR 07 BODY 07, Flight: 06, R#2].
A subsidiary of The Taylor Foundation reverse engineered Reed Richard’s Unstable Molecules™. Though we can admit it’s of lower quality (lower Bod, no protection against cold).
LOW QUALITY UNSTABLE MOLECULES COSTUME [BODY 04, Misc. Adv: Insta-Change].
After Silhouette visited Reed Richards to apologize for that, he gave them proper Unstable Molecules™.
UNSTABLE MOLECULES COSTUME [BODY 05, Cold Immunity: 01, Misc. Adv: Insta-Change].
Source of Character: New Warriors vol 1 #18-42, New Warriors Annual #2-3 (1992-93), Night Thrasher: Four control, Night Thrasher #1.
Helper(s): Pufnstuff, Darci, Fabien Morisset.
Writeup completed on the 28th of May, 2017