Exceedingly Exiled:Aranha

Aranha

Home Reality: Earth-4669
Civilian Name: Pedro Prado (secret ID)
Origin: Accident
Power Level: 10
Gender Identity: Cisgender Male
Age: 17 years
Appearance and Demeanor: Shard is an imposing 7-foot-tall, 650-pound being comprised of countless fragments of crystal that shift and shimmer constantly with unnerving subtlety, even when Shard stands still. Before becoming Shard, Marty grew up friendly but a bit of an introvert. Although a follower, he always had a strong moral compass. Since becoming Shard, they're a bit more boisterous. They also now prefer they/them pronouns. Whether that's due to feeling they're an entity made up of thousands of tiny discrete pieces or a larger understanding of their identity remains to be seen.

[[File: |600px]]

Abilities

Strength: 12 (4pp)
Stamina: 14 (8pp)
Agility: 1 (2pp)
Dexterity: 0
Fighting: 6 (12pp)
Intellect: 1 (2pp)
Awareness: 3 (6pp)
Presence: 1 (2pp)

Defenses

Dodge (AGL): +6 (5pp)
Fortitude (STA): +12
Parry (FTG): +6
Toughness (STA): +12
Will (AWE): +6 (3pp)

Skills

Athletics (STR): +12
Close Combat: Unarmed (FTG): +8 (2pp)
Deception (PRE): +1
Insight (AWE): +5 (2pp)
Intimidation (PRE): +2 (1pp)
Investigation (INT): +8 (7pp)
Perception (AWE): +3
Persuasion (PRE): +1
Ranged Combat (Throw) (DEX): 0
Stealth (AGL): 1

Complications

Motivation:

• Acceptance: Though Shard revels in the crystalline form's power, they are acutely aware of how monstrous they appear and do all they can to show the humanity that lies within.

Other Complications:

• Monstrous: Shard is a massive creature made of living crystal fragments that shift constantly. It can be a lot if you're not ready for it.
• Prejudice (Hidden): Though they don't know it, Shard is a mutant. Should this be revealed, they would face the hostility to mutants present in many parts of the multiverse.

Advantages

Benefit, Ambidexterity (1pp): No circumstance penalty for using an off-hand.
Fast Grab (1pp): Free action: make a grab check after making a successful unarmed attack.
Improved Grab (1pp): Can grab using just one limb. Can maintain a grab while performing actions using other hand. You are not vulnerable while grabbing.
Improved Hold (1pp): Opponents have a –5 circumstance penalty to escape your grab.
Improved Trip (1pp): No attack penalty to trip and it does not provoke. Make opposed check w/ Athletics against your opponent's Acrobatics or Athletics (you choose which).
Instant Up (1pp): Stand from prone as a free action w/out an Acrobatics skill check.
Interpose (1pp): Reaction (vs attack checks only): if an ally within range is hit by an attack, you can move between them and take the attack instead.
Takedown (2pp): Free action: after rendering a minion incapacitated, take an extra attack against another minion (within your movement; does not need to be adjacent). Continue until you miss, use up movement, or there are no more minions.
Ultimate Effort (Toughness) (1pp): Spend 1 hero point to get an automatic (non-natural) 20 on your die result.

Powers

Malleable (Array): Ability to compress, extend, and otherwise re-form the crystalline fragments that comprise their form.

• Burrowing: 6 ranks (1pp)

60ft/rnd (4mph) / Limited: through material Toughness no greater than STR modifier)

• Elastic: Speed 2 ranks (1pp)

120ft/rnd (8mph) ground speed

• Flowing: Insubstantial 1 rank (5pp)

Flow through any opening or non-watertight restraint; can cushion falling target

• Stretching: Elongation 3 ranks (1pp)

60ft, +3 grab

• Swinging: Movement 1 rank (1pp)

30ft/rnd (2mph)

• Wall-crawling: Movement 2 ranks (1pp)

30ft/rnd (2mph) along walls/ceilings/etc

Crystalline Defenses

• Enhanced Stamina: 10 ranks (20pp)

Enhanced Trait: Stamina +10

• Immunity (20pp)

Environmental Conditions (all), Fatigue Effects, Life Support

• Impervious: 14 ranks (14pp)

Impervious (Toughness) 14

Crystalline Senses

• Sonar: Senses 3 (3pp)

Accurate: Hearing, Ultra-hearing

Crystalline Strength

• Enhanced Strength: 10 ranks (20pp)

Enhanced Trait: Strength +10

* AE Shield: Create 10 (1pp)
50/100/250ft range, 1000cuft volume, DC20 / Impervious, Innate, Tether; Diminished Range 2, Proportional

* AE Spikes: Damage 6 (1pp)
Reaction 3 (when attacked in close combat), DC21
Requires DC12 attack check; Noticeable (jagged crystal shards)
* AE Spray: Cone 2 (1pp)
60ft cone / Area Damage 10, DC20

Power Points

150 (36 Abilities + 6 Skills + 8 Defenses + 10 Advantages + 90 Powers)

Backstory

Martin Thorn joined S.W.O.R.D. fresh out of grad school. He'd been angling for the FBI, but something in his test results spoke to S.W.O.R.D.

Four months in, monsters rained from the sky. This happened from time to time—comics, everybody!—but the frequency was increasing of late. Marty's field team was dispatched to investigate an impact site near Tuscon. Amid devastating collateral damage, the extraterrestrial monster fought the known monster Rommbu. The latter defeated the creature before disappearing. Among the evidence the S.W.O.R.D. team found at the site were strange crystal fragments—at least, Marty thought there was something strange about them; to his partner, Elena Cortés, they were simply sharp rocks.

They'd just returned to the Peak when proximity alerts sounded—another wave of monsters was incoming from deep space! The space station was thrown off kilter as multiple monsters struck, its gravity systems unable to compensate fast enough. Anything that wasn't already secured went flying, including Marty and the case with the crystal fragments. The two collided and everything went black for Marty. Once S.W.O.R.D. personnel got things back under control, his unconscious body was discovered with a large crystal chunk embedded in his chest.

In the infirmary, Dr. Hank McCoy (aka Beast) performed scans to see how the shard could be removed safely. He detected minute vibrations that soon grew stronger—suddenly the shard sprang from Marty's body and zipped from the room like a crystalline snake!

Beast was forced to remain behind to treat Marty's wound and make sure he was stable. S.W.O.R.D. security chased after the shard. They found it back in the hangar, absorbing the other crystal fragments. Swelling in size, the shard emitted a loud, strangely harmonious scream as it assumed a humanoid form.

Beast bounded in just then and the fight was on! Powerful as the shard was, this wasn't Beast's first rodeo. By the time he had the crystalline creature under control, Beast knew what he was dealing with. The crystal had somehow absorbed Marty's consciousness—Marty was the Shard!

Beast would need to do further tests to see whether the crystal had sapience of its own, not to mention to determine how—or even if—Marty's mind could be returned to his body.

Unfortunately, that would have to wait as Earth was still under attack from waves of extraterrestrial monsters. The Peak was struck again by multiple monsters, including one that tore through the hangar in the direction of the station's power core. Marty—Shard—didn't hesitate. They dove down the jagged hole after it.

Shard tackled the monster as it tore its way to the core. The Peak had suffered fatal damage from multiple strikes, but at least the comms still worked. Although they heard Abigail Brand give the evacuation alert, Shard stayed where they were, doing everything in their power to keep it from reaching the core. They couldn't hold it off forever, though, and soon the monster ripped into the core with a giant paw to unleash the powerful fusion energies within. Shard sensed that it was absorbing the energy, growing more powerful—but it was too much for the monster to take. The last thing Shard saw was a brilliant flash as the core detonated, wiping out the monster and tearing the crippled Peak asunder.

When Shard came to some time later, they were less surprised to be in an alternate reality than to even still be alive at all. Not to mention stuck in this strange crystalline form...

Unbeknownst to Marty...
It's unclear whether the core explosion sent Shard through a tear in reality, or they were plucked from Earth-608 in the nick of time.

Speaking of Shard: The crystal didn't absorb Marty's mind. Rather, he's a mutant with "crystalkinesis." In the chaos of the moment, Marty threw his consciousness into the crystal. Theoretically, he could learn to command crystalline structures outside his current form and even possibly return to his human body.

Back in Earth–608, Marty's body did make it off the Peak before the space station blew up. In fact, thanks to Shard taking on the monster, all the station personnel had enough time to evacuate. Unfortunately, the world is still under assault by strange monsters from beyond the stars...