American NPCs

Lane Mofetta (”Miss Atom”)

Lane was a very ordinary 35 year old woman working at a social security office in San Luis Obispo when she erupted. At first she did not know what was wrong, but gradually she began to notice that she could see things others couldn’t – the sun through the Earth, the radiation from the nuclear power plant nearby, the cosmic rays streaking through the air. She began to experiment with some of her father’s old radium watches, and discovered that she could control radioactivity. Lane had always had an interest in new age things, and thought that her power was some kind of psychic power. She demonstrated it to a physics teacher friend, and he suggested that she should apply for the Randi prize – both a good way of earning money and to get publicity.

She never expected how much publicity she would get. Suddenly she was demonstrating her powers before physics departments and intelligence agencies across the United States, she was interviewed on television and even ended up on the cover of Time. She became a celebrity and the first truly accessible “nova”. To many her appearance was the official start of the nova age.

Her family more or less went into hiding, both from reporters but also because her boyfriend and their child were somewhat fearful of her powers. The reluctance has not entirely vanished, something that privately pains her deeply.

Lane set to use her newfound fame to promote what she considered good causes – the environment (being able to see isotopes made her acutely aware of the risks of nuclear power, and allowed her to in 2004 uncover evidence of illegal nuclear waste dumping in Texas), equality, fair treatment of minorities (including novas) and peace. While derided by conservatives as a bubble headed peacenik she has become a notable through her organisation Novas for Peace.

While highly critical of the current administration she is cooperating with the US Special Powers Task Force. She realises that her powers are useful to prevent terrorism and limit the dangers of nuclear materials, and just because the government in her opinion is the cause of much of the problem doesn’t mean she shouldn’t cooperate with it at least in some areas (and maybe reform it from inside). At the same time she is always the devil’s advocate or conscientious objector to much what is going on in the Task Force. While she respects secrecy she always lets people on the inside know what she thinks. The intelligence agencies watching over her regard her as potential leak or security risk if anything truly disgusting passed her desk, so she is mostly given monitoring and domestic issues. She has found some allies in the former FEMA and various nuclear safety research teams.

She is experimenting with a power to rapidly render fissible material inert. It seems to work wonderfully well, and somehow she feels good when she does it. It is very strange. Actually, she has stumbled upon one of the main nova functions: imploding stars. This power is one of the main powers intended to be used by future novas, and her unlocking it has impressed the symbiont Ais – they are speeding up the program, given this progress.

Concept: Nobody

Nature: Paragon

Str 2

Dex 2, Drive 2, Martial arts 2

Sta 2, Endurance 3, Stamina 3

Cha 3

Man 3, Subterfuge 2

App 2, Style 1

Per (intentions) 4, Awareness 3, Investigation 2

Int 3, Bureaucracy (American) 4, Computer 1, Linguistics 2 (French, Spanish), Law 3, Science 3

Wit 3, Arts 1, Rapport 3

Allies 2 (Shen Ainu), Contacts 4 (Democrats, US Special powers Task Force), Influence 3 (Influential activist), Resources 2, Followers 3 (Novas for Peace organisation), Fame 5 (Globally known)

Willpower 3

Quantum 4

Taint: 4

Nightmares (-1)

Enemies (-3) Nuclear power industry, conservatives.

Aberration: Lane glows with a cold bluish Cherenkov light.

Radioactivity Control 3 (tainted)

Invulnerability (radiation) 3

Many believe that she is radioactive (and some anti-nuclear protestors have mistakenly protested against her travelling), but normally she is actually less radioactive than a normal person – the nuclei within her body behave perfectly.

Shen Ainu

Shen Ainu was a nurse in Tianjin. She spectacularly erupted when given the good news that she had been promoted – images of brilliant flowers and animals flowed into the air from her hands, and before the astonished staff she vanished in a cloud of petals. She was found later in the attic, sobbing in panic. The MSS quickly dispatched people to take care of her and brought her to Beijing. There she met the Major and was inducted into the MSS nova program.

She was not happy with it. She had always had a rebellious streak (usually hidden by her self-effacing persona), and she was disgusted by the ambitions revealed to her by the MSS. After considering her options, learning to control her powers a bit and gathering some needed info she defected to the US. The loss and insult to China and especially the Major was intense, and she became a major diplomatic issue.

While the US government enjoys the presence of Shen on American soil and supports her struggle for human rights in principle, it is careful not to actually support her in practice or officially. In fact, after her involvement with Novas For Peace her stock in Washington has dwindled much, and intelligence people have warned that her activity could undermine US-China relations more than she is worth. She supports herself by writing books, lecturing and apparently aiding some independent nova researchers. She has also been helping Chinese dissidents to flee over the last year, just barely staying ahead of the efforts of the Major to stop her.

Shen tends to drift between a self-effacing feminine persona (“Nurse Shen” as she sometimes jokes) and a radical human rights activist persona (“Dissident Ainu”). It is no split personality, just an adaptation from her years as a rebellious subordinate mouthing off whenever the boss was not close.

Powers: Shens exact powers remain somewhat conjectural, since she seldom uses them visibly. She is known to move widely and untraceably, suggesting some form of stealthy flight or teleportation. Actually she opens portals, usually camouflaged by doors: she walks over to a door and opens it to another place.

Shen can also create hallucinations and confusion in other, “clouding men’s minds” so that she can slip away. Her famous “flower rains” are beautiful, but she rarely indulges in them these days.

Pablo ”Ribs” Garcia Villaverde

Pablo was a mediocre professional athlete when he quietly erupted sometime late 2002-early 2003. His results were getting more and more amazing, people began to comment on the “Ribs Miracle” and doping testers scratched their head. When he broke ten world records after each other in July 2003 it was clear that he was a nova. Over the next year the sports community debated what to do with him and how to treat “nova enhanced” results. In the end it was decided that novas could not compete in ordinary sports events and that their results would not be official.

While this decision saved professional sports it was a disaster for Pablo. He was no actor, did not like to be spokesperson, did not like being a lab rat, couldn't join any sport and had few employable skills. But the army might want a superhero! So he joined the army.

The US Army greeted him with open arms. For the first time they would have an official nova soldier, and unlike FireStorm they could do the training from the start. It was also a wonderful PR coup, a much needed distraction after the troubles in Iraq. His boot camp was the most recorded and replayed military education ever.

The problem is that Pablo turned out to be a lousy soldier. Undisciplined and unused taking orders he is not adapting well. He shows great self-discipline when it comes to physical training, but he is not a team player. And the military cannot handle him like any other private due to his extreme physical abilities and the outside interest. The result has been that he is exercised and "tested" by his own staff, which he handles like a spoiled sports star. The army cannot reveal his hopelessness since it would lose face, and Pablo cannot admit that he isn't a great soldier, especially after all those publicity shots of him on the training course. Shipping him out to the Mid East is also unlikely. Pablo has realised that he doesn't want to really risk his life, and the army fears that he might attract the wrong kind of attention over there anyway through his abusive personality and high profile.

The Army now has placed him in “Team Synergy” where he is supposed to work together with a group of experienced soldiers. This keeps him out of the limelight a bit, keeps the Pentagon convinced that things are progressing and gives the involved officers a last chance to beat some sense into him. His new team-mates are not quite as enthusiastic.

Many people think Pablo actually is FireStorm – after all, he never seems to ship out, and yet the Army keeps him.

Pablo is deep down a simple person. He has always been bigger and stronger than others, and never had to take no for an answer. He didn’t care that he wasn’t smart or beautiful, he knew he could get all attention and praise by being the most daring, vigorous and hard person around. But now everything is a mess. He can’t accept that things don’t work out and eagerly assigns blame to everybody else.

Powers: mega-strength, mega-stamina and particularly mega-dexterity; as a martial artist he is amazing. Overall his physical and kinaesthetic abilities have become extreme. He does not reveal any overt quantum powers, but he hardly needs to.

Julio E. Vess (”Jumping Julio”)

Julio was always the pencil-necked nerd, a target for bullies that found solace in the library. He grew up to be an unremarkable software engineer and remained so until one day in 2003 when he was fired. On the way home from the job he bulked up and became stronger and faster than anybody else. His eruption caused a major media sensation and he became known as ”Jumping Julio” for his ability to jump enormous distances (and handle the impact when he mis-landed).

Today Julio works as a consultant for the Nova Task Force and is one of the most well known novas of the US. He often appears as spokesnova for the task force, hobnobs in Washington and ”helps out” in various places. In polls he is actually more popular than “Romeo”, and is generally seen as Americas finest nova – not so much for his powers but simply by being a generally great guy. Even without any “supercharisma”.

The irony is not lost on him that of all the powers and abilities novas have gained, he did not become one ounce smarter or more technological. In fact, many novas that were his intellectual inferiors now tower above him. While he, the scrawny kid, can wreck buildings and bounce into the clouds. He sometimes jokes that he is the strongest member of Star Trek fandom. He also knows he likes it that way; becoming huge and powerful has given him an assertiveness and ambition he had always lacked.

Unlike some of the other novas at the Task Force he actually gets along well with Lane Mofetta. He seldom expresses any political views publicly, but privately he thinks she is right. If she only could be a bit less self-righteous and loud about it, she could probably get a lot done. On the other hand, he dislikes Carmella Saracino for her self-serving ways and holier-than-thou politics.

Powers: mega-physical powers, telekinesis

Carmella Saracino ,”Lady Nasa”

Carmella erupted December 2002 on her 50th birthday, right during the dinner. To her embarrassment the food, the guests, the tables and eventually the entire restaurant went weightless. Despite this initial setback she took to being a nova. Her appearance and health improved drastically. Already a fairly successful manager in the publishing business, she set to explore and exploit her powers with characteristic efficiency and determination. To the public she became “Lady Nasa” after she demonstrated her ability to go into space and back. It was not just a PR stunt, it was also an advertisement.

Unlike China’s Bei Lange, her gravity control enables her to lift significant payloads into orbit (but Bei is much faster once she is out there). She quickly saw the use for this, and proposed a standard fee of 700$ per kilogram to orbit. Nasa and the DoD immediately jumped the chance and bought nearly all available trips from her at a somewhat higher price; the rest goes to other satellite consortia. Since then she has made easy money by launching equipment into space beside her other lucrative deals with defense contractors, MIT and the DHS. She usually launches satellites, but she has brought astronauts up and down from the ISS and demonstrated the ability to rendezvous with orbiting objects and even change their orbits. Her price dumping has nearly wiped out many large launcher projects such as Ariadne Space, who have to pay enormous sums to launch. She knows that other novas will eventually get into the game, but she plans to be the best connected and the one with the best long-term contracts.

The space movement is a bit split about her. On one hand she has brought down the price of space by an order of magnitude and is helping Nasa enormously. On the other hand she has clearly sold out and will not sell her services to any private space projects – which means that NASA will keep their monopoly. Even inside NASA she is controversial. The “shuttle huggers” and other people involved in traditional means of launch can’t believe that they are being made obsolete by a snappily dressed middle aged woman.

She is honestly not interested in space, and only does what she needs to. Her real interest is money, living a good life with her family and helping her Church – she is an evangelical Christian, and donates large amounts to good causes. She is pretty much certain that the End Times are here, but keeps that view to herself and other faithful.

Espírito Santo Riograndense Kramer

Nova with microbe control who now works for Bayer Pharmaceuticals, who ”lends” him to the CDC and DHS from time to time.

He is originally from Brazil, where he was a river sailor. Gradually he became aware of microbial life around himself and found that he could control it. He used it for healing (and, in one case, to “hex” a rival). A local doctor took interest, discovered that he was for real, and reported it to the news. Soon Kramer was deluged with offers, and he chose Bayer.

Georgios Antonakos

Georgios desperately wants to be cured of his nova powers – his body turns into the same materials as he touches. It has nearly driven him mad, and helps DHS wonderfully. He accepts any experimental treatment they can come up with, giving them informed consent to experiments that would be grossly unethical to anybody else.

Wright Orville (“Mr Z”)

A professional gambler, born in 1963 Alberta, Canada. 1.62 long, 80 kg. During a successful professional career his nova powers erupted, making him a truly devious player. He soon realized that gambling was no true challenge and turned to con-games instead. Today he is travelling worldwide, swindling large sums from people in South America and Africa.

Powers: mega-manipulation, mega-perception, mega-wits, sensory and psychic shield, luck, immobilize

Joseph Tavoy (“The intransigent element”)

Originally of Malaysian extraction, Joseph grew up a privileged kid in a family of merchants with some profitable connections abroad. He grew up to a charmer, used to get what he wanted. At some point he quietly erupted, becoming a truly brilliant manipulator. Eventually it became obvious that he was a nova due to his biolumniscence, but at that point he had already taken the chance to go abroad.

Today he is a US citizen living on Hawaii. He makes a comfortable living from his financial skills, but spends most of his time enjoying life to the fullest. A happy hedonist, he shops, seduces and experiences like there is no tomorrow, although he also cultures a joking façade of gentlemanship.

He is cooperating with the DHS with some financial advice as well as tests of his powers. He also has contacts with Singaporean bankers who are thrilled with his powerful US connections; he is gently playing with both of them, gaining influence and especially money.

Porfirio Guerro Pérez (“Quetzalcoatl”)

Arecheology professor at Mexico City university. Able to turn into a feathered serpent.

Powers: Dragon form, water control, intelligence

Anastasia Colindres Berruguete

Mexican nova murdered with her family in 2004

Juan Perez Lopez

A poor worker in one of the suburbs of Mexico City. Juan erupted with the ability to make things. He can make matter and simple objects as he wants. He quickly came to the notice of the authorities when he began to give gold to his friends and neighbours. Attempts to deal with him has proven troublesome, as many people defend the “goldmaker”. Eventually the authorities made him promise not to make economically disruptive things like gold and diamonds, and keep to giving away things like food and furniture. Surrounding Juan is a vast circus of fiercely protective friends, hangers-ons seeking a piece of wealth, more or less organised crime trying to get a piece of the cake, researchers wanting samples, journalists and people with Big Ideas who want to enrol Juan. Juan regrets having ever wished he could make what he wanted.

Iman

One of the first wave novas, known for his magnetic powers as well as being permanently magnetic. He is an old man with serious medical problems, despite the enhanced nova physiology.

He dislikes other novas, claiming they give him a headache just by being in the vicinity.

Rolando Fuenteelba (“El Bombardero”)

Rolando was a salesman for an electronics firm when he erupted 2003 with a literal bang on a street in his home town Conception, Chile. He became Chile’s first and so far only nova.

Previously a fairly unreflective and staid person, he now found himself enormously stimulated. He read voraciously, using his new powers to truly experience the world. He began to explore his own and others beliefs, often to the consternation to friends and officials.

After two years of nova existence he began to formulate his own philosophy. Borrowing heavily from Nietzsche and existentialism, he wrote Beyond Overman. The book argues total freedom: there are no “musts” in the world, there is no way the individual can demand other people, life or the universe to behave as he thinks they should. The only thing that is under our control is ourselves, and not even that is certain. There might not be any physical laws, and science is the misguided idea that we could understand them if they existed – as disproved by the novas. Similarly governments assume that there are ways of handling societies and rules they need to follow; the only thing that exists is individuals and what they do, and they will never fit into a government scheme. Rolando does not promote nova supremacy as he is commonly accused of, but rather arch-anarchy: the abandonment of faith in the stability of physical laws, religions, governments, other people and ones own self. Instead one has to constantly reshape and reform in order to function. Things that are stable are dead and will be broken down sooner or later.

Powers: Rolando can turn himself into a gas. This transformation is instant and explosive: his volume increases a hundredfold and there is a significant temperature increase. The overall power is like an artillery shell. In gas form he can manipulate things inside his cloud, feel, see and hear everything on the inside. He could likely do significant damage to anybody inside if he wanted simply by attacking their lungs and eyes. He is invulnerable to most sources of damage, but fire does hurt him. The cloud can hold together despite wind, but there is an upper limit to how widely he can disperse without losing cohesion (and presumably dissipating). Rolando prefers to use his powers indoors.

The Overman Cometh
Fri, 24 October 2003 09:08
Rolando Fuenteelba, the controversial Chilean nova also known as “El Bombardero”, will be touring Europe with his book Beyond Overman next month. Fuenteelbas anarchistic views have split the academic world between those who applaud his radical deconstruction of just about everything, and those who consider it "anything-goes-fascism" in the words of prominent US critic Samuel K. Kolm. The book has also been a bestseller, and his american promotion tour attracted much attention - both positive and negative.

In Atlanta representatives of the Atlanta Baptist Council denounced Fuenteelba as "one of the false prophets of the end times" and warned Christians away from him due to his alleged mind controlling powers. At the same time students at Atlanta University arranged a welcome event for the author, where they symbolically cast off unsupported beliefs in science, religion and government.

Fuenteelba erupted in 2003 with the ability to explosively turn into a cloud of gas able to manipulate and perceive things. He has spent the last two years exploring his powers and studying. According to himself "he could not avoid writing, just as one cannot avoid speaking out when one sees an outrage". Beyond Overman is his first book, partly a collection of his philosophical and political essays earlier published in Chilean newspapers and on his website.