Heroclix Wild Kingdom (Intro and Speed!)

I had this crazy idea recently about what heroclix would be like in various others areas of reality and even life as we know it. A favorite subject of mine jumped right out; animals.

What would heroclix in the Wild Kingdom be like? What creatures would get what powers? Well, wonder no more. In this little series you will see what kind of animals would get what powers and more. I'm going to start out with movement powers for this segment and go from there.

FLURRY: Think about animals that could smack you twice or more before you know what hit you. You should immediately come up with just about anything in the Primate family. Orangutans and gorillas are great candidates. They can bounce your head back and forth between their palms with a quickness. Ouch! How about cats? There's a flurry/blades combo for sure. For one that you might not think of, the kangaroo. They can jump up and land both feet on a target in succession. There are even some birds and snakes that could pull this off. The Cassowary of Australia is arguably the most aggressive and mean bird on the planet. It's almost as big as an ostrich with nasty velociraptor-like claws. They jump and kick with those things. The Green Mamba is well known for multiple striking before it's target can get away. Most of the time they can land at least three hits before you can stumble away from the first one.

LEAP CLIMB: Lots of animals would have this as a trait built right in and others would surely have it on the dial. Not all would have it at superhero proportions, but several would. Your apes can pull it off as can many cats. And squirrels, hey, why not?

PHASING/TELEPORT: Now you're shaking your head. No way right? Okay, try an insect swarm. If there are enough of them, they can get into anywhere. I've seen ants get into the tightest and best maintained houses. Rodents can sneak into places too. Anything you could see and find yourself wondering, "hey, how'd that get in here?" is a good candidate for this power. They just have a knack for finding their way through.

EARTHBOUND NEUTRALIZED: This would be more a power for flightless birds or those that have taken damage. Animals that have been hurt would wind up with this debilitation.

CHARGE: Again, plenty of creatures would have this. They could start out with it and move to flurry later on too. Big time chargers would be rhinos, elephants, hippos (yes hippos), anything with horns or antlers, and yeah, the big cats too. Dogs could have charge. So this is another easy one.

MIND CONTROL: No? Consider this phrase: "but it's just so cute!". It may be debatable in some places, but there are animals often misjudged for their cute or pretty appearance. Think of animals with special tricks to survive in the wild. The Opossum plays dead and people often think of the Koala as cute and cuddly when it's not. It's actually coarse and rough. It also has claws. You could go the mythological route and consider snakes to have a hypnotizing gaze if you wanted to. Then, again, we come to insects. In Costa Rica there is a wasp that plants is larvae on a particular type of spider. Once the larvae become active, the spider is literally compelled to build a protective nest for the larvae it is eventually consumed by. Chew on that.

PLASTICITY: Okay, snakes. Primates could show some serious grappling ability. How about octopus and squid? Oh, and while we're on the matter of aquatics, obviously some animals would be confined to their terrain. However, that doesn't make them easy targets. You have to go in after them. Aquatics would have automatic stealth in the water, if you aren't in there with them.

FORCE BLAST: An animal that can repel you back.... hmmm.. how about the skunk? Some animals have defenses that can surely send you packing. Skunks, honey badgers, and even some snakes have this defense. You can even take the knock back damage because you got clumsy trying to get away and smashed into things. It happens.

HYPERSONIC SPEED: This goes to the worlds clearly fastest animals. The cheetah, the pronghorn antelope, and the peregrine falcon. They may not be able to do it as far as superheroes, but far enough. Anything that has it's class's label as being the fastest of its kind could be given this speed power. Oh and let's go aquatic again; the sailfish and mako shark are both capable of over fifty mph. Wanna go swimming?

STEALTH: One word for this one, camouflage. We all know about animals with stripes and spots and colors that help them hide in nearly plain sight. Some could have a built in trait, others use it when advantageous.

RUNNING SHOT: Primates can take this one again. They are well known for throwing things, gross things. They can do it well on the move too. Chimpanzees are famous for this one. So yes, animals can have running shot.

Naturally special powers and combinations apply. Movement symbols are very direct and simply. Some animals can even be transporters, anything people ride works for that one. Then some animals would have the special ability to cling to others and hitch a ride (at no penalty).

So that's one big look at how heroclix could go animal. Yes, I know it's a keyword, but I'm talking about an entire animal set (just for fun- I know they aren't going to make a set like that).