Powers
Kinetic Absorption: Maelstrom can absorb physical blows and convert their kinetic energy into increased Health and Strength. When Maelstrom is struck, the rank number of the blow is added to his Health. Furthermore, if the blow’s rank is higher than Maelstrom’s current Strength rank, his strength increases by +1CS. The effects of an absorbed blow last ten rounds. Maelstrom can only be slammed or stunned by blows with a higher rank than Maelstrom’s current Strength rank. When not augmented by his siphon devices, the upper limits of his Strength and Health are Monstrous and 400. He has developed one power stunt:
- He can divert absorbed Health into a Kinetic Blast attack with a range of 3 areas which does damage equal to the number of Health points put into it.
Health-Drain Aura: Maelstrom drains Good amounts of Health (bio-kinetic energy) from any opponents in the same area with him. Victims can avoid this Health loss with a successful Endurance FEAT versus Good intensity.
Power Siphons: Maelstrom once built two devices that enable him to exceed the normal limits of his Absorption powers. The first siphon converted the mental energies of the Eternals’ Uni-Mind into an absorbable form. The second device absorbed kinetic energy from the earth itself, slowing the planet’s rotation. Either of these schemes, had they succeeded, would have given Maelstrom power in the Cllass 1000 to Class 5000 range.
Clones: Maelstrom can create clones of himself, his minions, and probably others. When one of them is killed, the technology in Maelstrom’s lair shunts the life form to a new body. The transfer has planetary range (4,000+ miles). This gives Maelstrom virtual immortality, dependent only on the number of clones he has available.
Talents
Engineering,Genetics, Biochemistry and Physics, Repair/Tinkering
Contacts
Arnim Zola, Magneto
History
Maelstrom is the son of an Inhuman geneticist and a Deviant handmaiden, the first known hybrid of these two sister races to humanity. Some time before 1900, Maelstrom’s father, Phaeder, vied with Agon (the future sire of Black Bolt) for the leadership of the Inhumans’ governing body, the Genetics Council. Having lost, Phaeder was soon barred from the Council because of his experiments in cloning, a branch of genetics the Council had outlawed. Faking death, Phaeder stole away from the island-city of Attilan in self-imposed exile. Reaching a colony of Deviants, he met Morga, a Deviant woman, attractive by Inhuman standards but ugly by those of the Deviants. The two mated and produced a son who was later called Maelstrom. Phaeder and Maelstrom eventually fled Lemuria and traveled the world incognito. Maelstrom and his father set up base in the underwater ruins of the island of Attilan when the Inhumans moved their city to the Himalayan Mountains. Discovering molecules of the mutagenic Terngen Mist in the ruins, the two began experiments that they hoped would let them subjugate the two races that had spurned them, the Inhumans and the Deviants.
The existence of Maelstrom and Phaeder was revealed when Maelstrom attempted to steal the Anti-Terrigen com pound developed by Reed Richards and the Inhumans. After an unsuccessful attempt to subject all of Attilan to the compound, Maelstrom commanded his accomplice, the mysterious Deathurge, to kill him. At the instant of his death, Maelstrom’s life essence and memories were transferred to another clone-body in a process developed by Arnim Zola. Phaeder was too old and feeble for the process to work for him, and he died.
While investigating the whereabouts of his mother’s people, the Deviants, Maelstrom learned that most of their ruling class had been atomically transmuted into a single organic cube by the Eternals, another variant strain of humanity. Maelstrom decided to use his bio-kinetic power to siphon the energy of the entire Eternal population while they participated in a ritual. Thanks to the intervention of the Avengers, this scheme failed, and once more Maelstrom bid Deathurge to terminate his life. Maelstrom’s essence transferred to yet another clone and he embarked upon his next master plan, to siphon the kinetic energy of the Earth’s rotation. This plan was also thwarted by the Avengers, and Maelstrom was apparently destroyed. It is not known how many clone-bodies Maelstrom possesses
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