What would it take to make you a real world hero or villain?
What is the minimum powerset you could be granted that would make you choose to become active in real-life as a hero or villain?
Obviously just about anyone would choose the higher levels, so the rules are:
- It has to be the absolute mimimum set that makes you say "yes, give me those powers and I'll do it!".
- You only get the powers if you actively become hero or villain fighting crime or committing crimes at least several times a month in the real world. You can't just take the powers and dick around with them for fun and personal benefit (but you can in your spare time if you want) - this comes with real responsibility.
- You also can't just fight on the level of apprehending shoplifting teens or stealing candy from babies as a token effort - you will have to attempt to stop serious armed or organised criminals or contend with police/armed forces etc trying to stop you at least some of the time, and once you have established a rep they may come gunning for you. You will be in real danger at lower power levels. Depending on how you operate, you may very well end up having to protect your friends and family because of your actions and mistakes. Also, depending on how you operate, even as a hero you may be targetted by police if your methods go too far beyond the law.
- You can disguise yourself if you want, work openly like Superman, or sneakily like Batman, or whatever MO you want as long as you are personally facing off against criminals or committing crimes.
But the reward is that you get the powers. You also get a special computer system that alerts you to criminal activity or crime opportunities.
So which choice do you take? And do you become hero or villain?
(Entries aren't any particular order unless specified, they are just a range of choices.)
SECTION 1 - Peak real-world abilities
1) Peak real-life human abilities - your strength, speed, agility, and reflexes are as high as a human can have (but with no steroid/drug enhancement alllowed). You also have peak human senses. However you have no particular extra skills other than what you already have or can learn from now on.
2) #1 plus you are as skilled at H2H unarmed fighting as it is possible for a human to be - i.e. you don't have chi-amping and all that crap, you can't do any moves that it is not humanly possible to do in real-life, you can't kick through real brick walls or do wire-stunts, you haven't mastered 300+ martial arts or anything like that. You are only as good as the best real-life human could possibly be around the age of your best physical fitness level. Either mastery of a single discipline or strong skills developed across several disciplines.
3) #1, #2 plus peak weapons training - you have the best possible weapons skills a real-life person could have around the age of your best physical fitness level. This could either be the best mastery of a single weapon or small range of weapons, highly skilled in a wider range of weapons, or just good familiarity and confidence with a lot of weapons across the board. Can be any personal weapon - swords, firearms, shurikens, bow and arrows etc. Only real-life weapons. You also get access to the weapon(s) that you choose to master.
4) Genius-level intellect - you become as smart as a human can be across the board of all human mental skills, with none of the mental instability or problems that are sometimes associated with that (unless you already have them). This doesn't come with instant knowledge i.e. you still have to apply yourself to learn skills, sciences etc. but it would be a lot easier mastering them if you wanted to.
5) #4 plus you are the best educated person that you could possibly be in real-life. Again, you could choose to be absolute expert in a smaller range of fields, or excellent across a wider range of fields. Or know a bit about almost everything.
6) You get #1 through #5.
7) You get #1 through #5, plus you are as rich as Bill Gates.
SECTION 2 - Some powers and stuff
8) You get all Captain America's powers and skills - i.e. you can do the stuff that Cap can do in the comics, with his strength level, but in the real world. No shield.
9) #8 plus Cap's shield and Batman's standard utility belt (movie version level stuff only) with regular supplies for it.
10) #8, #9 plus you are bullet-proof enough to not be much affected by small arms, blades etc, and to survive (but with some serious discomfort, broken ribs and major bruising) heavier weapons such as assault rifles.
SECTION 3 - More than human
11) Flight at up to mach 0.3. You can survive the speed and are comfortable up to 20,000 feet altitude.
12) Xavier-level telepathy.
13) Classic Quicksilver level speed.
14) Mystique's shape-changing abilities.
15) Wolverine's power set, but with real-world alloys instead of adamantium i.e you can't just cut through brick walls and solid steel doors like butter like in the comics.
16) Invisible Woman's powers.
17) Spider-Man's powers and web-shooters.
18) Green-Lantern's ring but limited to constructs and flight.
SECTION 4 - Total Superhuman
19) Hulk's powers in the real world (but you look the same).
20) Superman's powers in the real world.
21) Silver Surfer's powers in the real world.
22) Cyborg Superman's powers in the real world.
23) Thor's powers and hammer.
SECTION 4 - Ridiculous levels
24) Dark Phoenix powers.
OTHER
25) I'm a coward and/or I have no interest in helping people or breaking the law. Nothing could convince me to become a super-hero or villain.