| abstract
| - The Ancient Conspiracy is nearly ready to make their big move and conquer the world. Their mad scientists have perfected a new and incomprehensibly powerful form of Applied Phlebotinum that will overpower any conventional armies that stand in their way. There's just one... small... problem... Either 1.
* The Mad Scientists tested it out on an unwilling victim who has now escaped, 2.
* The victim was willing, but the process was flawed and produced an uncontrollable Psycho Prototype. 3.
* The phlebotinum has somehow been removed from the labs and fallen into the hands of someone who knew diddly about the Conspiracy but isn't inclined to go along with them. 4.
* The phlebotinum itself, if it has intelligence of some sort, has flat-out gone rogue. Sometimes the bad guys take a good guy, upgrade him, and are interrupted before they can do any brainwashing. Even if the beneficiary of the phlebotinum is not initially opposed to the Conspiracy, it won't be long before they Kick the Dog or otherwise cross the Moral Event Horizon in their efforts to get their technology back. We now have ourselves a Phlebotinum Rebel: empowered by the bad guys to be the only person capable of defeating them. Bravo, Evil Overlords. The phlebotinum in this case is usually irreproducible; perhaps the Ancient Conspiracy found a Forgotten Superweapon or Black Box rather than create their own, the creator burned the manual to the Disposable Superhero Maker, or maybe it's a Super Prototype or an Empathic Weapon that's very hard to control. Sometimes though, what happens is they end up with Psycho Serum when what they wanted was Super Serum, and the recipient is (coincidentally) the only one able to use Heroic Willpower to resist its side effects. It nearly always takes the form of massive bodily alteration or a Transformation Sequence, turning the Rebel into a living weapon system. In these cases, expect the Ancient Conspiracy to try again with a less resistant subject. Hilarity Ensues. Faustian Rebellion is a variant. Groups of rebels may result from Guinea Pig Family and Secret Project Refugee Family. Sub-Trope to Pro-Human Transhuman. The more heroic types of Super Soldier often have this for their Backstory. Often the result of Playing with Syringes. A particularly unlucky example will also be a Phlebotinum Muncher or Flawed Prototype. Most cases of this are preceded with a particularly obvious What Could Possibly Go Wrong?. A Gundamjack is when the phlebotinum is stolen by another faction as opposed to going rogue itself. Examples of Phlebotinum Rebel include:
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![[RDF Data]](/fct/images/sw-rdf-blue.png)