Hornet: A girl who was simply in the wrong place at the wrong time, Grandmaster and the directors have noted that her demeanor will likely cause friction between her teammates, most likely Shattercrash, Keystone and Decree. Countermeasures against her include flashbangs and containment foam, with standard Mover protocols regarding confined spaces omitted to compensate for the range aspect of her power.
Richter: The PRT isn't sure about this one. He's an enigma, and Gatecrasher expects he's the one responsible for the Ivory Basterds' demise. In her own words, "Damn kid worries me. He's too easygoing for a parahuman, too collected. Even if he ain't hiding something, and I'm sure he is, his demeanor has to change one way or another. The fact that he approached me first, and not the other way around, is promising. Just make sure he has help when he needs it." The PRT recommends excessive and persistent use of containment foam, and long range in the event that Richter becomes a threat. Engaging him should be done in open spaces, and confined areas are to be avoided.
Shattercrash: The vigilante who the PRT tried to reign in for two years now, Shattercrash turned heads when they finally made her bend. While there is no question that she's competent, the PRT notes that she has a vested disdain for working with what she calls "government sponsored super-police." She's arrogant, and that worries everyone she takes orders from. The PRT is advised to use flashbangs and adhere to strict mover protocols when dealing with Shattercrash. Assume she cannot be contained, unless fought in a confined area, and use stealth to incapacitate her with smoke grenades, tranquilizers or anything similar.
Keystone: The Protectorate has especially high hopes for this young man. Grandmaster has quietly taken a vested interest in Keystone's power, and intends to eventually, work with his fellow thinker in mission planning. Grandmaster sees much of his younger self in the boy; Irritable, burdened by his powers and his family, and not particularly interested in the spirit of heroics. It's no surprise that he has personally arranged for an unknowable amount of additional protocols surrounding him, many of which have been classified until further notice, at his and vice director Fukuda's recommendation.
Muninn: Muninn is a complicated addition. He was effectively a rogue Parahuman, and despite that, willingly joined the initiative, even going so far as to directly request such (which is especially surprising given his demeanor). However, he has no combat training and seems adverse to battle in general, an unusual trait for a Parahuman. Still, beyond his socially challenged personality and lack of experience, his desire to do good is clear, and a welcome change from most of the others. Protocols are to ground him as soon as possible, ideally confronting him in an enclosed space, and using containment foam to seal his mobility. His sensitive senses are render him vulnerable to flashbangs and most other non-lethal explosives.
Decree: The PRT takes Masters very seriously. And they take Master Strangers even more seriously, but between her behavior and the state of Bridgewater, she's been given a pass that most people with a power like her wouldn't receive in a lifetime. The PRT hopes she will set a good example for parahumans with inherently sinister powers. Her powers are of a more textbook variety, meaning a mix of passwords, rotation and eyes-on surveillance are recommended for countermeasures.
Ethos: PRT psychologists are no doubt having a field day with this one. Ethos is considered by the higherups to be the poster girl of master capes; Uncaring, too willing to user her powers for her own purposes. Were it not for Bridgewater, Ethos would be in prison at this very moment. Nightstalker seemed to think that freshly baked cookies would win a few points with her. Striker protocols are to be used with the typical Master Stranger conditions. Keep out of arm's reach, and disable her ability to touch others.
Wattson: "If that brat sneaks up on me again, I'm gonna kick her for a fucking fiel-" Wattson's paranoia aside, the PRT's psychologists worry about her lack of conviction in her new career, though not nearly as much as they worry about her aversion to their sessions with her. Ironically, Shattercrash was less abrasive towards their questions, which surprised several therapists and psychological experts. Grandmaster finds her professionalism towards heroics a breath of fresh air compared to some of the more enthusiastic members of her team, but fully understands the need for someone to care about why they do things, not just about doing them. Nightstalker has talked about getting to know her on a more personal level once they all have time to themselves, and hopes he can get to know her a bit better than people who are only doing their job and want to get it over with. Standard Breaker, Mover and Trump procedures are to be used in full force in the event that Wattson goes rogue. Containment must be assumed to be impossible.
Tandem: Grandmaster normally doesn't flinch when he learns that someone has gone through tough conditions. But hearing that Tandem triggered a while ago despite only being 13, he couldn't help but feel somewhat sorry for her. Moreover, he normally prefers to let the PRT do it's own thing, leaving certain jobs to the experts. But given her history with a cluster of complicated individuals, Grandmaster got as much information from Axiom as possible to handle her. Axiom was, characteristically, very worried about this child and has taken steps to earn her trust. The PRT is very unsure about throwing Tandem into the fight against villains, but the Protectorate's leadership has assured them that she will be cared for... And given as many baked goods as Nightstalker can cram into the Ward's wing of the building. The PRT currently has no way of confirming the contents of her pocket dimension, and operates on the assumption that containment foam and sensory warfare will be sufficient in containing Tandem until further notice.
Necrophage: Necrophage is a Tinker specializing in transhuman cybernetics. Her body is virtually entirely a machine, which she has been observed modifying extensively. These noted modifications include hidden weapons in her extremities, high brute-rating regeneration, and trump-adjacent ability distribution. Necrophage is known to employ enforcers who have been given tinkertech cybernetics that augment their body into pseudo-parahumans. She is considered a highly dangerous tinker, and the Wards are to avoid her at all costs, as she is extremely unpredictable, and stands out from other tinkers due to her self sufficiency in direct combat.
Chemtrail: Chemtrail is a chemistry Tinker, who has been observed employing the use of chemical explosives, napalm, and even mind-controlling substances. She runs an underground drug trafficking network that the PRT has been unable to breach. Chemtrail’s powers are not as documented as the directors would like, but she has a well-known relationship with Necrophage. The two are often found working together, and it should be assumed that they are both together at all times during combat. All engagements with Chemtrail are to be designated to the PRT and Protectorate without the Wards until further information is verified.
Blackburn: Blackburn is a small mercenary group consisting of highly competent capes. Little is known about them, as they tend to appear quickly, and get their job done quietly as possible. They tend to favor jobs that most villains turn away from, such as assassination. Blackburn’s members aren’t likely to pose a threat to the PRT and Wards, but they should be monitored as much as possible.
Ironsides: Changer, brute, shaker and mover. Grows metallic armor over his skin. Can spread this metal to the surroundings, which act as teleportation waypoints. Highly dangerous, and the leader of the group
Sundown: Blaster shaker, throws orbs of light that explode, and distort gravity for a while until she throws another one.
Champion: Combat thinker whose powers are not fully known. Has supernatural knowledge of the human body and the motions it can make. Has a brute ability that prevents her from feeling fatigue, and always operates at peak performance.
Kintsugi: Master who creates monsters from inanimate material in his surroundings. These creatures are vaguely sentient and obey his will telepathically.
Imperia: Imperia is a breaker, who enters an energy-like state, the properties of which are not currently known by the PRT. The only information known about Imperia’s breaker state is that it draws on the powers of nearby parahumans, at their expense. For this reason alone, it is recommended that all Wards and Protectorate members do not engage until further notice. They were last seen working with Necrophage.
Red Angels: Monsters at best, and the most detestable examples of human beings at worst. The Red Angels were a parahuman supremacist organization that believed the powered would one day grow to rule the earth. They were violent extremists who operated in multiple states, and put up a significant fight against the PRT for years. The Red Angels are currently just a crumbling shell of their former selves. They once had more than 20 members at a time, and now no one can find more than one or two members together at a time. Roughly two thirds of the Red Angels were killed overnight by a cape named Inferno, who no one has heard from or seen since the incident. Inferno was said to have been one of the Red Angel’s highest ranking members, but he has since vanished without a trace. In the event that Red Angel remnants do turn up, they are not to be taken lightly. It is recommended that the Wards take an indirect approach to engaging them, as they have been known to target children before.
Parahumans listed here are considered benevolent towards Bridgewater, based on their known actions. However, they must still be treated with apprehension for the sake of following protocol. In an ideal world, they would join us so we could help them keep the city safe more than they already do. We have a common goal, and steps should be taken to maintain a good relationship with as many of these capes as possible. For this reason, Protectorate members are free to approach them and coordinate with this individuals at their discretion, and should not take action against them unless truly necessesary. Wards are permitted to access these files, but are not permitted to contact these capes alone. If the Wards wish to contact them, they must first consult the PRT, or Protectorate. This rule is in place for their safety, as we cannot guarantee that unofficial capes won't use them for their own motives.
- Director Foster
Livewire: Livewire is a vigilante known for regularly making attacks against the villains in Bridgewater. Her powers, rated as Blaster and Shaker, allow her to project visible energy that has been observed to take the form of painful projectiles and forcefields. The PRT also suspects that Liveware possesses a mover ability, but this is not confirmed. Liveware maintains a distant, but suitable amicable relationship with the PRT. She regularly transports captured criminals to the PRT's doorstep, and offers statements for reports. She does not willingly provide information about her powers, or any other capes she works with. She is considered a low priority threat.
Grassbones: Hellstar describes Grassbones as "An irritating jackass who makes the Protectorate look like a bunch of fucking clowns." Grassbones is a somewhat enigmatic cape, and the PRT has been unable to determine the exact nature of his powers. Grassbones is a skeletal figure made of smoke, often seen in very minimalist gear. The PRT knows for a fact that he is a Mover and a Brute, as he has demonstrated superhuman forms of agility and shrugged off gunshots directly to his face on live television before. Grassbones has also been witnessed throwing himself- almost literally- into burning buildings to rescue trapped civilians in a fraction of the time it would take emergency services to arrive. It is unclear whether or not he is a Changer, a Brute, or some combination of the two. The PRT also suspects him to be a combat Thinker similar to Grandmaster, given his typical hand-to-hand method of combat. Grassbones is notably more elusive than Livewire, who at least goes out of her way to deliver her captives. Grassbones, on the other hand, typically leaves them tied up and calls the PRT from a currently untraceable phone number. This has left some PRT personnel somewhat confused, given his seemingly social and carefree nature; He has often been seen interacting with civilians, even agreeing to take pictures with some. Grassbones is to be considered a medium priority until further notice.
Steelheart: Though no one has seen him in recent months, Steelheart is a Tinker seen piloting a suit of armor similar to Axiom. Little is known about his suit, other than the fact that it offers Brute-adjacent abilities such as incredible strength and durability. During the fallout of Confessor's rampage across Bridgewater, Hellstar and Gatecrasher had extensive contact with Steelheart. He took it upon himself to use his armor to deliver emergency relief all across the city, and the phantoms produced by Confessor could barely make a dent in it. Hellstar claims to respect him, which is a rare compliment to receive. Steelheart has been somewhat more open to the PRT's questions than other independent heroes, but remained adamant in his decision to not join the Protectorate officially, claiming he simply wouldn't fit in with them. A few months ago, Steelheart went missing. No one knows if he simply left Bridgewater, gave up the cape life, or was taken away somehow. Hellstar all but demanded an investigation be opened, and Director Foster did not hesitate to. However, little evidence turned up. In the event that Steelheart resurfaces, the PRT plans to find him ASAP and get answers. The PRT considered him a medium priority on the basis of Steelheart being a rogue tinker, but no higher due to his working relationship with Hellstar, who the Protectorate designated as the primary contact with him before his disappearance.
PR Department: The only reason that tacticool bullshit got approved is because the kid's power has her taking a lot of punches upfront. It's ugly as hell, makes her look like she's a marine and a villain at the same time, but it protects her, so who cares what I think, right? They didn't even stop to think that the fucking NAME makes no sense. I mean- It fits her power, sure, but... I need a fucking raise."
Engineering Department: Pretty damn easy stuff to work out, actually. Kevlar from head to toe, specially molded level 4 body armor and an accelerometer in the helmet. It was pretty badass watching Shattercrash punch through a piece of tank armor. Who cares what PR thinks? I like this one.
Personality: Brazen, disrespectful, defensive, and self-reliant are usually the words people use to described Evie. Some people navigate social dynamics with the precision of a scalpel, but she navigates them with the precision of a sledgehammer. Evie is often quick to write others off as undeserving of respect, and acts like she’s better than them when it comes to keeping Bridgewater safe. Based on her track record, it isn’t hard to see why she acts this way. Evie is used to solving problems alone, and therefore doesn’t usually play nice with others, giving her orders usually results in her following them begrudgingly, or not giving a damn because she thinks her idea is better. Trying to call her out on this usually doesn’t do much either, as Evie is prone to turning inwards and becoming more prickly under pressure. Evie was quickly placed in the care of a mandated PRT therapist to “correct” this behavior. Unfortunately, Evie went into it expecting the worst, so they haven't made any progress with her attitude, or addressing where it comes from.
It's easy for someone to expect her to not care about her status as a hero, or to have little regard for the unspoken rules between capes. Evie, however, has a reputation in the city that she feels justifies her arrogance. She doesn't just think she's better than the rest of these kids. From Evie's perspective, she knows she is. She's quick to call others out on their mistake, and holds herself to that same standard as a perfectionist. Evie takes her "job" very seriously, and expects anyone else with a mask and a power to as well. Under this exterior, though, there's someone a bit gentler that most people don't see. Once someone actually gets to know Evie, they meet the side of her that cares for others, and wants to protect good people more than punish the bad ones. Her hard outer shell betrays a sort of tough love she doesn't get to show others enough.
Power Classification: Striker (Blaster, Mover)
Power Description:
Kinetic Powerhouse: Shattercrash’s power allows her to store kinetic energy from her surroundings and weaponize it for later use. Early observations of her power assumed that she was a Breaker with the ability to enter a state of being solely composed of kinetic energy, but through the teeth-pulling process of testing her powers, it has been determined that she simply wields it. When Shattercrash manipulated the kinetic energy stored in her body, it becomes visible to human eyes, in the form of a bright violet-pink glow. This also means that it is tangible, and someone can “touch” the energy.
Shattercrash applies this in a variety of forceful ways, the most notable of which involves punching something with the force of a speeding train, by amplifying her punches to a level that most Brutes would feel embarrassed by. She has also demonstrated, mostly through her independent days, that she can launch projectiles of kinetic energy with her power by throwing punches and kicks from a distance. Testing has shown that she can reliably hit a target from well over 30 feet away with this. This also allows her an impressive mover power that lets her leap well over 50 feet in any direction, and run at speeds clocked in at seventeen MPH.
Shattercrash's power has also been observed providing her a degree of cover against impacts such as colliding with solid surfaces, or hitting the ground too hard. This was significant enough to warrant consideration for a Brute rating, but Shattercrash herself admits that this is simply a clever application of her abilities, and not an inherent part of their function. By enveloping herself in a sufficient amount of energy, she can cushion otherwise devastating blows, though this tends to result in more collateral damage for whatever she gets hit by.
Strengths:
Frontliner: It turns out that having a power that makes you punch like Superman means you should get good at punching. Shattercrash picked up boxing once in the weeks after her trigger event, so even when she's reigning herself in, she has a leg-up over the average shmuck on the street. She'll even throw down with the rest of the Wards from time to time. Evie is also pretty accustomed to moving around the city a lot, she's nimble, quick on her feet, and generally less reliant on her powers than someone would expect.
Resourceful: The first costume she made back in her solo days was so good that the PRT based her current one off of it. Evie is pretty creative and knows how to apply this to the real world. Out of bandages? Give her five minutes and she'll turn the backseat of a burning car into something to wrap a wound in. Did an Endbringer ransack your city? No problem! Evie knows how to cook food on a kerosene heater. One has to wonder how she knows these things, but are you really complaining when she keeps you warm?
Weaknesses:
Raging Bull: Her cape name is Shattercrash, not Silentcrash. Evie's power is loud, flashy, and explosive. She operates with the subtlety of a sledgehammer, meaning stealth is either entirely off the table where she's involved, or viable only because Evie is nerfing herself terribly. Under the cover of darkness, you will see Shattercrash use her powers long before she's in your face.
Charisma Dump Stat: She's not good with people, period. Shattercrash's PR campaign is nonexistent. This kid does not belong on a talk show, or a negotiation mission, or basically anywhere that people are expected to kiss ass and be sickeningly polite. She will fuck those delicate situations up worse than you thought they could be fucked up.
History: Shattercrash stared up at the memorial of all the capes who died during the disaster. A pillar of stone commending them all for their bravery, and honoring their sacrifice. Metal plates engraved with their names were the last of their memories. Honestly, Evie found it to be a fucking joke. A bunch of names on a rock in the middle of town wasn't going to bring their precious Wards back. A fancy list of names and a bit of fanfare wasn't going to reunite families with their loved ones. It was a fucking war fought. The heroes got their asses destroyed, and just barely made it out, and now they had this thing all pretty and shiny to immortalize it all. Did they really think this would make it all okay?
She looked down the list of names... A lot of them were from out of town, mostly Protectorate capes. But her eyes stopped when she got to one name in particular. Karnstein, a tinker who used her own blood as a resource to augment herself. Shattercrash knew her as Jasmin Kay. It wasn't fair. She tried so hard to be a hero even when she couldn't roll out of bed in the morning, and now she was dead. All because of a fucking bad guy that went off the deep end. Her mask started to fog on the inside, and she had to remind herself that it was on.
They were going to leave the city together one day, before she went off and joined that stupid team, and now she was dead.
And here she was, about to replace Karnstein in a few days. Evie's life was stabilizing a little. The Protectorate finally got their hands on her after they learned Jasmin had a secret relationship with her, and sniffed out their old meeting places one by one. They knew everything that Jasmin knew... Her dad being the reason she could punch with the force of a train, her homelife, her plan to run away and never look back. All of it. The fast one with the shock sticks just appeared on a roof behind her one evening, and almost got her head taken clean off with the punch to end all punches that day. They even knew that Jasmin wanted her to be a Ward too, but that she had her own reasons for not wanting to. But still, here she was, stopping on her way to their building for a government-mandated psychological evaluation.
It seemed hollow to her. The only reason they gave a shit about recruiting Shattercrash was because she had been showing up take out bad guys well over a year before Confessor, and now they had a hook to finally convince her to become “legit.” They had essentially outed her, put her in a corner just so they could secure one more cape for their new team.
Evie could pack up and run. She still had a couple hundred in cash from what Jasmin used to sneak away for her. She could’ve been halfway to Rhode Island by the time anyone important realized she wasn’t going to show up. But Jasmin might’ve been rolling in her grave if she knew that Evie wasn’t coming. Jasmin loved the Wards. She thought she was doing a good thing by encouraging Evie.
So for nothing else but her own feelings, Evie kept walking.
Appearance: Jessica has a slim and athletic build and is tall for a girl her age at 5’ 8” tall. Her arms and legs are long and slender, but also visibly toned. She has a naturally pale complexion, along with auburn hair and light green eyes; her pale skin makes the rather prominent scar along her cheek even more noticeable, a long and wide line reaching from just below her left eye to just above her jawline. Smaller scars that are less visible can also be seen on her chin and along the left side of her jaw.
Her hair is about medium length, reaching down to her shoulders, and is straight. Jessica tends to keep it tucked behind her ears, leaving strands to often fall down cross her face; it has been too long since she has had it cut. Aside from the scar, her most prominent feature are her wide green eyes; she has a button nose, a small mouth with thin lips and a rounded chin on an overall oval-shaped face.
She tends not to wear much make-up beyond some basic concealer and lip gloss and have never bothered with covering up her scars. Not a fashionable person, in her own opinion, Jessica favour plain clothes in solid colours; she prefers whites and blacks over bright colours and long sleeves over short.
The costume that Jessica wears when she is working as Hornet is made up of yellow and black, with the under layer being the latter and her mask and other pieces being the former. She wears a black body suit under armoured sections of Kevlar and ceramic which are painted a bright yellow with lines of black to break up the solid shapes. These armoured pieces are mostly found on her upper body and on her forearms and shins; a chest plate that covers her upper chest and back, gauntlets on her arms and boots with incorporated shin guards. They are there to provide additional protection for situations where her invulnerability wears out or isn’t active, but are designed to be light enough not to be restrictive. Her mask is similarly protective; a full face helmet that also covers the top of her head over a black cowl that hides her hair. It is the same yellow colour and her armour and is similarly broken up by black lines and black eye lenses.
It is a little garish, but the bright colours are intended to be eye-catching for the purpose of drawing attention towards her, especially when she appears suddenly, to aid in her role as an ambush fighter and distraction.
Personality: Jessica is a person imbued with a lot of self-confidence in herself; a trait which has been an asset to her, but which is also the source of her biggest flaws and weaknesses. She feels at ease in social situations, finding it easy to approach people and be sociable in new environments, but can be a little forward and pushy in how she approaches people; as such her integration into the Ward team has been mixed, making easy friendships with some and souring early interactions with others.
She can be brash at times, hasty in her approach, which can be both a positive and a negative depending on the situation. On the one hand it means minor situations and things that are in her capabilities get solved quickly, but it also means that more delicate situations are not handled with the care that they should be. Jessica is at her best when matched with someone who can temper her impulse to dive right into the mix. Although this can be difficult to achieve, as Jessica is also something of a busy body who has a hard time keeping her nose out of problems, regardless of if they concern her or not.
Additionally, Jessica is a person who finds it easy to be passionate about things, whether that is a new hobby, a cause, a piece of media or a friend. If something catches her attention she can quickly become invested in something and start to dedicate a lot of her energy towards it. This passion can also give her something of a temper problem; though she rarely gets angry on her own behalf, Jessica has a tendency to quickly become angry on behalf of others.
Power Classification: Mover/Brute
Power Description: A Mover/Brute with the ability to teleport, but only if the destination is within a set distance of another person, roughly 1.5 to 2 meters, and also within a 100 degree cone within that person’s line of sight. This essentially limits them to only being able to teleport directly in front of people, relative to the direction they are looking at the time.
For a brief window following this teleportation, somewhere between 3 and 5 seconds, they are granted temporary invincibility and enhance strength. The obvious use of this power-up is to utilise it offensively, to teleport directly to a target and attack them while immune to retaliation, but it can also be used defensively, to teleport in front of an ally and use the invulnerability to shield them from harm.
Strengths: Athletic: Jessica is on the track and field team in her high school. She competes in multiple events, but is only a starter in one of them, which is the high jump. The other events she competes in are the 400m and 800m races. Since gaining her powers, Jessica has also been taking kick boxing lessons to improve her ability to fight. Observant: In most cases Jessica has a good awareness of her surroundings and the movements of people around her. Weaknesses: Conflict resolution: Jessica has a tendency to be quick to anger and can be overly aggressive when confronted; in general she has a hard time keeping her cool and backing down from a situation in which she thinks she is in the right. Jumps to conclusions and to action: Favouring a hasty approach to most situations, Jessica has a problem of jumping to conclusion and acting on those conclusions. This can be an asset, but only if the conclusion she jumps to is the right one, which is less often than she thinks.
History: Originally from Chicago, Illinois, Jessica’s family moved to Bridgewater when she was ten years old when her father, who is a PRT trooper, received a promotion to sergeant and was transferred to a new posting in the city. At the time this was a difficult for her, having to transfer to a new school in a completely new city in the middle of the school year and she initially had a hard time fitting in; she was not bullied, nor mistreated, just isolated. She did not have the confidence to approach anyone and no one made an effort to approach her either. This didn’t change until middle school when Jessica made an effort to reach out by trying out for the track team of her school and found that she both enjoyed it and was good at it. Having found something that she could do well and with teammates that she had made friends with, Jessica became much more confident in herself and more outgoing as a result. She is now fairly popular at her high school, a well-known individual within its halls, and tries to reach out to people who are quiet or alone; she wants to be the type of person that she wished she met when she was alone.
A year ago, when Confessor unleashed his ghosts on the city, Jessica’s mother left the city to return to Chicago and stay with family at the urging or Jessica’s father, who cited that the city was going to be too dangerous for the next few days. He stayed, because it was his job to stay, and Jessica also decided to stay, both because she didn’t want to be away from school for an unknown amount of time and also because she was underestimating the severity of the situation. Both Jessica and her father made it through the Confessor incident with no harm coming to them and it wasn’t actually until some days later in the aftermath of the attack that something happened.
Jessica and a friend of hers from school were caught up in an attack by a local gang as part of a burgeoning war with another group in the city. It was sudden, they were outdoors, in public, then suddenly people around them were panicking, running from something up ahead, Jessica heard gunshots and then there was an explosion. When Jessica came to she was on the ground next to a wall, having been thrown around by something; either the blast or a power or just knocked aside by the fleeing crowd, she didn’t know. Her head was spinning, the left side of her face felt numb and was burning at the same time; blood was on the ground below her and more from falling as she watched, but she couldn’t process that she had been injured. She heard her friend screaming and tried to stand, looking around for her, but someone pushed her to the ground. Jessica tried to stand again and again and it wasn’t the third time that she realised there were people around her who were stopping her from getting up, hitting her, pushing her, laughing at her.
She sobered up then as the gravity of the situation settled in. She’d been hurt, she was surrounded by a few members of some gang she didn’t know, there was smoke and rubble and people running around and she could still hear her friend screaming. She tried to get up again, more urgently this time, and someone kicked her in the ribs, hard. Every time she tried to move they would do the same, hit her, shove her down, getting closer, hemming her in, still laughing, having fun with her mounting distress. She could still hear her friend screaming. She had to get away, she had to get away, she had to get to her friend, she had to get them both away.
Jessica triggered.
Jessica was able to escape, but her friend did not. From what she was told later, her friend most likely died in the initial explosion and it wasn’t even her she had been hearing while she was on the ground; it was unlikely she’d have been able to pick out one voice from everything that was going on anyway. Jessica still isn’t sure if she should believe that or not.
When her father found out that she had triggered, there was no choice other than for her to join the Wards; she would have chosen that path anyway, but with a PRT sergeant for a father it was always going to be the obvious choice. She debuted as Hornet a couple of months after her trigger and has been active as a Ward since.
Appearance: Quinn is 5'6'' wth light cream colored skin. She has long blonde hair that falls to the middle of her back and tends to be lightly curled. She has gray eyes and light freckles on her nose and upper cheeks.
Quinn's casual attire tends to be preppy with various mixes of blouses, crop tops, jeans, leggings, and skirts. She favors a mix of light and dark colors. She wears make-up often, going for a full-face look with splashes of color that complement her attire for the day. She has pierced ears (two on each side).
Quinn's cape costume is a black catsuit with a white minidress over it and white boots as well as a black belt. She wears a black mask covering her eyes and hair in a high ponytail.
Personality: Quinn can be engaging when she wants to, but more often than not people see her as a stuck-up bitch. And that is fine with her. Capable and intelligent, Quinn prefers to look out for #1 and does not care if others get hurt in the process. While Quinn has done things that have helped other people, it as always been done on her own terms and by her own choice. Quinn sees the world in shades of gray, not believing there is right or wrong, but rather that people will do what they do based on many factors. Quinn isn't afraid to put herself out there and take charge. She is sociable if it benefits her, and reclusive if it improves her situation. Above all, Quinn does what Quinn wants.
Power Classification: Master/Striker
Power Description: Morality Manipulation: Quinn can shift the morality of others. This can be turning good people into doing bad things or vice versa. To achieve this effect, Quinn must physically touch the individual in question. Quinn can do this to multiple people, but each time she manipulates someone she gets weaker. If done too much, Quinn can pass out.
The person under the influence is aware of their change and can fight back, though the desire to engage in their new morality can be intense to the point the person may get weaker, tired, or physically hurt. The effect can last for immediate actions or can be long-lasting depending on the energy Quinn uses in her manipulation.
Strengths: Social Chameleon: Quinn can blend into a variety of social situations easily. She can adapt as needed and can use a mix of charm and deceit to get the intended results.
Eidetic Memory: Quinn can remember everything she reads and can recall this information when needed.
Weaknesses: Physically Weak: Quinn is not a brute or a powerhouse. She does not have super strength to help get her out of tough situations. She often has to rely on her social and mental abilities to make up for her lack of strength.
Morally Gray: Due to a mix of experiences and her powers, Quinn does not see the world as black and white, good or bad. As such, Quinn does not subscribe to the belief that the world is good v. bad. This leads Quinn to make decisions for herself on a whim and usually only looks out for herself, even at the expense of others.
History: Quinn was born to two parents who didn't want children. Of course, it was their choice to have her, but they didn't want a child to love and mold into a strong person. They wanted a lab rat to experiment on and do their bidding. They wanted perfection and drilled it into Quinn since birth. The cold and calculating parents would conduct arguably psychopathic experiments on Quinn to see how she reacted and expected perfection. Even after achieving results, Quinn's parents never showed love or attention, even when she did exactly as they asked. Any love shown was another way to manipulate Quinn.
So eventually, Quinn snapped.
Something shifted inside Quinn and she could feel the power rush inside of her. She started with her father, shifting him and causing him to partake in intense drug and alcohol use. Her mother attempted to stop her, but Quinn manipulated her mother into believing she was superhuman and god-like, causing her mother to jump from their roof. Her father succumbed to his addiction and died the night after.
To everyone else, it looked like her parents were under pressure and took their own lives, leaving their daughter alone. Quinn merely kept quiet while the courts figured out where to put her, eventually deciding to have her live with her aunt and uncle.
Quinn's life improved somewhat as her aunt and uncle were more loving than her parents, but Quinn knew better. People only showed love when they wanted something. Quinn continued to manipulate others when she saw fit. A teacher changing her grade, a classmate slamming his hand in his locker after attempting to touch her, though she kept it to herself.
Quinn quickly realized the extent of her abilities and how she could shape reality to how she wanted. Quinn decided then and there to ensure the world bent to her, for good or ill.
Appearance: Val Sydney is a teenager of Slavic descent, standing at roughly 5'7 with a fair complexion. He has a toned and athletic, if somewhat rugged, build developed from an overly active lifestyle. A multitude of scars dot his forearms and knuckles—usually covered by white bandages—as well as his abdomen. He has messy black hair that fades grey at the ends, bright rose-red eyes and a beauty mark underneath his left eye. Val has sharp canines and he likes to use them.
Val usually wears whatever he has in his "closet", not favouring any particular style over any other. He generally doesn't care for dirt, blood or stains on his clothing and he is often described as unkempt, but clean. A silver chain necklace with a shark tooth and scratched-out dog tags attached to it is his only true belonging. In the past, he rarely wore it lest it be used against him, though his power makes that worry now unnecessary.
Richter's costume is simple in design and function, in that it really only has some of the latter and the former was mostly an afterthought.
His current costume consists of a black, hooded cape (he doesn't usually wear it), black leather pants and dark brown boots. The upper chest portion of his costume is covered by a vest engraved with silver patterns across its front. It has a utility belt with multiple pouches containing various tools and first aid supplies. Val also wears brown forearm guards etched with silver engravings, as well as fingerless gloves. A black two-sectioned mask with yellow circular lenses for his eyes, complete with various visual enhancements, hides Val's features both partially and entirely. Despite its relative simplicity, the costume is more durable than it appears, made to dampen any impacts that manage to make it through his "shield".
Personality: Flippant. That's the first-word people usually think of whenever Val is mentioned, and for good reason. He rarely seems to take anything seriously and tends to avoid people when they try talking to him, often changing a conversation's subject to better suit his interest. Val is generally indifferent to the plight of others, though not because of ignorance and likely not due to malice either. As far as has been observed, this is less of a conscious action and more of an instinctual response. Val does not show respect to anyone, regardless of their status, unless they earn it. Very few do. This attitude has made his integration into the Wards.... challenging.
Despite these issues, Val is very much capable of being civil when it comes to more practical matters. He is more than willing to work with others when necessary and is quite good at it, as long as no one tries to order him around. However, his restraint does not typically extend beyond simple necessity. Val also appears to be somewhat emotionally stunted.
Ever since triggering, Val seemingly suffers from a severe form of insomnia, though without any apparent ill effects. This, combined with his excessive amounts of energy, appears to indicate ADHD, though his lack of other discernable symptoms makes this diagnosis unlikely. Val gets somewhat irritable at night since he has a strict curfew and can't do much after hours. He also lies a lot, though usually innocuously and he is brutally honest just as often.
Though outwardly apathetic, Val is more thoughtful than one would think. He regularly goes out of his way to help people and solve problems whenever he can, though mostly out of boredom and not any true sense of empathy. A distinct lack of positive relationships in his past means gaining his trust is unlikely, but once someone earns his respect, he can be an invaluable ally.
Val has a tendency to bite people he finds annoying.
Power Classification: Striker, Thinker (Brute 7/Shaker 4/Mover 2)
Power Description: Richter possesses the ability to freely induce and manipulate vibrations at will, enhancing or decreasing the force of impacts and disrupting molecular bonds. His power is primarily touch-based, though he is capable of extending its range by making it propagate through any of the three states of matter, with varying levels of difficulty. His power provides him with a high level of precision and calculative ability as it requires him to consciously adjust the oscillating frequencies of his "field" near-constantly to interact with objects. Richter can vibrate his own body directly, though doing so leaves him nauseous and faint. Further testing is required.
Richter describes his ability as being able to "turn punches into missiles, stone into dust, water into vapour, air into fire and flesh into ██████████".
Richter's body is constantly surrounded by a "field" of vibrations that violently twists and dismantles anything it makes contact with, granting him a form of nigh-invulnerability, though an object hitting him with sufficient force can bypass his defence, as it cannot block kinetic energy entirely. This weakness becomes less of an issue if Richter merely alters the frequencies of the field to better block kinetic energy. Further testing is required.
The biggest limitations to Richter's powers seem to be knowledge and experience.
Note 1: Richter's ability does not seem to be limited to interacting with inanimate objects, as observed with ██████████.
Note 2: Richter's protective "field" appears to work based on a whitelist of what it allows to pass through and what it doesn't. As of now, he possesses little control over it.
Note 3: Richter's Trigger seems to have somehow altered his body in such a way that he no longer requires any sleep to function. In his own words, since his power doesn't have an "off-switch", neither does he.
Note 4: It is believed that Richter may be hiding the full extent of his abilities.
Strengths: Observation: Val is always paying attention to his surroundings and the people within, even when it doesn't seem like it. With his outstanding memorization skills, he excels at reading people based on minute changes in facial expressions and body language, a skill he developed to predict when a situation is about to escalate or a fight is about to break out.
Parkour: Val is a talented traceur. While his skills are still somewhat unrefined, he is nonetheless capable of traversing difficult urban terrain with some ease.
Combat: A highly proficient combatant, despite having no professional training, Val was often forced to rely on violence to get what he wanted. His skills in hand-to-hand and armed combat are best described as purposefully rough and lacking polish, but effective. He's even had the misfortune of facing off against armed opponents while unarmed, and coming out on top.
How to make people need First Aid: Like most of his skills, Val learnt how to administer first aid out of necessity. As a street orphan, he didn't have anyone to patch him up after he got into fights, which happened quite often. So he learned how to do it himself. It came as somewhat of a challenge to him, considering he was used to doing the opposite to other people.
Weaknesses: Hyper-active: Since his power is always active and has removed the need for him to sleep, Val tends to be full of energy at almost every time of day. Energy which he often struggles to keep under control. While usually not a problem when he has something to occupy himself with, once the object of his attention is removed or otherwise tampered with, he eventually turns to more disruptive, and often self-destructive, behaviours to cope. Being around other people in this state almost always leads to violence.
Education: As far as records show, Val has never attended any educational institutions, though he is literate and does at least possess a basic level of education, which he likely received before he arrived in Bridgewater. Regardless, multiple severe gaps in his overall knowledge need to be addressed.
Empathy: Or rather, the lack of it. Val does not care about people, something he doesn't see as a problem unless it might inconvenience him. He doesn't believe it is important to understand other people or care about their problems. Since his behaviour appears to be learned, it is possible to correct it.
History: The exact origins of Val Sydney are unknown, and he hasn't been keen to share if he even remembered himself.
One thing was for sure; he was a fighter long before he came to Bridgewater. A fact that didn't change even before he triggered.
The first two years of his time in Bridgewater were spent within the foster care system, where he was constantly reprimanded for starting fights with the other children, despite his words to the contrary. In truth, it was merely bias that was the cause of his punishments. Val had previously displayed no signs of aggressive behaviour before the first incident, but the same couldn't be said for afterwards. Eventually, the damage he inflicted upon his fellow foster children escalated to the point where several of them had to be hospitalised. That incident was the straw that finally broke the camel's back. He'd seen it coming, but there was only so much he could do about it.
After being removed from foster care, there is precious little known about Val's activities.
The PRT has attempted to investigate more of Val's history, but all members of his foster home were found to have been killed during the Confessor Disaster. Further attempts have been made to obtain more information. However, Val's refusal to talk about his past has made the investigation fruitless.
Sometime after he was removed from the foster home, Val ran into a familiar face, and an incident occurred. An incident that led to them running afoul of a violent gang calling themselves "The Ivory Basterds". As far as could be found, neither was directly involved with the gang, and any connection was purely incidental. The instigator, a former friend of Val from his "hometown", ████████ was seen leaving the scene.
It didn't take long before Val was hunted down and cornered by the Ivory Basterds, who had decided that they didn't want someone like him around anymore. Despite his best efforts to avoid them, Val was captured and taken to the gang's hideout, along with his hometown friend. There, they spent several hours ██████████ ██████████ ██████████ before Richter triggered.
And he wasn't the only one.
The specifics of what happened next aren't known, only the bits and pieces left in the aftermath. In no small part because Confessor attacked Bridgewater moments later.
What was known, was that the remaining Ivory Basterds started having a very bad time for the next few months.
Val Sydney approached Gatecrasher approximately one year after the Confessor Disaster, not long after the last sighting of the gang. He expressed his intention to join the Wards and though his background, or lack thereof, proved difficult to verify, he was brought in regardless. With some minor caveats.
Several days later, the Ward known as Richter was introduced to the public.
Name: Jennifer Isabelle Mackens (or "Jen", as she usually prefers) Cape Codename: Wattson Age: 17 Appearance: A 5'8", 140 lb. charcoal-black-haired, brown-eyed, athletic, caucasian young woman with a lean, conditioned build. Prefers blue jeans and wide variety of dark cotton shirts or hoodies. Typically prefers solid colors and stuff without brand names plastered all over it. She lives in Bridgewater, Maine, which is -to say the least- cold, so she also favors warm jackets, preferably with hoods for when the chill is especially biting. She dresses practical and for comfort. Style is a secondary thought at best, but she has a basic sense of color coordination and so at least doesn't come across as a visual disaster.
In a word, Jen can be described as “average”, the sort of face you can almost lose in a crowd. Her appearance seems to strike no particularly notable extremes at any given moment. While she is certainly athletic and built like a martial artist -if an obviously shapely female one, it’s almost impossible to tell beneath her baggy favored hoodies and jeans. She doesn’t bother to wash her face, but her skin is naturally clear for the most part due to healthy living. Her shoulder-length hair is hardly anything to write home about, seemingly combed to the bare minimum required to be presentable and only washed enough to not appear oily. The most notable thing about her would be her relative lack of smell one way or the other, apparently a result of unscented soaps. In outward demeanor, she is fairly mild; she doesn’t hunch, nor does she walk with her head held high, merely coasting by on the middle ground.
A cyberpunk-themed and (mostly cosmetically) armored bodysuit with glowing accents (that have no functional purpose but to look really damn cool), surprisingly breathable while also being warm and flexible enough to allow a full-range of unhindered movement. Courtesy of Fashionista, it is deceptively durable and generally bulletproof to small arms fire, along with stopping non-Cape-based physical assaults. Granted, the protection against firearms isn't perfect, and getting peppered by them would still leave her winded and likely bruised, despite it warding off penetration and keeping her insides inside. The overall purpose of her costume is to make her able to fake being a Tinker, and it has multiple easily accessed buttons underneath a bit of casing on the forearms. Most of them don't actually do anything, though one of them on each arm is a panic button if pressed in a special sequence. Other functional ones activate headlights of adjustable brightness along the jawline of the suit's helmet. The sides of the helmet have concealed buttons for comms, and the helmet has a "silenced" mode that seals it off aside from some oxygen vents to allow her speech to be carried solely to her comms and not any potential listeners. The helmet can also be switched to "fully sealed" mode for hazardous environments, preserving the inside from outside gasses or liquids. All the technological portions of this costume are completely mundane in nature at Jen's request and can be technically maintained without a Tinker; though Tinker assistance certainly helps with part production.
Beyond that, a pouch at the small of her back has space to contain pepper spray, zip-tie restraints, a small flashlight, a taser, an extendable baton, some first aid utilities and her Wards phone.
Jen currently has a couple requests for upgrades that were unable to be made due to a combination of Bridgewater's current resources and it still being rather early in her Ward's tenure. Said upgrades are in the works and would replace the presently mostly cosmetic armor: a layer of shock-absorbing gel to blunt kinetic energy further, allowing her to whether the physical blows of even some Capes. And actually functional armor that, despite being so slim, is deceptively durable, provides protection equivalent to much thicker armor, and doesn't compromise any of her current costume's flexibility.
Personality:
An antisocial girl that prefers to observe from the sidelines, she's that person at family gatherings who spends most of the time on her phone with earphones in. Despite this, she is capable of social intrigue and is fairly manipulative when she's of a mind to be. If she doesn’t care to put on a show, however, she comes across as far more sardonic, noncommittal and snippy, and at times, she can display a callous honesty and opinionated bluntness. Though she does have lines in the sand, Jen's sense of justice is extremely vigilante-esce, believing that the best way to handle threats is to eliminate them such that “there is not even the possibility of them being a threat again”.
Her morality is further counterbalanced by selfishness. Jen has no interest in heroics, seeing it as a literal dead-end job. If she had her way, she would live a quiet, undisturbed civilian life, using her powers solely for her own gain, to protect her personal interests. In a sense, Jen treats being a hero like a "punch-clock" job. She's there to get her hours in, do her duty, get her pay and clock out, nothing more and nothing less. Her pride and sense of completionism at least compel her to make an effort to give the most rationally sufficient "service" possible according to her job's standards, but otherwise, she is not really the type to go above and beyond the call of duty unless she has no other option.
While often outwardly cordial, Jen is actually aggressively nonconformist and prideful. She knows what she wants, and anyone that tries to obstruct or alter her chosen path is simply incorrect or the enemy. She has a powerful demand for respect for her choices, and she heaps immense resentment and spite upon any anyone that infringes on her free will and right to live as she pleases. She has not even slightly humored the idea of PRT therapy, and the mere insinuation that it would be useful is met only with derision, dismissiveness and -to the more pushy- outright hostility, with a zero-tolerance policy. She sees therapy or any attempt at manipulating her mindset as a personal attack. There's nothing wrong with her that she'll allow anyone but herself to address, and no-one is getting a free peep into her head again if she ever has anything to say about it.
That being said, she does make some effort to conceal her "conventionally negative" aspects. She has no interest in antagonizing others for no reason, and she finds it's much easier to catch flies with honey. Her obsession with freedom is as much a virtue as it is a vice, as it is one of the few genuine heroic passions she possesses, able to motivate her to fight for the freedom of others. Of course, on the whole, she has no intention of making heroics a lasting career and has every intent of quitting as soon as she's in an advantageous position for it, but there's no good reason to give prior warning. At some point, one might wonder, is this level of selfishness normal? Perhaps it's a power-induced psychosis, an emotional separation to go with the physical separation. Regardless, Jen seems quite capable of acting in a manner outwardly divorced from her drives when needed.
Power Classification: Breaker 9(Stranger 7/Trump 2/Mover 2)/Thinker 2
Power Description:
Out of Phase: Jen's power is selective tangibility that moves her into what she perceives as a parallel "world", completely identical to the real one but empty of life. Her power is always active to some degree, leaving her ever so slightly "out of phase" with the world, despite her appearing completely normal to mundane means and senses. As a result of being "dimensionally divergent", she is immune to effects that would alter the level of "Shard energy" flowing through her to alter, neutralize or supplement her present powerset, whether positive or negative, and her mind is always fully out of phase, leaving her immune to abilities that would directly manipulate her mind or control of her body and making Thinker powers tend to be unreliable when targeting her.
Beyond her passive state, she can actively push her dimensional divergence further, resulting in varying physical tangibility until she chooses to adjust the degree or undo it. By default, she phases away from everything that she doesn't consider "her" or that she isn’t wearing or carrying, resulting in her becoming completely undetectable and intangible due to not actually physically remaining in her "world", shedding most outside power effects currently lingering upon her. In her phased state, she doesn't need oxygen, food or water, and she has an altered sense of gravity, allowing her to move like she's in space. While phased, she experiences the world as if through a watery filter, the normal world perfectly perceptible to her even if it would otherwise not be, and despite being able to still perceive the world, she is not vulnerable to indirect harm, like blinding lights or deafening sounds, all such things muted by the watery "filter".
Controlling the degree of her tangibility, Jen can choose what aspects of herself remain in interaction with the world and can alter them on the fly. For example, she can allow herself to be heard even without allowing herself to be detected by other senses. She can allow herself to be seen and yet remain intangible. She can attack and physically interact with the world while otherwise remaining undetectable. However, this selective tangibility is "all or nothing" in a sense. While Jen can choose which aspects of herself interact with the world, those aspects she allows are fully vulnerable in return. If she wants to be seen, that means allowing light to hit her, which means being vulnerable to flashbangs. If she wants to strike someone or otherwise physically move something, her entire body will in turn be vulnerable to kinetic harm in general, even if she is otherwise undetectable. While she can choose what she is affected by, those choices apply to her whole body, not just individual parts of it. As such, on an offense level, she cannot, for example, partially phase through the surface of a target, living or not, and strike the interior alone, disregarding the exterior/armor/skin/etc.
There is a small caveat to this "all or nothing" selectiveness in that, by default, her power doesn't phase her through the surface she is grounded on unless she chooses to, and she is capable of walking -or climbing- on normally harmful surfaces while phased without being threatened by them, despite the pseudo-physical contact.
Jen cannot bring other living beings with her into her phased state, and even nonliving targets have limits. If it individually has a greater weight than her own body, she can't bring it; though she can still bring multiple items that altogether surpass that range, so long as they each individually fall below it. That being said, what Jen's power considers to be "wearing or carrying" in terms of her possession is rather lenient. So long as Jen can physically take hold of a target, whether or not it is being worn or carried by someone else, she can then phase away with what she has grabbed, stealing it from the original owner. In this way, she is able to easily disarm opponents or otherwise render them unarmored, presuming her target is within her weight limit. Jen's phased state/realm doesn't allow her to use it like a makeshift "storage", it should be noted, as anything that leaves her personal space/possession while she is phased immediately becomes unphased again. Unphasing an object inside another object doesn't get around this either, as anything she releases that doesn't have an immediate place to go in automatically shunted into the nearest viable open space, avoiding such things as "telefragging".
Threat Sense: Any time Jen would be endangered in her immediate future (that is, the next 1-2 seconds), she is immediately aware that she will be in the form of a buzzing sensation. She has no prescient awareness of exactly what the danger will be, only that she, personally, will be endangered by it. On its own, this power is fairly useless, but for Jen, it allows her enough time to fully enter her Breaker state to avoid threats. At the same time, it can act as an early warning that removing the protection of her Breaker state in a particular area will be a danger to her. This power does account for degree of threat, however, and the buzzing sensation will intensify based on how trivial or life-threatening the impending threat is. It also scales at least partially by what Jen personally considers threatening, not just on objective physical harm, which means it will intensely respond to even non-lethal things like tranquilizers of drugs, due to her fear of being trapped, imprisoned or mentally influenced.
Strengths:
Martial Artist: Even before becoming a cape, from a young age, she took Muay Thai martial arts and reached a level where she could actually put what she knew into practice beyond spars. Her style is a brutal boxing one using knees and elbows as much as fists and feet, but she's been known to "ad lib" things or forgo form entirely to be more unpredictable. This gives her a certain awareness of where it's safe to strike the human body to incapacitate foes relatively harmlessly... or where she needs to aim to do the most damage. Along the way, she has necessarily developed a fairly high pain tolerance and willpower.
Athleticism: Thanks to her martial training and having an otherwise active lifestyle, she is a highly athletic and agile individual with abundant stamina, even being a strong enough swimmer that she could tow someone with her.
Rational: Jen has a very solid grasp of her own psychology. This lends her to being highly self-aware and having an abnormal amount of control over her emotions. She is a rational and analytical sort, who is often able to talk herself out of unwise actions long before anyone else can try to. She is aware of her own flaws as a person and has the capacity to act against them if she takes the chance to center herself. This by no means says she doesn't still fall prey to her own vices at times, but she is no slave to them.
Fucking Batman: Jen is extremely observant. Of herself, of her surroundings, of most everything. She has an eye for detail, often to the point of being overly critical. She follows in her father's footsteps as a detective, experienced in sifting through information and even a bit of coding. She's also, thanks to her power, an even stealthier little shit than she ever was before. While the frontline brays, in the backline, she plays, an able infiltrator, investigator and "rogue" in the team.
Weaknesses:
Paranoia: Jen's cautious and observant nature sometimes takes her too far, to the point of hesitation or unwillingness to take risks. Even when she theoretically has all the advantages, she cannot seem to help but reach for more. On the other hand, this can lead her to bouts of impulsiveness, acting alone if she perceives there being "no time to explain" or that the situation is time-critical enough that an unfavorable resolution is more likely with hesitance. Even with a power that protects her from almost anything, Jen cannot seem to help but agonize with worry over the idea of running into an exception.
Unempathetic: While Jen has an objective capacity to understand others, she maintains an emotional disconnect. In a broader sense, Jen can be considered callous to the point of dismissive cruelty, especially when it concerns something that doesn't affect her "peaceful" life. She willingly closes her heart to the misfortunes of others and actually takes personal offense at attempts to appeal to her "better nature", seeing it only as attempts at manipulation.
Master Hater: Jen has a pathological hatred of human Masters, fueled by a combination of what genuine moral lines she has and her own Trigger event. It doesn't matter that she's immune to them or that she might outwardly display cordiality; inwardly, she still despises them passionately and would give genuine consideration to killing a teammate with such powers through simple inaction, to say nothing of what she will actively do to an enemy given even the slightest excuse. In her mind, the only acceptable use of such powers is to not use them at all.
History: Raised in a good life, there is no doubt that Jen Mackens was spoiled. She knew it and, more importantly, took advantage of it. To be sure, her life was a mostly average one, middle class at best, but she never really experienced hardship. Or, at least, nothing she would refer to as hardship. Born to the joining of a police officer and a private investigator, Jen grew up exposed to two sides of law enforcement... and wanted nothing to do with them. Oh sure, learning her father's tricks and tips was neat, but they just made it easier to solve daily annoyances. Sure, practicing martial arts for self-defense was only practical and kept her in shape, but it was only a fun hobby. One she was fairly passionate about, sure, but not anything she wanted to dedicate her life to.
Though caring, her mother could be overbearing, her standards high and disappointment in Jen's lack of ambition palpable, but Jen simply chose avoidance in response. School seemed pointless to her. Exposed to her father's often cynical words and worldview, she knew what was actually useful in the real world, that being very little of what she was tested on. Never the sort to enjoy wasting her time, her grades plummeted to just enough to get by rather than excelling, despite her objective intelligence. Scrabbling to decide what to do with her life and trying to look ahead, Jen hit a mental roadblock trying to decide where to invest her energy and where not to, trying to discern a life path that she'd never tire of. Despite pressure from her mother and the encouragement of her father as senior year dawned, Jen found herself completely unmotivated and discouraged. She came to the conclusion to settle for what she might already be good at, martial arts and potentially following her father's footsteps... to her mother’s chagrin.
Tensions were rising until, suddenly, they were cut down for a tension of an entirely different kind. Her mother had disappeared on the job. That was apparent after she didn't come home for a whole week. By the third day, Jen's father was already engaging in his own investigation, and by the fifth, Jen had managed to wring shocking answers from him. As it turned out, her mother was a Cape, a hero outside her normal work, and Jen was far from enthused. Already, she had developed a certain level of disdain for "costumed crusaders", seeing them as net drains on society, whether heroic or villainous. It wasn't necessarily that she cared about society itself, however, as she merely did how much Cape activities might impact her simple life.
Apparently, her mother had been investigating some sort of smuggling ring when she disappeared. While that hadn't actually been conveyed to her father, he had managed to figure it out on his own. One part of Jen wanted to help with her father's investigation. A part of her that loved both parents, regardless of any tensions, wanted to do her part to make sure everyone was okay. A crueler, spiteful part of her that hated being deceived briefly considered that this was as much as her mother deserved for her hypocrisy, for engaging in such a profession and expecting anything but an unfortunate end.
But it was the practical part of her that eventually convinced Jen to disregard emotional drives and approach the situation with realistic cynicism, and as such, she decided to leave well enough alone, to leave it to the professional that was her father and get on with her life. If the situation was really serious, surely the Guardians could be called in. Jen was just a schoolgirl, a normal person in a world of titans. There was no rational place for her in getting involved with something that was too dangerous for a Cape like her mother. So, she would get on with her life, hope for the best and be ready for the worst. It wasn't her business.
As someone surely sensible once said, "she missed the part where it was her problem".
And so proceeded a series of very unfortunate events.
As it turned out, the "smuggling" ring her mother was investigating was outright human trafficking, and her father's own investigations had earned him attention and enemies. As it also unfortunately happened, the gang had capes, notably a human Master and a power-nullifying Trump, the latter being the reason for Hen's mother's disappearance. Looking for leverage against her father, Jen was kidnapped and Mastered, a prisoner in her own body and hostage used as bait to lure her father into a trap.
And her took it.
Lured by his daughter, her father was beaten, not just by the thugs but the Mastered Jen as well, and Jen was used to kill her still captive mother in front of her father's eyes, dealing him a severe psychological blow that make him more vulnerable in the ensuing struggle. She was then forced to aid in nearly killing her father and would have been made to deal the final blow if she hadn't Triggered right then. With post-Trigger disorientation in play on the nearby capes, Jen had a moment to breathe and grasp the basic concept that her power let her not be touched.
And yet, even with a primarily defensive/evasive power, the situation required offense. Armed with that, Jen proceeded to be a ghostly wolf among sheep, managing to make the situation untenable enough to force the criminals to retreat from the warehouse they'd lured her father to. Immediately thereafter, Jen would use her father's phone to call for help and get them both to a hospital, a fire of rage kindling inside her.
Heart stoked with a truly deep and abiding hatred, Jen would use her then hospitalized father's teachings and her new powers to go on a one-woman crusade against the criminal organization, ruthlessly brutalizing them and their operations, not for justice but personal vengeance. The capes, in particular, were disappeared, never to be heard from again. While the nature of her power ensured that actual proof of her involvement was pretty much impossible to acquire, reasonable detective work in regard to the incident would see Jen eventually meeting the PRT. Jen, of course, played coy without relent, admitting to nothing, but in being effectively "outed" by the government, she wasn't in a good position to refuse their recruitment offer. And while she couldn't technically be threatened with actionable legalities, she knew the PRT could ensure her life was a lot more difficult... and potentially find something they could actually hold over her if she put them in a position to dig further.
With her father made aware of the danger their family was potentially in, even with the destruction and overall dismantling of the organization responsible by Jen and the PRT follow-up, that would be the final nail in the coffin to Jen's enrollment in the Wards.
Appearance: Landon has a slight and unathletic build, the slimness of which is only further punctuated by his notable height of 5'11, making his lanky stature blatantly obvious. His skin tone is quite pale, and lacks any discernable features to speak of.
Due to his strict upbringing, Landon seems to have a preference for formalwear, particularly when it is quite covering, as if to shield him from the gaze of others. Similarly, due to his upbringing, he does not wear anything extraneous such as piercings, necklaces, etc., though in his short time of freedom from said upbringing, he has shown an interest in trying these sorts of things.
When it comes to a costume, his Parahuman abilities cause too many complications for it to be practical to design one for him. As such, due to the nature of his abilities, they effectively act as his costume.
Personality: Landon has been, and still is to a degree, a people-pleaser, even before his imposed lifestyle forced that mindset upon him. He is rather timid, and prefers cooperation over conflict in nearly any scenario, though his Trigger event has 'helped' him to be able to have a touch more backbone when it comes to putting himself before others. However, his nature makes him an ideal Ward, since he will typically listen to and obey authority figures unless they give him significant cause for doubt. Fortunately, he himself is also quite easy to please. Landon appreciates when others are willing to hear him out and quite simply interact with him, starved for positive interactions, especially with peers his age.
Beyond that, in no small part due to the nature of his Parahuman abilities, Landon seems to be naturally nervous and more than a touch high-strung, and will commonly seek affirmation in moments of vulnerability (which, at least from his perspective, are quite common). This has been especially true for him joining the Wards, evidently fearful of his own ability to perform alongside his fellow teammates and concerned over the repercussions of potentially not being adequate for the team. In hopes of helping to reaffirm his position as a Ward in spite of his own self-doubts, he has been given weekly sessions with a PRT-mandated therapist.
Additionally, while Landon has (up until recently) had very little personal time to pursue his own passions or hobbies, he always dreamed of being a pilot, and discussion of the topic (or even just flight in general) seems to quickly break him out of his shell; for a time, at least. When he is around people he's comfortable with, which is a sadly short list for the young man, he's still as soft-spoken as ever, but his general meekness turns more into a gentle calmness, and he becomes much more amicable and animated in comparison to his extremely reserved nature. He's also a great listener, which some people certainly appreciate, whereas some just find him annoyingly quiet.
Power Classification: Changer 3/Mover 5/Stranger 3 (Brute, Thinker)
Power Description: Despite what the Power Classification might make you think, Landon's Parahuman ability is deceptively simple. Simply put, with enough focus (or more commonly, a drastic shift in his emotional state or sheer stress), Landon bursts out into a mass of feathers, quickly emerging as a humanoid entity roughly twice his height, with similarly lanky proportions (though still notably more muscle mass underneath his feathery exterior). His arms and legs are covered in tough, leathery green skin and a scattering of scales of the same shade up until his elbows/knees, where fur begins overtaking his form. Instead of fingers and toes, he now possesses sharpened talons akin to a bird of prey. The rest of his body is covered in greyish-black fur, making the only discernable features his white ovular eyes and strange ears that seem more akin to a fox or other canid than what an avian form such as his should possess. Speaking of avian, well...
The most discerning feature of his Changer Power are the two sets of wings his new body possesses; a much larger set that sprouts closer to his shoulder line, with their maximum width nearing twice his own height, and a much smaller set of wings nearing the end of his backside, used to streamline his aerial maneuvers and otherwise serve as support for his main wings. With these, he is capable of exceptional feats of flight, even in areas where his main wingset cannot stretch to full width. Additionally, both his fur and feathers seem to possess a muffling quality about them, making his flight completely silent, much like an owl. The soles of his feet and hands are also lined with this fur, allowing him to move in silence even when not in flight. Much more minor than his other features, he does also seem to possess a more sensitive hearing in this form, as well as a form of night vision.
While the form can look physically imposing, the truth of the matter is this form is only barely able to obtain a Sub-Classification for Brute. Compared to a normal human, he may seem strong, certainly, but most Brutes outmatch his capabilities in terms of raw strength, and almost certainly in durability. To be able to maintain flight in this form, he has hollow bones like a bird, and while still more durable than the average human, is still quite vulnerable to most conventional forms of harm, especially when it involves blunt force trauma.
Strengths:
Patient: A gift all too uncommon amongst many Parahumans (much less people), Landon is a very patient and naturally cautious individual. While this does have its problems, it means that in spite of his shaky mental state (especially on the field in his Changer form), he can be trusted to think things through and not act out rashly, and even more importantly, be willing and able to follow orders. Natural Aptitude: In spite of having Triggered recently, Landon seems to have an astonishingly solid grasp on his Changer powerset, especially the flight aspect. This can in part be attributed to the relative simplicity his ability seems to embody, but it still does little to undermine his shocking level of skill with it in such a short amount of time...As long as he doesn't get in his own head, at least.
Weaknesses:
Anti-Conflict: While becoming a Parahuman has lessened this to a degree, Landon struggles with conflict, especially of the physical sort, and finds it difficult to mount a defense. He much prefers doing work that involves helping indirectly, even when the preferred solution is a direct assault. This extends to social conflicts as well, perhaps even moreso, as he usually does little to defend himself against verbal abuse, much to his own detriment, especially given his... Low Self-Esteem: Even before he Triggered, Landon never had a good opinion of himself, but now, lumped with all the stress and responsibility of being a Ward on top of everything that's happened within the last year for the poor guy, he's a bundle of nerves waiting to go off, and has next to zero faith in himself. His fragile ego makes him especially vulnerable to mental and emotional assault and manipulation. Combat Experience: Even beyond his unwillingness to even be involved in conflict, Landon has little to no experience defending himself or others with his ability, or God forbid, just his normal self. In other words, combat-wise, despite his Power potentially being well-suited to it in the right circumstances, he can likely be dead weight.
History:
Landon is Bridgewater, born and raised, the only child of Elias and Penelope Mandel, and the proprietors of Mandel International, an exceptionally capable shipping company that brought the family into millionaire status. Due to this, growing up, Landon never wanted for anything...At least, in the physical sense. He could practically have anything material he wanted, but yet, that meant little when what the young boy wanted most was connections with others. His parents were always distant to him, more concerned with the company and its profit margins than their own child, and for most of his life, he was homeschooled extensively by the best of the best...Which meant he had unbelievable pressures placed upon him. Landon never had a say in what he wanted to do with himself, it was always what his parents wanted for him. They had him taught to be able to inherit their empire, raised with all the social noblesse they could afford, and had him constantly accompany them to events and celebrations amongst the upper-class, to which he had no choice but to humbly accept. Most of his life was spent surrounded by strangers, who talked about him as if he weren't even there.
Things changed in an unexpected and potentially exciting direction for the young man when his parents told him he would be attending a public high school. Something about making the family seem more 'approachable' or something. He didn't care about their ulterior motives. Finally, for the first time in his life, he'd be among people his age! Maybe he could finally grasp some sense of normality, and do something he wanted to do for a change! However...That was not meant to be. At first, all seemed well. From his stunted perspective, he seemed to be exceptionally popular when he made landfall in high school, but he soon learned what was actually going on. People didn't care about Landon; they cared about his family...And their wealth. Yet again, he was being ignored. No, even worse, this time, it felt as if he was some kind of penalty strapped onto something his fellow students actually wanted. An aggravation and an obstacle; worse than nothing. Once he learned this, well, he at the very least was less willing to simply shower those so-called 'friends' with everything they wanted, but that just meant that everyone turned on him as if he were some kind of monster, forced into the role of the outcast. At the very least, it was a comfortable role. One that held a sense of familiarity; this was how it had always been, with nobody to lean on or call to. Just himself, suffering quietly for those around him.
Eventually, enough was enough. With what little backbone Landon possessed, he was finally going to speak out. If anything, he at the very least wanted to get out of that wretched school, and at most...Maybe, if they could listen to him, he could make them understand his point of view. How he'd never wanted for any of the things they'd shunted onto him, and how he wanted to be someone other than just 'the Mandel boy'. And so, at his earliest convenience, he talked to his parents at the dinner table. Only to be talked over, again, of course, and with news that would crush his tiny little soul even further.
There was going to be an arranged marriage. What? What? Landon barely knew anyone his own age, much less girls! How could this be happening?! It was way too sudden, it- his parents didn't care for his mounting anxiety as they spoke onward, telling of the benefits of the arrangement and that it would be officially settled within the next month or so. Yet again, his voice had been shut out. Expectations even heavier than the last dropped upon his fragile back, crushing him further into the ground, so far away from freedom. Shoved right back into the birdcage that was his life. With a mounting sickness growing in his stomach, he excused himself from the table, rushing to his room. It was there, sweating profusely and convulsing on the ground, that everything landed on him. All this time, he'd let others decide what he was going to be, no matter how draining or ruinous it was for him, like a puppet on their strings, letting their expectations for him outweigh his own self-worth, or his own dreams. It was then he'd realized that the one called 'Landon', who he claimed had ambitions and hopes of his own...Had never even truly been allowed to exist.
He Triggered.
It was a flash of feathers and fur, a blur of pitch-black overtaking his vision as he felt agony pass through his body; his skin felt as if it hardened and ripped apart, over and over. His nails burst forward like knives coming through his fingers. His muscles screamed as they contorted and expanded over and over again, and his bones creaked under the intense warping sensation. But for however horrible it had been, it was over in barely a second as Landon stood up once more, looking over himself...Some part of him was horrified by what had occurred, in abject terror over what he had become...But most of him was numbed over by the wave of emotions taking him over, and perhaps in a surge of adrenaline as he took in his inhuman visage, glancing over his vicious claws, a horrid, wicked thought plagued his newly-addled mind. "If there was no one to marry, then the marriage cannot occur."
It was then something clicked. He actually remembered the lady they were mentioning back at the dinner table; Landon had only met her once, but that may be enough. Lucky for him, all the rich of Bridgewater effectively congregated near the harbor with their high-end homes and the occasional manse, so it would only take so much trial and error for him to find the right house. Under normal circumstances, Landon would've never even humored such an idea, but he was far from thinking straight, and so he reached out for his bedroom window, pulling it up to feel a crisp breeze on the air. And he jumped.
There, flying in the air in the cool night...Landon truly felt free. But sadly, such a revelation wasn't enough to shake him from his delirium as he scouted the surrounding houses for any sense of familiarity, and eventually found it. Wasting no time, he smashed through the young lady's window, talons prepped to rip and tear, and yet...What he saw was not a young lady shaking in fear from a monster come bursting into her room, but a girl whose gaze was detached from the goings-on around her, looking as if she was utterly drained mentally and emotionally, as she looked towards Landon's imposing figure...Or, at least to him, it felt more as if she was looking right through him. It made him hesitate, but only briefly, as he lunged towards her, grasping her arms and hoisting her into the air, as if threatening to smash her into the ground. Still, she barely offered more than a small grunt of resistance. It was then, as they shared a glance, that Landon understood something. That look she had...Underneath all the fur and feathers, something told him it was the same one he was wearing right now.
Landon couldn't begin to tell you why he put her down. Maybe that moment of clarify robbed him of his impromptu aggression. Perhaps Claire (that was her name, as he was reminding himself in the moment) had used her own ability, as he soon would learn of. Regardless, his blind fury at someone as innocent as he was in this situation had ebbed out, and not knowing what else to do, he awkwardly took a seat on her floor, now roughly level to her standing height. What followed next was an...Unusual experience for the both of them. After a near-homicide was committed, the two merely sat down and just...Talked. Something neither of them had much of the luxury to do in their day-to-day lives. They talked to each other about almost everything, not least of which their latest mishaps that had led to their shared changes. Claire admitted to having some kind of ability like Landon, which she only learned about because she had somehow influenced her parents. She didn't know exactly how, or what she'd specifically done to them, but they were...Mellowed out, for lack of better term from either of them. Even when they walked in on their daughter and a giant bird-man, they didn't have much of a reaction beyond the fact that they were apparently going to make some tea and head to bed. From that day on, their lives became...Interesting.
Since then, Landon, far from eager to return home, had effectively started squatting in Claire's room. Luckily, she didn't mind, and honestly appreciated the positive company, of which she'd had little in her own life. They figured out exactly what she was doing; Claire was able to numb out the emotions of others, and eventually, it could even desensitize people's whole brains, which is exactly what she'd accidentally done to her parents. They weren't sure how long it'd last, or if it might cause permanent damage, but it at least made her parents very agreeable people, which according to her, they certainly were not beforehand. Of course, despite how much the pair actually enjoyed each other's company, they understood that their situation wasn't exactly sustainable. However, it was Claire who offered a solution; in her eyes, Landon was a quite wholesome and good man, and so, she suggested that he might look into the new Wards program starting up. He questioned if she would be joining it, too, but she declined, simply stating "Honestly, between the both of us, even with you becoming a giant bird monster...You have the far more agreeable power, as far as the public would see it." Honestly, it mortified him, the idea of doing all this...But it hurt even more to even possibly feel like a burden to the one person he'd become even remotely close to in the past 15 years of his life. So he agreed with her assessment. And who knows? Maybe being a hero was exactly what he needed, and he might even be able to make friends with the other Wards. The possibilities were endless!
...The recruitment process was quite awkward, however, given that he had to explain his whole absurdly drastic situation while attempting to dodge any mention of Claire herself being a Parahuman, not wishing to endanger her in any way. Still, though, eventually the PRT accepted his angle of the story (at least, as far as he was aware), and Landon was accepted into the Wards, desperately hoping that this would also serve as an effective smokescreen from his family for at least a while longer.
Appearance: Keystone is an African-American male, standing at 5'6 and weighing 145 lbs. He has amber eyes and lacks any discernible markings or scars. Has a burgeoning athletic build, presumably from the running and weight-lifting routine that he developed after triggering.
Ethan favors t-shirts, shorts, cargo pants, and other casual attire. Most formal wear agitates his power by being too impractical and constricting, though the PR department has discussed having a suit custom-made for him to be more accommodating. Has a similar disdain for accessories and jewelry, only wearing his ear piercings and necklace because they are gifts from his parents.
His costume took almost as long as some Tinkers to design, as it was a constant battle between Ethan, the PR department, and the engineering department on what the final product would look like. It is comprised of a black cloak that has been thermally treated and is resistant to cutting, along with a gas mask, cargo pants, steel-toed boots, and a vest. Ethan also carries a wide assortment of tools and weapons, most of which he is unfamiliar with - this includes pepper spray, a baton, a small first aid kit, a lockpick, and several other lightweight items that would not encumber him such as his phone. The knives and the crossbow were especially contentious points, for the PR department and the engineering department respectively.
PR Department: It's generic and boring, and doesn't match his name at all. If we weren't so desperate for Wards right now, this kid's merchandise career would be dead in the water. If we're lucky, he'll drop the knives and crossbow in exchange for the hammer and chisel gimmick we worked out.
Engineering Department: Thirty-three drafts! If this ███████ brat wants to play tinker, he can do it without flooding us with work! HE DOESN'T EVEN KNOW HOW TO USE A CROSSBOW - WHY HAVE US MAKE A WRIST-MOUNTED ONE!? Tell him never to come to this workshop again talking ████ about my designs, I'll kick his a-
I made a lot of concessions - I mean, glowing eyes? Tacky as hell and ruins stealth. Gonna talk with Axiom or some other tinker about working in an intensity dial for that later.
Personality: Ethan has an abrasive and confrontational personality that has made integration into the Wards difficult, to say the least. He relentlessly harasses those around him, primarily through verbal means or general disrespect, and doesn't seem to consider how his actions affect others. He is especially aggressive towards individuals who trigger his power, and rarely accepts apologies for repeated 'offenses'. Authority figures are very hit-or-miss, walking a fine line of being respected for their control or despised for not listening to Ethan's advice.
Here's a freebie for anyone reading - my least favorite type of people are idiots who act without thinking first. Good intentions mean jack shit when you're making things worse for everyone else.
He has significant trust issues, presumably fuck you stop assuming things about me. These are most prevalent with peers around his age, and while not usually important for daily life, it is important to correct this as soon as possible. Trust is a vital component of working in the Wards, and Ethan's inability to rely on others can easily cost lives.
Ethan also seems to suffer a fate that many parahumans seem to share - a mental disorder inflicted as a result of his power. In Ethan's case, he suffers from acute Obsessive Compulsive Personality Disorder (OCPD), which has caused him to become very controlling and hold a high standard for everything he does. When faced with flaws and disorder, he naturally feels compelled to either fix and correct them, or destroy the source of his irritation - failure to do so appears to cause significant stress and anxiety in Ethan, and he visits PRT psychologists on a weekly basis to help find better coping strategies.
While initially cold, Ethan appears to be extremely loyal to those who earn his trust and grows close to him - this can be seen most evidently in his relationship with his father. Most of the fights Ethan has participated in pre-trigger were a result of people insulting his parents, and Ethan uses a large percentage of his income from the Wards to supplement the household income and enable his father to work fewer hours. It is hoped that he can foster a similar relationship with his peers in the Wards (unlikely).
Ethan holds himself to the same standards he holds others to - when he makes mistakes he is quick to correct himself, and he is genuinely apologetic when he (unintentionally) inconveniences those around him. He seems to be better behaved for a few days after a substantial error.
It is believed that Ethan's struggle to difficulty in forming interpersonal relationships ori- Yeah I don't like editing this stuff since I can get in trouble and you guys have backups anyways, but I'm just gonna delete the rest of this part. Don't psychoanalyze me bitch, that's the shrink's job.
Power Classification: Thinker 5 / Tinker 0
Power Description: Keystone is a Thinker who possesses an exceptional ability to detect and analyze weaknesses in any observed entity or system. This allows him to easily identify the most easily exploitable points to target, such as the central support in a building, or the optimal areas to attack an opponent.
The weaknesses that Keystone can identify are not limited to the physical - anything that makes a system vulnerable can be analyzed. This includes identifying passwords to locks and computer systems, finding which individuals in a group are vulnerable to intimidation or bribery, the ways to break an opponent's strategy in chess, and even identifying personal trauma and issues in team dynamics.
Additionally, Keystone's ability to detect weaknesses also seems to grant an understanding of why the vulnerability exists and the consequences of targeting it. In one test, Keystone was able to identify that a PRT guard had a blood clot in his leg, which could have potentially proven fatal had the guard suffered a serious injury. In addition to being an exceptional diagnostic tool for medical purposes, it proves invaluable for dealing with Tinkers - both to support Protectorate tinkers and help them refine their creations, as well as to exploit and destroy the tinkertech used by villains.
Keystone's ability to work with Tinkers to help improve the designs of their work, as well as refine the designs and construction of mundane equipment that the PRT uses, has warranted a 'Tinker 0' designation.
I bug them with requests pretty frequently, so it's really only fair I return the favor and help them with quality assurance.
While exceptionally powerful, Keystone's ability does come with several notable limitations. The most prominent of these, at least in Keystone's perspective, is his inability to turn his power off. He claims that he sees the weaknesses and flaws in everything he looks at, incapable of tuning them out - something that Protectorate psychologists believe is a contribution to his pessimistic and antisocial demeanor.
Additionally, his power takes longer to identify weakpoints the more complex a system becomes. While identifying a password or finding the proper place to hit an opponent is nigh-instant, untangling the interpersonal conflicts in a large group or gaining entry into tinker-encrypted networks can take hours or even days of effort. It will also reveal more obvious flaws first, which can lead to 'tunnel vision' and cause more inconspicuous vulnerabilities to go unnoticed.
This doesn't do it justice. Imagine an itch you can't reach, deep in the back of your mind. Every wound you see, every hidden trauma or petty little insecurity in the people around you, it's all lit up like a neon sign and making that itch more intense. You can see how to take advantage of everything around you, even if you don't want to. It builds up until you feel like your skull is on fire, until you can't help but lash out - tear open that fresh wound, expose that self-doubt and trauma, hit them where it really hurts.
Anything to make that itch go away.
Countermeasures: In the event Keystone goes rogue (either willingly or via a Master effect), his ratings will be upped to Thinker 7 / Tinker 0 due to his intricate understanding of PRT / Protectorate systems and personnel - and more importantly, their vulnerabilities.
Countermeasures include standard Thinker procedures - Sensory disruption via smoke grenades and flashbangs, blocking off communication for the thinker, contacting PRT thinkers to assist in countering strategies, etc. Additionally, all PRT and Protectorate databases that Wards have access to will be immediately replaced with prepared duplicates, containing falsified information and Tinker malware.
Do not engage in direct combat - surprise attacks are most effective, followed by mid-long ranged combat. Arrests/containment should involve several redundancies including (but not limited to): liberal usage of Containment Foam, tinker-made handcuffs/restraints, a mouth gag to prevent communication, and as many forms of sensory deprivation as can reasonably be applied (blindfold, earplugs, etc).
PR Note: Avoid causing too much direct harm, as the PRT injuring minors is a very bad look. He's a little kid, how much trouble can he be?
I'd say you are taking things way too seriously, but I am altering confidential files right now. Maybe go light on the containment foam though? That stuff looks like a claustrophobic nightmare.
Strengths: Hacking: Hacking any kind of computer network or system is exceptionally easy for Ethan, as he is capable of identifying access points and passwords without any effort via his power. The only systems that are especially challenging are Tinker-encrypted networks, which can occasionally prove too difficult to bypass without another Tinker's help.
First Aid: Ethan had received CPR and basic first aid training a year earlier, but has become far more interested in the topic after his father passed away. In combination with his power, Ethan is exceptionally talented when it comes to identifying and treating injuries on the field.
Unarmed Combat: While he was never trained to fight, Ethan displays significant skill in direct combat, even discounting the use of his power. He is capable of enduring significant injury and pain, and is very willing to fight dirty and use everything at his disposal to hurt an opponent. This is most likely a result of fights he's been in pre-trigger, which were presumably one-sided and targeted.
I don't see it mentioned here, but I am very good at puzzle and strategy games. Tetris is my favorite - it barely aggravates my power and is addicting. Probably the closest thing there is to a 'flawless' game. Chess and Risk are nice too, but games against opponents are far less relaxing. Especially if they are novices that make too many mistakes.
Weaknesses: Neurotic: Due to his power constantly being active, Ethan is exposed to every failure that happens around him. Despite only triggering a month ago this has already had a significant impact on his personality, with Ethan having frequent outbursts against teammates for relatively minor mistakes. Additionally, he has been observed spending hours refining work that is perfectly fine as a result of his neurotic and obsessive tendencies. This has made working in a group setting like the Wards difficult.
Socially Stunted: More a result of his upbringing, which has only been exacerbated since Triggering. Ethan is socially underdeveloped, lacking the emotional maturity and intelligence of other teenagers his age. He is abrasive and struggles to look at things from another person's point of view, and his inability to understand social cues without the use of his power has made forming interpersonal relationships difficult to say the least. Has gotten better since triggering due to his power pointing out flaws in his speech and mannerisms, though you can only improve so much in such a short time frame.
Methodical: Ethan is incredibly averse to acting out without analyzing every possible option. As a result, situations that require snap judgments are completely out of his depth - an aspect that turns him from a potentially top-tier combat thinker to a subpar one, with more focus on supporting teammates rather than direct fighting. While he can act quickly in life-and-death situations, he will be far less confident in his capabilities and can trip himself up much more easily.
I also am not very physically capable - I only started working out after triggering, and my routine has been fairly mild. I wouldn't be surprised if most of the other Wards are stronger than me. If you left this out to spare my feelings or reputation, know that I prefer accurate documentation.
History: Ethan Pierce was raised in foster care for the first seven years of his life, before eventually being adopted by Steven and Michael Pierce. He appears to have had a relatively normal upbringing from that point onwards - no indicators of domestic abuse, above-average academic performance, and few reported incidents from his school. It appears that Ethan had a close bond with his adoptive fathers, and held them in very high regard, somewhat of a rarity amongst younger capes.
Ethan faced substantial discrimination and bullying at his school, though details are difficult to discern due to a lack of official records. Ethan claims he was primarily harassed over being adopted and his parents' sexual orientation, which has caused significant friction with his peers and numerous fights. Pressing charges has proven difficult due to a complete lack of record-keeping on part of the school - the PRT has contacted the Department of Education to investigate the school for their inability to address the situation, while Ethan has since been moved to a different school after joining the Wards.
Very little is on record beyond this. Teachers have commented on his lack of engagement in classes, neighbors mentioned that he mows lawns during the summer for spending money, but he lacks any major accomplishments or incidents.
Keystone triggered shortly after the death of Michael Pierce, one of his fathers, who passed away from undiagnosed Leukemia. PRT Psychologists are under the impression that Keystone blames himself for his father's death - he appears to believe that if he had noticed the signs earlier, he could have pushed for treatment despite the financial cost, and his father might have survived a few years longer.
Fits in line with the working viewpoint on Trigger Event mechanics - his Thinker power derived from guilt and self-hatred, with the primary catalyst being the inability to see things deteriorating around him. Further details on the trigger are presumably known by PRT psychologists, but this is covered under patient confidentiality.
PR Note: Great opportunity for a publicity stunt with local health officials - maybe have him give a lesson on CPR to some high schoolers, or have him talk about detecting the early signs of addiction? He'll probably agree given his background.
Fuck you.
Ethan revealed his parahuman status within days of triggering due to the irritation he suffered from his power, causing his father Steven Pierce to contact the local Protectorate. Several treatments were proposed, from isolation to chemical cocktails, though Ethan rejected all of them, claiming they were 'fucking stupid ideas'.
Due to his exceptionally useful power and the extreme need for parahumans that Bridgewater is facing, Ethan was offered a position in the recently re-established Wards team. He agreed - though only on the condition that Protectorate officials keep on the lookout for Tinkers and Trumps that could help shut his power down outside of combat.
As of writing this report, Ethan is currently seeing a PRT psychologist on a weekly basis, which is believed to have had some positive impact on his mood and self-control.
Appearance: Ashley possesses a scrawny build believed to be the result of nutritional deficiencies brought on by an interaction with her parahuman abilities (see Tandem Diet). As of June 10, 2021, Ashley is 148 cm tall and weighs 31kg (up from 28kg at the time of joining the Wards program).
Out of costume Ashley primarily dresses in standard issue live-in ward attire, showing little by way of individuality or personal style through her clothing. Ashley’s stated priority when dressing herself is practicality, however, this practicality to Ashley seems primarily to refer to comfort and ease of access and she has indicated pockets being useless to her on account of her power set.
Ashley has also been noted to wear her costume outside of fieldwork, either partially or in entirety. She has been instructed to stop doing this.
PR Note: I get that her identity isn't exactly the easiest thing to keep secret, with her power and history, but does this kid just not understand the concept of a secret identity?
PR Note: Kid really screwed us on this one. Apparently, when we told her as a Ward she’d be need to wear a costume, she took that to mean she should make her own and then reveal it and along with her new alias, in a very public manner all without informing any of us. I suppose it isn’t the biggest disaster amongst this new lot of Wards, or even with the kid herself, but still, could she have not just make this one thing easy on us? We'd already gotten the first draft of her costume done.
Consistent with other members of her cluster (see Bank Cluster) Ashley expresses a primary ability (see Instancing) alongside a secondary ability bearing aspects of her cluster mates primary abilities (see Inventory). As with 'Simulacrum' – and in all likelihood 'Collateral', Ashley is a Noctis Cape.
Primary Ability: 'Instancing'
'Tandem’s' primary power involves the creation of clones which are identical to the instance of her from which they were copied at the moment of creation, but which may diverge from there. Clones have been observed to share proprioception and awareness of each other’s thoughts and have not demonstrated notable difficulty with coordinating with one another.
'Tandem' may freely create or dismiss her clones anywhere within 24 ft. of an existing clone, up to a maximum of 3 or down to a minimum of 2. If a clone ends up further than 24 ft. from all other existing clones, it is dismissed, in the case where multiple clones would end up too far apart a random clone is dismissed. If dismissal of a clone would result in 'Tandem’s' number of active clones dropping to 1, a new clone is instantly created in a random unoccupied space within 12 ft. of 'Tandem'.
Objects weighing up to 68kg, that 'Tandem' is wearing or holding at the time she creates a clone may be duplicated with that clone – the new instance of the object is considered tied to the new clone, while the original becomes tied to the clone that was used as a template. When a clone is dismissed, objects tied to that clone disappear with them, unless that object is the last remaining instance of itself in which case it is considered 'the original' and remains. (Note: Do not have an instance of 'Tandem' consume something and then dismiss itself without first creating another clone).
It is of note that this ability is significantly morbidity limited, though unable to affect living matter other than 'Tandem' herself. In particular, 'Tandem’s' ability to clone herself, does not replicate her microbiome causing several Gastrointestinal issues unless specific dietary protocols are maintained (see Tandem Diet).
Secondary Ability: 'Inventory'
'Tandem’s' secondary power involves the storage and retrieval of objects fitting within a 2.3ft radius sphere. Storage of objects requires 'Tandem' to be in physical contact with the object, however once stored an object can be returned to any location within 14 ft and in any configuration that the object in question may freely assume. Objects stored do not seem to observe the passage of time.
Objects exiting 'Tandem’s' power must be tied to the momentum of some part of 'Tandem' herself, though she is freely able to determine at which point along her body this occurs. 'Tandem’s' most notable use of this feature seems to be in “throwing” objects that would otherwise be too heavy for her to lift at relatively high speeds. In light of this ability, requests from 'Tandem' for “2-foot wide metal spheres” or other objects with potentially similar destructive capabilities are to be denied.
'Tandem' passively builds up an idea of how to use objects she has stored over time. This thinker aspect of the power relates solely to the potential uses and manipulations of objects stored in a purely physical sense, irrespective of their intended uses or functionality. For example, Tandem could learn how to pick a lock or operate a phone by storing the relevant items in her 'Inventory' but by storing something like a chess set, she’d learn how to effectively throw chess pieces, but not how to play chess. 'Tandem’s' power does account for her own powers as manipulations, and in fact, many of 'Tandem’s' favoured strategies involve placing items beneath the feet of her opponent or dropping them directly upon them.
It is also worth noting, that while 'Tandem' can attempt to retrieve items via vague parameters, she possesses no intrinsic knowledge as to the objects she is storing, making it possible for her to lose items should she forget she has stored them or to believe she has access to materials she does not.
While the exact method/location by which 'Tandem' stores matter remains unidentified, it has been confirmed that 'Tandem’s' storage is shared across her various instances without duplication. Objects stored by 'Tandem’ do not seem to be notably affected by the passage of time. While this ability is morbidity-limited, it does not seem to have as stringent limitations as 'Tandem’s' primary ability – objects stored by 'Tandem' appear to maintain their microbiomes.
Cross Power Interactions
Both of 'Tandem’s' abilities deal with the intersection of objects by instantaneously displacing the less massive object into the nearest available space; if this would cause a new intersection the same effect occurs, which may result in a cascading effect, though this effect always resolves to place Tandem within range of her other clones and move the least amount of matter possible.
While 'Tandem’s' Instancing and Inventory abilities bear a superficial resemblance to one another and in fact bear a number of similarities in the mechanics underlying their use, it should be noted that based on current speculation – corroborated by both tinker and thinker observation – it is believed that both powers utilise entirely different physics in their operation – believed to be matter replication and dimensional spaces respectively.
Power Notes
Note 1: As 'Tandem’s' power results in her constantly possessing multiple bodies in close proximity to one another, attempts to develop a civilian identity for the Ward have proven largely unsuccessful, even ignoring the continuing online circulation of images of 'Tandem' out of costume.
Note 2: When questioned as to the potential presence of unauthorised materials in her 'inventory' 'Tandem' routinely dodges the question or else claims that most items can be used as weapons, only denying accusations when pressed on the matter. It is subsequently, believed that 'Tandem' is carrying several deadly weapons in direct violation of her probation – potentially including IEDs and firearms, based on past interactions. As no evidence currently exists to prove 'Tandem’s' guilt and she has shown no intentions of using any such devices, the matter has been designated a low-priority issue.
Note 3: Ashley has indicated that her instancing ability can be used to perform chemistry that would not be possible within conventional physics (see Instanced Chemistry). Ashley has been instructed not to experiment with this ability without professional oversight. Investigation into the utility of this interaction is pending.
Personality: Ashley at a glance is brash and impulsive, typically seeming to act without too much prior thought. Digging a little deeper, one will find that Ashley is not quite as impulsive as she might first appear, and is in fact paranoid and cautious to a frankly concerning degree, constantly analysing and planning for the worst possible scenarios she can imagine.
Ashley holds little regard for social convention or systems of authority; though she can effectively be reasoned with, she consistently disregards decisions she perceives as being made on authority alone. She seems to possess a strong desire to help people, though apparently does not extend this desire to larger institutions or systems.
Ashley is generally curious and seems to have developed a strong fixation on Parahuman abilities as is common among very young triggers. While at the time of writing, Ashley’s fixation seems to be largely sated by access to her fellow Wards and PRT casefiles, it is worth keeping in mind that it was this fixation that fuelled the majority of her Parahuman interactions as 'Duplicate' and caution should be taken when letting her interact with outside Parahuman’s in the field.
Ashley appears to have a very strong Kiss/Kill derived hatred for her cluster mates, including the now deceased Ward 'Simulacrum'.
Strengths:
Experienced: Ashley has far more experience as a cape than is common for a ward. While Ashley has only been a parahuman for 5 years, the nature of her ability and lack of a civilian identity, have resulted in her gaining far more experience in that time than would be usual.
Power Application: Ashley has demonstrated somewhat of an obsession with the mechanics and application of parahuman abilities. In particular, Ashley has shown herself to be skilled at figuring out ways powers could theoretically be used and applying such techniques.
Weaknesses:
Disregard for Authority: Ashley has demonstrated a strong distaste for being told what to do by authority figures and has a tendency to disregard orders outright. Tends to respond more favourably when included in planning or after having orders explained, though this risks reinforcing negative behaviours and should be avoided unless compliance is paramount.
Paranoia: Ashley has displayed a somewhat concerning degree of paranoia. By her own admission, she is near constantly trying to identify potential obstacles or threats and develop means to counteract them. Ashley has been observed brainstorming hazards.
As similar 'Simulacrum' was documented to exhibit similar behavioural patterns, this behaviour may be the result of personality bleed from their shared trigger or a side effect of the thinker aspect of their secondary abilities. Furthermore, based on 'Simulacrum’s' psychological profile, it is possible that Ashley fundamentally lacks the capacity to feel safe.
Disrupted Education: Did failed to attend school during the 5 years between her trigger event and joining the wards program. Ashley has significant educational deficits.
Ashley seems to have somewhat of a complex against being perceived as stupid and tends to avoid situations where such scenarios might arise.
Power Reliance: Ashley has developed somewhat of a reliance on using her powers. Solutions Ashley employs almost always involve applying her Parahuman abilities, even when mundane means would be standard or superior.
July 11, 2016, 2:15pm: A mass hostage situation broke out during a failed bank robbery orchestrated by MSM gang members (see Main Street Maniacs). At 4:02pm, after a protracted standoff with PRT officers, civilians Adam Witt, Alice Witt, and ███████████ were murdered by the villain 'Migraine' (see Migraine), resulting in three simultaneous civilian trigger events (see Bank Cluster). Following the trigger events, PRT troopers were able to move in and arrest the MSM capes without suffering further civilian casualties.
July 13, 2016: A recently triggered parahuman approached PRT looking for help. Parahuman was successfully inducted as a Ward and given the codename 'Simulacrum' (see Simulacrum). Later confirmed to be a member of the Bank Cluster.
July 15, 2016: PRT agents were called in to deal with a homeless parahuman child attempting to pull off a string of petty thefts. The suspect identified themselves as 'Duplicate' (see Tandem) and displayed obvious parahuman abilities but made no attempt to hide their identity. Comparison with surveillance footage confirmed 'Duplicate’s' identity as the second member of the Bank Cluster, having triggered after her parents were murdered. 'Duplicate' seemed initially receptive to the idea of joining the wards but declined when informed one of her cluster mates had joined. As her crimes have consisted solely of petty misdemeanours and she has shown an aversion to violent crime, 'Duplicate' has been assessed as a low threat and recruitment is to be prioritised.
August 2, 2016: An as-of-yet unknown villain attacked a PRT transport vehicle transporting the villains 'Jackle Lantern' (see Jackle Lantern) and 'Migraine', resulting in the deaths of both captured villains and the transporting staff onboard. The attacking villain later identified themself as 'Collateral' (see Collateral), during a string of violent crimes. Strongly suspected to be the third member of the Bank Cluster. No attempt at recruitment made.
March 3, 2017, 1:30pm: An altercation broke out between parahumans 'Simulacrum', 'Collateral', and 'Duplicate'. The fight is believed to have been orchestrated by 'Collateral' and incurred significant damage to civilian infrastructure and resulted in the death of Ward 'Simulacrum' at the hands of 'Duplicate'. Following the incident 'Collateral' is confirmed to have fled the city, while 'Duplicate' is believed to have gone into hiding. (See Rook Street Incident)
Confessor Incident (2020): 'Duplicate' noted to have taken an active role in assisting civilians during and after the Confessor Incident.
April 26, 2021: 'Duplicate' approached 'Axom' with intentions of joining the Wards program, apparently concerned by increasing pressure from other villains to join a gang. In light of her role in assisting during the Collateral Incident, and due to her relatively clean criminal record – barring the Rook Street Incident, which has been determined to have been complicated by Kiss/Kill dynamic between involved capes.
May 1, 2021: 'Duplicate' was officially brought on as a probationary member of the Bridgewater Wards. Following this, 'Duplicate' has been provided with a costume and rebranded as 'Tandem' and reintroduced to the public.
Name: Faith Ashton Cape Codename: Decree Age: 16 Appearance: Faith is tall and skinny for her age, with a slightly pale complexion, golden blonde hair and bright green eyes. Her fashion sense is a strange mixture of ‘conservative church girl’ and ‘colourful hipster’. She is a particular fan of sweaters and turtlenecks, though also sometimes likes to wear overalls over a t-shirt. She typically wears either bright pastel colors, or a more mature and subdued color palette such as maroons and mauves, depending on the occasion.
Her hero costume resembles a dress, with toga-like elements in the method the cloth is bunched up at the top. It is white with golden gilded edges and highlights, giving her a divine yet Greco-Roman air. Covering the top half of her face is a white venetian mask
Personality: Faith is a girl standing at the edge of ‘being so normal that it’s slightly weird’. She is a church girl. A devout christian who’s faith in Jesus is unshakeable. Despite this, she takes the positive mantra of ‘love thy neighbour’ to heart and is always warm, kind, and ready to give anyone the benefit of the doubt. After all, it is God’s place to judge others, not her own.
She tends to take great care in what she says and will always say with a question or a statement what others might say with a command. She wants others to trust her and be open with her and she is well aware that the nature of her power is an obstacle in this.
Power Classification: Master 3/Stranger 2
Power Description:Faith’s power, which she refers to as ‘commands’, is that any command she makes influences everybody around her who heard the command. The brain naturally has a resistance to foreign ideas, so to total strangers unaware of her ability, any command that goes against that person’s nature is treated more like an intrusive thought by the brain and ignored. Those aware of her power are also unlikely to be swayed as they will naturally be looking out for any command spoken by Faith and will both consciously and subconsciously reject it.
Something that greatly affects the potency of her ability is trust. The more people trust her, the more susceptible they become to her commands. This means that by merely working together, her own teammates will become more vulnerable to obeying her commands as their rapport and team dynamics improve. The true scope and limit of her powers are unknown as most people are naturally guarded and cautious around her, but it’s theorised that her power has the poential to affect the subconscious of a subject who trusts her, or possibly even directly influence bodily functions. (eg. “stop feeling pain”)
Strengths:
Demeanor: Faith is a warm, friendly presence who can reassure people and put them at ease.
Way with words: Due to the care she needs to take with every sentence she utters, Faith can always find the right words for the occasion.
Public speaker: Faith is a confident and inspiring public speaker and as such is a reliable PR representative for the team.
Weaknesses:
Reluctance: Barring serious occasions when something is seriously at stake, Faith does not use her powers lightly.
Untrained: Faith has no combat training or experience. She jogs as a hobby and was a cheerleader briefly so she’s not unfit, but she currently lacks the skills needed to fight the bad guys without her power.
Pacifist: Faith does not like violence. Even if no other solutions present themselves, she has not yet hardened herself to the idea of harming another person, even indirectly.
History:Faith was born into and raised by a middle class Evangelical family on the ‘nicer’ side of Bridgewater. Her father was middle management for some corporation. Her mother worked on the sales team of the same company. That is in fact how they met; at work. Faith had two older brothers, and the whole family were devout christians.
Faith’s life was happy and uneventful right up until high school. One of her best friends was a closeted bisexual and when Faith refused to shun her, rumours began spreading that the two of them were in a relationship. The more Faith stood by her friend and refused to be swayed by peer pressure, the more fuel the gossip received. It all reached a crescendo when her friend was pressured by the class bullies that she in fact had a crush on Faith.
Faith still refused to abandon her friend, even from mounting pressure from her own family, who started to repeatedly question whether Faith was reciprocating those feelings. Her standing in the school was in tatters. Her friend tried to cut contact with Faith just to try to protect the both of them. Faith’s school life became actively miserable. Why couldn’t her friend just talk this out instead of running away? Why couldn’t her family listen to her.
Then, it Triggered.
One day she got into a screaming match with her mother and it all came out. After her tirade about everything that was happening at school, the effect it was having on herself and her friend, and her feelings regarding her own family not believing her own words, she ended the tirade with “please believe me.” And they did. She went to explain things to her father, and he believed her too. Her friend agreed to speak to her again and her classmates agreed to back off. Everyone had….done exactly what she told them to. Life appeared to return to normal but it didn’t take long for Fauth to realise something was very different.
After some experimentation, Faith gained a good understanding of how her power worked,Its applications and limitations. School life appeared to be going well on the surface, but her knowledge that she had artificially created this prosperity prevented her from being able to enjoy it. It was uncanny, and she constantly felt guilty for merely….having friends.
Being a Master/Stranger with the potential to mould the free will of those around her for her own benefit, it wasn’t long until the PRT contacted her. They ‘offered’ her the Cape gig, though the possibility of being taken into custody if she refused was more than implied. She accepted anyway. Being a Hero means being in the position to help people and make their lives better. Was there anything more Christian than that?
