Super-Speed

Effect: Array, Quickness, Speed

Action: Move (active)

Range: Personal

Duration: Sustained

Saving Throw: None

Cost: 5 points per rank

You have Quickness and Speed effects equal to your power rank and a +4 bonus to initiative checks (essentially one rank of Improved Initiative) per power rank. You also have a Super-Speed Array of effects you can do (2 points per rank in the Array). Choose one of the following Alternate Powers, acquiring the others normally (for 1 point per Alternate Power feat).

ALTERNATE POWERS

The following are suitable Alternate Powers for a Super-Speed Array:

• Air Control: You can control the movement of air by whirling your hands or arms like super-speed fans or moving in tight circles to create artificial cyclones, giving you Air Control at your Super-Speed power rank.

• Bullet: You can throw small bullet-sized objects as super-sonic speeds, giving you a Ranged Damage effect equal in rank to your Super-Speed.

• Burrowing: By spinning in place like a drill or digging rapidly through the ground by hand, you gain Burrowing at your Super-Speed rank.

• Deflect: You can bat aside projectiles that, to you, appear to be moving at a snail’s pace, giving you Deflect Slow and Fast Projectiles at your Super-Speed power rank.

• Insubstantial: If you have Super-Speed rank 10 or higher, you can acquire the Incorporeal rank of Insubstantial as an Alternate Power feat, typically by vibrating your molecules at super-speed so they pass through ordinary substances.

• Rapid Attack: You can make a melee attack against any opponents in a radius of (power rank x 5 feet) around of you,provided you can physically reach them. This includes a normal strike or a special action like Disarm or Trip (see Disarm and Trip, M&M, pages 156 and 159, respectively). Make one attack roll and compare it against all targets in the area.

• Rapid Fire: You can throw small objects at super-sonic speeds,like bullets, doing damage equal to two-thirds your power rank with the Autofire modifier.

• Sonic Boom: You can generate a deafening sonic boom around you, a Burst Area Dazzle effect, best used in conjunction with a Move-By Action feat. Alternately, your sonic boom could be a Burst Area Damage effect inflicting concussive damage, or possibly both at once, limiting the ranks of the effects to two-thirds your Super-Speed rank rather than your full rank (since both effects together cost a total of 3 points per rank).

• Spin Attack: You grab a target and spin him around rapidly, causing a Nauseate effect at your Super-Speed power rank.

• Spinning: You can spin in place at super-speed, gaining the Spinning power at your Super-Speed power rank.

• Strike: You can hit faster than normal, inflicting additional unarmed damage and giving you a Strike effect at a rank equal to your Super-Speed.

• Stun: You can create a micro sonic boom or strike with a superfast attack that can stun at target with a Stun effect equal to your Super-Speed power rank.

• Suffocate: By drawing the air away from a target—usually by moving in a tight circle around them as super-speed—you create a Suffocate effect at your power

rank.

• Takeaway: You can attempt to disarm opponents in an area (Super-Speed x 5) feet in radius with a melee attack with an effective Strength bonus equal to two-thirds your Super-Speed power rank. This is a Targeted Burst Area Selective Damage effect that disarms rather than inflicting damage (a +0 modifier).

• Vibration Control: By vibrating your molecules at superspeed, you gain the ability to generate and direct vibrations like the Vibration Control power at your Super-Speed rank (see Vibration Control later in this chapter).

• Whirlwind Attack: You can attack opponents in an area (Super-Speed rank x 5) feet in radius with a melee attack that inflicts damage equal to two-thirds your Super-Speed power rank. This is a Targeted Burst Area Selective Damage effect (costing 3 points per rank).

POWER FEATS

• Seize Initiative: You can spend a hero point to automatically go first in the initiative order. While even a few ranks in SuperSpeed tends to ensure going to the top of the initiative order in any given encounter, this feat is particularly suitable for really fast speedsters who can even reliably out-do others with SuperSpeed.

EXTRAS

• Affects Others: You can share the benefits of your Speed effect with others, allowing someone in close contact to move at the same speed as you.

ASSOCIATED EFFECTS

• Displacement: Moving rapidly from place to place you leave “after-images,” duplicating the effects of the Displacement power (see Displacement earlier in this chapter).

• Enhanced Defense: Being super-fast should make you harder to hit, so Enhanced Defense is a common associated power for Super-Speed. A speedster may also just have a high defense bonus in general or Enhanced Dodge (at a lesser cost); making the defense bonus Enhanced just shows it’s part of the character’s

powers rather than the result of skill or talent.

• Immunity: The descriptors of Super-Speed assume immunity to the side-effects of things like friction heat or the difficulties breathing when moving well past the speed of sound in an atmosphere; you don’t need the Immunity effect for any of those. Speedsters may have additional Immunity, particular to heat in general (environmental, 1 rank; damage, 5 ranks; all effects, 10 ranks) or minor things like Immunity to Vertigo (protecting against certain Nauseate or Stun

effects, for example).

Protection: While most speedsters rely on having a high defense bonus (see Enhanced Defense, previously), some may also be extremely tough to withstand the rigors of moving at super-speed, and possibly colliding with obstacles! GMs should note that speedsters with substantial Protection are quite effective at making slam attacks (see Slam, M&M, page 158).

Wall Run: You can run up and down walls and other vertical surfaces without a Climb check; Super-Movement (wall-crawling), Limited to while running.

Water Run: You can run across the surface of water without sinking as long as you keep moving; Super-Movement (water walking), Limited to while running.