Valiant!

Valiant! is one of the best known heroes in the world. He can bounce bullets off his chest, flatten ball bearings with his fingers and leap at least moderately-sized buildings in a single bound. His immaculately cut blond hair falls over a noble forehead, never obscuring his keen blue eyes. Appearing as though out of nowhere, he leapt into the public eye by his dramatic reporting in the Gulf war. Keeping up with the troops, as combination reporter and combat machine, Valiant!'s powers and natural charisma put his face on televisions all over the world, where it has pretty much stayed ever since. He works now (as then) as a roving reporter going where lesser newsmen fear to tread, covering wars and natural disasters with equinamity (and frequent changes in his long suffering coterie of camera and sound men). Valiant!'s speciality however, is what he calls "the really dangerous stuff", covering superhero/supervillian conflicts - and generally joining in.

However, Valiant! is at least as well known for his "extra curricular" activities. His fame, superpowers and general all round good nature have made him flavour of the month, appearing with "his fellow newsmen" on "Larry King Live" and "Meet the Nation", at charity appearances, endorsing products and squiring a whole cadre of eligible ladies about town. He donates both time and substantial wads of cash to good causes and has taken care that his public image is as squeaky clean as possible. Everybody loves Valiant! - except possibly other reporters, other Heroes and people who like a quiet life.

In appearance Valiant! is the very image of a superhero - tall, blond, blue-eyed and muscular. He has no costume as such, preferring to dress in gun-metal grey tailored suits (made of kevlar and steel fibre weave) and discreetly reinforced italian shoes. He sports a large and chunky Rolex watch (indeed, rumour has it that his payment for the endorsements he does for Rolex comes largely in replacements for watches destroyed). He is often seen driving his black Porsche (normally at highly illegal speeds) through the streets of New York, heading for some superpowered conflict.

However, Valiant! has one dirty little secret - where his powers came from and how they are maintained. A fairly talentless army recruit, he volunteered for one of the "super soldier" projects that were all the rage in the military of the '80s. Like so many, this project went wrong, but instead of transforming him into a raging monster it had no apparent effect at all. When the project was disbanded, he returned to normal duties, eventually ending up in the army's News pool. Transferred to the Gulf, he was in barracks when that fateful scud missile arrived. As he stared death in the face, Valiant suddenly found a surge of power within himself and transformed. Nearly invulnerable, he survived, while his previous identity is still listed as "missing in action" - presumed blown into bits. Valiant!'s actions during the war, and high profile since, has rendered him immune to nasty questions about his origin - so far.

In his superhero form, he despises his old "normal" self and returns to that form as rarely as possible. In fact, since his transformation depends on a force of will, he only returns to normal form if he is knocked out, asleep or otherwise out of control. He will go to great lengths to avoid discovery of his true "inferior" form. Once in his normal form, only a direct threat to his life will produce enough adrenaline to enable him to retransform - and his normal form doesn't care for his reckless superheroic form much anyway.....

CHA	VAL	Cost
STR	60*	40
DEX	32*	53
CON	20*	16
BOD	15*	8
INT	10
EGO	10
PRE	15*	4
COM	20*	4
PD	20/30*	6
ED	10/20*	5
SPD	8*	30
REC	16
END	40
STUN	55
Total		166
OCV	11	± 3 (punch, grab, block)
DCV	11	± 3 (punch, grab, block)
ECV	3

	Powers, Skills, Etc.
2	Transport Fam: Small Ground Vehicles and Helicopters
4	KS: Network Broadcasting, Video photgraphy (both 11-)
12	CSL: +3 with Punch, Grab or Block
10*	Life support -extreme heat, pressure and radiation, self contained breathing (1 use, recoverable, lasts 5 min - holding breath), doesn't sleep
4*	5 points power defense
4*	5 points lack of weakness
25*	Resistant PD/ED (10/10)
14*	Movement Multipower - 18 point reserve
1	(u) +9" Running (15" total)
1	(u) +9" Leaping (21" total)
2*	Contact (11-, variable special effect) Celebrity of the week
5	Perk: Well-off
84	Powers Cost
250	Total Cost

150+	Disadvantages
20	Psychological limit. - Insanely overconfident (common, total)
15	Psychological limit. - Must be in the limelight - (common, strong)
10	Psychological limit. - Hates his "non-super" persona (uncommon, strong)
15	Accidental change (14-, uncommon circumstances - when unconscious or in great danger)
20	2 x DNPCs (8-, camera and sound crew, both normals)
15	Reputation (14-) Superhero, and media star
10	Public ID