Shimmer
Shimmer [Major] by Iczer
'Excuse me while I slip through this barrier and..oops'
The character can slip into and out of a parallel universe. similar to our own and yet without the inclusion of the character. To the character, the universe becomes dim, and details become faded out for a second or two while he is free to move. To others, the character vanishes, only to return seconds minutes or even days later.
1) Tiny hops: The character flickers in and out in combat. Mechanically, he gains an auto dodge of +4 (no other bonuses) which works against surprise attacks, sneak attacks and any other form of attack. He also gains +4 to roll with punch fall and impact during this time. The downside is that all his opponents also get an effective autododge while this is active (of +0). In all cases this dodge is above and beyond all other defensive actions performed by this character (and his targets). The character chooses weather he is flickering in and out at the start of any round.
2) Short hops: The character flickers in and out over the course of an action. In this instance, the character may strike, and then fade away, only to return on his next action. (the character gains +2 to strike opponents in this fashion, who are usually struck from an odd position and angle). Opponents faced with this type of attack are unable to counter attack unless their initiative is higher than the character, or within 1 point of it. characters slower than this can perform timed punches to counter this, but each timed punch counts as two actions. It also may take slower witted individuals some time to come up with this strategy. This effect can be used to pop through obstacles and other barriers, effectively allowing the character to move unhindered roughly as many feet as their speed attribute while int he alternate world and then popping back into the real world at journey's end. If the character should emerge again in the real world intersecting with another object, he loses as many HP as the target's AR and is violently shoved to the nearest empty space, taking 1 point of damage (SDC first this time) for every foot shoved.
3) Longer jumps: If feeling desperate, the character can vanish for a whole melee or more. In this time the character vanishes into the otherworld for the whole melee. At the end of this time, the character must make a save vs shift to prevent shifting back, as the other realm starts to grip the character. The initial save is 14 and adds the character relevant ME bonuses. If the character is unsuccessful, the character stays for a whole minute before his next save. After that the time increment's double in size, possibly forcing an unlucky or desperate character into spending more and more time in this 'hollow zone'. (after 1 minute, the next save is at two, then at four, then 8 and so on and so forth. after 6 or so failed saves the character has spent more than half an hour in the zone. Eventually the days will turn into weeks and much, much worse, and it may require an enterprising group of characters much difficulty in retrieving a lost teammate.
4) The hollow zone and physics': The hollow zone where the character mostly slips into is a greyed out and featureless copy of our own. Things with 10 or less natural AR are simply invisible and intangible on the hollow zone. Anything more durable has a variable solidity. It can be rested upon or walked through as the character desires (the Item's AR reduces the character's SPD in the hollow zone by the same amounts. slower characters might not be able to force their way through solid steel. Living things appear as indistinct blurs and can be identified but not differentiated(and certainly not touched). Characters who are walked through in the hollow zone feel cold shivers but are otherwise unaffected. Electronic devices fail to function in the hollow zone if taken with the character. There is no darkness, but no real light either, like a diffused twilight throughout the zone. Objects released into the hollow zone stay there if the character zooms back without them in tow, making it a handy place to store sensitive materials and goods. Characters in the hollow zone find that gravity is subjective. They cannot fly, but all characters have the power of glide while in the zone (simulating the effective slower pull of gravity) and any surface may be treated as 'down' for the purposes of movement.
The character may sneak up to 20lbs of matter with him at any time into the zone, and in fact by spending two actions can simply push an unattended item of equivalent mass into the zone without traveling himself.
