Nemesis Game

Subject: Nemesis Game
Author: Darkotas
Posted on: 2015-03-18 17:33:00 UTC

So I saw an interesting thread on Reddit, and I thought it might be fun to have on here as well. The basic premise is this: create a superhero or supervillain. List their powers and goals, plus maybe a short backstory or list of motives if you'd like. The next person to post will create a nemesis for that hero or villain, with all appropriate information on why they are a nemesis. Feel free to make a new hero/villain for the next person to do as well.
Here's an example:

VILLAIN: Quarry
POWERS: Basically an Earthbender.
Motive: He likes minerals and rare metals. A lot. His main targets are jewelry stores and treasuries for precisely this reason.

NEMESIS: The Paperboy (Hero)
POWERS: The ability to control paper. Skilled in origami.
Backstory: Bob Brickman was a journalist tired of writing depressing stories about his city. One day, he got hit by a radioactive paper airplane. Now he fights crime as The Paperboy, in the hopes that he will be able to write more uplifting stories about his alter ego.
NEMESIS STATUS: Well, duh. Paper beats rock!

So, to start things off...
VILLAIN: The Pun-isher.
POWERS: He knows the worst puns ever created, and uses gadgets themed in horrible, cringe-y ways.
Motive: He takes hostages. After that, he subjects them to increasingly-worse puns until they pay the ransom.

Reply Return to messages

Nemesis Game by Darkotas on 2015-03-18 17:33:00 UTC

Let's see... by Anonymous on 2015-03-18 23:23:00 UTC Reply

Grammar Nazi (hero)
Powers: The absolute expert on grammar and spelling for all languages.
Motive: To make sure writing is treated with the respect it deserves!

Word-Wind (villain)
Powers: Can create cyclones inside a Writer's head that can cause forgetfulness, confusion, and Writer's Block.
Motive: To cause chaos for writers.

That was fun. :)
CAPE FIGHT CAPE FIGHT CAPE FIGHT by Scapegrace on 2015-03-18 19:47:00 UTC Reply

NEMESIS: Earworm (Master 4-7)
POWERS: Induces potent auditory hallucinations. Generally, they take the form of catchy modern pop songs, but other noises are available.
BACKSTORY: A deaf, orphaned girl who has been thoroughly institutionalised by years in the ever-ironically-named care system, Ellie Reed eventually taught herself to "feel" music via the vibrations from speakers. She now goes around as Earworm, wanting to spread this newfound joy to everyone she meets.
NEMESIS STATUS: If you can't hear the puns, you can't be hurt by the puns.

VILLAIN: Backlash (Primary Striker 6, Secondary Mover and Master ratings)
POWERS: Point-blank telekinesis, the reach of which is extended by handheld items (though not bullets fired from a gun, for instance). Carries a bullwhip for precisely this reason and not because she really, really has a thing for Indiana Jones why do people keep asking thaaaat?
Motive: Oh, so you think it belongs in a museum, do ya? Well, this girl begs to differ.

Let's give it a go. by Storme Hawk on 2015-03-18 21:45:00 UTC Reply

Nemesis: Twitch
Powers: Super speed, enhanced senses, being fused with a sentient AI occasionally helps as well.
Backstory: From the future, Twitch has come back to preserve more things so that the people in his future have more of an idea about the history of earth than they currently have (which is to say, not much). Having been fused with Sasha, one of the first fully sentient AI's in the future, by the government before he was sent into the past, Twitch has a full list of things he must try and preserve for the future, even if some of them seem slightly obscene (that incident with the Empire State Building and a giant case is generally not mentioned). Whilst he seems to talk to himself quite a lot, it is in fact Twitch having conversations with Sasha, although only he can hear her responses. Twitch has a thing for earth's culture, especially movies, and no he does not have Sasha play the theme of Indiana Jones in his head every time he goes into a fight thank you very much, that was just something he made up when he had too much cider (one of the many things they don't have in the future). Named Twitch because it seems like he never stays still for long periods of time.
Nemesis status: wants to put stuff in museums and totally does not have anything to do with Indiana Jones whatsoever.

Hero: Templar
Powers: Can transfer light, sound, heat and kinetic energy from anything (or anyone) he is touching to anything else (or anyone) he (or it) is touching, or to himself.
Goals: To defeat villains, to uphold the values of the church and to fight for peace and justice.

Seriously you have no idea how much I love cooking up capes. by Scapegrace on 2015-03-18 23:41:00 UTC Reply

NEMESIS: Pandemonium (Shaker 8, Thinker 3)
POWERS: The ability to create what she calls a "Limbo Zone" - an area of land where there is nothing. No light, no warmth, just darkness and silence. The introduction of energy into this system, beginning by just walking into the place, begins to twist it into a nightmarish hellscape, the details of which change every time according to the subconscious fears of those imparting energy.
BACKSTORY: Growing up in an extremely Catholic household in a rural Irish village, the young priest's daughter was a lonely child, strange and isolated, often off in her own world. She sought escape, you see; escape from the endless violent acts and indignities her parents inflicted on her to "proof her against the sin of the world". While she was eventually adopted (amid a national scandal), she still harbours the bitterest loathing for the Christian God and his faithful, and frequently goes out of her way to attack churches with her power.
NEMESIS STATUS: Both ideologically and in terms of power, she is antithetical to Templar, a hero she doesn't consider to be a true hero at all.

VILLAIN: Silica (Blaster 8, Brute 5)
POWERS: The creation of a... well, force field is the wrong word. Or words, as the case may be. He is able to create an area of intense heat and pressure extending about a foot from his body (at maximum), which he generally uses to form constructs out of what basically amounts to volcanic glass. Spears, shields, sculpture, as long as it's a fairly simple shape he can make it. It also renders him rather effective at tanking shots; anything up to 40K-style Bolter rounds gets melted down by his field before it can touch him, and he's obviously not fazed by flamethrowers.
MOTIVE: A former abstract sculptor from the West Midlands, Silica worked in glass and had an exhibit at the Tate Modern gallery - an exhibit that was entirely destroyed during a superpowered fight between two groups who both purported to be heroes. When he exhibited a similar collection at Tate St. Ives, it was smashed to pieces by a self-professed heroine with poor control over her powers unleashing a storm of gravitational anomalies all over the shop and accidentally levelling the museum. When he exhibited again... you get the idea. Now he works as a professional herokiller, and if you can afford his rates, Silica will stop at nothing to make sure your target dies as horribly and slowly as possible. And with superheated glass and an artist's imagination, that's not the kind of fate you want.

Ooh, another Worm fan? by firemagic on 2015-03-19 01:58:00 UTC Reply

Man, I need to finish reading that lovely series. Have you seen the Weaver Dice Rules?

NEMESIS: Crackdown (Breaker, Shaker, levels I have not pondered)
Powers: Crackdown's powers are fairly simple. Crackdown can create a 'frailty field', where any large inorganic objects within become extremely delicate and prone to breaking apart. The exact amount of breakage depends on how strong the structure is to begin with, and how much Crackdown is focusing on it, but in general most objects can be shattered to bits by a touch.
Motive: Crackdown was a former practical-effects guy for movies, with a particular talent in buildings falling apart in explosions, Load-Bearing-Boss situations, and other such circumstances. However, when an earthquake struck as a result of a cape battle, Crackdown triggered and gained their powers. Upon seeing the damage that battles could do, Crackdown resolved to use their powers to help keep the collateral damage of battles to a minimum (along with beating up villains.)
Nemesis Status: Crackdown understands, to some extent, why Silica is upset, but thinks that he went too far in his grudge, considering that he's upset over accidents.

HERO: Sparkler (Striker 5)
POWERS: Sparkler's power is very very basic. She can, by touching objects, cause them to suddenly give off energy in the form of light, heat, or sound, or multiple at once. Essentially, she can grab a rock and turn it into a flashbang. Due to the Manton Effect, she can't do this to anything living, though.
MOTIVE: Sparkler just wants to be a classic hero, righting wrongs and doing good. Her powers require some finesse to be nonlethal, but she does her best with materials to keep things safe.

((yeah I'm not very good at motives/backstory today, hrm.))

Yup! Love it to pieces. by Scapegrace on 2015-03-19 19:09:00 UTC Reply

To the point where I infected Iximaz (and technically Darkotas, if only by proxy). Tt = best fox. =]

And as for you, Sparkler...

(aside from the obvious being Grue, or Fog, or Clockblocker, or any teek...)

NEMESIS: Redline (Trump 6)
POWERS: Redline describes his power as "dangerous escalation". He is able to greatly enhance the powers of multiple capes, but at great cost to the capes themselves. Typically this implies removing invulnerabilities to effects they create - a fire-hurling Blaster becoming easily burned, a Mover with super-speed becoming affected by the friction of air resistance, and so on.
BACKSTORY: A thrill-seeker and former low-level wrestler, DeShawn Elliott triggered when a hardcore fight went dangerously out of control and a neo-Nazi proceeded to be the tar out of him. Desperate and fearing for his life, he reached out and tapped into the essence of the guy's power, knowing he could hold out a little longer if he just dodged. The man, later discovered to be the notorious cape Stormfront (not to be confused with Stormtiger, who was on the Eastern Seaboard at the time), seemed to grow and swell with each passing second, until the strain on his internal organs basically gave him a case of Important-Bits-Blowing-Up-But-Good.
NEMESIS STATUS: Honestly? He plays it off as trying to help, but really he thinks she's a liability, a bad cape in a worse part of town trying and failing to be the hero she thinks she is. His power is extremely dangerous, especially for a Striker like Sparkler. Her objects often blow up in her hands when he's around and the effect makes it harder for her to control the detonation. The other capes on Sparkler's team have a habit of neglecting to mention that he's there... possibly because she sings Disney songs at three in the morning when Targeter's just trying to get some darn sleep-

Ahem.
((Worm omg yesh)) (nm) by Iximaz on 2015-03-19 03:14:00 UTC Reply

+1 to the Worm fandom here by Tomash on 2015-03-19 03:57:00 UTC Reply

I haven't read the series thoroughly, but I really liked what I did read.

I just finished it. by Darkotas on 2015-03-19 04:04:00 UTC Reply

IT IS AMAZING. Anyway, off to TVTropes to see what I may have missed!

I approve of this. by SkarmorySilver on 2015-03-19 02:19:00 UTC Reply

NEMESIS (sort of): Nightshade (Master, Thinker)
Powers: True to his name, Nightshade can cut off any sources of light in an area, which allows him to operate in total darkness. This is useful for confusing enemies, covering escapes, preparing ambushes, etc. He can also melt into shadows and phase through walls as well, the better to sneak up on people.
Motive: Nightshade isn't so much of a villain as an anti-hero. He's neutral at best and has noble motives, but his moral compass don't exactly point north. He isn't afraid to stoop to the same level as those he fights in order to achieve the goal he wants, and he often doesn't care about the collateral harm he causes. If he's thrown innocent civilians under the bus in his bid to get rid of his enemy, he considers it their problem. Those he genuinely cares about, though, are an exception, and he tries to protect them as much as he can.
Relationship: Sparkler started out as one of those annoyances whom Nightshade wanted out of his way. After she inadvertently interfered with his conflicts one time too many, though, he developed a special feeling for her. His relationship with her is a love-hate one and while he wants her out of the picture, he also respects her innocence and unwillingness to do harm to others. It's quite possible that Sparkler may be the key to helping Nightshade truly understand the hidden goodness in himself.

VILLAIN: Seraphim (Blaster, Changer)
Powers: Telekinesis, energy manipulation, six razor-sharp wings, and the ability to get people to believe in anything he says.
Motive: Seraphim was a religious fanatic who gained his twisted powers through a prayer ritual gone horribly wrong. He believes in young-Earth creationism and has deep, inherent misunderstandings of the Bible's teachings. His homophobia, racism, and hatefulness of anyone who isn't "pure" are literally infectious, and anyone in existence could be a target for his misguided wrath and he isn't averse to wiping out entire populations for just being there. he hopes to gain a large enough following to make world bow to the ideals he claims to bring.

Interesting! by firemagic on 2015-03-19 03:07:00 UTC Reply

Though, how is Nightshade a Master? I don't see any control-type powers. Also I think the love-hate thing is rather cute, so.

NEMESIS: Lampad (Striker, Master)
Powers: Lampad's main power is to create a 'torch' - typically a metal staff, but any object that she can hold in her hands and focus on for a certain period of time will do. The torch will then glow with an otherworldly fire, and seeing it will cause mental effects on the viewer, though the specific ones vary - courage can be grown in her allies, or fear and panic in her enemies, or similar. The other power is that the torch can be used as a sort of laser-blaster.
Motive: Lampad was an activist for a variety of causes - LGBT rights, disability rights, anti-police-brutality, all sorts of things. Now, she uses her powers to fight for justice, and uses her credibility from villain-fighting to work for social change. Naturally, she considers Seraphim to be morally repugnant.

Villain: Itzli (Tinker)
Powers: Itzli's tinker ability has become focused into the creation of very sharp things. Laser blades, drills that carve straight through incredibly tough materials, scalpels that can cut into super-tough skin - all fall under her purviews.
Motive: Itzli, as with many Tinkers, loves to make and test her inventions. Unfortunately, she has very little qualms about who gets her inventions, and so often sells to villains, and she's not averse to robbing banks when her sales are low.

What is it with all the villains? by Storme Hawk on 2015-03-19 10:23:00 UTC Reply

Nemesis: Thorne
Powers: Force Fields, more specifically the ability to manipulate the molecules in the air to create a sturdy, nigh-on impregnable barrier that can only protect against things Thorne is thinking about (so if he's only worried about knives, a bullet or a tank will still be able to get through) for the space of a couple of minutes maximum.
Motive: To be a thorn in the sides of all super villains, no matter what the cost.

Hero: Clone
Powers: Inanimate Transformation, the ability to transform into any inanimate object for a, potentially, indefinite amount of time, when she becomes human again hr body reacts accordingly though, so if she's been hiding out as a bin for three days she'll be parched and starving.
Goal: To reduce global crime rate, because nobody suspects that bin they just walked past to be a superhero in disguise, right?

Capegrace inbound. by Scapegrace on 2015-03-19 14:48:00 UTC Reply

NEMESIS: Eye (Blaster 5, Striker 5)
POWERS: Eye is the central point of a potent telekinetic storm that she can turn on and off at will, able to use it to create howling gales, localized tornadoes, and generally hurl objects around. The Striker element to the power is more interesting; she's able to transfer a portion of her consciousness to that object, creating multiple storm centres. She can't use it on living creatures, though. Curse that Manton limitation.
NEMESIS STATUS: As a nihilistic anarchist (translation: she owns a Dead Kennedys T-shirt and precisely zero works by Bakunin), Teri Yates is vehemently opposed to all laws regarding criminality and, indeed, anything else. As such, she's more of a nuisance supervillain than anything else, and her Revolution is mostly composed of similarly disaffected suburban teenagers with sod-all else to do of a weekend.

HERO: Dimac (Brute 6, Striker 8, Changer 4-5)
POWERS: Dimac has the ability to transfer her fatigue and physical injuries to an opponent, which - given her Brute rating means she treats anti-tank rounds the way one might treat pigeon poo - means she can incapacitate someone quite easily. On people with kill orders, though? It can very definitely be lethal. The Changer rating really only refers to her regenerative talents.
BACKSTORY: Corrine Fairbright was a talented martial artist before being diagnosed with Chronic Fatigue Syndrome. Upon the condition worsening, she was contemplating suicide and nearly did the deed when she triggered. Now, though, she's just glad to have her body in working order, after a fashion, and she loves her work as an enforcer who can keep other Brute-rated capes down in time for the containment specialists to show up.
GOALS: To make sure that the bad guys stay down.