Thursday, March 14, 2013

If I was an Original New Mutants Powered Composite Super Being

To reiterate

I distinguish composite super beings from "power mimics" like the Super Adaptoid or Amazo who gain their powers from being exposed to other super beings because they only have the specific power sets of a specific group of super beings and cannot just acquire more like the two androids mentioned can.

For me the appeal of a composite super beings is similar to the appeal of power mimics. When you have the combined powers of a super team you can use it in ways that individual team members can't no matter how cooperative they are. Like the Super Skrull combining Mr. Fantastic's stretching with the Thing's superhuman strength to use the super strength in places where it's difficult to reach. Something the two can't do as individuals. Mr. Fantastic can reach but he lacks the super strength. The Thing has the strength but lacks the reach.

As a composite super being you can mix and match the powers of the composing super beings or use only individual's power sets at a time or none at all.

Background

The original New Mutants were a team of adolescent mutants brought together by Charles Xavier (Professor X) who was under control of the Brood Queen at the time. However before his possession he had contemplated creating a new team of young mutants not for combat purposes like the X-Men but strictly as just students learning to use their powers. His choice of recruits were Sam Guthrie (Cannonball), Danielle Moonstar (Mirage all though originally Psyche), Roberto da Costa (Sunspot), Xi'an Coy Mahn (Karma), Rahne Sinclair (Wolfsbane). They were primarily chosen because they were being targeted by the White King of the Hellfire Club Donald Pierce who actually had Sam Guthrie already working for him.

They went on a number of adventures before Charles Xavier was freed of the control of the Brood Queen. After his release he decided to keep the team together and forbidding them to go on missions and into combat until they graduated. Of course that never stopped them from going on adventures.

Description

The New Mutants originally wore the standard X-Men uniform. A black body suit with a broad yellow vertical stripe on the chest and yellow trunks. It was accessorized with yellow gauntlets, yellow boots with folded cuffs and a red belt with the X-Men symbol for a buckle consisting of a red circle with a large black “X” in it against a yellow back ground.

Cannonball

As described in If I Was Cannonball Sam Guthrie is a tall, thin, blond haired, blue eyed, male. They went out of there way to play up that he was a hillbilly there fore they originally drew him as awkward and not quite handsome as super beings are usually drawn..

Mirage

Danielle Moonstar is originally drawn as a coltish, tallish, native-american girl (Cheyenne I believe) with long dark hair and dark eyes. She personalized her uniform with hide boots and a headdress with feathers. She eventually evolved into the teams “Hot Girl”.

Sunspot

Roberto is a short, although athletic, Brazilian boy with dark skin, hair and eyes. His hair is naturally curly/wavy and he keeps short but not severely short so you can see the natural wave or curl to it.

Karma

Xi'an Coy Mahn is an averaged height (for a North American anyway) Vietnamese female with short dark hair and dark eyes. She was often portrayed as severe looking. Of course given the troubles that dogged her, her whole early life it makes sense to portray her that way.

Wolfsbane

Rahne Sinclair is a short, petite (5'2”, 110lbs) Scottish girl with red hair and green eyes. Her hair is originally portrayed as very short, almost fuzzy, similar to the length of wolf fur. This apparently a consequence of her mutant power. She has often complained that it wouldn't grow any longer than that. In her lupin and transitional form her fur was a reddish-brown color. Her costume was made of “unstable molecules” and would transform into a collar when she transformed into her “beastly” forms.

Powers

I am going with their powers as they were originally, before they underwent various modifications by either further forced mutation, magical enchantment or plain old had to be made more powerful to carry a comic book.

Cannonball

Cannonball possesses the power to project himself in flight via a “thermal chemical” propulsion method leaving behind him a “contrail” similar to a rocket. His max speed (at this time anyway) was 150 miles per hour and could generate enough thrust to carry at least over a ton of weight in flight. He flew with Sunspot who was carrying a small van or covered truck. I would say he could fly with greater weights since he didn't seem to stressed by it and frankly a vehicle that size would way more than a ton but then when a weight is bothered to be stated in a story it is because they are implying that it is the actual weight of the object. It's not specified how long he can fly for but it does quickly become his primary mode of transportation permitting him to fly across a city the size of Brazil while carrying a small truck or van.

When he activates his thrust and for up to possibly a minute after his thrust is turned off he generates a “blast field” that protects him and whomever he is carrying if he so chooses from the damage of a collision or the general damage that would normally be incurred in flight. It protected him from such things as a collision that destroyed a full grown tree, blasting through stone to free trapped minors and multiple shots from energy based weapons used by Hellfire Club security. Not to mention the strain of carrying over a ton of weight with him in flight using only one arm.

Mirage

Mirage's primary power is to draw the image of a subjects worse fear or greatest desire from their mind and manifest them as animated three dimensional holograms. She doesn't know what the images are going to be before they appear. She can't just probe a mind. These images are clearly holograms to those that they aren't drawn from but for those they are drawn from they are very, very real. The full range of the power isn't know but she can at least do it within line of site and has used it to draw her flying horse to her.

She possesses a secondary power that permits her to telepathically communicate with animals and understand them. She uses this most often to communicate with her teammate Wolfsbane while in her wolf forms. Once again the full range of the power isn't know but it does function as a handy communication device when they are separated on missions in large compounds so I'm going go with it is at least possible within line of sight. I will say that it does not extend into the hundreds of miles since she couldn't find Rahne when they were separated in different parts of the Asgardian continent.

Sunspot

Sunspot has the power to grant himself super human strength by drawing power from solar energy. In his earliest appearances he is strong enough to split a large boulder in two with one blow and is capable of toppling a sentinel (a giant mutant hunting robot). He is said to be able to lift 25 tons at arms length over his head at this period in his career. However his strength level is dependent on the amount of solar energy he is exposed to. Under normal conditions on Earth he has the above listed strength but in a setting with a greater sun or more suns he would be stronger.

A consequence of his elevation in strength is an equal elevation in his resistance to injury if for nothing else but to permit him to function with superhuman strength without damaging himself. He has of course survived blows from super strong opponents and falls from great heights and even being hit by an eighteen wheeler at one hundred miles per hour. He was even trampled by horse without suffering harm. However this does not necessarily translate into a greater resistance to temperature extremes, diseases or toxins. He would still require aid to survive in hostile environments such as a scuba tank for breathing while underwater and a spacesuit for surviving outside of the atmosphere.

There is no specific information on how long he can manifest his solar powered strength. It is of course based on how much solar energy he has stored. I'd wager initially he could store enough energy to function in super strength mode for as long as he could function in normal strength mode. Of course when he runs out of solar energy he has to be exposed to sunlight to recharge his strength. Instead of just resting and letting his strength rebuild by his body processing more “food based fuel”. This would basically mean that after a few minutes of full exertion he would run out of stored energy. However this soon grew into at least tens of minutes of full exertion giving him something resembling superhuman stamina.

He is constantly absorbing solar energy even at night without it being apparent. However when he activates his super strength this process accelerates and his skin and hair no longer reflects light making him appear to be completely black except his eyes and the inside of his mouth which seem to become luminescent. Dust particles that pass close to his body also become darkened making him seem to be surrounded by a corona of black spots from which he derives his name Sunspot. His exact rate of absorption isn't really specified but it doesn't really seem to take him long to recharge his strength in day light. In fact in day light one could assume he could remain in super strength mode for extended periods of time.

Karma

Karma has the ability to take over one or more subjects' bodies (usually people) by psionic means. Sort of how you control a video game character or a puppet. More a remote control capacity then an actual possession. She isn't left defenceless as she would be if she actually left her body and took over her target's body. She can however see through the subjects eyes as well as experience their other sensory input. This permits her control a subject she has caused to leave her sight.

The consciousness of the subjects themselves are repressed while controlled. They enter a dreamlike sleep and have no memory of being controlled. If she retains control of a subject for too long their personality begins to overwhelm hers. The time is not specified but I would imagine it is long enough for her to be useful. She is still in control but she starts to act according to their personality instead of hers. The more subjects she controls at once the harder it is to keep them all under control.

Because of how her power works the subject of her control can function clumsily at first as she gets accustomed to how their body works. Also given that there is no specifications about the range of the power one can assume it is at least as far as visual range.

Wolfsbane

Simply put Wolfsbane can transform into a wolf. The wolf form itself is not super wolfish (it will be eventually due to forced mutation). It has the same abilities and limits of a similar sized wolf except for two exception. The first is that as a wolf she retains her human intelligence and self awareness. She does however act more “wolfish” in wolf form. I would assume because although she has human intelligence the wolf form has wolf instincts instead of human ones. The second exception is that her wolf form can see into the ultraviolet and infrared spectrum even though real wolves cannot.

A second element of her wolf transformation power is that she can adopt a “transitional” form where she possesses both the advantages of her human and wolf forms. As an example she can use human speech in transitional form even though she can't in wolf form. Her wolf form is larger than her human and consequently she is also larger in her transitional form. She is ten inches taller in this form. This has the advantage of giving her more muscle mass making her stronger and more durable although not super humanly so.
How long she can remain in each form isn't stated but one would assume the longer she is in wolf form the more she will act like a wolf because she will grow more accustom to functioning with wolf instincts.

If I was an original New Mutants powered composite super being

With Cannonball's powers

Once again for this power set I'd become a sky writer and play “Rocket Man”. However there's a different thing I would do. Thrust being a big component of the power set I'd build myself a “flying shell” that I could use as a cargo carrier or even a passenger carrier. I'd supply the thrust and the shell would provide the lift. Even if it wasn't perfectly secure the blast field should theoretically protect the shell while I'm flying it.

With Mirage's powers
It's funny that I would get more out of her secondary power than her primary power. I would become an animal trainer or at least a pet psychiatrist. I would use the primary power as a reward/punishment tool. Also I would get a pet and between the pet and this power set I would have my own personal security system.

With Sunspot's powers

I think with this power set you go into the entertainment industry. Most likely entertaining at kids parties. Lifting the parents cars and tying metal things into knots. Doing all this combined with the appearance the power set provides will make you a lot of money I'm sure.

With Karma's powers

In a lot of ways this power set isn't my cup of tea. I don't like to force people to do things against their will. Then on the other hand it's right up my alley as well. The ability to stop someone without hurting them does appeal to me and the dark side of me would love to be able to order people around like puppets. Of course being me I would use this power set for “non-violent” conflict resolution. “Stop punching yourself” of course would have a whole new appeal to me as I make someone hit themselves to subdue them.
Then it dawns on me. Synchronized sports or at least personal training. Get certified as a personal trainer and offer people a work out while they zone out. I would make the body go through the work out and their minds would be free. This would build their “muscle memory” even if not their conscious memory. They could acquire some new skills without even knowing it. I would definitely do that. My slogan would be “Do you find exercise too tedious? Let me do it for you while you relax.”

With Wolfsbane's powers

This is my “take back the night” power set. I spend a lot of time at night in wolf form running around exploring. Using my transitional form to get me into places I couldn't because of the limitations of the wolf form. I'm not saying I'd go running out into the forest but rather in urban settings. It would be my excuse to exercise more. Running through the darkened cityscape, able to see into the shadows, the cool breeze blowing through my fur. I would love that. I'd do much like a real wolf would. I'd get to know the town I live in by smell as well as the cities I regularly visit. If nothing else it would be my excuse to find new places to visit during the day with friends.

In Combination

Combining all of the powers I might even play at being a “demon” werewolf. I'd live in an old abandoned building and use Mirage and Karma's powers to show I have power over souls. Wolfsbane's powers would govern my wolfish appearance. Cannonball's powers would show I have power over “hellfire” and Sunspot's powers would show that my true power lies in darkness.

Combining Wolfsbane, Mirage and Sunspot's powers I would do as I would as Ursa Major. I would accompany people hunting. Probably track down the prey and carry it out if it got stuck in otherwise inaccessible areas. Of course it would be easier to track then with Ursa Major since aside from enhanced senses the “animal telepathy” also helps. This would also help me steer those hunting towards the old and sick deer rather than the healthy ones. Of course given that I could sense the animals thoughts I would have those asking me to help them hunt take the time and give thanks to their potential prey before letting them actually hunt them.

Combining Sunspot and Cannonball's powers I would use them haul freight in short hauls. As long as it didn't exceed my ability to carry it, I would be a great delivery service.

Combining Karma and Mirage's powers I would hire myself out to help people get over their greatest fears. Mirage's main power would of course permit me to determine what there fear is Karma's power would let me “sedate” the person if they couldn't deal with what was happening in the therapy. I would take them over and send their consciousness into a dream like state while I kept them from hurting anyone accidentally should they panic and become dangerous.

Thanks for reading

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