HERO CONTEST ENTRIES

[tarmagon]

Matt Lewiston, aka Jack-in-the-box

Power : Kinetic energy redirection

Matt is a rather unassuming high school teacher, trying to pound the basics of physics and chemistry into his students. Jack is a reluctant hero, known mostly for his spectacular blunders, like the taxi left embedded in the bottom of an elevated roadway. His power is to redirect ALL the energy in an object or person, straight up. This line of sight power has a range limit of about 300 yards, or about a 20 foot radius around him if he stays still. The farther away his target, the smaller the absolute effect field, which can lead to some interesting effects.
Note: Only objects at absolute zero have no energy. Even a stationary object has random molecular motion, which he can redirect. Obviously, hot, or fast moving object or people will be thrown higher, the upward force directly in proportion to their heat, or speed, or any inherent energy.

File attached, but I don't know how to put it in here, sorry.

Oh, never mind, there it is. Pic from Hero Factory

Attachments:

[formerly]

Okay, so I know I'm past the due date, but I came up with the concept a while ago and didn't want to waste it.

Superhero Duo: Song and Dance!

Codenames: Warsong and Sworddance
Real names: Eric and Vanessa Snow
Warsong is Half-Indian, and Sworddance is Half-Native American.
Publicly, they have no official statement on ethnicity.

Power: Vocal based reality manipulation

History: As far as the public knows, Eric and Vanessa are siblings. Or depending on who you ask, possibly husband and wife. The truth is, they are currently divorced.

Eric and Vanessa Snow first met when auditioning for a dance troupe. They were both professional dancers, Eric having gotten his Masters degree in performance art and Vanessa having majored in Vocal Performance before getting caught up in her natural athletic and dancing abilities, and dropping out of college to go to a specialized Dance School.

They had a natural chemistry that lead them to becoming dance partners, ranking in several championships, and performing several times. They worked well together, and began dating on the side, and were eventually engaged.

On their wedding night, Eric had planned to serenade his new wife. They had both performed profesionally many times, and he'd heard her sing beautifully, he felt it would be romantic to return the favor. However, something odd awoke in his voice, and... they had an interesting night.

They discovered that on a limited basis his Song could bend reality, probability, and in some ways the human mind to his will. A sweet lullaby to send the hearers into a trance, or simply slow them down as if moving through heavy molasses.

A fast paced pitch to increase the speed of an object, or through various vocal modulations, actually limited control over an objects path.

Speed, strength, trajectory, a complicated tapestry of sound could shape nearly anything. At first, Eric didn't know what to do with his new-found ability. But as time wore on, he grew the desire to do something good for people. Dance and performance had been his passion, but his days of being an entertainer were over. Eric and Vanessa retired.

And some time later, Warsong and Sworddance were born.

Vanessa doesn't actually have any real powers of her own. They pretend she has a mystic sword that she can control with her mind, but really, she just holds it and occasionally Eric will control it with his song. She does play a vital role though.

For Eric to Sing properly, he is mostly stationary, and he doesn't really have any finesse or fine control most of the time. Vanessa has been partners with him so long, and she has such an innate sense of pitch, music, and rhythm, that she can flow through his song like a fish swims. His song strengthens and amplifies her, and she can bend herself around it as she dances to negate or amplify its effects on her.

When initially entering the Hero Business they had a bit of a problem. Their found an agent to work with who was pretty flexible, he didn't need them to go through much extra special training or anything. It was a connections thing, they'd already been pretty famous. But because of that, they needed a good cover story, and part of the deal for them going into the hero business was that they needed a good gimmick.

Thus the tale was born, as they first started, of being brother and sister. It was a great act, and they grew lots of fans. It was also the source of the strange native american and belly-dancer themes to their costumes, neither of them actually having much identification with their respective ethnicities, and their agent apparently not really noticing that he'd gotten things reverse anyways.

In any case, the stress of hero business eventually proved to be the end of their marriage. They're still best friends though, they spend all their time together, and they don't really work well with anyone else. (not that they haven't tried)

As it is, they're pretty comfortable. To the point where they've stopped caring about their public image, and for that matter, the public doesn't really seem to care either.

The tabloids have gotten pretty used to how weird a couple/siblings/whatever they are, they are.

Every once in a while, they announce that they're going to retire. And then they don't seem to ever get around to it.

EDIT: And yes they do fight crime half-naked. They're both into Performance Art. what do you expect?

Attachments:

[mike]

This is Cody Brown codename: Vanguard.

He has super agility and can literally dodge bullets. This combined with his constant body building and training in Tai Kwan Do and Parkour makes him formidable with or without his qiang (don’t call it a spear). He was top of his class in Superhero School, setting records in melee combat and tactics. With his good looks, charm, and commanding voice he makes the perfect hero... until you get to know him. He’s good and he knows it, he’s an un-repentant narcissist, and always certain that his way is the best way (made even worse by the fact that his way usually works. It’s a mystery among the other heroes and sidekicks whether he’s oblivious to their opinion of him or if he just doesn’t care.

Equally inexplicable is why this woman loves him.

Christine Brown (codename Overwatch) is his partner and wife. She is humble with a kind face and subtle wit making her appear to be Cody’s opposite. Given her near constant smirk Chris Leary still hasn’t ruled out that their whole marriage is a joke on her part. Her power is the ability to perfectly predict any trajectory. She usually uses her crossbow or some other projectile weapon and is so good at predicting the path of both projectiles and people that she doesn’t hesitate to fire into a melee even with Cody in the middle of it. This has bothered some other heroes but she hasn't missed a target yet so the complaints quickly died down. With their powers combined these two are able to adapt quickly to all sorts of strange situations that heroes often find themselves in.

Vanguard and Overwatch are nemesised by The Convoker and The Eel.

The Convoker can summon up and control dozens of semi-autonomous constructs (depending on his concentration). They can’t use tools or weapons (or even doors) but are quick, strong, and are mostly teeth and claws. When killed or when The Convoker looses concentration they collapse into a puddle of slime leaving a slippery hazard on the battlefield. He’s never seen without his “trusty revolver” but he has yet to fire it in combat. The Eel is uncannily stealthy with the ability to disappear or hide the moment you stop looking at her. The Eel prefers an automatic pistol for a weapon and is quick to fire. Neither seems to have any thought one way or the other about innocent bystanders not hesitating to shoot through them but also not stopping to take hostages. While Vanguard and Overwatch have thwarted numerous crimes by this duo (including strange thefts, and seemingly random acts of destruction) they have never captured them or figured out their ultimate goal but they have now moved to Metro City.


WINNER: BEST USE OF LEGOS

[Erika]

Contest is closed now! We'll be announcing winners within a week.

[Erika]

Contest winners announced!

[paranoidspy]

Thank you And way to go to everyone who won!

Where do we send in our mailing addresses?

[Erika]

send it to the email. [e-mail]

[theoccupant]

Indeed, congrats to all the winners!

[coriolis]

I had an entry in mind, but bogged down on the art portion, because the character is something of a "woman of a thousand faces", how to depict her?

Frederika "Freddie" Davis CODENAME: Makeover

Passed over to become a model, Freddie instead works in the makeup department of a major movie studio. She is much in demand by discerning actors, because somehow her work is easier to wear and "breathes" better. She's also occasionally pulled into costuming and wardrobe, because she has an uncanny knack for getting otherwise impossible haute couture to stay on, stay together, and look as the designer intended.

Makeover has two basic abilities. (1) to create, modify, or remove pigmented emulsions that can be applied to skin or prosthetics. In other words, makeup of any sort. Foundation, lip gloss, eyeshadow, henna art, etc. She can create it directly on a target's skin. This ability is nearly unlimited, and can be applied to herself or others near her. Any application is removable in the usual way (soap & water, cold cream, wiping).

A related ability allows her to alter hair and skin pigmentation, as broadly or finely controlled as desired (suntan, goth pallor, temporary tattoos in any color). This effect is longer lasting, until it grows out or fades (like a suntan going away for lack of sun).

(2) to modify fabric at will, part it, reconnect it, shape it, color it, etc. She can change the nature of the fabric, e.g. from silk to cotton to leather, add stretchiness, stiffen, soften, etc. Generally better with natural fabrics than synthetics, natural->natural, synthetic->synthetic. Cross-kingdom transformation is possible but impractical due to extreme effort required. Given hours out of combat and time to recover afterwards, she can convert regular cloth to kevlar (roughly 1 yard result from 5 yards material), and has done so for her own costume(s). Changes made are permanent. Currently limited to a few yards being affectable in combat.

This ability has the potential to become very powerful, she could become to fabric what Magneto is to metal or Yomiko Readman is to paper. She's not very good with shaping latex/rubber as yet, cannot create prosthetics or masks, but possible development for future.

Suffice to say, she and her costume rarely looks the same twice, although she liked the Trinity "Matrix" look enough to hold onto it for a whilė.

With this ability, she will do things like cause an enemy's shoes to lace themselves together, blindfolding, binding or delaying tactics mostly, Spiderman-esque tricks. Batman's utility belt would "spontaneously" fall apart if he ever faced off against Makeover. Rob Liefeld creations avoid her like the plague .

She will not do anything to a costume that violates the (old-fashioned) Comics Code.

Once, needing to get from the top floor of a department store to ground level in a hurry, Makeover unrolled the (cotton) firehose and used it to support herself as she did a spiral "wall run" down ten flights of stairs, extending and stretching it as needed.

At another point, for an undercover operation, she adopted the persona of the "Wyoming Wildcat", a western-themed heroine who had gone missing. Matching the outfit was trivial, by using natural-fiber lassos, Makeover could animate and direct the rope, effectively mimicking Wyo's magic-imbued lasso.

The inspiration for her power set came from my first reading of Champions(tm) roleplaying game version 4 rulebook, a newly introduced power called "cosmetic transformations", reworked in other rules systems since.