Name: Lilah McNichol
Alias: Silver Sentry
* (Alias
The Silver Sentry, the Silver Siren, Silver Sexbomb, Titanium Tits, Metal Maiden, Bulletproof Babe, and many other equally ridiculous, camp, flamboyant, hyperbolic nicknames, titles, and monikers given to her by other people)
Alignment: Hero
Powers/Abilities:Lilah’s powers are less obvious than other heroes - or villains! - and certainly less flashy. Primarily, she has an almost supernatural affinity or gift for working with machinery, electronics, and technology of all kinds. She couldn’t explain the science, nor explain why things work, but she can draw plans and schematics, use tools and put the most complex of machines together with (relative) ease and an intrinsic understanding of how they work.
While this ability and understanding has no obvious offensive or defensive abilities, she has put them to use in constructing an incredibly advanced suit of powered combat armour which is - as she puts it - ‘always a work in progress’, being upgraded, updated and otherwise tinkered with to add new capabilities, gadgets and adaptations as she comes across new problems and new solutions.
Part of this has been the integration of sub-dermal electronics into her body that allow her better control of her armour, making it virtually a second skin and controlling it like part of her own body, albeit with much faster reflexes, strength and more.
Her increased technological affinity seems to be derived from the prenatal medical treatments she received that resolved her and her mother's medical conditions.
Weaknesses:Lilah’s affinity and interest in technology can sometimes lead her to being distracted easily. If nothing else, because as a side-effect and knock-on from her ability, she can often be distracted or even paralysed at times by intricate details, concepts, and especially devices or machines. This is especially a risk when she is mentally or emotionally extremely stressed and distressed.
Additionally, she is incredibly reliant on her armour and other gadgets. She has no physical powers of her own. She is of moderate physical health and agility, and has undergone a small amount of martial arts and self-defence training, but is by no means any kind of expert fighter without her armour, and has no additional durability.
Her armour’s power supply is limited in duration and capacity, and the more power she puts out in weapons fire, feats of strength, high-speed flight, shields and so on means that her power will be drained quicker and quicker, and thus require recharging more frequently, a process that takes a considerable amount of time. When the power runs out, her armour becomes a heavy, confining, cumbersome suit of plate armour with a terrible field of view and no useful weapons.
The suit is hardened against EMP and electromagnetic interference - it being the obvious weakness of any technological system - and is constructed as much as practically possible of non-magnetic and non-ferrous materials, but highly focused and highly intense electromagnetic attacks will degrade, if not disable, her abilities and cause significant interference with her sensors, communications and such.
While her armour is not overly large or cumbersome, being not much more than the middle part of 6'6" in height and not especially bulky, it isn't especially quiet and it is relatively heavier than a normal human would be, despite the advanced materials, which also gives it pretty considerable ground pressure for the size.
It isn't
massively noisy and clanky, or makes excessive noise while in operation - but stealthy movement is
much more difficult than it would be for a normal human, and it does produce a noticeable, if melodic electronic 'hum' while in operation.
It also shows up relatively easily on thermal imaging and any kind of electromagnetic sensors due to the amount of inherent electrical activity.
In theory, extreme -
really extreme - and sudden changes in temperature could affect the bonding and integration of the layered materials used for the Silver Sentry armours' construction, but this would take incredible amounts of change in temperature, akin to dropping from the antarctic directly into an active volcano.
Similarly, extreme and sudden changes in air pressure could likewise cause the armours' NBCR systems to activate too quickly, and cause a temporary blackout for Lilah. However, this isn't common or obvious knowledge and would be something that one would have to imagine or work out first to be able to exploit.
Due to her lack of ability outside of her armour, she has a crippling phobia of being captured and stripped of her armour, leaving her vulnerable. Her armour is almost as much of a psychological armour as much as a physical one, and the difference in her personality and demeanour inside and outside of her suit is very stark and very obvious.
Personality:Outside of her armour, Lilah is a somewhat quiet, shy, and almost mousy girl. She is quite intelligent and does have a quick wit and a good sense of humour, but it is hidden behind the wall of her shyness. Opening her up can take a lot of time and trust, and should you get her onto a subject she is keen or knowledgeable about, she will eagerly talk and her real energy and passion will be revealed. She does have a deep affection and care for people and a very emotional side, though she keeps it guarded and close to her chest.
In her armour and as her superhero persona, she - somewhat ironically - comes much more out of her shell. She is much more assertive, confident, talkative and bold and very much sure of herself and her capabilities. She can even be intimidating and forceful on occasion should the situation demand it, and her humour comes out as wry, sarcastic and dry humour and wit. She can even be somewhat flirty and provocative on occasion, especially with her body language and posture, due to the confidence the armour gives her.
Either in or out of her armour, she has a strong sense of loyalty and morality, believing firmly in the concept that the strong should defend and protect the weak and the innocent and the concepts of justice; albeit realising well that operating as a masked and armoured vigilante is very much skirting the idea of justice and the law, but that also there are times the law itself cannot effectively prosecute or fight those that would seek to cause evil or assert their own will and desire on society.
This desire to help and assist people also expresses itself in her civilian persona, as the company she founded has many philanthropic and charitable programs and goals to help the common man and woman, and much of the technology developed being with the aim to improve the lives of people and the world as a whole. Indeed, the original design of her armour and derivatives of its technology were intended as assistance exoskeletons for various purposes.
Background:Lilah was born to relatively wealthy parents. Her father, Henry McNichol was a successful industrialist who founded his company in the 60’s and managed to ride the wave of the microchip revolution, telecommunications and computer booms, successfully being forward-thinking and a visionary that managed to net him a modest fortune.
Her mother, Diane Masters worked in the medical field, a pioneering surgeon and medical researcher, she had always been looking into how to use technology to improve the lives of patients with rare disorders or issues, and the pair met at a technology conference, where they were both enchanted by one anothers’ visions and ideas of the future.
They married after a passionate on-again, off-again romance and together transformed the McNichol company into a hi-tech venture, designing and manufacturing devices, vehicles, components and more.
A few years after their marriage, they conceived Lilah, though her mothers’ pregnancy was a hard one with many issues. There were many issues, and while Diane and Henry could afford the best of specialists and treatments, the signs looked bad for both their unborn child and Diane herself. Out of options, they decided on a radical approach; utilising the resources of their company and science to attempt to improve their chances.
The radical treatment of gene therapy, nanotechnology and other treatments repaired the damage, but would have other effects that wouldn’t become known until much later in life.
After Lilah was born, she was quite a sickly baby, and her development was stunted. It was only as she started to interact more with technology and devices that she really started to develop, showing great intelligence for her age and surprising dexterity. The more this happened, the more she developed and soon overtook her contemporaries. Quickly, she became a very advanced child and soon was moved onto advanced classes.
Unfortunately, her mother became very ill during this time, and her father poured himself into his work, desperate to find a cure for her. This also turned Lilah into much more of a recluse, though she still loved her mother and father deeply and became equally involved in her own work and study of technology and systems.
During this time, her mother died in very suspicious circumstances. It was investigated thoroughly, and though there were other suspects with greater motivations, evidence went missing and her father became the chief suspect. Anguished and frustrated by the lack of action taken against the most clear suspect, a former business partner turned rival who had previously been dismissed for industrial espionage, Henry struck out on his own to try and bring him to justice, but instead ending up himself getting arrested for interfering with the course of the investigation and his vigilante activities.
Left in the care of guardians, Lilah was too young to take over the family business at the time, and it was instead broken up and taken over by others, turning it around into a defence and arms manufacturer, a mockery of everything it had been in the first place.
It was only after Lilah turned 18 that she gained access to the trust fund she had been left. Using it, she put herself through higher education, as well as investing into companies and businesses, finally founding her own business, and taking up the mantle of what her parents had once sought to do - and, in secret, investigating the circumstances of her mother’s death and her father’s arrest and imprisonment and how deep the conspiracy and corruption behind it went.
Untrusting of the police and legal system due to the corruption she kept encountering, she forged her own identity as a crime fighting vigilante, making contacts with those she found she could trust, and in the process ending up finding herself embroiled in the pursuit and fight against other criminal elements.
Appearance:Lilah is a svelte, lithe caucasian woman in her late 20’s with a relatively fit physique from moderate regular exercise and a relatively decent diet. She keeps her red hair short and choppy and wears red-framed spectacles when not wearing her armour. The only notable visual sign of her abilities are her silver irises - though, she sometimes disguises these with contact lenses.
Lilah is approximately 5’4” and is as such not very tall, however her armour adds a good foot to her height, and then some with the additional fins and other protrusions.
She normally dresses in a very tomboyish style, befitting her physically active and hands-on approach to technology and engineering; jeans or cargo pants, checked shirts, T-shirts, loose sweaters and hoodies, sweatshirts, sneakers and boots and the like. She may own a dress or two, but she probably lacks the confidence to wear them, and would feel incredibly self-conscious and ridiculous if she did.
Her armour is very sophisticated and hi-tech in appearance. While not ‘form fitting’ it does mark her as unquestionably female by its’ lines and shape and is very sleek. The helmet completely conceals her face and has no ‘eyes’ or other facial features. All of the suits’ weapons are concealed within its’ frame, and though it has a backpack, it too is quite sleek. It is coloured a deep blue and silver-grey in colour, with darker black for some mechanical parts like joints, and a red trim.
The arms are surprisingly long, concealing her actual hands with arm extensions and remotely operated hands that have built in gadgets and weapons.
(Not an EXACT reference, but more an 'idea' of how her armour looks until a picture is forthcoming)
A hybrid of aspects from both of these suits in style and features, but not identical to them.
When activated her energy wings look not unlike this - though, usually considerably smaller... but not always.
Affiliations:Lilah has some connections with particular members of the police force that she trusts and are good, non-crooked cops, as well as a couple of very trusted people within her company that help support and maintain her armour and provide alibis and cover for her identity. She also maintains a cautiously trusting relationship with the first journalist who broke her story and gave her her nickname as Silver Sentry, often using him for tip-offs or giving him heads-ups on stories and exposes about some of the people she takes down.
Motivations:Lilah is strongly driven by justice, especially against crooked law enforcement and justice professionals (i.e. cops, judges, DA’s, etc) and the urge to provide safety and security for the average man and woman against the corruption and criminals that plague everyday life.
Relationships:Her father is still alive, but is imprisoned and has no idea of her crime-fighting career.
She has no siblings and no current significant other.
An aunt and uncle took care of her after her father was imprisoned and her mother passed away, and while they have a deep affection for her and vice versa, they were never that close.
Base of Operations:Lilah’s company - Master Industries - has a variety of properties scattered across Nova City and a small handful of other towns and cities. Some of these are owned by shell companies or subsidiaries, including one that is used as a base of operations for the Silver Sentry armour. It includes a workshop, a crime lab, and other sundry facilities.
Signature Gear:Lilah’s most notable piece of equipment is, of course, the Silver Sentry armour.
The armour is - as previously described - sleek and streamlined, and very ‘feminine’ in form. The backpack is small and rides high on the shoulder blades and upper back, and projects the energy wings that allow high-speed flight.
Weapons consist of eight backpack-mounted retractable micro-missiles (about the size of a mini soft-drink can) with a variety of warheads, including highly specialised non-lethal options as well as more traditional explosive payloads.
The armours’ gauntlets contain additional weapons in the form of a pair of energy blasters that can be used in a variety of ways; stun blasts, non-lethal ‘kinetic’ impact blasts, rapid fire pulses, continuous cutting beams, wide angle, and similar.
The suit can also project force fields of varying sizes, and for various uses - such as rescuing people, using them as platforms, to contain hazards, and the obvious role of protecting the suit or others. They can also be ‘attached’ to the suit's limbs, fists, knees, feet and other edges - which can be monomolecular in thickness - used as cutting and stabbing weapons, or as blunt-impact weapons. The energy wings that project from the back for flight are integrated with this ability, and can also be used as cutting weapons or shields themselves.
Additionally, the suit has a full suite of communications gear; encrypted radio, a link into cellular networks, an encrypted microwave high-speed datalink, laser links, and so on.
Sensors include night vision, thermal vision, visual magnification, audio amplification and damping, magnetic resonance, radiation and hazardous chemical detection. The laser links can also be used as laser microphones to detect vibratory soundwaves or other vibrations.
Speakers are built in, including a voice modulator, and can be used to project sonic impacts to cause disorientation and discomfort, and for other such uses.
External lights are also features and can project in the visual, infra-red and ultraviolet spectrums, as well as flashing in a variety of colours and patterns to cause disorientation.
The suit is fully NBCR (nuclear, biological, chemical, radiological) sealed and protected, as well as being able to provide onboard life support for up to eight hours, after which the filters would need to be changed and waste expunged - though, it can recycle sweat and other liquid waste into drinkable water.
The suit is powered by an ultra-dense, ultra-compact highly advanced battery system that provides a massive amount of power. This - at minimum activity levels - will provide up to eight hours of power, but this will be consumed more rapidly the more of the suits’ weapons, abilities and features are used and how heavily they are used. It can be recharged, even from standard power grids by plugging in, but the lower the amount of power available, the longer it takes to recharge. Using the specific charger and power supply at ‘home base’, the suit can be fully recharged in four hours from zero, and pre-charged battery packs are available to swap in as well.
The battery packs form part of the suits' backpack and as such are slightly more vulnerable to damage than the rest of the suit. Internal power only - if the suit was separated from the pack - lasts a maximum of only a handful of minutes at best, after which is becomes a heavy, cumbersome suit of plate armour with terrible view.
The suit’s strength and reflex enhancements give Lilah up to ten times normal human strength and reflexes on par with a peak olympian athlete.
The armour is bulletproof to all but the heaviest of weapons - i.e. anti-tank weaponry - and even then, can take the impact, but will disable systems and cause tremendous blunt force trauma to Lilah herself. And it’s not the kind of hit that could be taken more than once, twice at most; in succession.
The armour is non-magnetic in construction, using layers of composite materials rather than purely metals. Instead, it is a layered matrix of polymers, ceramics, non-ferrous alloys and so on. It is relatively impervious to EMP effects by design, but intensely focused electromagnetic pulses and effects will degrade performance and interfere with the suits’ systems.
While the suit can fly at high speeds - approaching transonic speeds, similar to a high-speed airliner or business jet - and is capable of hovering and maneuvering in tight spaces, such as an urban environment and even indoors, it is not capable of supersonic flight, nor reaching space on its own.
In theory, should Lilah find herself in space she could move about and be sealed against the harsh conditions, but the suit is not built for it and it would be quite slow crossing such vast distances.
Likewise, while it can move about underwater and is sealed with its own life support, it is not built for it, and would be sluggish and limited in capabilities.
She can remote control the armour to come to her via a combination of her implanted technology and a sophisticated, custom-made cell phone. The armour cannot function on its’ own otherwise; i.e. it cannot fight without a pilot/wearer, and even then; it is keyed to Lilah’s biometrics. Lilah must also be virtually nude inside the armour, usually wearing a sheer bodyglove to pilot the suit, which can be hidden under clothes or disguised or passed off as exercise wear. The undersuit is not armoured, but does wick away body sweat and is somewhat ‘self-cleaning’ and non-chafing, as well as being a breathable fabric of proprietary design. However, it is not especially insulated and does not have any pockets or storage.
Public Perception:As Lilah, she is viewed as a young, fresh personality with a philanthropic outlook. She is not an especially public figure and is only really known to those with a particular interest in the industry and perhaps those who are aware of her families’ past, such as journalists or other such persons with an interest.
As Silver Sentry, she is mostly embraced by the public as a figure for good, albeit one who is mysterious and outside the law - mostly because she brings a lot of otherwise ‘untouchable’ people to justice and exposes their deeds and misdoings.
This is, of course, by no means universal, but the press and public generally see her in a positive light. However, the police and local authorities have less of a positive opinion, though again; those who are honest cops, officials, etc tend to see her as doing good work, albeit are jealous of the fact she’s able to act when they can’t.
Combat Style:Silver Sentry’s combat style relies a lot on her tech and weapons. She will moderate her approach depending on what she is facing, but often uses a considerable amount of speed, shock, and awe in her tactics, along with methodical analysis of her enemies’ capabilities to overwhelm them and counter their strengths. She is not averse to using stealth, cunning and heaping pragmatism to overcome situations, something that often adds to the ‘controversial’ views about her as using unnecessary force to win her battles or causing unnecessary pain or injury - though, in her eyes, it’s merely ‘fighting effectively’.
* - She didn’t actually choose the name Silver Sentry for herself. In fact, she never even chose a name at all, but it was bestowed upon her by the press after she was first captured by a somewhat maverick journalist. The name kind of stuck, despite her reluctance, and she has ended up using it herself ever since - and befriending the journalist as one of her sources.
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