And now, here’s the final member of the Checkmate Gang.
The Pawn
“You’re outnumbered.”
Alias: Private Patricia Pond
Approach: Adaptive
Archetype: Overlord
Health: 30 + (
× 5)
Powers
Absorption 
Duplication 
Nuclear 
Shapeshifting
Qualities
Army of One
Close Combat
Fitness
Self-Discipline
Status: Minions
9+ Minions 
5-8 Minions
3-4 Minions
1-2 minions
0 Minions 
Abilities
Atomic Power (A): Boost using Nuclear and use your Max die. Attack with your Mid die. Defend with your Min die.- Coordinated Charge (A): Roll all your minion dice and combine the result to Boost. Attack using Duplication and use that bonus.
- Defensive Formation (R): Reroll any number of minion saves against the same Attack.
- Instant Horde (A): Use Army of One to create a number of minions equal to the value of your Max die. The starting die size for those minions is the same as the size of your Min die.
- Polymorphic Promotion (A): Use an action ability of one of your allies.
- Sacrificial Gambit (A): Take irreducible damage. Increase all your powers by one die size each until the end of the scene.
- (U) Hivemind Expertise (A): Choose one group of minions in the scene. Upgrade all their dice one size (maximum ). (When using this upgrade, the Pawn has 5 additional Health.)
(M) Master of Conquest (I): As long as you are in command of your own forces, automatically succeed at an Overcome involving seizing an area or capturing civilians.
The Pawn
Alias: Private Patricia Pond
Gender: Female
Age: 20s
Height: 5’4”
Eyes: Green
Hair: Blonde
Skin: Light
Build: Athletic
Costume/Equipment: A black and white costume resembling army fatigues with a chess pawn symbol on its chest.
Approach: Adaptive
Archetype: Overlord
Biography
Patricia Pond enrolled in the United States Army when she was in her early twenties. She served in [the most recent war] as a private. She had a difficult relationship with her commander, as Pvt. Pond often acted recklessly and contrary to her commander’s orders. On one mission, Patricia and her squad raided an enemy laboratory. After driving out the enemy scientist, the squad fanned out to ensure that they had all fled or been killed. Pvt. Pond came across a strange-looking machine powered by a glowing blue orb. The machine certainly looked dangerous, so Patricia decided that she ought not let it fall back into enemy hands. So she opened fire on the device, which—as she really should’ve suspected—caused it to erupt in a massive explosion of energy.
Pvt. Pond was recovered from the explosion by her squadmates and taken to an infirmary. After regaining consciousness, she was told that her reckless destruction of the machine—which turned out to be an atomic reactor—had also injured a number of her fellow soldiers. After recovering, she was subjected to a court martial and then dishonourably discharged for unnecessarily endangering the lives of ally soldiers.
Once off duty, Patricia became restless. She missed the action and the fighting. So she found work as a mercenary, fighting for whoever had the deepest pockets. On her first job, she got surrounded by a group of heroic supers. She thought that she was done for, until—somehow—she split into a group of six identical duplicates of herself. With this newfound power, she fought off the supers and completed the job.
After several more years of working as a superpowered mercenary, Pond was contacted by an associate she had worked on a job with before—Jenn Victors. Jenn told Pond that she was now part of a team—the Checkmate Gang—and that she wanted her to join up. Patricia accepted, and was dubbed the Pawn.
Capabilities and Motivations
In addition to her military combat training, the Pawn possesses a number of fantastic powers that the King’s and the Bishop’s studies of her revealed to come from her exposure to atomic energy from the strange machine she destroyed.
The Pawn’s most-used power is her ability to split herself into identical duplicates of herself. The duplicates all share her knowledge, experience, and powers, and can communicate betwixt themselves via a telepathic hivemind. There is also no one “main” duplicate; the Pawn’s consciousness is evenly split betwixt them all. In most circumstances, the Pawn can only create eight duplicates at once, but she has gone over that threshold on the rarest of occasions.
Besides her power of duplication, the atomic explosion she was subjected to granted the Pawn other abilities as well. She can reshape her form to mimic that of others, and she can absorb and then re-emit any type of energy. Together, these abilities allow the Pawn to effectively copy the powers or abilities of anyone, whether they’re physiological or energy-based.
Lastly, the Pawn is able to direct the atomic energy stored inside of her, which she can use both offensively and to bolster her own physicality.
Upgrades
Every duplicate of the Pawn has access to her combat experience and skills, which can make each and every one of them a challenging opponent.
Editor’s Notes
I chose the Pawn’s surname just 'cause it kinda sounds like “Pawn,” but with an extra D at the end. And her given name just comes from me wanting her to have Added Alliterative Appeal. (Which is also where her rank of Private comes from.)
In her bio, I said that the Pawn “served in [the most recent war]”—this is an instance of Floating timeline / Comic-Book Time / Sliding Timescale, just like with Bunker.
So, the order in which I posted the members of the gang isn’t actually the order in which they were recruited. This is confusing, I know, and I don’t really have any excuse besides “I wanted to post them based on where the pieces start on the chessboard.” So, here’s the actual chronology:
- The King is inspired to start the team.
- The King meets the Queen, and recruits her.
- The Queen contacts a fellow criminal, the Pawn, and recruits her.
- The Queen contacts another criminal, the Knight, and recruits her.
- The Knight contacts a former colleague, the Bishop, and recruits him.
- The team stumbles upon the Rook in the underground catacombs.
Well, there you have it. I’ve posted all six members of the Checkmate Gang here; I hope you’ve enjoyed this coterie of chess-themed crooks. Look forward to some more villains here sometime in the future!