Black Riot
Name:Arturo Chavira
Appearance:Black Riot's signature outfit is almost entirely black. His face is covered with a rigid, smooth black helmet with a deep black visor. Wrapped around the helmet is a black mask, oftentimes either a tee shirt, a shemagh, or a bandana and a hood, though his mask always has a tiny hole cut in it to feed his smoking habit. Lower down, Black Riot wears even more black. A heavily padded, black, armorlike leather jacket is printed with a blood red cogwheel encircling a raised red fist. Occasionally the leather jacket is covered with a black hoodie with identical insignia, which he uses to blend in with the rest of his militants. Black leather motorcycle pants are suspended with a cheap brown leather belt, and a pair of Dexter black steel-toed boots protect his feet. Upon his hands are a pair of similarly black leather sap gloves, obviously purchased from a military and police surplus store.
While Black Riot himself looks almost identical to every single militant comrade he has, there are some things that make him stand out in a crowd: He's 6'4" and 255 lbs., and he's carrying a 12 pound, yellow-hafted MSC sledgehammer over his right shoulder.
(picture pending)
Powers:Enhanced Body:As with most heroes forged through harsh trials, Black Riot is gifted with well above average natural strength, reflexes, and durability, though it doesn't quite qualify as 'superhuman'. His strength and speed are roughly equal to mid-range Olympic athletes, and were he to compete, he could finish the 100m dash at a time of 9.78, or reach 21.81 meters in the shot put. In addition, most people are capable of barely surviving being struck by a car up to 30mph, whereas Black Riot has gotten up and walked it off after being struck head-on at 50, with nothing more than several broken ribs and a bad headache. Black Riot seems to stop bleeding much faster than most others, too.
Power to the People:Black Riot's greatest and most powerful ability is that of unity. When fighting as part of a group, group size and camaraderie create a sort of feedback loop between Black Riot and his allies, magnifying strength, speed, confidence, perception, and gumption. The larger and tighter the group is, the stronger the effect is. During his time with the Black Militia, this power permitted his cell of twenty to overcome a position of two hundred heavily dug-in patriot militia members with only one casualty. It almost functions as a sort of empathic 'hive mind', in which group members can almost feel eachothers' strategies in their own heads. There is no range limit, so long as group members know they're personally working together with Black Riot, and this would extend to scenarios in which Black Riot has been captured by another.
However, all great powers come with drawbacks, and this is no exception. Groups that are too large or too tightly bonded suffer from massive overconfidence, including Black Riot himself, and run the risk of fighting battles they have no hope of winning, even with massively amplified potential. After all, even with enhanced strength and mental clarity, it still only takes one well placed bullet for a person to die.
Empathy:Arturo has the instinctive ability to understand body language, hidden verbal cues, facial expressions, and the like to a very deep extent. It isn't exactly 'psychic' empathy, but it certainly seems like it is to others. Using this personal strength, Arturo is able to relatively reliably decipher a person's emotional state, motives, struggles, family life, and the like, purely through conversation and observation. His skills extend to social/pack animals as well. That said, there are some particularly brilliant people out there who break the patterns Black Riot looks for, leaving him utterly baffled and frustrated.
Technology:A large sledgehammer.
A pipe wrench.
A pair of small bolt cutters.
Petrol Bombs, unknown quantity: at least four.
A small hand radio.
A complete tool belt.
A blowtorch.
Generic handcuff keys in several different sizes.
Two packs of filterless Lucky Strikes. Don't ask him for one unless you're particularly adventurous with your nicotine sources.
A large black backpack full of water and vegan friendly energy bars, with which he feeds his comrades during actions. He saves the accompanying beef jerky for himself.
Acquaintances:The Chavira FamilyArturo's own family is fairly large, as he's one of the five children of Carlos and Elena Chavira. Arturo's father is now disabled, and his three brothers now work at the steel foundry that, prior to the governmental collapse, had crippled their father. All four brothers came together to personally put their boss to death for his crimes against his workers. It's a shame the man didn't support safety regulations, or perhaps he'd still be alive today.
Various LaborersArturo Chavira is part of a previously not-so-well-known global labor union known as the ILW. The ILW takes the position that it is every worker's duty to help fellow workers, and often pools funds to start up more localized labor unions in other places. They have been working to stabilize the industrial sector after the collapse of governance, and are almost absurdly socially progressive. In recent months, International Laborers of the World has seen an explosion in membership, with roughly 2% of the population of every city being a member. The ILW has a tendency towards hard militancy and sabotage when their strikes don't work, and is
very familiar with the name 'Black Riot'. In the event that Arturo ever is in trouble, he can call upon local ILW members to mask up and save his ass.
Oliver QueenWhen Arturo was out traveling abroad, he made a pit stop in the United States, where he met a rugged, blonde man at a gas station in Seattle. He never got the man's name, but he would never forget the five minute encounter. It was Oliver Queen who spurred Arturo into thinking on his position in life, that of his family, and that of his coworkers, and it was Oliver Queen whose views on authority spurred Arturo into taking action.
Personality:Kind. Vicious. Justice-driven. Cooperative. Calm. Furious. All these words can describe Arturo simultaneously, as a fire burns within him so brightly that it oftentimes outshines those around him. He is a born leader, though he rejects the notion of leadership out of hand, and carries a certain brand of charisma rarely seen. Arturo's greatest outwardly visible aspect is his ability to relate to and communicate with laborers, both rural and urban, both in manufacturing and service, and across the entire wealth spectrum. He's the sort to praise the creativity of a toilet sitting on a person's shotgun shack porch one minute, then turn around and admire a beautifully constructed house and car owned by a wealthy family. Some may find him irritating on some level, but most have difficulty disagreeing with his views of the world -- at least, in front of him.
Arturo is community oriented. He believes that all people who wish to work should be guaranteed the chance for labor suiting their personalities, talents, and skills, and that the average citizen knows his own needs better than a ruling class would. That said, Arturo isn't a strict 'rebel'. He views some nebulous entity he terms 'the community' as being the ultimate arbiter of what is and is not Justice, and strongly feels that freedom mandates rules being put in place by the community as a whole, via direct consensus.
There is some degree of instability, though. When he sees others attempting to manipulate their communities into giving them power, he is compelled to step in. Violently. Very violently. And he does so with a wide smile upon his face, as calmly as can be.
Bio:Arturo was previously a foundry worker in southern California, up until the day his father was injured in the job and lost his right hand. Arturo attempted to rally the workers for a strike, but was almost immediately caught, fired, and arrested. After a short month in jail for the alleged crime of "trespassing", he got back on his feet by throwing himself wholly into general contracting. After a few home repair jobs, he invested in a modest RV, said his goodbyes to his family, and started roaming the US and Mexico, doing odd jobs here and there to survive. He wasn't entirely sure why he had packed up and left his home, but a mobile life was liberating, even if it was awful half the time. Rationing water was the hardest part, since the RV lacked any sort of filtration system, and he disliked the feeling of being dirty.
At some point during his several year journey, the 30 year old Arturo Chavira became a smoker. A very, very heavy smoker. He'd been one as a teenager, but had quit after only a year out of health concerns. But the habit was back, and he slowly started developing mild chronic respiratory infections. It didn't interfere much with his work, but it did turn into a chronic cough and a habit of coughing up sputum any time his throat was even mildly irritated.
Not terribly long ago, an alleged 'villain' known as Anarchy spurred a global revolution. Arturo knew what he had to do, and threw himself headlong into the business of spreading revolutionary ideology in northern Mexico and the southwest United States. Even if Anarchy removed every single world leader from power, there would still be the lingering ghost of neoliberal and nationalist ideology to worry about, which would, if left unchecked, permit new leader figures to rise.
A small scale guerrilla civil war broke out across the region, during which neighbors and families shot at one another, hoarded arms and supplies, barricaded themselves in forts, schools, jails, and stores. Arturo led anarchist revolutionaries of the ILW and the newly formed Black Militia into battle under his own personal banner: a black flag with a red cogwheel encircling a raised red fist. During the conflict, Arturo discovered a new side of himself, and he took on the name of Black Riot in keeping with superpowered traditions.
The Black Militia was a decentralized, horizontally organized militant group. While many viewed Black Riot as being a sort of leader figure, he refused to take any sort of role of power, and rather acted as a teacher and a soldier. Each cell elected a manager, whose job it was to decide on recruitment and training schedules, and organize meetings. Because every member had a say in military strategy, losses were absolutely minimal and the conflict spanning the length of the Mexican border was over in a matter of months.
Afterwards, Black Riot himself disappeared, leaving the Black Militia to rebuilt society in the form of a series of networked communes of different economic philosophies, but all united under the belief that no leader should ever be allowed to take power over them. Black Riot is still missing, but Arturo Chavira has returned to his old job as a traveling craftsman, trading labor for food, fuel, and water. Rumors of troubles have brought him to a city that up until recently was the symbol of the modern world's power.
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