A hero written up for and in collaboration with a friend of mine who served in the military in years past. While he earned his purple heart several times over, he thankfully escaped the kind of injuries this hero went through. The focus on cybernetics are more the result of a shared fondness for the old Six-Million Dollar Man TV show and its spinoff, the Bionic Woman. Our childhood nostalgia takes a decidedly campy tone most times.
Name: Sergeant Adamant
Origin: Adam Kowalski had been promoted to sergeant only three days before he was caught up in a fight between two groups of supers that also damaged the research installation his platoon had been assigned to as a security detail. His unit died in the fighting, and he was horribly injured and would have perished in the aftermath without the intervention of the site's medical staff assisted by one of the victorious heroes. This wasn't solely an act of altruism. The research being preformed at the site involved advanced cybernetics, and Kowalski had already come to the staff's attention due to a genetic quirk that made him a perfect test subject for augmentation. By the time he recovered consciousness a his life was already being precariously sustained by implanted organs, and it took very little convincing to get him to agree to undergo a more extensive rebuilding procedure.
He came out of the process as much machine as man, but over time and with therapy and support he's gone on to become a well-known mid-tier hero. International law forbids him from officially serving in a national military so his army career is over, but he's maintained his patriotic and generally pro-government ideals and has many contacts with the civil administration that deals with the superhero community. Kowalski's military training comes through in his heroics with him being very focused on whatever his perceived mission objectives are, only getting distracted when civilians are endangered.
Description: Tall, fit man in a loose-fitting drab green costume reminiscent of a US WW2 army uniform with sergeant's chevrons on the sleeves. When he's not in "civilian mode" his limbs are obviously mechanical, and he frequently winds up shredding his sleeves, pant legs, and boots as he uses his built-in weaponry and jump jets.
Gender: Male Age: Mid-Twenties Height: 6'1" Eyes: Black
Hair: Black Skin: Swarthy Build: Athletic
Background: Military Power Source: Tech Upgrades Archetype: Robot/Cyborg
Personality: Analytical Health (G/Y/R): 30/22/11
Powers: Cosmic d10, Cyberware ("Power Suit") d10, Awareness d8, Shapeshifting d8, Strength d8, Vitality d8
Qualities: Fitness d10, Technology d10, US Army Veteran d8, Leadership d8
Status: Green (30-23) - d10 / Yellow (22-12) - d8 / Red (11-1) - d8
Abilities:
Green
Amplified Attack (A) Attack using Cyberware with a bonus equal to the number of bonuses you currently have.
Cosmic Dynamo (A) Boost using using Cosmic, assigning your Max, Mid and Min dice to three different bonuses, one of which must be given to an enemy.
Principle of Dependence (A) Overcome a challenge in a situation that your cyberware was made for. Use your Max die. You and your allies gain each gain a Hero Point. Minor twist: How was your cyberware damaged or lost? Major twist: How is your dependence preventing you from functioning as a hero? RP: You are reliant on your extensive cybernetic prostheses and cannot function normally without them.
Principle of the Gearhead (A) Overcome a technological challenge. Use your Max die. You and your allies each gain a Hero Point. Minor twist: What device just shorted out? Major twist: What machine just went terribly off the rails? RP: You always know the general state of repair and function of an item of technology, regardless of complexity or origin.
Resilient Mechanisms (I) Reduce the amount of physical damage dealt to you by 1/2/3 while you are in the the Green/Yellow/Red zone.
Yellow
All-Out Onslaught (A) Attack using Cyberware. Use your Mid die to Attack one extra target for each bonus you have, applying a different bonus to each Attack.
Cosmic Conversion (R) When Attacked, treat the amount of damage taken as a Boost for yourself.
Recharge Protocol (I) When you would take damage from Electricity, Recover that amount of Health instead.
Red
Defensive Tactics (R) When an opponent Attacks, you become the target of that Attack and Defend yourself by rolling your single Fitness die.
Sarge In Charge (A) Make a basic action using Leadership. Use your Max die. All other heroes who take the same basic action on their next against the same target receive a Boost from your Mid + Min dice.
Out
Cosmic Suppressors (A) Remove a bonus or penalty of your choice.
Tactics
Sarge usually opens an action scene by amping himself up with Cosmic Dynamo, handing one bonus off to an enemy minion if possible. He'll sit on his bonuses whenever possible to improve Amplified Attack or to fuel a big All-Out Onslaught once he reaches Yellow status. Resilient Mechanisms reduces the amount of physical damage he takes, and Cosmic Conversion lets him Boost himself further as a reaction. If he's taking a lot of damage he'll try to find a source of electrical damage to use Recharge Protocol for healing, which is made easier if he's fighting in an urban or industrial environment or has a teammate with electrical powers. If he dips into Red status Defensive Tactics gives him a very versatile damage prevention reaction to use, and Sarge In Charge is a versatile way to concentrate his team on a single objective, whether it be pounding on a villain or quickly handling a vital challenge.
In or out of a fight, his Principle of the Gearhead make him reliably good at handling technological challenges, and his extensive cybernetics let him apply Principle of Dependence quite broadly - but beware of twists temporarily disabling aspects of his powers in the process.
Trivia
Sergeant Adamant's powers all stem from his cybernetic components, which include all four limbs, both eyes and ears, several internal organs and extensive skeletal reinforcements. His Strength and Vitality powers reflect the most basic of those enhancements. Awareness covers augmented senses including an integral radio transceiver, full EM-spectrum vision and hearing that extends far beyond human norms, all with overload buffers. His Shapeshifting is limited to concealing the artificial nature of his prostheses while in "civilian" mode and reconfiguring his hands into various specialized tools while in "hero" mode. The general Cyberware power emulates some of the functions of a power suit, including an array of built-in weaponry, jump jets for mobility boosts, and short-term environmental/NBC warfare protection. Everything is powered by an experimental cosmic energy generator, which is also used to manipulate the localized probability spikes that make up the bonuses his abilities create.
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