Eventually, the crowd of Night Hunters drifted away, leaving Selena and the Night Hunter Command group sitting at the table with Marko, Wolong, and some messenger with a red convict's sash. They sat there in silence until Gram spoke up in a hushed whisper, asking, "So what do we do now, boss? Are we going after the bastards that did this to David, Attie, and Romas?"
Selena took a long swig of her ale, and slammed it on the table, shaking her head. "No. As much as I would like to sail over there and get my hands on the Tolosi scum, we need to be there to support Oromis' and General Astra's forces." Looking each of them in the eye, she gave them a grim nod. "But when we get to Tolos, there WILL be a reckoning." This seemed to satisfy the Hunters, and they all left, except Gram, Marko, Wolong and the messenger. Even the bartender left, entrusting Selena to lock up the Cliffside.
With them the only ones in the room, Selena turned to Marko, and said, wearily, "Listen, Marko, I'm sorry that this trip to the Cliffside didn't go as planned. But I'm sure you'd like to report back to Miss Astra, right?" Her tiredness showed, and Marko was somewhat surprised to see that Selena looked like she was about to cry.
Standing up awkwardly, Marko saluted, and said,"Uhm, yeah, I do. Pleasure meeting you, Miss Jalek."
Selena rubbed her eyes, and yawned, waving the young Captain away. "Likewise, Mr. Elias. I hope that we can work together sometime." As the young captain sauntered off, the leader of the Night Hunters turned to Wolong and sighed. "It never gets any easier, does it?"
Not waiting for him to answer, she opened the door of the tavern, and ushered him and the messenger out, and locked the door behind them as they walked back to town. However, she didn't quite trust the convict with the most important man here (aside from Oromis or maybe General Astra), so she walked alongside them, ready to intervene if anything happened.
When they eventually reached town, Selena went to her home without a word, slipping away into the rain, like a phantom.
The next day, Selena didn't wake up until a few hours before noon, and even then, only at the prodding of Gram, who was the only Night Hunter with access to every member's house. Getting up slowly, and yawning, Selena just about fell over when Gram told her the news. On the way to Tolos before sundown? Crazy. But still doable if the Night Hunters got moving quickly.
As she got dressed, she said, "Crap... Ok, Gram, this is how it's gonna go. Get the Messenger Corps to mobilize everyone, and I mean ALL personnel, at the docks. The ships have been ready for weeks, and all non-perishable supplies are already aboard. Once we get our ships ready, we need to help out in any way possible, help load the other ships. Also, even if they're helping load other ships, we need to leave hours earlier than everyone else. We are to take out the watchtowers on the Tolosi coast." And with that, she was ready, and left the house, and hurried to the castle, sprinting over the wet cobblestone, trying to find out what the hell was going on.
Got a bit of Angel's abilities and such done. Will work on the backstory and sample tomorrow. @FallenreaperAnd that doesn't sound ominous at all.... ;)
Speech Color (Actually say what you're using, don't go "Like this", or what not): Speech=Silver Sherlock=SkyBlue Mech. Synergy=Cyan
Character Alignment: Walking the Line, mostly Heroic.
Identity: Secret
Character Personality: Angel, as his name would suggest, has a strong personal code of honor, and dislikes distasteful acts, but the one thing that keeps him from being truly heroic is the fact that he will kill innocents to achieve his goal. He tries to be a good person, but the road that he has traveled has taken a toll on him, diminishing his formerly happy-go-lucky persona into one that is filled with hidden pain and regret, even if he does act like he is fine.
Uniform/costume:
Angel wears a hoodie and jeans, most of the time, with a tank top underneath. His headphones and laptop connect directly to Sherlock, the A.I. he had 'liberated' from S.T.R.I.K.E.
The Armored Titan Defense suit is about 3 times the size of a normal human, and is colored gunmetal black, to give it some semblance of stealth.
Origin Info/Details:
Angel was always... different. Whether it was the fact that he hung around more household appliances than people, or the fact that those appliances would do his will, from birth, the Price household was in a state of constant flux, whenever Angel was there. This led to his father's eventual drinking problem, and abuse on Angel's mother, who he blamed for for giving them a freak for a son.
Angel's mother put up with this treatment until he was at the age of 11, when Angel's father had come home from a particularly nasty drinking binge, and actually struck the boy. This led to a struggle between Angel's parents, after his mother tried to stop his father. This only turned his attention to her. Sometime during the struggle, which had wrecked the kitchen, a knife was involved, and his mother came away with a knife in her chest. His father had fallen in front of the refrigerator, and Angel was so blinded by rage, that he lashed out, causing the fridge to explode, thus killing his father, by forcing it to overheat. He was thrown out the kitchen window by the blast, and landed out in the street. By the time neighbors had come to investigate, the boy was already gone.
The next few years were a blur. Angel wandered the streets, working as a hacker/repairman for several minor gangs, until one day, he thought that he was cracking into just another government database, but it was actually a covert minor server of STRIKE. While it didn't contain any important information, it changed everything. He had discovered that there was an organization meant to deal with people with abilities such as his own. And as he searched through the files, STRIKE discovered him as well.
He was extracted from his gang by a single agent, whose designation was VKTR-17, a specialist in retrieval of all things transhuman. When brought to the STRIKE facility, not the main one, but one for information gathering, he was trained in the use of his strange ability. One day, during his training, Angel poked around the STRIKE system for something interesting. It was an A.I, codenamed 'Sherlock'. It was incredibly intelligent, and it's sole purpose was to gather and process intel. It was also apparent to Angel that the A.I. was in pain from being suppressed, being withheld from his true potential. So, he downloaded Sherlock onto an external hard drive, and left the facility, covering his tracks, leaving no trace of himself. STRIKE sent VKTR-17 after him, but after years of no success, the retrieval of 'Sherlock' and Angel Price were put on the backburner.
After leaving the facility, Angel came upon an abandoned heavy industrial factory, just outside Brooksdale, and set up shop there. The machines, while in massive disrepair, were quite simple to fix up. Over the course of a year, Angel built up the factory, stealing machines from factories around Lost Haven. However, no one, including STRIKE, could find a pattern, or a trail of this 'Machine Thief'. It was if the machines got up and left the factories themselves.
And then, with the recent rise of metahumans, Angel thought it was time to act. Taking parts and refining the materials in his factory, he built the Armored Titan Defense suit, a mech. The weapons were mainly created by himself, although the ordinance he needed had to be siphoned from military bases, with the exception of the custom ordinances. After three months of constant work, the ATD was ready, and he named it Equilibrium.
Hero Type :
Technopathy/Mechanical Synergy (Angel has the ability to control machines and technology, and meld with certain machines, such as his ATD suit. This is his one meta ability.
Power Level:
City Level (Normal) / World Level (with ATD Suit)
Powers: Mechanical Synergy- His one meta ability. He can sync his mind with most man- or alien-made tech, although he has to understand the interface to control it with any semblance of competence. This allows him to directly override any coding, and replace it with his thoughts. However, most firewalls and defensive code will have to be dealt with first. Once in, he can manipulate it in almost any way he wishes.
NOTE: Most weaponry, with the exception of the ASM and 'Pegasus' Jump Jets, are retractable, and able to be hidden underneath armor plating.
DMS arm-mounted melee system- The DMS is, essentially, a giant chainsaw on the ATD's right arm, operating at 56,000 RPM, an insane speed. The blade is made of a tungsten-steel alloy, laced with industrial diamond edging, and can cut through most normal objects. However, it does come to a loss when facing metahuman subjects or material.
LAT-WS- The Laser-guided Anti-Tank Weapons System is a .50 caliber belt-fed rifle with armor-piercing rounds that is aimed by a passive tracking system, and operates almost autonomously in combat, even when Synced with Angel. It is able to identify pertinent targets, and fire at apparent vulnerable points.
HM-18 (Hellbeast Model 18) Focus Laser- The HM-18 is a shoulder-mounted cannon that fires an extremely narrow beam of light, that, even with atmospheric interference, has a range of 1 mile. This laser takes a significant amount of power, and ignites the air for a second, which could possibly explode any hazardous material.
ASM (Shiva Mg.)- The Arm-mounted Shiva Machinegun is a versatile weapon, able to switch ammo types and reload in an instant. It sits below the right fist of the ATD, and can fire four types of ammo. -Conventional: Normal machinegun bullets. -Explosive: Bullets that go boom, not too powerful, but in sustained fire, can chip away at harder targets. -Rubber Bullets: For the non-lethal touch. -Electrified Ordinance: While not able to be fired in a automatic fire mode, this ammo latches onto a target, and delivers from between 75 volts, to 750 volts of electrical energy, at Angel's discretion.
QUERY Sensor array- The ATD suit has several advanced sensor systems, which can detect most objects and track them successfully.
'Lancelot' Mechanical Intervention Shield (MIS)- The MIS is a physical shield, which is about half the height, and one third the width of the ATD. It can be held in either hand, and works as a shield of the knights of old. The MIS can hold up against most non-Icon level attacks, and can also be ejected as a projectile from it's sheath on the ATD's back.
'Merlin' Energy Disruption Field (EDF)- The EDF is an energy shield, essentially, but one that does not stop physical objects. This is his most important meta-fighting system, because it can allow him to block most energy-based attacks. It can put up with 3 minutes of direct attack from a meta such as War-Pulse, and with any lesser energy, can hold up for hours. It is projected like an invisible sheath around the ATD, and fits the form nicely, although it hovers several inches off the surface of the mech.
ATD Armor MK-XVI- The armor surrounding the ATD is made of the same material that the 'Lancelot' is, and the plating itself is generally 8 cm thick, although it is considerably thicker at the vital systems areas. Underneath the plating, however, is the kinetic evaporation system, which uses hydraulics and directive impact plating to funnel an impact to the ground.
'Pegasus' Jump Jets- While not capable of sustained flight, these rockets allow the ATD to launch itself into the air, and come back down, with minimal damage. The range varies from angle to angle. It can launch the ATD into the top floor of a skyscraper, but it can also just as easily launch the ATD horizontally, giving it extra movement speed.
Attributes:
Strength Level: Normal Human (outside ATD), 100+ tons (ATD suit)
Speed/Reaction Timing Level: 30x human (normal), 50x human (w/mechanical synergy), 20x human (ATD suit, unsynergized.)
Endurance at MAXIMUM Effort: Normal Human (Normal), 2 hours (normal w/mech. synergy), and due to the merits of the ATD being a mech suit, it can remain at peak combat capacity, if out of combat, for 12 hours on end. However, the limited power, in combat, decreases to 7 straight hours of combat capacity. The ATD suit acts as an extension of his own body, so the mental strain is lessened.
Agility: Normal Human (Normal), 15x (Mechanical Synergy), 3x (ATD suit)
Resources: Large (Monetary) /Extreme (Technology/Information)
Weaknesses: Angel, while able to evade combat outside his ATD, most of the time, isn't very skilled in unarmored combat, and he is quite squishy, inside the mech. Also, his willingness to do whatever it takes to accomplish his goal might bring him into conflict with the other heroes. His lack of any truly overpowering offensive abilities might hurt him, when he fights with someone truly powerful, such as Icon.
Supporting Characters (Does your character have a significant other? A mother? Friend? Who are they, what do they have to do with your character?):
Sherlock- An AI that Angel managed to steal from STRIKE, and reconfigure to support him. While mostly redundant, with his Technopathy, Angel considers Sherlock to be a friend, and is glad that the AI is watching his back.
VKTR-17 (Victor)- Victor is a covert agent from STRIKE that is tasked with retrieving Sherlock and bringing Equilibrium in for questioning.
Do you know how to post pictures on RPG boards?:
Sample Post:
The rain pounded down on the cracked asphalt leading to the abandoned factory just outside town. However, the factory was anything but abandoned. Inside, many mechanical arms were at work, drilling, prodding, and holding a mechanical hulk that was Equilibrium. Sparks flew down on the concrete floor, as the final plate was welded to the faceplate. Nearby, a young man pushed up a welder's mask, and smiled, looking it over. It was ready.
With the recent rise in Meta activity, (Angel himself notwithstanding,) the 25-year-old had decided that someone had to do something to combat it all. While there were some Metas that were benevolent, like Icon, there were twice as many that were malignant, and even more who just worked as mercenaries. STRIKE had proven itself unable to deal with this competently, and even though it was a powerful organization, there were just too many variables to control. Also, they were kinda a bunch of douches.
"Hey, Sherlock! It's done! Equilibrium is ready to reveal itself to the world!" Angel pulled the welder's outfit off, and revealed a black t-shirt and jeans underneath, by all appearances a normal college graduate. However, this man was a meta himself, able to control most forms of machinery.
On a computer monitor, sitting on a cluttered desk nearby, a line of text appeared: <OH REALLY? I COULDN'T TELL, FROM THE GIANT MECH SITTING INSIDE THE BUILDING. TELL ME, ANY MORE OBVIOUS INFORMATION YOU'D LIKE TO GIVE ME, ANGEL?>
Angel chuckled, and lifted himself up onto a scaffolding surrounding the mech's cockpit. "Heh, Sherlock, don't be like that. It's not nice." Angel dropped into the cockpit, thick metal encasing him with the hiss of machinery. As the helmet pressed down, protecting his head, Angel aimed a mock pout at the nearest security camera, saying, "It makes me sad."
As the systems to the mech booted up, a line of text flashed across Angel's vision. <Yeah, yeah. Anyways, that thing you asked me to do, you know, the one about The Shroud? I've got the data packet stored inside the mech's memory, so you can review it on the way.> There was a second before Sherlock spoke again, as if thinking. <Anyways, Angel, what are you going to do next?>
The man inside the suit smiled, and clenched the giant fist, synced with the suit fully, and spoke, the synthesized voice of the suit reverberating throughout the room. "Not Angel. Equilibrium."
Stepping out into the rain, Equilibrium was ready to raise hell on the scum of the city. Not literally, like D-Day, though. That was just freaky. Luckily for Angel, the only thing Sherlock and him had to deal with was a little maggot thing that tried to eat his face- anyways, time to get back to the mission at hand. Powering up the 'Pegasus' jump jets, he launched into the air, at a 45 degree angle, the thrust throwing him about a mile to the south. He hoped that the city was ready for yet another freak to change things.