Mastermind Excello

Strength 9d

Agility 6a

Intellect 4c

Willpower 8d

Hand Size: Edge:

4 (25) 2

Origin:

Earl Everett, known to the world as Mastermind Excello, is a psi. His brain damaged by a radioactive bullet, he surprised the medical community by developing psionics instead of dying on the operating table - psionics he uses to ferret out spies and saboteurs!

Powers:

Natural Psionics (Metapsi Powers):

Adrenal Boost (t) (w): Earl can temporarily boost his Strength score by +1, doing so for an aura duration. This is exhausting in the long run, however, and Earl will suffer a like penalty for another aura duration once his adrenal boost wears off.

Super Senses (s) (w): a more physical manifestation of his increased mental prowess, Earl has experienced a vast improvement in the efficiency of his various, conventional senses. He now perceives his environment with intensity 16 acuity - which isn't always a plus.

Natural Psionics (Psimotive Powers):

Telelocation (s) (w): this intensity 6 power allows Earl to get an exact fix on any one person or thing. Easy actions locate familiar things, average actions will locate things he's not quite familiar with, and challenging actions can be used to find people or things he has little experience with.

Natural Psionics (Psipathic Powers):

Precognition (a) (i): mainly focused upon his person, this power allows Earl to know exactly where he's supposed to be at any given moment in time, to better achieve his current goals. This power functions at intensity 4 for Earl.

Auscultation (t) (w): one of his first psionics to manifest, this intensity 13 ability allows Earl to eavesdrop on ambient thoughts in his vicinity. Earl may readily perceive the unshielded thoughts of any individuals within near missile distance of his person.

Lie Detection (s) (w): similarly, this intensity 10 skill gives Earl the power to perceive whether or not the mind of an unshielded individual within near missile distance of his person is attempting a falsehood. Fooling it requires an easy Willpower action, opposed by this intensity.

Clairvoyance (a) (w): Earl can see distant objects, usually aided by his telelocational powers, with intensity 9 skill. This power intensity defines a range that is equal to approximately 1,000 miles, giving Earl an astounding sensory range.

Clairaudience (t) (w): Earl can also hear distant sounds, again aided by his impressive telelocational power, with intensity 9 ability. Similarly, this power also has a 1,000 mile range, though it is usually used in conjunction with his clairvoyance.

Combat Edge (s) (w): this curious psionic skill affords Earl an intuitive understanding of his current enemies. After three exchanges of study, Earl will receive a +2 on all actions attempted against said foe, whether offensive or defensive, for the duration of the encounter.

Hindrances / Augmentations:

(none)

Equipment:

Disguise Kit (a): this kit allows Excello to derive a disguise for just about any situation he needs to. It is quite well equipped, and Excello can almost exactly match any appearance he needs to, within his approximate build, of course.

Liquid Explosive (i): Excello can use this mysterious substance to blow things up, simply by pouring it on to a surface and waiting for a bit. It produces intensity 12 explosions, which generally inflict slashing damage due to how easily they tear up their target.

Secret Chemical SF-44 (i): a top secret concoction of Earl's own design, this super-compound is a super-corrosive agent. It functions at intensity 15, and can burn through iron doors in but one full exchange - inflicting like damage to metallic targets.

Triple Propeller Pistol (a): Excello's Triple Propeller Pistol looks like any ordinary revolver, but it is far from that. It seems to have more power behind it than even a machine gun, and he can fire it to inflict +7 lethal damage per deadly round.

Vacu-Pads (a): invented by Excello himself, these devices allow him to climb walls as if he had intensity 8 climbing, whether or not such surfaces are glass, brick, stone, or whatever. As long as they're not icy or oil-slicked, naturally.

Skills:

Boxing (s): an expert concerning both armed and unarmed combat, Earl can divide his total action score between two unarmed melee attacks, the last of which will occur as a contingent action. He can do this every exchange that he decides to fight unarmed.

Criminology (i): Earl knows about the criminal mind, and is good at piecing together clues about crimes. He can use this skill to solve mysteries, as well as to predict where new crimes may occur. This aids him in defeating various fifth columnists.

Demolitions (a): highly skilled with the use of his liquid explosives, Earl can use them to devastating effect on unsuspecting foes. This skill allows him to pick the best spot to place explosives, a spot that will usually cause the most damage or most impressive explosions.

Detective / Espionage (i): in addition to his skills concerning crimes and criminals, Earl is trained in the operation of spy-type equipment, as well as performing surveillance on a target. Furthermore, he can in turn tell if a body is tailing him, and can take steps to lose such pursuit.

Disguise (a): a veritable master of disguise, Earl can easily make himself look like just about any other person, as long as they match his approximate dimensions. This skill is so potent that Earl can even fool people rather familiar with the individual he is impersonating.

Guns (a): thanks to his US Navy training, Earl can competently fire most standard, semi-automatic, or fully automatic rifles and pistols. This reduces the difficulty of hitting a target with such weapons by one difficulty level.

Martial Arts (a): in addition to his boxing skills, Earl can smartly bring his martial arts to bear against a foe. This skill allows him to reduce the difficulty of actions intended to strike while unarmed, dodge attacks, or catch thrown weaponry by one difficulty level.

Tracking (w): one of Earl's many talents is his ability to follow others through various environs. Once he catches their tracks, he can easily follow them, though he must make new tracking actions to do so if his quarry's trail crosses something that could dilute it somehow.

Contacts:

In the modern era, Earl can rely upon his fellow former members of the Twelve for aid in a pinch - those who still live, at any rate. Also, as the owner and leader of EXC Enterprises, Earl can naturally make use of that corporation, as well as its people and resources, as desired.

Calling:

Responsibility of Power: though he enjoyed his time as a wealthy playboy and socialite, Earl had his wake-up call after getting shot in the head. Using his powers to protect his country, Earl wages a non-stop effort across the globe to stymie those who would do it harm.

Costume:

Mastermind Excello relies on no one uniform while he's on the job (so to speak). As an intelligence agent and master of disguise, it is unlikely that you will, in fact, see him in the same clothing more than once - assuming you even notice him at all!

Personality:

Having received a moment of clarity after the brain injury that almost did him in, this former playboy has dedicated himself to making up for his wasted life. Using his powers in the service of his country, Earl combats its foes despite the inherent risk to his person.

Real Name: Earl Everett
Occupation: leader of EXC Enterprises
Legal Status: American citizen with no known criminal record
Marital Status: single
Alias(es), if any: many, though they are unknown at this time
Group Affiliation: former member of the Twelve, former associate of US Naval Intelligence

Height: 6' 0"
Hair: brown
Eyes: brown
Weight: 210 lbs
Other Distinguishing Characteristics: other than his pencil-thin moustache and angular eyebrows, none (he blends)

Story:

While his father was an industrious inventor, specializing in nuclear science, Earl himself was something of a playboy. While his father worked hard for the betterment of his country and to advance human knowledge, Earl spent almost all of his time gambling and carousing.

When his father made a trip to London to showcase a new invention of his, Earl went along intending to gamble at casinos unfamiliar with his amazing winning streak. Before he could do so, however, Earl's father revealed his creation: bullets using still-radioactive uranium!

Hoping to stop the British from acquiring this deadly new technology, a Nazi double agent attempted to assassinate him on the spot, but Earl dove in front of his father - somehow sensing the danger the fascist posed. And took a bullet in the brain for his trouble.

Wedged perfectly between the two halves of his brain, this bullet didn't kill Earl. However, even the most skilled surgeon could not remove every last bit of the shattered uranium round, and bits of it remain in there to this very day, posing a lethal threat to the man.

On the other hand, that radioactive projectile served to change Earl, giving him amazing powers of the mind. He didn't realize it at first, but Earl slowly developed a variety of psionic powers on his way home, abilities he used to stymie an attempt to hijack his own ship!

Though almost waylaid by these would-be criminals, Earl nonetheless made it back to America. Soon after, he made a change in his life, and began to use his new, spectacular physical and mental abilities in the aid of his country, often alongside US Naval intelligence.

After one of his many missions, Earl was once again returning to America on a neutral vessel, when his mental powers detected spies on board! He let them capture him, and they revealed their insidious plot: to destroy, with huge bombs, every major city in America!

With that, the spies chained Earl up and depart for America with the bombs. Flexing his muscles like there was no tomorrow, Earl managed to shatter the irons holding him in the bowels of the ship, and chased after the saboteurs working to destroy his home.

These fiends manage to escape, however, and Earl stole a plane to follow them to their destination: the Big Apple, New York City! Once there, he used his secret vacu-pads to climb the building the spies were hiding out in and, cutting his way in, used most of them as punching bags.

He then disguised himself as Kadash, a spy from the ship, and headed to the ship from where the evil Doctor Marko was planning to launch his attack on the City. Learning the skinny from the evil Doctor (who was fooled by the disguise skills of the Mastermind), Earl punched him out.

He then proceeded to blow up Marko's ship before it could fire its bombs upon the city, by calling in an attack by the United States Navy, thus saving the day. Leaving his calling card, a signed note saying 'America First, Last and Always!,' Earl left to seek out new evils.

Before too long, Earl tripped over a ring of Russian saboteurs who were attempting to destroy many of America's rail and subway lines. Led by the diabolical Borovich, these Russians were engaged in a plot similar to Doctor Marko's, a simultaneous bombing of every major rail.

Stopping their latest bombing once he sensed it, Earl was jumped by three rather large men a rail tunnel. Following them after they left him for dead, Earl disguised himself as one of their number and met Borovich face to face - though his disguise skills failed him that day.

Seeing through his attempt to appear as a Russian agent, since he wasn't wearing their official ring, Borovich knocked Earl out and tied him up. Earl escaped as Borovich's goons carted him off to his intended doom, and in the ensuing brawl he dealt with his captors permanently.

Tracking down Otto and Fritz, two of Borovich's main men, Earl found that they split up upon seeing him approach. Jumping Otto, Earl quickly found himself in a life and death struggle, one which ended when Otto was shot in the chest with his own pistol.

Tracking Fritz in his plane, Earl crashed it through Borovich's headquarters. Opening up with his triple propeller pistol, he dealt with the entire Russian sabotage ring... permanently! Leaving his calling card once again, Earl took off for parts unknown.

The nature of Earl's further adventures during the War are unknown. Perhaps they were too top secret for the public to know of? However, he was known to have participated in the Battle of Berlin with a tidal wave of Allied costumed heroes bent on ending the War once and for all.

With eleven other, random heroes, he invaded the SS headquarters, and fell into a trap sprung by that organization's leaders. Thrown into suspended animation, he and the others were intended for eventual dissection and study - but their captors were killed by Soviet troops instead.

Left unattended for decades, Earl and company were only recently rediscovered by a construction crew, and brought back to the United States. Asked by the military to serve as a new wave of idealistic heroes, supposedly from a 'better' time, all of these so-called Twelve agreed.

However, Earl has had an extremely difficult time adjusting to the modern era, his senses overwhelmed by the sheer, staggering sensory overload involved. To this end, he has retreated into a home far from the streets of New York City, equipped with a lead-lined room to dampen... everything.

As his mind became attuned to its new era, Earl slowly regained control of his psionic powers, just in time help the Phantom Reporter confront the Dynamic Man about several crimes he'd committed since arriving in the new century - including the murder of the Blue Blade.

Once this situation was resolved, the surviving members of the so-called Twelve went their own way. Earl, having planned for needing money this far in the future, had set up a trust fund, one which he used to purchase the world's largest private investigative firm.

Renaming it EXC Enterprises, Earl invited his friends from the Twelve, the Black Widow and the Phantom Reporter, to join him in the solving of problems. Since so many mysteries needed resolving, Earl intended to use everything he had to accomplish just that. Only with allies this time!

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