Here is Galaxy’s entry from the new Superheroes in Prose handbook, on sale now in the kindle store. Enjoy!
Quote: “I hover out of the bathroom. I ball my hands into fists as I float out, hoping it looks cool. I have to shake loose some toilet paper wrapped around my ankle, which totally ruins the moment.”
First Appearance: Superheroes in Prose #1 Real Name: Gabe Garrison Height: 5’ 10” Weight: 148 lbs. Eyes: Brown Hair: Brown Unusual Features: When using his powers, Galaxy’s body becomes a window into the reaches of space. Level: 8 Registered: No
STORY Despite being adopted at birth by Nolan and Dr. Mary Lou Garrison, Gabe Garrison had the typical early childhood of a boy living in Prose. He idolized his older brother Jack, his father, and most of all Superheroes. When Gabe was six, his father and brother died within a few months of each other. To fill that void, Gabe immersed himself in Superhero pop-culture, even entertaining fantasies that his biological father was one of the great HEROES like Hunter or Liberty.
The summer before Gabe started high school, he met Reagan MacPherson (see Reagan). He fell in love with her immediately, in the way that only a geeky, socially awkward, fourteen year old could do. She didn’t know he existed until the next year when the two had some classes together. Eventually, they became friends. Gabe never told her about his romantic interests, despite the advice of his best friend Bo Dudley, probably due to Bo’s cringe-worthy overtness in his own dealings with women. By the time they graduated high school, Gabe had decided to distance himself from Bo and his vulgar behavior, but Gabe’s priorities changed when he suddenly got Superpowers.
Having graduated high school and enrolled in college, Gabe was looking for increased independence from his mother. He took a job as a barista at Rock Creek Book Store. While taking out the trash on his first day, a blue energy cloud rushed out of the local dumpster-diving dachshund and into Gabe. He had become host to an incorporeal alien consciousness. The alien, who Gabe called M, had almost been destroyed by a group of his race called the Council and could only keep his consciousness together by bonding with another life form. The symbiotic relationship would give the pair access to various special abilities, but the host had to consent to the bond for it to work on a long term basis. Gabe accepted on the condition that M help him be a Superhero. M agreed despite a long list of reservations and his chagrin when Gabe kept the dachshund.
Gabe took the name Galaxy, but his motivations for wanting to become a Superhero were naïve and selfish. He wanted to be special and to have fun. He wanted to look cool. Some success in his first week, which included defeating Dr. Villainous, gave Gabe false confidence in his abilities (see Dr. Villainous). That all changed during a demonstration of Dr. Silas Thatcher’s “Dark Lighter,” a machine used to detect the presence of dark matter. An interaction between the Dark Lighter and the Ramma radiation emitted by Gabe due to his bond with M endangered Dr. Thatcher and several University of Prose students, including Reagan. The accident killed two students and transformed Dr. Thatcher into the Supervillain Dark Light. Blaming himself for what happened, Gabe despaired until his boss, Jessica Gem, inadvertently made his responsibilities clear. With a greater sense of purpose, Galaxy stopped a plan by Dark Light to recreate the Dark Lighter experiment on a larger scale which could have killed billions. Dark Light’s defeat required a sacrifice that made Gabe’s choice to bond with M irrevocable. He would die if M left him for an extended period. In addition, the energy which fueled Galaxy’s powers would have to be recharged after prolonged use.
Gabe continued his secret life as Galaxy, understanding the sacrifices and impossible choices that Superhero life would require. Yet, the people he could protect from a world made dangerous by threats both mundane and Super were worth taking responsibility for. He did not register as required by the Wertham Act. M’s reluctance to have his presence made known to others, and Galaxy’s involvement in the Dark Light incident, convinced Gabe that registration was not a valid option. Over the next several months, while he settled into college life and his job at the book store, Galaxy destroyed one of Shank’s robots; stopped Victor Verse from flooding Prose after he had learned the Sonnet of Storms; and prevented many lesser crimes and catastrophes.
At some point Galaxy came to the attention of Tibus Maul, an information broker residing on a space station far outside the solar system. Maul put a large bounty on Galaxy which attracted the attention of the undead cyborg bounty hunter Deathbot (see Deathbot). The cyborg’s attack on Galaxy put the whole world in danger of infection by Deathbot’s transformative nanites. To save countless millions, the unregistered Galaxy put himself at great risk and enlisted the aid of Liberty and HEROES. He soon learned that Liberty had agreed to help Deathbot collect the bounty. Galaxy barely defeated Deathbot. In the process he saved Liberty’s life and became indebted to Pink, a relationship that would soon alter the balance of power in Prose (see Pink).
The night he defeated Deathbot, Gabe accidently revealed his identity to Reagan MacPherson. In turn she showed him that she possessed the same powers. The impossible coincidence was resolved when Dr. Villainous attacked Gabe and Reagan at the book store, looking for the temporal ray gun Galaxy had taken as a trophy from their first encounter. During the incident Villainous mortally wounded Gabe and accidently sent M back through time. Two months in the past, M temporarily bonded with Reagan and waited for the night of Dr. Villainous’ attack. M helped Reagan defeat the villain and tried to convince her to let Gabe die because M preferred to bond with someone uninterested in being a Superhero. Reagan refused the permanent bond and left M no choice but to save Gabe. The situation caused Reagan to leave Prose after revealing to Gabe that she loved him but could not be with him (see Reagan).
After M’s treachery Gabe attempted to give up his life as Galaxy. Salvador Casa, one of Gabe’s new professors and perhaps the world’s foremost expert on Superheroes, convinced him to reconsider, and Gabe and M came to more agreeable terms when Gabe threatened to fly them both into the sun. Through his ally Pink, Casa knew that Gabe Garrison was in fact Galaxy. He described the conflict brewing between registered and unregistered Supers and that he believed Galaxy would be indispensable in overthrowing the untenable paradigm imposed by Liberty and the Wertham Act.
Liberty made it clear he was ready to act on his earlier threat to kill Gabe and his mother. Galaxy enlisted Pink and Casa to break into the Bend and retrieve from Deathbot evidence they could use to blackmail Liberty. Deathbot refused to cooperate unless he were both released from prison and paid for the evidence. During the breakout Galaxy tricked Liberty into getting his powers stolen by Leech’s brain while Pink possessed it. Deathbot accepted the powerless Liberty as the payment he required, and in return he provided Galaxy with Tibus Maul’s location and the incriminating recording of Liberty he desired.
Galaxy later became embroiled in the intrigues of the Magickal world. The Ward Ember hid within him the late Eldritch’s Magicks, and the pair had to slay a dragon to get them out. Galaxy and Ember enjoyed a brief physical relationship, much to M’s delight. Galaxy had accidently used Eldritch’s Magick to limit Pink’s ability to possess people, but before this mistake could ruin their alliance, Pink’s absorption of her alter-ego Black changed her priorities. Galaxy revealed M’s presence to Pink—and inadvertently Casa—shortly before she was kidnapped by Ms. Mystick and Ember (see Ms. Mystick). To save her, Galaxy coaxed the evil Sayer Macabre into a direct assault on Ms. Mystick’s brownstone in Prose (see Macabre). Together with Casa and Ember, he saved Pink and joined Ms. Mystick in defeating Macabre.
Galaxy has proven himself to be a resourceful hero capable of meeting any challenge. He has made the world safer for unregistered Supers by defeating Liberty and hamstringing HEROES’ ability to enforce the Wertham Act. While he has saved the Magickal community from Macabre’s twisted designs, his ally and lover Ember let herself be possessed by Pink, knowing it might be permanent. Each victory has its cost. The life of a true Superhero will never be easy.
SKILLS AND SUPERPOWERS Once virtually omnipotent, M’s attempted execution by the Council stripped him of most of his former power. Currently, his ability to employ Ramma radiation to access the Void is severely limited and can only be used to manipulate gravity. Without a symbiotic bond to a compatible being’s nervous system, M requires all his concentration to maintain the integrity of his consciousness and cannot focus enough to use these powers. Even bonded to Gabe Garrison, M’s consciousness remains fractured, making it possible for shards of it to be removed. The loss of a shard can limit M’s abilities even further. The piece lost during Galaxy’s encounter with Dark Light made Gabe Garrison and M obligate symbionts. Neither can survive long without the other. This loss also rendered M unable to draw from the environment the Ramma radiation needed to fuel their powers. Instead, the radiation must be produced through chemical reactions in Garrison’s spinal fluid. While M’s conversion method is highly efficient, some spinal fluid is consumed, but M’s presence in Garrison’s central nervous system protects him from the adverse effects associated with spinal fluid loss—up to a point. Once M can no longer protect him, Galaxy is unable to use his powers without risking severe brain trauma and likely death. A healthy body produces spinal fluid fairly rapidly, giving Galaxy’s powers about two and a half full “charges” in a twenty-four hour period.
Members of M’s race are sensitive to most of the near infinite energy spectrum found throughout the cosmos. In M most of this sensitivity survived his brush with death at the Council’s hands. He can use these senses to provide Galaxy with information ranging from the life signs of nearby organisms to the presence of forms of radiation unknown to humans. Most uses of this sense do not consume Galaxy’s available energy, though M can conduct more intense scans which require Ramma radiation.
Galaxy’s gravity manipulation powers can be employed in various ways. The same gravitational field which allows Galaxy to fly can be extended into a “Grav Beam” and used to lift nearby objects. The maximum weight he is able to lift in this manner is unknown, but it is no less than ten tons. Galaxy can also focus gravity into an energy bolt which can be used to repel objects or shatter stone. Defensively, Galaxy’s powers can erect a force field resistant to most attacks, but which must be constantly replenished and can quickly drain his powers if under sustained assault. In the vacuum of space, Galaxy can fly at near lightspeed, able to travel from the Earth to the Sun in minutes. On Earth he is limited to supersonic speeds due to simultaneously maintaining his force field to deflect heat generated by friction with the atmosphere. With the exception of flight, all of Galaxy’s powers are controlled by M. Months of practice have produced a strong enough rapport between the symbionts that M can often determine Garrison’s intended use of their powers through hand signals and body language alone.
Intelligence: 2 (M: 7) Strength: 6 Speed: 7 Durability: 6 Power Projection: 5 Fighting Ability: 2
Advantages and Weaknesses: Born Hero +2 Multiple Superhuman Attributes +1 Flight +1 Secret Identity -1 Uncooperative Alien -1 Power Drain -1
The Superheroes in Prose handbook on sale now in the kindle store!
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