Bubble Wrap
From Handbook of the Union Universe
Bubble Wrap | ||||
| Character Data | 
| Personal Data | ||
| Player | @Bubble Wrap | RIOT ID | 217 | |
| Origin | Science | Aliases | Bubble, Bubbles | |
| Archetype | Defender | DoB | 01/02/08 | |
| Primary Set | Force Field | Species | Engineered Human Clone | |
| Secondary Set | Psychic Blast | Legal Status | Non-Citizen | |
| Epic Set | Psychic Mastery | Hero Status | Vigilante | |
| Power Pools | Teleportation Concealment Leadership Fitness | Known Relatives | Nuclear Power Shocking Thought Red Heart Dark Reflection | |
RIOT |
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| Bubble Wrap |
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| Nuclear Power |
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| Shocking Thought |
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| Red Heart |
[edit] Personality | Motivation | Powers | Vulnerabilities | Equipment | Background |
Bubble Wrap has a somewhat mixed personality. Free of the restraints of the Inside, she is curious about anything and everything she meets, but lacks the understanding to realise that not everyone will tell her the whole truth when questioned. She is brutally honest, incapable of outright lies, though can omit parts of the truth when required, though she prefers not to have to do this.
[edit] Motivation | Personality | Powers | Vulnerabilities | Equipment | Background |
Bubble currently aspires to be a hero, and is driven by what she sees as the ideals of heroism.
[edit] Powers | Personality | Motivation | Vulnerabilities | Equipment | Background |
| Force Field | |
| Personal Force Field Deflection Shield | Bubble Wrap can shape her psychic energy into a physical barrier to protect herself, or her allies. |
| Dispersion Bubble | She can also generate a much larger bubble that protects anyone nearby. |
| Repulsion Bomb | As part of her limited offensive capabilities, she can project a small bubble that rapidly expands, hurling enemies away. |
| Force Bubble | Finally she can project a barrier that pushes her foes away, preventing them from getting close enough to harm her and nearby people. |
| Psychic Blast & Psychic Mastery | |
| Mental Blast Psychic Tornado | Being essentially a psychic battery, Bubble Wrap is able to unleash powerful blasts of raw psychic energy which she uses to neutralise her enemies. Offense is not her primary role however, and she is much happier playing with her bubbles. |
| Subdue | Using Ashley's memories, Bubble has taught herself to control her psychic power in more subtle ways. She can manipulate their minds to render them helpless and defenceless. |
| Dominate | While she lacks the wide range of abilities available to true psychics, Bubble is able to temporarily dominate the minds of her foes, leaving them unable to harm her. |
| World of Confusion | Bubble can affect the minds of people nearby, rendering them incapable of telling friend from foe. |
| Teleportation | |
| Recall Friend Teleport | Bubble Wrap has developed the ability to teleport both herself and other people. Though she does not understand the technicalities, she describes the process fairly simply: Bubble over here, bubble over there, swap them round and what was here is now over there. |
| Concealment | |
| Stealth Grant Invisibility | Bubble Wrap can generate a stealth field, hiding herself or an ally from the perceptions of others. Since it is mostly a pyschic effect, it is unreliable against robots, but very good against living opponents. |
| Invisibility | If she concentrates solely on her stealth ability, she can become effectively invisible, but while doing so is unable to use her powers for anything else. |
| Leadership | |
| Maneuvers Tactics | Bubble Wrap is trained to be part of a team, working more effectively with others than alone. She is also capable of subconciously anticipating the actions of people nearby, allowing her to react better to the actions of allies and enemies alike. |
| Fitness | |
| Swift Health | Her accelerated metabolism allows her to run faster, and recover more easily than ordinary humans. This has the side-effect of drastically reducing her life expectancy, but was considered a fair trade-off by the project leaders. With her ability to generate power stabilised thanks to Sue, Bubble's life expectancy has increased dramatically. |
[edit] Vulnerabilities | Personality | Motivation | Powers | Equipment | Background |
Bubble Wrap has little in the way of defence for herself, relying heavily on those she finds herself working with. She is also totally trusting, and will believe anything she is told unless it contradicts what she already knows.
[edit] Equipment | Personality | Motivation | Powers | Vulnerabilities | Background |
| 21st Generation Psycho-Kinetic Energy Projection Gauntlets Banded Model | Bubble's original gloves that allow her to channel her psychic energy - confiscated by PPD |
| 23rd Generation Psycho-Kinetic Energy Projection Gauntlets Vanguard Model | Acquired by Nuclear Power to replace Bubble's original gloves |
| Police Radio | Acquired by Ashley |
| Bigger on the Inside (BOTI) Box | A gift from a small wandering robot, the BOTI box is currently used to make Bubble's cookie bag seem bottomless |
| Dream Recorder | Another gift from the robot, this device allows her to record her dreams and play them back on any blu-ray player |
[edit] Background | Personality | Motivation | Powers | Vulnerabilities | Equipment |
[edit] Inside | Background | Outside | The Return | Secret War |
Created as part of the February 08 Test Group, Bubble Wrap was officially 'born' on 1st February 2008. Part of the 21st test group, she was assigned to the Field Defensive Division and equipped with a pair of psycho-kinetic energy projecting gloves that allowed her to channel raw psychic energy into physical energy fields, such as force fields. Like all of the test subjects, she was branded with a tattoo on her back, identifying her as part of the Vanguard RIOT project, subject 217.
In her initial tests, Bubble Wrap performed exceptionally well, leaving her supposedly identical counterparts far behind. A review of her genetic profile revealed a subtle flaw introduced during the cloning process that increased her pychic potential at the expense of accellerating the breakdown of her body, or the Failsafe. Though initially considering her a triumph, they quickly realised that her raw power was uncontrollable, and often damaging to the equipment being used to channel it. After realising she was beginning to develop the ability to channel her power without her gloves, they scheduled her for termination.
While being escorted to the execution chamber, the guards mentioned what was to happen to her. Categorising them as a threat, Bubble Wrap killed them. When confronted by more powerful forces, she panicked and accidentally teleported herself to the surface.
[edit] Outside | Background | Inside | The Return | Secret War |
Wandering the streets of the city, Bubble Wrap soon encountered a small band of heroes tackling a seemingly overwhelming horde of clockwork. Following her training, she joined forces with them, her defensive abilities turning the tide and bringing about a swift end to the battle. After introductions and a brief discussion, the heroes suggested that Bubble Wrap would be a suitable name, and she took it as her own. They then went their seperate ways.
Bubble Wrap eventually arrived in Galaxy City, meeting a number of people at the statue of Galaxy Girl. Her discussions with these people led her to decide that she could learn much about Outside from them, and so she began to return regularly, while exploring the city during the day. After a few days, she encountered Ashley Gray, a telepath who entered Bubble Wrap's mind out of curiosity. The combination of Ashley's abilities and Bubble Wraps raw power forged a telepathic link, and the constant chatter of the other test subjects in Bubble Wrap's head threatened to drive Ashley crazy. The Collective decided that the only way to resolve the situation was for Bubble Wrap to break her link. After Ashley promised to maintain the link with Bubble Wrap, so that she wouldn't be alone, Bubble Wrap overloaded her gloves, the psychic feedback breaking her link and leaving her only able to talk to Ashley. Though not immediately obvious, the removal of the Collective's presence caused Bubble Wrap to suffer a mental breakdown. Though functioning relatively normally, her mind has been damaged, and much of her personality has stopped showing through, hidden behind an almost robotic adherence to her mission and purpose.
Her next priority was to restore her capabilities, and with the help of of friendly robotic armoured suit, she was able to locate a number of possible sites to acquire spare parts for her gloves. All were advanced research facilities, and after brief observations, she broke into one of them and stole the parts she needed. She was briefly cornered by Longbow agents after tripping the alarm, but had sufficient time to jury-rig the gloves and teleport to safety. Her picture, however, was released into the local media, and she had a number of clashes with Longbow and Vanguard, the latter now aware that she was active in the city.
The next day, a number of people expressed an interest in her picture, and activities, and the concept of money and buying was explained to her. One in particular, Steve or Lightning Shock, volunteered to buy her any more items she needed, provided she refrained from breaking any more laws. Deciding that the success of her mission required funds, Bubble Wrap assigned Steve as an officer in her adhoc chain of command, and took his request as a direct order. She began to draw up a list of components needed to construct a massive telepathic teleporter, powered off the raw psychic energy of the cities psychic population, however this plan was cut short. A chance encounter with Sue, or Psysan, garnered the rough location of Inside thanks to its dampening field. Explaining the situation and her plan to Steve, she was disuaded from using the teleporter, and rely instead on a more direct approach. To assist in her efforts, she revealed the battle suit she had been working on.
Built entirely out of scrap parts and salvage from her missions, the suit was a replica of those she had seen Inside. Designed for the field deployment of the test subjects, it provided reasonable armour protection, and was also equipped with its own pyscho-kinetic generators and a stealth system. These latter two required fairly complex components, and Bubble Wrap was unable to replicate them from scrap, but Steve suggested that the parts for those would be easier for him to acquire than the parts for her teleporter. Her own gloves were modified slightly to replace the ones normally built into the suit.
Her plans were cut short, however, whan Ashley discovered her picture and questioned her on what she had done. Taking it as her duty, she tried to arrest Bubble Wrap, who was unable to resist her hardwired instruction to never be detained, and the two fought a brief psychic battle, as Ashley was unable to physically breach Bubble Wrap's force fields. Though Bubble Wrap managed to overcome Ashley's initial assault, she was totally drained and overwhelmed by several further psychic blasts Ashley unleashed. When Ashley recovered, she walked away from Bubble Wrap in disgust, leaving her alone, injured and horrible tortured in her mind. Her efforts to prevent Directive One from taking over had destroyed Bubble Wrap's mental programming, erasing her mission, and all she had left was the directive, and her self-loathing for not being able to overcome it, and for hurting the one person she actually cared about.
Unable to resolve the conflict in her mind, she decided to return to Inside and accept whatever fate was coming to her. This was interrupted, however, by Steve. She contacted him, intending to hand over her gloves so he could return the stolen parts, and he questioned her over what had happened. When he discovered what she intended to do, he told her to go to his house and wait, and he would talk to her. Still considering him part of her chain of command, she took this as an order and complied.
After being persuaded not to turn herself in, Bubble Wrap was tasked with freeing her fellow test subjects, and gathering information about the hardwired instructions in her mind, and possible ways to remove them. After days of careful observations and planning, Bubble Wrap was ready to attempt to infiltrate the facility, however on the day she intended to go in, she discovered that Inside had suddenly been closed down. Overnight, the facility had been stripped bare, all the test subjects moved. Interrogating an unfortunate guard who was patrolling the site, Bubble Wrap learned that the remaining subjects had been scattered throughout a number of other hidden facilities. No longer together, they would not generate the psychic field that allowed them to be located the first time.
Disheartened, Bubble Wrap returned to try and acquire new orders, but to no avail. With Ashley now the only person she would accept orders from, and still unable to face her again, Bubble Wrap visited the statue a few more times, before vanishing without a trace, heading off in search of something to replace the emptiness in her mind, and her perceived absence of purpose.
[edit] The Return | Background | Inside | Outside | Secret War |
After an absence of over a month, Bubble Wrap returned to the city, considerably changed from the way she had left. She returned with her mind falling to pieces, damaged by the continued degradation of her body. With her memory badly damaged, all Bubble Wrap knew was that she had to find someone, and that she had less than a week left to do it. She visited the statue in Galaxy City several times, concealing herself until she was detected and mainly observing. When not at the statue, she kept a close eye on Vanguard facilities throughout the city, half-remembering that they were involved somehow. When she broke into the Founders Falls DPO, she was confronted by several Vanguard security agents, whom she defeated. Vanguard used this as an excuse to get a new arrest warrant put out for her.
Bubble Wrap was engaged in a conversation with an individual she had been introduced to as Richard when a PPD officer attempted to arrest her. Things turned violent as Directive One took over and she nearly killed the officer before being interrupted by a number of heroes. Though she was nearly arrested, Ashley returned in time to prevent it, and teleported her away. After a brief conversation, Ashley went back into Bubble Wrap's mind and attempted to repair it. She discovered that the cause of Bubble's shortened lifespan was the energy she was constantly producing. Ashley drained away the energy Bubble Wrap had left, and prevented her from generating any more, stripping away her powers but granting her a normal life-span.
Following this, Ashley teleported her back to the statue, where she was arrested by the heroes who had attempted to do so before. Now powerless, Bubble Wrap was unable to resist and was taken into PPD custody. The PPD quickly realised that Bubble Wrap was no ordinary criminal. She underwent psychological evaluation and a number of, often violent, tests to determine how serious a threat she really was. Her stay was short-lived however, as the Inside now had her trapped. A strike team entered the Zigursky Penitentiary with the aim of recovering or eliminating Bubble Wrap. Though unable to use her own powers, Bubble Wrap was able to draw upon the mental strength of the newer operatives and use it to power her own abilities. She was able to subdue two of the squad, dominating one utterly and leaving the other to take her place while she escaped. On her way out, she made sure to eliminate as many of the records held about her as possible, a job made easier by the fact that the remainder of the squad also had the same goal in mind. When the PPD secured the facility once more, the decoy Bubble left behind was taken away and locked in an asylum, with no evidence remaining that could distinguish between Bubble and her replacement.
Fleeing to the relative safety of the Rikti War Zone, Bubble Wrap occupied one of the many ruined buildings, using it as her base of operations. She remained there, drawing up plans and pouring through various files that she had acquired, while her duplicate travelled far and wide across the zone, observing and testing the Vanguard forces stationed there, operating under the guise of a freelance Vanguard agent. When the two were together, Bubble drew upon her duplicates psychic energy to power her own abilities and began to train herself to control her powers in more subtle ways. Using the memories she still retained from Ashley, she made rapid progress, however by opening up parts of her mind that had remained closed, she allowed her duplicate to begin to break away from her control. Since the duplicate had another personality lying beneath Bubble's imprinted personality, she was not exactly the same. Subconciously, the duplicate resented the control Bubble had over her, and she saw Ashley as having the same control over Bubble Wrap. Leaving Bubble unaware of what she was doing, she began to form plans of her own, breaking into a number of Vanguard facilities, eliminated anyone who saw her and acquiring equipment and information.
Bubble Wrap gradually became aware that there were gaps in her memories of what her duplicate was up to. Up until now, they had shared their memories completely, but differences were becoming more and more obvious. After a brief conversation with Ashley, she sent her duplicate to Galaxy City to speak with her. Far enough away from Bubble Wrap to be totally free of her influence, the true nature of the duplicate came out. After a mental duel with Ashley, which the duplicate managed to win thanks to her intimate knowledge of Ashley's abilities, she gloated that all of the work that Ashley had done to help Bubble Wrap had resulted in the duplicates creation. In essence, every villanous act the duplicate had done, or was going to do, was directly Ashley's fault. She then departed, deciding that it was time to take her leave of both Ashley and Bubble Wrap.
See Dark Reflection
With her hiding place discovered by Vanguard, her duplicate on the run and her powers intermittent at best, Bubble Wrap found herself in an awkward situation. She managed to remain hidden for a time, but in early january she fell foul of a Vanguard patrol, and was captured. Taken to a secret facility somewhere beneath the city, she came face to face with two people she had hoped she would never see again. First there was the Professor, the man in charge of the cloning project that had created her. With him was the Administrator, the man in overall charge of the project. They had a lot of questions, but Bubble Wrap refused to answer anything, and they decided to deal with her in a different manner. She was taken to the base infirmary and drugged into unconciousness.
When she awoke, she was back in the city. There were bandages on her arms and legs, and she had no idea how long she had been gone, or how she had gotten out. Knowing that Vanguard would be after her before long, she decided it was time to stop running. She was going to put an end to the project once and for all. How was a question she would answer in time, for now all she knew was that she had a new mission, and that nothing would stand in her way.
Returning to the safety of her old haunts, Bubble Wrap soon found herself amongst new friends at the Galaxy Girl statue, as well as one or two old ones. After a little while, it was discovered that she was living on a rooftop and she was quickly innundated with offers of places to stay, and moved into Alicia's spare bedroom along with her few belongings.
Shortly after moving in, she was involved in a Rikti assault in galaxy city, and suffered a mental overload from the psychic energy she was drawing from them. Fortunately, Aisha was present and with the aid of Psysan, she was able to enter Bubble's mind and pull her back from where she was hiding, as well as repelling Dark Reflection's attempts to take over. This shock to Bubble's already fragile mind caused her to subconciously reshuffle her command structure, putting Aisha at the highest possible level, equal with Ashley in her control over Bubble.
Her troubles, however, did not end there. Bubble Wrap's friendship with Twi resulted in words being said between Lea, who looked after Twi, and Aisha and Rhi, who were looking out for Bubble. Lea then took Bubble and Twi to one side, and the conversation took a downturn when it emerged that Lea was technically breaking the law. Since Lea's explanation of the difference between the spirit and letter of the law went straight over Bubble's head, she was unable to resolve the conflict between being required to arrest criminals, and Lea's status as someone whom Bubble trusted and obeyed. Aisha and Rhi took Bubble off to feed ducks and talk, and managed to talk her through her self doubts and left her considerably happier, though still badly shaken and not entirely sure of herself.
Things continued peacefully for a while thereafter, until Bubble helped Aisha to destroy a void hunter base and weapon cache. The mission went smoothly, however as they were leaving the team found themself in the middle of a Rikti attack. Her mind suffered another overload, though more subtle this time, as Ashley's block on her ability to generate power collapsed. No problems became apparent until the next day, when she went to the statue and stopped burning off energy. It quickly accumulated inside her head, scrambling her memories and leaving her thoroughly confused. Aisha and Felix managed to get her to the hospital, where she stayed most of the night before teleporting off in the early hours after being left alone. Aisha and Sue managed to track her down when she returned to the statue, still having very little idea as to where she was or who she was talking to. Sue went back inside Bubble's head and managed to locate the part of Bubble's mind that controlled her power. She created a duplicate and switched off the old one before being forced out by Bubble's mental defences. With her power source supressed temporarily, Bubble was able to burn off all her excess energy and returned to normal. Over the next few days, Bubble merged Sue's attempts to fix her with the old, broken parts of her mind and her ability to generate power returned to normal, and fully under control.
[edit] Secret War | Background | Inside | Outside | The Return |
Now living with Aisha and Felix, along with her two pet hamsters which she named Little Bubble and Little Sue, Bubble herself felt completely safe for the first time since she had escaped from the Inside. She took the opportunity to begin discussing with Nuke about how to go about freeing the clones still trapped on the Inside. Thanks to an unknown benefactor, Bubble had access codes to the mainframe at the heart of Inside, a machine known as Arkham and which boasted what seemed to be a highly advanced AI. Using these codes, she and Nuke established a remote uplink from a ruined hero base which the Collective were using as a staging post and storage site for their operations. The information they had access to allowed them to begin making detailed plans.
Their first objective was to put pressure on the company that had originally come up with the idea for the project, and whose research was used to develop the equipment and weapons the clones were armed with. This company, a think-tank known as Paragon Future Technologies, was partly funded by Vanguard with its remaining funds coming from the private fortunes of its shareholders. The company worked on Rikti psychic technology, developing new ideas and theories. Those that proved to be viable were sold off for other companies to develop and manufacture. The RIOT project had been one of its ideas, but it was not widely accepted as a good idea, and so the private sponsors had begun the project on their own, using PFT's facilities and research.
More coming soon...
