With his mixed heritage comes mixed looks, and Isko likes to think that he lucked out in the end. While his height is nothing impressive, standing at 5’10”, he’s a rather handsome young man. His skin is a medium warm brown and his eyes a deep brown in colour, monolid like his mother’s. Dark brown-black hair is kept short on the left side with a longer, right swept section with loose curls. He is relatively well built, though not overly muscular but he has a clear strength from years of training. Isko is normally found in a relaxed stance with a warm smile and welcoming air. He tends to dress fairly practically and with layers of clothing - favouring denim or bomber jackets over hoodies or sweaters, and ripped jeans. He’ll lose the layers if it’s too hot - but he’s used to warm temperatures due to where he grew up, so he rarely bothers. Both his ears are pierced and normally he wears plain black earrings.

Isko was born in São Paulo, Brazil, and spent most of his formative years there. His father ran a small restaurant there while his mother was a nomad originally from the Philippines, who had settled down after finding love. At age two his sister, Aline, came along. They were a happy family even with a constantly varying stability depending on how well the restaurant did.

From a young age he loved hearing about all the stories of her journeys as a Nomad and the two were close. As soon as he was old enough he began to learn martial arts from his mother and spent most of his time outside of school practicing. What little time he spent outside of this was on the streets playing with other kids. It was here that he first saw someone practicing Capoeira and fell in love with the acrobatics of the style. He begged his mum to let him learn and after some convincing (classes were expensive) she let him.

While Isko enjoyed his youth, he heavily focused on learning and spent very little time with his younger sister and making friends. Along with this he took a lot of their mother’s attention which resulted in a rather strained relationship with Aline where his younger sister spent a lot of time rebelling. More often than not the two would get into explosive fights which their parents gave up on mediating. This mellowed out a little as Isko aged but they still weren’t on good terms.

Then, when he was sixteen years old, his father passed away from a sudden and incurable illness. This was a massive shock to them all but hit his sister hardest. It made him completely change his perspective about how he’d been living his life up until that point and how little time he’d made for others, or himself. After selling the restaurant the family moved to the Phillipines so they could be with his mother’s family. It was hard but Isko made every effort to help his family and through what had happened he managed to repair the rift between him and his sister, starting to act like a proper older brother. The two grew much closer. He changed from someone who was incredibly self focused to his family, his sister especially, being his whole world and focus.

Even so Isko’s goal to become a nomad never changed but was just put on hold as he did odd jobs to supplement their income, was there was his family and trained on the side. It wasn’t until he was twenty-one that he decided to strike out - with his sister in tow. They travelled together as Nomads and that’s how they ended up at the World’s Martial Arts Tournament, in Brazil. Both participated to varying degrees of success and then shit hit the fan.

Some robot (he thinks) called Oh-One attacked the arena and from there on they somehow ended up with another group of Nomads fighting that thing. If Isko was honest, he was really just dragged from A to B by his sister but he helped nonetheless. They beat Oh-One and retrieved the Power Stone, and if Isko was honest after all that he just wanted to keep travelling and rest somewhere less chaotic. But Aline insisted that they stay in Gold City because they’d never been there before, and so they did. Unlike his sister, who is overly invested in all that happened with Oh-One and the idea of being in a group of other nomads, Isko would much rather have a quieter time travelling just the two of them. But he sticks around for her and is finding there are some things about Gold City he enjoys.

Isko blends Capoeira, Sikaran and Taekkyeon together to make his own, unique fighting style picking and choosing the techniques he likes most from each. He learned Sikaran from his mother and Capoeira in classes from a young age, and Taekkyeon is something he began to learn from age seventeen - as he has the least experience in it, it is used overall less than the other two. His main focus is on constant movement and dynamic footwork, combining the acrobatics of Capoeira and the full body movement of Taekkyeon. His main focus for attacking comes from kicks and he mainly uses his hands for defensive blocking, as in Sikaran, or aiding in movement, as in Capoeira.

While he was born with a reasonable amount of Ki due to his nomad mother, most of Isko’s skill comes from years of training and honing himself. He focuses on movement, kicking attacks and defence. He is fairly reactionary and defensive when it comes to fighting - Isko is unlikely to be the first to attack but rather will defend and dodge until the opportunity arises to attack decisively. He normally uses his ki to enhance this defence and keep him constantly, quickly, moving and using it to make his kicks, when he finally attacks, powerful.

Due to how he fights and what he learned, Isko is very flexible and acrobatic. He excels at dodging and working in any scenario that allows him to constantly move, able to fight and attack from most positions. He can attack from both the normal standing position but can also attack and defend from a position where he's standing on his hands, which he can hold for a good amount of time. The quick, fluid movement allows him to face multiple opponents with relative ease. Along with his main martial arts, Isko also has a little bit of training in Arnis from his mother and sister.

Isko has absolutely no skill or experience in groundfighting, meaning that once he is on the ground he finds it difficult to fight back if pinned. The same goes for grappling and instead he focuses on avoiding these or getting back up through rolls and acrobatics, meaning that a big weakness is getting tied down or stopped from moving. Along with this he is heavily focused on kicking and is much weaker at using his hands or elbows to strike, meaning that if his legs are constrained or blocked he’s limited to defences. The reactionary nature of his fighting style means he’s heavily dependent on being able to monitor his opponent and will struggle if he can’t keep track of or see his opponents. He has little to no ranged attacking capability. He is often more skilled in fights against multiple opponents or group combat, as his focus is quick movement and defences before using a decisive counter attack that can struggle under the focused attack of a single opponent.

Speaks Portuguese, English and Filipino fluently (in that order of preference and skill). His skill in Filipino is much less than the other three, as his mother put more importance on teaching him English and he dropped out of school just after they moved to the Philippines.

5'10'' and surprisingly muscular, with absolutely no superfluous body fat though a few old scars she's not so willing to show off. Freckles, orange hair. Her her waistcoat, gloves, bow tie, and ears are bright red. Her shirt is white, and her pants are black. Despite her lifestyle she does her best to keep this uniform clean and professional looking.

Brash, assertive, attentive, loyal, persistent, irreverent, conversational

Clover was born on the wrong side of the tracts, the child of poor parents with so many kids they couldn't find time for even one of them. As a young child all but abandoned to her own devices she started to act out for attention, and as the frustration from her failure to raise any concern from them and the nigh unbearable social pressure of sharing a home with so many others built and built she began to lash out violently at anyone that gave her the excuse.

She turned out to be pretty good at it, too. She couldn't make anything, she couldn't cook, she was terrible in school but by god she could make even older kids run crying to their mothers. She started doing it a lot, especially as she got older, spending long night out wandering town looking for the strongest opponents she could find. She did not expect to find that in an old lady.

She hadn't set out to pick a fight with the old lady, more that a fight she was having accidentally spilled into the path of the old lady. The old lady may have commented on how sloppy Clover's technique was, Clover may have said some nasty things to the old lady, and a punch might have been thrown. Clover couldn't tell you, because she still doesn't remember most of that morning. All she knows was that when she awoke with a splitting headache that sent shutters of agony through her body every time she turned her head she was in a classy, huge, richly decorated bar. She was laying in a circle of concerned old faces, with the old lady grinning at her.

The old lady, she soon learned, was named Hazel. She was a "retired" nomad and this was her bar, The Warren. Then, completely unprompted, she asked Clover is she had a job. Clover said no. Hazel asked if she wanted one. Clover told Hazel exactly where she could stick her job. Hazel strongly implied that if Clover refused to take the job the police might find out she'd tried to assault a poor, defenseless old lady in the street.

Clover, who was not on the best of terms with the local police, took the job.

It chafed at first, of course. The uniform was embarrassing and being told what to do by the person that whipped you so hard you didn't even remember it grated on her pride, but the pay was actually really good and the old lady was an attentive and caring boss. She wasn't good at all the bartering stuff at first. She didn't know how to really talk to people, broke her share of glasses and spilled her share of expensive booze, but the old lady never seemed to get mad and helped her along to learn the ropes. The rest of the staff was kind and supportive. The old patrons weirded her out at first, what with them crawling out of black portals that Hazel had set up on the floor in an unused bathroom, but they never gave her a hard time and always had some really interesting stories to tell. What started as a job she had to take turned into a job that she not only loved, but was good at.

After a while Hazel started to trust Clover enough to share her secrets. She'd made this bar for Old Nomads, guys like her that just wanted to drink in peace without worrying about some upstart young fighter looking for glory ruining their night with some asinine challenge. Clover learned that the mentorship she'd been under was a habit of Hazel's, that all her co-workers had once upon a time been some disaffected punk with talent but no sense, and that now that Clover had sense she could finally start putting that talent to good use. Hazel trained her, passing on to Clover her style and the basics of her strange space bending powers.

Things had been going swimmingly for ten long years. The money Hazel was paying her was enough to help her move out of that crowded house and into a place where she could stretch her legs. She wasn't as angry anymore, had made some good friends, and only got into a fight around once or twice a month at most. Only when people were really rude, only if they started something.

It was a year ago when one particular robot really started something. She and her co-worker, a woman by the name of Whig, were delivering a specialty bottle of rum to a regular, "Ravishing" Ricardo Rosinante, as a consolatory gift for being knocked out of the tournament. When the robot Oh-One and it's minions attacked Whig and Clover felt the need to jump to the defense of the populous, a decision that cost Whig her arm in defense of Clover. That meant war. Clover left her friend to recover and set off after the robots, eventually getting tangled up in a group of Nomads who were also after them and taking part in the battle for the stones of power.

After beating the robot she returned to the Gold City, home of the Warren, to continue tending bar.

While a Nomad with all that entails Clovers defenses are low, relying on dodging and avoiding her opponents attacks to avoid injury rather than tank damage. In addition if a surface is broken while Clover is inside of it she takes massive damage from the resulting quake and is launched out, stunned.

If a fight isn't something she perceives as urgent she'll goof around.

- Clover always has a Warren brand matchbook on hand, and will reflexively light anyone cigarette for them using it.

Hiroji is a young Asian man with spiky purplish hair, a large forehead, a lean figure, and several scars on his body gained from his line of work. HIs eyes are a distinct red as a result of his augmentation, which is one of his immediate stand-out features. He has a small, pointed chin, giving his face a triangular appearance, and speaks perfect English. When his mask is on, his voice has a tinny sound to it, almost like it’s synthesized. This is to mask his actual voice when in the field.

Hiroji Suzukaze was always meant for the life of a Nomad. Raised in the secretive clan of modern ninja known as the Blue Path, hidden in plain sight as a Tokyo dojo known as the Ox and Tiger, Hiroji was trained in the ways of ki use from a very young age. The Blue Path were, despite their violent profession and culty-sounding name, not an evil or dishonorable sort.

The master ran an orphanage in his spare time, and when an orphan came of age and showed the right kind of potential, the master would come forward and ask if they wished to join as one of his students. They were allowed to say no, or even leave the school in mid-training should they get cold feet, but it was no skin off of the clan’s back if they reneged at this point, for the master would not reveal the dojo’s true purpose--as a front for a ninja clan--until a student was utterly committed and invested.

The Blue Path was formed, ironically, to counter the threat of the Crimson Claw Clan, CCC or Triple-C for short. The Crimson Claw Clan began as the Crimson Consortium, the anti-Nomad assassination arm of a major Osaka yakuza family, only to eventually take over the entire family in a bloody coup. After brutally annihilating any loyalist elements, the newly-minted Crimson Claw Clan used the yakuza family’s immense coffers to invest in and often purchase several small cybernetics and biotech firms, using their facilities to enhance the family’s existing soldiers and mass-produce the same terrifying assassins that made the Crimson Consortium so infamous.

The CCC’s Nomad-grade assassins allowed it to muscle out other families and eventually gain great power over the underworld of Japan, later branching out into other countries with a particularly-stubborn subsidiary in Gold City, and as MAVERICK had its hands full with MIRAGE, the CCC had largely gone unnoticed until they could no longer be easily crushed.

The CCC only got more extreme, violent, and cruel with time, with its leader, Hideki Mitsuhaira, becoming increasingly ambitious to the point where he has begun wondering if he can enhance people who are already Nomads. He has begun using Gold City as a recruitment center, enticing less-savory Nomads with the promise of incredible power, should they just decide to work for him. He is currently plotting to find the Stones of Power for himself, thinking it will grant the CCC a crucial edge over the likes of MIRAGE, Horizon Frontiers, and eventually the big cheese--MAVERICK itself. Then, unopposed, he plans to start taking over entire nations the same way he took over the Japanese underworld.

The Blue Path was founded by a rogue member of the Crimson Consortium, Goro Takahashi, who left the organization before it morphed into the CCC, and, wanting to atone for his actions and to end the blight that the Crimson Consortium had become, do what he could to found an organization that could fight back against the CCC. The Blue Path is thus a collection of his personal students, taught everything he knows, each one eventually branching out and forming their own subsidiaries to counter the CCC’s reach.

Hiroji Suzukaze, for his part, lived a double life ever since he joined the Blue Path at 18, a normal young adult by day, and a terrifying ninja by night. He was eventually sent to take part in a certain tournament, to win one of the Stones of Power for the Blue Path before Hideki’s finest, who had entered the tournament, could get their hands on it. Then Oh-One showed up, and the rest is history.

When Hiroji arrived back in Tokyo, humiliated by a robot that came out of nowhere, his master revealed that he had been contacted by MAVERICK. Both organizations agreed that the CCC was a threat, and both now had a vested interest in taking down Oh-One. MAVERICK would largely give the Blue Path free reign so long as they provided personnel for stealth missions, but in exchange, MAVERICK would give the Blue Path’s operatives access to their anti-Nomad equipment and any enhancements they desired, all expenses paid.

Hiroji, for his part, chose a suit of agile power armor, enhanced futuristic weaponry, powerful bio-enhancements, and a full suite of covert-ops cybernetics, naturally air-gapped to prevent Oh-One from tampering with it. His first assignment was to link up with the major group of Nomads that was going after Oh-One, and support them. That he did, and did it well, eventually befriending the group and contributing to the fight against Oh-One, eventually winning back the Stone of Power.

He initially objected to leaving the Stone with Brooklyn Vanburen, since one person, even a Nomad, could not nearly keep it as secure as MAVERICK or the Blue Path, but eventually relented, since ironically, if it was in Brooklyn’s care, it would make a much smaller target.

Hiroji, for his part, was in Gold City on a much-needed vacation from the ninja life, when he heard the news that Brooklyn was kidnapped. Apparently he’d gone too long without the interference of Murphy’s Law, and now Murphy had come to collect. Just what he needed.

Hiroji is, at his core, a ninja. He fights with stealth, speed, agility, poisons, and precise strikes. He is a master of virtually any Japanese weapon, from kunai to shuriken to katanas to tantos to even the kanabo, should brute force be required. He is proficient at mixing chemicals and poisons, as well as creating, using, and disarming explosives. His Maverick-branded equipment and enhancements, tailor-made for him, only makes him even more lethal. His armor can survive a shot from an anti-materiel rifle, he has the strength to punch through a two-foot wall of reinforced concrete with his bare hands and can move faster than the eye can track at top speed. His armor is equipped with a barrier system, cloaking. adaptive nanopaint, and sound-dampening systems to help infiltration, and his enhancements not only give him the reflexes to dodge an anti-aircraft gun, but a fully-featured HUD and accompanying milspec infiltration suite that lets him break through almost any security system or defenses, outlining weakpoints in a structure, tagging objectives and threats, and slicing through cybersecurity. HIs weaponry is no less dangerous, including twin R.O. (Rapid Oscillation) ninjatos and razor-sharp motorized shuriken, capable of coming back to him when thrown. When really in a pinch, he has his tried-and-true nin-mahou, or ninja magic, to turn the tide of a battle.

Yes, Hiroji has a lot of fancy toys, that much is obvious. He can dodge a lot, and his armor can tank a lot. But an anti-materiel rifle doesn’t amount to much in the Nomad world, and ultimately, he’s a ninja. Ninja are not known for their ability to take a lot of damage, and even his armor’s force-field isn’t exactly the toughest thing in the world. It can be dropped from a few Nomad punches, really. It recharges relatively quickly, but it’s still not advised for Hiroji to depend on it. When it comes down to it, Hiroji’s a bit of a glass cannon. On top of that, for a ninja, he’s actually quite identifiable, especially in his armor. He can change the color, but he can’t change the fact that the armor exists.

Yes, I said he’s equipped with ninjato. It turns out, the ninjato actually make useful weapons when made to actual quality standards, and they have a critical advantage over the CCC’s more traditional katanas and such: Only the Blue Path bothered coming up with an entire martial art, ninjatojutsu, to make these pop-culture swords worth using. Ninjato are not katanas, or even shikomizue. While some of the principles of their use are the same, a CCC agent who picks up a Blue Path ninjato will find it much harder to use than their own weaponry.

At a glance, one can tell that there’s a sort of celebrity aura about Jill Breicen, even when she’s not trying to show it. She stands fairly tall, at 6’3”, with pale, immaculate skin, pretty blue eyes, golden blond hair, and the face and features of a model. She has a toned, athletic physique, and always maintains a proper, proud posture. She wears a somewhat eccentric cowgirl-style outfit with a nice hat, expensive pleather jacket worn over a white T-shirt, designer jeans, and some nice-looking high boots.

In battle, she dons a shiny, tricked-out belt to henshin and become Justice Rider Blaze, sporting a beautiful silver, white and blue chestpiece, gauntlets, and greaves on top of a dark spandex-like substance designed to aid in ki flow. The helmet is vaguely similar to a motorcycle helmet, though it bears a prominent metal chin guard. The most prominent piece of the suit is the long, flowing, light blue scarf, the size of which puts any lesser superhero to shame.

She’s accompanied by a small floating drone designated P1T-5T0P (nicknamed Pit Stop), that fits into her bike and serves as her cameraman, as well as a repair crew during combat when she’s too occupied to do so herself.

There is much that could be said about the Justice Riders, though they are so well-known that there is little need for introduction. Though they were formed as SHINING’s flagship franchise, their origins could not be properly conveyed without examining the family’s patriarch.

Many, many years ago, in 19XX, a clandestine terrorist organization known as SCYTHE silently wreaked havoc across the world, aiming to conquer it via forced modification of mankind by means of cybernetics, mutation, and the occult. A would-be hero, Ryuji Raiden, stood against them, using his own modifications made from SCYTHE’s very own technology against them.

As his quest and a sudden whirlwind romance took him across Japan, word began to spread of his exploits and legendary charisma. He was quick to capitalize on this, using funds gained from serialized tales of his journey to fund a worldwide crusade against his sworn enemy. He traveled from country to country, and continued to play the superhero role long after SCYTHE was wiped out, eventually becoming a strange, novel mix between celebrity and hero. Having started a family and obtained a remarkable fortune, he continued to ride his fame until his final days, at which point he had a secret to reveal.

Ryuji Raiden has slept around. A lot. Perhaps it wasn’t as big of a surprise as he would like to think, but the point was that he had dozens of children scattered across the globe, each specified an equal portion of his inheritance. They decided to continue the example followed by their father, forming the hero organization SHINING, as well as teaming up to form the iconic Justice Riders, a group of superheroes who use vibrant suits and custom vehicles to keep the peace across the world, documenting (and merchandising) their various fights and adventures along the way. The franchise has been immensely popular for decades, enjoyed all over the world by fans of all ages.

Jill Breicen is one of the newest additions to the legacy, having grown up under a wealthy upbringing in the American South alongside her younger sister. Having been inspired by her father’s own exploits as a Rider, she trained since her youth to be one herself. She proved extremely popular and charismatic upon her official debut as Justice Rider Blaze, and her fame only grew once she became heavily involved in the fight against Oh-One after the initial attack, fighting every step of the way, and was eventually joined by veteran Justice Rider Sombra. However, in the final battle, she pushed her suit’s power to its maximum levels, nearly dying in the process. Her show was put on hiatus as she was sent to Gold City to recover, having only recently gotten back on her feet.

In addition to Jill’s own well-honed fighting instincts as a Nomad, she’s also well-trained in the Justice Rider’s trademark fighting style, featuring dozens of iconic punches, kicks, and grapples that all look great on a poster. She’s also supplemented by the occasional weapon from her arsenal; her bike’s right handle can be detached to reveal a whip, the EX-Coil, while the left handle can be taken off and turned into a sword, the EX-Saber. The bike itself even has weapon configurations of its own. Her ki talents are rather simplistic, mostly revolving around creating barriers out of pure light that she can use to both defend herself as well as create ramps and platforms. Her most powerful weapon, however, is something else entirely.

Enter Jill’s unique “Trailblazer” style and her custom Rider vehicle; Cloud Nine. Weighing 621 pounds and boasting an extremely powerful three-way hybrid engine that can run on gasoline, electricity, and ki, this absolute monster of a vehicle requires a special kind of Nomad to even drive, let alone use in combat. The Trailblazer style revolves around this, using the machine’s ample supplies of mass and velocity to charge forwards and demolish whatever happens to be in her path at the moment, whether that be through elaborate powerslides, jumps, and wheelies, or simply charging towards an opponent at high speeds, using both her ki talents and the bike’s bulk to shrug off attacks and ram them off the road. The EX-Coil is used in conjunction with Jill’s own strength to both grab opponents, and to attach to the bike itself and fling it around like an oversized morning star. She can use her ki powers to create ramps and platforms to bring the bike into the air or even across walls. Very unrefined as a martial art, but nothing to scoff at when every attack almost literally hits like a truck.

Both styles are further enhanced by a function of her belt, the Blaze Driver, known as the EX-System. Designed to both regulate the user’s ki and draw upon further reserves than what the body is capable of, it can store it in up to six specialized cells, which can be used to enhance moves with fire or electricity, as well fuel unique special attacks, referred to as EX-Attacks.

Jill can deliver some righteous beatdowns, but she needs breathing room to pull it off. EX Attacks can be devastating, but if an attack doesn’t require EX-Cells to function, it’s likely to require it to get the most out of the move or even for it to be useful in the first place. Persistent opponents that can prevent her from charging will practically cripple her. Despite having many attacks that work at range, she can’t take advantage of the safety that range gives her: She’s all about charging in and using that momentum to keep the attacks coming.

In addition, Jill relies heavily on her bike and the equipment and techniques it grants to be truly effective in battle. She has a lot more trouble succeeding in battle if she’s ever separated from it.

Much of Jill’s equipment is of her own design, including Pit Stop

Yeong-Suk, at a paltry 5'3'', is slightly above average for her home country of North Korea, yet significantly smaller than the average nomad. Her straight, black hair grows to her shoulders, with bangs covering her right eye. However, this is not merely a fashion choice; it is a conscious decision to cover said eye, which glows an unnatural yellow (her natural eye color is brown, which is still visible on her left eye) and is very obviously artificial in nature. This is actually not the only cybernetic implant that Yeong-suk has, but the other implants at least are either underneath skin, or mimic the appearance of such. As a result, while it may not be immediately obvious that Yeong-suk is a cyborg at a quick glance, and Yeong-suk intentionally goes out of her way to keep that illusion going, the illusion can quickly dissipate if the eye gets uncovered.

Yeong-suk's appereance is finely monitored by the North Korean government, as she is viewed as, alongside other goals, a valuable piece of propaganda. She is almost always seen in a Korean People's Army dress uniform; an olive green suit, with a matching hat and tie. In order to emphasize her femininity, Yeong-suk's suit is matched with a skirt; any concerns of practicality being disregarded by her superiors since it simply just looks better. Completing the outfit is black dress shoes, complimented with matching black gloves (more to conceal her implants and fingerprints than for style purposes).

Chung Yeong-Suk was born on March 12th in Kaesong, North Korea, the first child of a family of industrial workers. Along with her younger brother, Jeong-Ho, she lived a fairly average life for a North Korean child; she went to school, played youth soccer, learned about the divinity of the ruling Kim family and how North Korea was Best Korea, and was part of the Youth Pioneer Corps. By all accounts, there was nothing remarkable about this North Korean girl compared to any other child.

Meanwhile, with the growing global recognition of the Nomad community, and their potential for strength and destruction, the North Korean government became increasingly interested in trying to create an army of ki-enfused supersoldiers. By embracing what the Supreme Leader believed was the next step of human evolution, Pyongyang hoped they could score a massive propaganda victory over the west, if not finally have the edge needed to finally win the suspended war and reunite Korea. As a result, the North Korean government experimented with procedures meant to rapidly develop ki powers within individuals. However, there was a roadblock, stemming from the fact that it mostly ended up disfiguring (if not killing) the people going through the procedure. But, it was hypothesized that perhaps a certain gene sequence, combined with copious cybernetic implants, could handle the procedure. But first, they needed to find the right person...

Therefore, when graduation came and went and Yeong-suk, like many patriotic North Koreans, was shuffled along to become the next generation of conscripts for the Korean People's Army, there was a nationwide mandatory test to sequence the genetic code of all incoming conscripts. Yeong-suk was the first one to test positive for that sequence. She was immediately pulled away, and given the option to volunteer for "special training" to undergo the rigorous procedure and become an enforcer for the Kims. In return, her family would be given, nice, cushy lodging in the nation's capital of Pyongyang; totally not there to hold Yeong-Suk hostage or anything in case something went wrong. Yeong-Suk readily accepted, mostly out of genuine patriotism, although she also realized she really didn't have a true say in the matter.

Brought to a classified military installation deep in the Korean mountainsides, Yeong-Suk trained under the watchful eye of the military, honing her physical ability, technique in Taekwondo, and most importantly, having her body being augmented with god knows what injections and surgeries. The process was brutal on Yeong-suk's body, and she was written off almost as another failure. But, at the bleakest hour, Yeong-suk started generating ki in an accelerated fashion. Internally, Yeong-suk was informed, she was almost as much of a machine as as a woman at this point; even one of her eyes were replaced with a piece of experimental ki-reading technology stolen from the Chinese. But she was finally a representative of the new breed of the Korean people, one that will lead her nation into glory.

Immediately afterwards, part two of her training began, to make her into an assassin. At first, the army attempted to train her ki manipulation and technique themselves. However, when her skills in ki started to surpass anything the military was prepared for, they "persuaded" martial artists from the south and China to train her up further. Owing to her feet-based martial art, Yeong-Suk's trainers put a particular focus on trying to teach her to channel ki through her feet rather than her hands, a technique which she soon adopted almost, if not totally, excursively.

The training was just as brutal as the first stage, designed to break her mentally just as much to bring out her absolute potential. Whatever personality Yeong-suk may have had beforehand was broken down, hammered away to make her just as much of a machine as she was physically now. Any sense of the self would prevent her from being her max potential as a weapon of war for the North Korean government. Serving the state was the only thing on her mind; the only thing let into her mind, and willingly embraced. Her handlers rejoiced; they finally succeeded in creating the first superhuman agent for North Korea.

Yeong-suk's second mission (her first an unspecified action in Malaysia she refuses to comment on beyond it being a success) was to participate in a tournament of Nomads in Brazil. Her fights were to be filmed to eventually create propaganda showing off her raw strength to the world. During the tournament, Yeong-suk got involved with an incident involving a cursed ancient Japanese sword that temporarily possessed her, a detail that would eventually get reported back to Pyongyang. However, despite being freed by the sword's possession through physical intervention by other Nomads, the cyborg was still able to keep her composure up to continue fighting in the tournament, despite extreme physical and mental stress.

When Oh-One's robots assaulted the tournament, Yeong-suk was able to successfully evacuate from the arena, helping a young, inexperienced nomad along the way. Fearing for the safety of the crew that came with her to Brazil, she returned back to the hotel to regroup with them, narrowly averting any direct conflict with Oh-One. She instead decided to simply drink away the pain she was feeling, and watch the fireworks from afar.

While Yeong-suk was successful in her endeavors, going far into the tournament and successfully saving the footage, her handlers were far more interested in what happened with her and the sword. They were both impressed and horrified just how easily the sword was able to take over Yeong-suk's mind (perhaps a side effect of how thorough they were in breaking her mind?). The implications were too vast to ignore: they needed to find that sword and seize it.

In the meantime, Yeong-suk traveled across the world on behest of the North Korean government, fighting in tournaments and engaging in clandestine operations on the side. The competition was generally not as stacked as the one in Brazil, and Yeong-suk won many championships across the globe. Occasionally, Yeong-suk may ran into those questing against Oh-One, and may have even assisted them if it was in her power to, but she was never truly involved in the quest for the Stone of Power.

Nearly a year has passed since that fateful day in Rio. Suddenly, Yeong-suk was updated with a new mission. There was a new lead for Murakumo, the ancient sword that once possessed her, within Gold City. She was to travel to the Californian city at once, to investigate the legitimacy of the claims, and, if possible, seize the sword outright.

Yeong-Suk was trained in the half-traditional, half-modern Korean martial art of 태권도 (Taekwondo), a fighting style which emphasizes agility and kicks. While Taekwondo is usually taught as a zoning martial art, using one's reach through legs to keep the opponent at bay, Yeong-Suk's small size makes that not a winning proposition. Instead, Yeong-Suk uses ki techniques to mirror this philosophy, using her feet to generate projectile attacks from a distance. After catching her opponent off guard, she can use her great agility to rush in with wild jump kicks, before forcing the opponent away and starting over. Alternatively, if she thinks the foe is weak enough, Yeong-Suk will skip the zoning altogether and go straight for the rushdown.

Defensively, there is much more emphasize on dodging hits rather than blocking. Even without ki, Yeon-Suk is fastfooted, and can easily bob and weave from far to close and vice versa. When she can't simply dodge an attack, she perfers to use her ki techniques to block rather than her physical body; she actually can not take getting hit all that well.

The augmentations that Yeong-Suk has underwent has given her body an immense freebie in raw ki power, but it doesn't means she is able to really fully utilize that power. Her body, in fact, was really not designed to be able to output that much ki, and thus there is a sense of frailty that undermines her in fights. Using her ki techniques will tire her out over time, at a rate faster than most nomads. On the other hand, with being barely able to handle the raw output that she has as-is, being actually hit can damage her even more harshly than a typical nomad as well.

Due to constantly training with people much weaker than her, Yeong-Suk also overestimates her own abilities. She also has very little experience fighting anyone with ki or magic, and doesn't know how to fight people of similar strength.

Finally, the series of cybernetic implants that she has, means that she is very reliant on them to function. Any sort of mechanical interference, such as an EMP, will severely mess her up, up to possibly even being a one hit KO depending on how severe it was.

As Yeong-Suk is Korean, her name is written in the Asian style of surname/personal name, rather than personal name/surname.

Credit for the image goes to runeun of dA, not me. I can't art to save my life

Lucie Bardot stands at an average 5'6'', with an athletic build to match her military training. Her light brown hair, which could almost be mistaken for grey, goes down to her shoulders, and compliments her actual grey eyes quite nicely. Her complexion is fair, white but not overly pale.

Lucie's typical outfit depends on context, but her everyday wear is a mix of her MAVERICK uniform on top of street clothes. She has a grey dress with black leggings, covered with her MAVERICK jacket. There is a box of ammo and grenades at her side, and a headset she wears to both communicate and receive orders. Her boots are styled to look a bit like oversized sneakers, and she wears kneepads over her leggings. To complete her outfit is a black bandana, worn as a scarf normally but pulled up in battle.

Lucie Bardot was born in Roche, Lower Normandy, a small suburb outside of Caen. Her father, Matthieu, was a veteran of the Gulf War, while her mother, Elodie, was an amateur boxer who was once a nomad with the with the nom de geurre of Bellonia. With two martial-inclined parents, Lucie and her elder sister Genevieve were both encouraged from a young age to take up martial arts and other physical activities, such as soccer. Lucie, despite being the younger sister, was clearly outclassing her in physical accomplishments, which was fun at first but quickly grew old.

Both sisters had a competitive streak that was encouraged by their parents, which only frustrated Genevieve more as Lucie continued to excel in heights that she could never reach. Lucie, on the other hand, started to explore other pursuits other than necessarily fighting, particularly in music making. She started to pick up the bass guitar, learned how to sing, and formed a garage band with her friends, dubbed "Les Loups de Fenrir". All of this was much more fulfilling than constantly training her body like her parents wanted her to do. However, Lucie was simply too insecure, afraid of letting her parents down, and tried to keep it on the downlow rather than confronting them about it.

Eventually, Genevieve would pursue a career in the French Navy after graduating from lycée, following a similar career path to her father. Her parents were very determined to get their star pupil on the same track. Secretly, all Lucie really wanted to do was to go to university and get a degree in music theory, but she was, again, too afraid to make her true desires known. Her parents saw great potential in her, and pushed to pursue the initial trials to enlist in GIGN, the elite counterterrorist police tasks force in France. On Lucie's end, going into police work was, to her, more agreeable than the military; at least she could say she was protecting France by stopping awful people in their tracks, rather than just being a tool to be shipped out overseas for god knows what reason.

When she did her preliminary screening physical, the doctor noticed that Lucie had some sort of rare mutation that caused her body to generate more ki than the average untrained human, which was the source of her heightened physical characteristics. This brought the attention of the United Nations, who saw her as a perfect candidate for their international anti-nomad counterterrorist force, MAVERICK. Some political maneuvering happened behind the scenes, and before fully finishing training for GIGN, Lucie was informed that she was being "loaned" out to MAVERICK as per an an agreement with France. In all practical terms, she was now answering to New York rather than to Paris.

Lucie's life would fundamentally change the day she was assigned to protect the Martial Arts World Tournament in Brazil. When Oh-One and his robots attacked the tournament, Lucie was at the front lines in trying to secure the perimeter, and save as many lives as she could. Unable to fully defeat Oh-One, she vowed to try to avenge those who died that day by bring the robot mastermind to justice. Curiously, MAVERICK seemed to be on the same page, and approved her request to tag along with a group of surviving Nomads from Rio to hunt down Oh-One. She, along with her drone companion, Asterix, traveled to the far corners of the globe to bring the robot to justice, eventually securing his Stone of Power. When the group was deciding what to do with the stone, she tried advocating for the group to entrust the stone in MAVERICK's care, but was outvoted by the rest of the group. Keeping it with Brooklyn was simply seen as a more secure due to it being under the radar.

When she returned to New York, Lucie received a serious reprimand for not coming back with the stone. Telling her boss that it was under the care of one of her friends wasn't good enough: the UN needed strict control of the stone. Something unfortunate could happen to Brooklyn, and the stone could go missing. Which, of course, both eventually did. Now told to clean up the mess she created, Lucie was sent to Gold City, to find her lost friend.

he best way to describe Lucie's fighting style is that she doesn't have one. While she was trained in order to deal with Nomadic threats in combat, it never actually involved learning how to fight with ki. Like with many other recruits for MAVERICK with no prior nomad experience, it was simply easier, faster, and more effective to only train physically up to a point where the Frenchwoman can keep up with Nomads in a fight and not get completely overpowered. From there, Lucie would rely on cutting-edge technology to fight any Nomadic terrorists.

The secret resides in special ki-enfused bullets. These are specially designed rounds, which allow for bullets to more readily penetrate the innate defenses nomads have against projectiles, making them more in-line with the intended lethality to a regular person. However, ki-enfused bullets are not perfect; they can never perfectly negate the defenses of ki due to the nature of ki itself. The end result is that it can still take multiple shots to even just incapacitate a higher powered nomad.

Beyond her gun, Lucie is also equipped with an arsenal of grenades, which she keeps with her in a pouch that hangs to her side. These explosives serve various different tactical roles, and can range from mundane fragmentation grenades to highly specialized, experimental ordinance. Finally, when things truly go south, Lucie can deploy Asterix, her combat robot, to provide heavy support fire.

Take away the gun and the bombs and she is essentially powerless against any nomad-level threat. She has no ki techniques at all, projectile or otherwise. The grenades are all AoE, and can easily hurt herself if she is caught in the blast radius, so she can only use them at a reasonable distance away from her. The FAMAS is a bullet chugger, particularly if left on full-auto, and thus needs to reload often. This can be an opportunity for foes to catch in.

Lucie is still competently trained in a fist to fist fight, as per to her military training. However, she lacks the raw ki power to fight offensively with her fists against another nomad, and will most likely lose even to the weakest nomad in fistcuffs, if it came down to it

Siti tends to wear modestly, covering herself with her Hijab and long sleeves and jeans. She has a wide frame, a leftover from her childhood where she was obese, although diets have since helped her shed a lot of weight. Although her Hijab hides her hair, when she's at home, you can see her let loose her scruffy, pure black hair. Her skin is a lighter brown, typical of someone from her Malay heritage.

However, this is merely her look during her daily life. When donning her nomadic clothes, she wears a long white jacket, red-orange scarf and gloves. But that's not all, her two favorite pieces are what she calls her "wings" (Actually an old bathroom mat) and a bird mask, fashioned from what she claims is a "mysterious and ancient material" (Plastic). A rather gaudy look for a Nomad, but she says it's to hide her identity, an act she takes legitimately seriously.

When Siti lied down on her bed, during one stormy evening, she tossed and turned to the side, before simply staring at the ceiling. "I didn’t really do anything today" was a common thought in her head. It was that day that she finally realised how common that thought was. It was pretty much every day of her life.

Born to Malay parents in the city-state of Singapore, her home was a beacon of stability and normality in the region, free from the chaos of the rest of the world. Most Ki users did the same thing when they wanted to start training; grab their passports and leave. Siti only heard of the wider world from random news reports and the gossip of her classmates in school. She dismissed it as a child, dismissed the ass-kicking, world-trekking, impromptu-dueling world of the Nomads as the fanboying of her classmates. She grew up on arts and crafts, making her own dresses and accessories out of random objects around her house. She loved birds, and made cheap capes with crudely drawn feathers on them, thinking they were thematic and cool. Her parents said they were cool too, through forced and uncomfortable smiles.

It's only when she became a young adult that she began to break down. Siti began feeling more and more agitated, restless. She realised she did not know what job she wanted, nor what she wanted to study at uni. Then one day, alone at home, Siti cried. What kind of person did she even want to be?

After a few more episodes, her only source of satisfaction were random videos online. Varying topics, whatever she found vaguely interesting. But when she stumbled on one topic, it entrapped her. Footage from a past World Martial Arts Tournament.

It was a rabbit hole she could not climb out of. Soon Siti began trawling the internet, looking for videos of fights between people she did not know, not that she cared. She just became engrossed at the grace, the passion, the raw strength, the resolve. Then she began noticing familiar faces, remembering names, recalling fights. The tipping point came when she stumbled on the world of Justice Rider. The characters, the plots, the merchandise. She loved the cheesy but genuine personalities. Then she saw the criticisms, the opinions regarding the paychecks and selling-out nature of SHINING. But what some people saw as a black scar on the world of Nomads...it opened Siti's eyes. This wasn't just fighting for the sake of it...she could make a livelihood out of this!

It did not take long for Siti to start making her own costume, inspired by the Justice Raiders she had seen on SHINING. They were...crude. A bathroom mat for a cape, a plastic helmet into a supposedly heroic mask. But when she stood in front of a mirror, Siti cried. Siti cried, but she was happy. She felt like she finally knew what she could be, a Nomad. It was overwhelming. After wiping out the tears from her eyes, she tried during some poses, with a huge grin on her face.

She nearly sprained herself.

Siti could not wait to reveal her new passion to her family, finally finding herself, what she wants to do with herself. Then the attack on that year's World Martial Arts Tournament happened. It broke her. The comments from her parents only broke her further, remarking to her that Nomads are suicidal, reckless, that they deserved what was coming to them. Perhaps revealing her passion would be a terrible idea. At the same time, wasn't this a sign? Many laid down their lives that day. New Nomads need to take their place. Maybe...Siti? Maybe she could be from this new generation!

Siti went on to work at a part-time job, as a barista, saying that she wanted a little income at the side. Her parents approved. Then one night, past midnight, she packed her bags. Her parents were asleep. She had booked the flight months ago; a one way ticket to California. By the time her parents found the note on their dinner table, she was in the air.

Singapore was now behind, hopefully forever. Everything lay before her. Siti would hold her real name close to her chest, away from others. She was now "Sparrow", hopefully her parents would never hear of the escapades of Siti kicking ass in California. Siti looked out of the window of her plane, as the shores of America appeared before her eyes. She finally did something today.

"Sparrow", still a trainee, uses a very wind based arsenal of physical moves. She channels her Ki to manipulate the air surrounding her, allowing her to glide into the air, throwing air punches and giving her the grace of a swan.

In theory. She tends to mess up 80% of her moves. Gliding into the air tends to end with her falling down to Earth like a rock. Her back and backside have met more than their share in pain.

Her physical moves are not much better, all of them are derived from moves she saw in videos or Justice Rider marathons. She lacks a lot of a personal style, and it may take a while before she gains a full, personal identity to her fighting style.

Being new, she does not have any super moves. She really hopes to create such a move one day.

OOC: I'm not just new to Nomadic First, but new to this sort of forum roleplaying in general. Making my first ever character a newbie to the world of the Nomads is a cop out, I'll admit, but I really ended up liking her character concept. Bright-eyed, naive, she seems like she'll be fun to play. I'll probably make a "normal" Nomad for my second character.

I also drew her art! Very happy with her character design~

Aline often complains that her brother got all the good looks from their parents, and she didn’t, but that mostly stems from an irrational lack of confidence due to inheriting her mother’s height and flat chest. She’s actually quite pretty - not that it’s even something she puts importance on in the first place. At 5’2” Ali is short, but still a bit taller than her mother, with a slightly broader build than she’d like. Her chest is flat but her waist curves out into wider, curvy hips. She has clear, lithe muscles in her arms and legs from fighting. Her skin is slightly lighter than her brother’s but still a medium brown, with more of a golden undertone. Her eyes are a dark brown, almost black, and large though often are found with a narrowed, somewhat mocking gaze. Her thick, black hair is kept in a short bob cut that falls just above her chin - it sits relatively straight, but messy, until it curls at the bottom. Overall she takes quite heavily after her mother, looking more Filipino than anything. Ali is normally found with a shit eating grin and an upbeat, peppy stance. She wears a wide variety of clothes but most commonly a tshirt and shorts, with a bomber with all sorts of hidden pockets she can keep things in. Sometimes, when she isn’t expecting to do anything exciting, she’ll wear a plain dress over a tshirt.

Born in São Paulo, Brazil, Aline was brought into the world as the second child of a restaurant owner and retired nomad. As soon as she walked she was found toddling after her older brother or causing havoc in the kitchen of her father’s restaurant. Her early years were bright and cheerful - until her brother started ignoring her for the sake of learning martial arts.

Aline was too young to truly understand her mother’s tales of being a nomad when her brother started learning, and his constant practicing and heavy focus on it completely isolated him from her. Suddenly he didn’t have time for her… and nor did her mother for prioritising and training her. She was too young for that, so she was brushed aside. However unlike her brother, who was dedicated but only average naturally, Ali was born with a naturally high amount of ki. This meant that as soon as she was deemed old enough her mother wanted to train her… something she didn’t take to well to. To her, martial arts was what had taken her older brother away from her. She had no interest in that.

This resulted in a large clash with her mother who was incredibly pushy and forceful with her, expecting her to be nothing less than the best - if Isko could work so hard, then so could she. But she didn’t want to. This also resulted in clashing with her brother. In a sort of rebellion, Aline spent most of her time on the streets with other kids running about playing truant, destroying things and fighting. What time she didn’t spend there was with her father learning in the kitchen. From him she got nothing but unconditional love and encouragement which she lacked from her other family members. She could deal with her mother's disapproval and scolding, the disappointed look on her brother’s face when she came back with scraped knuckles, if she just had his love.

Then he died. Ali was only fourteen at the time, already in an incredibly difficult period of her life as she was struggling with friendship in school while acting out more and constantly getting into fights. His death absolutely devastated her… as did selling the restaurant she’d considered home and completely moving countries. But with the move and loss of their father came changes within her family and herself. While her mother did not change much, her brother suddenly went from pushing her away for his own interests to doing everything for her. It wasn’t perfect but she was willing to give him a second chance.

And she also decided to give her mother a second chance, and in it learning martial arts. While this didn’t entirely repair their relationship it helped her begin to get over her built up hatred for her from years of being ignored. However she didn’t give up both her passion for cooking or… spending a lot of time on the streets causing chaos. But her aggression and raw anger at being ignored, her need to rebel, was tempered as she began to learn various Filipino martial arts that interested her. For now it was alright, because she had her brother on her side.

Eventually she agreed to travel with him as a Nomad, even though it took encouragement to leave the second home she’d found. But she quickly found she loved life on the road. This journeying took the two of them to the World Martial Arts tournament and she was there when Oh-One attacked the arena. While she didn’t really know why it happened, the event incited a strong desire to fight and stop the robot. That was how she encouraged (forced) her brother to come along with her in joining a group of Nomads to stop Oh-One and get the power stone back. Ali found she loved the thrill of it, and the feeling of being in a group larger than just her and her brother.

So when everything was done she insisted they stay in Gold City - a place they’d never been before. It was filled with other nomads and adventure, and she wanted nothing more to explore it before they set off again.

Aline fights with raw, less traditionally trained methods combined with her naturally high ki. Her fighting style is incredibly fierce and aggressive with a focus on speed, constant attacks and taking her opponents down. She fights dirty as she spent her younger years scrapping on the streets. This was refined when she moved to the Philippines, where she learned Filipino Kina Motay and Dumog. She focuses on manipulating choke points to unbalance her opponent and grappling, giving her openings to attack, or just going completely all out with her ki attacks to get it done quickly. She doesn’t care about what counts as “fair play” - to her any kind of attack is game if it takes down an opponent. Someone of her stature can’t afford to be fussy, anyway. She isn’t above biting, eye-gouging, headbutting or elbowing. In fact these are the kinds of attacks she’s learned to use the most.

Along with all this, Aline also fights with weapons and spent years (grudgingly) learning Arnis from her mother. While she rarely uses this martial art for any kind of unarmed combat she always carries knives on her person, and will employ it with those or improvised weapons. She uses these knives both as a way to fight dirty and up close, not worrying about cutting someone, but also to throw at a range to give herself some variability. She can also fight with the commonly used (in Arnis) Baston, but she rarely actually bothers to carry one about. She prefers just to pick up something improvised instead.

Aline has a natural high amount of ki, honed when she started actually training. She normally uses this to increase her strength when gripping opponents so that they can’t easily escape, to enhance her own attacks and to increase her speed. Along with this she’s learned how to use it to heat up parts of her body or weapons, essentially enhancing her attacks with intense heat and sometimes even flames.

While she packs a punch, Aline isn’t the most sturdy and is heavily dependent on speed to get her away from other attacks. If she’s hit it will heavily damage her and she is easily knocked down or thrown about the place. Along with this she won’t win in any contests of strength and relies on underhand tactics and choke points to gain the upperhand and without the use of Ki, she will lose in a one to one strength match up. Her attacking style lends to vicious and constant attacks / grappling and she has a general lack of defences and stamina - her aim is to get it done as fast as possible. She tires quickly and drawn out fights will result in her growing weaker throughout them as she tires herself out and uses up her ki. Along with this, the general nature of her attacks: relying on dirty moves and weak points of the human body means she is nowhere near as effective against people who are fully or partially robotic.

Speaks Portugese, Filipino and English fluently and tends to find picking up the basics of other languages fairly simple.
Aline is a very good cook due to helping out her father in his restaurant and continuing to cook for her family since then. She loves to do it and will take any excuse to cook for others.

At first glance, Daren appears to be a normal, if a bit eccentric person; Standing at 6"4', weighing roughly 180 lbs, and with an incredibly pale face that sports an unchanging dumb smirk. He has constantly-tired eyes, despite his perpetual jovial expression, and seems to dye his own hair a sort of bluish green. Most of his body is covered in a choice of a butcher's apron and a large, doctor's jacket, going to lengths to cover the rest of his body with a tall boots and long socks, as well as two varying gloves on his hands, his right one being a thin, needled one and the left one being a thick, greenish one.

Yet underneath his outfit, Daren's body becomes much more unsettling; His entire body is a sickish gray, covered in all manner of welts, burn-marks, and stitches, almost mixing and matching pieces of various size together into a single body. Even his attire gets stranger the longer one examines it, carrying around tools in pouches more befitting a butcher, including a giant metal cleaver almost as long as he is tall. His "face" as most people see it is actually a plain white mask, that covers his face. Even stranger, his left glove isn't a glove at all, but his own prosthetic hand, with wires barely attaching it functionally. Hell, even his hair's just it's natural color.

Daren was originally a member of a family of traveling monster-hunters, who made a life out of seeking out the deadliest game the world had to offer for the best trophies; From urban myths to ancient legends, they lined the walls of their mobile home with the mementos from all sorts of beasts, cryptids, and even stranger quarry.

Well-- His family, had. Poor Daren was shafted with making the trophies; Every one of his family's triumphs meant a gruesome, thankless autopsy for him to pull off, never fully receiving the full huntsman training he was promised every time he asked.

One night, when he was 22, his family was on a trip to South America, hunting down a jungle beast that had been terrorizing several towns for months. While the rest of his family was off hunting the creature, it attacked their RV where he had been hanging behind. The creature nearly tore the shelter to shreds, as Daren tried to desperately fend it off, already accepting his demise. The beast managed to tear at his throat with it's claws, and had what was left of it in grip of it's teeth... Suddenly, the beast was killed by a flurry of knives striking it along several points in it's back, thrown by a strange woman he hadn't recognized; She wasn't part of the hunting party, but was someone else altogether.

Just as she saved his life, she made it abundantly clear that Daren had two options:

1) Die

2) Work for her

Just before he lost consciousness, he managed a nod; Good enough for her, he presumed, since when he woke up he was in a hospital of sorts, having his otherwise-mortal wounds healed, his throat covered by a sort of artificial-skin layer.

The woman revealed her name, Ivory, and that her group -- Horizon Frontiers -- had been hunting the beast, and several others, for a different reason than his family's own glory-hounding; However, they recognized they had existing skills with monster dissection, the very same reason she had saved his life. And thus, Daren became an operative for Horizon Frontiers, not only being given a more dignified output for his skills in butchery, but also being given the chance to live as the monster-hunter he always wanted to be.

Horizon's primary reason for hunting down monsters and mythics was to harness the abilities of their physiology; Through research, they've deducted means of biologically grafting various organs and segments of living beings onto others, granting them some degree of their specific abilities; In the case of the jungle-beast that nearly killed him, it's own heart gave Daren inhuman endurance that allowed him to survive an otherwise crippling bloodloss. Since then, he's been the first eager guinea pig for several other grafting procedures, giving him a questionable degree of humanity -- Both physically, as he's taken on the aspects of several different creatures to both increase his power and repair his damaged body, as well as in spirit, given that he's become progressively untroubled by the idea of extending his butchery to that of other Nomads...

Daren combines his own experience with anatomy with his fighting style, relying on absolutely brutalizing an opponent with brute force. Not only is his massive Cleaver capable of tearing even a seasoned warrior a new one, but his prosthetic hand gives him a decent reach and is also capable of infecting the target with a weakening formula. Daren's also inhumanly durable, possessing the heart of a savage beast as well as several other improvements to his body, as well as flesh-meld which can instantly knit and cover any wounds, while also giving an added layer of protection, on top of his bulky outfit and durable mask, which has saved him from one too many shots to the face.

Daren's fighting style is pretty straightforward, being easy to predict and while possessing raw killing power, has little versatility. His Cleaver's also pretty bulky and slow, leaving him possibly exposed if he fails to land an attack he's invested effort in.

What else?

Vindani is a Suvanna, an elegant, long-lived creature resembling something between a naga and a mermaid that dwell in underwater kingdoms in the Southern oceans. Some say they are like sirens, beautiful and enticing men to their doom, and in that regard Vindani fits the idea of a Suvanna to a T. Elegant and mercurial, she's about fifteen feet long from head to tail and tries to stand at a bit under six feet tall when interacting with others. Her long white hair flows past her shoulders, fin-like ears emerging from the sides, with alluring yellow eyes standing out against her light blue scaled skin highlighted with salmon. She adores dressing in the latest, wildest fashions, though she's most comfortable with mixing her traditional purple cloak with a tight white blazer and scale-patterned purple tie..

Vindani was born to the royal family of the underwater kingdom of Ravana, trained from birth in the art of statecraft, intrigue, and courtly politics, all in the service of being a good mother to the next great king of whatever land she was married off to. Or at least, that's what she would have been if she didn't have any say in the matter.

From a young age, Vindani was a menace to the court of Ravana and their traditionalist ways. Insatiably curious and fiendishly clever, she pushed boundaries and broke rules that the stuffy nobles didn't even know they had, sparking debates at court and infuriating religious leaders with her scandalous questions when she wasn't away exploring the world around her small kingdom, consorting with humans and other barbarous "landwalkers". Still, her parents hoped that age would temper the precocious youth, or at the very least she'd channel that boundless energy into being a dynamic, ambitious queen and a wonderful match for any prospective husband.

Vindani, as always, had different ideas. And in her eagerness to explore strange new ideas, she finally went too far. Captured in the deepest depths of the royal archives with a forbidden text clutched in her arms, it became known far and wide that the princess of Ravana was studying the forbidden arts. Worse still, she confessed that she was doing more then merely studying and had become practiced with the most vile and wicked magic that the Suvanna possessed; Soulweaving. Vindani doubted that a magical ability could be inherently evil and had discovered her unnatural talent for Soulweaving almost on accident, but such deliberations did not matter to the Suvanna. Soulweaving was a crime of the highest order, and even for a noble of high birth, the punishment was death. Not even her family would dare lift a finger to save her, so like always Vindani took care of it on her own, stealing the face of a guard to escape captivity and leaving her old life behind for good.

Newly and fiercely independent, Vindani did the Nomad thing for a good few years, exploring and trying everything she could find in the surface world while perfecting her use of Soulweaving to the point where it drew the attention of the mad machine Oh-One. Needing allies that could do what an army of robots could not, Oh-One appealed to their shared desire of being rejected by their loved ones and hired the Suvanna to infiltrate the World Martial Arts Tournament to track down the Power Stone. Vindani wasn't fooled for a second by Oh-One's pity act, especially since she didn't really give a damn about her family in the first place, but her eagerness to see what this Power Stone could do kept her in the robot's employ, putting her into conflict with a group of heroic nomads out to stop the mad machine.

While her infiltration was invaluable and her Soulweaving was a crucial part of the machine that Oh-One intended to use in his master plan, Vindani turned out to be the worst kind of ally. Increasingly frustrated with the incompetence of her own teammates and regularly left out to dry by her boss, the slippery serpent was practically begging for a reason to turn traitor and found one in perhaps the worst way possible. After a particularly nasty brawl in a ruined factory complex, a floor collapse crushed Vindani underneath a ton of rubble. Gasping for breath and feeling her life slip away, as well as her allies, she was shocked to find, of all people, Isko Azevedo digging her free. Passing out before he finished, she woke up to find herself being tended to by her former enemies and spilled the entire plan to the group, staying behind to recover while they went off to fight their last battle. As always, Vindani may have been healthier then she appeared, and made sure to make a last minute appearance so that the overcompensating toaster knew who it was that betrayed him. Plus, she did owe Isko one for saving her life.

Slipping away as the smoke cleared, Vindani left the heroes to their victory, not quite a hero herself but harboring a soft spot for those scrappy little nomads who saved the world. She'll be over in Gold City doing her own thing in the meantime, and if her old acquaintances wish to pay a visit, they're more then welcome to come to the Tidal Tempest once the sun goes down. It's a lovely spot for all sorts, mythics and nomads alike, and the lovely owner is a sight to behold. ;)

Vindani is a masterful Soulweaver, an ancient and forbidden magic practiced by the Suvanna of old. Often described as "ki vampirism", Soulweaving allows her to sap the ki and similar energy of nomads, using it to fuel her own potent abilities. In addition to kinetic and energy blasts, this allows her to essentially 'copy' opponents. A glance can be enough for her to mimic appearances, and more aggressive attacks on an enemy's life energy can let her copy abilities and physical attacks. Vindani has trained her soulweaving to be incredibly efficient, drawing a lot of power from a small amount of life energy, meaning that her draining abilities are only debilitating for a moment or two, and she's also trained herself in other minor magical arts, mainly aquatic magic, as well as some physical attacks of her own, all designed to keep an opponent on the back foot and herself firmly in control of any fight.

Being a creature native to the oceans, Vindani doesn't tend to function well in dry climates or any situation where water isn't readily available. Her reliance on soulweaving also means that an enemy that keeps their distance can wipe the floor with her, once they get past her less then exceptional physical abilities.

Not much, not yet anyway

Voyt casts an unwelcoming and quiet figure, standing at an even 6’0, Voyt is trim with obvious muscle definition. His exposed arms and face carry faded but still noticeable scarring from battles won and lost. Voyt’s dirty blonde hair hangs down to his neck and is often unkempt as is his beard which is usually shaved down to a shadow but comes off patchy from carrying the odd scarring across Voyt’s jaw.

Despite his standoffish appearance and demeanour however, Voyt’s outfit is quite striking. Consisting of an old west gunslinger inspired get-up complete with a dark brown hat that has a bandolier of bullets wrapped around the base. A tattered dark brown poncho that hangs off the back of Voyt’s left side like a cape, a faded blue shirt with the top two buttons undone and a dark brown and black bandanna wrapped around his neck to be pulled up and used when concealing his identity on the job. He has a protective vest over his shirt and brown thigh and leg guards over a pair of dusty black pants, accompanied of course with two holsters for his revolvers. Completing the ensemble is a pair of black cowboy boots with silver tips and rusty bronze spurs.

Subject Eleven was, for all intents and purposes, a complete success. Several biological scientists and DNA experts exiled from governments and black projects alike had pooled their knowledge together in an effort to create life, namely the perfect soldier. With intents to sell this specimen to the highest bidder or even form their own PMC group via cloning. The scientists had collected the DNA (through questionable means and contacts) of numerous decorated soldiers. One had the idea to also imbue the subject with the DNA of various legends of the Old West, primarily because these were records and small samples that their contacts could supply at a much easier and faster rate than members of the military. After years of delicate trials and ten failures. They succeeded.

Nicknamed Voyt - the initials of the four head scientists' second names - they set to work in shaping their creation to be well versed in all forms of firearm based combat, which he naturally excelled in. Though perhaps due to the DNA used, their subject showed a particular fascination & fondness for revolvers, lever action rifles and shotguns. Their creation was unfeasible when attempting to create a fully grown adult, so instead they created an infant, monitoring his life every step of the way to ensure he displayed the aptitude they desired, he excelled past their expectations. They fostered their subjects brutal efficiency with a myriad of drugs, shock reinforcement and live human targets. The closer, it seemed, their dream became, the more unethical their practices would become. Until, one unknown day, their subject snapped and found the will and moment to escape. Cutting a bloody swathe through the facility and its guards until he hunted down and killed every last scientist involved in his creation, leaving the four overseers to last. Despite his young er age, Voyt had indeed passed his creator’s desires and was far too much for their security or intellects to stop.

No one is quite sure exactly when the Gunslinger mercenary began operating but when he started, there were few better. Demonstrating a cold efficiency above even other assassins, Voyt's gun-slinging wizardry was in high demand. Whilst always being extremely proficient with his weaponry Voyt soon discovered what he found out to be ki, during a contract he had somehow imbued his inner ki into one of his guns, able to fire it endlessly. From that point on Voyt learned all he could about his new skill, apparently it flowed through all living things and having the DNA of some of the most prolific killers gave Voyt a very good grasp of it. At present Voyt has enough of a handle on ki to which he can stand against other martial artists, monsters, supernatural beings and all manner of things alien to regular people, which he does with alarming efficiency. Voyt very quickly raised his prices.

It has been years since Voyt began his career. Killing many who have been deserving, and many who have not. Mentally Voyt consistently feels an inward conflict in himself, he did not set out to be a killer but he also never stopped, never tried to stop himself from falling further and further down. His thoughts trouble him greatly but he cannot seem to allow himself to change and external factors have only sent him drifting from place to place after a disagreement with the League Of Bounty Hunters. Thus, Voyt continues onwards in his tormented journey to the next big spending employer.

Into the army of MIRAGE...

Voyt stuns with a stomp to the foot/bashing the butt of his gun into an opponent's neck and then tackles them with incredible speed, unholstering his guns and shooting an opponent upwards of twenty times in the chest.

Voyt pirouettes while firing, sending a tornado of bullets in all directions to deal with more mobile foes or those who can teleport around. /Airborne variant involves Voyt spinning down to the floor while firing his guns.

Voyt tosses a stick of dynamite at the foot of an opponent and quickly shoots it, the resulting explosion shooting an opponent into the air.

Voyt tosses a coin into the air and fires it at where it ricochets off and hits the back of an opponent, breaking possible defenses and opening them up for assault.

Voyt enters a quick-draw stance and parries any projectiles thrown his way by shooting at them until he starts moving again.

Voyt imbues his ki into his weapons, typically his guns for red kinetic charged shots but he can imbue any thrown object with the same damaging kinetic energy, charging up his shots for increased damage but slower rate of fire.

If an opponent has gotten too close for comfort, Voyt uses his incredible speed and reflexes to leap high into the air and disappear, leaving behind a lit stick of dynamite for his opponent, he reappears as few seconds later, rolling to the floor if needed but can use Gruesome Twosome on the way down to deliver a volley of gunfire from above.

Voyt unloads a barrage of gunfire from his shotgun, while it is effective against nomads it can quickly shatter cover and walls as well as having a wide spread. Naturally damage falls off the further a target is.

Forgoing his typical style, Voyt rushes an opponent and delivers a savage dropkick to the chest, launching himself into the air with a backflip. He is able to use Gruesome Twosome when falling back to the ground.

Voyt fires a single shot before quickly reholstering, if it connects then the opponent recoils slightly before suddenly being shot several times in the chest sending them stumbling a decent distance back.

Voyt’s incredible movement and reaction speeds go into overdrive, for as long as he can physically keep it up, time slows to a complete crawl around Voyt while he moves at roughly the same speeds, in this state he can use any of his regular moves and is all but dodge every move thrown at him unless he is being extraordinarily careless or somehow trapped.

Voyt grabs the cylinder of one revolver and spins it to dangerous speeds, he begins to fan the hammer with his hand becoming a blur, turning one revolver into a fully charged gatling gun. The red charged shots flying out in a wide spread and being able to tear through buildings and people alike. Voyt being damaged can knock him out of this move early.

Voyt’s eyes burn red as he holsters one gun and fires the other. A dramatic zoom on the bullet reveals the name of his opponent slowly burned into the side as the bullet wreathes itself in a large red flame. The bolt of energy will blast clean through anything it touches and follows where Voyt wills it to go for several moments as Voyt is able, once the will is done it will travel for several more feet in whatever direction it was facing before burning out, still ripping right through anything in its path.

■ Voyt regularly keeps a journal, sometimes locking himself away for hours or even days to fill it in.

■ Beyond the aforementioned fact (and being an assassin) relatively little is known about Voyt, by ally and foe alike. Because of this he has been requested to be part of many an interview due to his popularity on the Justice Riders show as an occasional villain, much to his extreme displeasure and disdain.