You have the ability to absorb the powers of characters, transforming your molecular structure into that of the target and acquiring any powers they have. An ABSORB_POWERS command appears on targets that do not have ‘robot’ or ‘hitech’ in their subtype. This power is meant to work only on living beings and characters that have superpowers and that do not get their powers from technology/equipment. If the target has ‘normal_human’ in their subtype then only the target’s abilities (Strength, Agility, etc.) are absorbed.
Power Absorbers get generic powers that roughly duplicate the powers of the target. The powers the Absorber gets are made in FFEdit and may have different fx, magnitude, etc., than the power the target has. I just attribute this to the idea that the Power Absorber only absorbs the power, and not the ability to control or the skill to use the power in the way the target can. So the absorbed power may look different and may cause more or less damage than the power the target has.
For powers like Sonic Blasts, Magnetic Control, Gravity Control, etc.-powers that there are no specific damage types for in the game (players usually create different powers with varying effects and FX to simulate these kinds of powers), add their power type to their subtype. So for a character with Gravity Control Powers, add 'gravity' to his subtype and when a Power Absorber absorbs his powers they'll get a group of powers similar to the Gravity Powers of the Mutator Attribute. See the New Subtypes page for more info.
Power Absorbers will look for a special hero file when they absorb a target's powers the same way as Energy and Material Absorbers do. When a Power Absorber triggers an absorption, the game looks for a hero file name based on their original name with a material tag such as '(fire)' for fire. If this hero file exists, the character will morph into it and then the powers will be added to the new form. For example, when copybot absorbs a fire enemy, he'll turn into copybot (fire), if that hero file exists and then copybot (fire) will acquire the powers absorbed from the target.
Power Absorbers have some options you can edit in FFX Control Center. You can decide if the Absorber either copies or steals the powers and if the Absorber can copy/steal all powers from a single target at a time or if they can absorb powers from multiple targets. Multiple Target Power Absorbers do not get all powers from a target but only certain ones determined randomly depending on the powers of the target. This is so that the Absorber doesn’t add to many new commands that he can’t end up using.
By making a Power Absorber 'steal' a targets powers, the target gets Power Nulled and Stunned for several seconds. While the target is in this condition the Absorber 'has the targets powers'. When the target comes out of the Stun/PowerNull state, the 'stolen' powers disappear from the Absorber.
See the Customisation Guide for an explanation of Commands, FX and Dummy Powers.