Lewis Carter’s visit to an experimental observatory ended when he was struck by a cosmic beam that encoded a dying civilization’s collective wisdom. Now he’s got all this knowledge and all this power, and it’s threatening to burn its way out of his skull - unless he does something with it…

Background

When did you first use your powers?

When the beam hit, I immediately started babbling. The scientists on scene were alert enough to start recording it. It was astronomical knowledge, but it came with a bunch of innovative something-or-other. I tore apart the observatory’s equipment to build a device, just so I could explain what I was talking about. They were impressed. But they were honestly terrified too.

Who was the first person you accidentally hurt with your powers?

It’s not just knowledge. It’s inventions, and sometimes just explosions of cosmic energy that come out of nowhere. I was showing off one of those inventions when a burst happened. Dr. Dyson, the creator of the observatory’s telescope, was badly burned by gamma radiation. He’s going to eventually recover, but it got bad. That’s when they brought in another guy to watch out for me.

Who, outside the team, helps you control your powers?

Professor Pulsar, a scientist and reformed supervillain, was put in charge of me after Dr. Dyson got hurt. He’s really the only one who understands what it’s like to be me, to have all this, but I’m not sure if I trust what he’s doing with it…

Why do you continue to use your powers?

If I don’t, it’s going to burn out of me, like a fire inside my head, like there’s a star in there and it’s pulsing, the heartbeat of a star, going to burst if I don’t let out the flares that keep rising–

Why do you care about the team?

Maybe they can help me control this. If they can’t, maybe they can survive me.

The Nova

Hero Name: Archive
Real Name: Lewis Carter
Look: Man, White, marked skin, fashionable clothing,
Abilities: Cosmic energies (a civilization’s collected knowledge encoded in cosmic radiation)

Labels: Danger +1, Freak +2, Savior +0, Superior +1, Mundane -1

When our team first came together: We destroyed our surroundings in the fight. Where was it? What did we destroy?

TBD

Relationships:

• You hang out all the time with TBD to blow off steam.
• You once hurt TBD when you lost control of your power

Influence: Locked down facade; give Influence to one teammate

Nova Flares

Lewis has invented a hyper-advanced exoskeleton made of dynamatter, a product of the society in his head. It can sculpt and extend itself into numerous forms, project fields of force around itself, and even absorb or emit energy blasts. Aside from this, Lewis’s extraordinary knowledge and latent cosmic energy sometimes manifest in weird ways.

• Constructs: “I can shape the dynamatter into all kinds of forms”
• Moat: “A dynamatter web projects a defensive barrier”
• Overcharge: “There’s so many ways to transform and manipulate this stuff”
• Elemental Awareness: “It’s weird, I just get these flashes of insight, but it’s always painful”