Apogee: Doomed

Alvin A. Apex, AKA Triple A, was a beloved background character at Pinnacle Academy who made an abrupt and shockingly out-of-character heel turn, revealing himself as a heartless spy all along collecting their secrets for a sinister organization known as Python, and was fridged by his handler - the supervillain Dream Crusher - for his trouble.

Alvin B. Apex, AKA Al, is dimensional flotsam from an alternate reality that asked What If...Alvin Apex had lived? Al looks exactly like Triple A, except the smile isn't an act and he parts his hair to the left instead of to the right. He's still on the track team, but moving into the superspeed division has been a rough adjustment. Leaving the nonpowered clique kinda sucked, too, but he gets it, he really does. He won't be visiting Alvin A.'s family back in Manitoba on breaks, but maybe that's for the best. He's staying positive! He doesn't need any special costume or codename, he's the same old friend-for-life, shoulder-to-cry-on Al he's ever been. The cosmic powers he got spritzed with from making the reality jump have only brought out what was already there. Please don't ask him what he's doing after graduation.

Vital Statistics

Look: white, man, no costume, official clothing (school uniform), haunted eyes chipper face

Stats:

• Danger: +1
• Freak: +1
• Savior: -1
• Superior: +1
• Mundane: +1

Abilities: The reality-warping Power Oneirocosmic enables memory manipulation, superhuman strength and speed, and psychic constructs

• the Power Oneirocosmic can do just about anything, but usually not permanently. With a crackle of Kirby Dots, he can be holding a mallet now, run faster than the fastest person in the race, or send a crowd of other Als running in every direction. When Al pushes hard, it can look like Duck Amuck shenanigans or the Reality Stone. It's especially good at altering perceptions, changing the scenery, and empowering Al personally. His powers work on his body because they're tied to his Doom: like his AU possibility constructs, Al is Not Real in important ways, and won't be here by the final chapter.

Advancement: Potential: 0/5

handy dandy Google Doc

Influence

Al has influence over:

• Deepa, the Legacy
• Kelly, the Harbinger
• Ari, the Outsider

Relationships:

• You told Joanna Daedalus all about your doom and the danger you’re in.
• You’d love to kiss Luke before your doom comes.

Doomed Extras

Doom - Total erasure from panreality by the inevitable Nihilactor, undoing everything Al's touched. Talking about it openly and facing danger alone bring it closer. Whenever you bring your doom closer, mark one box on your doom track. When your doom track fills, clear it and take one of your doomsigns.

• Doom Track: ☐ ☐ ☐ ☐ ☐

Doomsign: Infinite Powers - Mark your Doom Track ☑ to use an ability from any playbook, one time.

Nemesis - You have a nemesis, an epic and powerful enemy representing and embodying your doom. It’s going to take everything you have to take them down in the time you have left. Who is your nemesis?

• The Nihilactor, cosmic force of possibility destruction, embodied in this reality by edgy grimdark villain Dream Crusher, his prime self's murderer.

At the end of every session, answer the question: Did you make progress on defeating your nemesis? If the answer is yes, mark potential. If the answer is no, mark your doom track.

Sanctuary - You have a place where you can rest, recover, and reflect upon your powers: Pinnacle Academy's little-used Oneiric Projection Chamber, which is sort of like a low-budget holodeck crossed with an observatory with comfy chairs. It has a library of powerful tomes glimpses of this and other realities; art, music, and food; and a meditation space, but the location is known to many and it's easily damaged or tampered with. When you call upon the resources of your sanctuary to solve a problem, say what you want to do. The GM will give you one to four conditions you must fulfill to complete your solution:

• First, you must _______________________
• You’ll need help from ___________________
• You and your team will risk danger from ______
• The best you can do is a lesser version, unreliable and limited
• You’ll need to mark one box on your doom track
• You’ll have to obtain ___________________

Team Moves

• When you share a triumphant celebration with someone, give them Influence over you and spend 1 Team from the pool to clear one box on your doom track.
• When you share a vulnerability or weakness with someone, give them Influence over you and ask if they honestly think there’s hope for you. If they say yes, mark potential or clear one box of your doom track. If they say no, mark a condition or mark your doom track.

Moment of Truth The prickly tingling fear of your doom, always in your head—it holds you back most of the time. But right here, right now? It gives you the confidence to do anything. After all, what’s the worst that could happen? Is it worse than your doom? Do impossible things. Do anything. But mark a doomsign after you’re finished.

Backstory

• When did you first learn of your doom? - When I got dropkicked into Earth-1 from the What If? dimension, I had a moment of communion with the Oneirocosm. It conveyed the threat of the Nihilactor to me, and in the dark shadow of its reflected panels of possibility, I saw the face of Dream Crusher and knew what was coming.
• Where did you get your sanctuary? - It turns out that since I got here, the Oneiric Projection Chamber only really works in tune with my powers. I'm like a magnet throwing off a compass. Since the Academy isn't using it and most of the students don't even know how to get there, I've made it my hangout spot.
• Why do you oppose your nemesis? - I want to live. I want to have the full life and rich character development that Alvin A. Apex didn't get to have. I'm not gonna lay down and die, no matter how cosmically hopeless it is. And even if I was still just the old me, powerless, I'd want to do everything I could to stop Dream Crusher. He's an evil, evil asshole who needs to be shut down before he hurts more people - even more so if his faction really is the bad seed that turns Python into the guys threatening Kelly's future.
• Who, outside of the team, is crucial to defeating your nemesis? - It burns me up to admit it, but Emperor Omphalos is the only person I've seen in this reality who I truly believe is self-absorbed enough to stare the Nihilactor in the face and say "no, you move."
• Why does the team matter to you? - I try to keep it light and happy, but I know that when people at this Pinnacle look at me, they see their Alvin, Alvin-Prime: the classmate who betrayed them and died badly at the hands of a supervillain. The team isn't like that. They see me. Maybe that's just wishful thinking, but wishful thinking's my specialty!

The Deep Lore

(from Masks Unbound)

AH. YOU ARE HERE. YOUR MIND IS LIMITED, BUT I CAN NARROW MY EXISTENCE TO THE SLIMMEST SLIVER SO WE MAY CONVERSE. YOU NOW VIEW THE EQUIVALENT OF A SHADOW OF A CHILD’S DRAWING OF THE THING THAT IS ME. BUT IT IS THE BEST WE CAN DO.

HELLO MORTAL. I AM THE ONEIROCOSM.

ACROSS EXISTENCE, THE MINDS OF SENTIENT LIFE, NO MATTER HOW INSIGNIFICANT AND BLINKERED, BEAR A DEEP POWER. THEY PRODUCE INFINITE FLEETING WORLDS THAT EXIST ONLY IN THEIR CONCEPTION, OR SO THEY BELIEVE. IN TRUTH, THOSE WORLDS DO NOT DISSIPATE WITHIN THE FLOTSAM OF FANCY. THEY BECOME A PART OF SOMETHING GREATER THAN THEM. THEY BECOME A PART OF ME. AND IN SO DOING, THEY COME ALIVE, MADE REAL WITHIN MY ENDLESS DEPTHS.

I UNDERSTAND. IT IS DIFFICULT TO CONCEIVE OF, BUT YOU MUST TRY. I BRING YOUR PRIMITIVE MIND BEFORE ME TODAY BECAUSE I...
BECAUSE YOUR...
BECAUSE...
BECAUSE YOUR ASSISTANCE IS NEEDED, THOUGH IT PAINS ME TO SAY.

A WAR RAGES IN THE DEEPEST SUBDIMENSIONS OF THE UNIVERSE. IN MICROFACETS OF THE BOUNDLESS SHIMMERING REALITY, I FACE OFF ENDLESSLY WITH MY OPPONENT - THE NIHILACTOR - A BEING OF NOTHINGNESS AND OBLIVION. IT CRAVES THE SILENT, STILL VOID OF NONBEING. WITH EVERY PASSING MOMENT IT SCREAMS IN RAGE AS I SWELL WITH THE CREATIONS WITHIN ME...AND IT TEARS AT ME, GNAWS AT ME, RIPS WHOLE WORLDS FREE OF ME AND PLUNGES THEM INTO ITS OWN ABYSS. I NOW FIND MYSELF DIMINISHED BY THE NIHILACTOR’S ASSAULT. COSMIC NULLITY THREATENS ENTIRE DIMENSIONS AND THE COUNTLESS BEINGS CONTAINED THEREIN.

I AM IN NEED OF AID.

Masks:_Apogee