Maybe she has a special endocrinarilly induced Sheldrakian shell that eminates a force field. Her biometric response is a collapse of initial quantum layers of any matter. She only responds emotionally. Perhaps she squashes the fine atomic layer of objects/matter that she comes in contact with and produces a fusion. The energy drawn would be enormous… but maybe there is a catch… maybe she takes on some morphic characteristic of the choosen matter…
Ros Page.
OK, here’s my stab at explaining her powers. Basically, she doesn’t abosorb matter; she dissipates it by amplifying the object’s quantum uncertainty until it’s constituent particles jump randomly miles away. Dissipating an object would produce energy, like water flashing into steam; she absorbs that energy, rather than converting matter into energy ( which would let her squash Magneto like a bug, probably; E=MC2 in action ). It won’t work on living things above a certain level or sentient machines, because their self awareness collapses the quantum wave function and prevents her from amplifying it ( how’s that for technobabble ? ).
A related aspect of her powers gives her damage resisistance, as she can dissipate the energy of the attack the same way. This would allow for a variety of vulnerabilities. For example, she could be suffocated or gassed or frozen. As mentioned above, she may need to concentrate for it to work, and be vulnerable to surprise attacks. As well, if hit with really powerful attacks, the energy may start noticeably reappearing, doing damage to the world around her; that allows for some nice moral quandries and tragedies. You know,“The Hulk hit me and Mom exploded !”
You could use this quantum mechanical version of her powers to explain her “broken shape shifting”; she’s quantum jumping between her normal, most probable state, and other less probable states. What she could have been or be; basically turning physically into alternate-universe versions of herself.
Names for someone back from the dead . . .how about Revenant ? Is that taken ?
Heh. I already had plans for Emma and Sage. I didn’t know M was a psychic, too; I was using her as a melee type. Chamber might be good, but I wanted to use him on the other team (I’m going with a blue/gold idea). I dunno, maybe I should try to reshuffle the teams and see what I can put together.
I don’t want to use Magik, partly because I never really liked her, and partly because I think the most powerful use of that character was driving home the severity of the Legacy Virus. I always felt that things like deep-space adventure and other-wordly fantasy didn’t really fit the major X-stuff (Excalibur excluded), and while I intend to use elements from that stuff, I aim to avoid going into it at length (For example; I’ve always been of the mind that the Phoenix Force was more interesting as an unexplained benevolent spirit, sorta like Gandalf in LotR). I have a storyline in mind that brings Vulcan to Earth, and obliquely refers to the Shi’ar stuff, but only so I can use him as one more player in the course of events on Earth.
My major goal is to write a story that gradually introduces the major heroes and villains of the X-world while playing out a series of related events establishing a rising tension, using one-shot sidestories to flesh out particular characters or plot points, with the lead figures all gradually finding themselves on one side or the other of an imminent war. The X-Men and their allies desperately struggle to bring a close, and in a very visible, high-profile way, the world sees a majority of the mutant community turning against those who choose to follow the path of tyranny. The story ends with many of the major baddies still in play, though some would now find themselves in more of a cold-war type situation (not actively seeking a fight, but not at peace either), some of the more prominent heroes would finally be able to see the light at the end of the tunnel, and anti-mutant legislation is basically out of the picture. Not a fix-all mega happy ending, and plenty of room and hooks for future stories, but an introduced problem is solved, and more than that, some long-hinted at but unresolved conflicts would be settled. The futures of Bishop and Cable would no longer be in play, and Earth has the ability to defend itself should one of the interstellar empires come along (not make war, defend itself; like how Switzerland can put up enough of a fight that it isn’t worthwhile).
Oh, and Der Trihs and devilsknew, while I am interested in reading your ideas on this, I would like to state that as far as I’m concerned, seriously trying to scientifically explain super powers (for mutation/evolution no less) is kind of absurd. I have no intention of trying to make scientific explanations for powers, or making the powers conform to science beyond very basic concepts.
Well, I wouldn’t call it serious, or scientific for that matter :). Having an explanation is still good IMHO, both for story ideas, and to provide some sort of consistency to her powers.