Project Prometheus (Original Setting Superhero Quest)

What if… we had chosen differently in Project Prometheus?

---

Horizon, City Of Leviathan's Rest — Uni District

You are Mona Merola-Morales, and right now you are gliding at a leisurely pace. New Dawn moves fast, with the pace that you'd expect from such experienced heroes, but you move faster. You suppose if you actually started flapping your wings, you'd be able to get to the scene faster… but then they'd get left behind.

Behind you, the rest of New Dawn is keeping pace. "Geez kid, do you have to go so fast!?" Miss Naught yells, "You can swim, fly, and run! It's absurd!"

Dreamcatcher vaults over a car with surprising ease, and responds back. "Well, it's either that or we get here too slow! Somebody, cover me!"

"Eyes up, both of you!" Gentleman James yells out, barely dodging a musket shot from one of Dollman's creations. Up above a building, you can clearly see Marie Marionette and Dollman laughing their heads off.

Palisade throws a beautiful uppercut to a doll's head, right before diverting a force field over to Dreamcatcher. She taps one of her comms, before delivering a message to you. "Chimera, can you get to Marie and Dollman fast enough?"

You respond back, flying just above Marie's range. A doll shoots a bullet at you, but you deflect it with a swat of your scaled arms. "I've got eyes on the two, but I don't think that we can engage yet."

Your draconic eyes narrow, and your nostrils flare a bit. "Tell the others to not hurt the dolls at all! There's civilians in there- I can sense the panic and blood coming off of them."

Palisade curses, but manages to divert the New Dawn members a bit farther down the battlefield. You faintly hear Dreamcatcher screaming (he must have dreamed of Maddie's spiders again) and Gentleman James creating a makeshift blockade of chains.

A couple of the non-human dolls fly up towards you, outfitted with makeshift jetpacks- the second that you don't smell blood, you summon up razor-sharp teeth and bite down. You tap your comms one more time. "Wolong! Do you have any info on Marie's power?"

On his end, you hear the sound of absurdly fast typing and more than a few papers being rustled. "Chimera- there's a few records here. Marie Marionette's power works by controlling the water in someone's veins."

"Got it!"

You clutch your wings together and dive in, aiming for the gothic-dressed woman. She reaches out a hand towards you, but as she does, you grab the arm which she manipulates first— and completely close off your blood circulation, dragonscale jabbing deep into your arm. You rip off the arm, and throw it straight at her face. It'll regrow later after all.

She doesn't expect it, nor does Dollman expect it as you dive onto the building, open your draconic mouth, and shoot a huge blast of lightning (thanks Lady Leizi) at him. As they both fall down, unconscious, you distantly hear Miss Naught report the civilians being freed from Marie's control.

All in a day's work for a hero like you, then.

---

Name: Chimera, Mona Merola-Morales
Keywords: Autobioknesis, Enhanced Strength, Enhanced Senses, Enhanced Speed, Flight, (Variable Keywords)
Side Effect: Permanent Dysmorphic Transformation
Faction: Justice Unlimited
Potency: 13
Plan Referenced: Chimera [Red Huntress+Crimson Soprano+Daggermaw+Soldier X+Adamant]
Stats: HIT 9-12, ESPIONAGE 3-7, REPUTATION 9, OPERATIONS 4
Ibis' Notes: Mona has developed a dysmorphic appearance, where she takes the appearance of a humanoid dragon. Or draconid, or dragonborn. I dunno, I don't play D&D as much as I do Shadowrun.

Her physical powers are great- while she can't breathe fire, her entire body is a constantly-shifting and adapting redundancy, armored around the outside by a constantly-regenerating material we've chosen to call "dragonscale". She can fly and run at the speed of sound, and can lift multiple tons of weight without much effort. Aside from that, Mona can also sense many things within 5 miles of her with decent effort. However, she excels in two things: she can sense when a medium-large vibration or movement has been triggered, and she can also smell the scent of blood (petrichor, I believe it's called) over large distances, like a shark.

Abilities:
Chimera
When Mona touches a metahuman with a power that she can replicate via a mutation (non-psychic), she gains a variable buff to either her HIT or ESPIONAGE until the end of the mission.

All-In Adaptation
At the cost of taking one injury level (this damage cannot kill her) Mona can gain a +5 bonus until end of mission against one type of harm. When she is hit by that type of attack, she instead recovers one injury level.

---

Horizon, City Of Leviathan's Rest — French Quarter

Then, Scarlet Maturity moves. He's fast, so much faster than your mind can believe something that large can be. He shakes the earth as he leaps forward, but he's so quick he gets there before you feel the tremor. He raises his right arm and swings at you with the most casual of backhand strikes.

Hiver and Rhys save you.

First, Hiver sends you back, a beam of light and a shift in gravity just barely pushing you out of the way of the fist proper. But the air is still about to hit you.

Then, a bright white barrier flares to life just in time. Scarlet Maturity's backhand strike… stops. Scarlet Maturity makes a noise that almost sounds like confusion. Faust just raises an eyebrow. "Interesting."

The barrier flexes, before turning inside-out and encroaching on Scarlet Maturity. The hulking red giant barely has time to blink before the psychic force of the force field pushes him against a wall.

It won't stop Scarlet Maturity for long. But Ete and Primtemps are shocked— time to grab Hiver and run!

As you grab Hiver's hand and just barely dodge a swing from one of Ete's flaming soldiers, you hear something. Not from the chaos erupting all around you. From inside your head.

How'd I do, boss? We're evacuating the civilians as we speak!

You smile, as you jump out the window with Hiver in tow. "You did great, Bodyguard! Definitely lived up to your title— remind me to give you a raise!"

We can discuss that later! Get on the Nevermores— me and Maddie parked them 20 meters to the left!

"Lady Leizi, who the heck are you talking to?"

"I'll explain in a second, Hiver!"

The walls behind you explode, as Scarlet Maturity roars into battle and receives a flying tackle from Chimera in return.

It was definitely a good idea to give Rhys the ability to support you from afar. Actually, you're pretty sure that him and Maddie are already trying to intercept any other POWERS members that could have been teleported here by Shell Game as you speak.

---

Name: Bodyguard, Rhys Gardner
Keywords: Force Fields, Transformation, Clairvoyance
Side Effect: Moderate Psychic Field Sensitivity
Faction: Justice Unlimited
Potency: 9
Plan Referenced: Artificer [Mister Hunch+Dragonsteeth+Chatroom+Multiplex]
Stats: HIT 6, ESPIONAGE 5, REPUTATION 3, OPERATIONS 7
Ibis' Notes: Rhys's power allows him to create force fields within a 50-yard radius of himself, and also gives him the ability to create psychic connections with anybody he touches. Using this psychic connection, Rhys can transmit basic messages and share sights. Anybody underneath this network then gets their own 50 yard radius from which Rhys can spawn force fields from. The force fields that Rhys spawns can also be shaped into an offensive tool as well, spawning knives and spikes at will. The more force fields Rhys spawns, the more easily they can be broken through.

One more interesting thing about this power is that for some reason, constructs that can be spawned by metahuman activities are considered separate people that are still part of his psychic network. As such, he could give a field to Maddie, and then spawn another forcefield 200 yards away once one of her Nevermores has covered enough distance. How does this work!? The illustrious Dr. Ibis must know!

Abilities:
Construct Amplification

If another metahuman uses [Construct Creation], [Autonomous Construct Creation], or a derivative of either, Rhys may shroud that construct inside a force field. That metahuman gains +3 to either HIT or OPERATIONS as long as that construct lives. Up to two of these "enhancement fields" may be active simultaneously, and using these fields will weaken Rhys' force fields.

---

Horizon, City of Leviathan's Rest -- The Apiary
January 9, 2068

You are Lady Leizi. The next evening after your third dose of Ambrosia has John Henry joining you in your office after a full day of power testing. He walks in carrying a large case with an easygoing grin. You set down Dr. Mammoth Ibis' report, having just received it.

"John Henry," you say, greeting him, "I'm afraid I haven't yet had time to review the results of your testing today."

He sets down his case and sits on the opposite side of your desk. "It's part of why I'm here, Zixuan. Nothing like a first-hand account."

You gesture for him to continue. "Very well, please enlighten me."

"It's fascinating, seeing how all of the various powers we used mix together," he says, "Obviously, I'm able to control winds to let me fly. But while we didn't develop a psychic power since there was no [Clairvoyance], apparently Crimson Soprano's [Solar Absorption] combined with Automne's [Elemental Manipulation] to make something new."

John holds out his hand. A ball of lightning seems to surround his right, and he flies the ball of plasma around the room just by simply rotating his hand. "[Fundamental Force Manipulation]. I can control electromagnetism in order to create electricity."

You grin. "Well, that's certainly interesting, if a bit too similar for my power for my taste. But go on, I know there must be something more."

"Certainly." John pulls out his screen, and shows you a video. In it, you can see the "powered" section of the Apiary's gym… underneath a downpour. Ibis is screaming to get his recording equipment to somewhere safe, and Rhys is putting up a force field above John's family as a small umbrella. "I can also create clouds and storms within a hundred-yard radius, similar to how Automne could do it. I'm pretty sure that I can whip up hurricane-force winds, but we didn't do that just in case."

"This seems amazing, John. Is there anything else that I should know about?" you ask.

He returns the ball of lightning to his hand, and dissipates it. "Yeah. Just like some other metahumans, I have a small pool of "energy" that I need to use in order to generate all of this electricity. Thankfully, I can recharge that power by absorbing the electricity from the storms or by being underneath any sort of light. Or I can expend more energy than normal to do… this."

A bolt of lightning comes out from John's hand, and before you can blink, it hits the floor. Once you open your eyes, there's a message made of light, floating in the air: "Cool, isn't it?"

"Temporary light constructs," John explains, "since electromagnetism encompasses light as well. I was able to cover the whole roof of the gym. We could probably use this to coordinate the battlefield once we get down a secret code."

Are you grinning? Yes, you're grinning. "John, that's the least of what we can do. All that we need now is a way to hide your identity…"

---

Name: Tesla, John Henry Rhodes
Keywords: Fundamental Force Manipulation, Elemental Manipulation, Flight
Side Effect: None
Faction: Justice Unlimited
Potency: 10
Plan Referenced: Soft Element [Automne+Crimson Soprano]
Stats: HIT 7, ESPIONAGE 4, REPUTATION 6, OPERATIONS 6
Ibis' Notes:
John can control both lightning and conjure up storms within a hundred yard radius. He can also fly at about the speed of… a pretty fast fighter jet, though not any faster. When he puts out his hands, he can emanate lightning from them and control which way it goes within a short distance. Like a tesla!

John also has control over electromagnetism at a finer level. While he has to absorb light or electricity of any type in order to use his powers to their fullest, he can also create temporary illusions or messages made of light. These "constructs" are not solid, can only do one simple thing and disappear with a touch, but serve as a form of light that John can absorb.

---

Author's Note:
While this one is slightly less imaginative than Goldnine-Soaked Dreams, I still had a lot of fun writing it. Hope this encourages you to make your own Ambrosia plan if you haven't already!

Author's Note:
Did you think I was done today with just one Omake? Hah, skill issue! Guess who's got two more Candidates for the pile.

Candidate Mu
Name: Akasuki Bashira
Age: 36
Stats: HIT 1, ESPIONAGE 4, REPUTATION 3, OPERATIONS 4
Tolerance: 5
Chaucer's Notes: Akasuki is a businessman hailing from the Corporate Playground, who found us after this round of screening for Project Prometheus. He says that he wants to be one of the support staff for the Apiary, but that he's also willing to do whatever it takes to make sure that his friends are safe. His work ethic is also very strong as well: he's been reported to be one of the most reliable workers to ask if you need some mentoring if you're new.
Lady Leizi: While he does it under a pseudonym, he also runs a blog called "What Is…", a blog which focuses on what can best be described as "very strange metahuman power interactions". For example, what happens when a time reversal power and an aging power interact. "What is the latest ******** that AGL has been spouting?" has been a running gag and now a call to action on his blog, so at the very least we know that he's definitely willing to fight Crusade. Aside from that, his calm attitude and thoughtful insights would make him a good back-line/support hero.
Kermie's Note: While I haven't developed Akasuki much, unlike the Naruto villains who he shares a name with, he's honestly very chill despite being a top-tier combatant- Larry from Pokemon Scarlet and Violet was one of my biggest inspirations for him. If this was a videogame, he'd be a terrifying boss battle... who would probably play a nice game of chess with you the second he's off the clock. The blog that he has is a reference to XKCD's "What If?". You might remember that from the "Light Speed Baseball" example that was brought up a few times around Faustian 4.

---

Disclaimer from Kermie:
This next sheet contains pretty big spoilers from the most recent chapter (2.4) of the quest I'm making, Perhaps For Love, or Maybe Justice. As such, if you read that quest or are even vaguely interested in reading it, stop right now and read that first.

With that being said…

Candidate Nu
Name: Kirata "Kira" Kuromi
Age: 23
Stats: HIT 1, ESPIONAGE 4, REPUTATION 3, OPERATIONS 7
Tolerance: 3
Chaucer's Notes: A well-known teen genius, Kirata was screened in on Dr. Massive Ibis's recommendation, as she was a "kindred and brilliant spirit". Kira denies the kindred part, in case you're wondering. From such a young age, she already has a doctorate in medical sciences and is gunning for another in either prosthetics or neuroscience. She's a constant advocate for more medical accessibility, as a treatment from Qsanyin cured her Lupus. She's the big sister to another candidate I believe we've been considering- Himari Kuromi.
Lady Leizi: …she reminds me a bit too much of Nora. I'm not sure whether that comforts or disturbs me. But personal biases from me aside, she does have a good heart beneath it all. Despite coming from a rich family, her parents were allegedly quite good before their deaths a few years ago in a villain attack. They taught her that wealth and knowledge are something to be shared. She studies doctorates with the intent of pushing medical research to newer, more convenient heights, and so both she and her sister can retire old, rich, and in peace.

Kermie's Note: If we have both Kira and Himari, their dynamic should be like Aang and Sokka's. Apart they're both extremely intelligent and very successful. Together, they're two goofballs.
No other comments from me.