[SUDS] Cycles of Power (High T-Low M)

[Death's Spook]

[Banner by Princess Crow]

“Mass death marks the coming of the twin deceivers… Heroes die, heroes fall… Powers beyond mortal ken… Prepare them, hero who was, heroine to be!”

Five years after Michael saved the Orre region from Cipher, a frantic Fateen burst into the lab where he was working as a researcher and choked out those fateful final words to him and his apprentice before seizing up in agony. Both Michael and his apprentice attempted to resuscitate, but Fateen was dead before they could give her medical care.

Michael, though a scientist, knew he had powerful enemies (including one who specifically swore revenge), so he took Fateen’s words to heart. So for the next 5 years, he began to prepare the lab to take on Cipher again. He drilled his apprentice and everyone else in the lab in all the systems in the lab, trained as many people in battle, even taught hand to hand and as many other forms of combat as possible. Aura readers were mass distributed and the Purify Chamber was greatly refined as information on Shadow Pokemon was made public.

But never did Michael imagine the form that “mass death” would take. For one day, as Jovi walked back from a visit with a friend, as she went to hug her big brother, her backpack exploded. It killed her, Michael, and nearly everyone in the lab as it took it destroyed the structure. And with that, Cipher announced itself.

Michael’s apprentice survived the attack, and, though young, she was also one of the most skilled researchers, and so took over the administration and coordination of the remainder. But, though she was intelligent, she did not anticipate what happened next.

Randomly, inexplicably, and with no known trigger, people started getting powers.

For the next seven years, not only did people struggle to survive against mundane threats, they had to beware of other people shooting fire out of their eyes or building nukes out of vacuum cleaners. And these powerful people, these parahumans, were far from safe, either. Cipher has been attempting to recruit or extort parahumans, trying to make sure that their side has more human weaponry. Cipher has been using these parahumans to dangerous extents, employing them to steal, murder, and all around destroy the infrastructure of Orre. In conjunction with their renewed production and use of the infamous Shadow Pokemon, they have seized a fair amount of territory in the region.

The Lab, meanwhile, has gone all out, recruiting its own parahumans to the lab run Organization, while applying its many scientific minds to figure out the deal with powers as incentive to attract parahumans. They have already made a fair amount of progress, establishing the correlation between having powers and being in certain places at certain times, which they have termed Clusters. They enable parahumans under their employ to train further with their abilities and give them a support network of others like them, in exchange for using them as an army to combat Cipher’s evil.

So where do you stand in this war? Are you aiding the Pokemon HQ lab and the Organization, helping to combat evil? Are you a member of Cipher, attempting to sate your desire for power? Or are you independent, serving your own interests before anyone else’s, not wanting to get caught up in a war everyone else is trying to drag you into?

Powers:

Powers are grouped into the following classification. Powers are rated on a scale of one to ten. One essentially means someone has a neat trick in a certain category, while ten means they’re the example people think of when the category comes to mind.

Mover: Powers dealing with locomotion. Fliers, speedsters, and at the high end, teleporters. Movers who are super fast, however, have a high tendency to have other powers designed to mitigate the stresses of moving very quickly.

Shaker: Environmental control. Low end can cause things like tremors and stuff. As you progress, you get telekinesis, generally of a certain kind of object, or else force fields of some sort. High end Shakers can basically warp reality in the area.

Brute: Powers involving being really tough. You're super strong, and/or you can easily take hits. You can get smacked around without injury far more than the average person, and your blows are far from ignorable.

Breaker: Powers involving "breaking" physics in some way. Although this can be active (say, a Breaker who can play with gravity or the electromagnetic force), it's often passive to protect the powered from their own abilities (speedsters who can ignore friction or pyrokinetics immune to fire).

Master: Masters are controlling. Literally. Either they can control people, or animals, or projections. Keeping in mind that everyone has been paranoid for the past seven years about powers, there have been protocols developed to resist Master talents

Tinker: Probably the most dangerous sort of power. Instead of being super strong or shooting fire out of their eyes, Tinkers are /really/ good at inventing. Tinkers have master technological knowledge, and not only that, but they each have a specialization in which they can surpass even other Tinkers.

Blaster: Ranged attackers. You can shoot fire or lightning or what have you. This is generally limited by line of sight, but a select few Blasters also have extrasensory capabilities (which results in a Thinker classification as well), expanding their line of influence.

Thinker: Powers dealing with data gathering and processing. Either you have an extra sense, or you can multitask really well, or you're a really quick deducer, or, at the high end, you're precognitive.

Striker: Powers that work by contact or at point blank range. Because of this limitation, they get really scary, like being able to overwrite personalities or completely change biology on contact, given time.

Changer: You can change form, generally into something more combat capable. You can, say, make metal grow out of you and into various shapes, or to turn into a beast, or to change your appearance. Changers are often Strangers as well, if their shapeshifting can be used as a disguise.

Trump: Basically? Meta powers. Powers that act on other powers, either immunizing against, copying, or neutralizing them. While basically every power has some combat application, Trumps specifically change the paradigm of a fight, keeping powers from working or giving people new powers.

Stranger: Powers useful for subtlety. Either you're seem really boring and people ignore you, or people forget you're there before they realize your presence, or (at the high end) you're an illusionist.

Limitations on powers:

The Krane Effect: Named in honor of the late Professor Cornelius Krane, the Krane Effect is a major limitation on powers: unless a power is strictly biological in origin, it cannot be directly applied to biological structures. For example, a pyrokinetic could not make fire inside another human being (but this does not preclude the pyrokinetic from making it /next/ to someone to burn the victim to a crisp). However, powers that rely on affecting biology, such as chlorokinesis, would not be affected by this.

Limited Power Variety: Powers are not super versatile: either one gets one very diverse power, or a multitude of limited ones. The rule of thumb seems to be that parahumans do not have classifications in more than three categories.

Limited Power Distribution: There apparently have only been four Clusters so far, and even though they’re the only known way to get powers, only about two in seven people present at a Cluster obtain them. The researchers at the HQ lab are still trying to figure out how this works.

(Final note: these classifications, along with the Krane Effect, are lifted wholesale from a Web Serial called Worm. It’s awesome, and I wouldn’t dream of taking credit for anything from it.)

Locations:

The Pokemon HQ Lab: The base of operations for the Organization, the Pokemon HQ lab is the prime obstacle in the path of Cipher’s crusade for power. The head researcher is also a parahuman who helps to coordinate the Organization (although she is not its leader). Thanks to her, the Organization has its own separate HQ, a couple hundred meters underground, with several covert access points for approved parahumans.

Agate Village: Agate is very well known for its Relic Stone, which, while it still has power, appears to be weaker than it used to be. However, four years prior, Agate was the source of the second Cluster, yielding a fair number of heroes. Agate Village is heavily pro Organization.

Gateon Port: Gateon Port is the first definite win by the Organization, and the third cluster location, from about two years prior. Cipher and independents still attempt to dispute the claim. In fact, Cipher was very interested in holding it at the beginning of the war, but its interest in the area rapidly faded because…

Citadark Isle: …is now a radioactive wasteland. Cipher tried to reclaim its former HQ when it controlled the Port, only for its scouts to die of radiation poisoning. As it turns out, one of Michael’s first preparations to fight Cipher again involved nuking its former home base. Repeatedly. The isolated location thankfully gave it limited ecological and health effects, as the water surrounding the island insulated against the radiation rather well.

Mt. Battle: Controlled by neither the Organization, nor Cipher. Instead, Battlus leads the area in an insular existence for the most part. There are some skirmishes with Cipher, especially over Cipher’s former Key Lair, but generally, any offenses against Mt. Battle have to be made covertly, or else the attackers will generally get themselves obliterated.

Pyrite Town: Pyrite Town has the dubious distinction of having the first known Cluster. Although the Cluster has long faded, its effects have not, as many of the most entrenched parahumans, good and evil, can trace their powers to this location. The town is a constant battlefield, with near constant violence between Organization members, Cipher, and independents.

Cipher Laboratory: Not so Cipher-y anymore. The place is basically destroyed, a victim of the perpetual violent attempts at territory control.

Cipher Key Lair: Not completely independent. Both Cipher and the Mt. Battle folks have been wrestling over this area.

Realgam Tower: Back in Cipher control, since about four years. The extensive resources and battlers that Cipher gained from the area are a major headache for the heroes.

Phenac City: Cipher’s new base of operations is located in the building where Phenac Colosseum used to be. Everyone in the city is either dead or thoroughly on Cipher’s side. The main issue with the city is that, a year ago, it had the last known Cluster in the region. As this happened when the city was completely under Cipher control, it gave Cipher a massive boost in parahuman ability. Now, Cipher is stronger than ever, and may be beginning to gain even more territory.

Eclo Canyon: Until recently, Team Snagem held this place conclusively, not disturbed by the Mt. Battle folks nor Cipher. However, with the recent massive gain in parahuman strength, Cipher reinforced its back lines by completely obliterating the place. Team Snagem attempted to fight, but it went about as well as a Sunkern trying to battle Arceus himself.

Rules:

Typical RP Rules apply. Any godmodding, bunnying, or the like will get your character mysteriously assassinated. Believe me, if you’re doing anything remotely interesting, there will be no shortage of those who would take the opportunity.

If you start out as a normal, it’s easily possible that another cluster will occur and you may gain powers if you happen to be there.

Keep in mind that natural selection has gleefully taken its toll on Orre. I strongly suggest a number of survival oriented traits, such as powerful pokemon, personal combat training, and the like.

Sign Up Form:

Name: (If you don’t understand this, I really can’t help you)
Age: (Some age variance is good. Just don’t RP a fetus or someone who saw the Ice Age personally)
Side: (Are you allied with the lab, siding with Cipher, or part of some third party)
Rank: (What is your position in the Organization/Cipher/third party?)
Gender: (You should know this by now)
Appearance: (One to two paragraphs. Keep in mind that you’re generally expected to be ready to fight/run at any given time, and that your clothes will reflect that)
Personality: (Two to three paragraphs)
History: (Two to three paragraphs AND NO YOU CANNOT SKIP THIS PART. If you want your backstory to be cryptic, focus on what your character has been doing recently. If they haven’t been doing anything interesting enough to talk about recently, you shouldn’t need to hide their history)
Pokemon: (Up to six, no legendaries.)
Powers: (Up to three classifications. List each classification individually, followed by a number ranking from one to ten. Then describe the reasons for each classification. If you’re a Tinker, put some of your more used inventions in a spoiler tag here.)
Other: (Randomness is good. Stealing the moon is bad. Have fun!)

Accepted

Lab

-Jessica Saunders (Liiammmm)
-Harold "Ditto" Jackson (The Nonexistent Tazz)
-Thomas Otone (Velocity)
-Sara Sage (Death's Spook)


Cipher

-Cassandra Fitz (Velocity)
-Benjamin "Benji" Verres (The Best)

Neutral

-Sam Webster (Liiammmm)
-Clydus "Corkscrew" Lamota (The Nonexistent Tazz)
-Ophelia Chansler (Winter)
-"Molly" (Death's Spook)

Reserved

-Popshakes
-Winter
-Grassy Aggron
-Eternity
-Dragon Master
-Lightning Dash
-Daisuke Sempai
-Princess Crow