Dead Cruiser

Heroes Reborn: Prime Earth (Superhero/Urban Fantasy: OPEN)

Zeka would like to sell you some girl scout cookies dictatorship of the proletariat.

Heroes Reborn: Prime Earth (Superhero/Urban Fantasy: OPEN)

January 1st, 10:26 AM (Eastern USA)
Justice Station, Space

On the command deck of Justice Station, the headquarters of the Justice League, red warning lights lit and klaxons blared. Computer screens diverted to emergency protocols, displaying the immanent threat to the space station. "PROJECTILE INBOUND," displayed the monitors, as automated systems shouted the same message over the intercom systems. Automated defense systems fired, but whatever was speeding toward the station was too small and too fast for them to destroy it.

Detailed analysis only provoked more questions. The projectile was radioactive, that was for certain. It energy signature was consistent with that of a thermonuclear detonation, only it was moving, rather than static. No launch had been detected, either. It was like a living bomb was heading straight for Justice Station.

And then, just as quickly as it had appeared on their systems, it stopped. The radiation signature did not disappear, it just stopped. Barely a meter from the station itself, this nuclear threat merely hovered, only moving to keep pace with the station as it sailed through Earth's orbit. Exterior cameras scanned the space outside the station for whatever this thing was, and eventually they found the anomaly that they had been searching for.

It was a man. Or rather, a statue resembling a man, carved from shining black stone. It even wore a cream-colored suit and collared shirt, though it wasn't wearing shoes. It hovered just outside one of the major airlock hatches, yellow eyes burning in the vacuum of space. Then it moved, such hesitation in its movement that it seemed almost cautious. The statue-man merely knocked against the airlock hatch with the back of its fist, as though it were knocking on the front door of a house, sending a reverberating clanging echoing through the station's halls.

𝖤𝖵𝖤𝖱𝖳𝖧𝖮𝖱𝖭𝖲 (A Magical Girl/Boy RP)

Interested but I'd like to see a sample character before making my own, if possible.

Heroes Reborn: Prime Earth (Superhero/Urban Fantasy: OPEN)

@Divine Darkness That's the second time I've heard that comparison. Can't say I'm especially familiar with the character.

Heroes Reborn: Prime Earth (Superhero/Urban Fantasy: OPEN)

I'll see how successfully the IC gets off the ground before I consider a second character. Might go with my original alien idea.

Heroes Reborn: Prime Earth (Superhero/Urban Fantasy: OPEN)

Very ready to begin.

Heroes Reborn: Prime Earth (Superhero/Urban Fantasy: OPEN)

ЗЭКА

Superhero Name: Zeka

Civilian Name: None, official scientific designation is NII-0302007.

Hometown: None, generally escapes into low orbit between sightings. Originally housed on Severny Island, Siberia, in the former Soviet Union.

Sex: None, though his humanoid form is male in appearance.

Race: Unknown, some form of energy being.

Height: 185 cm (humanoid form)

Weight: 634 kg (mass of corium body)

Age: Unknown

Birth Date: Unknown, first discovered 19 July, 1960.

Costumed Appearance: Zeka’s humanoid form is that of a robust and muscular human male, with the heroic and statuesque proportions typical of the Socialist Realism style of the post-World War Soviet Union. His facial features are strikingly aesthetic, subtly stylized, and his body gives a fit and powerful appearance, though he is not disproportionately nor ripplingly muscular. His hair is a completely static sculpture of a short and combed style.

The most obvious indicator of Zeka’s inhuman nature is that his entire body, including his hair and teeth, is composed of a glossy, black mineral substance (corium, a crystalline techno-alloy comprised of such substances as silicon, boron, graphite, lead, and uranium) that resembles volcanic glass. His eyes and the inside of his mouth both glow intensely with the white-yellow light of his reactor core. While Zeka can alter the material of his humanoid form to resemble whatever he wishes, he maintains this form at essentially all times due to psychological conditioning.

Civilian Appearance: Zeka has no secret identity, and as a result is essentially always “in costume.” His taste in clothing generally revolves around two or three piece suits, usually worn without ties. He may sometimes remove his shirt or strip down entirely if engaged in battle.

Icon: Zeka does not have an overt costume and as such does not have a sigil emblazoned on his chest, though he still identifies with the hammer and sickle of the CPSU.

Costumed Personality: Zeka’s inhuman mind has been shaped considerably by the psychological conditioning he went through while he was the captive of the Soviet Union. The resulting synthesis has created his “heroic” persona. Zeka can be described as empathetic, as he cares deeply about common people and their suffering, but at the same time he is a ruthless pragmatist; he cuts to the quick and does whatever is necessary to benefit the greater good. He prefers direct action whenever possible, and can be ruthless and devastating in its application. Zeka is not completely without mercy, kindness, and other humane qualities, but his confinement and the world he has emerged into have made him bitter and cynical. He still has some remaining hope for cooperation and a utopian future with a united mankind, but he knows that it cannot be achieved without sacrifice.

Civilian Personality: As has been said, Zeka does not have a civilian persona, and so he treats with common people and metahumans in an identical manner. He is a creature without deception and artifice, and has nothing to hide from anyone.

Super Abilities

Skills: Zeka does not have much in the way of civilian skills. During his decades of captivity, he has achieved a mastery of such topics as nuclear physics, Marxist socio-economic theory, and the construction of antiquated late-Soviet era nuclear reactors. He speaks several languages, including most of those spoken by Warsaw Pact states.

Powers: Zeka’s obsidian body is a construction around his true form: he is essentially a sapient nuclear fusion reactor, in other words a living star. The vast majority of his abilities are derived from the controlled release of energy from his nuclear heart. His physical humanoid form is a byproduct of his ability to reshape and manipulate radiologically hyperactive material, and was constructed from the liquified materials that formed his Siberian prison. While it typically seals the heat and radiation his core produces, Zeka can choose to allow this energy to permeate his body and revert to the toxic nuclear lava his body originally resembled. Given that his body is merely the container of his true form, it is very difficult to physically harm him in any meaningful sense, and his strength is only limited by the energy output of his reactor.

By carefully allowing the energy of his core to be released, Zeka can attack with controlled bursts of heat, light and radiation. Just as he can release this energy, he can also absorb energy (typically radiation), which adds fuel to his internal reactor. As a result, his attacks that would normally contaminate an area can have their fallout reabsorbed by him if he so chooses, helping him avoid collateral damage from his abilities.

While Zeka’s nuclear energy generally acts according to how mankind understands it, it also has otherworldly properties that cannot be readily explained by modern science. His ability to transmute radioactive material can result in him taking surprising forms, and his radiation can interact strangely with living things, particularly insects and other arthropods.

Gadgets: Zeka does not carry any equipment with him; his natural radiation tends to interfere with electronics.

Weapons: See above.

Vulnerabilities: Zeka's limitations derive from the fact that he is a purely physical creature, bound by the laws of physics and reality (though perhaps not has mankind fully understands them). As such, he has no ability to comprehend, wield, or make special defenses against magic or other forces that are distinct from reality or physical law. While he is still a living creature with a soul, magic and other metaphysical forces are beyond the limitations of his existence.

As stated, Zeka must obey the laws of physics, and this includes thermodynamics. His nuclear heart is not an engine of perpetual energy, and requires fuel to continue to burn. The most efficient fuel for his fusion reactor core would be hydrogen or helium, but such elements are rare on earth and diffused into the planet's atmosphere. As a result, he must absorb ionizing matter or reactions into his core in order to not only keep himself alive, but also fuel his powers.

Additionally, Zeka does not interact well with electronic devices. While his physical body contains the vast amount of radiation his core produces, he still has a constant output of low-level ionizing radiation, which disrupts complex electronic devices such as microchips. Any electronics that spend a significant amount of time around Zeka are inevitably degraded in a span of hours or days, depending on the hardening of the device in question.

While Zeka's physical form cannot be truly injured, as it essentially a "suit" worn by his true, plasmic, nuclear body, it is not particularly durable. His corium body is malleable, but can still be destroyed by sufficient force. Zeka's inherent empathy would prevent him from willingly discharging his body's intense radiation if he can avoid it, and as a result, inflicting significant damage to his physical form can force him to retreat until he can reform and reseal his nuclear core.

Civilian Occupation: None.

Character History: Zeka’s origins are a mystery; whatever factual information may have existed about what he is or where he came from has been obscured by misinformation, intentional redaction of information, the disappearances of individuals involved, and the records lost following the dissolution of the Soviet Union. This much is known: the being known as Zeka came into the possession of the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics in the early 1960s, and was stored in a secret laboratory on a remote island off the northern coast of Siberia. Designated NII-0302007 by the Soviet Scientific Research Institute, once it became apparent that the being was in fact sapient and intelligent, it came to be informally referred to as “Zeka,” a Russian slang term meaning “prisoner.”

Zeka was initially hostile and combative to the researchers contaning and studying him, and briefly escaped in October 1961. However, the advanced interrogation and psychological conditioning procedures practiced by the KGB proved effective even on a truly inhuman being, and he became compliant and receptive. Zeka had little to express about his (he had adopted a male persona at this point despite his incorporeal form) past or his species, only remembering that he was “lured by natural urges.” He spent most of the 20th century in containment, being indoctrinated by his captors socialist theory, as well as helping them expand their understanding of nuclear energy, which they educated him in as well.

Following the Two-Months War, the Russian Federation, which had already neglected the funding for Zeka’s containment facility, allowed his prison to deteriorate to the point where he escaped. Unable to recapture both Zeka and deal with the fallout of the war, Zeka was able to escape into the wildlands and pursue his own mysterious agenda.

Heroes Reborn: Prime Earth (Superhero/Urban Fantasy: OPEN)

@Alfhedil Could probably just end up wherever the hell she wants.

Heroes Reborn: Prime Earth (Superhero/Urban Fantasy: OPEN)

Feels more sensible for Zeka to end up in New York rather than LA or someplace.

Heroes Reborn: Prime Earth (Superhero/Urban Fantasy: OPEN)

Zeka: