By Peloquin (ka.vanadis@karlskrona.mail.telia.com)
Midnight.
It is at times like this, when rain paints the city streets black and glossy, when the moon replaces the broken streetlights, it is at times like this you really should stay at home. Not that it's safer, no, but at least one can deceive oneself that it is.
Close to the St Helena Church, a scream was heard. It was a woman's scream, shrill and terrified, but only the gargoyles on the church roof were there to hear it. One of the gargoyles moved.
"C'mon bitch, stop fightin', ya know yer gonna love it!" The man speaking sat on his victim, fumbling with his belt with one hand, holding down the arms of the woman with the other. Now you jes' relax, hon', an' it'll all be..."
"Let her go."
The rapist turned his head towards the new arrival, surprised and furious that anyone would interfere. A man stood in the shadows, faint against the background, his clothes a matt black.
"Walk away, mister. You ain't seen nuthin'. You ain't heard nuthin'!"
The man stepped out of the shadows, his face cloaked by the hood on his jacket. That was a double negative. I so detest bad grammar...
The rapist finally got to his feet, pulling a large .44 Magnum. "I warned you man, I ain't kiddin'!"
"Aren't you? And here I thought I had met the next Robin Williams: by the way, you may call me Harlequin, it's not a pleasure to meet you."
And with those words he grabbed the barrel of the gun and twisted it at a straight angle. The rapist stared at his now useless gun, then at the man, then the gun, then the man again.
The man calling himself Harlequin grabbed him by the collar, lifting him effortlessly into the air. "Nightynight, scum." He threw the rapist through the air across the alley, right into the opposite brick wall.
After giving the unconscious man a final light kick in the ribs, the man in black turned to the woman and sat down next to her. "Are you alright, miss?"
The woman nodded, staring wide-eyed at the strange man in front of her. "I gotta go now, but I've called the police and I'm putting this phone number in your pocket. It's for an excellent therapist I know. Oh, and remember, sometimes the good guys wear black. As he jumped fifty feet straight up onto the roof and disappeared, she stared after him for a while, and then she did the only sensible thing. She fainted.
"You don't really think you'll win, do you?"
"Things change."
Noone knows for sure where or when the first Aegis came to be, not even themselves. What they do know is that the organization for meta-humans, "Aegis", is far older than most think, and seems to have a connection to Euthanotos and Sons of Ether mages. And when one of them first revealed himself to the other denizens of the World of Darkness.
In the early 1920's the Kindred of New York lived in terror of a strange man in black fedora and cape, who paralyzed evildoers with his maniacal laughter, whereupon he frankly shot them dead with his twin Colts. "The Shade" soon disappeared, and became no more than an urban myth, but soon more appeared. Always doing the work of the corrupt police force, always living just outside the law, always, for some strange reason, ignored by the media. The reason soon became clear.
The Technocracy. The high ranking puppeteers of the Technocracy tried immediately to strike down these spontaneous meta-humans, due to their inspiration of peoples belief of the power of the single man in the face of oppression, and most dangerously, the belief that even normal people could do something to make the world a "better place". And besides, if the meta-humans aren't engineered by the Technocracy, they do not belong in the Technocracy paradigm. Just like all the other Reality-Deviants.
For the past twenty years the Aegis has hid in the backstage, doing their work out of reach from the "law" and other such spoilsports. But they're coming out of the shadows.
The Aegis organization is divided into three branches, each specializing in a different field of expertise concerning the dealing out of justice: the Watchers, the Guardians and the Independents.
The Watchers are the most secretive of the Aegis; they are very often gifted with psychic abilities, and tend to be rather superior in their attitude towards other metahumans. They are the thinkers and strategists of the Aegis.
The Guardians work as a sort of secret police, infiltrating police of all sorts, recently even the Arcanum, and Technocracy constructs. There are rumors of a Deep Throat within the Camarilla as well, but these are just rumors for now.
The Independents are all the rest, those who prefer their personal freedom above the safety of the Aegis, but they remain loose contact with the "Blockheads", as they call the Watchers and Guardians. They keep up the vigilante front.
"Well, you're not exactly normal yourself..."
Kindred: I've met one. He tried to eat me, I fried his ass.
Bah! There is no such thing! And if you ask again you will not experience another moonrise!
Garou: Cool guys. A little uptight about the environment, though...
They are excellent allies and honorable enemies.
Mages: They just don't get it. Why quibble about the way to become onipotent; it's just as stupid as fighting over religion!
Amazing. If we could reveal these to the general poulace, the Technocracy won't even know what hit'em!
Kithain: Faeries? Yeah, sure, and you're Peter Pan, I suppose...
Aren't they fun? They cancel out Banality simply by existing!
Wraiths: Ghosts? Ooooh, scary...well, I've never met one, but...
Actually, one of them is one of us. Some nutball circus acrobat who got murdered, and now he walks around Moliated into looking like a skeleton in spandex, possessing people and in general being weird. He's a fun guy, though
The Cursed: Yeah, right...
I have watched them for quite some time...interesting...but they can't kill me, so why bother contacting them?
(Highlander)Immortals: Uh-huh. Like I'm supposed to believe that.
"They are unimportant to the Gathering."
Gargoyles: I've met some. They share our point of view.
They have more honor than some might think.
Adephi: Okay, these guys are weird. Every time we operate with them they just keep looking all smug and know-it-all...
YES! At last The Great Plan is running towards its solution! We certainly did an excellent job in creating these!
Night Breed: Ewww, gross!
Funny Naturals. Not as weak as most of them.
Cenobites: Bring'em on! I'll shove their torturing tools right back up where the sun don't shine!
Oh, would you? Goodie! I've always wondered what exquisite pain that would inflict...
Windrunners: Whoa, what was that? Is it a race car? No, it's a tornado! No, it's...it's...weirdos faster than light!!!
Yeah, we get along. Mostly just those callin' themselves "Independents"...well, I've rested enough, time for me to run to Brazil ...never been there before...bye! (zip)
Kindred: The Aegis has stirred up quite a few enemies among both the Sabbat and the Camarilla...
Technocracy: If the Aegis were to be exposed to the world, the Tradition mages would most probably get the upper hand in the Ascension War...and the Nephandi aren't too happy about people trying to make the world lighter and less dark...
Pentex: The minions of the Wyrm are very curious about those strange humans who have aided Garou in raids against Pentex operations. It's only a matter of time until they find out the truth.
And of course, there are those meta-humans who instead of joining Aegis go renegade and rob banks and try to gain world domination and all that.
Resilience: Inhuman fortitude and stamina
Avian: Flight
Radiance: The absorption and discharge of certain energies.
Speed: Superhuman speed and dexterity.
| * | You may now reshape your personal gravity to any surface, thus being able to walk on walls, ceilings and any other non-vertical surface. But since you weigh the same, you naturally can't walk on windows or any other surface that cannot carry your weight. |
| ** | You may decrease your weight, 10 lbs per success on a Control roll diff:6. This means that for each success you may add one die on any jumping or running moves. Also, on any fall you only receive half the falling damage inflicted. |
| *** | You can now hover; roll Dex+Control diff:7, for each success you may treat a stretch of air as a solid surface for one turn, that is, you literally walk on air. |
| **** | You now have the power to glide through the air without any means of propellation. You roll Dex+Control diff:7, for each success you glide for one hour. You can only carry with you as much as you would be able to lift when on the ground. The speed is 2x walking speed. |
| ***** | You can fly, 6x running speed per turn, this power lasts until you land or gets rendered Incapacitated. Same roll as *** and ****. |
| * | You may now absorb the energy of your affiliation (chosen when you put out the first dot). This could be any type of energy, including mystical. Do note that this does not mean you may absorb all kinds of energy, only one or two at tops. (One extra energy affiliation costs 7 Freebies or 20 exp. points.) This also never extends to kinetic energy for some reason, so bullets, knives and fists are still quite dangerous to you...you may also not discharge the energy. And keep in mind, that if your energy affiliation is mystickal, such as Quintessence or Gnosis, it brings certain side effects...sure, magicks of different sorts do not work on you, but if someone tries to blast you with Forces, you might get tiny static shocks of electricity all day afterwards, and if Gnosis is absorbed, you might get Umbral vision for a while, harmless, but annoying. Glamour just tends to make you overimaginative and silly. |
| ** | You may now discharge the energy of your choice into a beam, from some part of your body (no naughty ideas now, y'hear?); you roll Dexterity+Firearms diff:6 to fire, and Control+Radiance for Damage. Maximum Damage dicepool is 5, though. |
| *** | Maximum Damage pool is 8, you may also add Stamina to the roll. |
| **** | Max Damage dice pool 12. Also, you may transfer energy to others. (This in the form of Health levels; you become a healer, simply.) |
| ***** | You gain a free dot in Avian, (not above 5 though) and maximum Damage dicepool 16. |
| * | You are impervious to the effects of heat up to +60 degrees Celsius, and cold down to -60 degrees Celsius. You may now soak Aggravated damage with common Stamina rolls, oh, and add your Resilience to the roll too. For those who use Fahrenheit instead of Celsius, go look it up. |
| ** | Temperatures of + or - 120 degrees, +2 soak dice. |
| *** | 240 degrees, +3 soak dice, you get the idea... |
...and it goes all the way up to 5 dots.
You have a pair of wings protruding from your back. They may be of any color and shape, although they must be at least eight feet in span to be able to use successfully. Roll Dex+Control diff:6, and away you go. To see for how long you may fly, roll Stamina diff:6, divide successes by two. The result is how many hours you can stay in the air. Unfortunately the wings are very indiscreet. They may only be hidden under a cloak or trenchcoat or some such piece of clothing. The flight speed is your walk/running speed.
You have unusually piercing eyes, add 2 die to any Intimidation roll.
You look weird. You may have an odd skin color, some strange, non-hindering deformity or whatever. Use your imagination, and use two less dice on any Social rolls.
You have the amazing ability to see through any supernatural cloaking power. Thus, the Mists, the Veil, the Gauntlet, all this is as air to you, so you see fae for what they really look like. You have no trouble spotting Garou when in a fight, and certain Vampiric Disciplines designed to be mental simply do not work on you. Dominate, Obfuscate, Presence, and Chimerstry, simply don't work. This can be a problem as well, you see chimera and spirits as well, and they can hurt you, since you know they are real...
| * | A basement or pigeon coop. |
| ** | A hidden basement or an abandoned warehouse. |
| *** | A common building on the outside; a sophisticated crime lab on the inside... |
| **** | A giant bat-ridden cave beneath the mansion your parents gave you in their will... |
| ***** | An ice-fortress in the Arctic, run by robots of an alien civilization... |
All meta-humans begin with one dot in this, since it is assumed they at least know how to not use their powers.
Abilities: 14/10/6
Backgrounds: 7
Record Control: 1
Record Willpower: 5
Powers: 5+1 free depending on branch, Guardians get a free dot in Resilience, Watchers get a free dot in Psi, and Independents put the extra dot where they damn well please.
Freebies: 15.
Freebie costs: Att-5, Abi-2, BG-1, Control-5, WP-1, Powers-8.
Exp costs: Attributes-current rating x 2, Abilities x 2, new Ability 3, Control x 4, Powers x 6, New Power: 12.