Name: Chūi Byōdō
Age: 21
Gender: Male
Appearance: The only feature that distinguished Chūi from any other Fire Nation citizen were his blue eyes. He received those from his mother, a non bender with roots in the Northern Water Tribe. Black hair that was kept trimmed just enough to keep from falling in his line of vision, pale skin, an average frame... and blue eyes. He always resented them, but what could one do in a time where just about everyone in Republic City was a mix between the different races? On the outside, he looked completely normal... except for those darned blue eyes.
His apparel nowadays is mostly made up of blacks and grays. Good, neutral colors that didn't signify any allegiance in this seemingly never ending hostile era. Best of all, they were great colors to hide in. Even in a dark room, someone could spot a rebel hiding if they were wearing green, blue or red, but black was much more subtle. Chūi's clothing is all very practical as well. Simply shoes that were fit for running and climbing in, long pants that wouldn't tear, and a simple shirt that covered his arms completely. and for the finishing touch, a long trenchcoat to hide various gadgets in, and a simple black fedora when he needed to cover his eyes... those darned blue eyes.
His fashion would look something like this.Abilities: Chūi is actually not a bender, though he learned martial arts from his mother, who actually learned everything she knew from her father. Instead, in order to protect himself, Chūi has learned the art of fighting with electrified kali sticks: heirlooms that his grandfather left behind. His style of fighting actually shifts depending on the opponent he is facing as he uses different fighting techniques to make up for his lack of bending, in fact, incorporating elements from the different bending styles to counter others. He may take a sturdier stance and fight with calm, deliberate efficiency to counter the quick and fluid motions needed in water bending, or he may become more erratic and unpredictable, using unorthodox and pragmatic methods against the passionate yet predictable fire benders, or even use fierce, bone shattering strikes necessary to break through the stalwart defenses of an earth bender. When he manages to get close to an opponent without his kali sticks, or when his electricity source runs dry, he resorts to quick, focused strikes to cut of the flow of their chakra; another gift of his mother and father.
His training, however, left him uninformed when it came to the matter of air benders, and due to the pacifistic nature of their kind, he was unable to ever study their techniques up close. From what he can imagine, however, it would be quite difficult to even get close, let alone hit one due to their evasive techniques.
Outside of combat, he is very talented when it comes to making improvised devices out of seemingly spare parts. He has used this gift to create a multitude of items such as smoke bombs, improvised explosives, and given enough time he could strip down any machine.
Equipment and Bionics: As a non bender, and a former member of Future Industries, Chūi's entire body is augmented in order to withstand assaults by benders. His bones were artificially hardened to be able to withstand an impact from an earth bender's boulder and his muscles were enhanced so he would have an easier time dodging blasts of fire. That is not to say that he in unable to feel pain however, and due to the nature of how heavily he is augmented healing techniques known by water benders are far less effective on him, and a good shock of electricity is liable to leave him unable to move, and likely to disable any of his gadgets.
Besides these enhancements, propulsors built within the bottoms of his feet, allowing him to hover in the air or fly. in order to allow he and his allies to get to hard to reach areas, or make a hasty escape from those benders unable to easily follow. Using it for too long, however runs the risk of the power cells running out mid flight. His hands are also able to electrify targets, somewhat like the electricity gauntlets first used by non benders during the Equalist uprising.
The equipment he holds with him at all times includes a box of cards, two electrified nets (also used by the Equalists), and of course, the two electrified kali sticks that originally belonged to his grandfather.
Personality:Say what you want about his gruff demeanor and cynical outlook on the world, one thing no one can accuse Chūi of is not being a team player. Always ready to defer judgement to those more intelligent than he is, Chūi, amongst his other faults, is not able to come up with long term plans, rather, he is much better when determining the best course of outcome in the short term, using quick witted and pragmatic plans to outmaneuver his enemies and fight another day. He is much more focused on survival and preservation in the way he thinks than he is on recklessness. Despite these qualities, he has always wondered why he has never been able to apply them to the future rather than the present.
If a stranger were to speak to Chūi, they would likely be assaulted with an onslaught of snarky remarks and deflected questions. If one were to spend the time to get to know him, however, they would find themselves warming to him as his seemingly nihilistic personality melts away. He only shows this side of him to those he truly trusts however, due to his betrayal by Future Industries, an organization he once thought he could trust.
Backstory:After the Equalist Uprising failed, not all of the Equalist's former members were so disgruntled by the revelation of Amon's blood bending that they quit the movement completely. If anything, many of them saw this epiphany as yet another example of a bender attempting to control and manipulate the lives of non benders. After all, wasn't Amon just another bender in a long line of problems for the World? Firelord Sozin, Firelord Ozai, Azula, Yakone, Amon, Tarrlok, Unalaq, Zaheer and his Red Lotus, the Dai Li, Kuvira... the list went on. All major threats to the world were benders in some form or another. Though many of the former Equalist members believed this and went in search of jobs (mainly at Future Industries) that would help them even the gap between benders and non benders, no one felt more betrayed more than the former right hand of Amon himself, the Lieutenant. Finding new ways to trains against the techniques of benders worldwide, the Lieutenant saw the many trials of Avatar Korra and felt disgusted that he he found himself powerless once again. The only thing he could do was train.
Train, work, sleep, eat. Those four words made up the majority of his life, and he passed this routine (and anti bending sentiment) down to his daughter, who in turn passed it down to her son, a boy named Chūi. Even as a younger man, Chūi never truly believed the anti bending propaganda spread by his family. After all, they could not be all bad, could they? There were some who legitimately wanted to help, like the Avatar he heard from the stories; like Aang who stopped the war between the Fire Nation and the rest of the world, or Korra who opened the spirit portals. But alas, Chūi was never able to see the Avatar like his parents and grandparents were. After all, she died when he was only one year old, and a new one had not appeared in the 20 years since then. What was he to do but believe that Korra had been the last Avatar?
So he would train, work, sleep and eat (though not necessarily in that order) day by day, simply trying to get on with a... relatively normal life. But with the 'Cold War' stalemate between the Fire Nation, Water Tribe, and his employer, the increasingly immoral Future Industries, the seeds of anti bending feeling that his family planted deep within him started to sprout. Was he to believe that another war was about to break out at any moment and he could do nothing about it but wait for it to happen?
He had always turned a blind eye to the poor ethics conducted by Future Industries (due to their high population of non benders) but had always been privy to certain information that was supposed to be kept 'confidential'. In fact, for quite a while, he worked as a 'cleaner'. His job was relatively simple. Stun those benders who were known to cause problems for people, and bring them to his superiors using a vast underground system. He had been always been told that they were to go to a prison where they could be reeducated and hopefully reintegrated with society. For some time, he had even enjoyed this job, believing that we was doing the right thing by bringing in these nuisances to society. It was justice after all.
This all changed when he turned 20. At this point he was trusted to begin working in the labs at Future Industries. He, after all, was experienced enough to help build some of the new technology. The surprise came when he found out how Future Industries wanted him to TEST said technology. No matter how he felt about them, benders were always people to him, not some sort of guinea bearpig, so he was quite surprised and horrified when he was asked to test some of the new wares on live benders. These were no criminals or volunteers either. Future Industries actually wanted him to... essentially torture a person, all in the name of science and progress.
That's when Chūi disappeared. Disillusioned with everything he thought he stood for, he wandered the streets, doing whatever odd jobs he could to survive. Years as a cleaner and under his family's anti bending care, however, made old habits linger. He would often find problematic benders and bring them to justice, using his skills to form himself into a vigilante of sorts, fighting off those who took advantage of non benders and leaving them for the authorities to find. This continued for a year until he heard rumors of a rebel organization that called itself the Stormcrows. Intrigued as to their intended purpose, Chūi began to seek them out...
