Wearing the Cape 4: Small Town Heroes Read online

  Seven: A Hollywood hero and celebrity, Seven possess the power of Luck—in his words, “total, godlike, serendipity.” His luck will keep him alive and healthy under any circumstances, and molds his life like a guardian angel with his best interests at heart and a wicked sense of humor. After rising to stardom and joining the Hollywood Knights, Seven met Astra and the Sentinels. When the deaths of three of its members left a void, he transferred to the Sentinels and moved to Chicago.

  Shelly: Shelly Boyar-Hardt is Hope’s BFF, and she and Hope shared a superhero obsession in their teens, like lots of kids. When Hope was fifteen, Shelly jumped to her death, an origin chaser convinced that the fall would trigger her own breakthrough. The Teatime Anarchist used 22nd Century technology to record quantum-copy of her mind as the seed for the Artificial Intelligence CPU of a computer system in which he stored all of the historical files he collected in his trips to the future (which Hope and Shelly call the Big Book of Contingent Prophecy). Shelly and Hope share a neural-link from the same advanced technology, which Shelly can use to share Hope’s physical senses and even shape virtual realities for her (she appears to Hope as a virtual-ghost). She also remotely pilots robot drones—Galatea—as a Young Sentinel.

  Supernaturals: Not all breakthroughs conform to superhero types—in fact, outside of the countries heavily influenced by western media, few of them do. More will conform to older stories; folk-tales, legends and myths. Even in the US, individuals more into vampires or fairies, or be deeply into magic, are likely to follow those types. Spellcasters are Merlin-types, but all other “supernatural” breakthroughs are simply typed as Supernaturals. “Divine” breakthroughs are a smaller subset of this group, although few are willing to call one of the cherubim a “supernatural,” at least not to his face.

  Deputy Angel Sweet: Deputy Sweet is Sheriff Deitz’ partner, and they have been together long enough that they function almost telepathically. Where Deitz is the more social and public-relations minded of the pair, she focuses on her arsenal of guns (she believes in bringing the right bang to any fight).

  The Teatime Anarchist: Almost nothing is known about the Teatime Anarchist. The public knew him as a superhuman terrorist of unknown powers (teleportation was suspected), who issued a manifesto accusing the US government of plotting to gain control of its superhuman citizens and through them seize a dictatorial power. He apparently issued audio and visual files on the internet claiming credit for a host of bombings which claimed the lives of dozens and issuing threats (the media dubbed him the Teatime Anarchist because of his vaguely English accent). He was killed resisting capture shortly after the California Quake. The truth is more complicated; he was really a time-traveler (see Shelly), and he died by what was arguably the most unique act of suicide ever (see the Dark Anarchist).

  Tin Man: Carl Mueller, an A Class Telekinetic, began as a career burglar and became part of Villains Inc. He uses his power to animate and remotely control “puppet” drones of various configurations, from mechanical spiders used for stealthy breaking-and-entering to huge mechanical dragons.

  Tsuris: Reese Lasila is an A Class Aerokinetic-Type, and in a world of often unique breakthroughs, he’s unique in his own special way: he appears to have inherited his father’s breakthrough air-control power (which is impossible). Being compared to Jetstream, dear old Dad, all the time created “issues” leading to Reese’ attending Hillwood Academy. He has since been recruited by the Young Sentinels, and is an asset to the team although his attitude still needs adjusting (Ozma is working on it).

  Sean Redmond: Superintendent of Police Sean “Big Red” Redmond replaced Superintendent Garfield as the appointed head of the Chicago Police Department after Garfield was implicated in events leading to the second war with Villains Inc. Known as The Fixer, Superintendent Redmond is cleaning up the CPD and changing its relationship with the city’s CAI capes for the better.

  Terry Reinhold: The writer of Citywatch, a weekly newspaper column devoted to the doings of Chicago society, Terry has increasingly found himself covering Chicago’s superhuman celebrities. It helps that he is on good terms with The Harlequin and Astra. Terry describes himself as “A male Lois Lane who stays out of trouble.”

  Mal Shankman: State Representative Mallory Shankman is a political demagogue who has made his career protesting superhumans generally. Popular with a paranoid segment of the population generally, he can be counted on to be behind every major anti-breakthrough protest (if he didn’t start it he gets out in front of it).

  Sifu: Edward (Ted) Li is an A Class Speedster. Not much is known of his past, other than he was born in Philadelphia, but he served during the China War. Afterwards he retired and remained in China for a few years before returning and opening a martial arts school to teach Bagau. He is a friend of John Corrigan’s, taught Hope self-defense and Chinese tea ceremony, and is now Crash’s guardian and teacher; although he puts on the mask for city emergencies, he is not an active cape.

  Darren Tomlin: Darren is a lawyer on retainer to New Orleans’ vampire community, a good-natured minion. He lives with Marc above at the fencing school, and is quite possibly the most beautiful man in the world.

  Variforce: One of the replacement Sentinels recruited after the Whittier Base Attack, Variforce is a former US Marshal and an A Class Energy Projector capable of generating and shaping variable-property force fields. He uses them as shields, flying wings, cutting blades, etc., and has demonstrated the ability to stand off attacks form A Class Atlas and Ajax-Types with them.

  Veritas: A mysterious and annoying DSA agent, Veritas can hear lies. Any lies in any format (he reads campaign speeches for laughs). This doesn’t mean he knows whether any given statement is true or false—only whether or not the statement’s giver meant it truthfully. He does have a sense of humor; it’s just very strange and very well hidden.

  Villains Inc.: Patterned after the old Murder Inc., Villians Inc. was the supervillain arm of the Chicago Outfit. It has been taken down twice by the Chicago Sentinels so far. The Villains Inc. roster has included Undertaker, Knox, Trophy, Stricture, The Message, Hecate, Tin Man, Flash Mob, Warp, and Ginsu.

  Volt: An aspiring actor with surfer-boy looks, Volt rode his A Class Electrokinetic breakthrough to movie-star fame in Hollywood before becoming the president of California’s superhuman union and going into politics. Astra killed him in the fight in the Dark Anarchist’s secret base; an event so clichéd that if it wasn’t a state secret it would have its own movie.

  Vulcan: Verne-Types are one of the strangest breakthrough types; able to “invent” and build impossible machines and technologies which nobody else can duplicate, they make flying suits of powered armor, ray guns, force field generators, anti-gravity ships, teleportation cubes, etc. Vulcan is the Chicago Sentinels’ resident Verne; he uses fabrication devices to mold “polymorphic molecules” into an infinite variety of impossible elements and alloys to make gear for the team. He is Galatea’s creator, and also made the team’s air-car as well as Astra’s armor.

  Watchman: aka Lieutenant Dahmer. Watchman is an A Class Atlas-Type who manifested his powers during US Army basic training. He served in both the China War and the Caliphate War, and after his final tour (where he met Astra, both as a recruiter and later at Whittier Base) he was recruited by the Sentinels to help fill the holes in their roster and to further train Astra.

  The Wreckers: Given their name by the press, the Wreckers are the known action-arm of the Ascendancy, all of them breakthroughs whose powers have been boosted by the Ascendant. Known Wreckers are: Drop (a teleporter capable of moving multi-ton loads), Phreak (a cyberpsi hacker), Twist (an armored telekinetic wielding unbreakable carbon-alloy cables like living whips), Dozer (an armored Ajax-Type), and Balz (another telekinetic controlling a swarm of multi-function spheres). They have been deployed as a hit-team and a breakout crew. One of them, Drozer, has a history with Astra; before becoming Drop he was Gantry, a member of the Crew, and he was her first “fight.”

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