Name: Raymond Harper Sweeney

Codename: Salieri

Age: 27

Gender: Male

Place of Birth: Town and Country, Missouri 

Affiliations: Copernicus Marketing, LLC (a BH subsidiary); The Somnambulist

Occupations: Marketing executive, part-time writer, part-time supervillain

Appearance: Ray Sweeney is a moderately handsome, broad-shouldered Caucasian male with stereotypical Black Irish features (dark hair, blue eyes, fair skin). He frequently finds his appearance compared to actor Sean Maher.

[hider=Out of Costume][img=http://www2.pictures.zimbio.com/gi/Sean+Maher+Advocate+45th+Presented+Lexus+Red+8iJHdk3z87rl.jpg] [/hider]

[hider=In Costume][img=http://www.tiptopwebsite.com/photos4/valerian/commendatore.jpg] [/hider]

Powers: Ray Sweeney possesses the ability to render substances toxic through contact with his skin. The things he poisons do not change appearance, color, smell, taste, or shape, and are indistinguishable from normal substances. Generally speaking, the longer he is in contact with something the more poisonous it will be. This includes animals and other living beings as well, their entire system going into shock if he hangs on long enough to their bare skin. Theoretically, it would be possible for Salieri to poison someone like Zenith to death with enough uninterrupted contact, though the amount of time he would have to be holding onto Zenith to achieve this is ludicrously impossible.

The poison itself is a paralytic: if someone ingests it or otherwise gets it into their system, the first symptoms are a stiffening of the joints, followed by an inability to move, then shutdown of all bodily systems with a high enough dosage.

This ability is under his control, it can be turned on and off as he wishes.

Skills: Sweeney is a fairly talented marketer, however he thinks of himself first and foremost as a writer. He is very skilled in this area and has independently sold numerous works of fiction, though not enough to support (or satisfy) himself. In addition, he has been studying various martial arts and pistol marksmanship in an effort to round out his combat ability. His skill in this area is nothing exceptional, but it at least gives him a leg up on the untrained. Finally, he has made a serious study of the occult and black magic, though his interest is scholarly- he has never attempted a spell himself.

Equipment/Resources: Working a fairly lucrative job, selling several novels and short stories, and wisely investing the proceeds has made Ray Sweeney comfortably well-off (not incredibly rich, but he's got some money in the bank). Using this money, he has commissioned a state-of-the-art suit of unpowered armor, made from lightweight space-age alloys and ceramics and able to deflect bullets and cushion blows from low-powered superhumans. Despite the modern construction, the suit modeled after those worn in the days of pike and shot, complete with a morion helmet and old-fashioned masquerade mask.

In addition, he packs a Smith and Wesson 5906 in 9mm, the bullets usually poisoned as well.

Weaknesses: Without the armor, Ray has all the weaknesses and mortality of your normal human being. In addition, he is a high-functioning alcoholic. While he's smart enough not to drink on the job or while working on a project, he finds it difficult to sleep or relax without a few drinks.

Psychological Profile: Ray is mildly sociopathic: he lacks empathy for others, thinks nothing of lying, feels very little guilt or responsibility for his actions, and has a grandiose sense of self-worth. He is not necessarily egocentric, nor does he think he is better than everyone, but he does often feel unrecognized and overshadowed by the accomplishments of others. This has led him to feel the need to excel at everything and require everyone to know his genius. He is particularly interested in fiction and opera, given his upbringing (below). However, Ray feels stress easily and has a tendency to self-medicate with alcohol. 

Biography: On paper, Ray Sweeney had it made for his entire life. His father Daniel was a wealthy, famous novelist and lecturer, his mother Claudia a beautiful and gifted teacher of singing, with a passion for opera. However, his life as a child wasn't that great. Though neither ever raised a finger to Raymond, any social worker would call their treatment of him abuse. He was constantly berated and punished for failing to live up to the high standards set by his parents, in particular his well-known father.

He discovered a talent for writing, and worked hard to develop his natural gifts in that area despite the ridicule he received from his father. Fresh out of Mizzou and working at a well-paying but soul-crushing job at a St. Louis based marketing firm, he spent weekends and evenings tossing back wine and rum and pouring his frustrations and feelings of inadequacy into his first novel, [i]Mad Scene[/i]. The novel was eagerly accepted by a notable publisher, who recognized the brilliance of the work and eagerly planned to promote its release. It was sure to be an instant hit, to make Ray Sweeney a household name in the literary world and finally bring him out from under the shadow of his domineering parents.

The novel was set to be released December 21st, 2012. The day of the Awakening. 

Of course, [i]Mad Scene[/i] was completely overlooked and forgotten in the general chaos of that fateful day. The book, brilliant as it was, became a mere footnote, usually lumped in with his father's body of work. To Ray, it just wasn't fair. Once again, he was being overshadowed, and he couldn't have that. Over the next few years, he wrote several novels and short stories, but none quite lived up to the standards he had set for himself, none were good enough to grab the public eye or capture the raw emotion of his first novel.

Finally, in late 2015, it hit him. The coming of the supers was to blame. Who wanted fiction when a real-life drama of incredible proportions was taking place every day, in the streets and skies above? Only when they were gone would the truth and beauty of his fiction be recognized.

Ray Sweeney began to research, and to plot. He obsessively studied the major and minor superheroes in St. Louis: Dervish, Red Scorpion, of course the media darling the Spirit of St. Louis. And it was then, without benefit of superpowers and immense resources, that he formed a plan.

Ray approached a dangerous fringe religious group, the Cult of the Somnambulist, dedicated to the worship of a demon who possessed the bodies of the sleeping. Impressing them with his occult knowledge, Ray put a proposal to them. The cultists would invade the limestone caverns beneath the venerable Lemp Mansion, allegedly one of the most haunted buildings in the world, and perform a ritual designed to tap the spiritual energy of the place and give physical form to the Somnambulist, the unstoppable power of a physical demon rather than the filtered form it took through possessing mortals. The cult was charmed by the idea, and agreed to carry it out on New Year's Eve of 2015, the same night Copernicus Marketing celebrated the holiday in the rented hall of the mansion above. They stormed the mansion with an armed force, holding the guests (Ray included) hostage to hold off the police as they worked their rituals in the caves below. Even the Somnambulist had come, occupying the sleeping body of a nine-year-old boy.

Ray's plan was simple. Concealing a gun on his person, he would shoot down whichever hero responded. They would never expect their death to come from one of the hostages they were protecting.

He never got the chance, having underestimated the heroes. He and the other hostages were teleported away by Sonja Simpson before he could even draw his gun. The cultists and the Somnambulist were dealt with in a vicious battle beneath the earth, and Raymond was never connected to the scheme. Yet still, the rage and envy only grew within him. He had once again been brushed aside, as though he was nothing, outdone by freaks with powers.

Raymond Sweeney Awakened on the first day of January, 2016. Or, another theory he has entertained, perhaps the Somnambulist somehow gave him his power. Whichever it was, Ray soon discovered he could wilt flowers in his hands, poison glasses of water with the touch of a fingertip. Ray now had the means to wage his war on the superheroes, those who had taken away his much-deserved recognition. He was patient and careful about becoming a supervillain, however, taking the time to learn as much as he could about his ability and how to use it. Raymond experimented on animals (gradually moving up to the homeless), secretly commissioned a suit of armor from the secretive underworld craftsman known only as Artisan, and learned some basic combat skills. The final test came when he used his powers to murder his own father, the poisoning ruled a stroke by the coroner.

Dressing himself as the harbinger of doom [i]Il Commendatore[/i] from the opera [i]Don Giovanni[/i] (beat into his head by his abusive mother), Ray has taken the name Salieri, in honor of Antonio Salieri, a 18th century composer. Legend says that Salieri grew so envious of the genius of his contemporary Wolfgang Mozart that he poisoned the other man with arsenic, to make room for the mediocrities of the world to be recognized as well.

And now, Salieri plots his public debut, planning how best to take on the League itself for their unpardonable crimes against his ambition.