The Rifter

V # 1.0

Author: Mark Brinkman

Source of Character: Dragon*Con 2000 – The Omega Files

An 1125 Point Character

Dex: 6       Str: 3       Bod: 4        Motivation: Responsibility of Power

Int: 6          Wil: 8       Min: 6        Occupation: Civil Metahuman Operative

Inf: 5          Aur: 6       Spi: 6        Wealth: 7

Init: 19                      HP:  52

Powers:

Warp: 16, Force Field: 8, Energy Blast: 11, Telescopic Vision: 11, Sealed Systems: 11, Flight: 8, Detect: 9

Bonuses and Limitations:

·         Warp: Dual Linked to Will

·         Force Field: Field Protects User Only, Can Attack Through Field

·         Energy Blast: Spatial Distortion Field Effect

·         Sealed Systems: Power Ineffective Against Gas Attacks

·         Detect: (Sense of) Direction - Knows in which direction a familiar place or item lies

Skills:

Vehicles (Air Vehicles, Land Vehicles, Space Craft): 7, Scientist (Analysis, Observation, Research): 6*, Charisma: 8

Advantages:

Credentials: Team Atlanta, Insta-Change, Lightning Reflexes, Scholar: Familiarity (Lip Reading), Scholar: Familiarity (Physics), Area Knowledge: City [Miami], Area Knowledge: City [Atlanta metro area]

Connections:

Connection: High Level [NASA], Connection: Low Level [U.S. Air Force]

Drawbacks:

Secret Identity, Dependant, MIA (Space), Attack Vulnerability (Fire, -2 Column Shifts), Guilt

Alter Ego: Martin VanHouten

Description:

Height: 5'10     

Weight:  180 lbs.      

Hair:   Black, graying temples     

Eyes:  Brown 

Age: 39

He appears to have a normal build, although shows signs of a good physical fitness program.  Hair is worn short.  In his heroic form, he wears a simple cowl-type mask to disguise his eyes and hair color.  He tries to always be clean- shaven.  His force field tends to distort his appearance (similar to those from the Dune movie, only more formfitting) , and is kept up whenever he flies, enters combat, or is around the press.  He frequently makes his warps high above ground and flies to them.  

Background:

Martin VanHouten had one goal in life, as long as he could remember: To go into space.   It had directed his whole life.  He left high school and joined the Air Force.  He learned to fly several large planes there, and a few of the faster ones, although he was not a combat pilot.  After he had done an extended tour, he used funds provided by the Air Force to go to college, leaning some sciences as well as various other fields NASA would think useful. After graduating, he went back to NASA, and his experience and scores were enough to get him inducted into the space program.  He was only 24 when the NeoTek incident occurred.   He was in the midst of training exercises, when that ball of energy found him.  He knew something was up; the conditions were not right at all for ball lightning, which is what the thing appeared to be.  Further it did not have a charge when it entered him; lightning would have thrown him off his feet.  He was alone, on foot, far from any assistance, and knew he needed to be looked at, wishing he could get back.   At that moment the rift appeared.  He knew what it was almost instinctively, although he didn't understand it.  He stepped through and found himself several miles away from where he was, covering it in a second.  Fortunately no one was at the other side who could see him, and the warp faded as he stepped through.  

Later he heard the news about NeoTek and the strange effects and occurrences that had happened around the world.  He knew he had been affected, but what had it done.  He had a couple days off, so he spent them alone, isolated, in a region of the Florida Everglades testing himself.   He found his vision more acute, able to focus on locations almost at the horizon a couple miles away.  It wasn't long before he found that he could send out a bolt of something that seemed to tear apart whatever it touched.  He suspected from its appearance, and his warping ability, that it was doing something to space itself, and any object occupying space so affected was disrupted, sometimes with devastating results. It came in useful when an alligator surprised him.  He "shot" it, rendering it unconscious.  But as a reflex he also found himself airborne.  He was flying under his own power!  As he tried this ability, and gained speed, his force field activated, protecting him from the rigors of air pressure as he reached several hundred miles per hour.  His speed caught him off guard as he strayed to close to base, and had to warp out of there to avoid further detection and capture.  He seemed to even know without thinking of it where he had left.

He went back after a rigorous self-testing to determine what he could do.  He literally could bridge space for hundreds of miles.  He was concerned about how this would affect his goals with the space program.    Would they want an individual who could at a whim rip through key systems?  Would the altered physics he now seemed to generate somehow affect a space shuttle?  He decides to keep quiet about it until he was forced to reveal himself.

When the Challenger disaster occurred early in 1986, Martin was devastated.  All missions were now years further away, or cancelled altogether.  And there were even rumors that a metahuman had caused the disaster.  For a while, he feared that he would be blamed.  Over the next couple years though, he used his abilities to assist NASA, behind the scenes as it were.  It wasn't until the new laws governing metahuman involvement with the military came into play – NASA did too much in the way of military contracts to be comfortable; he was on the edge of the rules.  He finally confronted a top official he felt he could trust at NASA, swore him to secrecy, and then told him everything.  They discussed the matter at length, and painfully decided that it would be best that he left.  They concocted a story, supported by a physician, that he had contracted some undisclosed illness, which would require treatment.  He left amid several tearful farewells.    He was losing his dream.  He maintained some contacts at NASA, including the official who shared his secret.

Later he discovered while swimming that he had another ability; essentially his own life support system.  Through careful use of warps, he was able to get into low orbital space under his own power. He loved the view, and even did a few satellite repairs, something he had spent years training to do, although some of them where hard to catch and others were several thousand miles too distant for him to reach easily… It took several long hops that were harder for him to do, to achieve geosynchronous orbit.  And he had only so much time up there before he would have to return to Earth.  He kept close to Earth.  That was enough.  He informed his contact at NASA of his discovery, and was kept as an emergency fallback, in the case of some future disaster.   NASA had a string of satellites "fix" themselves over the next few years. When the Civil Metahuman program came up, Martin jumped at the chance.  Although he never really fancied himself as a costumed hero, something he still thought of as more fiction than fact despite his current situation, he was eager for the opportunity to be of service.  He had always felt his abilities were a gift to be embraced and not exploited.    He worked for Team Miami for a while.  He found a wife along the way, one Michelle Higgins a local account executive.   After a nearly 2-year romance, they decided to get married.  Before they started planning, he revealed his secrets.  It explained much to her, she always thought that his "illness" was too vague.  She knew him enough that there had to be another reason; he had clearly wanted space too much.  She was thrilled when she was told he had been there, repeatedly.  There was concern that their offspring might be altered, but they decided to cross that bridge when they came to it.  After their wedding, Michelle was offered a job in Atlanta she couldn't refuse.  Martin stayed behind so "The Rifter" could serve out his term with Team Miami, using his abilities to commute for a while.  Fortunately Team Atlanta hired him up without a second thought.

Personality:

Martin has always been a dedicated soul.  When he puts his mind to it, he gets the job done.   He is a dedicated family man as well, and spends as much time with his wife as both their careers allow.  He puts up a guise as a advisor to various aeronautic construction firms working on space contracts, occasionally putting in an appearance at various southeastern factories.  He is uneasy about being dishonest, as he is frequently forced to do when questions about his past and leaving the space program come up.  Occasionally he even has to fake a symptom or two, usually to answer a Team Page.  

In combat, there is no one that you'd rather have on your side.  He's frequently put up warps in front of normals to use as shields, but rarely ever uses lethal force.   He's had to make himself familiar with his city for him to be used as a quick method of arrival, and frequently finds himself traveling all over the city he is stationed at.