Age: Pretty self-explanatory. Age in the real world.
Appearance: At least a paragraph or so (if possible), and mention any information not visible in the above picture.
Role at SDN: What does your character do at SDN? Hero? Dispatcher? Phoenix Program?
Background: Let’s learn about your character. Ideally, over 3-4 paragraphs.
Appearance: Same as up top. Mention any information not visible in the above picture.
Powers: How is your character defending himself/herself? Are you a physical fighter or more of a ranged attacker?
Crimes (If Villain): What did your character do before joining the Phoenix Program? Do you want to reform? Or is this an easy payday?
Likes: List some things your character likes - - -
Dislikes: List some things your character dislikes - - -
Quirks: Add some details that make your character unique! Can be an odd habit or just some information not revealed in the image or the backstory! - - -
Stat Specialisations:
[[STAT ALLOCATION (13 Total Points): All heroes / Phoenix Programme personnel start with a base of 1 in all 5 stats. You have 8 additional points to spend, with a maximum of 4 in any stats at the start:
"Christ, how the fuck are we meant to keep with the KPI of "don't break the infrastructure" when you're constantly giving it a go?"
Age: 33
Appearance:
Pale-skinned and lightly ginger, James is lanky in a way that suggests equal parts sleepless nights and too much time hunched over spreadsheets. He burns far too easy in the Californian sun.
He dresses like every tech-adjacent consultant, with rolled-up sleeves, slim-fit shirts, different colours of chinos while wearing a pair of square, designer glasses. 6"0 tall and with a face that has caught and broken hearts, James gives off the vibe of someone who makes it look effortless, a certain charm on him at all times with a comeback for anyone and anything, even if he's weathered and a transplant to a new continent.
He looks a little dead inside, even in the sunshine of LA- even if he seems to be an outgoing guy, his face displays someone who is through with American optimism and just deals in results, something that will excite you or piss you off. A classic consultant.
If SDN and the world of Dispatch is the US adaption of The Office, then James is definitely coming from the UK version of The Office, and he absolutely is through with the optimism and excitement of everyone, in favour of just wanting to get shit done. He might be beginning to crack, but what you're seeing is someone who chose business practical, and results over formality.
There’s always a tablet under his arm or a headset around his neck. He moves quickly, talks quickly, and thinks even faster, and by American standards, he's got a lot of colloquialism he hasn't shaken, in spite of consulting in the US for a while.
Face Claim / Voice Actor: Eddie Redmayne
Role at SDN:
Hero Development Consultant.
James is a freelance consultant, but at this point, he's basically a part of the SDN team full time, as there aren't exactly any other networks he could work with, not beyond some weird little startups. With experience of SDN's network on the East Coast and experience from the UK's equivalent branches, James is the critical link between the R&D teams, heroes, dispatchers and management. He crunches numbers, and more often than not, is advising the Branch Management of how to "improve synergy" or "deliver key stakeholder KPIs".
Does this sound like some bullshit? It is!
Day to day, James's job is much more simple. James is the person who if he isn't sitting at the dispatch monitor himself (if short-staffed), is likely the point of contact for the team's professional development, training, and mentoring- and works with not just the Claremont office, but across the LA region, taking his experience of looking after Sophie to basically help heroes where their dispatchers can't. That includes the Phoenix Programme, who he has been particularly involved in- and sees as his ticket in getting closer within SDN, because he's often the one working any angle the branch need to get the former villains involved.
James's job is to make sure the teams operate at their best, even if he isn't really contributing much more than others in actual work- mostly being a glorified middle man that just finds ways to link one member of the team to another. If the Branch Manager and Dispatchers might be the ones calling the shots on heroes, James is in the background, making sure they've got what they need to do their jobs, or at least, able to find someone who can. Given that SDN hasn't found anyone who can do that long term, James is their man until they find a hire for the role, that strangely enough, nobody has been hired for yet. Paying a fat cheque for this service does seem a bit stupid, but James is involved in redundancy, efficiency and other decisions across the network, and so far, he seems to be doing a good job of it. A good consultant never makes himself redundant, after all....
If you bribe him with good tea and a solid pack of biscuits, he will get you what you need by pulling on some levers, but he's fundamentally an outsider- so his view on SDN isn't of company loyalty, but deliverables, results and getting everything running as it should.
Being in Claremont means his role conveniently works out nicely given it gives him the ability to work with his sister- who he's also been a bit of an agent for before, and now gives him an excuse to be somewhere he might not normally be. Being based in LA also gives him a chance towards a permanent role within SDN as a permanent Director within the firm- arguing for his indispensable nature. His long term goal is to climb the management of SDN, rather than dealing in the day-to-day, but time will tell if that ruthless progression is going to change him, or he'll need to adapt to go where he needs to.
Problem is, it's really hard to do that when you have a 9th century, Vinland-originating shieldmaiden and some guy who can spit acid in the way who are also chasing more senior positions.
Background:
Born and raised in Manchester, UK, James was always the analytical one of the two siblings. James was the stereotypical eldest child: clever, wired, academically terrifying, the "responsible one" even when nobody asked him to be. He was always more analyst than athlete- always cleverer, like he had himself directed at something greater. When Sophie manifested her powers and nearly died, James immediately pivoted his ambitions; he wasn’t going to be a hero, but he’d damn well make sure she survived being one. Coming from Moss Side, James spent his youth misspent, and he wouldn't say he was a "hero" from the get go. He wanted nothing more than to just bugger off to uni and find a different life, yet from the moment his sister got powers, he was immediately went from the older sibling always bickering, to wanting immediately wanting to protect her and make sure she did the right thing.
It was like in that moment he had a responsibility to protect her from her own self, knowing the stories of other supes and how easy it would be to slip. A world it turned out, he could actually monetise.
He earned an undergraduate degree in Business Management from the University of Manchester before being recruited by the UK's Superhuman Response Unit- working a side gig as Lightning Girl's fixer, agent and minder. It wasn't always smooth sailing, but between his ability to wrangle problems and her ability to fill them full of voltage, they made a good team- even when they were apart due to work commitments. After five years of optimizing response times and resource allocation and working in SDN's UK branches, he was headhunted by SDN (America) and sponsored on a work visa.
Why move to the US? Well, his sister was on the payroll there, and he was brought in as a reliable hand, knowing how heroes operate and what they need to succeed. And he had the ability to work remotely, so, that was what he did.
James was sponsored on a work visa by SDN, who continued to employ him for projects in Baltimore, Boston, Denver, and now, in Los Angeles, specifically, the smaller branch at Claremont that despite being less of a dumpster fire than the operation in Burbank and the often chaotic Torrance Branch. Sophie's want to live in LA, always a dream of hers was one that James has finally decided to join in with- Sophie being the local and James being lost, it just made sense that SDN needed help and so, he came in and based himself at the office there.
While a specialist for SDN network-wide, James's main activities are turning out to be the Claremont office- and he works with a wide roster of the team, usually coming into contact with everyone.
Powers:
None. While James is relatively fit, versus most heroes he hasn't got anything "super" about him. Unless you count an exceptionally good talent for Excel. Or being incredibly dry sometimes. This is a running gag.
Likes:
-Brew Co Earl Grey tea (proper stuff, not that American hot water with a bag) -Data visualization tools (and how much he hates how outdated SDN's systems are) -Rainy days (reminds him of home) -Classic British sitcoms -Classic Rock Music, Britpop, 80s Music -Keeping Sophie alive (and being a supportive big brother) -Books on Business Management
Dislikes: -Corporate jargon (despite using it himself) -Heroes who ignore protocol -American coffee -When his sister shows off unnecessarily -Budget cuts -Paperwork that serves no purpose -Being called a "parasite" (whatever that is)
Quirks:
-Speaks with a slight Mancunian accent that gets more pronounced when he's stressed
-Has memorized every single expense and cost centre code for SDN.
-Stress-eats Fisherman's Friends. Sophie brings him boxes of the stuff from the UK on her weekends off, and if you try one, you'll be disgusted.
-Has memorised all of the training modules that he has to teach you and is bored of this
-Comes across as more cynical, and used to the way of work in America- but still relishes in it and the processes of SDN. He's moved a lot, and is clearly fatigued, but sees LA for a traffic clogged, difficult city but doesn't hide behind the good the work does, and the worth he brings to it.
White-haired, Sophie is truly a diva of her own making- she never was like this (having more red-hair like James, and being quieter), but electricity has turned her a little different paired to her now grey eyes. It's a manner that she manages to pull off even out of her costume, looking a bit more gaudy than some with that white hair. She sometimes bleaches her hair with blue tips, if she's feeling the mood to show off a bit. On off days, she's even returned back to her original red-chestnut hair, but once the mask is on, she's all white.
At around 6"2, Sophie is quite the opposite of James. The powers giving her a little bit of height and muscle density, Sophie comes across as an old-school hero, with a silhouette that occupies any doorway or skyline, even if she didn't have electricity in her, being enough for her to mess you up pretty badly. An athlete's physique, a moderate amount of chest, and plenty of shoulders and legs that have come from benching weights James would even gawk at. Sure, she's a stereotype, but then again, with that much electricity in her fingers? She's practically occupied in that. There's a certain kind of beauty to her, with a heart-shaped face and a poise that is contrasted by the strong smell of ozone and burnt toast you almost get when she seemed to be "live".
It would work great, if she didn't sunburn really badly. Powers do not stop that, so she's constantly on Factor 50, and that absolutely takes away that "girl next door" vibe that Sophie seems to give off. Being British in LA is like being Prince Harry in....actually, that is not going anywhere as a reference, so we'll leave it there! Herr British voice becoming more of a "transatlantic" tone, like she's an American from the 1920s.
Her civilian fashion tends toward practical but fancy clothing, from premium t-shirts, leather jackets, gym gear and whatever she feels makes her look good, out of the line of work come on.
Faceclaim: Alice Levine Voice Claim: Hayley Atwell
Role at SDN:
Hero for Dispatch.
Sophie was headhunted and with a move to LA, put in was impossible to say no to. She loved the idea of moving there given her obsession over Hollywood and the lights, and while not in the DTLA dream team, she is knocking on that door, as a figurehead that is no rookie to this line of work, but absolutely to the US and the dreamy vision of superheroes that sometimes ends up a bit more complicated.
Background:
Growing up as James's younger sister, Sophie was quiet, reserved, and while sporty, growing up as the younger sibling to a brother that seemed clever and all wired up. Instead of his nerdy behaviour, she was always into activities like running, football, being outdoorsy, and also liking all girly things that all teenage girls liked. Bit of crochet from her mum too. She still does love it. She was a wallflower, unsure of what she wanted, but well, she'd work it out, but otherwise, a rather normal teen. Brought up with a dad who worked all the time, and a mum who made every end meet in their relatively less-affluent upbringing in Moss Side.
That was, until Sophie was struck by a lightning bolt that sparked out of a fragment of a comet, which just so happened to smack into the park where her and her friends were playing football, aged 15.
(It's a stereotype, but, being the unlucky victim of a celestial body's is one hell of a way to get powers. Especially when it's totally not a rip off from Misfits right?)
Getting a power that way is quite interesting- because instead of dying, she shut off the power an entire hospital down when she came to, being on life support that needed her a lot less than any doctors realised. She healed quickly, but was found that electricity would just shoot out of her.
Often uncontrollably at first, but she was addicted to leeching, then transmitting power. And realising she could fly. And take significantly less amounts of damage than most. It was as if the electricity healed her, fuelled her, and made her more potent than she could ever believe. Sophie had a hunger to go to substations and just sit there and keep sucking up power until she felt like she'd drunk five Red Bulls. And sometimes, blow the power out for thousands.
An electricity based hero then. Sophie discovered that having millions of kilowatts running through her made her a bona-fide powerhouse, and she was fitter, faster, flightier, a blur of ozone-like electricity-crackling. She went to the gym more, and found gains went from little to lots, because her metabolism was frankly broken. She stopped playing football when she realised she basically deflected tackles (and people) and was shocking everyone with static all of the time. Heroes like her were a bit unsporting, so she turned her hobbies to crochet.....and fighting crime, and, making a living out of it. The comet's effects weren't totally understood- but a personality shift felt like it came along with the power too, maybe as it crept to her head and made her want to project a version of control, order, and putting things right, her way.
Her red hair seemed to turn pale white, her bone density and musculature grew as she suddenly went from quiet athletic girl to superpowered woman (mostly through metabolic diversion and those relentless amount of Rocky-grade training montages in the gym), and in time, she found herself trying to navigate putting her powers to good and bad. A few run ins made her realise villainy was not worth the effort- and doing good felt good and came suddenly with attention that she was growing to absolutely adore. It was easy to steal, take what she'd like but realistically, her powers meant she was rewarded for what she did by those she helped. Small at first, but suddenly, being a hero for hire added up.
And the attention she hadn't had as a younger sister, she now absolutely got in spades when she was Lightning Girl, in a costume designed by her brother and designer friend, and able to project all her confidence through it. She could be someone she wasn't, out of the shadow of her brother, the strong, capable, saviour of Moss Side.
And with James's guidance, the two made sure Sophie was in the right place, right time, solving crimes with James running behind the scenes (and the mountains of paperwork it caused the Greater Manchester Police), and Sophie non-lethally shocking the crap out of anyone, recovering stolen property and finding missing people among many things- to really become the hero she wanted to be with all eyes on her now. She had a gift- best use it, she said to herself, and get something from it. Manchester needed a hero, and Sophie was that, among a field of supers with augments, she still stood out as the one that dominated the city. Even while he was at university, Sophie always relied on him, and she then spent time in London working with a local start-up called "PowerServe", rather than SDN that dealt with emerging talents like her. A certain security for response, and Sophie made quite the mark, even if she wasn't the most experienced, or best of heroes in London, she got into the right circles and became a standout.
SDN came calling, and Sophie's skills were what brought her over to the United States, chasing sunshine versus the bleak grey of London. The money was significantly more, and well, the promise of a high level role came calling when it was in LA- the sort of place that really put a hero on the map, and someone like Lightning Girl? Well, she was born to run. Though.....that role turned out not to be DTLA, Claremont called instead due to....reasons that are still unknown to her. Still, better than rainy England (especially for her powers) and she saw it as a stepping stone to something bigger, and despite the eye-watering numbers for an apartment, she's made herself at home as a well-established member of the team.
Being deployed in Claremont was maybe not Sophie's idea of making it "big in LA", with her eyes still turned to the DTLA team and joining in the big leagues, seeing some of the local stuff as below her (and perhaps one of her flaws, that despite being a hero, she's really a bit too progress minded from James's mentoring. Lightning Girl certainly has her eyes upwards- though not being a local is something she'd adapting to, given perhaps she's more "hero for hire" than she grounded. It turns out Lightning Girl can run on 110V just as well as 240V so her powers, thankfully, are unaffected. She still loves what she does and with James just joining her, is looking to move onto the next step and go save the day even more, and maybe, just maybe, even get her dream house in the Hollywood Hills. She's always liked the idea of making it big, and the quiet girl from Manchester becoming a superhero superstar in Los Angeles? Well, so far she's found few things to stop her....
Yet behind the scenes, Sophie still struggles with that image. She's more personally confident, sure, but she's still looking for something and feels like chasing the image, status, becoming the best version of herself, still lacks something. Moving halfway across the world has left her without friends, and the wallflower still wants to be loved, if not found for who she is becoming, as well as the hero she outwardly projects.
Lightning Girl
Appearance:
As Lightning Girl, Sophie wears a skintight white and grey coloured spandex and ballistic cordura costume from neck to ankles (arms/legs in grey, torso in off white), with the grey creating a silvery Lichtenberg scar-like effect across where it contrasts with the off-white, with a pearlescent-like silver cape (not always worn). A bit of yellow stitching across all the seams, and what appears to be a Honey Bee (a symbol of Manchester) is sown into her collar. It's the look of efficiency when paired to a classic carbon-fibre black mask that covers eyes, forehead and nose, with platinum/white hair. It's safe to say that Sophie has relished in her image as this, and has gone from quiet and reserved to maximalist, larger than life and able to light up any environment she walks into.
Literally.
Paired to a pair of grey leather boots that complete the ensemble, a pair of white fingerless gloves that go up to her elbows (and black arm-long rubber gloves she carries with her in a convenient hip-pack to make sure she doesn't shock anyone she carries), Sophie is a beaming, classic hero that absolutely has been honed in on by James and then SDN's marketing team. A little bit of Blonde Blazer, perhaps, but if you're gonna have a classic hero, sometimes simple is best!
Powers:
Able to cast electricity, Sophie is your classic electrokinesis styled hero, flinging bolts of electricity out of her fingers / hands, but equally versatile in being able to use her fists like a tazer, and be significantly more resilient than a normal human being, considerate of the fact she's more or less got electricity supercharging her metabolism constantly. She's effectively an incredibly dense battery (Batgirl was taken, so she worked with the obvious alternative)- that can charge as high as far as she's reasonably able to. Capable of static-based flight- of which she can fly at nearly the speed of sound (when juiced up to roughly an energy from waste's plant entire hourly power output). However, that means being carried / moved by her like being exposed to a static shock from a door (hence why she always carries rubber gloves). All of this means Sophie is relatively powerful for a superhero and is a versatile tool in any Dispatcher's arsenal. A Swiss Army Knife if you will, that turns on the charm, and even if she hasn't got the intellect, she has the talk as an exotic, export of a hero that naturally can do good, and make any chance to make her look good while doing it. She isn't tanky, super fast, super capable, or the cleverest in the room- but she absolutely will give every one of those categories a good go, and probably get hurt trying.
TLDR: Electrokinesis: Launches bolts, arcs, and fields of electricity Static Flight: Propels herself with directed bursts; not effortless, but fast Superhuman Physique: Enhanced strength, reflexes, and durability due to electric overcharge Shock Strikes: Punches like a living taser EMP Bursts: Can short out tech (though James hates when she does this)
(Sophie is an all rounder, with a priority towards mobility and charisma being her likely path.
Likes: -The warm buzz of getting zapped by a transformer of high voltage electricity (we really, really do not want to talk about the fact she seems almost a bit *too* eager to get zapped) -Earl Grey Tea (like James, but more obsessed in that she'll physically fly back home to get it, even if the commute is at least several hours) -Indie / Electronica / Synthwave -The smell of ozone -Thunderstorms (see above) -Sitting on the Hollywood Sign -Social interaction (as Lightning Girl) -Crochet (she has made endless amounts of stuff in the office while sitting waiting to be deployed)
Dislikes: -Rubber Matting (it feels very uncomfortable to walk on) -Water and Fire Foam/Powder (really messes around with her ability to fling bolts) -American Coffee -Her brother telling her to calm down -Swimming (skin reacts all funny to it) -Social interaction (as Sophie)
Quirks:
-Sophie's powers rely heavily on keeping electrical charge- and while having a base level of "bioelectricity" in her body, that means she'll always have power from eating and drinking, she'll need to crank herself up. Whilst not a "villainous" trait, Sophie will hang off power lines, transformers and such to keep her powers topped up, and she has to be careful not to accidentally destroy infrastructure that's hooked up to it, because she is basically a data centre's worth of energy. She'll physically be exhausted if she hasn't gotten power from one in a while and a bit low. Thankfully, a plug socket is usually not far away, and if not that, she'll usually be able to "make do". If it makes current, or could make a current, she'll use it. Nobody quite knows what the limit of what she can take is, and everyone agrees- it's probably best not to find out...
-She's a walking powerbank. An ability that was once poorly used, she's learned how to set her mind to exactly the right frequency to charge phones, laptops and other devices. This is a fun trick at bars because she can literally point her finger at phones and charge them.
-Sophie glows white when using her powers, particularly when she's on "charge". Her eyes turn a pale white.
-Sophie rain with a passion- it affects her skin (shorting her out), but also reduces her potency (not entirely given the costume, but it still pisses her off). Lightning storms though, do absolutely flip that notion and massively outweigh the negatives of rain.
-Lightning Girl has a fairly popular series of social media accounts- she's pretty enough to be into modelling work on the side, but also doesn't like the idea of going all the way down that rabbit hole as her alter ego. Her personal, non hero self is a bit more shy.
-Speaking of which- her personality is a rather mixed bag. Similar to James, Sophie is sometimes dry, but finds that like her split personality as a hero, she's reserved when in a more personal setting. There's this feeling of insecurity, uncertainty almost- she's moved halfway across the world, but she still misses home, and somehow, despite smiling for camera, has a lot to get used to in the sunny coastal state, even though she still wants to be in DTLA, and seems a little too focussed on that right now- forcing herself to be in that position and believe in the dream anyone of her capability might have. She's an outsider- and has still got to make friends, still got to learn how America works, and find out who Sophie is a bit more, not just the persona she's hiding behind.
"The suffocating beauty of shadows is all man should know."
Age: 32
Appearance: A white haired, dark-eyed man with a stern attitude and an outfit straight from a renaissance fair. His words on it? It makes him look cooler. He's never seen without his red scarf, expensive shoes, and his permanent frown. He stands a modest 6'0", though occasionally he wears boots that bump him up by an inch or two.
He dons a few battle scars on his torso, neck, and arms.
Role at SDN: Phoenix Program
Background:
A two and a half generation immigrant; Vergil is half-Japanese, half-American. Growing up, he was only taught how to speak English and is mostly estranged from his own culture outside of random factoids and tidbits his mother tells him. In harsher terms, he only happens to be Japanese--most of his mannerisms, accent, and swagger are distinctly American. He tries his best to represent his family regardless.
Somewhat outcasted growing up due to his oddball status, he never quite fit in with his peers. Too boisterous for some, too quiet for others. He lived a banal childhood until he reached 20.
During his time in college, he developed a keen interest in chemistry--specifically drugs. Money was beginning to become a problem, his parents weren't much help (they had their own financial issues), so in his eyes? Becoming a dealer was an easy paycheck. He had all the supplies, all the equipment at his college lab, and he had knowledge. Creating a bit of crack was easier than most people thought, after all, and it'd be no issue for someone like him.
Vergil studied chemistry on the side and trafficked drugs on main; he had a hand in a few drug rings, though they never lasted too long and he was starting to get sick of splitting pay between distributors. He decided to pick up the slack himself, going out on his own as a dealer. It'd be easier that way, right? He'd get more money too.
... Right?
His first deal went terrible. His drugs were top quality--made him a bigger target, and the criminals he sold to were more than happy to 'bargain' (aka hold him at gunpoint) for a better price. He needed a new strategy and badly.
He picked up a new persona: Eclipse, a masked drug dealer with a scary voice, scary eyes, and killer blades. His first set of villain gear was a rough approximation of what he has now, instead of armor, a bullet proof vest; instead of a metal mask, a hockey mask that he picked up at a Spirit Halloween. He learned to carry a knife or two when dealing.
If his clients wanted to play dirty, than so be it. He'd play dirty too. Any 'bargainers' were found with their throats slit behind dumpsters.
Word started to spread about 'Eclipse' and his top quality drugs--not laced, no chemical substitutes; the purest drugs you could get on the street. Red Ring picked Vergil up as their personal drug dealer; he couldn't say no, not when the largest crime syndicate wanted him. He'd supply them with only the best... only the best drugs. In exchange, they took care of his money issue, granted him new gear, and provided chemicals from time-to-time.
He spent a few years working for Red Ring in college until he was ratted out by a classmate for misuse of lab chemicals. Caught red-handed cooking crack in college, he fled the scene, smuggled as many goddamn chems and lab equipment he could, and left to work with Red Ring full time. No more college studies, no more papers, no more snitching classmates, just pure drugs.
Over the years, he started developing his own personal drug, something to make him even stronger, more useful to the syndicate that took him in. Gulping down a chem cocktail, he developed Umbrakinesis after nearly dying to his own drug. He could barely move without being consumed by shadows, shadows, shadows... every thing was turning dark.
And it was then Shroud that taught him to control his powers.
And it was then, his dream was fulfilled. He was fully in Shroud and Red Ring's debt--they made his suit, provided him with chemicals, gave him a steady cashflow, taught him everything there is about his own power. He became another standard Shroud lackey--manifesting from the shadows to kill off dissenters and potential enemies, though he still made drugs on the side.
Eventually he was caught after heroes were called in during a shoddy assassination and put in custody. Now 32 and with Red Ring gone and Shroud either dead or in custody, he was moved to SDN Claremont to prevent him from reconnecting with the remnants of Red Ring and put in the Phoenix Program for rehabilitation.
TL;DR: Drug dealer learns self-defense after killing muggers. Drugs so good he gets picked up by RR & becomes a Shroud Lackey after developing shadow powers from his own special drug.
Eclipse
Appearance: Dressed in dark armor, Eclipse covers his face with a mask. The eye sockets glow red, the mouthpiece is a voice filter, and his arms both fitted with metal gauntlets. Two large blades are strapped around his forearms.
There is an extra compartment in his forearm guards--a shooting mechanism that contains throwing knives; by flicking his wrists upward, Eclipse is capable of arming himself with throwing knifes should his larger blades be lost or damaged.
Powers: Umbrakinesis / Darkness Solidification / Shadowportation Eclipse can freely manipulate shadows, particularly his own. He is capable of using shadows as a weapon and recon tool by manipulating it's properties (elongating, shortening, solidifying, etc). Offensively, his shadow can be used a rope to strangle or restrain enemies.
He can teleport from shadow-to-shadow, though this part of his power takes intense concentration and forces him to be still. It's not something he can do on the fly, which is why he prefers to either be alone when teleporting through shadows or to kill every enemy in the same room before escaping. Regardless, he uses this part of his power frequently to 'keep everything quiet'--it's the only reason he hasn't been busted for wearing armor.
His greatest weakness is the light. If it's directly shined on him, his powers will become weaker, if not downright useless. Additionally, his powers are more limited in Phoenix Program as he is unable to create more of his 'darkness' drug to maintain his power's strength.
Stat Specializations: STAT ALLOCATION (13 Total Points): All heroes / Phoenix Programme personnel start with a base of 1 in all 5 stats. You have 8 additional points to spend, with a maximum of 4 in any stats at the start:
Crimes (If Villain): Drug trafficking & distribution, embezzlement, first and second degree murder, aiding and abetting.
As a studying chemist, he used his knowledge of chemicals and his college's equipment to produce and distribute various drugs to various villains. He sees the Phoenix Program as an easy out and paycheck. Though, compared to others within the Phoenix Program, he's much better at following orders and 'behaving'. He believes that if the higher-ups think he's on way to redemption, they'll let him develop his drugs again (for the hero's benefit, obviously but if villains paid better, than so be it).
Likes: - Sharp edges - His armor and blades - Red Ring & Shroud
Dislikes: - People who ostracize/bully others - Christmas - Guns (it's not as cool as stabbing people with shadow blades!)
Quirks: - With extra money from his drug deals, he bought a plot of land far off in Europe to 'support tree growth' or something like that. Nowadays, he just uses it as an excuse to call himself an 'edge lord' as the piece of land was located at the edge of a fishing town. - He tries to avoid the light whenever he stands--typically positions himself off in corners or near obvious shadows. - Always carries cash. Always.
Carmen Ryder
"I'M THE KING OF THE FUCKING WORLD!"
Age: 22
Appearance: A toned, athletic guy whom if you'd looked directly in the eyes of, you'd see just how fucking bonkers he really is. He always a crazy look in eyes, but barring that, he has the face of an archetypal young hero. He has short, brown hair, some of which covers his face, and a godawful taste in fashion outside of his "hero" outfit. You've never seen a fashion disaster until you see what he wears off-duty.
Role at SDN: Phoenix Program
Background: Carmen has always looked to heroes growing up. Really, who hasn't? They can beat up on bad guys, get away with things normal people could never do, and look cool all the while. Being famous was also a plus. Carmen never outgrew his love for superheroes, remaining as starry-eyed as he was as a kid, and that made him an easy target for bullying growing up. Namely, during his teenage years, he was one of those insufferable band kid types, a bit of a superhero know-it-all, exactly the kind of kid nobody could stand. No one liked him, Carmen didn't like them either, and he made the worst (or perhaps best) decision of his childhood: he challenged all of them to a fight after school.
Yes. All of them at once.
If what the heroes said was true--that anyone could become a superhero if they worked hard enough--then Carmen would find out now. Not all of his high-school bullies showed up, but it was still a crowd, and dear god, did Carmen get his ass handed to him.
... Or did he?
If there's one thing heroes always did, it was this: they always got back up, stayed hopeful, and most importantly, they always won in the end. He saw it all as his special origin story! And it was working! He discovered his powers that day during an after-school brawl turned bloody. He tanked each and every one of his bullies' hits, beat them to a pulp as they desperately tried to gang up on him, and maybe hurt a few onlookers by mistake after tossing one of his bullies into the crowd of spectators.
After that day, no one messed with him, and he branded himself as an unstoppable hero ever since! By the time he reached adulthood, he started investing all his savings into becoming a vigilante known as Madcap, an unstoppable crime fighter with a love for justice and all things heroic! If you ask him personally, he'd done nothing wrong. If you ask any authority, he was a piece of shit vandal who'd spray paint his name onto private property, jacked random people's vehicles for either personal use or to crash into criminals, and had no moral compass. For fucks sake, he'd mistake someone looking at him funny for a villain and beat them bloody.
Carmen made the humble mistake of turning himself and another "criminal" in to the police, which landed him in Phoenix Program. He has the drive for heroism, just... doesn't know how to handle himself properly.
Madcap
Appearance: Pretty much everything in included in the photo. He's dressed in an expensive suit of bug-themed armor, with a nice coat to boot. And for the record, the tie stays on during everything. Everything. Outside of a cool helmet and some upper body armor, his legs are the least protected. His boots in particular are the cheapest part of his entire outfit.
Powers: The happier he is, the tougher he gets! He has enhanced durability, at the cost of it scaling alongside his mental state. He's a highly volatile and unhinged guy, so his mood changes at the drop of a hat. One moment, he's superman and practically invincible; other times, he's depressed and cuts his fingers opening a soda can. Try and keep him happy, even if he's... insufferable. It'll boost his performance.
When excited or happy, he can shrug off heavy amounts of damage (though he'll feel it after he comes down from his high). When depressed, his durability shrivels down massively and he's highly susceptible to getting injured. In game terms, he tank a certain amount of injuries like Punch-Up, but past a certain threshold or on job failure, his stats will drop equal to the injuries he's sustained.
Crimes (If Villain): Disturbing the peace, aggravated assault and battery, property damage, all degrees of murder, vandalism, disorderly conduct, robbery and theft While Carmen claims and attempts to be a hero, he fails to factor civilian casualties and property damage into the equation. He fights crime, accidentally kills a few people here and there, definitely doesn't pay for everything he breaks, and tries to get away with it all "in the name of heroism." With how loud he talks, he's also an incredible public nuisance.
Likes: - "Being AWESOME!" - "Beating the shit out of bad guys!" - Sugary foods
Dislikes: - Don't ever call him by his real name. Ever. - Civilian life - Whenever his favorite bakery runs out of pork buns
Quirks: - Always, ALWAYS shouts like a fucking maniac when he's feeling good. His comms mic is always on max volume. - He'll always pick 'dare' when playing truth or dare. - He had a motorcycle once. Crashed it, and got busted for trying steal a new one for "the good of the people." - Godawful at math, like, all of it.
Stat Specializations:
STAT ALLOCATION (13 Total Points): All heroes / Phoenix Programme personnel start with a base of 1 in all 5 stats. You have 8 additional points to spend, with a maximum of 4 in any stats at the start:
"Maybe you should use a better fuckin’ lock next time."
Age: 25 Appearance:
Standing at 5’4”, fairly lithe considering a lifetime of moving quickly, and a head of generally unkept red-gold hair, Myla wears a nearly perpetual scowl about her face as though the day is, nearly always, going bad. Not one to wear an outfit while on the job, she prefers patterned shirts, jeans, and sneakers to anything else, though will maybe add a plain jacket or sweater every now and again.
Role at SDN: Phoenix Program Background:
Born in Northern California, Myla’s early life was pretty typical for any kid her age. She went to school, ran around afterwards, made friends, made enemies, and generally was out-and-about more often than not. She found herself in scrap yards, lumber yards, parking lots, found herself in a number of places she generally shouldn’t have been, and was never quite alone in any of these locations. There was something inherently fun about seeing if she could get into those places, to see if she could beat a system designed to work against her, and often times the little kids figured out a way here, an oversight there. They got into a good deal of trouble then, but with a dad as a lawyer there was never a serious enough instance where the young girl found herself in real trouble. No, instead she found herself doing family-mandated “community service”, working at whatever place Myla had broken into, and through that she found even newer ways to break-in next time.
Myla started experiencing changes earlier than other girls, some things that made her angry at them with the teasing, the attention, some things that no-one else really found out, like her powers. She broke the new electronic locks at school pretty easily, stealing from them on the way to the bathroom during class for instance, and the amount of camera malfunctions seemed to skyrocket during her time there. Myla would also start getting into fights, anger spilling out at the bullies, in one instance nearly ripping the earings out of a girls ears with her powers. The girl couldn’t say whether or not it’d been powers, though, considering how much she was crying, and Myla got expelled more than once from it.
In time, they started to leave her alone though, and she continued on with her escapades out in town. A lot of companies had switched to electronic locks, thinking they were the future, and a lot of the time Myla found them easy to break, to trip and open up, to reset to the default all-one password. She took a few joyrides in the cars, too, giving just enough power to open the door but not enough to absolutely scramble the computer, and was caught pretty easily from it. Juvy came from that, though it wasn’t proven that she had any powers, and when Myla got out from it after a year she just had more ideas on what exactly she could do.
After her time there, Myla started to work on her repertoire, using a few little connections to find better scores compared to anything else. There was something still inherently alluring about breaking that system, breaking those attempts at keeping her out, and Myla wanted to see exactly how far she could push things. She took on jobs over the course of a few years, growing to be a local notoriety as far as who the police wanted to find, finding that spike with the accidental pacemaker-deletion of a US Senator while she was trying to open his electronic safe from the room over. The man’s health monitor did survive, however, and Myla made her way out with only a portion the score, but at least was intact.
She would be contracted though to break into a data center, however, to steal a particularly valuable set of design documents for a new model of predictive AI, one that had been kept in physical form to prevent more remote sorts of thievery. This would go absolutely belly-up, though, as halfway in the woman tripped the alarm, panicked, and while trying to open a dead-bolted door absolutely fried $30 billion worth of data center. That landed her well and truly in prison, which also would land her in the Phoenix Program.
Myla’s more a physical fighter, as her powers are generally limited to producing a very strong magnetic field at close range, though she’s armed herself with some decidedly non-powered tools to even the playing field. One of these, a bag-mounted and concealed Vision Deleter, is slung over her shoulder most days, same as a collapsable, metal baton she charges up.
Φ Corporate Sabotage, Grand Theft, Battery, Breaking and Entering, Drug Possession, Trespassing Φ
The Phoenix Program, thus far, has proven to solely be a job - nothing Myla’s seen has convinced her that it’s a reform program, nor has it pushed her to be a better person. It’s been a set of eyes over her shoulder, a voice in her ear, all while keeping her out of prison in exchange for the low price of removing a few small fries from the street. Myla isn’t against reform, but until it gives her a better job than the one she had before, or a better mindset, then reform isn’t in her mind.
Likes:
Φ “Arts and Crafts” Φ Cappuccino Φ Cats
Dislikes:
Φ Stupid friggin “Hero Names” - Hers was chosen by Marketing Φ NPC-Energy Heroes Φ Lock-picking. She’s still working on that skill Φ Black Coffee
Quirks:
Φ Kleptomaniac Φ Never wears anything metal - Never Φ Uses Timex Datalink 150 with VHF receiver modification / text-only transmitter. Newer technology gets weird sometimes
"Don’t you know? It’s all a matter of Perspective."
Age: Lady is too cryptic to actually give an answer, but we got records on her going back 40 years.
Appearance: A tall, pale woman dressed in regal attire. Her hair is long and white, eyes steely and grey, the entire appearance monochrome and vaguely unsettling. She appears human, two eyes, two arms, ten fingers and toes, but spending any time with her makes her appear more and more uncanny to the naked eye. Perhaps too human, perhaps not enough. It is a matter of ones view of her after all.
Role at SDN: Phoenix Program
Background: Once upon a time, in a world long ago did a battle take place. A love story written in blood and carved upon bones. It ended in sorrow, it ended in peace, it ended in a long quiet that enveloped her. But no ending is final, and no story truly concludes where the narration stops.
A plan to kill death succeeded, but its slayer was given too much mortality. To much regret, to much kindness, to much humanity. In its sorrow did an unchanging world get left behind and in its great claws did it tear itself asunder in grief stricken attempts to put together something it had unmade.
It worked, in part. A mound of shifting possibilities limited to something…real.
Thus did the first of the ‘Princess Sightings’ happen. A grey woman in a burnt dress standing still in a crowded street in New York, a felinid attacking someone unprovoked, an hour of all consuming light that caused a small town in Arkansas to claim they had seen a god. All of them in the same dress and tiara set. Sporadic, insane, and mysterious.
It was only a scant few years ago where things solidified. Rumors become solid enough to act upon, information becoming trackable, and just a few months ago enough was gathered to lead to an arrest.
She claimed all the crimes as her own, all actions as uncoerced, and above all else saw none of it as wrong. Talking about some gruesome things with an airy voice that could be said to contain a childlike wonder, a joy at having been able to experience such things.
The very same thing was said when a tentative offer was made to join the Phoenix Program.
Public Indecency
1st, 2nd, and 3rd Degree Murder
Involuntary Manslaughter
Assault And Battery With A Deadly Weapon
Nonconsensual Mind Control
Theft
Grand Larceny
1st and 2nd Degree Arson
Jaywalking
Possession
Spiritual Possession
Physical Possession
Posession Posession
Coercion
False Imprisonment
Carmal-By-The-Sea Ordinance 87 Violation
Unlicensed Mouse Hunting
Medical Malpractice
Practicing Without a License
Fraudulent Impersonation
Piracy
Operating Without A License
Traffic Violations
Littering
Likes: List some things your character likes
Birds, Like her beloved
Drawing, to envision the world and herself within
New experiences
Playing Instruments
Dislikes: List some things your character dislikes
Small Spaces
Stories, for they are limited and end
Laws. for being convoluted
Knives
Quirks: Add some details that make your character unique! Can be an odd habit or just some information not revealed in the image or the backstory!
Has a large raven that she is protective of.
Any place she stays too long tends to start turning black and white. It gets better, eventually.
Has a habit of just…showing up when people least expect someone to be there\
Really bad at social queues. Good conversationalist though.
Powers: Princess is a shapeshifter of limited uses. There are several she has that offer no real benefit to the field or to anything beyond a change in perspective. Regardless of these forms, she is a surprisingly capable scrapper with above-human strength and tenacity. Using solid form and dirty tactics to take down her enemies.
A smiling and sadistic transformation. Eschewing things like arms for blades, and blades, and you guessed it. More blades. Not really that good for nonlethal missions, but she can just take an arm. Or a leg. Don’t worry, they’ll live if you tell her not to kill them. She will make sure of it. Combat: 4 Vigor: 1 Mobility: 2 Charisma: 1 Intellect: 1
Vigor - The Adversary
A towering transformation, increasing strength exponentially and maybe getting a little to fight crazy. Not to say she won’t help otherwise, just that she might punch something first, during, or after. Combat: 2 Vigor: 4 Mobility: 1 Charisma: 1 Intellect: 1
Mobility - The Beast
A bestial transformation, capable of moving at blinding speeds. Its specialty does not lie in speed even if it is proficient in it, but in stealth. Not simply blending into the shadows but becoming almost one with them, presence erased from all but the most keen until her jaws are round their neck.
“Second verse, same as the first. You can scream now.”
Age: 18 (barely)
Appearance:
Currently standing at 5’3, with a fairly athletic build and a head of perpetually messy blond hair that he’s entirely given up on fixing, Tyler rarely shows any change in his signature bored expression, even in the most intense of moments. He looks younger than he actually is, even discounting the other thing. Tyler doesn’t have a specific style, but his usual attire consists of a long-sleeved cream-coloured shirt, a sleeveless overshirt and dress pants, though his style changes with age. Literally.
Role at SDN: Dispatcher (former Hero)
Background:
Born into a generational occultist family, Tyler was cursed from birth, his soul intrinsically bound to a “malevolent” creature from below. His parents, in their fanatic reverence, permanently altered the course of his life. With an origin like that, it was almost certain that his life would inevitably end up going down a dark path.
Yet, call it fate or simply luck, but the trajectory of his life was shifted by one simple act of stupidity from someone at the wrong place at the right time. All that led to his family’s estate being raided by a collaboration between heroes and the police, with most of his family being either killed or arrested. Tyler, barely out of his infancy at the time, was sent into foster care, where he lived a fairly unremarkable life for years. A precocious child, he showed a high capacity for learning at a young age, though it didn’t help much with finding a family that actually wanted him and wasn’t put off by the “thing” that always followed him.
It wasn’t until he got older that his “powers” manifested in a rather gruesome manner.
The aftermath of that incident presented him with two paths. He chose the third option and decided to have a conversation, coming to a “mutually” beneficial agreement with his counterpart.
Years passed, and he eventually found himself becoming a hero, of a sort, in DTLA. Despite the terrifying appearance of the creature he could become, he was surprisingly well-liked—and feared a pretty healthy amount—since the criminals that he captured rarely, if ever, reoffended.
However, it didn’t take long for things to get complicated. Each time he transformed, he lost time, or rather, he gained it. At first, it was only a day at a time, but the more active he became as a hero, the more those days turned into weeks, then months, and then, finally, years. Now, with the appearance of a boy in his late teens despite being well into adulthood, Tyler temporarily stepped back from the line of duty before he became a minor again.
Fielding a kid would be “bad optics”, so he transferred to Claremont for the foreseeable future, or until he figured out a way to make a better deal.
Appearance: When not transformed, Tyler generally wore darker clothing with a hoodie and a half-face mask to conceal his identity.
Powers: The Sin Eater, Enhanced Durability
Tyler’s powers allow him to transform into a creature, unfortunately known as the “Sin Eater”. However, it comes with a cost; every time he transforms, he gets younger, and the longer he stays transformed, the more his age regresses. Outside of that, he’s physically pretty much a normal teenager, if one that's pretty skilled at keeping himself alive.
Likes:
The smell of coffee (but he can’t stand the taste)
Sugar (reluctantly)
Gadgetry
Cooking/Baking
Dislikes:
People who talk down to him
His “hero” name — “Sin Eater”? Really?
The fact that he can’t reach the top shelf anymore
Positive energy. It still sustains the Sin Eater, but it also tastes like battery acid
Quirks:
Talks to himself in Latin and Greek when bored
“Minor” OCD
Reads dictionaries in various languages for fun (and to learn the language)
Curses in culinary (or whatever non-curse word that comes to mind first)
A beast of ravenous hunger and ethereal grace, the Sin Eater is strong and hardy, capable of phasing through most obstacles and blending into the shadows. Regenerates from most damage, and shrinks when damaged too severely, increasing speed but decreasing strength. Both bipedal and quadrupedal, it can traverse nearly any terrain with ease. It can consume nearly anything, particularly people, in large quantities and store them inside its “stomach” for a period of time. It feeds off the negative energies of those it swallows to sustain itself and then regurgitates them, alive and whole. Though it can’t “speak” in the most general sense, it can mimic the sounds of voices it has heard.
Face & Voice Claim: Josh O'Connor (voice from wake up dead man)
Appearance: He runs a half a pump of hair gel into his hair in the morning, just enough to give it volume. He's got a seemingly permanent five o' clock shadow outside of costume. He's lithe, with the physique of a tennis player. Wears a diamond earring, in his right lobe. Some prison fighting scars on his torso: two entry wounds from a plastic shiv, one in his upper right shoulder blade, the other in his stomach next to his belly button. Two tattoos, one of a tennis ball his left peck and a tattoo cover up- an asteroid. (behind it is his ex girlfriends name)
Civilian clothes are very much dressier than average. Always seen in some sort of floor length duster and matching leather shoes (one brown, one dusty black). Usually wears a sweater or sweater vest over a button up. His sleeves are sewn up into a rolled position (he did it himself). 5'11'' and kinda mad about it. Carries around an mp3 player, a notebook, and has a dumb phone. Wearing the ear piece for communication was nearly a deal breaker for the job, but they told him they'd buy him the best mp3 player so it could run the comms program instead of needing a smart phone.
Role at SDN: Hero - Phoenix Program
Background: He grew up into a family wealthy enough to get him into private school for high school, but was planning to go to a public college. He was of average intelligence, but was on the tennis and track teams. He'd tried to get into Boxing but his vigor was low. In 10th, he had a particularly competitive indoor tennis match, with his rival in the county. After trading a few barbs back and forth with a rival, they made a joke about how he had gotten lessons because of daddy's money since the last time he'd seen him (the kid was also wealthy). Jet was angry and hit the ball harder than normal, the yell he made was later used as proof of intent. For a brief moment, he wished the ball would hit him directly in the face. It did. Blood came spurting out of his nose, and he ended up with a skull fracture. He was booked and sent to prison for modifying a tennis ball in a match with intent to maim. There was no proof it had been him, but the tennis ball had gained mass inexplicably, nearly killing his opponent. He spent the next 5 years in prison, where his father completely disowned him since the 'devil had gotten him'.
While his relationship with his dad was more quiet in his teen years, his father said he'd "learned some respect", before that his father used to come home from his banking job and beat Jet frequently. It was so bad, the school started asking his mother questions. His mom homeschooled him for the rest of 5th grade, and put him into a private academy for middle school. He still calls his mother once a month when his father is away on business.
Since he got out, he spent some time running about with a few villains, generally stuff on contract for bigger bads. One of the people in this group was his ex girlfriend, when they broke up it broke up their group. This led him to be unable to find work, and he traded a petty charge to join SDN. He doesn't think they know about the rest (they don't.. mostly..?)
Appearance: Costume is primarily black, with a fabric that seems to shimmer like stars. It's got golden ornaments on the sides of his arms and legs, with a few smaller ones vertically on his body. They all point up to a convergence on his chest, which is supposed to look like the back flare of an asteroid. His headgear is meant to represent the actual asteroid, and is a black fabric with gold specs, and gray craters on it. The eye covering is black with golden edges. Bottoms of his feet are red, because one of the people in his old group needed to be able to see him when he launched up at the ceiling.
Powers: Gravity manipulation. Can't fly, but can fall with style. Can slow falling, and launch weight up to 500 pounds a max of 50 ft into the air speed directly correlating to weight. This amount would overexert himself and would cause him to wind up gravely ill. Fights with liquid absorbing orbs (think Orbeez but they're biodegradable), that he adds mass to, and throws. He stores them in a series of compartments in his clothes on his arms. When he adds weight, they grow. He always keeps a tennis ball on him as last resort.
Crimes (If Villain): - Petty theft - Intent to Maim or Injure - Art theft - Robbery with a weapon(?) - Blackmail - Piracy - Counterfeiting Money
Likes: List some things your character likes - Sports - Gambling - Watching Cheesy Rom Coms - Magic the Gathering - Going to Bars & Clubs - Citrus - Roller-skating
Dislikes: List some things your character dislikes - Light Beer - Religion - The Legal System & Judges (Previously would go out of his way to harm them) - Only Dinner as a Date - Straight Razors - Father figures (generally) or being parented by someone else - Excessive Piercings (used to think they were hot, but on principle he dislikes them because of his ex)
Quirks: - Bites only his thumb nails - Wears lots of real and knockoff gold jewelry when he's going out as a civilian. Leaves the easy to steal ones as fake so they don't come back for the real stuff. - Calls his mom once a month from anywhere but his own phone. If someone lets him use their phone, they can expect an inquiry from a private investigator hired by his father. - Cannot eat corn, but loves it. - Mends his own uniform using skills he picked up from prison.
Has a best friend - Reynold - Older prision buddy. Protected him when he Loves animals. Hates bureaucracy. I don't like leather dusters, leather jackets for sure. Long brown/black feltish material coats.
Appearance: 6’6” (198 cm) Big enough to block a doorway. Tall enough to be seen over chaos. 285 lbs (129 kg) Dense. Not bulk for show—this is working mass. Hits land heavy, hard and with weight. Elite-power athlete build, barrel chested, thick neck and broad shouldered, big thick tree trunk like legs built for power off the push, and stability when he plants himself. And a Core with rippling six pack abs, the man looks like a tank, but moves like a freight train that learned footwork.
Role at SDN: Hero Representative (Canadian Transfer) and SDN Public Relations Representative
Background:
Tyler Ermineskin grew up just west of Edmonton, in the bosom of the plains and rocks of the Enoch Cree Nation, right on the western limits of the city. For being one of the richest Reserves in the province (Well done River Cree Well done), it’s also a community of good people, raised right and raised fair. It’s also close to the heart of the rivalry between two great hockey teams, the infamous Battle of Alberta. In the North Corner the Edmonton Oilers, in the South Corner the Calgary Flames. And Hockey has been part of Tyler’s upbringing from the start. He at one pointed wanted to go pro. He trained in the summer in between working on the farm. And skated hard during the cold winters of Northern Alberta. Hockey is in his heart, part of his soul. Just as the Pow Wow and the Sweat Lodge are part of the Cree identity, Hockey is part of that ceremony for Tyler, cold, frozen and power.
Tyler was big early. It was pudge early. But as time went on, as he grew, it went from plump to solid muscle though when he started to put in the work. His skating built his legs and core, weight lifting and other various exercises made him strong and fit as he grew up. As a kid he could outrun and out hit any kid his own age and older on the ice. If he were born earlier and was older when he began to play, in a earlier time, he’d have been picked up as an Enforcer, a Goon. But that’s not what he wanted. He wanted to play. He wanted to play well and he wanted to make people smile and enjoy it while doing it. So he learned how to fight too. When the whistle blew, the puck hit the ice he’d play right, he’d play good, and when the gloves came off he’d hit good and hard. Defense! Defense!
His playing took a second seat though in his early teens, his family moved to Cali, chasing work, chasing change. Sadly there no frozen ponds, no backyard shinny, no frozen boots and clouds of cold breath.
Just hot asphalt and desert and mountains and the ocean side.
So Tyler adapted.
He got a good education.
Business. Public Relations. Human Relations.
He became a People Person.
But he never gave up on his dream. But now he played on the rink of the Corporation. By the time he was in his 20s, he was a boardroom enforcer, he played for the people, made room for making things enjoyable for people he worked with, made things fun for people he worked for.
And in a land of heat and black concrete, he rediscovered his sport again. He found hockey enthusiasts. He began to skate again. Started working for SDN, brought his love for the sport and his powerhouse approach to Public Relations to the company.
Time passed and he worked hard and well. Became one of SDNs go to people to help their image. Socials, Public Events, Meet and Greets. He helped and facilitated. And in it all also squeezed his love of the game of Hockey in.
One time, heading back home, with a cadre of Heroes, they held a shinny charity game back in Enoch. To show the Rez Kids that even in times of poor and loss, people can rise up.
This is about when it all came and flipped.
A chance situation, one in a quadrillion. As they played some strange cryo tech being used in the arena to keep the ice perfect went on the fritz. And an until now unknown ancient Native American energy source buried under the reserve linked to some ceremony ages ago, mixed, broke then unleashed. The building cracked, the ice shattered. People scattered. Girds shattered in the cold. In hockey pads Tyler hammered up and pulled people from the wreckage. The ancient spirits of this old ceremony rose up, tired and a little pissed at being sealed. Sought out something.
And rather then their captor, found someone trying to safe people. Whatever intelligence was there, flipped. And merged with the powerhouse holding up an subzero freezing girder.
When the heroes he came with and local SDN rescuers came to help, they found him standing in a dome of deep blue almost glacial ice.
No one there knew what to make of it. He’d help up cold steel, helped trapped victims, and stood against the cold face to face. And the cold rather then killing him, worked to empower him.
In the face of potential pain, he’d shown, Courage, Power, and Caring.
The people he saved didn’t see just a simple rescue.
They saw a Hat Trick.
His group of heroes and SDN fellow employees went back to Cali, with a story. He stayed behind to learn how to use his new powers. It took almost a year, before he returned to California, with a registration to use his powers, and the Hero name of “Hat Trick”.
The name stuck, his love of the game grew. But he still played in the arena of the board room and the social stadium.
Appearance: Jet black hair, long, worn back or braided; often tied with traditional feather adornment when unarmored. Ice-green with steel flecks eyes Cold stare, but alive—never dead, never empty. Medium brown, weathered skin tone, an outdoorsy sort, fits he likes his shinny, and no one from Enoch will miss out on a chance to strip off their shirt in summer and play some field hockey. Prominent facial scarring across cheek and brow, Old knuckle damage, Shoulder and forearm scar tissue Every one earned. None regretted.
In his armor he appears Broad-shouldered, low center of gravity, Heavy reinforced boots with ice-channeling tech, Blue and orange armor reads “hero” at a distance and “problem” up close, Ice manifests first at his feet, then creeps outward—visual warning system, and when it surrounds his feet, fists and legs like a second layer of armor, then you’re really boned.
Out of armor he prefers, “Power Suits” and outfits that say, “Look-At-Me”. His suits are often strong blazers or suit jackets with crisp dress shirts and good fashionable dress pants, with good strong leather boots and shoes, that could be easily at home in a broad room or kicking in a door in a pinch. Casually he likes his short sleeved shirts, in neutral and dark colors, jogging pants and jeans, with good serviceable sneakers and boots.
Powers:
Cryokinetic MasteryHat Trick commands ice like a veteran commands a line change—precise, brutal, and perfectly timed.
Instantly freezes terrain, air, and structures
Can weaponize ice into blades, shields, spikes, and crushing impacts
Generates sub-zero shockwaves with every step on the battlefield
Builds up to a devastating Over-Armor state, a kind of “Limit Break” where his strength and vigor are in a state of overdrive
Icebound PhysiologyHis body operates at extreme cold without slowing.
Near-invulnerable skin when fully “iced up”
Enhanced strength, stamina, and pain resistance
Can absorb cold-based attacks to grow stronger
Combat Savant (Hockey Style)Everything he does follows rink logic.
Devastating body checks and physical close in attacks, Tie’em up and wail on them
Momentum-based strikes
Crowd-control tactics that turn chaos into spectacle
Likes:
- Almost any kind of sports, but is a hockey fanatic, when it’s hockey season he’ll show up at the office with whichever Albertan team sweater jersey that is in the lead standing, has curated Calgary Flames and Edmonton Oilers jersey
-Incredibly proud of his heritage, and by extension is very friendly with local reserves and nations in and around Claremont and California
-Loves his sweet treats, will go to great lengths to get his hands on a cheese cake ice cream treat from the place down the street from the SDN building
Dislikes:
- Rascism and Bigortry, team mates and villains alike know the best/worst way to get him going is to insult minority peoples or those who can’t stick up for themselves. More then one villain has met a Cross-Check Rush to the dome after calling the First Nations people some kind of slur
-Alcohol, this is personal, his grandfather was an alcoholic, alcoholism is a plague on his people.
-During a fight, he gets incredibly annoyed and angry when a foe escapes his control. And will go to great lengths to get them back under his control
Quirks:
-Has rigged up a high output speaker and mic system into his armor, so when he’s in a fight he’ll often narrate the altercation. He’ll broadcast hype to his allies and really piss the enemy off by narrating the punishment he’s dealing out to them
-Has a tendency to laugh off stress, he smiles and jokes and laughs to make it seem like he’s in control. But when he starts cackling, and laughing in the middle of a fight, there might be something wrong
-Villians and Criminals with heat and fire based abilities are his anathema clearly, but he hates people who will just set fires for no reason at all. And goes to great lengths to combat that, sort of an unofficial fire fighting hero
Burn it to the Ground - Nickelback Theme song often played as he approaches a combat situation over the Speaker system on his Armor. A Canadian staple band, hard hitting and morale boosting
A movement style based around skating and sliding. Think Frozone, but bigger, heavier and less Olympic endurance skating and more NHL juking and power strides. This isn’t elegant figure skating or the long strides of endurance skating. These moves are broad, balanced, powerful. Dynamic and explosive, favoring speed and agility. Making him fast on the turn and quick to stop. And with his size when going fast he hits harder than a truck. He leans forward producing a balanced and power stance, big powerful pumps of his legs sending him hurtling along, but at the same time he has the balance to do turns, spins and glides. He’s not afraid to show off that strength and agility.
Will engage the crowd watching a situation in call and response chants quite often. He's got quite a few. And will urge watchers and team alike to engage, and to Call-out Special Moves that he calls "Plays". Examples of this are:
THE ENTRANCE RITUAL (A CLAREMONT STANDARD)
Hat Trick (low, calm, mic-hot):“CLAREMONT—” Crowd (instant, thunderous): “HIT!” Hat Trick: “CLAREMONT—” Crowd (louder, feet stomping): “HIT!”
And -
THE FINAL CHANT (THE LAUNCH more then likely into a devastating Play)
He drops into a skater’s crouch. Ice coils under his feet.
Hat Trick: “PUCK—” Crowd: “DOWN!” Hat Trick: “GAME—” Crowd: “ON!”
CALLING OUT ON A PLAY (These can get people roaring)
Hat Trick: “Eyes on Me!” Crowd: “All eyes on!” Hat Trick: “Let’s take’em to the Cross Check Carnage! Three rounds!” He forms ice around his bladed hockey stick, and hits the opponents three times, once from behind, again across the shins then a third with a mighty shoulder check. Each time the crowd roars: Crowd: “One! Two! Three!”
Appearance: With reddish-brown hair and eyes described as 'looking into the sunset itself', Marisol is anything but average. Standing just over six and a half feet tall, she towers above the more averagely sized people around her. She comes from a pretty wealthy family, so she is rarely seen wearing anything but the finest clothing. Sometimes too fine, like 'Why are you wearing that we're having tea at a downtown cafe not meeting the president' fine.
Role at SDN: Hero
Background: Marisol was born with an unknown disease that was the only known case of its kind. Her father, an incredibly wealthy man, spared no expense at trying to cure her. But in the end, it was simply no use. Marisol was bound to a wheelchair never to know a 'normal' life. The sickness threatened to end her life before she even turned 18, and through her life it left her skin pale and sapped the color from her hair leaving it white, practically turning her into a ghost. Fortunately, the universe had a different fate in mind for her.
One day Marisol was watching a meteor shower late at night, it was a big event and everybody was gathered at the lake to watch. There was however, a call to evacuate from the area as apparently a particularly large meteor was coming, and satellites had detected it wasn't going to simply burn up like the rest. It was coming right for the crowd that was gathered, and so heroes arrived to help everybody clear out. Ever the rebellious spirit however, Marisol was far further down by the water than anyone else, and being in a wheelchair made it particularly difficult to return. And somehow, someway, nobody was able to find her before the worst happened.
The meteor crashed into the lake, and nobody was harmed, but Marisol had gone missing completely. There was a week long manhunt for her, before she was found simply laying in the sand unconscious, in a place that had been looked over many times. OF course, she didn't simply reappear as before.
Now with color returned to her hair and skin, she awoke to find herself with incredible strength, and superhuman abilities far beyond anything she had ever known. She feeds off the power of the sun... though how a meteor crashing made this happen is a complete mystery.
Solaris
Appearance: Solaris, unlike a typical hero, wears armor like a knight straight out of fantasy. She wields a sword and shield and can channel her powers through both.
Powers: The power of the sun gives Solaris super-human strength, the ability to fly, and she can channel solar light in just about any way she can think of. While she is capable of burning things with this power, 'fire' isn't necessarily her power. Her light can be used in many ways, healing the injuries of her allies, lifting the morale of others, or indeed, blasting someone with enough of it to turn them to ash. Even she doesn't know the limits of her power, as she purposely holds herself back for fear of what her full power might do. 'Flying too close to the sun' and all that. She is known to fly across the city leaving a streak of sunlight behind her, which has become known as the 'Shooting Star' so that people know she is there, protecting them.
Likes: - The Sun - Dramatic Entrances - Super Hero Landings
Dislikes: - The Moon (Mostly a joke, she'll mention it but actually doesn't care) - Lunara (Her Nemesis... who now works with her.) - Crime and Villainy (She's pretty 'generic hero' mindset a lot of the time.)
Quirks: - She glows when using her power. At extreme levels of power, her hair and eyes glow gold. - She also glows when she is nervous, anxious, or even embarassed. - She can accidentally burn things by staring too long. Literally 'staring a hole into something' like shining a light through a magnifying glass. - Despite some of her powers having burning-effects, she is not herself immune to being burned.
-Due to a history as a super villain, her identity has been completely redacted from public record for her own safety. Currently all that is known is that after being defeated by her nemesis Solaris, she was forced into the Phoenix program for rehabilitation, rather than being permanently locked up. Speculation suggests this was because Solaris herself believed she could be redeemed, and because in all her time of being a super villain... she never actually committed any crimes that weren't directed at other villains and criminals. The thought process being 'we can turn this into something good'
Role at SDN: Phoenix Program
Lunara
Appearance: Lunara wears armor much like her nemesis Solaris, though much less. She wields a crescent scythe. She has pale silver hair, black eyeliner that isn't actually makeup, it's permanent, and her eyes match the silver of her hair. On her forehead glows a lunar symbol, the meaning of which is unkonwn.
Powers: The power of the moon gives Lunara super-human speed and the ability to disappear completely in dark spaces. She can also fly, though it's less flying and more like jumping really high and then gliding down, as she cannot simply fly from one location to the next directly. She is capable of deflecting many types of attacks as if they simply bounce off her completely. This is especially true for attacks from powers such as light, fire, or rays of any particular energy.
Likes: - The Moon - Darkness (In a totally non-edgy way) - Late Night Insomnia
Dislikes: - The Sun (Not a Joke, she fucking hates that thing) - Solaris (Her Nemesis... who she now works with, indirectly.) - Generic Hero Personalities (She can't stand do gooders who do good for good doing sake.)
Quirks: - She glows when using her power. Her hair and eyes gain a white-silver glow, and the symbol on her forehead glows the more power she uses. - The more she uses her power, the dimmer her symbol gets, which is pretty much a direct indicator of how much power she has left. - She was the leader of one of the most notorious night-gangs around, yet they never actually did anything actively villainous... they mostly just had open gang wars with other gangs. - She can on occasion be found humming or singing when she thinks nobody is around or listening.
"What are you gonna do, stab me?" (she was then stabbed.)
Name: Alaine Barrows
Age: 25
Appearance: ↳ Standing at 5'6, Alaine is fit but not thin, describing herself as "sturdy". She has a fair complexion that tends towards being pale, a few random small scars from life scattered across her body and nothing very notable. She has a beauty mark/freckle at the corner of her right eye. Her eyes are grey-blue and she has excellent vision; her faceshape leans towards being squarish with a greek nose, high cheekbones, and full lips. her hair is a mousy blonde-brown, and she current has a redpeekaboo dye job. She doesn't wear makeup and the only accessories she wears are a simple, stainless steel band and a friendship bracelet made for her by two of her younger sisters before they went to college. (She wears neither of these when in uniform.) Outside of "work", her style consists mostly of jeans, t-shirts and sweaters, and cowboy boots. She avoids dressing up as much as possible.
Born to Roger and Laverne Barrows one January, Alaine was the couple's first child and quickly followed by five more in the next eight years. Roger was a pastor and worked in several different states throughout her childhood, so she and her siblings were homeschooled to help with frequent moves. Originally returning to the state she was born in, Alabama, when she was sixteen, Alaine and her family lived humble but happy lives.
But she was directionless. Two of her younger sisters went off to college, got engaged. One of her younger brothers joined the National Guard with plans to eventually become a cop, and the other brother and youngest sister already knew what they wanted to do with their lives. But her? No clue. She had options but none of them seemed quite right. She felt as if she was perpetually waiting for... something.
It was hard, watching her parents be proud of all her other siblings while she sat there collecting dust, no clue what to do with her life. She'd always been decent at art so her parents suggested she get a degree for it, if nothing else; trying to appease them, she found an art school based in California and headed west.
She didn't like being on the opposite side of the country from her family, nor did she like the crowded city or having to share a room again. It didn't help that her roommate and suitemate were a toxic pair that made her sole semester at the school a nightmare.
Without telling her parents, Alaine dropped out before her second semester. Once again directionless, she stayed at a hotel for a week while trying to figure out what to do and applying to jobs, desperate to make the trip across the country and all the money spent worth something.
Stressed and depressed after a week of dead ends, she tried to give herself a break by traveling to a smaller town and getting some fresh air out in the surrounding nature.
Instead, she was hit by a falling star.
Alaine still doesn't fully understand what happened. One minute she was out in the hills, watching the stars -- the next there was a dazzling light tumbling out of the sky and headed straight for her. When she woke up she didn't know how much time had passed. Her phone was fried so she had no way of contacting anyone as she hauled herself out of the small crater she found herself in. Unfamiliar energy crackled through her veins, pulsing in her nerve endings and buzzing in her head.
When she made it back to the town she was staying in she didn't know what was happening to her. Her body didn't feel like her own, she was disoriented. It was early in the morning, the sun just barely rising, and the first person she ran into was a kind old gentleman who noticed was something was wrong and stopped to try and help her.
She killed him.
It wasn't intentional. She'd been trying to explain what had happened when he touched her arm; the feeling was foreign, a jolt that caused a surge of unfamiliar energy through her body. Alaine saw stars -- literally. Behind her eyes she caught a glimpse of the cosmos, incomprehensible dark matter and glittering star-worlds. It only lasted a second and when she blinked, the old man was falling back on the pavement, a smoldering gash in his chest as dark light flickered around her hands.
Horrified and terrified, she tried to help the innocent man but it was too late. She knew she shouldn't have but she ran anyway, shaken as she struggled to comprehend what had happened to her, how her feet kept missing steps and instead of falling she floated.
She managed to catch a ride to the nearest city from a stranger who she was careful to keep her hands off of, and when they left her she took to the task of surviving. Overcome with guilt and horror, Alaine did her best to scrape by for a few weeks; many times she considered going to the authorities or to a hospital, but she was scared she'd kill someone else. So instead she dedicated herself to controlling the new, strange energy coursing through her veins and slowly but surely she began to learn. Only when she felt sure she wouldn't accidentally murder the next person she touched did Alaine venture back among the public to purchase a phone with what little money she still had available; she needed to make contact with her family, which was the first step to finding some sort of normalcy in her new reality.
But, like the star that had fallen right into her, her newfound abilities couldn't be ignored. And, like all things, they needed practice in order to be controlled.
Alaine isn't proud of that period of her life -- it was a two-and-a-half-year stretch of shady work, struggling with powers she wasn't sure anyone should have, stumbling along the line of wrong and right that made up vigilantism. It came from the right place, the want to do good with whatever had happened to her... but it was tainted with the knowledge that she'd killed someone, that she could kill. Throwing herself into situations where she was being threatened or protecting someone else who was in danger meant emotions were high and decisions couldn't be reversed.
The old man wasn't the only person she killed during that period. They weren't all intentional... but there were a few she didn't try to keep herself from hurting.
She was spiraling deeper and deeper into the mess of vigilantism and the web of lies she was spinning all around herself, between the diner where she'd gotten work during the day and her family back home who still didn't know what had happened to her out in the hills. Little by little she was losing herself and venturing into dangerous territory, which she recognized -- as a last-ditch effort, she packed up her bags and left town, traveling to a new town further west.
Denying herself vigilante work and any use of her powers seemed to be detrimental to her health however, slowly but surely driving her insane with the buildup of cosmic energy that had no outlet. She would've inevitably imploded if not for John.
She didn't know his last name, but he was an older man who'd been keeping track of the strange goings-on in the city she left. He'd pieced together that a new, superpowered individual had emerged and tracked her down, hoping to help; he seemed more knowledgeable about heroes than he should've been, for someone seemingly without powers himself, but he was able to help her get a new, normal job while simultaneously helping her learn more about her abilities and ways she could use them for the good of society.
Because she was still struggling internally with the guilt of what she'd done, intentionally or not, Alaine latched onto John's help and encouragement, eventually getting herself to the level of a functioning hero. John helped her pick out a name and even managed to procure her a customized suit from somewhere, and that was when he told her he'd gotten her an interview with SDN. He promised her they didn't have to know about the past two and a half years and said he'd keep her secrets as long as she needed him to, if she would in turn promise to use her cosmic-granted powers for good for as long as she was able.
It was a promise Alaine was happy -- relieved, really, to make.
Alaine is overall a kind and hardworking individual. She's naturally quiet and more of a loner, but in a group she does her best to make everyone feel comfortable and keep things running smoothly, if it's needed -- otherwise she tends to fade into the background and observe. Despite these quiet tendencies, she's more than capable of sticking up for herself. She's earned a reputation in certain circles as being tough, independent, and a bit of a vigilante, never one to back down from a fight when someone's honor or safety is on the line. She's fiercely loyal but has a hard time making good friends because she's had her loyalty taken advantage of before, and blames herself for several incidents that led her to believe she was better off on her own. Even though she tells herself that often, she still feels very lonely at times and wouldn't mind someone to be close to.
She has a tendency to be protective over people she likes, or those that remind her of her younger siblings. Although she's patient in many ways she also has no fondness for arrogance, cruelty, and people who don't use their heads, and she's been known to keep a grudge. Although she's incredibly resilient (and values that trait in others), she also tends to keep her problems under wraps and handle them herself, believing they're her responsibility and not wanting to bother anyone else. "Responsibility" was hammered into her from a young age and, despite going through a period of uncertainty about what her responsibilities were with her powers, she feels the weight of expectations (from herself and others) heavily.
More than anything Alaine considers herself a guard dog. Always putting others first, working tirelessly, and knowing when to be gentle makes her a good friend - being keenly observant, tough-skinned, and unafraid to attack makes her a dangerous protector.
((I drew these kinda quick and rough the other day but I wanted to have a visual reference rather than just trying to explain my specific idea lol))
Appearance: Alaine's suit is a charcoal black color, and she has a version with white detailing and a version with dark black. She prefers the black-on-black one, as she feels it makes her less visible. The suit has a half-cowl that goes up her neck and halfway up the back of her head, effectively hiding the portion of her hair that's dyed red and leaving the rest visible; it hides the midsection of her face and her eyes, though she has a detachable mask that covers the lower half of her face. She prefers it, as she's desperate to keep her anonymity (both for the sake of her family and the risk of being traced back to her less-than-reputable first years as a "hero"), but John suggested she looked more like a good guy without it.
Powers: ↳flight: Alaine can fly surprisingly high and has discovered she can survive low levels of oxygen for extended periods of time, but she's not able to exist in space or stay in the upper atmosphere for more than ten minutes without suffocating or freezing. She is able to fly slow enough to hover as well as fast enough to outpace a commercial jet (around 400-500mph) but she hasn't attempted to go faster and is unsure of her max flight speed. Flying at high speeds or altitudes for extended periods of time will gradually wear her out and she'll need to rest afterwards (think of it like running a marathon). Flying uses energy either way, and her ability to remain in the air can fluctuate with exercise; for example, when she first discovered she could fly she couldn't stay in the air for more than an hour. Over time and practice she's built up a flying endurance. If she were to fall out of practice she would have to get back into it before being able to fly to higher altitudes or for prolonged amounts of time.
↳cosmic/dark energy blades: Alaine is able to manifest a mysterious kind of dark/cosmic energy, and it takes the form of visually-crackling/flickering "blade" shapes that protrude out from her hands/fists with a hard-to-describe, inverted kind of light. These blades are at minimum four inches long and the longest Alaine has ever been able to extend them was around three and a half feet. When slicing into things they have a similar effect to lightsabers, able to melt/burn through most materials (though thicker/denser materials will take longer to melt and require more energy; generally Alaine tries to avoid this as it can wear her out quickly, leave her or others vulnerable, and in her early days she got stuck on more than one occasion). Touching organic material with these blades can cause burning (mild to severe) and instant cauterization of wounds. The blades can be maintained apart from her body but only briefly (around 10-40 seconds) and thus can be used as projectiles, though the effectiveness varies (read: non-lethal; more of an energy blast that acts like a punch). Oftentimes when the blade/energy pulse is separate from her body she can't control its intensity, and she hasn't practiced this skill much. Most usually she goes for close combat over ranged, unless she has some other weapon on hand. Like flying, she has to keep up her endurance with the blades in order to maintain them for longer amounts of time, extend them further, or make them stronger. *
The closest example to what I'm imagining, as far as what this power looks like, is Psylocke from Marvel (example, example). I'm still working out the kinks of how exactly I want it to work; my original idea was that the "meteorite" that hit her (imbued with some kind of dark matter/cosmic energy, maaaybe alien tech??? idk idk) actually fused with her, either untraceably or via a shard of it being embedded in her heart (like Iron Man's arc reactor heart lol) without her knowledge, thus putting the energy in her actual bloodstream and making it part of her biology. So it's a physical power that needs her mental state to be in focus to properly use).
↳other: She has an overall enhanced physiology, putting her speed, strength, endurance, and healing at an above average rate. While she can't carry a whole commercial jet or hold a breaking bridge together, she can lift a car to help someone out from underneath or knock a normal human out with a solid punch. She can run slightly faster than the average human being, but most of her speed seems to be related to flight. Endurance-wise, she has a natural above average endurance (after gaining powers) and it can be trained to last longer. Her healing won't instantly heal a wound but it will help her recover at an increased speed, effectively cutting most recovery times in half (depending on the severity of the injury). On the whole, she's still vulnerable to normal weapons/injuries; guns/bullets, knives, broken bones, hard hits, electrical shocks, poison, etc., are all able to hurt and incapacitate her.
Crimes (If Villain): n/a (none that anyone can prove)
Likes: ✧ orange sherbet ✧ animals ✧ stars + the sky ✧ her family ✧ flying
Dislikes: ✧ tomatoes + onions ✧ wolves ✧ physical restraints ✧ poor work ethics ✧ waking up early
Quirks: ✧ Alaine has lupophobia (fear of wolves) ✧ as she's from the American South but hasn't lived there her whole life, she has a mild southern accent ✧ she refuses to drink or use any illegal substances for multiple reasons, but mostly because she has a fear of not being in full control of her own mind and/or body ✧ all niceties drop the second someone who knows her name tries to call her "Lainey" ✧ she's a big animal person and has a natural aptitude for working with them (except for wolves...)
Age: 2 Years Chronologically, Few Hundred Biologically, Mentally… complicated.
Appearance: You’re looking at the spitting image of Phenomaman, in all of his bulky mustached brilliance! His hair is less well maintained, and he has a little bit of blankness in the eyes, but boy it sure looks like him!
Role at SDN: Hero, though he’s a bit unproven
Background: A project of the supervillain Doctor Helix, Fenom, or Fee as most people call him, was an effort by the gene scientist to make a clone of the hero Phenomaman. While he was successful in (mostly) rebuilding the alien’s physiology, he was less capable when it came to shaping his mind, let alone all the problems of downloaded and hypno-suggested training. Ultimately, Fee was a fuck up, but not an unsalvageable one. Evil geniuses always have need for enforcers, after all, and he was one of the strongest people in the city.
Fenom had other ideas. A couple weeks after watching the lab, he decided to go out for a stroll on the city. His adventure was… eventful to say the least, facing off against some villains and bewildered looks from heroes who thought their friend was acting very strange… well more strange than usual. While Phenomaman’s speaking patterns were alien, he was more broken and childlike in his speaking with a very simple vocabulary.
Fenom took up work at SDN, wanting to follow in his “father’s” footsteps, and saw some success, though usually it was seen as better for him to function as a model for advertisements than take to the streets. That changes today, the clone finally getting to hit the streets and become the hero he really wants to be, or at least thinks he wants to be.
Appearance: He generally keeps the costume on, he's most comfortable in it.
Powers: Fenom has all the powers of Phenomaman, and can fly along with possessing incredible physical strength and endurance. He doesn’t need to breathe, and can even go to space without much issue. He can lift and throw cars without issue, and can take ungodly amounts of beating.
Crimes (If Villain): While it would be appropriate to call his debut a 'rampage' it really only amounted to (relative to what could have happened) minor property damage and unliscensed vigilantism. He wants to be a hero, but doesn't quite have the spark, let alone the horsepower in his head.
Likes: -Cute things like flowers and bunnies, colorful things in general are exciting for someone who sees in the whole spectrum of light -Good jokes, not that he really knows how to make them -Dancing, he comes to it naturally, and loves the... -Attention, he craves validation and approval, even if its from the wrong people.
Dislikes: -Bad Guys! He wants to be a real superhero, after all -Waiting Around, the first villain he knew made him wait around, thats how he knows its evil! -Getting confused, be it from puzzles, riddles, or even just wordplay and complex instruction, thinking hard can hurt sometimes
Quirks: -He can be surprisingly lucid and insightful at moments, but these are fleeting, and he likely wont be able to back them up -He knows where his creator’s lair is, but has not yet told people where he came from. -He may have some latent hypno-activated control phrases.
Stat Specialisations:
STAT ALLOCATION: Combat: One of the strongest in the city, able to bend steel and punch through concrete-4 Vigor: Built to withstand punishment, like any good hero can-4 Mobility: Able to fly pretty fast, and can cruise long distance-4 Charisma: He's a goofball, once he starts talking things fall apart, easily frustrated-1 Intellect: Doesn't have a lot of book smarts, or street smarts-1
"Nadia Khalil" "I have lived a thousand lives. Thank the Gods this one has WiFi."
P E R S O N A L D E T A I L S P E R S O N A L D E T A I L S
_________________________________________________________ Age: 22 _________________________________________________________ Role at SDN: Phoenix Program
Nadia Khalil is tall and striking, with warm olive skin, dark teal eyes and an aquiline bone structure that is only partly blunted by the roundness of her full cheeks and lips. Her hair is naturally a warm brown, although she often dyes it a variety of colours. Mostly recently she has kept it black. She keeps her hair long, usually worn loose or in elaborate styles that do little to obscure its length. She has an curvaceous hourglass figure, the softer kind born of good living and kind genetics as opposed to any great degree of training or discipline. She dresses well, as would be expected for someone who loves the limelight.
Most stringly of all, of course, are her wings. Two large feathered wings flair out from her lower back. While she can fold them quite efficiently, at full extent she has a wingspan a little over twice her height. These wings, seemingly in build akin to that of a Falcon, are made of white feathers with golden accents. It is not usually possible for her to hide or dismiss her wings in anyway.
L I K E S & D I S L I K E S L I K E S & D I S L I K E S
Likes: - A well-composed photograph - Room service in expensive hotels - Gold, in most of its applications
Dislikes: - Being told what to do by people she considers her inferiors, which is most people - The Phoenix Program's insistence on an actual schedule of her time. - The gap between what she remembers being capable of in past lives and what she can currently do - Sincerity, which she finds exhausting in others and unsettling in herself
- Occasionally speaks in a language that is not quite any modern language when startled or in pain — fragments of something old - She sometimes recognizes people (particularly those with extended lifespans on account of their abilities) she has never met in this life, and has learned to keep this off her face.
S T A T S P E C I A L I S A T I O N S S T A T S P E C I A L I S A T I O N S
Nadia was born in Chicago to second-generation Egyptian-American parents, neither of whom had any particular interest in mythology or ancient history beyond the occasional family holiday to visit relatives. She grew up entirely ordinarily until she was sixteen, at which point she woke up one morning with a pair of enormous falcon wings folded against her back, a strength that bent the frame of her bedroom door, and the first of what would become an increasingly detailed series of memories that were not her own. The transition from normal teenager to divine reincarnation was, by her own account, less traumatic than you might expect. Nadia has always been good at adapting to situations that benefit her.
The memories came slowly over the following months, fragments at first, then longer sequences, then whole lifetimes. Battlefields. Temples. Other bodies, other faces, all of them hers. She is the latest in an unbroken cycle of reincarnations tied to Horus, the sky god, each life beginning without knowledge of the last until the powers awaken and the past returns. She is not entirely sure what the cycle is for or what it is building toward. She has not, if she is honest, spent a great deal of time worrying about it. The memories are useful context. The powers are more immediately interesting. If the distant dreams of a God's favoured priestess being granted divine power and endless life as a means to escape her untimely end are even true, they matter little to her in there here and now.
What she did with those powers in the years between sixteen and twenty-two is where the story gets complicated. She launched a social media presence almost immediately, initially as a hero , genuinely stopping crimes, genuinely helping people, but always with a camera angle in mind. The content performed extraordinarily well. Brand deals followed. Merchandise. Paid appearances. Then, gradually, something shifted. The heroics became content, and the content became a business, and the business had operating costs that a legitimate SDN-registered hero's stipend did not cover. She began taking private contracts; corporate security, personal protection for clients who wanted the novelty of a genuine superhero on retainer. She treated fans as little better than servants. Eventually this caught up with her in an armed confrontation that resulted in a deal. The choice of joining the Phoenix Program or ending up in a whole different level of trouble.
She arrived at the Phoenix Program with the energy of someone attending a moderately inconvenient appointment. She is cooperative, technically compliant, and has absolutely no intention of letting this experience change her in any meaningful way. She is also, underneath the performance of mild contrition, considerably more complicated than she presents, three thousand years of accumulated lives have a way of leaving marks, even on someone doing their best not to examine them too closely.
-
H E R O A P P E A R A N C E H E R O A P P E A R A N C E
In costume she wears a sleek white bodysuit, with detailing in teal, fold and red. Her mask is a tinted visor with a trim that has an avian styling. For some time she carried a variety of often ceremonial looking weapons but out of concerns for a risk she might disembowel somwone, under the Phoenix program she relies on her enhanced strength and speed alone.
Nadia's wings grant her powerful sustained flight at considerable speed, with the aerial instincts of someone who has spent multiple lifetimes in the sky. Her divine blessing grants her enhanced strength and durability well beyond the human baseline — she hits hard, takes hits well, and heals faster than she should. These physical gifts are tied directly to her connection to her past lives and whatever is the true source of her power, and have grown stronger as her memories of past lives have returned, suggesting the cycle is cumulative in some way she has not fully mapped yet.
Appearance: To say Serena Hale is beautiful would be an understatement. Years of heavy physical training and rooftop heists have left her with a figure that could rival most athletes. Her amber colored eyes carry a wicked twinkle that always seems to light up whenever she gets "excited" regarding a job or dispatch. Standing around 5'8, she always seems taller thanks to constantly wearing heels in her civilian attire. She claims it's her way of practicing "balance" since much of her former life required being on her toes constantly. In contrast to the form fitting attire she wears when she becomes Salem, Serena prefers to wear looser clothing when she's not in action. Another item she's never seen without is her Black Cat Talisman which she can wear either as a necklace or strapped to her purse.
Role at SDN: Phoenix Program
Background: If there were ever a case study in being born under a bad sign, it was Serena Hale.
Serena was only seven years old when a freak accident claimed the lives of both her parents. With nowhere else to go, she moved into a rundown apartment complex in Reseda with her grandmother. The building was in a constant state of disrepair, and the residents often found themselves ignored by landlords and local authorities alike. When something broke, people either learned to fix it themselves or learned to live without it.
Serena adapted quickly. Small, athletic, and clever beyond her years, she developed a habit of sneaking into places she wasn't supposed to be. More than once, she found herself slipping into the office of the complex's corrupt superintendent to "borrow" tools and supplies that should have been available to tenants in the first place. What began as necessity slowly revealed a talent for getting in and out of places unnoticed.
Then, just before her thirteenth birthday, tragedy struck again. Serena's grandmother suffered a fatal heart attack, leaving her alone and entering the foster care system.
Among the few possessions left to her was a strange talisman shaped like a cat's paw. A note accompanying it claimed the charm had belonged to the Hale family for generations, dating back to the witch trials of colonial America. Whether the story was true or simply one of her grandmother's old family legends, Serena treasured the talisman. It became a reminder of the last person who had truly cared for her, and she rarely went anywhere without it.
In the months that followed, Serena began to notice that her luck seemed to be improving.
Opportunities appeared when she needed them most. Lost items turned up at convenient moments. Mistakes somehow went unnoticed. At first, she dismissed it as coincidence—or perhaps the comforting belief that her grandmother was still watching over her.
The turning point came during high school.
Competing for a limited spot on the gymnastics team, Serena found herself up against several more experienced athletes. Before one practice, a teammate offered her an encouraging pat on the shoulder. The touch sent a strange warmth through the cat-paw talisman Serena carried in her pocket. She thought little of it at the time.
Days later, the same teammate suffered an injury that forced her out of competition.
Serena made the team.
At first, she felt guilty for benefiting from someone else's misfortune. Then similar incidents began to occur elsewhere. A classmate who had bumped into her in a crowded hallway forgot an important assignment. Another who had shaken her hand before a competition suffered an improbable streak of bad luck. Individually, each incident was explainable. Together, they formed a pattern Serena could no longer ignore.
Every person whose fortunes seemed to worsen had one thing in common:
They had touched her.
Fearful of what she might be responsible for, Serena began investigating the talisman and the history of the Hale family. What she uncovered changed her life forever.
The cat-paw charm was no ordinary heirloom. It was a genuine magical artifact tied to an ancient form of witchcraft centered on fate, fortune, and probability. Through physical contact, the talisman could siphon luck from one person and transfer it to its bearer. More alarming still, the artifact appeared capable of acting on Serena's unconscious desires, draining fortune from others without her knowledge whenever she desperately wished for a different outcome.
For years, Serena struggled with what she had inherited. Yet as she grew older, curiosity gradually overcame fear. She studied the talisman, experimented with its limits, and unlocked new abilities. What began as the subtle theft of luck evolved into something far more potent. Stolen fortune could be stored, shaped, and weaponized, manifesting as supernatural energy that enhanced her agility and eventually took the form of spectral feline claws.
When Salem first appeared, few took her seriously. To the public, she seemed little more than another costumed cat burglar. A thief with a flair for theatrics and an unusual talent for escaping impossible situations. Security footage captured a masked young woman dancing through laser grids, slipping past guards, and vanishing moments before authorities arrived. Rumors spread that she was impossibly lucky.
Despite mostly stealing for herself, Salem would also take up jobs from criminal organizations when the payout was worth the risk. During a routine heist for the Red Ring, Salem didn't realize she walked headfirst into a sting operation. Surrounded by cops and SDN heroes, she panicked. Salem reached out and did a mass drain of the people around her. What followed was a city-wide blackout. Salem escaped. Several people lost their lives.
After discovering what her powers had caused, Serena was overcome with guilt. In exchange for her cooperation, testimony against several criminal organizations, and a commitment to rehabilitation, she accepted a plea agreement that spared her from a lengthy prison sentence. Despite struggling with the consequences of her past, Serena is dedicated to making sure no one else suffers because of her mistakes.
Salem
Appearance: Unlike most heroes, Serena doesn't need to "change" into a costume when she becomes Salem. A side effect of the talisman gives her the ability to create a shadowy catsuit around her. She resembles a cross between a cat burglar and a modern day witch. Shadows form around her whenever a fight is near. Made from stolen fortune, these shadows can form "tools" for Salem. Typically, she'll create a set of claws around her hands, but she can form whips, lock picks, and other items for her heist work.
Powers: - Luck Drain: Her talisman's main power. When she wants something bad enough, Salem can drain the luck from anyone who touches her. She takes this luck and can use it for herself or to "feed" the talisman's power. - Shadows: By channeling the luck she's drained, Salem can form shadowy energy around her. This energy can be turned into weapons or tools to accomplish her tasks. Among the tools she can make are lock picks, a grappling hook, and even a platform to cross between spaces (She calls this her "Catwalk")
Crimes: Involuntary Manslaughter (Multiple Counts), Grand Theft, Burglary (Multiple Counts), Breaking and Entering, Criminal Association, Illegal Possession of a Restricted Magical Artifact
Likes: List some things your character likes - Designer Brands - Good Coffee - Days where she doesn't need her powers
Dislikes: List some things your character dislikes - Being reminded about her past - Reseda (Too many bad memories) - Cheap Sushi
Quirks: - Since joining Phoenix Program, Serena has been discreetly sending a portion of her paychecks to families affected by the blackout. She donates anonymously. Always. - Because she gave up Red Ring secrets in exchange for leniency, Serena stays away from villain bars. She doesn't know who might have it out for her. - Serena has a soft spot for cheesy action movies. She'll often say the Karate Kid movie was "the only good thing that came out of Reseda". - Serena HATES being called "lucky". It doesn't make her angry. The word just means something very different for her.
"The system was broken. I'm giving it a much-needed update"
Age: 31
Appearance: Prior to his transfer, Riley was a mess. Even though he showed up to work every day in the same clean SDN uniform and Khakis, his face was perpetually tired. He lived off the bad coffee in the break room. Despite saying he loved his job and the connections, there never really was a "spark" in his eyes. Despite being a chair jock, he still found time to hit the office gym and maintain a decent figure. Since his return to hero work, Riley is a man reborn. He looks younger, happier, and seems to have found where he really belongs. He's finally gained perspective on his life and that's had a profound impact on how he presents himself. He takes more pride in his appearance, shaves regularly, and takes better care of himself. To anyone who'd known him before the transfer, they'd be forgiven for thinking he was a different person entirely.
Role at SDN: Dispatcher/R&D/Provisional Hero
Background: Riley Ryder grew up with the kind of dream that should have made him easy to root for. From the time he was young, he wanted to be a hero. Not a celebrity, not a brand, not a headline—just someone who could help people when they needed it most. When his technopathic abilities began to emerge, Riley took it as confirmation that he had been right all along. This was what he was supposed to do.
He spent much of his childhood and teenage years in his family’s garage, taking apart old household appliances, discarded electronics, and whatever broken devices he could get his hands on. To Riley, every toaster, radio, monitor, and circuit board was a possible tool. He built crude gadgets, half-working prototypes, and experimental devices he was certain would one day become part of his hero kit. Some of them worked. Some of them failed. Some of them failed loudly. But Riley kept building.
His first hero identity was A.C.E., short for Arbitrary Code Execution. It was a computer joke Riley thought was clever. Almost no one else got it. Riley did not care. A.C.E. was the name of a young technopath who still believed that being good enough, useful enough, and sincere enough would eventually make people understand him. Unfortunately, Riley had badly underestimated how much people feared powers like his.
Technopaths were never especially popular. Pop culture had spent years turning people who controlled machines into villains, spies, saboteurs, and monsters hiding behind screens. Adults distrusted Riley’s abilities, and that distrust gradually filtered down to his classmates. Parents pulled their kids away from him. Friends became distant. Teachers watched him more carefully than they watched everyone else. Whenever one of his gadgets malfunctioned, the embarrassment was public and immediate. Whenever he succeeded, people treated it less like talent and more like proof that he could be dangerous. Riley became the “weird kid,” and A.C.E. became the dream he clung to anyway.
After high school, he registered as a hero and tried to prove himself in the field. For a while, he believed he could change people’s minds one job at a time. Then came the Brave Brigade Incident. When Shroud killed the pilot of Mecha Man Astral, public fear of technopaths hardened into outright hostility. Riley had no connection to Shroud or the incident, but that distinction mattered very little to the public. To most people, a technopath was a technopath.
A.C.E. spent the next several years fighting an uphill battle against suspicion, bad press, and public panic. Work was scarce. Civilians did not trust him. Clients hesitated to hire him. More than once, he was verbally accosted in the middle of a job by the very people he was trying to help. On one particularly humiliating call, Riley was mistaken for Shroud while responding to an incident, causing civilians to turn on him so aggressively that other heroes had to be dispatched to save him. That moment stayed with him.
Eventually, Riley accepted that A.C.E. was not going to survive. Not because he lacked skill. Not because he had stopped caring. But because the world had already decided what he was before he had been given a real chance to prove otherwise.
With help from a friend, Riley found work at the Superhero Dispatch Network. He originally applied for an R&D position, hoping to finally use his technical gifts in a place where they could matter. Suspicion surrounding his powers kept him from that role. Instead, he was offered a dispatcher position. It was not what he wanted, but it kept him close to hero work, and at that point, close was better than nothing.
His first year at SDN Burbank was rough. The branch was chaotic, poorly managed, and constantly one bad call away from collapse. Riley survived it, but barely. After that, he transferred to the Claremont branch, where he finally found something he had been missing for most of his life: stability.
At Claremont, Riley proved himself. His technopathy made him an exceptional dispatcher. He could process information streams faster than most people could read a single incident report. He understood systems instinctively, from city grids to emergency networks to hero comms. He could spot patterns, anticipate failures, and coordinate responses with a level of precision that made him invaluable behind the desk. Over time, he built a reputation as one of Claremont’s most reliable dispatchers.
Riley was able to build a life. For the first time in years, Riley had coworkers who trusted him, friends who saw him as more than his powers, and a job where his abilities were useful without making him a public target. The R&D team at Claremont even began letting him assist with projects unofficially, giving him small pieces of the work he had always wanted. Riley convinced himself that dispatching was where he belonged. Maybe A.C.E. had failed, but Riley Ryder still mattered. Deep down, his dreams of being a hero never truly went away.
Following the Red Ring's assault on the Southlands (Specifically, Shroud's attack on the Torrance Branch), Riley’s boss, Katherine, recommended him for a temporary transfer to Torrance to help while the branch rebuilt. Officially, SDN records stated that Riley had been sent to Pasadena. Unofficially, he was placed where his skills could do the most good without attracting attention.
Torrance changed everything.
For the first time, Riley was given meaningful access to R&D. His work was still meant to stay behind the scenes and off the record, but it gave him the opportunity he had been denied years earlier. He worked alongside Royd and Mecha-Man, studied advanced systems, and began repurposing scraps of old Red Ring technology for SDN use. What others saw as dangerous remnants, Riley saw as salvageable tools. Proof that even compromised technology could be redirected toward something better.
Working with Mecha-Man also gave Riley a new perspective on hero work. Watching the legendary hero operate alongside his Z-Team showed him that a dispatcher didn't have to just sit on the sidelines. An active supporter could take an unstable team and transform them into something more. They could bring together people who had been overlooked, dismissed, or written off. They could provide structure to heroes who still had something to offer but needed someone willing to believe in them. Someone who could properly support and fight alongside them. That idea took root.
Riley began developing a new identity. Not a return to A.C.E., and not an attempt to relive the dream exactly as he had imagined it when he was young. This would be something more deliberate. More mature. A hero built around what Riley had actually become: a dispatcher, a hacker, a support specialist, a systems thinker, and a technopath who understood better than anyone how dangerous perception could be. That identity became White Hat.
Where A.C.E. had been a joke no one understood, White Hat was a statement. Riley was not hiding what he was. He was redefining it. White Hat was designed to be a trusted technopath, a field-support hero who specialized in hacking, tactical coordination, emergency systems control, and rapid-response dispatching. His technology was built not for spectacle, but for function. He could enter the field, support active heroes, manage information, disable hostile systems, and keep an operation from falling apart in real time.
Riley did not build White Hat only for himself though. He began assembling a team of his own: Tsunami, Meta-Man, and Salem. Each of them carried baggage. Each of them had been damaged by reputation, circumstance, public failure, or the systems that were supposed to help them. Tsunami was talented but publicly bruised. Meta-Man was a Phoenix Program case with a rough past and a need for real structure. Salem was a former villain trying to prove reform was more than a convenient story. Riley saw himself in all of them.
White Hat became more than a new costume or codename. It became Riley’s answer to everything that had happened to him. A.C.E. had been a young man trying to prove he deserved a chance. White Hat was the man who had learned how to create chances for others.
Riley still carries the scars of his failed first career. He still downplays his own importance, still jokes before anyone else can make things awkward, and still insists that he is “just a dispatcher” more often than anyone believes. But beneath the self-deprecation is someone sharper, steadier, and far more capable than he gives himself credit for.
A.C.E. was what Riley wanted to be when he thought heroism meant standing in the spotlight and proving everyone wrong. White Hat is what Riley became after learning that sometimes the most important hero is the one who keeps everyone else connected, protected, and moving forward.
Appearance: To a casual observer, White Hat's suit looks borderline uncomfortable in the Southern California heat. What they don't know is the suit was designed with a specialized fabric. Lightweight, breathable, and extremely durable; Riley's suit not only keeps him quite comfortable, but is designed as an extension of his powers. He can channel his technopath abilities through the suit which carries a series of wires and plugins. This allows him to directly interface with various machines out in the field. Various pockets on the suit contain infiltration tools and flash drives, increasing his prowess as a tech based hero and allowing him to access his programming tools on the fly. The glasses and gloves allow him access to an augmented reality interface that connects directly to his dispatch computer. This allows him to pursue his dispatch work in the field, and access any files on SDN's servers.
Powers: - Technology Control: Riley's main power is being a technopath. He can freely manipulate and control machines with his mind. This allows him control of most machines in his general vicinity and unparalleled hacking capabilities. Because Riley tends to talk to himself while he works, many people assume he's communicating with the machines themselves. (Not too far off) - Hack Jacket: The jacket Riley wears as White Hat is designed with his hacking prowess in mind. Small cords and plus are woven through the fabric and can be freely controlled by Riley. He can jack into most any computer system and the jacket directly interfaces with his glasses and his AR display. - Crafting: Riley is skilled at taking machines apart and putting them back together. His powers take this even further by helping him see HOW machines connect. He uses this to help develop new tools for hero work. Admittedly, he has the least practice with this skill since he didn't utilize it for several years as a dispatcher.
Likes: List some things your character likes - Competent Management - Energy Drinks (Coffee Stopped working a long time ago) - Optimizing Systems
Dislikes: List some things your character dislikes - SDN Burbank - Being called "Shroud" - Bureaucracy and Red Tape
Quirks: - Riley's AR glasses are derived from salvaged Red Ring technology combined with the "Dispatch Goggles" used to train Dispatcher recruits. They contain a map overlay of the Southlands and enable him direct communication with anyone on his team. They also block blue light so they're good for his eyes. - At one point, Riley had a crush on the DTLA hero Brainbook. After meeting her and other DTLA heroes, he seems to have moved on. - Although the wires in the hack jacket are mostly for infiltration, Riley has been working on a way to use them for combat. He insists "livewire whips" would be very effective. This request is under review for "ethics violations"
