Y is for Yellowjacket!

First Appearance
No, not THAT Yellowjacket! This Yellowjacket is a member of the Motorbots! You can read all about the Motorbots and the rest of the Formshifters here. YJ was Apprentice Blaster's creation, an homage to Bumblebee created after watching one of the Transformers movies. This is a relatively low-mileage character as he was mainly played right after watching one of the movies and then sat idle quite a bit of the rest of the time. This also means I have fewer shots of him. Regardless, I haven't done one  of the 'Bots this month so I thought he would make an interesting entry.

Origin
From the Motorbots post: My backstory concept, modified many times over the years, is that there is a civilization of intelligent robots out there somewhere. One of them started experimenting in ways the others found abhorrent and he was eventually expelled from their society. Searching for a technologically developed remote yet secure place to work he eventually discovered earth and landed there in the 1960's. Not all of the Formshifters were comfortable with simply unleashing their problem child on an unsuspecting and blameless universe so they assigned Maximus Alpha to recruit a small band of fellow bots and track their renegade down and verify that he was behaving himself. If he was not then they were to silence him and any of his experiments that were hanging around. This means Maximus is not just a benevolent do-gooder here to protect people - he's mainly here to kill a villain and stop whatever he's working on, while keeping a low profile with the natives.

Now to help keep that low profile when the Motorbot strike force arrived in the 1980's they used their formshifting power to take on the appearances of some of the most common mobile objects on the planet - motor vehicles. This lets them move among human society without detection or suspicion and is an excellent disguise for what would otherwise be a 20' tall robot. The problem is that once a Formshiter takes a form, it's either temporary or permanent. A temp form takes some effort to maintain and goes away if the bot goes unconscious. A permanent form has no overhead but cannot easily be changed without a lot of energy and some special equipment available only back on the homeworld. Since this was likely to be a long-term assignment the Motorbots permanently took on the forms of the vehicles they saw when they arrived. Unfortunately they cannot change to a newer form and as time passes this is causing them some problems as their once-anonymous shapes now stand out among the 20-30 year newer vehicles around them. "Hey there's a really clean 88 Vette outside" is not conducive to stealthy observation. "Car nuts" are a constant problem for them.

Personality
According to Blaster, he's like Bumblebee. So, check the reference material. I'm pretty sure he means the movie 'Bee, not the cartoon version.

 Yellowjacket for ICONS

PDF Link is here

Attributes

Prowess: 5 (Excellent) - Experienced but still young

Coordination: 5 (Excellent) - Robotic coordination

Strength: 7 (Incredible) - Robotic strength

Intellect: 4 (Good) - Not bad but not an intellectual

Awareness: 4 (Good) - Room for improvement

Willpower: 5 (Excellent) - Better but not the best

Stamina: 12

Determination: 2

Origin: Unearthly

Specialties: Acrobatics, Martial Arts, Weapons (Guns)

Powers:
Blast 6 (Blasting) - Big Blaster, must be in Bot form

Invulnerability 6 - Robotic Armored Shell

Superspeed 5 - Must be in car form

Qualities

Friendly Optimist - YJ is the youngest of the Motorbots, arriving decades after the first group and as such has a more adventurous attitude and a more positive outlook than most.

Epithet: "The Youngest" - this is often used to excuse his behavior

Challenge

Social:"Large Alien Robot hat Looks Like a Camaro" - this can be quite a shock the first time he reveals himself

Bad Luck: "Trouble Magnet" - If one of the bots is accidentally discovered it will be him. If one of them gets attached to a human, it will be him. If one of them steps on a twig and gives away their presence, it will be him.

Social: "Speaks via Sound-Bite" - His voicebox was damaged some time back so YJ speaks through radio/TV sound clips making his speech a little difficult to follow.

Notes: 50 points so not too much. He's a pretty simple character - fast, tough, shooty with decent strength and a good attitude. Bad luck and the rest just keep life interesting for him.

I took a different approach from the writeup I did for the leader in 2011. There I had Transformation as an actual power. I don't know that that is really necessary here as the only reason he changes is to go faster and to blend in. You could probably swap out the super-speed for the transform but at that point it might be easier to just go full alter-ego and give him two writeups - one for humanoid form and one for car form. That seems like a lot of overhead for the relatively minor mechanical differences though it would help to emphasize what he looks like at any given time.

 Yellowjacket for Mutants and Masterminds (3E)

PDF is here


Yellowjacket of the Motorbots - PL 10

Strength 8, Stamina -, Agility 6, Dexterity 3, Fighting 10, Intellect 1, Awareness 1, Presence 1

Advantages
Agile Feint, All-out Attack, Interpose

Skills
Acrobatics 2 (+8), Perception 4 (+5), Persuasion 4 (+5), Ranged Combat: Blaster: Blast 10 7 (+10), Technology 7 (+8)

Powers

Blaster: Blast 10 (Removable, DC 25)
Alt: 4 Wheels down: Speed 7 (Alternate; Speed: 250 miles/hour, 0.5 miles/round; Limited: Only in Camaro
Form)

Camaro Form: Morph 1 (+20 Deception checks to disguise; Single form; Activation: move action)

Medium Motorbot: Growth 4 (+4 STR, +4 Tough, +2 Intimidate, -4 Stealth, -2 active defenses, +1 size
category; Innate; Permanent)

Protection: Protection 10 (+10 Toughness; Impervious [7 ranks only])

Robotic Life: Immunity 30 (Fortitude Effects)


Offense
Initiative +6
Blaster: Blast 10, +10 (DC 25)
Grab, +10 (DC Spec 18)
Throw, +3 (DC 23)
Unarmed, +10 (DC 23)

Defense

Dodge 10, Parry 10, Fortitude Immune, Toughness 10, Will 9

Complications
Duty to Friends and Family: YJ won't leave anyone behind or alone

Motivation: Thrills: This is a product of overconfidence and curiousity and some attraction to danger.

Secret: The Motorbots are a secret group on Earth and take pains to keep it that way

Languages
Native Language

Power Points
Abilities 42 + Powers 77 + Advantages 3 + Skills 12 (24 ranks) + Defenses 16 = 150

Notes: If any of the bots are PL10 it's Yellowjacket, so that's where I kept him. Combat-wise he is fairly simple - Gun, Strength, and lots of speeding or jumping around. Impervious 7 gives him immunity to small guns and hand weapons. In M&M it's possible to directly link some things so in this version he has a Morph ability, and can only use his superspeed when morphed (and cannot use his gun as the speed is an alternate power). He also has permanent, innate growth 4 which makes him about 15 feet tall which seemed about right. This affects his defenses but I've bought them back up to about par for PL10 to keep him as a more dodgy-type combatant.

I changed up his Complications a bit from ICONS. Here he has more duty type issues. I also left off the speaking thing as I don't think you want it to be enough of a problem to get Hero points for it. It's really just a quirky thing about the character rather than a serious disadvantage here.