Name: Jason O'Grady

False ID Name: Jason Graves or Turnabout

Nationality: Irish/Roma (Gypsy/Traveler)

Age: 22

Height: 6'2"

Weight: 190 lbs

Appearance:

Other Appearance: Heavy scarring on his left arm, up to the elbow. Some loss of mobility in the limb due to this.

Superpower(s):

Skills: Jason is a master entertainer, an actor able to put on any accent and false personality; a singer and violinist that will get even the most stoic of toes tapping, and a storyteller able to engage the mind of the most curmudgeonly crone. This is helped by a near-fluent understanding of English, German, and French. He also is able to find overlooked hiding places with ease thanks to his background as a nomadic wanderer.

Personality: Jason is a this point in his life, quiet and reserved. He will open up to those who may take the time to get to know him, but he projects an air of cold indifference as a barrier. If one were to get past that however, Jason shows himself to be a very carefree individual. He wants very much to be happy, and to bring happiness to others; though with the war on he thinks he must suppress that desire.

Jason feels at home in the center of attention or on the outskirts of a crowd regardless, only wanting to feel included in some way with anything going on. If he trusts you he is an open book, answering any questions about himself he has answers to, and asking the same of his conversational partner in return.

History: Jason's story began as so many others do: With his father, John. A poor farmer in Ireland, the elder O'Grady was first in line to inherit the farm from his father. Having seen his son grow up nothing but a farmer, never having half a day to call his own, Grandfather O'Grady offered the boy a chance to go out on his own, to spend a couple years seeing the world and being a boy before settling down. The man accepted, and soon found himself traveling across the Eastern European countryside with a knapsack and a song. Jason't father stumbled upon a wandering group of entertainers, Gypsies as they were called by the city folk; though they themselves preferred the term Roma. After meeting one of the young women in the family, John was smitten, and spent the rest of his time away from the farm with the group.

Some months after the departure of John, back home to the farm, the troupe gained two new members. Twins, a boy and a girl. Jason and his sister Emma. They were raised as part of the large family, though their history was never hidden from them. The pair were always inseparable. They did everything together, and soon learned most of what the Roma had to teach. They learned how to draw a crowd, how to keep interest, how to act and sing, and how to perform. Their lives seemed to be a neverending whirlwind of adventure.

The Roma traveled everywhere during the twins teenaged years, from Spain to Russia to Greece and everywhere in between. Not all of those places welcomed them with open arms, however. Many people distrusted them, called them thieves or worse. One day, while the family was performing and raising money near Budapest, a small crowd of superstitious villagers tried to form a mob and drive them out of town. Miraculously, even though he had been hit on his left arm by several thrown rocks, Jason and the rest of the family walked away without being hurt. Unbeknownst to them however, Jason was about to go through a trial.

Jason's latent superhuman abilities had spontaneously activated, protecting him from harm during the mob. However, with energy stored up from the attacks he'd blocked and no way of knowing what had happened or how to release it, the energy began to break down. In the days following the attack, Jason complained of sharp pains in his arm, first only every once in awhile, but soon a near-constant pain. Finally several days later, the energy broke; the bones in Jason's forearm and hand shattering spontaneously as the skin split open. The family panicked, but reacted quickly. When Jason awoke in a hospital several days later he was told they had saved his arm, but he had lost some mobility. It was then that the family revealed their only secret to Jason and his sister: Much of their number were superhuman as well.

Driven out and ostracized by their respective communities because of their supernatural abilities, the elders of the family of Roma had found each other and banded together at a young age. Now three generations later, the large group held nearly a dozen of their number as superhuman. These members of the community stepped in now, helping to teach Jason the basics of his power and how to control it. For the next several years, the young man spent every moment learning how to control this newfound gift. It was an exhilarating time in his life, but unfortunately, all chapters must close.

The family was caught in Germany when war broke out. They decided it was too dangerous to try and sneak the large group out of the country, and instead decided to hide. They underestimated the hatred Hitler's regime felt towards Gypsies. Soon after the war broke out, they were ambushed in the night. Solders ripped through their camp, setting fire and taking prisoner those who didn't resist. Those who did resist... Even the superhumans the family had fostered found themselves little match for the surprise attack against a full army. Jason did the only thing he could do. The last thing his mother ever said to him as blood poured down her face. "Run my child, run!" She had cried. "Save yourself, please!"

Jason ran. He never knew what happened to the rest of them. His mother, his sister, all of his friends and family... He never went back. Two days later he bluffed his way out of the country. A week after that he found himself on a ship heading for Ireland. And then, a father he had never known, a farm he had never seen, a family that was not his own. Jason toiled there in anonymity until rumors reached his ears of a secret division of the British war machine, a place where he might be able to help. Packing up his paltry collection of things, Jason left in the middle of the night. He bluffed his way onto a cargo ship as a crewmember, stole a uniform from an off-duty solder, and then decided on some fun. Removing the identifying markers from the uniform, he spent the next several days shuffling himself around through various offices, claiming at each one to be a different officer of a different rank who had conveniently been mugged and no of course I don't have any papers you utter buffoon I was MUGGED now how do I get my things replaced? When finally he had been given a set of 'replacement' papers and found someone he suspected could help him, he dropped the act and asked about entry into the Westminster League...

Equipment: A pair of aviators goggles.
A black handkerchief.
A 5 foot long wooden staff.
A pocketful of bolts.

Name: Akiva Eichholz

False ID Name: Alex Edward

Nationality: Polish Jew

Age: 19

Height: 6'3"


Weight: 16.5

Appearance: Akiva is a tall, gaunt young man. He has pale, white skin, and blue eyes. His hair is on the darker side of the spectrum, and is almost always unkempt and messy. He has no facial hair, and can easily blend into a crowd. He often wears regular, almost boring clothing.

Other Appearance: He has a small scar on the bottom of his chin.

Superpower(s): Friction Manipulation.
Akiva can manipulate the surface of any structure to a certain degree. When he puts his bare hand down on a surface, and concentrates, he can alter the friction and firmness of said structure. There are quite a few limitations. For example, it has a radius of 10 meters. This range can be frustrating on brick surfaces, as every small indent counts towards those ten meters. Along with that, it takes five seconds for the effects to begin, and five seconds for them to wear off. Also, depending on the molecular structure of the surface Akiva is influencing, the effects can be either magnified or reduced greatly. It can be conducted through certain materials, should Akiva wish it (See Equipment)

Skills: Due to living a fairly quiet life, Akiva doesn't have many skills. At most, he is good with ropes, pulleys, and all things related to physics, as they have fascinated him since he was young. Otherwise, nothing. He has very little experience with guns, knives, or anything of the sort. Is fluent in English, Polish, and Yiddish. Knows the family traditions by heart, and has memorized all of his grandmother's recipes.

Personality: Akiva is very quiet. Often choosing not to speak, he merely observes and acts. Everyone else caught up in banter? He's on the lookout for any traps. Due to his ethnicity, Akiva holds a strong hatred for those who work under the Third Reich. He is not one to get attached to people, and is just trying to accomplish his goal and survive.

History: Akiva's story begins long before his birth. For generations, the Eichholz family of southwestern Poland has dreamed of moving to America. Away from the plagues and blights. Away from the famines brought on by a poor harvest. Away from those damnable neighbors and their tendencies to trash all they saw. No, America would be a land of promise. A land of prosperity. And so it had been the Eichholz family dream to move to that beautiful land of freedom and crops aplenty. Unfortunately, most of them wouldn't live to see the day.

War was brewing. Years had passed, and most of the Eichholz family had given up. Their attempts had been all but squashed by the glaring restrictions placed upon them. There was no way for them to get to that promised land. In Germany, those damnable Nazis had taken control. Their campaign to segregate and oppress Jews was a menace. Distant, yet looming ever closer. Soon enough, that nightmare would become an all consuming part of Akiva's life

Akiva was born in 1923, in a small farmhouse. He lived with his 6 siblings, mother, father, two uncles, and his grandmother. His blessed grandmother. He adored her so. Sweet, charming, and funny. She taught him everything she knew about cooking, and even spoiled him by buying him physics books when they went out to town. But, they shared more than just bloodline. Akiva first exhibited his power when he was a young boy, playing in the fields. His father came out to check on him, and found the soft dirt felt like pavement. He rushed the boy to his grandmother, who had also exhibited such abilities in the past. With her guidance, he was able to learn more about his powers. He developed the ability to not only increase and decrease firmness, but increase or decrease friction. Life was good and grand. Eventually, using his knowledge of physics, Akiva invented his grapple. A long metal rope, with a silk string running inside it. It had a handle on one end, and a hook on the other. By using his power, Akiva could meddle with the rope and the grapple independently of each other. Alas, he could not control them both at once.. To go along with this, it allowed him to conduct his power. Akiva could change the friction and firmness of wherever the grapple landed. However, he could not manipulate the grapple and the ground at the same time. One day, though, he would learn how. So he swore.

Life was interrupted in 1939, when Germany invaded Poland. The family panicked, and began to pack in a rushed manner. They couldn't be caught by the German troops, or they would be brought to prison or subject to whatever heinous experiments the Germans performed on the Jews. But, they couldn't save everyone. They lost both uncles and three siblings escaping Poland alone. Yet, the death that would hurt Akiva the most was his grandmother; She had died early on, shot by some German trooper. This filled Akiva with rage, yet he knew he couldn't fight back. In the end, only him, his father, and one sibling survived the escape to England. Almost immediately, Akiva registered for the draft. Even more hastily, he exhibited what his powers could do. So, he was registered to the Westminster League of Extraordinary Individuals. Not out of a sense of justice, but a sense of revenge.

Equipment: The grapple, a simple switchblade, a leather cookbook, and some vegetables