LNH20: Earth-Twenty Roundup Thread And Getting The New Tag In There

[Adrian James McClure]

Right now I'm archive-binging Teenfactor, even though, as Tom Russell
has admitted many a time, the stuff he wrote as a teenager should be
prohibited under the Geneva Convention. I started out reading a lot of
Tom Russell's early stuff to research the backstory of UM, and I
decided to keep reading this to see how he developed from the author
of Manga Girl to the author of Net.Heroes On Parade. It's actually
kind of heartening to read the bad early work of someone who evolved
into an exceptional writer, it makes you more confident about where
you can go. (I should consider myself very lucky that most of my
teenage work was written elsewhere.)

Anyway: The idea I had for the founder of Pla.net.ary is a version of
Teenfactor's former leader, Jennifer Frost (an, er, homage of Emma
Frost), with elements of Elijah Snow and Catalyst Lass. I haven't
gotten to the good issues of Teenfactor yet so there are probably
important dimensions of her character I'm missing; I'm only vaguely
aware of the whole Voidmaster thing from what Tom wrote about it
later.

So: On January 1, 1912, a cabal of six low-level psychics known as the
Shadow Skimmers gathered together to carry out a ritual to shape the
destiny of the next century. They were all children of Voidmaster, a
powerful psychic and spiritualist who acted as a servant of Death.
Like the Olympians, they wanted to overthrow their father and become
the gods of a new age. One of them was a precognitive, and she drew up
a plot to summon a book of powerful magic from the future. A book that
embodied the creative potential of the new century. A book that had
the nation trembling in fear of the occult power it possessed.

That book was the Dungeons and Dragons Player's Handbook, and the
ritual made the Shadow Skimmers immortal and augmented each of htem in
one of the six stats--Strength, Dexterity, Constitution, Intelligence,
Wisdom and Charisma. Jennifer Frost--actually, "January Frost" would
probably work better on a number of levels. January Frost wound up
with superhuman Charisma, as well as peak human potential in each of
the other stats. This gives her the ability to sense and manipulate
peoples' emotions. The more willpower they have, or the more deep-
seated their emotions are, the harder they are to control; she also
has increased difficulty manipulating more than one person at once.

(Some say that a GM's Handbook was summoned back in time too and
arrived elsewhere. No one knows what would have become of it.)

January Frost, like most of the Shadow Skimmers, has switched back and
forth between playing the roles of hero and villain at various points
in her life. Once she was one of the founders of WHATEVER, but she was
betrayed by her former student Waffle Queen and her half-brother
Pickman Locke (who has superhuman Dexterity, sort of based on the
original Shadow Skimmers member Lockpick.) She founded Pla.net.ary to
stop their plans to rule the world. Besides Felix Landers, their other
operatives included Agent M, Kid Enthusiastic and Guy In A Trenchcoat
Fighting Ninjas; they also frequently worked with Professor Penumbra.
On one of their expeditions they found the LNHQ buried beneath
Netropolis, built (or grown, if we're going by Arthur Spitzer's
origin) by powers unknown. (IE, probably the former Manga Man Gold.)
It emerged from the ground in an earthquake caused by a cessation of
the Killfile. Frost, knowing that WHATEVER would probably start
seeking out the new net.ahumans, wanted to form a group that would
find and train them before they did. The former Pla.net.ary operatives
and Professor Penumbra formed the nucleus of the LNH, except for Guy
In A Trenchcoat Fighting Ninjas, who struck out on his own. Doc
Nostalgia and Minority Miss were their first recruits. Other members
were subconsciously drawn to the LNHQ independently.

As a Legionnaire, January Frost took the name "Charisma Lass." This
was because of Doc Nostalgia, who is a stickler for everyone having
names that end in "Lad" or "Lass" and has tried unsuccessfully to get
this added to the LNH constitution every year. (It doesn't have to
apply to him because he was one of the first.) He's the Legionnaire
who is the most difficult for her to deal with, so she plays along
with this. One of the few people she more or less considers a friend
is Fearless Leader. She is the only teammate who really understands
the depths of his loss. She's very much in love with him, but can
never admit this to anyone, least of all herself. Especially because
she has a lot of things in her past that he would not be happy to find
out about.

(Also, when he was Flame-Broiled Lad, Fearless Leader had flaming hair
like Kindle does now. But losing his powers caused his hair to turn
prematurely white.)