[CHAR] DC Comics: Shattered Justice

[HenryJonesJr]

DC Comics: Shattered Justice
Roster

[Byrd Man]

| Identity |

Oliver Queen/The Green Arrow

| Origin & Backstory |

Playboy Oliver Queen lived a vapid life of pleasure-seeking, never having any aspirations besides the next thrill. The day it all changed was the day he arrived on the island. After being marooned on a remote isle in the South Pacific, Ollie was forced to survive by his wits alone. He soon discovered the island was a hub for heroin production, the native populace being used as slaves. Calling on his past archery skill, Ollie crafted a homemade bow and arrows and drove the criminals from the island, being rescued in the process. Finally motivated, Ollie took up the mantle of the masked archer and became the Green Arrow, protector of Star City.

Today, Oliver works for Star City in two realms. The first is as Green Arrow, the second is as that of City Councilman and philanthropist. Having sold his controlling stake in Queen Industries years ago, Oliver and his son Connor Hawke operate the Papp Street Mission, a non-profit shelter for the homeless of Star City. Ollie successfully ran for city council and now sits on the eight-man governing body for the city.

| Attributes |

Just a man with a bow and trick arrows.

| Character Notes |

NPCs:

Connor Hawke: Ollie's son, also known as Green Arrow
Sergeant John Diggle: Star City PD patrolman, Green Arrow's ally on the police force.
Jimmy Fitzroy: Star City Mayor
Jerry Conklin: President of the city council, leader of the council's conservative faction
Barry Calhoun: Ollie's fellow liberal councilman
Shawna Sanchez: KSTV News reporter

| Character Goals |

I want to tell a political story. Ollie won't really be fighting many costumed bad guys. He'll be tackling men in suits who think they run the world. He'll be doing as much fighting in committee meetings as he'll be doing on the street.

| Sample Post |

The Octopus

"If a free society cannot help the many who are poor, it cannot save the few who are rich."
-- John F. Kennedy

City Hall
Star City, CA

The thick, wooden doors leading into the city council chamber burst open and out rushed Oliver Queen. He wore a black suit three-piece suit with a white shirt and an emerald tie, his usual council meeting attire. Ollie kept his hands in his pocket as he stalked through the halls back towards his office.

"Councilman Queen!"

A small gaggle of reporters chased after him down the corridor. He stopped and turned around. There were a few newspaper men, the lady from Channel 6 with a camera hoisted on her shoulder, and a radio reporter with a handheld voice recorder. Ollie brushed his lapels and took a deep breath as they swooped in on him.

One of the newspaper men spoke first. "We saw you leaving the chamber in a huff. You don't agree with the majority decision."

"Considering I voted against it, Mike, that'd be a no." He winked at the reporter before flashing a grin. "Regular Bob Woodward you are."

A titter went through the group. Now that he had made them laugh, Ollie went on the offensive.

"This franchise tax was one of my key promises when I ran for office, guys. Of course I'm going to be a little sore when I get voted down by short-sighted people who are just worried about reelection. This tax was a step towards the big companies that are slowly working their hooks into Star City"

"Critics of the tax argue that it's a pay to play scenario designed to drown out smaller competitors," the TV lady said.

Ollie thrust a finger forward. "No, it's a tax on the companies who are already making a hefty profit on our city. They big companies have done a fine job drowning out the smaller competitors on their own. They don't need our help."

The radio reporter said, "What do you say to Councilman Conklin's arguments that those companies are responsible for the stability in Star City?"

"They were an asset in a time of peril," said Ollie. "But the time of crisis has passed. We must let regulation and government lead the way. Conklin might be against that seeing as how he was selected as El Dorado Power & Water's Man of the Year this year. The franchise tax would help shift the balance of power back to the government, as will keeping the SCPD away from Thornguard."

The TV reporter asked, "Thornguard Security's work in other towns shows that in six months alone it can be more effective than the Star City PD has ever been. They even promise a drop off in Green Arrow sightings."

Ollie shook his head. "The towns they've worked in before aren't Star City. They're smaller and more affluent and less ethnically diverse. It's easy to police Mayberry. Comparing Thornguard's work in those towns against SCPD statistics is unfair. And to answer your Green Arrow question, with the brutality and excessive violence complaints Thornguard has gotten over the years, I'm sure Green Arrow has already been added to their payroll."

Another laugh from the reporters gave Ollie a chance to wrap up the questions.

"If we allow Thornguard to take over emergency services, then there will be four companies that are dangerously close to running the day to day affairs of this city. We have to scale back their control and influence and make sure its the voice of the people, not the voice of profit margins, are in control of our local government. That's all for now, folks. Thanks."

He held his hands up and backed away from the reporters before turning around and heading up two flights to his office on the third floor. The small space wasn't much to look at it, barely larger than a cubicle and with no window. It was identical to all the council offices. All eight city councilors shared office space on the third floor as well as Doris, a collective secretary. The job was only part-time anyway. Ollie never hung around the place much if there was no need for it, he preferred to be at the mission or on the streets.

Sitting down behind his desk, Ollie kicked his feet up and looked at the wall. Everyone called it his conspiracy board, but it helped him keep track of things. He had the names of all three major companies and what they did for Star City listed with interconnecting lines running between the companies where their duties may overlap. There was:

Hephaestus: Building and road construction
El Dorado Power & Water: Utilities
California Transportation Trust: Mass transit

It was a libertarian's wet dream, a city where private companies provided the lion's share of services with minimal oversight by the municipal government. In theory, the government would get the best services for the cheapest cost. The great business experiment they had called it three years ago when the city council approved it. But so far the great experiment wasn't panning out. The city went with the three companies because they were the only ones who ever placed bids. Anybody who did place a bid ended up pulling out suddenly and one of the other three got the job. The shady nature of the whole affair is why he got back into politics and ran for the city council. So far he was the only person on the council trying to raise awareness. He knew most of the city council and Mayor Fitzroy were getting some sort of support from the companies, but he couldn't prove it.

The overlap between the three companies made it a tangled mess. CTT supplied Hephaestus with the heavy machinery it needed, El Dorado got the power trucks. Hephaestus maintained the roads and rails CTT's buses and trains operated on. And now Thornguard was getting thrown into the mix. Its bids for emergency service was low as anything possible for a privatized police, fire, and paramedic force. Odds on the cars would come from CTT and their facilities would be maintained by Hephaestus. If the Thornguard bill was approved, the four companies would begin to settle over the city like a net and tighten until everyone was so used to their work and rates of pay nobody would argue. And that was when the prices would increase. That's how monopolies worked. Once the octopus got its tentacles in, it flexed them and strangled the life out of its prey. Ollie knew it was wrong on the surface, but something in his gut told him it went deeper. This combination, as shady as it was, had something darker lurking beneath the surface.

He rubbed his head and sighed. Ollie had a plan, more like the makings of a plan, but it was being blocked by the mayor and the rest of the city council. He was just one man against nine others, seven plus the mayor. He'd be checked and outvoted every time. He stood and headed out of his office before the rest of the councilmen got back from the meeting. The powers that be were blocking him, but they sure as hell hadn't counted on the Green Arrow looking into the matter.

[HenryJonesJr]

| Identity |
Kara Zor-El/Kara Kent/Supergirl

| Origin & Backstory |

Argo City

Kara was born to Argo City scientist Zor-El and his wife Alura a decade and a half before the calamity that claimed the planet. Her childhood was uneventful, if not happy. Zor-El and Alura loved their daughter, and she in turn them. She took to her father’s love of science, even if she didn’t have the same aptitude he did, and her mother, a member of the Kryptonian peacekeeping force, instilled in her a strong sense of right and wrong.

Their happy lives were shaken when Zor-El’s brother Jor-El came to warn the other scientist of the impending doom of Krypton. While Jor-El tried in vain to convince the Kryptonian Council of the danger, Zor-El scrambled frantically to try and create a refuge for his city. He succeeded in the nick of time, using some of the villain BRAINIAC’s technology to encase Argo City in a protective bubble. Krypton was gone, but Zor-El had managed to save some of his people.

At least that’s what they thought.

In the two years following Krypton’s destruction, the soil of Argo City began to turn into Kryptonite, poisoning the city’s inhabitants. With a craft that could only hold one passenger and no other choice, Zor-El and Alura sent their daughter to Earth, where her baby cousin Kal-El would be waiting for her. However, she was knocked off course during her journey, delaying her arrival by decades.

2012: Supergirl - Year One

Kara, as a seventeen year old, landed on Earth in 2012. Emerging from her pod with no knowledge of human language or how Earth’s yellow sun would affect her biology, she went on an inadvertent rampage through Europe before being stopped by Wonder Woman and her cousin Kal-El. Kal took her to the Fortress of Solitude, where, using the pod she arrived in and the Fortress’s Kryptonian technology, he explained everything that’s happened to her, and him, since Krypton’s destruction. Kara, after being inspired by her cousin, decided she too wanted to be a hero. Due to this, Superman instructs her to split her time between training in combat with Wonder Woman, and spending time on the Kent farm to learn the human way of life he was raised in.

Kara took to the training on Themyscira like a fish to water. Her new abilities thrilled her as nothing had before. She studied every move that Wonder Woman and the other Amazons taught her carefully until she could replicate them with precision. Soon she was a better pure hand-to-hand combatant than her cousin, even if he was still vastly more powerful.

Her adventures in the “real world” were not as comforting off the bat. While she enjoyed spending time with Ma and Pa Kent, Kara, being Kryptonian, was used to a much more technologically advanced civilization. Life on the farm was often dull for her, especially because her cousin and her new, adoptive Earth “aunt and uncle” refused to allow her to use her powers outside of Themyscira.
That changed when a hole to the Phantom Zone was ripped open, releasing General Zod and his lackies Ursa and Non upon the Earth. In order to stop them, Kal-El bestowed upon Kara a costume of her own, and asked her to join the fight. Using the alias “Supergirl”, she and Superman managed to defeat the three rogue Kryptonians and send them back to the Phantom Zone.

2013:CADMUS

In her second year as a hero, Supergirl encountered the mysterious Project CADMUS and their biological creations. She battled many of the organizations creations alongside the Teen Titans, befriending many of the other young heroes. The Team and her eventually tracked CADMUS to its source, a massive underground laboratory beneath Metropolis. Together, they fought to its center.

There, they found a teenage clone of Superman in a stasis pod. After awakening the clone, it raged against them before being subdued by Supergirl, but not before causing catastrophic damage to the facility. In the end, CADMUS was believed to be destroy, and Kara and Clark were left to deal with Superboy.

The young man decided to take the name “Connor” and stay with the Teen Titans in hope of controlling the rage inside him.

Little did anyone realize, however, that CADMUS was just getting started.

2014: Legion

Kara found herself content at the start of 2014. She was finally at peace with her new home, and even began dating Kaldur’ahm, also known as Aqualad. She was also helping her “cousin” Connor adapt to his life, even if the boy’s anger sometimes got the best of him.

That changed when the Legion of Doom declared war on the Justice League and the world’s heroes. The Legion were ruthless and prepared, attacking multiple major cities at once and thinning the heroes out by doing so. After being pushed to the limit, the League and its allies were able to defeat the Legion, sending its leader Vandal Savage into hiding.

Thanks to her tireless defense of the planet, her cousin and the rest of the League happily welcomed her into the Justice League.

2015: Doomsday

With the war against the Legion in their rearview mirrors, the heroes of Earth attempted to reclaim a sense of normalcy. But public sentiment had began to turn on their actions. The fight against the Legion had cost vast amounts of collateral damage and loss of civilian lives, and people began calling for someone to “Watch the Watchmen” as it were. Riding this new wave of public opinion, Lex Luthor announced his campaign for the presidency, which was backed by huge polling numbers. While this disheartened Kara, she carried on fighting against evil wherever it emerged.

It was also during this time when Kara began working for CatCo Media and Media Mogul Cat Grant. Once an underling of Perry White, Grant started her own media empire on the back of her hard work. Kara now acts as Grant’s assistant, with her unaware of the superhero working in her midst.

Her world came crashing down when Doomsday arrived on Earth. The vicious creature tore through the Justice League International as it made its way towards Metropolis, where Kara engaged it before Superman arrived. Though she begged her cousin to let her help him, a wounded leg and the need to save civilians from the ruined city caused him to refuse. Kara watched in horror as the final blow both Doomsday and Clark landed was their last, and Superman fell to the ground dead.

Kara was now the bearer of the Kryptonian Legacy, and the last true child of Krypton in the universe. It was her responsibility to stand for truth, justice, and the American way.

But she wasn’t sure if she was ready for that.

| Attributes |
As a Kryptonian living under the yellow sun of Earth, Kara is granted vast amounts of super strength, speed, stamina, endurance, invulnerability, flight, super breath, heat vision, super vision, and super hearing.

Kara has also been trained by Wonder Woman in hand-to-hand combat, granting her a fair amount of skill.

| Character Notes |

Main Allies

Wonder Woman - Kara’s remaining mentor and now oldest friend, Wonder Woman helped train Kara and acclimate her to Earth after she arrived. Wonder Woman considers Kara like a little sister to her, and Kara feels the same sisterly bond.
Martian Manhunter - Kara enjoys spending time with the Martian, feeling a kindred spirit in being the last of their kind.
Aqualad - Kaldur’ahm, Aquaman’s sidekick Aqualad, is a member of Young Justice and Kara’s boyfriend.
Jonathan and Martha Kent - Superman’s adoptive parents and Kara’s adoptive Aunt and Uncle, the Kents helped teach Kara how to live among the humans comfortably. She still turns to them for life advice often.
Superboy - A genetic clone of Superman and Supergirls adoptive cousin
Krypto - Superman’s Kryptonian canine who lives at the Fortress of Solitude.
Kelex - Superman’s robotic confidant and caretaker of the Fortress.
Cat Grant - Kara’s boss

Enemies

Lex Luthor - Lex is Superman’s archenemy and CEO of LexCorp. Riding a wave of anti-superhuman sentiment, he is also a strong candidate for the 2016 presidential election.
Project CADMUS - An old enemy, long thought dead, is biding its time and ready to return.

| Character Goals |
Supergirl is a top 5 DC comics character for me thanks to Super TAS and Justice League/JLU. I’ve played her briefly in past games, and have wanted to try my hand at her again. Thanks to the situations presented in this game, she’ll be vulnerable and tested in ways she normally isn’t in DC media, so I’m excited to try my hand at that as well.

| Sample Post |

Metropolis
December 25, 2015
3 AM

Kara Zor-El had heard Krypto’s howls from the moment it happened. That’s the thing about dogs, they always know, even before people did. The old dog’s howls of sadness tore the bandage of shock off Kara’s wound, letting the emotion pour out as she made her way around a ruined downtown Metropolis, trying to find any survivor she could. It was the only thing she could hear as she floated through the city, overturning rubble to reveal choking people. Everything else was a dull, monotone ring, like after standing a bit too close to a firework going off. The civilians she saved cried and hugged her profusely, but she didn’t hear a word they said. She set them down one by one at the emergency triage centers and went for more, barely acknowledging their gratitude.

<Kara,> a soothing voice entered her mind, shaking her out of her malaise. She turned to find J’onn J’onzz, the Martian Manhunter, floating behind her. A gash across his right shoulder dripped with blood, and his left eye was swollen. J’onn had always been a calming presence to Kara, a fellow refugee on the planet. He knew what it meant to be the last of his kind. But tonight was different. There would be no calming the tempest of emotion flowing through her.<We have the situation taken care of. Go. You need to go.>

“Thanks, J’onn,” she replied flatly, choking back the tears. Zooming off towards the Arctic, she just wanted to be alone.

Kara landed at the Fortress of Solitude, hobbling on the leg the creature had injured earlier in the night. It was probably broken, but she couldn’t feel it. She couldn’t feel anything really. Nothing but a void left by the only person who she had a real, true connection to in this world.

[Blue Demon]

| Identity |
Jesse Chambers A.K.A. Jesse Quick

| Origin & Backstory |

Hider

The Origin of all Things
^{The War}

While Jesse wouldn't be born for nearly 50 years, it's important to know where she comes from. In 1911, Jesse's grandmother Bess Lynn is born. Bess was a strong, willful woman. She was ostracized because she didn't act like a female. But that never deterred Bess. She ignored people as they gossiped. Even despite the fact she had married Mr. Lawrence and had a child by the time she was nineteen. The child was named Libby. She was born in 1930. The next year Bess joined the Army at the age of twenty and became Miss Liberty. She even fought in the war effort in the 40s, one of the few women to actually see combat.

Then there was Johnny Chambers. Johnny was born in 1923. When the bombings at Pearl Harbor occurred Johnny was one of the young men in line to join the War. During the war he used his Speed Formula to help fight the Nazi's. It was around that time that he meet Bess Lawrence. The two became friends and they made up a special squad due to their unique abilities.

Start of a New Beginning
^{Marriage and a Daughter}

After the War ended, Johnny retired from the military. He wanted to work on the Speed Formula and discover how it was able to give him super speed. He started a company named Quick Start to fund his research. During this time he married the daughter of Bess, Libby. Young Libby had the same abilities as her mother, but hated them deeply. She had watched her mother be shamed and ostracized for her behavior and vowed to be a good girl. Though she couldn't help but love the charming gentleman, a real war hero.

For a while Libby was perfectly content. In 1955 Johnny and Libby had a daughter they named Jesse.

When Perfect isn't Perfect and Breaks
^{When Jesse's Mom Left}

The marriage of Johnny and Libby had always been rocky. It wasn't built to last. Something Johnny's friend had told him. Libby was too conservative. She hated anything to do with the Speed Formula and her mother's powers. It didn't make it better that little Jesse was exhibiting super strength also. As Johnny pushed his research into research journals and during lectures, Libby became more and more unhappy with her husband.

Things came to a head in the sixties. Libby's and Johnny's marriage came to a screaming end. Libby took Johnny to court and routed him. She took his company and every single dime he was worth. The only thing she left was her daughter, Jesse. Fortunately the toddler didn't remember any of this and her father never told her it was because she had super human strength and that her mother couldn't handle it.

After Libby left Johnny he started a new company; Quickstart Enterprises. Libby had shut down Quick Start, but had retained the copyright on the name so Johnny couldn't use it.

Destiny is a Bitch
^{Jesse Rebels}

Jesse grew up hearing stories of the War. Her father regaled them to her over and over. Stories of Miss Liberty and Max Mercury and Johnny Quick. And she couldn't have enough. He even bought her comics of a hero called Jay Garrick, The Flash. Her father had liked to joke that Jay was modeled after him. He always kept his identity a secret to the public during the war and after. Still he maintained that somehow Garrick was his fictional counterpart. Jesse had just rolled her eyes, much to her father's chagrin.

Jesse's desire to follow in his footsteps reached a damper as she tried to reconnect with her mother in her teen years. Libby hadn't wanted anything to do with her daughter and finally finding out the truth drove Jesse into a depression. She had tried to cope, as all teenagers do, by taking it out on her father. She blamed her dad for her mother's hate. Those years soured the girl against anything superhero related.

Jesse tossed all her The Flash comics and stopped listening to her father's stories. She ran off to college at the age of 18 just to escape the pressure her father was putting on her to follow in his footsteps. Her father had taken back up with the JSA while she was away. Unfortunately for Jesse the pressure increased when she graduated from University in '78.

Running With the Justice Society
^{See Jesse Run}

Jesse finally succumbed to her father's desires in the 80s. For a short time she was apart of the JSA. Taking a leaf out of her father's book she called herself Jesse Quick. Like her father she kept her real identity a secret. Despite herself she found her time with the JSA enjoyable. She made fast friends with the members and they became something of a surrogate family. By the time the 90s start to roll around, Jesse thinks she's found where she can be happy.

Johnny Dies at the End
^{Jesse Becomes a CEO}

But happiness never lasts. In '93 on August 3rd at 0300, Johnny died. Jesse doesn't like to talk about it, or even hear about it, but it happened. Johnny had died saving Jesse's life. The only blessing was he merged right with the speed force so she didn't have to see him die horribly. Johnny was only 70, but he looked like he was still in his 30s.

After her father was declared legally dead, Jesse took over Quickstart Enterprises, giving up Jesse Quick. It was an action she found far harder to do than she thought. Due to her father's death she finally had what she wanted when she was younger, the company. But now it was bitter sweet. The new CEO felt lost and too young for the responsibilities thrust upon her slim shoulders. She was only in her 30s with no experience. The next few years were incredibly difficult. Without the support of her friends Jesse never would have made it.

As the years grew long, Jesse slowly aged with her company. Her father's research was still going strong. Though at this point it was all theoretical because Jesse wouldn't take part. She did remember the cheers from the scientists as they heard news of a man calling himself The Flash in central city. She knew they solicited him for help in their research since Jesse refused. Last she had heard was that there might be a tentative agreement.

Jesse's Final Run
^{Return of the Quick}

Now in her 60s, Jesse has taken back up the mantle of Jesse Quick in the wake of Superman's death. In lieu of her decision she has made Seth Roth acting CEO in her place.

| Attributes |
Jesse inherited her powers from both her parents.

Super Speed: When Jesse recites an ancient speed formula it allows her access to the speed force. She can run at superhuman speeds and also has the increased capacity to react at those speeds.

Flight:What Jesse does might make it look like she's flying. But it's more like "inverse flight". She runs so fast she's able to travel faster than escape-velocity and thus leave the surface of the earth.

Decelerated Aging: Thanks to the speed formula Jesse uses, she ages slowly compared to normal people. At her current rate, she appears to be about half her age. It's not known how long she'll live since her father didn't die of old age.

Super Strength: Jesse is able to lift heavy objects with ease. While she can't bench press planets, she can lift tons straight over her head. She isn't able to life things like battle cruisers or skyscrapers.

| Character Notes |

Speed Formula: 3x2(9yz)4a

QSE Location: San Francisco, CA

Family:

Bess Lynn - Miss Liberty (Justice Society of America) Died in 1984 at 73 years old. Jesse's Grandmother.
Johnny Chambers - Johnny Quick (Justice Society of America) Died in 1993 in his 60s. Now apart of the Speed Force.
Libby Lawrence - Liberty Bell (Justice Society of America) Currently 86. Retired and in a nursing home.
Philip Geyer - Libby's second husband. Lives with Libby.

Quickstart Enterprises:

Seth Roth - Current acting CEO of QSE
Rick Tyler - Head of Advertising
Sarah Smith - Jesse's personal secretary
Name Here - Info Here

Others

Professor Gill - The Professor who had discovered the Speed Formula and taught it to Johnny.
Max Mercury - This was the man who helped train Johnny, Jesse's father. She never meet the man, but she grew up hearing stories all about him.
JSA Memembers - Jesse keeps in contact with the JSA.
The Flash - Makes his home in Central City.

Rogues:

None. She's been out of the business too long to have any Rogues.

Front view of costume

| Character Goals |

• Get Jesse back into the game. The old gal's ben out of the gig for a few years, and I'd like to see how she conforms to the new Status Quo with the Justice League.
• I'd also like to see her make it onto one of the teams, maybe even become someone people rely on.
• Lastly, I'd like to see her struggle with juggling her company and the superhero life.

| Sample Post |

Hider

Jesse was never a very emotional woman. Being in your sixties tends to temper your emotions. Even in her younger years the only emotions she'd ever show were things like determination and stubbornness. The only exception is when her father died. It was made doubly more emotional because he sacrificed his life for hers. And even that was over thirty years ago. Yet, when she watched Doomsday come to earth and fight Superman, she was just as afraid as anyone else.

Christmas eve was supposed to be a time for celebration. It was something that Quickstart Enterprises endorsed. They offered paid vacation for all employees from the 23rd of December to the 27th. Those who are not Christian could get different days off. For example, those who practice Hinduism and celebrated Pancha Ganapati got the 21st to the 25th off. Of course Hanukkah didn't have any set days by the Gregorian calendar, it was decided what days they'd have off at the beginning of each year. This year is had begun on the 6th. Still QSE had sent their Jewish workers home to celebrate the holidays for the 24th and 25th.

No one was supposed to be at QSE. Not even Jesse. When the news broke about Doomsday Jesse had sat in her office and stared out the window, listening. The news played on every station and was all over the internet. It became a senseless blur as she listened to the bow-by-blow news cast.

Superman was ducking it out with the creature the news called Doomsday. Jesse's stomach is still doing gymnastics from the news of the Justice League International. The idea that Doomsday had ripped through them like tissue paper was hard to swallow. As the news report continued Jesse closed her eyes and offered up a prayer to whomever was listening. Jesse was a self proclaimed atheist, but now seemed a good time to see if anyone was listening.

Jesse finally snapped out of her numb horror as the news caster she was listening too fell silent. Jesse turned back to the large screen on her wall. A lone camera man was leaning out of a helicopter, had to in order to get that shot, and filming something. Jesse found herself standing and moving closer to the screen.

Everything was eerily quiet. Nothing was visible, dust was covering everything. Jesse was with the world as they watched with baited breath.

When the dust cleared it was obvious why there was no movement. Jesse found herself on her knees, cry as she hadn't done in ages. As she cried she thought of her father, who had died to save her. Superman had died to save them all. Jesse still remembered when he first came out. An Alien. He had been feared, even respected. But never human. And he had done this thing for them.

As she kneeled on her office floor on Christmas day she thought about her father. She thought about Superman. And she thought about her life. When she finally pulled herself off the floor she had decided that it was time for Jesse Quick to return to action. It was time to stop hiding from her father's legacy; from her destiny. It was time to become who she was meant to be.

"3x2(9yz)4a." The old formula still came easily to her. In a flash she was gone from the office.

[Dblade26]

Captain Marvel!

| Identity |
Billy Batson, AKA:
The Big Red Cheese
Earth's Mightiest Mortal
Captain Marvel!

History!

| Origin & Backstory |
Astounding Origins!
infant Billy Batson was left on the steps of a Fawcett City Orphanage in 2003, alone in the world save for the basket and blanket he was wrapped up in, and even his name wasn't left with him, instead chosen due to an alphabetical naming system the man managing the orphanage had devised for similar occasions. Despite this rather Dickensian beginning, Billy Batson never lost hope that his life would improve for the better and in 2012 it definitively did, though not in the way he expected. For that was the year that Billy Batson suddenly found himself visited by the ancient wizard Shazam. the aged mystic told Billy that he would soon die and needed someone to carry a portion of his great mythical powers onward. Thus due to his eternal optimism and pure heart, Billy Batson had been chosen to wield the powers of Shazam's ancient contract with the six powers whom his name represented and serve as a champion of good in the world as Captain Marvel, if he chose to accept. At first just wanting to comfort and help out someone he presumed to be a senile old man and ignoring the fact that the Wizard already knew his name, Billy accepted.

It was only when the madman known as Dr.Sivana attacked Billy's orphanage to hold the orphans hostage with an army of killer robots a few days later that Billy remembered the old man's deal. Shouting out 'Shazam!' for the first time, nine-year-old Billy Batson assumed the form of Captain Marvel and quickly dispatched the robots in a battle that lead to Sivana's arrest, marking the beginning of both his career as a superhero and his enmity with the insane scientist. Shazam was able to pass on from the mortal world in content in finding a new hero, though a ghostly copy of him remained in his lair at the Rock of Eternity to advise Billy on any matters the Wisdom of Solomon could not. Together they battled the machinations of Sivana and they occasional unknowable intruder from realms beyond mortal ken for the first year of Billy's career.

Amazing Adventures!
In 2013 Billy's wish to have a home finally came true as he was taken in along with his new foster siblings Freddy Freeman and Mary Bromfield. Finally out of the orphanage and with a family of his own life seemed pretty good for young Billy Batson, even with the occasional aside to stop the machinations of one scheming scientist. But Billy still had a lot to learn about what it really meant to be a hero. The painful lesson began innocently enough with the rise of former WWII Nazi Super Soldier Captain Nazi after his storage chamber was transported to Fawcett City by Dr. Sivana, who was attempting to recreate the Nazis super soldier serum for his own uses. But during the battle with the revived Captain Nazi, Freddy was severely injured. Although Captain Nazi was defeated, Freddy never fully recovered and lost the ability to walk without crutches. Billy shouldered all of the blame and threw himself even harder into life as a superhero, truly realizing for the first time that it was hardly all fun and giant robot fights.

Sadly this was probably a lesson that needed learning, as newer and even more dangerous enemies began to plague Fawcett City after Captain Nazi's defeat. The humanity-hating android Mister Atom was next to threaten Billy's home, and only failed in turning Fawcett City into a smoldering crater after a fierce battle with Captain Marvel ended in his being trapped as nothing but a head in a tomb of lead deep beneath the city. Worse yet, during their battle beneath the city they damaged the ancient resting place of King Kull, who had been sealed away in a state of suspended animation in a subterranean cavern the pair did battle in. Kull subsequently attempted to rule Fawcett City as the beginning of his own Subman Empire, using a mix of ingenious technology and his superhuman strength to nearly overpower Earth's Mightiest Mortal. The appearance of the half-demon twins Blaze and Satanus, children of the wizard Shazam, was almost enough to defeat Billy. It was only after the two were scorched by the purity of his soul that they retreated, vowing revenge.

But the worst was yet to come. Specifically, it was the arrival of a Venusian mind-worm known as Mr.Mind that both presented Captain Marvel with his greatest challenge and catapulted him into the spotlight. Mr.Mind crashed into Fawcett City on a meteorite, one found by the maniacal Doctor Sivana. But the diabolical parasite was too much for the mad man, dominating his mind. Learning of the threat to his future rule over this new world that was Captain Marvel, Mr.Mind set about using Sivana to gather together the other enemies of Captain Marvel including digging Mister Atom out of his prison and having King Kull and Sivana build him a massive worm-shaped battle machine piloted by Captain Nazi. The subsequent group declared itself the Monster Society of Evil, and with Mr.Mind using a broadcast from the Battle-Worm to control the minds of every person in Fawcett City, they vowed to destroy Captain Marvel and rule the world.

Only Billy was spared from the mind control effect thanks to the Courage of Achilles, and he proceeded to fight the toughest battle of his young life. It nearly destroyed him to fight five of his most dangerous enemies at the same time while they used every person he had ever known as minions and human shields, but in the end he was able to prevail without a single life lost. News of the incident apparently spread fairly far, for that very same year Captain Marvel was invited to join the Justice League International. Billy was naturally ecstatic! As a hero, he had finally made it to the big time!

From then on he fought not just his own battles but those of the Justice League when he was needed. He got to rub elbows with heroes he had only heard about or idolized from afar, including Superman, the person on whom he had based much of his persona and efforts! Once again it seemed like he was living the dream, except an even bigger, better dream!

Doomsday
The JLI encountered the monster first, they were there as the first line of defense when it landed, when its' rampage towards Metropolis began. Captain Marvel was the team's big gun or so he thought, one of the heaviest hitters they had. If nothing else, he lasted longer than most before the creature knocked him clean through two building filled city blocks and shoved his head into a massive turbo-generator.

When he came to, it was already too late. He was devastated. One of the greatest heroes ever to live and a personal idol, gone. Others mourned, blamed themselves, maybe reevaluated their lives. Not Billy Batson. Billy Batson got to work. He journeyed to the Rock of Eternity and set up Shazam's oracular Historama to begin searching for all the potential horrors and disasters that might take place with the absence of Superman and then set out trying to stop them. The Wisdom of Solomon already told him it wouldn't be enough, but it was what Superman would have wanted. At least that was what Billy insisted to himself as he left Shazam's lair.

Since then Billy Batson hasn't been Billy Batson, instead staying as Captain Marvel full time. He's been working without food, without sleep, without even a minute's rest, continuously righting every wrong he can right in every place he can manage. He's saved countless lives in the days since, but slowly his own is starting to slip away from him.

| Attributes |

Powers!

Billy Batson is empowered by the Wizard Shazam with the abilities of divine entities contracted to Shazam in order to be a mystical champion of good. Whenever he shouts 'Shazam!' a bolt of magical lightning strikes him and transforms him into Captain Marvel, Earth's Mightiest Mortal! Due to the guiding influence of the Wisdom of Solomon and his own relatively peaceful and kindhearted nature Billy has never pushed his powers to their fullest and does not know their full extent himself. His powers include:

The Wisdom of S.olomon
As Captain Marvel, Billy has magically enhanced superhuman levels of intelligence and wisdom along with access to the majority of the world's scholarly knowledge as well as knowledge of a divine and magical nature. The Wisdom also allows him to speak any language and typically act in a manner far wiser than any child his age though his personality is still there. Thanks to the influence of the Wisdom of Solomon Billy generally tries to resolve most conflicts through more peaceful and diplomatic means, though it also gives him a brilliant tactical, mystical and scientific intellect equal to that of the brightest minds and most cunning sorcerers on the planet to use against those who would do evil. Lastly although he usually finds it distasteful to utilize at all, the Wisdom of Solomon also gives him the ability to hypnotize others.

The Strength of H.ercules
As Captain Marvel, Billy's strength is magically enhanced to extraordinary levels, truly making him worthy of his title as Earth's Mightiest Mortal. The Strength of Hercules suffuses his every muscle with divine might and has made him capable of feats including arm-wrestling Superman and lifting a space shuttle one-handed with relative ease. However, Captain Marvel has never tested his strength to its' full extent and his own personality plus the Wisdom of Solomon tend to cause him to hold back most of the time and place limits on himself, especially in combat.

The Stamina of A.tlas
As Captain Marvel, Billy is capable of incredible feats of endurance few other humans can match. His body is composed entirely of the magical energies of Shazam's power and as such he's theoretically ageless and undying so long as he does not turn back into Billy Batson. Of more typical use, the Stamina of Atlas means he never needs to eat, breathe, sleep or even rest as long as he continues to push himself, and his magically constructed body is invulnerable to all but the strongest of forces.

The Power of Z.eus
The Lightning of Zeus plays a key role in Billy's powers and transformation, as its mythical energies form his body as Captain Marvel when he transforms. As his body is a magical construct, Captain Marvel is highly resistant to all magical effects and forms of attack. Since it is the main source of his powers, Captain Marvel is able to manipulate and generate the divine lightning on command for a variety of effects and attacks. If necessary he can also re-constitute his Captain Marvel form to heal it of all injuries it may incur, though doing so leaves him vulnerable and risks exposing his identity. Likewise he can call down even more powerful magical energies by invoking the same type of bolt he uses to transform and then dodging it, though it can be used against him to make him change back to Billy Batson. Via concentrating and sort of using the lightning in reverse, he can also transport himself to the Rock of Eternity, source of his power and former lair to the wizard Shazam.

The Courage of A.chilles
The Courage of Achilles gives Captain Marvel an almost inexhaustible wellspring of willpower from which to draw on, which combined with Billy Batson's innate optimism and belief in good has the potential to make him an unbreakable beacon of Hope. More concretely, it also protects his mind from all mental assaults and nefarious influences and gives him a certain amount of innate fighting skill and combat ability, which combined with the Wisdom of Solomon could potentially make him a fairly dangerous and tactically adept opponent if he ever let go of his limits.

The Speed of M.ercury
The Speed of Mercury gives Captain Marvel not only the power of flight but truly immense speed to go with it. Although Captain Marvel occasionally says that he's faster than lightning for theatrical effect-about 1/3rd the speed of light in some estimates-and has dodged his own lightning to prove it, His true top speed is unknown even to him. He has moved with enough speed to generate tornadoes or even change the Earth's weather patterns through the manipulation of air currents and is just as fast on foot as he is in the air. His reflexes are likewise magically enhanced and his perceptions can speed up to match. That said, he has to be careful not to go all-out on Earth, lest the effects of his speed damage the environment around him.

The Historama
A unique power of the Rock of Eternity usually manifested in the form of a large tome, the Historama can show its user almost anything it is ordered to throughout time, space and even different dimensions. It functions somewhat like a stereotypical crystal ball, displaying on its pages whatever it is told to through the command words 'Historama, show me...'. As such despite its' powers, one at least needs to know the sort of things one is looking for in order to best use it and the Historama won't act on its' own even to show things the user might NEED to see.

| Character Notes |
I've already mentioned Freddy, Mary, Sivana and the other rogues in the Bio, so I don't think I'll elaborate on them here! Instead hopefully I'll get to show off Billy's little corners of the universe in-game!

| Character Goals |
Well partially I want to inject ultimately well-meaning hammy, cheesy fun into the RP courtesy of the Big Red Cheese himself. But hijinks aside I also want to explore how Billy Batson comes to terms with his power and potential as Captain Marvel, especially with a big blue Superman shaped void in the world. The loss of one of the biggest heroes around will probably effect a kid like Billy in some interesting ways and hopefully help him mature into a better hero as time goes on with the right influences. I'm also looking forward to playing around with his rogues and naturally establishing his place in the shared universe while writing fun, interesting stories with everyone else naturally. Getting into the more mystical side of things could definitely be interesting too, depending on how things go and considering the wider DC comics cosmology.

| Sample Post |

Post!

It was a beautiful day in this particularly lovely part of the Philippines! The sun was shining, the sky was blue, there was even a warm tropical breeze blowing in! Yes, really nothing could be more idyllic than the day experienced by this little village nestled around mountain and farmland...

Well, if it weren't for the fact that the 'mountain' was a currently erupting volcano threatening the entire area and its' inhabitants. That probably put something of a damper on the day. Actually, it was really less of a 'peaceful sunshine and birdsong' sort of a day than it was an 'impending rain of fiery ash and villagers screaming' sort of a day. Especially given that a fast-flowing river of lava was currently headed toward the edges of town in a way that no amount of running or hiding under corrugated tin roofs was likely to solve.

Fortunately, just as the lava's heat was about to overtake the nearest civilian fleeing from volcano-interrupted farm work, a red blur whizzed all throughout the village and surrounding area and before the terrified farmer could blink he and the entire population of his barangay were suddenly surveying the scene from a much more comforting distance.

What had just happened? Who was responsible for their salvation?

"Sa awa ng Diyos!"
"Hindi! Sa awa ni Flash!"

Regardless, the same mysterious blur proceeded to carve out a massive trench in front of the lava, safely diverting it from the villagers' homes and ensuring it would be filled back in by cooling volcanic rock. This feat of instant one-being construction work caused considerable ooh-ing and aah-ing from the onlookers, only for a cheerful voice to boom out moments later in surprisingly fluent Filipino:

<<Never fear good citizens! I, Captain Marvel, am here to shield you from this pyrotechnic peril!~>>

Yes it was Captain Marvel, Earth's Mightiest Mortal! He struck his most heroic pose in front of the crowd, floating there with white cape flaring, lightning-bolt symbol gleaming on his chest, red costume bright in the afternoon sunlight! Truly an inspiring figure in these dark times, or so he hoped!

"Kapitan Sino?"

But before there was time for further theatrics the massive volcano blew its' top, sending a massive plume of roiling hot ash and rock charging down toward the once again terrified onlookers. With the speed of Mercury Captain Marvel flung himself into action. Racing around as fast as he could he whirled the air into a frenzied miniature tornado that sucked the ash cloud up high into the sky. Later, air currents properly guided by his flight would let it cool the local atmosphere just enough to prevent a super-typhoon from forming a week from now before it landed to fertilize some badly depleted farmlands, or so his oracular Historama and the Wisdom of Solomon told him. Racing up into the spinning stream of debris he carefully plucked the numerous smoldering pyroclasts from the whirlwind, the stamina of Atlas letting him endure their heat with ease. Not only would they no longer threaten anyone, but with proper application of his super-strength they could be formed into obsidian and used in specialized scalpels for medical research.

Thus did Captain Marvel descend from the atmosphere, a big smile on his face as he held an armful of burning hot volcanic rocks like a pile of cuddly wayward kittens. It was only a second too late that he realized that the gasps of the onlooking villagers weren't out of admiration but fear, as a last massive boulder the size of a mini-van hurtled at the Big Red Cheese. Luckily it hardly took the strength of Hercules to catch it one handed completely unharmed. This boulder...well, he actually had no plans for the boulder. But just so it wouldn't go to waste he set it down next to the cooling moat of lava and carved a warning sign into it in several locally used languages with a finger, just in case some local children decided the big glowing river would be fun to play around. He knew that sort of temptation well enough himself, naturally. After Captain Marvel was sure the day was saved he departed as quickly as he arrived, off to find another disaster to stop or wrong to right!

After all, if Captain Marvel was always busy saving people, then Billy Batson would never have time to think about the people he hadn't saved. He had already been at it for two whole days and had no intention of stopping. Because with a body composed purely of Zeus' power, Captain Marvel never needed to stop and sleep, or eat, or even rest for a minute. Better yet, with the Courage of Achilles to bolster him, Captain Marvel was always cheery, always hopeful and able to fight the good fight, never once doubting himself in the cause of Justice!

on the other hand, it didn't take the Wisdom of Solomon to see that ever since Superman's death, Billy Batson wasn't nearly so sure.

[Morden Man]

| Identity |

Detective Richard “Dick” Grayson, better known as the masked vigilante Nightwing.

| Origin & Backstory |

Dick Grayson became the ward of Bruce Wayne shortly after his parents, John and Mary Grayson, were murdered by the mobster Tony Zucco over a failed attempt to extort money from the circus that the Flying Graysons belonged to. Wayne would train Grayson’s body and mind to help him channel the rage he felt as his parent’s murder into something productive: becoming Batman’s teenaged sidekick, Robin.

Batman and Robin would have many adventures over the years and Dick would prove his prowess as a leader and crime-fighter in his own right whilst leading the Teen Titans. Against Bruce’s wishes Dick chooses to strike out on his own, renouncing the name Robin, and taking up the mantle “Nightwing” after a Kryptonian superhero Superman once told him about.

Dick relocates to the neighbouring city of Blüdhaven and Nightwing becomes the city’s protector by night. During the day Dick polices the streets of Blüdhaven from within Blüdhaven Police Department’s homicide department. The two roles often cross over and Dick follows up those investigations he can’t solve as Detective Dick Grayson as Nightwing.

| Attributes |

Dick is a world-class gymnast, the only person in the world capable of a quadruple somersault, and an Olympic level athlete through over two decades of vigorous training. Dick is also a master of at least a dozen martial arts, rivaling Bruce Wayne in his proficiency at hand to hand combat, whilst adopting a more acrobatic, Aikido-centric style that makes use of his unparalleled gymnastic abilities.

On top of his physical skills, Dick is one of the world’s preeminent deductive minds. Though not quite the detective that Bruce Wayne is, Dick’s many years of tutelage beneath Bruce in criminology, stealth, and disguise. He puts these skills to use on a daily basis working at Blüdhaven’s Police Department on crime scenes, in the interrogation room, and out on Blüdhaven’s streets.

Foremost amongst Dick’s attributes though is his leadership ability. It has been noted by Superman himself that Dick Grayson is the finest leader that the DC Universe has to offer and his time leading the Teen Titans and Young Justice has made him an excellent field leader and manager of people. He has an easy, jovial manner that puts people at ease and earns him the trust of strangers almost without trying. It’s that nature, more so than his physical capabilities or his deductive skill, that makes Dick Grayson and Nightwing a force to be reckoned with.

| Character Notes |

What more is there to say? Dick’s a great character, capable of inspiring others in the direst of situations, and given the events that lead into this game, he’ll be more needed than ever before. In the comic books Dick has a relationship with Superman that is very different to his relationship with Bruce. Bruce can seem aloof, disinterested, and overly critical at the best of times where Clark is more openly nurturing and considerate. It’s Clark that gives Dick the idea for his name, after all, and I think with Clark gone Dick will feel a responsibility to fill that void as best he can. To provide some light and hope to a world that otherwise might feel lost.

Allies

Bruce Wayne/Batman - Dick's currently estranged friend, mentor, and adoptive father.
Alfred Pennyworth - The Batman family's emotional core. The nurture to Bruce's nature.
Barbara "Babs" Gordon/Oracle - Dick's on again/off again girlfriend and first love.
Wally West/Kid Flash - Dick's best friend, former Teen Titan and Young Justice member.
Roy Harper/Arsenal - One of dick's closest friends, former Teen Titan and Young Justice member.
Koriand'r/Starfire - Dick's friend and sometime love interest, former Teen Titan and Young Justice member.
Detective Amy Rohrbach - Dick's partner at Blüdhaven PD.

Enemies

Slade Wilson/Deathstroke - mercenary that Dick has tangled with numerous times.
Harvey Dent/Two-Face - Once beat Dick near to death with a baseball bat, always dangerous.
Roland Desmond/Blockbuster - Blüdhaven's most dangerous crime boss.
Catalina Flores/Tarantula - Blüdhaven-based vigilante that doles out lethal justice.
The Joker - crippled Barbara Gordon and killed Jason Todd. Ever the wildcard.

| Character Goals |

I really want to put Nightwing at the center of the game. It’s where he is in the comic book universe because of his ties to so many teams and so many people. With the Teen Titans, Young Justice, Batman, and his relationship with Superman there really isn’t anyone that Dick hasn’t brushed shoulders with. He’s really going to take it on himself to try to keep people hopeful, to keep them optimistic and unafraid, despite Superman’s passing.

As Detective Grayson I’ll have Dick going through the more procedural side of crime fighting. Sure, he’ll be catching cases through the Blüdhaven Police Department that he’ll be forced to follow up with as Nightwing when they hit a wall but as Dick I want to show the human side of the crimes he’s investigating and the human cost.

| Sample Post |

Schizo

Waterloo Docks, Blüdhaven

New Year’s Day in Blüdhaven means one thing and one thing only: bodies. New Year’s Eve was one of the busiest days of the years. Dick Grayson had learned from last year to expect a heavy workload in January as the corpses of drunken revelers were found in vacant buildings, doorways, and alleyways across Blüdhaven. Some would slip and crack their heads on the sidewalk, others choke on their own vomit after drinking too much, but the worst were the homeless that died of the cold as Auld Lang Syne echoed through the city’s streets. It was bad enough last year being called out to discern which of the stiffs would come back murders but there was something about this year that made it even worse. The celebrations had been so muted, so downtrodden, because of what had happened to Superman and the other heroes that had lost their lives fighting Doomsday. The thought of some poor guy or girl freezing to death whilst out on New Year’s Eve, determined to have a good time despite everything, made Dick depressed.

They were putting him in the ground this afternoon. Superman. The man that had given the whole world over hope. It still hadn’t quite sunk in for Dick and he wasn’t sure it would ever sink in. He wasn’t sure what he’d do without Bruce or Alfred, even thinking about it had his stomach in knots, but Superman was Superman for christ’s sake. He’d be there, of course, there was no way he couldn’t be there given his relationship with Clark but he wasn’t sure he’d be able to accept it. Not even once they’d put him in the ground. Instead Dick had decided to throw himself into the morning of sorting through the dead to take his mind off of things. As morbid as that was.

Dick sauntered up to the abandoned warehouse and climbed its rotten stairs to the crime scene. He found his partner Amy Rohrbach knelt beside the body of what looked to be a vagrant. The sodden wood beneath his feet creaked loudly as he walked towards Amy and she looked round at him with a scowl.

“You’re late, Grayson.”

“Give me a break, would you? It’s been a long week,” Dick said as he knelt beside her and inspected the vagrant. “What do we have? Crack?”

With the tip of a pen Amy reached down and lifted one of the empty vials scattered around the body and frowned in its direction. “Doesn’t look like it.”

Amy was good police. She was one of the few police officers in Blüdhaven that wasn’t on the take. She was a hard woman, that was for sure, but a fair one all the same. She’d taught Dick the ropes and showed him no favour despite it being well known around the station that Dick had been Bruce Wayne’s ward. Some of the other officers had given Dick stick about it and he’d taken it in good humour but Amy had never once mentioned it. All that mattered to her was the work. She was serious about cleaning up Blüdhaven.

The first hurdle would be the drugs. Blüdhaven had been a prosperous docking town once but the world had long since left it behind. There was nothing left here but drugs and crime. Even Blüdhaven’s sports teams were god-awful. Organised crime had seeped into every facet of public life in Blüdhaven and there always seemed to be some new drug out there on the streets. The orangey-brown residue that stained the victim’s mouth and had collected around the rim of the vial was unfamiliar to Dick.

He gestured to the victim’s mouth. “Any idea what this stuff is?”

“Don’t ask me,” Amy said with a shrug of her shoulders as she set the vial down. “We’ll send it off to the lab and see what exactly our John Doe took.”

Dick rolled his eyes at that. “The Lab” was where cases went to die in Blüdhaven Police Department. Evidence regularly went missing, results for testing often took months when they should have taken weeks, and Dick was certain that someone in the BPD crime lab was on the payroll. It was a theory he’d not had time to investigate fully given everything that was happening but he was sure as hell that he wasn’t going to leave this one to the whims of “The Lab” again.

He stood up and took a look out of the warehouse’s window over at the skinny, blemished figure of a man that had been lurking around since before Dick had arrived. He had all the hallmarks of a man that was well acquainted with the needle. If someone knew what the hell was in those vials, it would be him. Dick skipped across the floors of the warehouse towards the stairs without a word to Rohrbach.

By the time he was halfway down the stairs he heard her voice calling out to him. “Where the hell are you going?”

Dick was halfway across the road before the junkie had spotted him. He was rail thin, no taller than five foot eight, and there was no way he weighed more than one hundred and twenty pounds. Dick could see the puncture wounds up and down his arms where the man had prodded needle after needle. His eyes were sunken, his teeth were yellowed and cracked, and there were welts all across his face.

As Dick drew within a few feet of him the man lifted his hands into the air peacefully. “I don’t want no trouble, man.”

“Relax, I’m not here to bust your balls,” Dick said with a disarming smile. “You know the guy laid dead up there, right? He’s a friend of yours or something? You’ve been skulking around out here since before I got here, so he must mean something to you.”

To the untrained eye the micro-movements that flashed across the man’s face as he spoke might have gone unnoticed but Dick’s eye was far from untrained. He’d spent the best part of his adult life under the tutelage of the world’s greatest detective. He spotted the flickers of doubt, the uncertainty to the junkie’s attempts to retain some air of stoicism, and they told Dick everything he needed to know before the junkie had even opened his mouth to speak.

As he did so he shrugged his shoulders with a practiced nonchalance that might have been convincing if not for the shakes. “Might be.”

“You got a name for me?” Dick said as he pulled a notepad and pen from the inside of his navy suit. “Any idea what was in those vials?”

The junkie smiled wryly and rubbed his fingers together greedily. “It’s going to cost you.”

“What?” Dick said as he reached for his wallet in his trouser pocket. “Friendship’s not enough?”

In the front of Dick’s wallet was a picture of Dick and his parents in their Flying Grayson days and beside it was a smaller picture of Barbara Gordon. He smiled gently as he laid his eyes on the picture of his parents and then rifled around in his wallet in search of a note to hand to the junkie.

“No sir, not on these streets, it’s not.”

He passed it to him and the junkie held the note up in the air to inspect it before shoving it into the back pocket of the stained beige shorts he wore.

“I don’t know his full name but I know his first name was Reggie, went to school over on Freemont. They call that shit he took Schizo, has a motherfucker talking to themselves, happy one minute and angry the next, but boy does that high feel higher than any motherfucking high I ever felt before. Looks like Reggie rode that high a little further than he shoulda’ done.”

Dick jotted down the name of the drug and pushed the notepad back into the inside pocket of his suit. “Schizo, huh? Catchy.”

The junkie sauntered away and Dick stood there on the sidewalk of Waterloo Docks alone. He watched as the man faded out of view and thought back to where he’d been exactly a year ago. If memory served, he’d been over some vagrant in a doorway in Avalon Hill that had died in the night with the needle still hanging out of his arm. Not much had changed since then. Blüdhaven was still corrupt, drugs were still tearing the city apart, and Dick was still struggling to make the slightest difference. Now Superman was gone what hope did Dick have? If he failed how could Dick succeed? How could anyone succeed?

Dick gritted his teeth, pulled the notepad from within his suit pocket again, and drew a ring around the word “Schizo” with a determined scowl.

He was going to succeed, no matter the odds, he was going to clean Blüdhaven of the filth that had been allowed to do business without care for far too long, and he was going to make sure next New Year’s there’d be no more Reggies because the pushers ran this goddamn city.

And he was going to start with whoever the hell was behind Schizo.

[Lord Wraith]

_{"I got lightning running through my veins, Ain't nobody gonna stop this train, So hop on board, or get out the way!"}

| IDENTITY: |

Bartholomew Henry 'Barry' Allen

aka

The Fastest Man Alive
The Scarlet Speedster
The Crimson Comet
The Blur
The Streak
The Flash

| ORIGIN & BACKSTORY: |

1989-2000 | LEARN TO BREATHE:
^{"Being a hero isn't always about how fast you can run, it's about helping however you can, wherever you're needed most."
-Nora Allen}

Born October 8^th to loving parents Henry and Nora Allen, Bartholomew Allen was born two weeks late in the small midwestern town of Fallville, Iowa. The lateness of Barry's birth only foreshadowed his bad habit of always being late. Not long after his birth, Henry was offered an esteemed position at the Central City Hospital prompting the family to move from their farm into the city.

During Barry's childhood, the relationship between Nora and Henry wasn't going well. It was during this time that Barry found himself retreating from the world and immersing himself in numerous books both fictional and non-fictional. In this retreat, he took refuge in the pages of a comic-book called 'The Flash'. The Flash was a man named Jay Garrick, a scientist by day and a superhero by night.

Thanks to Jay Garrick's adventures, Barry loved science from an early age, specifically chemistry. He won first place in the Fallville County Fair Agricultural Competition, which would encourage him to continue his academic skills. Despite this, Barry's mother Nora was struggling to encourage him, her relationship with Henry wasn't going well since moving to Central City. Struggling to find substantial work, Nora ended up working double shifts at a local diner and had decided to try to get a divorce from Henry.

At the age of eleven, Barry had decided to participate in a spelling bee at the school. It was on this same day that Henry received the divorce papers on the day of the spelling bee, and because Nora had to work, he seethed and took Barry to school. When Nora returned from work, she was happy to see that her son had won the competition, but she was obligated to speak to Henry about their relationship, and so Barry was sent to bed early. Awoke in the middle of a bad thunderstorm, Barry rubbed his eye and made his way downstairs to get a glass of water. However upon entering the kitchen, Barry was shocked to witness his mother murdered as the room filled with lightning.

Suddenly knocked from the room, Barry found himself on the front yard before regaining his senses and running back inside. Returning to the kitchen, Barry found his father cradling Nora as he sobbed over her dead body as neighbour and police officer Joseph West entered the room. Escorting Barry outside of the room, Barry was left to sit outside on the porch until Joe returned. Barry's father had been placed under arrest, despite the overwhelming evidence, he continued to profess his innocence.

2001-2008 | MOVE:
^{"Well, he may not have his mother, but he's got two amazing fathers. Seemed like he needed both."
-Iris West}

With the murder of his mother and his father imprisoned for the crime, Barry was taken in by Joseph West. Having been close friends with the Allens since they moved to Central City, and with no other family in the area the Wests didn't want to see Barry get taken away. Growing up in the West house hold took quite a bit of adjusting to for Barry especially since he was now living under the same roof as his child hold crush and eventual first love, Iris West.

Iris and Barry were fast friends from the time they met on the playground and quickly became best friends as children. Unbeknownst to Iris however, Barry had quickly developed a crush on Iris and as such, living with her as a sister was very awkward for the young boy.

Growing up under Joe, Barry originally would fight with his new foster parent due to Joe not letting Barry see his father, however Henry had asked Joe to not let his son see him. Not knowing this, Barry kept trying to run away to see his father at Iron Heights, and he was caught and stopped by Joe every time; at one point, Barry called him out for it, telling him that he wasn't his father and that he hated him. Eventually, Barry finally reached Iron Heights before Joe could stop him, and he finally came face to face with his father. Henry told him that he simply did not want Barry to see him in prison. Despite this, Barry begged for his father's release, insisting that the man in the lightning was who killed his mother, not Henry. Henry told him that he couldn't help him and asked that he be a good boy while Joe raised him. Henry was promptly taken away.

In school Barry was relentlessly bullied by another boy named Tony Woodward. Joe noticed this and had Barry spar with Iris who easily beat him. Joe then told Barry that if he ever got into a fight he couldn't win that it was okay to run the other way.

Growing closer with Joe, Barry began to take an interest in Joe's career as the former officer was promoted to detective. Having learned from Joe that the search for evidence in that case would inevitably lead to the truth, Barry became a forensic scientist. For years, he visited Henry in prison, promising to look over all of the evidence of his mother's murder case until he found a way to prove his father's innocence.

In high school, Barry had a reputation for being slow and easy-going. On his first date, he went to a carnival. His date had wanted to put a little motion in his life, and they went on the roller-coaster first thing. Because of this, he developed a fear of roller-coasters, a fear that he didn't get rid of until much later in his life. High school was a difficult time for Barry, as both he and Iris developed, they drifted apart. Upon graduation Barry accepted a full scholarship to Midwestern University in Keystone City.

2009-2011 | BE SOMEBODY:
<sup>"Barry is the kind of man that I would've hoped to become if my parents hadn't been murdered."
- Bruce Wayne, the Batman</sup>

Attending Midwestern University, Barry graduated in three years with a major in organic chemistry and a minor in criminology. During this time, he kept his own private investigation into his mother's murder, visiting his father every chance he had. While a senior, Barry helped the authorities apprehend a bank robber, and he was offered a job as a police scientist for the Central City Police Department Special Investigations Unit. Eager to use his skills and knowledge to help people, Barry accepted the offer.

After years of coming back, and failing to find any proof, Henry broke down and admitted that he had committed the crime. The shock of realizing that all of his efforts had been for nothing depressed Barry. On the night of a storm, Barry angrily tore his lab apart. Suddenly, a bolt of lightning crashed through his lab's window, and struck him in the chest, causing him to drop the chemical vials he was carrying, and douse himself.

After a long comatose period, Barry woke dazed and confused but none the less checked himself out of the hospital. Deciding to return home, Barry called for a taxi as he normally would. However, the taxi started to pull away without noticing him. Barry sprinted after it, only to run straight past it as if it had been standing still. He decided to sit down and recollect his thoughts at a diner. A passing waitress accidentally spilled the items of her tray onto Barry, who amazingly caught them all in mid-air and returns them to the tray. The next day, Barry saved Joe from a stray bullet. There was no question about it: the accident had somehow given Barry superhuman speed.

Inspired by his foster father Joe and the examples of other superheroes, Barry decided to take on a symbol for himself, and decided to use his powers to help humanity. Designing a special costume, Barry used a special cold cast polyester he developed in college, which could be molded into miniature outfits from liquid material, that, when submersed in a special liquid, became sensitive to hydrogen, expanding on contact with the hydrogen in the air. A charge from a battery-powered ring he wore on his finger caused the fabric to release the extra hydrogen and shrink into the ring. He later revised the process, making the fabric sensitive to nitrogen instead. He called himself the Flash, a tribute to his childhood idol. He briefly considered wearing a costume that would show his face, like Jay had, but decided that it would be best to wear a mask to conceal his true identity.

Barry's first meeting with his future Justice League team members happened while responding to a call from Superman. Running to Metropolis, Barry joined the fight against the alien known as BRAINIAC. With the outcome of the battle being in favour of the heroes, they decided to join forces and the Justice League was founded from that day forth.

2012-2014 | E FOR EXTINCTION:
^{"You know what they say, live fast, die young."
-Captain Cold}

As the Guardian of Central City, Barry began to attract the attention of the numerous villains who would plague the city. During his first year as the Flash, Barry tangled with criminal known by the likes of Captain Cold, Heat Wave, Captain Boomerang, Weather Wizard and the Trickster. Sending each of these felons to hopefully rot in Iron Heights Prison, Barry unfortunately brought them together as they bonded over the one thing they all had in common; a hatred for the Flash. Unfortunately for Barry, Captain Cold had a sister who had dubbed herself the Golden Glider. Joining forces with two new players known as Mirror Master and the Pied Piper, the Golden Glider managed to break out the other felons. Joining forces, the felons branded themselves as the Rogues and sought to bring chaos to Central City.

Overwhelmed and outgunned, Barry was nearly killed as he charged headlong into the combined forces of his greatest enemies. Forced to retreat, Barry realized he couldn't just rely on his powers to beat every foe. Instead he began to think and eventually realized that the relationship between the Rogues was built only on a selfish desire to see him dead. Breaking the team apart, Barry was eventually able to pick them out one by one. Having outed himself to Joe and Iris, Barry convinced Joe to have the Rogues imprisoned separately in maximum security to avoid any further communication.

2015-PRESENT | UNTRAVELED ROAD:
^{"Ever since the big man fell at the hands of that monster, I can't help but be reminded of our own mortality, of how limited our time here is in the grand scheme of things. It's made me realize that we should spend every moment we can surrounded by our friends and the ones we love. To treasure them and remind them every day just how special they are. On that note, Iris West, will you marry me?"
-Barry Allen, New Years Eve 2015}

While new threats seemed to appear constantly, there was nothing that could have prepared Barry for the arrival of Doomsday. Tossed aside by the beast during the Justice League's first run at the monster, Barry was powerless to stop the ensuing death of Superman. Resolving to better himself as a hero and make time for those he treasures, Barry proposes to Iris who immediately says yes. Now dealing with the fallout of Superman's death and making plans for his pending nuptials, Barry has to balance his life as a hero more than ever.

| ATTRIBUTES: |

SPEED FORCE CONDUIT:

The Speed Force is a vaguely defined extra-dimensional energy force from which most superspeed-powered heroes draw their powers. The Speed Force serves as the ultimate measure of velocity. Velocity is often referred to in terms of barriers: Sound barrier, Light barrier, Time Barrier, Dimensional Barrier, and finally the Speed Force Barrier. Barry Allen is the very source and creator of the Speed Force,and generates it with every step he takes. For this very reason, he is unaffected if any other speedster tries to steal or drain his speed. Barry Allen is the fastest of the Flashes, and is arguably one of, the fastest beings to have ever existed. He is currently fast enough to easily break all of the barriers and even enter the Speed Force itself, and is one of the few people to have ever escaped from it. He does not often go beyond Mach 10, as speeds above that level are catastrophic to the environment. To this extent, Barry can most likely reach any speed he can imagine, and more.

SUPERHUMAN SPEED:

Speed Force conduits have one main ability above all else. Conduits are connected to the barrier and accumulation of all Speed known in their universe. These characters immediately understand how to run at superhuman speeds and their bodies instinctively understand how to react at high-speed situations. Older speedsters have a reduced but maxed speed of 770mph which is just below sonic booms allowing them to react to situations without causing civilians undo stress. Speedsters in their prime can travel at much faster speeds such as the max level of recorded aided speed on Earth and even reach the speed of light with enough willpower. It is possible for conduits to travel much faster than the speed of light however such levels require an incredible amount of stress. Speedsters unaccustomed to their max level of speeds may detach themselves from the Speed Force or even become part of the Speed Force by accident.

SUPERHUMAN AGILITY:

Barry is incredibly agile, able to change direction immediately. This allows him to make sharp turns on city streets without sliding or losing his balance, and helps him leap farther and higher while running.

SUPERHUMAN REFLEXES:

Barry's increased speed also augments his reaction time, allowing him to react to danger and events far faster than a normal human. When shot in the neck on his blindside, Barry was able to catch the bullet and minimize the damage before it could fully penetrate his skin.

SUPERHUMAN ENDURANCE:

Barry's body can handle the stresses of superhuman racing without noticeable distress, and his body's enhanced stamina allows him to function much longer than a normal human without getting tired or weak. Barry is able to recover from attacks and exertion much quicker than normal humans. While his durability is no greater than before, he has been able to withstand being struck with Weather Wizard's lightning, with him only being stunned for several minutes, as well as only being stunned by Grodd's strength.

ACCELERATED PERCEPTION:

Barry's speed also extends to his senses and mental capacities, able to take in information and process it just as fast. This allows Barry to see the world as if it is in slow motion, which combined with his physical speed lets him think, perform actions, react to events, long before a normal human around him could even perceive them.

RAPID CELLULAR REGENERATION:

Barry has dramatically heightened healing capacities. This is caused by his body's molecules moving at accelerated rates, causing the chemical reactions responsible for metabolism to mend and even restore any damages much quicker and efficiently than regular humans. His body can heal itself in hours or days with little to no treatment or therapy. After breaking his wrist while testing his new-found speed, Barry made a full recovery within three hours with no lingering effects or even signs of it having happened. Even normally permanent damage to his body, like becoming a paraplegic, will completely repair itself within days. His body also has a heightened resistance, if not immunity, to any sickness, disease, toxins, and poisons. Normal drinking does not affect him consuming a special 500 proof alcohol only intoxicated for a few seconds. Similarly, when injected him with 2,000 milligrams of horse tranquilizer, Barry was only momentarily slowed down until he burned through it. Further testing of Barry's body has speculated that this augmented metabolism is drastically reducing his aging process while likewise extending his health and longevity.

CELLULAR VIBRATION:

Barry has the ability to vibrate some or all of his cells and overall parts of his body on command for various effects. His bodily control can vibrate his entire body to mask his form from others clearly perceiving it and distort his vocal cords to disguise his voice. Similar, he can vibrate his cells fast enough to forcibly expel any toxins that do manage to affect him. He can vibrate at varying frequencies and with different levels of force, allowing him to create small tremor-like effects on any object or person he touches. Later learning how to vibrate all the cells in his body at the same frequency as air, Barry can allow himself to seamlessly pass through any solid target unfazed. His can also choose which matter he phases together with him as he phased Iris and Joe both in and out of moving vehicles.

FORCE GENERATION:

Through Barry's ability to accelerate his movements, he can generate great amounts of physical forces through kinetic energy and friction, allowing him to overpower regular humans with little to no effort. Through generation of his accelerated momentum, he can propel himself through the air and create substantial frictional force with any object he comes into contact with, able to jumped over 15 feet in the air. The friction from his speed can also cause extreme heat and set objects ablaze. Alternatively, his enhanced speed lets him channel the force into powerful strikes, often propelling targets several feet. Barry has an increased level of strength added to his body which he can impart in different ways. He can strengthen each and every move he makes however this requires attention and stress for each movement and therefore is almost never used. In most cases Barry can focus the Speed Force's extra-dimensional energies into one massive punch. The force he generates can even produce sonic blasts with his strikes, enough to disable a meta-human who could become as strong and hard as steel. Similarly, Barry is able to hurl a bullet from his hand with enough force to penetrate a powerful barrier and still pierce clean through a person.

VORTEX GENERATION:

Using his speed, Barry can control air flow on all levels by moving through them fast enough and create vacuums. He can suffocate people by creating a strong vortex around them by running around them. He can spin his arms at the speed of a tornado to remove air from fire and extinguish it and repel targets away. For larger scale feats, he can completely removing the physical force from massive tidal waves and stabilize a giant singularity by running back and forth or in a circle.

SKILLED TACTICIAN:

A keen-minded individual, from a young age, Barry quickly showed a natural understanding and quick capacity to learn, making it hard for his foster-father Joe to help him with homework by the time he was twelve. Barry is also very well-read, greatly impressing even award-winning professors. Barry is a capable tactician and leader. In times of crisis when the other leaders of the Justice League have been indisposed, Barry has managed to keep the remaining team together and lead it well. Barry's intelligence made the Chief of Police trust him enough to make Barry the new head of the Special Investigative Unit at the Central City Police Department.

FORENSIC EXPERT:

Barry is a highly skilled forensics examiner. From a single glance of the crime scene, he can quickly determine much of the events that transpired. Barry has repeatedly been able to quickly analyze any given data and quickly form accurate theories on the given situation.

CHEMISTRY EXPERT:

Barry's knowledge and skill in chemistry is very advanced, shown when he was terrified at how certain chemicals were stored at a lab at Queen Consolidated, describing them all as the definition of dangerous. He has also been able to cure a poison victim using only a small amount of rat poison and consequently dosed with a blood coagulant. He could also use unknown types of chemicals to make a compressible micro-fabric costume for himself that resisted the extreme forces of fiction his speed exerted upon it.

| CHARACTER NOTES: |

| ALLIES: |

IRIS WEST:

The adoptive daughter of Joseph and Francine West, Iris was born to a family she never knew before being left on the footsteps of the Midvale Orphanage. Adopted a year later by Wests who were unable to have children of their own, Iris was raised as their own child. Entering into kindergarten, Iris met Barry Allen with the two becoming quick friends. The two remained inseparable from that point on. However Iris' life was not free of strife as her mother suffered a severe back becoming addicted to her prescribed pain killers. Eventually Joe convinced Francine to commit herself to rehab, however neither Iris or Joe heard from her again. Entering into highschool, Barry and Iris began to drift apart as they found themselves in separate social circles. Graduating with honors, Iris took an interest in journalism and attended the local college for such. Upon graduation she found herself work with the Central City News and became one of the first reporters to write on the Flash. Eventually Barry revealed himself to Iris as the two entered into a romantic relationship.

JOSEPH WEST:

The father of Iris West and foster father to Barry Allen, Joseph was a close friend of Henry and Nora Allen when they first moved to Central City. With Henry's conviction and Nora's death, Joe became Barry's foster father and while the relationship between the two was originally rough, they became very close as time went on. Joe was the first person that Barry revealed himself as the Flash to and has become one of his most valuable allies in his mission to protect Central City.

PATTY SPIVOT:

~WIP~

DAVID SINGH:

~WIP~

| ROGUES: |

LEONARD SNART AKA CAPTAIN COLD:

~WIP~

GEORGE HARKNESS AKA CAPTAIN BOOMERANG:

~WIP~

LISA SNART AKA GOLDEN GLIDER:

~WIP~

MICK RORY AKA HEAT WAVE:

~WIP~

EVAN MCCULLOCH AKA MIRROR MASTER:

~WIP~

HARTLEY RATHAWAY AKA THE PIED PIPER:

~WIP~

JAMES JESSE AKA THE TRICKSTER:

~WIP~

MARK MARDON AKA WEATHER WIZARD:

~WIP~

ABHARARAKADHARARBARAKH AKA ABRA KADABRA:

~WIP~

GRODD:

~WIP~

PETER MERKEL AKA RAG DOLL:

~WIP~

RICHARD SWIFT AKA THE SHADE:

~WIP~

EOBARD THAWNE AKA THE REVERSE FLASH:

~WIP~

_{*It should be noted that Joe West is based upon his CW counterpart, whereas Iris is on her comicbook one. Albeit with notable changes. Due to not blood relation, Wally West would be directly related to Joseph by blood but not Iris. Personally I was thinking Joseph's nephew.*}

| CHARACTER GOALS: |

My goals for Barry are to show him constantly moving forward. While he has thus far accomplished quite a bit in his career, there's a lot more to go. With the death of Superman, I want to show Barry stepping up to take more weight than he can handle, eventually breaking when confronted with the truth about his mother's murder. My story arcs will involve the Rogues, Grodd, and off course Eobard Thawne.

That all said, I'd also like to state I'm open to collaborative story arcs between other League Members and potentially Kid Flashes and/or Jesse Quick.

| SAMPLE POST: |

The platter of empty burger containers had piled up as Iris stared across the booth at Barry in disbelief while the mummers of disdain from other customers tickled the back of Barry's ears.

"A guy's gotta eat folks." Barry said with a shrug as Iris shook her head.

"This is why we should only ever get take out." She said with a wry smirk. "Your appetite draws way too much attention."

"Hey, I put more miles on these legs in an hour than most people put on their cars in a week. I think I deserve the right to as many Big Belly Burgers as I want."

"You do Barry," Iris paused looking around with a glare as everyone else went back to their meals. "Just not in public, okay Sweetie?" She added reaching across the table with a napkin before Barry snatched it out of her hand and dotted against his own mouth.

"So what's next on the agenda? Movie? Mini-putt?" Barry asked as he leaned over the table and pecked Iris on the lips.

"Well, provided you're free..." Iris started before the sound of sirens interrupted her. "And now you're not." She said with a sad smile as Barry pulled out his cellphone. A text from Joe illuminating the screen as Barry swiped his finger across the screen.

"Armed robbery on fifth." Barry stated. "Don't worry Babe, I'll be back in a..."

"Flash." Iris replied with an amused smirk. "Go get 'im Tiger."

With a kiss on the cheek, Barry was out the door. Ejecting his suit from his ring, Barry quickly changed into the Flash as the street became filled with a streak of red and yellow. The sights and sounds of Central city flew past Barry as he weaved in and out of the streets. The smells of the various street vendors filled his nostrils as Barry jumped up over a line of stopped traffic, the momentum carrying him the distance as he landed and continued without a loss of velocity.

Coming up on the blinding flash of red and blue, Barry rushed the scene as the armed criminals raised their weapons. Breaking the next speed barrier, Barry disarmed the criminals before a shot could be fired. Discarding the weapons at the feet of the police officers, Barry continued moving as he borrowed a couple pairs of handcuffs off the belts of the officers. Cuffing the thieves together around a nearby light post, Barry came to a stop beside Joe West.

"All yours from here Officer." Flash stated with a smile and a salute.

"In a hurry tonight Flash?" Joe said with a smile as Flash nodded.

"Got a hot date Officer, I was always taught to never keep a lady waiting."

With a chuckle, Joe replied with a pat to the Flash's back. "Sounds like a wise man taught you that, don't let us keep you Flash. We can take it from here."

"Good night Officer." Flash said as he sped away.

[Gowi]

Diana of Themyscira

| Identity |

Diana Prince / Wonder Woman

| Origin & Backstory |

1980-2003: Early Life

• Diana Prince was born in Gateway City to a single mother, in a Greek-American neighborhood on the northwestern side of town. For most of her childhood Diana had few friends and fewer interests; but the call of conflict always seemed to be one that called for her whether in intervention or for the thrill of a fight. An intensity that never seemed to dull as she went into high school as she found herself having odd interests ranging from professional wrestling, martial arts, and military history. Following graduation she would eagerly look to the Armed Forces as her future.

• In 2004, after a successful career in the Armed Forces, Diana Prince is approached by the government agency known as ARGUS in a recruitment drive for their special operations squad known as Team 7. Diana’s astute perceptive abilities and skill with close quarters combat is a deciding factor and Diana believing herself to be a true patriot joins the squadron with little resistance. This is where Diana Prince would come to know one of her comrades in particular, Steve Trevor.

• Months after her initial integration into Team 7, one of the operations overseas turned bad as the team found themselves scattered and isolated from bad intel; intel that would lead to Diana’s death— or it would have if not for the intervention of the gods. The olympian blood that laid dormant in Diana’s body would be “awakened” and cause her immense pain as accursed visions began to bleed into her mind. Days later when she awoke in her hospital bed she would realize questions without answers… questions that all pointed to a place called Themyscira. A dismissal from Team 7 followed after an argument between Diana and their Commander; and Diana made way for this island that just… felt familiar.

2004-2006: Amazon Reborn

• Her journeys in 2004 began trying to find where she was meant to go, hoping to understand what exactly had happened in Qurac where she should’ve been dead and buried. However, her gut feeling only led her to the nation of Greece before dulling into silence. Diana’s confusion however would be temporary as a woman calling herself “Ypirétis of the Oracle” revealed herself and told Diana she had orders to take her to “Paradise”— Themyscira. However the answers she would be looking for would open up a whole new world for Diana, as she would soon learn.

• Introduced to the Queen of the Amazons, Hippolyta, once on the island she had “dreamt” about, Diana found herself in a world that felt completely alien to her; as if she was transplanted back into the Ancient Greek stories she had adored as a child. Hippolyta would go on to explain that the truth of her awakening would be one that would open a sort of “Pandora’s Box”. Diana Prince was one of many but the first to awaken: children of Zeus. Hippolyta would continue to explain the responsibilities of such and the powers that had awakened which made Diana look back to the past with the stories of the Justice Society of America. A reckoning was coming and Diana’s near death experience was only the beginning. She would need to be trained and prepared for the darkness that was to come.

• Despite Diana’s previously trained skills and talents, the rigorous expectations of the Amazons were far greater. Training that would take her much time to get used to her new inherited abilities as a demi-god. Only when Diana could defeat all of Hippolyta’s trials could she inherit the blessings of the gods, the responsibilities of the Anarotiémai Gynaíka, and the allowance to leave “Paradise”. It took Diana many years to do such that.

2007-2010: Spirit of Truth

• Finally finishing her trials after constant obstacles in 2007, Diana finally is allowed to inherit the blessings of which she has earned and serve in the capacity from protecting the world from a sort of “Greek Apocalypse”. This begins the first appearances of what would come to be known as Wonder Woman as Diana begins to travel across Europe stopping occurrences that relate to her heritage as well as acts of general terrorism. This comes to an heading in the nation known as Kaznia as she stops a plot involving an attempt on the life of the Princess of Kaznia from the returning presence of the God of War, Ares.

• In 2008, Archaeologists unearth a ruin underneath the mountains of Parnonas, accidentally releasing a creature created to kill those with the blood of Zeus. This endangers not only Diana, but others of similar descent. It becomes a race to defeat the creature before lives are lost. During this event Diana puts the likes of Donna Troy and Cassandra Sandsmark under her personal protection; placing them in protective custody back on Themyscira for a time.

• Sometime in 2009, Wonder Woman Receives word from the Oracle located on Themyscira about a plot that would concern her, and returns home to Gateway City in California when the appearance of Circe confirms a plot that could endanger the entire city. Wonder Woman attempts to foil Circe’s plans but not before the sorceress summons an ancient thrall of Poseidon, a sea serpent that only seeks destruction. Wonder Woman is aided in the battle by the appearance of Aquaman.

• Helen Alexandros, the metahuman terrorist known as Silver Swan attacks Gateway City in an attempt to bring Wonder Woman out to challenge her resolve. The strength of her supersonic scream proves disorientating at first for the hero, but is quickly dealt with.

• Forced to ingest the dying essence of a “god” after an archaeological expedition goes bad, Professor Barbara Minerva becomes warped by the negative energies of the process as her body is transformed horrifically into that of a Cheetah. Now unstable and insane, Minerva targets her former colleagues in Gateway City for “sending” her on the expedition in the first place. Wonder Woman stops her from murdering them, beginning a long hatred for the demigod for Minerva.

• In 2010, the arrival of BRAINIAC above Metropolis is too much for Superman to handle alone. In response, he calls up Batman, Wonder Woman, Martian Manhunter, Green Lantern, The Flash, and Aquaman to defend the city from the living computer, marking the beginning of the Justice League.

• A group of metahuman criminals are brought together unknowingly by Dr. Cylvia Cyber, as she looks to Wonder Woman as an interesting challenge yet a concerning obstacle for her operations in Gateway City. Following a tactical plan setup by Cyber they ambush Wonder Woman and for a time get the better of her until intervention by Donna Troy, who has finally been awakened by the gods much like Diana had been years ago. The two defeat the group and Donna becomes known as Wonder Girl.

2011-2015: Gods & Mortals

• In 2012, Wonder Girl (Donna Troy) joins the Teen Titans.

• Following the disappearance of Wonder Girl in 2014, Wonder Woman begins to investigate her old enemies and rivals; when the Oracle of Themyscira has no leads from her visions Diana looks to request help from Batman for his deductive capabilities. However despite this it leads into a dead end with more questions than answers; a result Diana is experienced with.

• In late 2014, Cassandra Sandsmark becomes awakened like Donna Troy before her when whilst on an archaeological dig with her mother, an ancient metahuman by the name of Osira is released from her prison. She is aided by Wonder Woman at the last second, who had traveled to Egypt to deal with a plot she had heard that Circe was planning. Osira is defeated and following the battle Cassandra requests for Diana to train her personally so she could “stop rescuing her like this”. Diana agrees and Cassandra soon afterwards becomes the second Wonder Girl.

• In 2015, despite the feats Diana had performed by Wonder Woman, not all of those on Themyscira had appreciated her “blessing”. One of which named Alkyone would act on this discontent when she organizes a militant uprising on Themyscira; believing Hippolyta to be unfit to lead. Unbeknownst to her this rage is actually the influence of Ares who intends to cause an Amazonian Civil War for his gain. This war is stopped by a young amazon by the name of Orana who becomes blessed by Artemis. She follows this battle bearing her god’s name into battle for the realm.

• In another encounter from Dr. Cylvia Cyber, Wonder Woman is targeted in a game of cat and mouse which ends with Diana’s former comrade and love interest, Steve Trevor, to be killed in the process. The death infuriates Diana who nearly kills Cyber in her office before a full camera crew as Cyber had planned. Following the incident Cyber claims Wonder Woman had unjustly “disfigured” her for something she had nothing to do with. An investigation by ARGUS goes into Wonder Woman and questions rise until it is revealed that Cyber had been lying; Cyber is subsequently arrested for her crimes.

• As Wonder Woman, Artemis, and Wonder Girl are distracted with the events during Superman’s funeral; strange magic “erupts” on Themyscira turning all of its denizens to stone. Wonder Woman believes something terrible has happened when her link with the Oracle on Themyscira is cut silent.

| Attributes |

Awakened Demigoddess - With the blood of Zeus in her veins and blessings from other olympian gods, Diana is quite powerful with abilities similar to that of base Kryptonians including strength, senses, endurance, and flight.

• _{Decelerated Aging - Due to her blessing by the gods, Diana seems to age slower than she had previously. Looking little different than she did during her time with Team 7.}
• _{Toxic Immunity - Due to her blessing by the gods, Diana seems to be generally immune to toxins and disease.}
• _{Healing Factor - Due to her blessing by the gods, Diana seems to be able to recover and heal from major wounds in time.}
• _{Oracle - Diana is linked to the mind of the Oracle of Themyscira, allowing Diana to be aware of problems pertaining to her responsibilities as an olympian avatar. In rare occasions Diana is also given visions directly from the gods, assuming an oracle is not active… or dead.}

Expert Martial Artist - It is said that Diana Prince is one of the finest experts in Close Quarters Combat due to her military and amazonian backgrounds. She is skilled with military CQC, jiu jitsu, amazonian warrior arts, olympic wrestling, krav maga, and various other styles and techniques. She is so deadly Batman has been known to state her abilities to be equal in some form to his own.

Amazonian Artifacts - Diana holds various artifacts that she uses as equipment including armor, shield, sword, tiara, bracers, and lasso.

| Character Notes |

Wards

• Orana - An amazon girl who follows in the shadow of Diana’s influence as Artemis as a nod to the god she idolizes and her skill with the bow.
• Donna Troy - One of the girls Diana ‘rescued’ and the first to be inspired by her acts of heroism. The first Wonder Girl. MIA.
• Cassandra Sandsmark - One of the girls Diana ‘rescued’ and the second to be inspired by her acts of heroism. The current Wonder Girl.

Allies

• Etta Candy - A close friend to Diana, and current liaison to Wonder Woman.
• Edward Indelicato - Lead Detective of the Special Cases Squad in Gateway City, and an ally of Diana's in the police department.
• Steve Trevor - Diana's former love interest and a military official that was liaison to Wonder Woman. Until he was killed by Dr. Cylvia Cyber in 2015.

Enemies & Rivals

• Alkyone
• Ares
• Cheetah
• Circe
• Dalma
• Dr. Cylvia Cyber
• Deception
• Professor Edgar Cizko
• Genocide
• Silver Swan
• Veronica Cale

| Character Goals |

The last time I ran with Diana she was a sort-of Greek privateer who I did two (or was it three) posts with before the RP faded into inactivity. I had a lot of fun with her, so I’ve been sitting on the opportunity to write until a good enough scenario comes up. So here it goes. As for idea concepts; Greek Mythology was like many the first mythology I really identified it but I suppose that’s not obscure given its title as “baby’s first mythology” due to its teachings in elementary school. So I have some familiarity with the gods, trials, and everything inbetween. With that said I plan to run some interesting plotlines (maybe even Diana’s own disappearance following the funeral, but I’ve not decided).

| Sample Post |

Why?

Diana Prince's lips quivered, scowling as she stood before the black smoke that rose from the… corpses that were in front of her. The sounds of the fighting had stopped, and her face was splotched with her own blood from when she had tried to step in earlier— much like the big red boy scout had tried to before her. Her body ached like all hell, but this? This hurt more than her bones and muscle could ever feel; she knew that. A pit of horror swallowed her gut. He couldn’t be dead. That was impossible. It wasn’t right. He’d get back up and smirk like he always did and reassure everyone that he’d always be their shield, no matter what.

Not anymore.

Diana’s fist clenched as she continued staring. She couldn’t stop staring.

She couldn’t hear a heartbeat.

“You promised you wouldn’t…” Her words choked as she tried to stomach some kind of remark, but to no avail.

It had happened, despite all of her hopes that it couldn’t be so.

Superman was dead.

An unsettling chill dropped down the awakened amazon’s spine, fluttering with a feeling that Diana couldn’t seem to shake. Her attempt to keep her emotions from taking full control was admirable given the situation that lied in front of her. One of her closest friends and the one person she admired on the league had been defeated in such a vicious way. Her body fluttered in nervous anxiety as she took a step; fighting back the tears that were starting to form in her eyes.

An amazon doesn’t show emotion.

She tried to remind herself… but it was difficult not to break.

“You told me you wouldn’t die like this. You told me… that I—”

Diana broke her pained muttering when her ears caught notice of others that were approaching the sight of the battle.

You told me I wouldn’t be alone.

You told me your friendship would never fade.

You told me you wouldn’t die on your watch.

Why did you lie to me?

Diana took a heavy breath as she tried to compose herself.

I can’t right now. I have to be strong.

Diana wiped her eyes clean as she approached the corpse of Doomsday, as she grabbed it by its neck.

He wouldn’t harm anyone again. Nobody would use this body for evil again.

Because there will be no body of this creature left.

[HenryJonesJr]

| Identity |
Bruce Wayne/The Batman

| Origin & Backstory |

Bruce Wayne’s parents were killed by mugger Joe Chill when Bruce was but a boy, leaving him in the care of his bodyguard and caretaker Alfred Pennyworth. Alfred, seeing a great thirst for vengeance and love of justice in the boy, began to train him in self defense. After college, Bruce disappeared into the world in order to continue his training, traveling across the globe to find new ways to hone himself into the perfect crime fighting machine. He returned to Gotham ready to take up the mantle of Batman.

2009: Year One

In his first year back in Gotham, Batman targeted the Falcone Crime Family, the organized crime power in Gotham. During the year long struggle to put Carime “The Roman” Falcone behind bars, Batman allied himself with Lieutenant Jim Gordon and Assistant DA Harvey Dent. The three of them worked tirelessly to bring down the Flacone family, and by year’s end they did just that.

Unfortunately, the Ra’s al Ghul and the League of Assassins, a group that helped train Bruce and which he betrayed, appeared in Gotham to hold the city for ransom. Batman appeared and stopped the group. In the process, he was officially photographed for the first time saving the city, confirming his existence.

2010

The year following the fall of The Roman brought chaos to Gotham. The power vacuum incited a mob war with three factions vying for control: the Zucco family, the Maroni Family, and the False Face Gang led by the mysterious Black Mask. Batman and his allies struggled to keep the city together, while in the shadows a new threat emerged.

A serial killer began striking in the city, carving grisly smiles into cops, gangsters, and civilians alike. Batman’s investigation led him to a villain that was only known as The Joker. Joker managed to evade Batman’s capture for most of the year, before Batman was able to stop him from poisoning Gotham with his Joker formula.

During this year, Batman also took young Dick Grayson as his ward after Tony Zucco murdered his parents. Seeing potential in the young man, Batman began to train him as he had once been trained.

At the end of the year, Batman teamed with other heroes to defend Metropolis and Earth from the entity known as BRAINIAC, afterwards becoming a founding member of the Justice League.

2011

After the mob war, which Black Mask’s False Face Gang coming out on top, Gotham started to settled down. Taking that opportunity, Batman started to take Dick out on patrol under the alias Robin. The two quickly became a strong team fighting against Black Mask’s men.
Their greatest test as a team came when the Scarecrow emerged in Gotham, coating City Hall in Fear Gas. The two managed to subdue Crane and cure the effects of his weapon.

2012

During the trial of The Joker, Harvey Dent is scarred by acid from a flower on the clown’s lapel. At the same time, the Clown Prince of Crime’s gang murder Dent’s fiance. This sends Dent over the edge, allowing underlying mental trauma to come to the forefront, shattering his psyche into two. Dent begins a murderous rampage through the criminal underworld of Gotham, setting Batman’s crusade back greatly.

2013

A war breaks out between Joker and Two-Face’s gang in Gotham, and Batman fights alone after Dick decides to strike out on his own as Nightwing. Bruce recruits Jason Todd, an at risk Gotham youth, to be the next Robin, believing he needs a companion to even himself out.

In an attempt to break the Dark Knight, Joker gets the better of the fledgeling team, killing Jason after paralyzing Commissioner Gordon’s daughter and Batman family member Barbara Gordon.

In a fury, Bruce nearly beats Joker to death, but stops before breaking his cardinal rule. After being spared, Joker laughs hysterically, believing the Batman needs him just as much as the Joker needs the vigilante.

2014

Batman and the Justice League come under fire from the Legion of Doom, a group of super villains when band together in order to finally defeat their foes. Legion members Ra’s al Ghul and Scarecrow team up and attempt to exploit Batman’s recent tragedies against him. With the help of Superman, Batman is able to gain his wits and defeat the villains.

This year Batman helps Barbara cope with her paralysis, and she becomes Oracle, his eyes in Gotham.

2015

Against his best intentions, Batman takes on Tim Drake to be the next Robin after the boy deduced his secret identity. Batman saw a lot of himself in the boy, but worried after what happened to Jason and Barbara.

The year ends in tragedy when Superman is killed by Doomsday, leaving Batman at a loss.

| Attributes |
Batman has no superhuman abilities, but he has trained his body to be a living weapon. He is a master of hand-to-hand combat, acrobatics, strategy, stealth, criminology, and engineering. He has a genius level intellect, though he hides this from most of the world under a facade of a billionaire playboy.

As the CEO of Wayne Enterprises and the beneficiary of his parents’ trust fund, Wayne also has nearly unlimited resources at his disposal.

| Character Notes |

Main Allies

Alfred Pennyworth - Bruce’s oldest friend and confidant, Alfred raised Bruce after his parents were murdered, and was one of Bruce’s first instructors on his way to becoming Batman. Pennyworth was a former agent of MI6, who was hired by Bruce’s parents as their private security when Bruce was a baby.
Dick Grayson/Nightwing - The first Robin and Bruce’s protege. They currently have a rift in their relationship.
Tim Drake/Robin - Tim is Batman’s current sidekick and the current bearer of the Robin moniker.
Commissioner Jim Gordon -
Barbara Gordon/Oracle - Bab is Jim’s daughter, and was formerly the vigilante Batgirl, until she was shot through the spine by the Joker.
Selina Kyle/Catwoman - Lying somewhere between friend and foe, Catwoman is an accomplished thief.

Main Enemies

The Joker - Batman’s archenemy, The Joker’s madness has plagued Gotham for years. The Joker has hurt Batman and his “family” deeply, paralyzing Barbara and killing the second Robin, Jason Todd.
The League of Assassins and Ra’s al Ghul - Ra’s helped train the Batman, and the vigilante was once a member of the League. They are always plotting to cause trouble for the Batman.
Harvey Dent/Two-Face - A former DA of Gotham and ally in the fight against crime, Harvey Dent is now the psychotic mobster knowns as Two-Face.
Scarecrow - The master of fear
Black Mask - The mysterious leader of the remnants of the traditional Gotham mafias.

| Character Goals |
Batman is a fascinating character. He went from pulp hero, to a bit of a farce, to the “Dark Knight”, and everything in between. I really enjoy some interpretations of him, and I really can’t stand others. With this one, I want to write Batman as I’d love to see him depicted. Yes, he will be the “Dark Knight”, but he won’t be an uncaring, single-minded individual. He’s a person, and Bruce Wayne is just as important to his character as Batman, and Bruce Wayne has just lost his best friend and best ally in his quest to save the world. How does that affect him? How does that affect the way he fights evil? That’s what I want to look at.

Also some good, old fashioned detective work that will send Batman down the rabbit hole.

| Sample Post |

The Batcave
Gotham City, NJ
December 25, 2015
6 AM

The large screen of the central computer in the Batcave shone in the darkness like a supernova in the inky blackness of space. On it, scenes of Metropolis and Superman’s death played out on loop, as they would for weeks. The Batman sat in front of the screen, his cowl discarded carelessly on the damp cave floor. The hair that would normally be seen as immaculately displayed in Bruce Wayne’s public appearances was caked with sweat and dried blood. Scrapes and cuts adorned his face, but his eyes were locked on the screen. They could do nothing else but watch the frantic reports about his best friend’s death. And they needed to watch, because there were clues here. He knew there had to be.

“Perhaps you should get some rest, Master Bruce,” Alfred Pennyworth said from the shadows. The old, English gentleman stepped into the glow of the monitor, a worried look on his face. “There is the Wayne Foundation charity event later in the day. You were scheduled to be there.”

Bruce was silent for agonizing moments. He knew Alfred was merely looking out for him. The butler wanted to get his mind off the events of the night before. Pennyworth had done it numerous times throughout Wayne’s career as Batman, and it nearly always worked. But it wouldn’t this time. This time it was different.

“Let them know I won’t be going,” he finally said with a gruff tone. “Make something up. You’re good at that.”

Alfred shifted uneasily at the edge of the computer’s light. He fought against saying anything more, but he was unable to hold his tongue. He had watched Bruce tear himself apart far too often for that. He approached the vigilante and put his hand on his shoulder, “Bruce, I know how much he meant to you. How much he meant to all of us. But staring at this is not going to bring him back. All it will do is eat at you.”

Batman breathed deep, patting his friend’s hand with understanding, “I know it won’t bring Clark back, Alfred. But it will lead me to whoever killed him.”

The butler recoiled, clearly unsure of where Wayne’s head was at, “Master Bruce...that thing killed him.”

“No,” Bruce said firmly. “That thing was just a weapon. I want who ever fired it.”

A few keystrokes on the computer ceased the news broadcasts and replaced them with a map of Doomsday’s rampage. Bruce scoffed at the name “Doomsday”, but that’s what the media had settled on, the fatalist bunch that they were. The origin point was a comet strike in western Pennsylvania, and the line ended in Metropolis.

“Look,” Bruce started a timelapse, “it crash lands outside Pittsburgh, and makes a direct route to Metropolis. A straight line. The only time it even slowed down was when the JLI tried to get in its way. Other than that, it was going to one place. Once it was at Metropolis, it just started killing. It was sent to draw us out, and it was sent to get to Superman specifically.”

“My word,” Alfred gasped, “do you think it was alien in origin?”

“I’m not ruling out anything,” Bruce shook his head. “But I am going to find where it came from.”

The footsteps behind him told Bruce that Alfred had retreated back to the manor defeated in his attempt to break the hold his grief had over him. Many would cry on this Christmas morning. That Bruce Wayne knew. He would not be one of them, however. Sadness was not the emotion that overcame him in the wee hours of that holiday morning. No, his heart was instead filled with defeat. Bruce had never told Clark, but the Dark Knight knew Superman was the true key to changing the world. Now that key was taken away from them, and they’d all have to work to stand a chance in this war.

“Computer,” Batman commanded the machine, “track Doomsday’s approach to Earth. Might tell us something.”

“Affirmative, Batman,” the computer responded.

Bruce sighed, waited for the result, and put his head in his hands.

[FacePunch]

| Identity |
Solomon Grundy
Cyrus Gold

| Origin & Backstory |

Born on a Monday

Cyrus Gold was born in Gotham City, New Jersey. Cyrus Gold, Sr., Cyrus' father, moved to Gotham in an attempt to gain power and fortune. Gold joined a local gang working out of the Old Gotham docks, gaining money through black market profiteering and protection rackets. Cyrus Senior worked his way up the little gang's ranks until he found himself the second-in-command; he promptly murdered the gang's leader and asserted himself as the new top dog. Gold swiftly conquered nearby territories and absorbed as many rival gangs as he could, killing anyone who stood in his way. He expanded his gang's market, selling drugs, contraband and automatic weapons as well as muscling his way into the prostitution and grand theft auto rings. In a decade, Cyrus Gold built himself a tiny empire in Old Gotham. No one dared to challenge him. That is, until Vincent Falcone, a recent upstart in Gotham, appeared to be gathering up supporters in Upper East Side. Cyrus tried his best to put Vincent down, but Falcone proved to be too cunning for the weak-minded Gold, setting himself up as Gotham's greatest mob boss.

This angered Cyrus. He needed to take down Falcone before anyone else got the bright idea that Gotham City was open season for any upstart entrepreneur. So Cyrus Gold sought out an ally in Pearl Schmidt, a professional criminal from Germany. Pearl reorganized Gold's gang and brought efficiency to the system Cyrus had set up. She was impressed by Gold's ruthless brutality; and Cyrus was similarly impressed by Schmidt's fierce intelligence. The two quickly became an item. The two married, ignoring the rise of the Marconi and Zucco families, as well as Vincent Falcone's growing gang in the north. A year after their marriage, Cyrus Gold Junior was born.

Christened on Tuesday

Cyrus, Jr. was raised to be a crook, just like his father. He was taught to do anything he could to get ahead in life; he was brought up specifically to have no moral compass to speak of. His parents showed him little love or compassion, instead choosing to turn Junior into a hardened and ruthless thug. Junior was privately tutored by the best teachers that money could buy. One of these teachers, known only as Miss Mercury, showed Cyrus an alternate perspective: she showed the young boy what it meant to be kind. She gave the boy the only thing his parents couldn't, which was love. Cyrus reluctantly found himself attached to this woman, to the point of caring for her above his own flesh and blood. But her love turned out to be a ruse created by Junior's father, who ordered Mercury to kill Cyrus Junior. Little Gold fought back, murdering Miss Mercury with a pencil through the eye, impaling her brain. This was Cyrus Gold, S'r's ultimate lesson for his son. Anyone who loved you would only stab you in the back. No one could be trusted. Everyone was your enemy.

Gold Senior grew old. His gang had weakened greatly, with the other families gaining more and more of Cyrus's territory each passing day. It wouldn't be long before Cyrus Gold's empire crumbled before him. Vincent Falcone saw Cyrus Gold's weakness and struck; paying off his wife, Pearl, to assassinate the old man. Pearl, more loyal to her pocket book than her husband, accepted the contract. She slipped into her husband's bedroom one midnight and attempted to stab him in the heart. But Cyrus Gold always slept with one eye open. He was always prepared for the worst. Gold retrieved a pistol from his nightstand, and a fight ensued between husband and wife. Cyrus Junior, now a teenager, watched as his parents killed each other from the dim light of the hallway.

Married on Wednesday

The Gold family gang collapsed, its territory annexed by Vincent Falcone in short order. Cyrus Gold fled Old Gotham and moved to Amusement Mile, seeking asylum from Falcone's wraith. He got a job at a local underworld bar known as "My Alibi." There, he could earn a couple of bucks while keeping his ear to the ground. He learned the ways of Gotham's streets from its most experienced criminals. His father had taught him how to be a crime boss; but Cyrus Gold had to teach himself how to be a common crook. He sought out the best of the best, learned from them what he could and killed them off before they got the same idea. He started to work odd jobs for various bosses across the city. There wasn't anything he wouldn't do; kidnapping, murder, drug running, theft...Ask Gold to do it, and he would. Cyrus gained a reputation for his own brand of brutality, mimicking what his father had shown him. He brought fear to those who opposed him. But Cyrus also knew that he needed to gain the trust of his friends; something his dad hadn't done, which had led him to the grave. Gold created a network of gangsters and informants whom he could turn to for help or work.

He made a life for himself up in Amusement Mile. A hard life, but a good one. Cyrus met a nice girl named Katelyn while working a job out of Alibi. The two hit it off. Two years later, Cyrus would ask Katelyn to marry him. But the proposal went awry when Cyrus learned that of Katelyn's relations to Vincent Falcone. She was a spy for the mob boss; sent to find Cyrus and end him. Katelyn claimed that she'd cut all ties with Falcone, and that she really loved Cyrus. But Gold was furious. He hated Falcone for what he'd done to Gold's family. Cyrus, blinded by rage, dragged Katelyn miles out of Gotham and hung her outside Slaughter Swamp.

Took ill on Thursday

When Vincent learned what had become of Katelyn, one of his most trusted agents, he was furious. Falcone sent a crew of hitmen after Cyrus Gold. The trained killers attacked Cyrus at My Alibi, murdering a dozen people there while trying to get him. But Gold escaped, dropping two of the hitmen before he made his way out of Amusement Mile. He ran out of the city as fast as his legs could carry him. The Falcone family's hit squad grabbed their automobiles and pursued Cyrus, not wanting Gold to get away again.

They chased Cyrus all the way back to Slaughter Swamp, where the now-decaying body of Katelyn still hung on the Swamp's largest tree. Gold climbed the tree, hiding from his pursuers next to the corpse of his former lover. The hitmen searched the Swamp for Cyrus but couldn't find him.

So Gold decided to play a bit of a game with the murderers. He recited the poem of Solomon Grundy, traveling through the tree tops. He always stayed just out of their sight, infuriating them with his taunting. He killed off a pair of the hitmen before they caught on to Cyrus. Falcone's men shot Cyrus from the trees, knocking the mobster into the murky waters of the swamp. Just to make sure Cyrus Gold was dead, the men poured canisters of hazardous materials they found nearby into the swamp. The hit squad returned to Gotham, confident in their victory over Cyrus Gold.

Grew worse on Friday

But the swamp had other ideas. The hitmen hadn't known, but Slaughter Swamp was home to the dark magical force known as the Gray. The Gray saw the dead mobster and had pity on him. It took the man's fallen corpse, imbuing it with the power of the Gray. Cyrus Gold's body was then remade from bark, muck and chemicals, held together by the magic of the swamp and given life by the Gray. A giant, bleach white-skinned monster made from mush and death crawled out of Slaughter Swamp fifty years after the death of Cyrus Gold. The creature had no memories; his mind was completely blank, all except for a single rhyme...He didn't know the meaning of it. At the time, the zombie thought the story was about him; it thought its name was Solomon Grundy. He'd been born on a Monday, after all. Solomon Grundy shuffled out of Slaughter Swamp and made his way towards the distant lights of Gotham City. The behemoth stomped through the streets of Gotham, repeating the rhyme as he did. People panicked, running and screaming in all directions. The Gotham City Police were called not long after Grundy's arrival. In the confusion, Solomon attempted to escape the police, causing them to fire on Grundy. The massive zombie retaliated, now angry, killing the police officers. The beastly construct tried to escape and hid in a nearby cemetery.

It wasn't long before Batman arrived on the scene. The Dark Knight attacked Solomon Grundy. The monster tried to fight back, but found himself terrified by the giant bat monster. Batman used the creature's simple mind to his advantage, defeating Solomon through trickery and deceit. Solomon was then transported to Belle Reve, where he would spend the next few years in captivity. Grundy knew very little about anything, and had to learn what he could while inside the prison. Luckily for Solomon Grundy, he caught the attention of the Calculator. The genius criminal mastermind gave Grundy a basic education in exchange for protection from his enemies.

Died on Saturday

Solomon Grundy's life changed once more when the Legion of Doom attacked Belle Reve. They freed the prisoners within, setting loose the most dangerous metahumans on earth. Grundy went on a rampage, attacking the cities of Gotham, Metropolis and Bludhaven in a fit of rage. He was angry at his imprisonment and the people working for the Legion of Doom had freed the monster. They had told Grundy that they were friends, and that the nasty Justice League were his enemies. So Solomon fought the caped heroes until he had his heart ripped from his chest by a bloodlusted hero. The Legion of Doom's all out assault on the superhero community proved a failure and Grundy was once more dead. But the Gray was not yet finished with Solomon. The zombie soon found himself reanimated in Slaughter Swamp, his memories of his previous life as Grundy intact. Knowing now that he couldn't die, Solomon set out to reunite himself with the Legion of Doom and help them in their mission to take over the world. He didn't have much else to do with his time anyway, being a zombie and all. Besides, his friends were nice to him, and Grundy wanted to make it up to them.

So Solomon Grundy teamed up with other super villains whenever they needed some extra mystical muscle. He traveled across the United States, robbing banks and destroying nuclear power plants and stealing crates of kryptonite. He did whatever he was asked. Grundy lived the life of a free spirit; he worked where he wanted. Did what he wanted. Helped who he wanted. He enjoyed the life of an immortal criminal zombie monster. It was rather freeing not to have to worry about anything. After all, he could just come back. So what was the point of being afraid?

Buried on Sunday

The world would never be the same. Superman was dead, killed at the hands of the monster known as Doomsday. Solomon Grundy hadn't been in Metropolis when the monster first appeared, but he and a group of other villains made their way there when they heard the news: the Justice League were losing a fight! Whoever this guy was, he singlehandedly walked through the Justice League International and turned the rest of the main Justice League to paste. But when Solomon Grundy got to Metropolis, he didn't like what he saw. None of them did. Bodies were strewn throughout the rubble-filled streets. Skyscrapers burned. Buildings collapsed. Blood curdling screams echoed past the destruction. Grundy had only wanted to see those heroes get what they deserved. But he'd never seen so much...death. It was disconcerting, even for a former killer turned zombified corpse. Solomon Grundy and the other supervillains decided to intervene when Big Blue died. They helped survivors escape collapsing buildings. Solomon cleaned up streets so that emergency vehicles could get in to help the injured. He and the other villains were given temporary pardons by the Metropolis Police for their efforts.

It was all so surreal. What would happen now? The Man of Steel was dead; he died protecting the world from an unstoppable killing machine. Grundy knew that he should be happy the hero was gone. But all he felt was emptiness. There was no joy in the slaughter. Only apathy. Maybe even a little hint of sadness. The world would never be the same without Superman.

| Attributes |
Super Strength: Solomon Grundy is one of the strongest villains on earth. He can go toe-to-toe with any member of the Justice League, and they most certainly feel his punches. He can lift enormous weights with little strain.

Invincibility: The zombified body of Cyrus Gold is extremely durable. He can tank extreme damage without injury. When injury does occur, Solomon Grundy's supernatural healing factor allows him to absorb life force to restore his body to its fullest power.

Life absorption: The Gray gifted Solomon Grundy with the ability to suck the life energies out of anything that lives and breathes. This includes humans, animals, aliens and plants. Certain objects are harder to drain, such as living creatures, and require more time and effort to absorb into himself. Solomon tends to avoid 'eating' sapient beings, especially other people. He isn't fond of murder.

Reanimation: Whenever Solomon Grundy is killed, he is brought back to life in Slaughter Swamp. This is due to the curse of the Gray making him effectively immortal. His previous body turns to nothing but wood and swamp pulp when his new body reforms back in Gotham.

| Character Notes |
N/A for now

| Character Goals |
I was introduced to Solomon Grundy during the Justice League cartoon, and fell in love with the character since then. He's such an odd character. His origins are extremely dark, and he's surrounded by pure evil, yet he manages to be fun and light hearted at the same time (at least sometimes.) I've never really liked it when Grundy was little more than a mindless zombie. So I want to write Solomon with a bit more emotion and humanity; I want to show his good side. I want to look into the psyche of a giant, memory-less zombie and explore what he thinks of this world that he finds himself in. Things are cut and dry for him. Black and white. Good guys fight bad guys, the good guys win, and the bad guys get away to plan their next big job. But things have become different. Become...gray. Villains aren't supposed to win; they aren't supposed to kill their heroes. That's the line of thought that I want to chase down with Grundy.

| Sample Post |
Grundy's heart hurt.

His arm hurt too. And his ribs. In fact, Solomon Grundy's entire body racked with the most intense pain he'd felt in his entire life. He shifted his weight a little, trying to get his barrings. Rock and rubble tumbled over his chest as he moved. Grundy blinked, blinded by the light. He reached a hand up to rub the dirt and dust off his face. Hmm. That was odd. Solomon could only move his left arm. He couldn't feel his right. The zombie glanced to the right and was surprised to find his arm was missing. There wasn't any blood; but swamp water dripped from the hole in his torso. Solomon used his one hand to free his trapped legs and stood to his feet. Grundy knocked down a brick wall, smashing it out of his way as he stepped into the street. He was in Metropolis. The golden city of the future, home to the iconic Superman. But Metropolis was different today.

Metropolis' heart hurt too.

So did its body. Grundy could see all the vast destruction that Doomsday person had caused when he attacked the city. There wasn't a building in sight that hadn't bee scarred in some capacity by the violence. The big, gray...thing...had knocked down multiple skyscrapers and turned entire blocks into piles of brick and mortar. Fire engulfed structure after structure and smoke blocked out the sun. Solomon made his way down the street, littered with bodies and the wounded. Cars sat bumper to bumper, most of the doors open being evidence that people had tried to escape the fighting on foot. The few vehicles with unopened doors were either flattened or filled with corpses. Grundy glanced inside a nearby van, his eyes catching sight of a pair of tiny skeletons in the back. They were burned black by something incredibly hot. Another pair of skeletons sat in the front, clutching each other in their bony hands. They had died holding each other. How romantic, Grundy thought.

The big, ugly zombie marched further down the street. He headed towards the center of the violent storm of complete destruction. That's where Superman and Doomsday had been seen last. Grundy pushed his way past the apocalyptic-like ruination, knocking over a fallen apartment building. Solomon had to lift up an overpass on his way downtown. He tossed the annihilated bridge of his way, careful not to cause much more damage than had already been done. Grundy's march was interrupted by the cries of a terrified voice. The voice of a small child. Solomon picked up the pace, running towards the sound. He found a little girl, clutching her unconscious father closer. They were wedged between a concrete pillar and a massive school bus, the latter of which threatened to crunch and collapse on top of them. Grundy shoved his powerful fingers into the metal of the bus, tossing it behind him without much effort. He picked up the man and the girl, placing her on his shoulder. "Don't worry. Grundy will take you to doctor men." He informed her. The girl appeared nearly as scared of Solomon as she had been of being crushed to death; but his words offered her a small bit of comfort.

After Grundy dropped the girl off at the nearest aid station, he continued on his trek towards the center of town. He'd try not to stop much this time. Of course, the injured and in-danger couldn't help it that they were in need of his assistance. Grundy couldn't hold it against them. Solomon responded to everything cry for help he heard. He saved a trio of teenagers from a burning building. Grundy rescued a dozen people from a falling bridge. He even helped a dog dig out his owner, who was trapped underneath his car. Solomon didn't like seeing people hurt. He remembered killing people, sure. But he never much liked it. It was usually an accident. Besides, today was...different. There was something in the air. Something wrong. He heard it all the time. People were wailing in the streets. Others gathered into circles, listening to reverends, priests and pastors offer words of condolence and peace. Leaders tried to rally the able to help with searches. But there was so much crying. Everyone seemed to be crying.

Metropolis' heart hurt like Grundy's.

It didn't take much longer for Solomon Grundy to reach the crater in the very center of Metropolis. It was surrounded by super heroes. People in capes and tights. Heroes. Nobody was talking, though. The few that were whispered very quietly. Some stood in silence. Others sobbed. Grundy didn't know what to do, so he decided to get closer. Nobody stopped him. Grundy got a few hateful looks, but they didn't fight him. Today was not a day for fighting. The fighting had stopped earlier. Grundy touched the area where his missing arm had been. He had tried to help Superman; Superman was Grundy's friend. Well. Not really friend. But Superman was nice to Grundy. So Solomon wanted to be nice to Superman. But Doomsday was strong; stronger than Grundy. It tore off Grundy's arm and tossed him across the city.

Grundy looked to the center of the crater, where a pair of familiar figures stood. One, clad in all black, and the other, dressed in colorful armor. Grundy knew them. Everyone knew them. They were Superman's friends. And Superman was gone now. He couldn't come back like Grundy could. He wouldn't come back. Superman's friends knew that. Grundy looked on, and he knew what was going on.

Their hearts hurt.

Just like Grundy's.

[GreenGrenade]

---

SPEEDY

---

| Identity |

• Mia Dearden
• Speedy

| Origin & Backstory |

A teenage runaway, Mia Dearden had, to put it lightly, a rough childhood. Frequently abused by her father, she escaped from home, opting to live on the streets as opposed to suffering through even more pain at his hands. It became clear early on, however, that surviving alone in the harsh Star City streets would not see her last very long, and so, upon meeting a young man by the name of Richard, she moved in with him, mistaking his generosity with understanding, and his lust with love. In exchange for shelter and food, Richard explored ways to exploit her for his own gain, often acting as her pimp, selling her body to the likes of crooked cops and local politicians.

It was from one such politician that she was saved by the man who would become her mentor: the Green Arrow. Having confronted the councilman, the Battling Bowman told her that the life she was leading was not one someone her age, let alone anyone, should have to live; with this advice, he also gave her a business card – belonging to Oliver Queen’s Papp Street Mission, a non-profit shelter for the homeless and recreational centre for the youth.

Returning home to Richard, a denial of his advances quickly escalated into a standoff as he held a knife to her throat, telling her that he can’t have what happened that night lead back to him. With quick thinking and a realisation that this life was not something she wanted, Mia managed to turn the tables on Richard, asking him not to follow her and cutting his hand for good measure. With nowhere else to go, she left Richard’s home, making her way to the Papp Street Mission.

It was there that she met Oliver Queen, who she almost instantly figured out was Green Arrow – all it took was a look at his beard. Feeling like she was meant for more than volunteer work, she took it upon herself to learn archery, all while nagging Oliver and his son, Connor, to teach her themselves. Eventually, Oliver folded, and so began Mia’s archery lessons.

While Mia had gotten what she wanted, she was not yet done with her requests – Oliver was forced to endure a persistent barrage of badgering when she asked to be his sidekick. Time and time again he refused, not wishing to put her at risk. But then the unthinkable happened; Mia had tested positive for HIV, the product of her time as Richard’s fille de joie. Oliver, feeling as if he owed her a chance, gave her a more intensive training regimen, and, after believing that she was ready, allowed her to debut by his side. Taking his first sidekick’s, Roy Harper’s, alias, Mia began her career as Speedy, taking to the streets alongside the two Green Arrows.

Oliver soon had her enrolled amongst the Teen Titans, working alongside the likes of Robin, Wonder Girl and Beast Boy. Initially reluctant to join the team, Mia slowly found herself warming up to them, finding friends for life in a team of legacies trying desperately to live up to their mentors’ reputations. For the first time in her life, Mia felt important.

But any illusion of relevance was shattered on the tragic day of Christmas Eve; for it was then, in 2015, that Superman was killed. Unable to believe that such a great man, the perfect hero, was dead, Mia watched as the world dealt with its sorrow, unable to come to terms with her own. Her morals were conflicting. If Superman, a man that had made such a difference in the world, could have his life taken from him by a monster such as Doomsday, then who was she to call herself a hero? Who was she, or Oliver, or Connor or Roy, to don their costumes and masks, and tell themselves that the world was better off for it? Everything she had built her life upon was brought crumbling down the moment the Man of Steel died, and she was lost. She didn’t know who she was anymore.

Feeling an impossible urge to help fill the void Superman left, Mia resolved to leave Star City and the Titans, moving to new grounds: Metropolis. Whether she’ll succeed, she has no idea – but you can be damned sure that she’ll try.

| Attributes |

Acrobatics: Mia is a proficient acrobat, incorporating her agility into her fighting style.
Archery: Trained by both Green Arrows, Mia is a very skilled archer, her marksmanship nearly matching that of her mentors.

Trick Arrows: Along with her normal arrows, Mia also boasts an arsenal of trick arrows – namely explosive and grappling arrows, among others.

Martial Arts: Receiving training from both Connor and Oliver, along with further training of her own, Mia is a very skilled martial artist, able to hold her own against multiple opponents.

| Character Notes |

_{To be updated as the story progresses.}

Allies & Friends

Team Arrow:

Oliver Queen/Green Arrow: Mia’s former mentor and saviour, Oliver was the one who, alongside his son, trained her to become the person she is today. While Mia has distanced herself since Superman’s death, she makes sure to keep in regular contact with him.

Connor Hawke/Green Arrow: Oliver’s son, Connor helped his father train Mia, forming a strong friendship with her in the process. Having refused his offer to come with her to Metropolis, Mia instead maintains regular contact with him.

Roy Harper/Arsenal: The original Speedy, Roy occasionally joined Team Arrow on missions following Mia’s induction. While not as close to him as she is to Oliver and Connor, Mia’s on friendly terms with Roy, who shares Oliver and Connor’s concern about her.

Civilians:

Bibbo Bibbowski: A former boxing champion, Bibbo was Superman’s self-proclaimed biggest fan, trying his hardest to influence the Suicide Slums for good following his hero’s death. The owner of Mia’s apartment, he rents it out for a relatively cheap price, all while managing the Ace O’Clubs bar.

Metropolis Police Department:
The Metropolis Police Department, or as Mia calls it, the MetPo, holds many potential allies for Speedy, including:

Captain Margaret Sawyer: Captain of the MetPo’s Major Crimes Unit, Maggie is a potential ally for Speedy, having had ties to Superman prior to his death.

Dan Turpin: A no-nonsense cop, Dan Turpin is a close colleague of Maggie Sawyer’s, and previous ally to Superman.

Enemies

John King: A billionaire philanthropist with a tainted past, taking advantage of Superman's death to shape the Suicide Slums into a kingdom of his design.

Fenton Quigley/The Archer: A hunter of former wealth, Quigley was cut off from his family fortune by his father. Having turned to crime, he uses his skills in archery to threaten the millionaires of Metropolis, stealing their riches for himself.

Rhosyn “Rose” Forrest/Thorn: A murderous vigilante with a split personality, the criminals who populate Metropolis’ Suicide Slums often meet a violent end at her hands.

Onomatopoeia: An assassin targeting non-powered vigilantes, Onomatopoeia is ruthless in his methods.

Stomping Grounds

Suicide Slums

Metropolis’ most notorious neighbourhood, the Suicide Slums, officially named Southside, is a downtrodden area overrun by poverty and crime. With corruption and sin rooted so deep within the district, it’s as good a place as any for Mia to establish her base of operations.

---

Mia’s Apartment: Located in the “nicer” part of the Slums, Mia’s apartment is owned by Bibbo Bibbowski, owner of the Ace O’Clubs bar, who rents the apartment out for a relatively cheap sum. While not the nicest of accommodations, Mia makes the most of it, using it as both her home and Speedy’s headquarters.

Ace O’Clubs: A bar owned by Bibbo Bibbowski, the Ace O’Clubs is no stranger to violence, often attracting shady individuals despite Bibbo’s best efforts.

| Character Goals |

In the simplest terms, I want Mia to spread her wings. Following the death of Superman, she’s going to be hurting, right alongside the rest of the US, and the world. She’s going to be hurting, and she’s going to be thinking, ‘Now that he’s gone, who could possibly take his place?’ And in order to cope with this, maybe in an attempt to get an answer, she’s going to leave Star City – the Arrow family – and she’s going to try to become her own hero. While she’s on this journey, she’s going to make both enemies and friends, and she will run into her fair share of difficulties and troubles. But eventually, she’s going to come out on top – and she will have figured out who she really is in the process. In short, I want to tell a Bildungsroman, coming-of-age story, with Superman’s death as the catalyst.

| Sample Post |

Goodbye

Her bags were packed. Her clothes, her toiletries, all her essentials, crammed into one duffel bag, her bow, quiver and suit packed into another, both resting on what would soon no longer be her bed. She’d made her decision. After days and nights spent debating what she should do, trying to deal with her countless emotions, her feeling of uselessness, she resolved to make a change. Today marked the day that Mia Dearden left for Metropolis.

Checking that she had everything she needed, Mia let out a huff, running a hand through her blond hair, tucking a lock behind her ear. This was it. She was ready to go.

“You really are leaving, eh, kiddo?” asked a voice from behind her, leaning against the doorway to her room. Oliver. Under normal circumstances, Mia would have said something snarky, probably to do with how ridiculous his beard looked. But these weren’t normal circumstances. This was goodbye.

Fighting past the lump in her throat, she answered, “Yeah. Yeah, I guess so.”

With difficulty, her eyes met his. Where she expected to see pain or anger, resentment for her abandonment, she only saw affection and sympathy; understanding. The lump in her throat only growing, she thought back to when she first met Oliver. He’d saved her from that sick pervert, Councilman Dreyfus – and ever since then, he’s had her back. From the moment she arrived at the Papp Street Mission, he treated her like nothing less than a daughter, always looking out for her, always willing to help – and now, she was leaving. Just like that. She knew that he knew how grateful she was, how much she cherished him and Connor for what they’ve done for her, but despite it all, she couldn’t help but feel that he didn’t deserve this. He didn’t deserve her walking out like this.

But through her doubt and her guilt, she knew that this – a new start – was what she needed. Oliver had given her one in the years gone by, and now it was time that she found one herself. She took a shaky breath, desperately trying to hold back the tears that threatened to break free, her voice trembling. “Why does saying goodbye have to be so hard?”

“Hey,” said Oliver, walking to her, laying his hands on her shoulders, “It always is. But you don’t have to this time, kiddo. I won’t let you.”

“Ollie,” she began, embracing him in a hug, “Thank you. For understanding.”

He returned her hug with a smile. “Always.”

Finding comfort in his arms, she stayed there awhile, content to just close her eyes and enjoy the moment. After a few seconds she pulled away, biting her lip. “I… I should probably get going. The cab’ll be here any minute now.”

She turned to pick up her bags, one in each hand. Any other person would have offered to take them for her, but not Ollie. No, he knew better. And she loved him for it.

“Okay. But you keep in touch, okay? Don’t be a stranger,” he said, warmth in his smile.

“Never,” she smiled back, rising onto her tiptoes, pecking him on the cheek. “Bye, Ollie.”

“See ya, Speedy.”

And then she walked out of the room, down the stairs and onto the street outside, patiently awaiting the cab she’d booked. Ever since Superman had died, she’d been battling with a single question: just who was she to think that she could come close to what he was? And now, as she stood on the sidewalk in the city she called home, she knew one thing. In a few short hours, she could finally start to figure it out.

[Hillan]

Birth, life, death.
That's the cycle of things, that's the way it's meant to be. But not for me.

| Identity |
Jason Peter Todd
Robin
Red Hood

| Origin & Backstory |

Jason was born into the slums of Gotham, his mother a drug addict and his father a thug who worked for the criminal overlords of the city. His childhood was spent committing petty theft and running away from the cops and older kids alike. In his tween years, his mother died of a overdose and his father was sentenced to prison for murder, leaving the boy to fend for himself.

He learned how to fight and how to provide for himself, staying alive thanks to his wit, instincts and his switchblade. Things changed for the young boy when he was 13 years old, coming across the Dark Knight Of Gotham. Being caught by The Batman in the middle of stealing the tires from the Batmobile, scared out of his mind by the Caped Crusader. He was put into a boarding school in Metropolis by a unknown benefactor, whom looked to 'take youths of the streets of Gotham'. Stopping a student whom had his own drug-operation at the school, Jason got into a bad fight and was kicked out of the school - soon finding out that his benefactor had been multi-billionaire Bruce Wayne.

In the following year, Bruce offically took Jason in and showed him everything there was to know, Jason was already a accomplished fighter and free-runner, thus his training was focused on control and practice of form. How to control and channel his anger, use his rage and turn it into swift fury. He took the mantle as Robin, and the Dynamic Duo was back.

The return of the Dynamic Duo was short lived, within half a year tragedy struck the Batfamily, first by the paralyzation of Batgirl - Barbara Gordon at the hands of the Joker, and following a lead about his mother's death, Jason and Bruce found their way to the east. Where Jason walked into a trap that lead to his capture. A cruel beating at the hands of the Joker, followed by a high explosive bomb right next to him. His last thoughts before it went black was a plead for Bruce to avenge him.

So it should have been. For Jason's corpse had been abducted from the morgue, and brought to Nanda Parbat, where at the behest of Talia Al'Ghul, the daughter of the Demon, the boywonder was brought back to life, using the powers of the Lazarus Pit. His mind in shambles, Talia pleaded with the mystical organization known as the All-Castle, to take in the boy and train him. Ducra, the spiritual leader of the All Caste agreed, and in the following year, Jason would be mentally pieced together, and physically trained by the All Castle.

Now, he's a young man with a lease on life, a new chance. But a old fury burning in his soul.

| Attributes |


Peak Human Condition:
Jason boasts the peak physical and mental conditions for a young man of his age, as such his strength, speed, dexterity and reflexes are all at the top of the charts. Thanks to his dip in the Lazarus Pit, Jason boasts enhanced healing factor and increased resistance to toxins and poisons, as well as a increased immunity system.

Hand-To-Hand Combat:
At 13 years old, without any formal training, Jason was a skilled enough street fighter to take down foes much stronger than him using only his natural aptitude for combat. Since then, he's been trained by the Batman, Talia Al' Ghul and The All Caste, making him able to hold his own even against the greatest martial artists on the planet.

Melee Combat:
While his melee weapon of choice is his 7 inch titanium combat knife, gifted to him by Talia. He is skilled with a large variety of weapons, and is known to turn his environment into a weapon.

Marksmanship:
Far from a master sharpshooter, but still skilled with guns in most varieties. His dual .40 Caliber Handguns are his go-to weapon, he's capable of being a skilled sniper and can easily use a assault rifle.

Free Running:
Naturally agile, he's a well trained gymnast, allowing him a agile fighting style and excellent parkour skills making him incredibly fast, both in and out of combat.

| Character Notes |

Allies:
The All-Caste; A mystical organization focusing on personal enlightenment and the betterment of all through mystic means. They took Jason in and through meditation and rigerous training pieced his mind back together after his resurrection. Jason's relationship to the All Caste is strained after him leaving once his training was complete, instead of letting them lead him to the path of enlightenment.
Talia Al Ghul; One who saved Jason's life in the hopes that bringing his lost friend back would put her in favor with Bruce Wayne.

Enemies:
The Joker; Duh.
The Untitled; The Anti-Matter of the All Caste.
Ra's al Ghul; Constantly tests Jason's capacity as a warrior and thinker.
The Hong Kong Sui-Wei Triads; Chinese Triad Jason's in the process of dismantling.
Two-Face; Two-Face was the man who employed his father and set him up, leading to him going to jail.
Bane; Jason's crossed paths with Bane's employees, shipping Venom across the globe.

| Character Goals |
I want to write a younger, confused, 'trying to find his place in the world'- Jason Todd. A Coming Of Age-story for The Red Hood where the goal is for him to tread the waters of all the chaos within him. Is he a hero? Is he a villain? Is he something in between? Will he be neither? My goal is to explore possibilities the comics never did take with the underrepresented Robin.

[Sep]

]John Constantine

| Origin & Backstory |

Childhood - 1981 -> 1994
"When everyone thinks you're crazy, there is only one way out...

John Constantine was born into a normal household in Liverpool in England. His parents were perfectly normal human beings, his Father Thomas was a teacher at a regular high school. His mum worked in an office, living a dreary nine to five job. John however, something was different about John. He's never found out what it is, despite searching. He always felt different, sometimes he could see things that seemed incredibly coincidental based on his thoughts. Adverts, or posters. They all somehow seemed to relate to something that was going on around him, and then he started seeing other things.

Demons, people would change on front of his very eyes into beings not off this world. They were creatures of two worlds, not full beings of hell sent to plague the people of the Earth. Then there were the angels, the ones sent to watch over us. All of it seemed crazy and he couldn't really understand it all. Naturally when he tried to tell people they believed that he was the crazy one and the craziness wasn't with the world. Nobody understood. So like with most things people didn't understand they locked him away in an asylum. They had him tested, poked, prodded and drugged more often than not.

The problem is, the more and more people claimed him to be crazy th emore and more he simply looked for a way out. Naturally there was only one way out.

Two minutes of hell - 1994 -> 1994

What John didn't understand then, is that committing suicide is the ultimate sin. As such his soul was then sent to hell, there was naught but pain and suffering. While he was dead a mere two minutes his rare talent let him retain the memories of his time in hell. The main thing he could remember doing, was the running. What was considered seconds in the physical world transitioned into hours in the land of hell. Minutes turned into days. He could remember the pain and the suffering that existed in the world.

The next world, identical to our own in every way except burning and in ruin. The fires burned him as the smoke and sulfur burned his longs, despite the fact he was already dead. He ran for hours before he was captured by them. The pain, it was more than a single being could gain an entire lifetime and yet it was never ending. Whenever his body got used to the pain it increased in intensity, occasionally it would stop. If only for a moment, only enough time to let his eyes close in an attempt to sleep and then it would begin anew. Then, just as the second day ended. He was torn out of the grasp of the devil himself and back into the world of the living with a start.

New Purpose - 1994 -> 2009

New purpose was given in his life, he had to find his way in life. There was a way to make a difference in this world, and not only that... maybe he could earn his way into heaven after all this time. He was determined not to return to hell, and the best way he could see to do that was to send the half-breed demons back to where they belonged. It wasn't an easy path however, he knew that before getting into it that it could put his life on the line time and time again and with Lucifer sitting waiting to collect his soul... he needed to be careful. He needed to be prepared, so he traveled to Europe to learn the magical arts.

John then decided to head to head for New York in order to try and learn under one of the greatest mages in the world, Nick Necro. For a time, he was a part of something greater. Part of a team, they worked against several smaller demonic threats and cults in New York in an effort to retain the balance that the devils forces seemed to be concerned about less and less everyday. However the Books of Magic, apparently one of the main sources of magic in our realm of existence, began to become an obsession for Nick. As more time passed the more time Nick was devoting to finding the books and ultimate power. It was this obsession that drove Nicks girlfriend Zatanna away from Nick and towards John.

However these weren't feelings John felt he could reciprocate, not when he knew that the path he was taking would likely lead him to an early grave and if he wasn't successful... back to hell. That didn't matter to the deranged Nick though, Nick saw it that John stole Zatanna from him and while the books of magic was still his obsession he wasn't above spending some more intimate time in order to get revenge against John. He worked with the Cult of the Cold Flame to try and get John sent to hell. Unfortunately he didn't count on Johns ability to manipulate or his quick wit, who then turned it around. Nick was the one to be sent to hell that day, which was the wedge that drove Zatanna away from him. Just at the moment John felt he could start loving her.

The conversation came to an end where she declared that while he was determined to doing good in the end he was not a good man... at least not yet, and until then they couldn't be together. It was then that John decided to leave New York, telling Zatanna that he'd return when he could be the man she wanted him to be. Until then, other parts of the US needed his help and he'd be the one to help them.

Naturally he was at ground zero as Superman made his big debut in Metropolis. More and more super heroes began to appear as he traveled all across the US actually. The idea never really appealed to him, he had power yes but he tended to keep to working with the mystic arts and part of that was keeping the entire existence of the mystic arts secret. The only one he really felt was up to the task was Batman. The rest of them, as far as he was concerned were a bunch of show boaters. They all did an important job though he supposed...

It was certainly an interesting time to be alive.

The Thing from the Swamp - 2009->2010

It turned out in the end that weirdos only attracted more weirdos. Of course John knew that that typically meant something supernatural was going on, at least usually. He started printing cards to hand out to people, after all he may as well make a name for himself. He also tried to make money but most of the time he'd end up completing the job and not taking any payment. Which made it hard to make a living from what he did, but he managed to scrape by. Eventually even accumulating a nice little network of informants who'd keep him in the loop. Some of them were just people who kept their ear to the ground.

Eventually he heard about something in Louisiana. As per usual, it was something that wasn't exactly of this world. Or part of him hoped so, the last thing he wanted to do was to get involved in some super-freaks business. All due respect to the guys but he had no interest in getting involved int heir war on crime. What humans did to eachother was their own business, no. He just wanted to stop the forces of Hell taking over the Earth and making it into the second hell... no big deal really. As per usual, without a mode of transportation a short while later he was sitting in the back of a taxi heading for Louisiana.

It didn't take him long to find the beast, and it took him even less time to discover that this wasn't exactly the dark entity that a lot of his contacts had been talking about. Instead it was a plant elemental, an interesting if not disturbing concept. The whole idea that such a being had chosen now to make itself known was the disturbing thing. Allowing the Swamp Thing to access the force called The Green it and Constantine tracked down a cult of vampires inside of Illinois. Feeling that there was some even greater threat at work, Constantine sent the Swamp Thing in to deal with the Vampires on it's own.

Besides, what super strong plant controlling entity really needed him for backup anyway? Probably not that one. After a time researching the coming darkness Constantine returned to Illinois. He found the Vampire cult gone however he only found one trace of the Swamp Thing. A note. The how of how the Swamp Thing was able to write a note still remains a mystery to this day. However it was merely a note for Constantine, to let him know that in terms of the growing threats the two of them couldn't face it alone and as such the Swamp Thing was going to try and find help.

That sounded too much like a super hero team up for Constantines liking, he hated the idea.


The Cult of Steel - 2010 -> 2015

John always felt there were two levels of crazy. There was crazy to the point of living a completely dreary normal life and then there was the crazy of making a cult in order to worship a Superhero including sacrifices to try to somehow appease him or make him more powerful. There's not a whole lot of in between, though not all of them performed ritualistic sacrifices he would give them that. A lot of the time it wouldn't even be the heroes fault, but instead some demon taking advantage of their popularity.

The same reason some famous people have a drastic shift in personality for no reason, that's not them performing a publicity stunt. That's them coming under the forces of a hell-beast. Or in some rare cases them being released from the control of a hell-beast. Of course Superheros got a lot more recognition than a mere celebrity, and there were always the conflicting opinions and tensions to play on.

For the next five-freaking-years he spent time cleaning up after the actions of the heroes. While he would sometimes be called to perform the occasional exorcism - he wasn't above the dirty work after all. He wasn't like the big hotshots who would swoop in, save the day then leave the dirty work for the little guy. Though most of his time was devoted to something dark going on in the underworld. Something was taking advantage of all the pain caused in the attacks, playing on the emotions of the general populace. Their anger and their fear. He'd spend days in a single city trying to banish hell-beasts back to where they came from when something big went down.

Then it would be off to the next crisis. What he wasn't expecting was, what was up to this point. The crisis.

"Trenchcoat Brigade"- Late 2015 -> Present

Turns out Swamp-Thing went and actually made his own team. A group of people who worked in the dark, unlike the Justice League themselves who worked in the light of day (With the exception of Batman) and with a lot of fanfare (Batman doesn't get exempt from this). Apparently whatever was going down, had demons all over the country (and likely beyond) riled up. Something big was going down, and everyone wanted in on the action.

Constantine, against his better judgement, decided to go with what he tried to name the Trenchcoat Brigade (Unsuccessfully) and as his mum always said. If you want honey you follow the bees, naturally it was a good way to get stung and with the fact that bees was being replaced with "Demons" and "Honey" was being replaced with "Catastrophic event that had all clairvoyants in the US fearing for the safety of metropolis"... it was a good way to end up dead. Though he agreed with Swamp Thing. If the world was going to get turned on it's head, if the balance was going to be disrupted... best they be in the middle of it to try and keep things straight. The last thing they needed was for some catastrophic event to go down for people to then discover that Heaven and Hell were real and that oh look, hell-beasts are taking over the Earth.

No, far better he team up. At least temporarily. What happened, well. He doubted any clairvoyant in their right mind, not that many of them were in their right minds, could have predicted Doomsday. The name was a little pomp for his liking as soon as he heard the name on the media. Though he wasn't going to argue, everyone had said the scales would become unbalanced. He never felt that that meant that Superman was going to be killed. Sure he felt that the caped hero was a bit of an arrogant and self righteous douche bag but... he was still the definition of the word hero. No, the scales had been tipped and then flipped on their side.

He didn't participate in the battle against Doomsday. No, what he did was work with civilians. He helped in the evacuation and saw to it that nothing took advantage of the chaos...

| Attributes |

Powers/Skills listed are current, and may be expanded upon if he learns more.

• Exorcist: Simple to define, Constantine is able to forces spirits (typically evil spirits) to leave a host body against their will. The difficulty of this naturally depends on the demon.
• Magic Circles/Emblems: Constantine is well versed in the creation of magical circles or emblems in order to create specific seals. Typically either to protect a location/person or to trap a demon. These can also be used to reveal a demons true form or if complex enough can interact with the normal physical plain of existence.
• Magic: While he doesn't often use it, Constantine does have access to magic which can perform a wide array of defensive/offensive abilities. However most of them he struggles with, the only magic spell that he typically uses is the ability to conjure flame in his hands which he can then use as a heat source, light source or a weapon. Anything else is substantially more complex.
• Hand to Hand Combat: You'd be surprised how often dealing with the mystic and spiritual how often it comes down to punching someone or something in the face. As such he is quite proficient at fighting. While he is considered a "Dirty fighter" as long as it gets the job done, he doesn't really care.
• Possession Resistance: Thanks to his studies he himself can resist psychic attacks and possession. He can even use sigils to make his presence from the world disappear altogether, at least for a period of time.
• Well Known: He's got a few friends, here and there.
• Stage Magic: Yeah, he can dazzle an audience.
• Arcane Knowledge: He might not be able to do a lot of magic. Though he sure as hell knows it when he sees it.

| Character Notes |

Allies:

Oh, there's quite a few...

Enemies:

Lucifer, The Devil, Satan himself. There aren't many others who are legitimantly in his "Bad" books.

| Character Goals |

I'm learning more about him all the time, and I love the mystical element of DC. So really I'm just looking forward to exploring that, introducing villains in the same area of the mythos just to spice things up. It's also going to be interesting interacting with any other heroes... especially if they've never dealt with anything like this before.

| Sample Post |

"I'm telling you mate, it's not going to happen. Simple as that." John rested his head back while the Taxi sat in a carpark out of the centre of metropolis. Sure shit was till going tits up but he needed his rest the same as everyone else. Would be easier if the rest of his so called team had decided not to go AWOL on him. At least he still had Chas, he wasn't really in the market for a new taxi driver. After all it was such a personal experience.

"I'm sure the big guy has earned his way into heaven. I mean not two days ago he died protecting the city from an evil rampaging monster. Pretty sure discounting all the other good he's done that more or less grants him entry." John just sighed as he sat up, facing the ever stubborn bastard that was probably the best friend he had ever had. He wasn't wrong, under normal circumstances that would have been enough to earn a glowing recommendation to the palace upstairs. Sadly these weren't normal circumstances.

[colored1c24]"I'll let you have it Chas, self sacrifice probably is one of the better ways to get in. Not to mentiona ll the other shit he's done over the years. You're forgetting one crucial thing though."[/color] He sighed as he just got a blank stare straight back. "Superman wasn't human he was... kryptomanian or something like that."

"Kryptonian."

"Whatever, the point is for whatever reason Earth is the center of all these Heaven, Hell and Earth Shennanigans. The even bigger guy upstairs doesn't really seem to care about anything out there or from out there, angels get pretty jealous about the fact that we seem to be his favourites. Sorry Chas, he died a hero but-" John just shrugged. "-His fate is in the hands of whatever Kryptonian god exists, if there is one."

"I just don't like it, look at what all he did for us-"

[color=ed1c24"What? Fly around in a cape and cause trouble. We have plenty of people that can do that."[/color] John couldn't help but wince at the glare he got from that remark. "Sorry Chas, maybe God'll grant an exception. Who knows? I mean if there's hope for me there's bound to be some hope for Superman. At least you'd bloody well hope so. I mean if I got a second chance at life you'd think so at least, wouldn't you?

Chas just sighed. "Sorry, I know you just want to sleep. It's been a busy couple of days-"

"With a few more to come probably."

"The point is, I guess there isn't one. It's just a shock, y'know?"

John nodded his head. "Yeah, I know. In the end he did his job, so grab some shuteye so we can do ours. Hopefully we can clean up this mess before something decides to use Supermans death as an opportunity to cause havoc." Truth be told, something already wasn't right. He could feel it in his bones, gonads and just about every other part of him that he could feel something in. Whatever had happened here, well. The scales were tipped and something had to be done quickly before the balance was gone forever. Quite obviously the one time he felt like he could really use help was the one time almost everyone willing to help him disappeared off the face of the Earth.

He just hoped they were still alive.

"Yeah, I guess you're right John."

"Tell you what Chas, we'll go to the funeral. Pay our respects and see if any of gods messangers are there. I mean don't get me wrong, I'd rather avoid them as they're just a right pain in the arse but..." John sighed, as he couldn't believe he was saying this. "Superman deserves to go to rest properly. Now close your bloody eyes and go to sleep before I knock you out. You'll do no good as a taxi driver if you can't keep your eyes open."

[Brodie]

"I am Mars' sole survivor. There is a reason for that." -Martain Manhunter

| Identity |

J'onn J'onzz/ Martian Manhunter
A.K.A:
Bloodwynd
Bronze Wraith
Fernus

| Origin & Backstory |

Origin

Origin:
Centuries ago on the planet Mars, the Green Martians known as M'yrnn and Sha'sheen gave birth to twin sons. The bearing of twins was uncommon among the Martian culture, and as such, the first of the twins was named J'onn J'onzz, whose name means "Light to the Light." J'onn's brother however, was born a mutant, bereft of a Martian's innate ability to communicate telepathically. He was named Ma'alefa'ak, whose named means "Darkness in the Heart."

As an adult, J'onn became a Manhunter (police officer) and married a Martian woman named M'yri'ah. The two established a modest home for themselves beneath the windswept Martian plains and gave birth to a daughter named K'hym.

Years passed, and J'onn's brother Ma'alefa'ak grew to despise everything about Martian culture. In an ambitious endeavor to commit full-scale genocide against his own people, he engineered a contagious virus known as H'ronmeer's Curse. The virus reacted to telepathic energy, and carried from one Martian to the next whenever they elected to use their psionic powers. The plague responded to a Martian's innate fear of fire, causing them psychosomatic stress so intense, that their bodies and minds would literally burst into flame. J'onn desperately tried to keep his wife and daughter from using their mental gifts, but they were unable and so, contracted the plague. K'hym was the first to experience the symptoms, and M'yri'ah followed soon after.

J'onn was anguished as he watched his family burning to death before his very eyes. The trauma of the event shattered his psyche, and nearly drove him mad. He put himself to sleep and dived deep into his own fabricated reality.

2008

2008:
On Earth, a would-be scientist named Dr. Saul Erdel developed a transmitter machine based upon ancient Martian technology. Seeking to make contact with extraterrestrial life, he aimed his device towards Mars and activated it. The transmitter beam streaked across both space and time, striking the Martian Manhunter at a point in time several centuries before Erdel would even be born. The beam brought J'onn back to Erdel's natural time era, where he collapsed on the ground outside of the doctor's Colorado laboratory.

Erdel brought the distraught Martian inside and attempted to nurse him back to health. The anguish of J'onn's mental state created a psychic bond between the two, and Erdel became aware of the events that took place on Mars. In an effort to heal J'onn's mind, Erdel used the mental link to create a new history for the Martian. He created a back-story inspired by the writings of famous science fiction novelists such as Ray Bradbury and Edgar Rice Burroughs. Eventually, J'onn's sanity was restored. Erdel died when he saw J'onn use his powers for the first time from a heart attack.

Erdel put the idea into his head that he should become a great champion, and thus J'onn adopted the heroic guise of the Martian Manhunter.

2009

2009:
In his first year as a hero, he took on the crime cartel VULTURE.

VULTURE (not an acronym) was a vast international crime cartel that was infiltrated, thwarted and eventually completely destroyed by J'onn. Their secretive leader utilized a number of different aliases including: Mister Vulture, Mister V, and Faceless (a.k.a. Marco Xavier).

Shortly after retiring his John Jones persona, J'onn came into conflict with cartel operatives when he traveled to the French Riviera. While in the Riviera, he investigated Marco Xavier, an international playboy with supposed links to organized crime. He used his shape-shifting powers to follow Xavier as he left his villa in a high-powered sports car. He died by driving off a cliff and J'onn came took over his identity. The disguised "Marco Xavier" was taken to his villa to recover. Slowly but surely, using his disguise as Marco Xavier, the Martian Manhunter worked his way up through the cartel, while maintaining the original Marco's role as an outside contractor uninterested in joining VULTURE. Eventually, J'onn managed to bring the organization down while working on the inside.

2010

2010:
J'onn entered into a agreement with the villain Scorch. It was to help conquer his fear of fire, she wants J'onzz' telepathic help in dealing with her own mental issues. While he tried to conquer his fear he reverted into an ancient creature and fought against the League. He took on the alias Fernus. Fernus increases the strength of the powers he inherits from J'onn: For example, he can phase other beings rather than just himself, and he has access to pyrokinesis. He can breathe fire of such intensity that it harms Scorch, and put her into a coma, who had previously been thought immune to damage from fire. Fernus' tremendous strength also allows him to dominate the Justice League in combat even without his Martian telepathic powers. He can also heal himself from almost total destruction within seconds.

The league finally defeated him and J'onn came back to his normal self. In the end he was defeated by Plastic Man and come back to his senses. Scorch ended up in a coma, and J'onn fell in love with her after all that had happened.

seconds.

2013

2013:
Rott sucked Bloodwynd into the Blood Gem and mind controlled Martian Manhunter into wearing Bloodwynd's Blood Gem and impersonating him. Using Bloodwynd's identity, The Manhunter joined the JLI as one of their more mysterious members.

He was not freed until an incident with Superman and fire which separated J'onn from the gem and freed Bloodwynd.

2015

2015:
At the end of the year, J'onn and the league face off against Doomsday, which ends in the death of Superman.

| Attributes |

Martian Physiology

Martian Physiology: Martian Manhunter has been described as "the Swiss Army knife of superheroes." Many, if not all of the Martian Manhunter's powers and abilities are common to members of his race. His powers come from his alien physiology. Born of Mars over a millennium ago, from a super advanced civilization, boasting advanced technology and genetic modifications over its people, the Martian Manhunter would appear to be a genetically modified being with incredible powers stemming from the changes made in his body. The Martian's physiology would seem to be composed of a complex molecular chain that resembles polymer bonds but with the ability to be altered at will. The Martian Manhunter can change his mass, color, relative shape, imitating even clothing if desired. The bio-polymer is extremely flexible, durable, incredibly strong for a biological material and apparently self-sustaining. It is unknown if the Martian Manhunter actually needs to eat or not but he has been seen consuming food, particularly "Chocos," a brand of cookies.
Shape-Shifting, Malleability, Plasticity, Elongation: The most incredible of the powers of the Manhunter is the ability to shape-shift. He is able to literally control the molecular structure of his body's bio-polymer and make it resemble anything he wants. He can form clothing and weapons with non-moving or non-functioning parts. There does not seem to be any limit to the number of people the Manhunter can imitate. His ability to imitate people and their mannerisms has stood him in good stead for his disguises. He is also able to change colors.
Invisibility:The Manhunter can cause the bio-polymers in his body to lose their ability to reflect light, rendering the Manhunter invisible to normal light and human sight. With more increased concentration, he can render himself completely invisible along the electromagnetic spectrum, including the infrared and the ultraviolet ranges of the spectrum. This invisibility does not affect every other sense and he could still be detected by touch.
Phasing: The Manhunter can phase through solid matter.
Superhuman Durability: The bio-morphic structure of the Manhunter's body allows him to absorb almost all kinetic energies such as high caliber-bullets, shrapnel, or flying debris easily. He can harden his bio-polymers by rebinding them and increase his durability. Along with his slight invulnerability, his shape shifting makes him even more difficult to harm. Hazardous environments practically do not affect the Martian Manhunter.
Superhuman Strength: The Martian Manhunter is one of the strongest beings on the planet. The Martian's superhuman strength comes from his plasmorphic structure formed from immensely long and complex molecular chains, augmented with his psionic and telekinetic abilities allowing him to lift incredible weights without these weights crumbling under the stress. By modifying the density of these bio-polymers, the Manhunter can make himself stronger by forcing the polymers into tighter bundles.
Superhuman Stamina: J'onn's endurance is just as formidable as his strength. He can operate under extreme conditions for an indeterminate period of time without showing signs of fatigue. Unless fire is involved, which is one of the only things that can weaken his needed focus.
Regeneration: The Martian Manhunter has shown amazing regenerative abilities. His regenerative abilities are so great that he has been able to completely regenerate from nothing but his severed hand,[16] regenerate in moments from nothing than a puddle of green liquid and other moments, having his head cut off, and he has shown total control over his molecular structure.
Flight: The Martian Manhunter flies by manipulation of gravitons, manipulation of magnetic fields and control of his absolute molecular movement. These combine to give him the ability to fly great distances with little fatigue and at great speed. The Manhunter has also been seen flying in space with no difficulty, and in space he can fly at speeds that has allowed him to keep up with the likes of even Superman.
Superhuman Speed: Through flight and reflexes, the Martian Manhunter can maintain speed far in excess to that of even most superhumans. Like the power of flight, this is accomplished by manipulating the magnetic fields of energy surrounding his body, as well as ambient gravitational particles. Traditionally, J'onn only uses his superhuman speed while flying. He has admitted that he is not as fast as Superman. He can process thoughts, move, and react at super speed. J'onn has also demonstrated that he is fast enough to comfortably catch bullets and other propelled projectiles.

Martian Visison

Martian Vision: It has been seen to be a bolt of force, directed by the Manhunter's eyes causing considerable damage It has also been seen to cause flammable objects to catch fire. It also grants J'onn the ability to see into other spectrums of light.
X-Ray Vision
Electro-Magnetic Spectrum Vision
Heat Vision

Telepathy

Telepathy: The Martian Manhunter is the most powerful telepath on the planet. He is able to read the mind of any human with no difficulties, and the only minds that can cause him trouble are insane minds. He can even read their subconscious mind as well. He can scan the mind of every person on Earth within a matter of moments. He can read a mind over great distances. This telepathy extends to distances as far away as the moon, since it is known that the Martian Manhunter can communicate with Earth with his telepathy.
Illusions
Astral Projection
Mind Control: The Martian Manhunter can also control other beings mind's. Insane minds seem to be the only minds he has some trouble controlling.
Telepathic Relay: Other wise known as a telepathic link. Manhunter is able to use his telepathic prowess as a relay station for a group of minds, who can then "speak" to each other through him. This relaying ability seems to be limited to the same range as the Manhunters normal telepathic range.
Telepathic Assault: The Martian Manhunter can also use his telepathic abilities in an offensive manner. He has the ability to cause mental shutdown in a target using his mental powers. The Manhunter does not use this power often due to the invasive nature and harshness of such a telepathic attack.
Thought Sensing: The Manhunter can use the mental signature of a being to track it and can detect lifeforms by their empathic as well as telepathic signatures. He can detect whether a being is intelligent and can communicate.
Telekinesis:J'onn possesses the ability to move objects with his mind, which he described as ""molecular hypnosis" and "Martian mind-over-matter"

| Character Notes |

Allies

Allies:
M'gann M'orzz-The origin others know: there are two different races of Martians, distinguished by their differing world-views. The Green Martians are peaceful philosophers, while the White Martians are vicious warriors. When the White Martians began massacring their Green cousins, M'gann's parents sent her on a rocket to the Vega system to escape the civil war. M'gann learned that another Green Martian refugee, J'onn J'onzz, had escaped the White Martian tyranny, establishing himself on Earth, and came to Earth herself.

Whatever her origins might be, M'gann eventually came to Earth along with her parents. Details of this period are sketchy, but it is known that M'gann's parents, along with dozens of other White Martians, were captured by the United States government, many of whom, including M'gann's parents were subsequently executed. After separating from her parents, M'gann adopted two new names during her time on this world: "Megan Morse", the English transliteration of her Martian name, and "Miss Martian", her chosen superhero identity.

Aubrey Sparks (Scorch)- Scorch enlisted the aid of the Martian Manhunter in trying to make sense of her confused memories. Scorch offered to help the Manhunter learn to overcome his weakness to fire, and ultimately fell in love with him. In the process, she inadvertently released the personality of "Fernus" that had been hidden inside the Manhunter for his entire life. Later it is revealed that several millennia ago, the Oans had transformed the Martians from the "Burning Martian" form into the current one. That was done to stop them from incinerating entire worlds as part of their reproductive cycle, but J'onn breaking the psychological block that made him vulnerable to fire also broke the block on his genetic memories of the Burning. Now free, Fernus attempted to have Scorch destroy an unnamed village for this purpose but her reluctance saw him changing his plans to setting the earth ablaze with the aid of the entire world's nuclear arsenals. After that plan was foiled by the JLA, he then set a city afire to provide him with the energy needed to reproduce. While the JLA engaged him, Scorch attempted to draw all of the flames from the city into herself. Fernus defeats the JLA and attacks Scorch sending her into a coma, and releasing the flames she had absorbed back into the city. Fernus was ultimately defeated, but despite medical treatment, Scorch was not expected to recover from her coma.

Scorch would later be roused from her coma (apparently by Despero) and was led to believe that the JLA was a great threat. She teamed up with villains Effigy, Plasmus, and Heat Wave, and caused a brushfire in the western United States in order to lure Superman to there and kill him. However, Scorch realized she had made an error and helped Superman stop the fire and subdue her former accomplices. Now she lives under house arrest.

Enemies

Enemies:
Despero-W.I.P
Kanto-W.I.P
Ma'alefa'ak-W.I.P
White Martians-W.I.P

| Character Goals |

I would like for J'onn to take a more active role. He really is benched all the time to the Watch Tower so that he can play the 'all seeing eye' but with Superman gone I feel like each and every hero is gonna be needed to help with the impending epidemic. Also would like to help develop a greater character for J'onn without ruining who he already is, I just think he needs to be better represented than the deep voice at the back of the room.

| Sample Post |

Post

The Heist and the Normal Man
What many people did not know about J'onn was that he has been a detective in many different cities in many different lives. He choose a detective because it would give him a chance to blend in and be as normal as possible while staying close to the villainous action when necessary. Ever since he came to Earth he has tried to fit in among the humans as good as possible so he would not cause any disturbances in his new home.

So here he sat, at his desk in the 5th Precinct of the MPD. He was in Metropolis currently and was posing with a different face this time, a more heavy set man with no head hair and a thick mustache, the stereotypical doughnut eating cop. J'onn was scanning the city telepathically for any disturbances in the psychokinetic atmosphere of the city. He would get the spike in negative emotions every once in a while but J'onn had learned that humans, like many animals, when pent up in a metal cage (like the giant urban city that is Metropolis) are going to have moments of anger.

But one thing did catch his attention, a mass of negative thoughts and emotions. This mass was moving at a high speed on the way to the outskirts of the city. J'onn stood up and walked out through the back of the Precinct, where he pinpointed one mind in the mass and took off into the sky.

He had shifted back into his 'green' attire and was flying at a fast pace to catch up with the armored truck. Once he did, the truck was on a freeway, J'onn could tell there were four men inside; however, only three of them really wanted to be there. J'onn had discovered the human mind to be a strange thing, against all morals and barriers but up it would do what was necessary to survive, and that was exactly what the driver was doing. J'onn was now flying above the truck and could read their minds with ease. Jeff, the driver, was only helping out to get some money for his family. So J'onn would play that card to his advantage.

Jeff, my name is the Martian Manhunter and I am here to help. Now I need you to pull the truck over, only because your wife and kids do not need you in jail. So pull over and run home. He said in a deep voice inside of Jeff's head.

And no sooner the truck slowed down to the right of the freeway and Jeff could be seen running from the front seat of the van. J'onn landed in the back and used his telekinesis to open the back doors, revealing three men in black. The moment they stepped off the truck J'onn attacked. He extended his arm and strack the man in the middle then swung and hit the one on the right and lastly he brought his extended arm down on the man on the left, causing the last criminal to knock-out.

J'onn used his telepathy to make sure the robbers did not wake up until they heard police sirens and lifted the truck with his telekinesis and flew it back to the bank. After the entire fiasco was over he returned to the Precinct and sat as his desk in his 'normal' look scanning the city again. During his look he found Jeff had made it home and told his wife what happened. This is another example as to the reason he even cares about humanity, because there is still hope.

[Gowi]

Jinx

| Identity |

Nicole Diaz / Jinx

| Origin & Backstory |

1997-2011: Early Life

• Nicole Diaz was born in Jump City, though due to mitigating circumstances would end up orphaned at a young age which led her to a life going from foster home to foster home; a fact that would leave her jaded and cynical even before her metagene —a connection to magical energies— was discovered. Nicole would have the worst of luck in these foster homes, never really knowing what an actual loving environment entailed. Upon one case of abuse by one of her foster parents her latent powers came out in a flurry of rage and fear. Scared for her life and confused Nicole left the home for the streets after believing to have killed her foster father.

• Down on her luck and in dire straits, Nicole knew that the police department would find her for what she had done; but most of all she was afraid for her life as she feared that Jump City’s anti-metahuman sentiment would catch up with her. It was here that an organization by the name of HIVE approached Nicole with an offer to fix her problems if she joined their organization and its “academy” of sorts.

2012-2014: Disciple of the HIVE

• Fourteen years old and with a chip on her shoulder, Nicole found herself a bit emotionally exhausted upon joining HIVE. Yet in time it began to feel more preferable to the streets of Jump City and the Foster Care system. HIVE agents served as “teachers” at the pseudo-academy she was found in including the likes of super-villains like Doctor Light and many others. Given the callsign of Jinx she soon found herself in league with other youths of similar backgrounds to her own and began relating to them; the first time she had related to anyone in years.

• Following the formation of the Justice League’s “Teen Titans”, HIVE mobilizes the students for their revealed purpose: as subversive metahuman terrorists to counteract and infect. Nicole does exceptionally well in this field as she exponentially gains more control of her powers and battles with notable “sidekicks” to some degree of success. The leader of HIVE, Queen Bee is impressed and expands HIVE’s operations due to this fact.

• The Teen Titans attempt to infiltrate HIVE, trying to decipher the truth behind their operations; leading this insurgent operation to reveal that Psimon has been telepathically influencing (and by extension, manipulating) the minds of the youths under HIVE’s control. They attempt to break this control, hoping when Psimon is defeated it’d lead to individuals like Jinx being able to think for themselves. Psimon, however, is not so easy to defeat and the Titans are forced to retreat from the facility.

• After thinking on the information given to her by one of the Teen Titans, Nicole leaves HIVE with a handful of her friends. This leads to a conflict where Queen Bee sends an agent to retrieve them; Robin of the Titans offers them protective custody for some time. HIVE retaliates against the Titans by sending Deathstroke to show them the futility of their actions. Nicole is dragged back before Queen Bee herself who tortures her for her insolence. A recovering Psimon wipes their memories.

• As the effects of Psimon’s mind wipe begin to fade, Jinx becomes infuriated at how she has been controlled and hurt by those she trusted. Nicole looks to war with the HIVE from the inside— giving information to the Teen Titans in the process. After a battle between the Teen Titans that leads Psimon to be captured by the authorities, Nicole decides to use his absence to her advantage. A confrontation in early 2014 leads the Teen Titans and HIVE students to depose Queen Bee. HIVE collapses overnight.

2015- : Jinx & The Fearsome Five

• Nicole decides to break out on her own— deciding that she will refuse to be controlled by anyone again and will live her life on her terms. After the defeat of Queen Bee, HIVE is supposedly disbanded. Leading an independent group called The Fearsome Five comprised of her former friends at the academy, Jinx decides to go “independent”.

| Attributes |

Magical Conduit - Nicole Diaz is a conduit for magical energy; a fact that allows her to harness it in its rawest form. This allows her to levitate, hurl magical energies as blasts, manipulate probability fields for her benefit, and other abilities within that spectrum.

Streetwise - Nicole is physically conditioned due to her upbringing in Jump City, allowing her to be able to utilize parkour-based acrobatics and be hardy enough to take a beating.

| Character Notes |

The Fearsome Five

• Ambush Bug
• Gizmo
• Mammoth
• Shimmer
• Terra

Friends & Allies

• Teen Titans (1st Generation)

Enemies & Rivals

• Doctor Light
• Libra
• Psimon
• Queen Bee

| Character Goals |

I ran Jinx once before in a old Ultimate DC game, but I never really moved forward with her beyond two posts (Bounce was playing Gizmo at the time, as I recall). So this is my second go with her. I’ve pretty much thought two days about Jinx and a few other characters but this one could be the most fun out of my options and it gives me something to do inbetween Wonder Woman posts.

Oh, right. Heist stories and fun stuff ahoy.

| Sample Post |

The meeting was in a run-down church in the “Suicide Slums”, Metropolis’ go-to criminal hotspot, and as the “witch” known as Jinx figured it… things were going pretty well to her. Though it seems her contact for this job was the opposite— she could see it in how he looked behind his back and how he shook. She wasn’t sure if it was due to the increased superhero activities since the whole Doomsday nonsense or if he was a dirty contact. What she had been told to go after was big and the take was pretty good. Her brows narrowed as she moved a strand of pink-dyed hair from her face.

“It doesn’t really bother me. A job is a job.”

The contractor blinked as he looked at the eighteen year old with some nervousness; to think she would so eagerly go into the devil’s den like that? To rob a joint only around the block from the Hall of Justice on the day of the big man’s funeral and steal something like that with all of the heroes a stone throw away? He couldn’t even fathom it. If he had been the one doing it he would not be able to do it. But he had been paid to be the middleman not the thief; he was glad for that.

He was honestly surprised he found someone so eager to do the contract.

“Alright then… you have the information of the operation. Any questions?”

Jinx smirked, “Where do we make the drop off?”

“An unmarked warehouse in the harbor. I’ll mark it down for you.”

It was pretty much all set, they just had to make the heist work. But this wasn’t the first job they had ever taken despite it being one of the biggest risks they had went for. It would work— and with the “capes” as distracted as they were there was no way this wasn’t the best opportunity they had for a take like this. She could almost taste it.

“Don’t worry; I’m not scared of a bunch of capes.”

He nodded as he met her eyes; he had some supplementary information on this girl, but it wasn’t enough to tell him if she was that good or that crazy.

[Natty]

| Identity |

Harper Isabella Row AKA Bluebird

| Origin & Backstory |

1997-2012

After their mother’s death, Harper and Cullen Row were forced to live with their father, Marcus. He was a drunk, with him often leaving them home alone for days at a time. He had a tendency to beat his kids, with Harper constantly defending her young brother, forcing Marcus to hit her instead of him. Due to his constant drunk nature, Marcus often ended up breaking things around the house, such as the TV, microwave, or the lights. Because of this, Harper soon developed a knack for fixing things due to her constantly attempting to keep the family electronics functional.

2013

In secret, Cullen told Harper that he was homosexual. The two agreed that due to their father’s homophobic nature that it was best to never tell him. This unfortunately didn’t go well, with Marcus discovering Cullen’s stash of pornographic images of men underneath the kid’s bed while searching for money to spend on booze.

He severely beat Cullen when he returned home from school, despite Harper’s multiple attempts to stop him. The next day, Harper filed for emancipation.

2014

After receiving emancipation, Harper took Cullen and began to rent out a small apartment in the Narrows. She got a part time job at a local garage while she wasn’t at school in order to pay the rent. While the job was hard work, it helped to get them by, as well as helping her to hone her electrical engineering talents.

Returning home from work one evening, Harper found Cullen on the floor of their apartment, having been assaulted. His hair had been cut ragged, with the word "FAG" shaved into the back of his head. Instantly Harper attempted to console her brother, taking a pair of clippers and giving herself a matching haircut.

This caused a stir the next day at school, with the two later getting attacked on their way home from school. Luckily the two were rescued by none other than the Dark Knight himself. The man made an impression on the two Row children, who both came to idolise the man. Cullen showed his affection by getting a tattoo of the bat symbol. As for Harper, she decided to find out who he was.

2015

Her research began at once, with Harper investigation anything that seemed remotely connected to the hero. One such lead she came upon was the Gotham security cameras. While looking online, Harper discovered that the Gotham City CCTV system had failed to retrieve a single picture of him, with the cameras apparently deactivating whenever he was in the area. Knowing that the Batman would not be able to access the cameras via remote, Harper grew interested in how he achieved this. After investigation the Gotham Security Grid, she came upon what appeared to be the Dark Knight’s improvements. Using the same technology, Harper found that she could use the CCTV system in order to track the Batman, with Harper getting his general location every time one of the camera’s the superhero approached deactivated. Realizing that the hero’s enemies could probably do the same, she set out to find Batman and warn him. The confrontation did not go well, with Batman commanding her to stop, outright rejecting Harper’s request to assist him. This didn’t stop Harper though, who was now extremely smug due to the fact that after the meeting she found that the CCTV system had been sorted.

Deciding that she didn’t need the Dark Knight’s permission to be a hero, Harper pulled together a costume using a variety of technology of her own design, as well as implementing some modified Wayne Enterprise equipment she had gotten her hands on. Bluebird was born and the Narrows had another hero looking over it.

Harper had watched the League battle against Doomsday on television with Cullen. While she hadn’t always looked up to the big man in blue, his death still saddened her, as well as helping her realize that the superhero business wasn’t one to be taken likely. Despite realizing that, his death also made Harper think that she could be doing more than just apprehending petty thugs.

| Attributes |

• Electrical Engineering - While having no actual powers, Harper is very skilled at electrical engineering, something which has evolved into her creating a range of crime fighting gadgetry, including:
  
  • Electrical Disruptor Rifle - This can fire shots of electrical pulses that can have a variety of effects; such as stunning people, as well as potentially disabling weaponry and other pieces of electrical powered technology. This can only be fired a few times before running out of charge.
  • Gapling Gun - While not as complex as that of the likes of Batman, this homemade grapling gun does the job well.
  • Line Launcher - Similar to the Grapling Gun, this piece of kit is a small box which fires two grapling hooks in opposite directions, creating some sort of grapling rope tightrope which Harper can use to travel like a zip wire or simple hand from.
  • Explosive Pellets - Essentially small explosives which can be thrown and used like grenades, despite packing a significantly smaller punch.
  • Flashbang Pellets - Similar to the explosive pellets, these emit bright light and loud sound to completely blind and deafen enemies. The effect wears off in a few minutes.
• Martial Arts – Harper certainly isn’t an expert combatant due to her never having any real training. She has learnt how to fight though from her time living in the Narrows. However, she has spent a large amount of time studying old martial arts videos online and practising these techniques on old mannequins in their apartment. Due to this Harper can out-fight just about your average group of thugs or criminals with her fighting skills alone, although Harper is much more capable of these feats when wielding her gadgetry.
• Espionage – While maybe not as great as the Dark Knight himself, Harper is fairly adept at keeping herself to the shadows and remaining hidden.

| Character Notes |

Allies

Cullen Row – Harper’s young brother. The two have an extremely strong bond, with him being the only person who Harper has told about her late night activities. Due to his homosexuality, Cullen is often the victim of bullying at school, resulting in Harper regularly getting herself into fights with Cullen’s bullying classmates.
Batman - The Dark Knight himself, Harper has only met the grizzled vigilante a small number of times although none were very civil. Despite her goal of wanting to work alongside him, Harper has decided that it's probably best to keep out of his way.

Enemies

Marcus Row – Harper and Cullen’s criminal father. The man regularly finds himself in and out of Blackgate. Not the greatest father, nor is he the greatest criminal either.
Professor Pyg - After hearing word of a mysterious man wearing a pig mask kidnapping young children around the Narrows,Harper decides that he's probably someone worth investigating.

| Character Goals |

Harper Row is one of my absolute favourite things to come out of the New52 and I really want to display that love by showing how much potential she really has. I also want to see her create her own rogue gallery, with her facing a number of Batman's lesser known adversaries. More importantly, I would like to see her interact with Batman, as well as the rest of the Bat-family, as obviously the Dark Knight isn't a fan of vigilantes in his city.

| Sample Post |
_{I'll get there...}

[An Outsider]

Identity:

Arthur Curry
Orin Ap Thomas
Aquaman
The Golden One

Origin & Backstory:

Born of Two Worlds; 1953-1955

A man born of two worlds, accepted by neither, shunned by all while he struggles to find his place in this life. An outsider, a waylander, a freak, a man who's only home is the one he makes for himself, through his own blood and sweat and tears. That is Arthur Curry of the surface world, also known as Orin Ap Thomas of Atlantis. Jokingly referenced as 'Aquaman' by the American media, given the ironic title of 'The Golden One' by the ocean-dwellers.

Sixty-three years ago Atlanna Ep Orvax, princess of the underwater kingdom of Poseidonis, fled her home upon discovering her father meant to marry her to a prince from the rival kingdom Lemuria. She was a fiery one, Atlanna, and refused to countenance a world where she was forced into a marriage that didn't suit her, no more than a pawn in someone else's games. With no destination in mind she fled, wandering the seas while staying well clear of any of the Seven kingdoms of Atlantis, of anyone who would force her back to her old life. It was during this roaming that she, by sheer happen-stance, met lighthouse keeper Thomas Curry.

Tom Curry. Over six foot tall. Broad shouldered, golden haired, muscled like a maidens delight, Tom Curry. It's really no wonder that Atlanna, even with generations of bred-in distrust of humans, fell for Mr Curry, hook, line and sinker. She engineered a meeting with Tom, and the two fell almost immediately into a relationship. While it began as a purely physical pairing feelings did grow between the two, feelings that became even stronger when, to their surprise, Atlanna fell pregnant.

Until that point Atlanna had kept her Atlantean heritage a secret from her paramour, but she realized the time was upon her to reveal the truth. Tom was skeptical at first, but quickly came round after the princess remained underwater for over half an hour as way of evidence. After some serious soul searching the lighthouse keeper decided that this new information, while a shock, didn't actually change the way he felt about Atlanna. Their son was born, and they called him Arthur.

The family lived in peace for almost two years, but that all changed when a cadre of Poseidonis soldiers, led by Atlanna's father the King Orvax, came knocking at the Lighthouse door. The king demanded that she return at once, a demand that the princess promptly refused. However she was then informed that because she had failed to do her duty to her home full scale war threatened to erupt between Poseidonis and Lemuria. Under such dire circumstances she relented, agreeing to return to her home, a decision that hurt Thomas deeply. Arthur she left with his father, Orvax telling her that Atlantean's would never accept a bastard human child as one of their own, even a royal one.

Accepted by Neither; 1955-1970

And so Arthur grew up motherless. It wasn't long, though, before he realized that wasn't the only thing that marked him out as different from all the other children growing up in the small town of Mercy Reef though. For one he was stronger than any of the other boys his age. Stronger than adult men too. So strong that it soon became necessary for Arthur to be banned from playing with his peers, in case he ever inadvertently hurt them. Instead it was Arthur who was hurt, hurt and confused by his forced segregation. He asked his father why he was so different, and all Thomas could tell him was that his mother was an Atlantean. When pressed for what that meant Tom could do nothing but admit to his ignorance. Atlanna was gone, after all, and in all their time together she had rarely discussed her people or their home with the father of her child. In a last desperate bid to get his son the answers he craved, Thomas turned to Dr Stephen Shin.

Shin was a marine biologist, once reckoned one of the leading minds on all things related to the sea. However his reputation had been tarnished after he published a paper detailing his belief in a realm of underwater men and women who ruled the oceans, a people he called 'Atlanteans'. Unfortunately the doctors claims was unaccompanied by anything even resembling hard evidence, and so he quickly became the laughing stock of the scientific community. Shin, upon hearing of Arthur's unique condition, jumped at the chance to ingratiate himself with the Currys. Here was something resembling the proof he so desperately needed to repair his standing among his peers. Under Shin's tutelage Arthur developed and refined his fledgling powers. They tested his limits and probed at his weaknesses, and bit by bit discovered more and more of the secrets to Atlantean biology.

It wasn't enough for Shin and Arthur though. For them nothing short of seeing the lost cities themselves would be enough. However neither knew where those cities could be found, and had no way of finding out. It seemed their dreams of discovering Atlantis were merely that, dreams. That was all before they met Robert Phaydon though. Phaydon was a maritime treasure hunter who claimed to have laid eyes on an underwater city, and was willing to take Arthur there in exchange for payment. Perhaps Arthur should have been more suspicious of Phaydon's true motives, or the seeming fortuitous timing of his offer, but at the time the young man was just overjoyed to be so close to finding out who he really was.

I'd Like to be Under the Sea; 1970-1971

Phaydon was true to his word, transporting Arthur, his father, and doctor Shin upon his submarine to the city of Poseidonis. The Atlantean's are a distrustful people, especially of surface-dwellers, and were poised to attack before Arthur revealed himself as one of them. While confused, the Atlantean's brought the strange young man to their Queen; None other than Arthur's mother, Atlanna.

Atlanna was overjoyed to be reunited with her son and her first love,Thomas. She announced to her people that the 'Prodigal son had been returned to them', declaring he was now apart of the royal family of Poseidonis. She then introduced him to his younger half brother, Orm, son of the then deceased Marius. Orm received Arthur with cool grace, and while Arthur thought this meant his brother didn't like him, Atlanna assured him that the cause was merely that Orm was a 'deep thinking man', and would need time to order his feelings on this new development. Celebrations were arranged in honor of Arthur's arrival.

Not everyone in Poseidonis shared Atlanna's feelings though. A group of irate nobles stormed the celebration, claiming that they cared not if the outsider was the Queen's son, they wanted him and his companions out of the city. Tempers flared and it wasn't long before things got violent, though the Royal Guard quickly restored order. However it wasn't until afterwards that they all realized the true extent of the damage went beyond split lips and hurt feelings. In the confusion Robert Phaydon had stolen the Zodiac Stone of Capricornus, a mystical gem of incredible power that powered the force-field domes that housed the great buildings of the city. It took little more than an hour to discover the theft, but even in that short time the barriers had weakened considerably, wavering under the strain of holding back millions of tonnes of water. Atlanna led her greatest Mages, among them her chief adviser Vulko and son Orm, in supplementing the barriers with their own mystical might. However the mages power could not hold indefinitely. It was at best a stop gap solution, a holding pattern while the Drift, an elite Atlantean commando unit, tracked down Phaydon and retrieved Capricornus. When Arthur asked how he could help he was told that he had already done enough. It seemed that the nobility was right, that he was considered little more than an outsider.

Despondent, he went to the rooms set aside for his father, hoping for some sort of guidance. When he got there, though, he discovered the worst. Phaydon hadn't only stolen the Stone, he had also kidnapped Thomas, hoping to use Atlanna's and Arthur's feelings for the older Curry as leverage to make good his escape. When Arthur took this information to his mother she told him there was nothing she could do about that now. Arthur, furious, accused her of abandoning his father for a second time. However Atlanna calmly explained that as the ruler of Poseidonis she couldn't risk the fate of her city for the life of one man, regardless of how much he meant to her. It was the kind of cold arithmetic a Queen had to deal with daily, she told him, and she hoped he would understand her choice one day.

Arthur refused to accept this though, exiting the city to confront Phaydon himself. In his haste to save his father he hardly noticed when he easily outstripped the Drift on his way to the thief's vessel, arriving upon the submarine long before the commandos did, despite their head start. Boarding the vessel, he began a room by room search for his father, hoping to find Thomas without alerting Phaydon to his presence. He should have known better though. That's not how these kind of stories work out. Phaydon was waiting for Arthur, his father held close at hand, 'for safe keeping'. Arthur begged for his father's release, but the thief refused to let him go until they were on dry land. At an impasse, Arthur attacked, but Phaydon had studied all of Dr Shin's research notes on the young Atlantean, and had prepared for this encounter. He subdued Arthur, but not easily. It was then the Drift attacked, though they too fell for Phaydon's traps and preparations. However the Drift did manage to critically damage the sub, though they gave their lives to do it.

It seemed nobody was getting out of the mess alive, until Phaydon revealed he had an escape pod. As a parting shot he wounded Thomas, knowing Arthur would never chase him down while his father lay injured in a sinking submarine, and left with the Zodiac Stone. Arthur felt himself wishing that someone, anyone, could stop Phaydon, but knew there was no one left. He found himself facing a similar decision to the one his mother faced earlier. To save his father he would be damning the entire city of Poseidonis. In then end Thomas made the choice for him, instructing his son to chase the thief and retrieve the Capricornus. Arthur left his father as the submarine slowly filled with icy cold seawater.

As Arthur came upon Phaydon's escape craft he realized he wasn't the only one after the thief. A pod of blue whales were ramming the craft, while a frenzy of sharks barred it's path from going any further. As he approached the marine life retreated slightly, and looked almost like they were waiting on Arthur's orders. It was with some surprise that he realized that was exactly what they were doing, though he had no time to dwell on this new development. Instead he had an idea to save his father. He directed the whales to divert the escape crafts course, pushing it back towards the sinking submarine. If they could just get back in time they could load his father onto the escape craft and bring him back to Poseidonis. Surely a city possessed of such advanced magics would be able to help him?

The point was a moot one though, as even with Arthur urging the whales on they arrived all to late to help Thomas, the submarine long since having filled up with water that choked the life from a man that had lived his whole life around the water. Enraged, Arthur destroyed Phaydon's craft, before leaving the man himself to the mercy of the sharks. The surviving Curry took the Zodiac stone and returned to Poseidonis.

For his return to the city he was escorted by all manner of sea creatures. Sharks, whales, dolphins, fish, octopuses, squid. The sea around Poseidonis was thick with them. Even in a place as thick with mystery and magic as Atlantis, this scene was marked in it's uniqueness. All save Arthur seemed to be mystified by the phenomenon, even the great Mages who struggled to keep the barriers up, or the Queen who stood speechless as her son silently handed her the Zodiac Stone before back into the sea, swimming into the distance and taking his mismatched horde with him.

Lost to the Deep. Lost to the Dark; 1971-1976

Atlanna declared Arthur a hero, and declared a public holiday in his honor. However there were many citizens that pointed out, quite rightly, that the calamity only arose because of his poor choice in companions. Despite the grumbling the celebrations went on, sans the presence of the guest of honor. No amount of coaxing would see him return to the city, the half-breed instead insisting he needed time on his own to think. He traveled into the deep, dark places of the world, were other Atlantean's with more sense feared to tread.

His adventure's from this time are mostly unknown, the man himself rarely speaking about them. Rumors abound though. Some stories have him facing Sleeping God's from dread realms, others feature forbidden dalliances with princesses from the lost realms, sunk so deep that no Atlantean living has ever seen them before. He did reappear for a while, being seen swimming alongside raiding parties of Tritonis Mermen, though he disappeared once more before agents of Atlanna could reach him.

He didn't truly return to the civilized waters until late in 1976. It wasn't Atlantean's he made reappearance to though, instead revealing himself to the United States Navy Ship AFB-14. The ship had unexpectedly made the first human discovery of the Megamouth shark when the creature became entangled in the ships anchor line. The sailors were wondering what to do about the find, pondering if their would be a reward for discovering a species when Arthur appeared. He requested that the stunned crew release the shark, stating he would consider it a personal favor if the sailors complied. When asked what he would do if they didn't he replied it was better for everyone involved if they didn't find out. The sailors, figuring discretion was the better part of valor, wisely released the Megamouth. In gratitude Arthur gave each sailor on board a single golden dubloon, taken from a sunken treasure chest he claimed.

Atlantean's had long observed human vessels, especially military ones. It was through this observation they picked up Arthur's tracks once more, witnessing him dealing with AFB-14. Agents were once more sent out to retrieve the wayward half-breed. Leading them was Orm Ap Marius. Orm met with his brother, and showing none of the reservation he had at their last meeting, argued passionately for his brother's return to Poseidonis. After several hours of convincing Arthur agreed to accompany him back to the city.

Rise of The Golden One; 1976-2009

If Arthur had thought his return to the city would be accompanied by raucous celebration and fanfare then he was sorely mistaken. The people were still divided on the half-breed, and the incident with David Phaydon and the Zodiac Stone was fresh in peoples minds. On top of that there was growing discord between the Seven Kingdoms of Atlantis, and war threatened to break out at any moment. Atlanna's popularity was lower than ever before, as a ruler who can't be trusted to protect her people really doesn't deserve the right to rule. So Arthur was quietly welcomed back, given the Atlantean name Orin Ap Thomas. His detractors gave him another name though, 'The Golden One', in relation to his blonde hair, long considered an ill omen amongst Atlanteans. Paying no mind to the insult, Orin quickly set to learning the skills required of him as a Prince.

First was his time at the Royal Institute of Advanced Learning and Piercing Insight. The Scholar Vulko was chosen to be his tutor, and under him Orin underwent a four year accelerated course designed to teach him all he would need to know about the history and culture of his new home, as well as statecraft, oratory, economics and diplomacy. Orin, always an intelligent man, proved to be an avid student, and he passed Vulko's class with flying colours. It was then that the Scholar marked the Prince as a man of great destiny, and vowed for his services to always be at Orin's disposal.

Next came a course designed to awaken and nurture Orin's magical talent. Members of the royal family had long been strong in the mystical arts, and Orin was supposed to be no different. However, despite an aptitude for the theoretical side of magic, Orin proved to be an entirely useless practitioner of the craft. While not unheard of for royalty, it was uncommon, and proved to be just one more of his supposed failings for his detractors to use against him. His teacher in the magic arts, Zath Ap Fradon, already prejudiced against his mixed-blood student, took this as the last straw. He declared Orin unteachable. The Prince took this set back hard, but with the support of his brother Orm managed to move past it and on to his next challenge; martial training.

It was evident that Orin's adventures during his years in the Deep hadn't all been peaceful, as he bore the scars from battle. He already carried himself like a fighter. Now the Atlantean's set out to sculpt him into a warrior. Training under the likes of Lord Commander Murk of the Men o'War, Koryak Shiver-Spoken, Daki Greyscale and the Drift, it soon became apparent that whatever Orin lacked in mage-craft he more than made up for in the art of war. This talent was discovered just in time as full scale war broke out between the Kingdoms of Lemuria and Xebel. As an ally of Lemuria, Poseidonis was dragged into the conflict, and with their armies went Prince Orin.

For the next nine years there was full scale war between the Seven Kingdoms, and during that time Orin acquitted himself brilliantly. He quickly proved that he was more than willing to share the hardships of his troops, always placing himself in the most dangerous spots, never asking his men to do that which he wasn't willing to do himself. His old nickname, The Golden One, resurfaced, but this time time it was used as a mark of respect from his soldiers. Some say it was actually a ploy that originated with Orm, the Crown-Prince using idle gossip to plant the name in the minds of the soldiers, to rob title of the sting that the nobles had once infused it with. If that's true then it worked brilliantly.

In 1992 Atlanna named Orin the Champion of Poseidonis, a position of great respect. Much of the nobility was incensed at this, as they were jealous of the half-breed's meteoric rise. However by that point Orin had the support of Atlanna, Orm, the common people and the soldiers. There was little the nobility could do to prevent it. While he would never be King, it did show how much store his mother and brother set by him.

The End of the Masquerade; 2009 to 2010

While his focus was mostly on the Kingdoms of Atlantis, Arthur still kept on eye on the surface world. It often felt like the drylands were the one connection he still had to his father, and that was a connection he would never willingly forsake. So it was that he shared the rest of the worlds surprise when Superman revealed himself, though Arthur's surprise didn't last all too long after he reminded himself he lived in Atlantis. Still, it was an exciting discovery, and he decided he would pay close attention to this man of steel.

Other heroes, other Gods where quick to reveal themselves. Batman. The Flash. Green Lantern. He should have figured then that it would soon be his turn.

He recieved word from Vulko that puissant magics were being cast around the surface dweller city named Gateway. While Arthur agreed that it was indeed interesting, he had no idea why it concerned him. Vulko told him that the magics in question were summoning spells, and the object of the summons was a long-thought-lost thrall of Poseidon, a monster that thrived on destruction, and if left unchecked it would almost certainly be the cause of a terrible catastrophe. The Atlanteans felt that the Surfacedwellers were ill-equipped to handle the monstrosity alone, and decided that their Golden One was to be despatched to deal with the beast.

Arthur arrived on the scene to find the Amazonian warrior Wonder Woman already engaging the beast. Together the two heroes defeated the monster. In the aftermath Arthur found himself revealed to humanity, the media near instantly dubbing him as Aquaman, not a name he would have picked for himself. Still, it was obvious to him that things were changing, and he decided to keep more of an active presence in the surface world while still serving as the champion of Poseidonis.

Dawn of Justice; 2010 to present

Even the isolationist Atlantean's know that you can't hide in the hold while the ship burns. So, when Brainiac invaded earth they knew they had to do something. Instead of sending all their armies and leave their cities defenseless the leaders of the Seven Kingdom's decided to send just one individual to represent them. One Champion. There was only one man suited for the job. Arthur was sent. Along with the other heroes of earth he fought back against the alien despot's forces, and send the mechanical tyrant back from whence he came.

That was the day the Justice League was formed.

For what felt like the first time in his life Arthur had found a group with which he felt he fitted in. The League were outsiders, just like him, and understood his trials and tribulations better than any others, as they had gone through similar. Unfortuanatly his first responsibility was to Atlantis, so he didn't get to spend as much time with the League as he would have liked, but he still made a point of making himself available to them in a crisis.

Shortly after the formation of the League he was called upon to escort the Princess Mera Ep Nereus of Xebel to Poseidonis, where she was to be married to Orm. However during the trip Mera and Arthur were attacked by the Trench, led by a creature calling itself Charybdis. Arthur was grieviously injured, while Mera was captured by Charybdis, who meant to sacrifice her to his 'wife', the dark entity Scylla. Arthur managed to recover and lead the Drift in a counter raid in time to save the princess, and even managed to wound Scylla, sending it back to whichever dark realm it calls home to lick it's wounds, Charybdis close on her heels. While the rescue mission was a success, and Mera was married to Orm, cementing peace between Xebel and Poseidonis, Arthur couldn't help but shake the feeling that the entire incident was part of a much bigger plot.

Since then Arthur has been working his fingers to the bone, not just trying to maintain peace between the Seven Kingdoms, but upon the surface world as well. Despite his tireless efforts he still struggles to gain the respect and admiration afforded to other heroes like Batman and Superman, but just because a task is thankless has never stopped him from attempting it in the past.

Attributes:

• Atlantean Physiology
  
  Arthur's Atlantean physiology grants him a great many powers that are far beyond that of the human norm. For reasons unknown Arthur is capable of much greater physical feats than any other Atlantean, though it's reasonable to assume that his being from the line of Atlan, greatest of the ancient Mage-Lords, probably has something to do with it.
  
  
  
  
  • Underwater Adaption
    
    Like all Atlanteans he is able to normally function and move underwater, unfazed by the extremes of pressure, temperatures or lack of light.
  • Superhuman Strength
    
    Arthur is stronger far stronger than any normal human. In the past he has lifted over one hundred tonnes, and while it was a strain he is confident that he could lift more if it was called for. His leg muscles are so powerful tha while on land he is capable of jumping extremely high into the air.
  • Superhuman Durability
    
    Aquaman's enhanced physiology enables him to withstand heavy impacts that would kill any normal human and gives him the ability to function normally on the ocean floor. On land he's survived direct hits from RPGs.
  • Regenerative Healing Factor
    
    Arthur also heals much faster than humans and normal Atlanteans. This factor has also slowed down his aging process. He is a man in his late sixties, who appears to be in his early thirties, while he moves like a man in his early twenties.
  • Superhuman Stamina
    
    Arthur's stamina is especially impressive, even by meta-human standards. He can swim non-stop for extended periods, fight at peak for hours at a time and even go weeks without food, though his need for water is just the same as any regular human, perhaps even more so. Poisons and toxins have a stunted effect on him.
  • Superhuman Speed and Reactions
    
    They call him Aquaman for a reason, as he is quite possibly the fastest being alive underwater. Dr Stephen Shin has recorded him breaking Mach 5, and that was when Arthur was still a teenager. On land, Aquaman has displayed his superhuman speed, been capable of dodging bullets.
  • Enhanced Senses
    
    Arthur also has the ability to see, hear and smell much greater than human capacity. His ability to see through murky waters gives him remarkable vision at night while on the surface and is capable of seeing far deep as 36,000 ft below the ocean floor with a clear sight. He also possesses super human hearing, able to hear the heartbeat of a living being through five miles of water. Further more he has a primative sonar sense and the ability to feel water in near proximity.
  • Mystical Being
    
    Atlantean's shouldn't exist. They are not the product of evolution. They are in fact the result of a great spell cast by the Mage-Lords of ancient Atlantis, their last desperate bid to save their people from 'The Drench', the mysterious catastrophe that seen their cities sink to the bottom of the ocean millenia ago. Those magical energies still infuse Atlantean's to this day. In theory anything harmed by magic should be harmed by physical contact with Aquaman.
• Expert Combatant
  
  He's been trained by the best of the best in Atlantean hand to hand combat methods. On top of all that training he's had plenty real world experience too, serving as Poseidonis' martial Champion for almost twenty years during a time of uncommon strife for the Seven Kingdoms.
• Expert Tactician
  
  Study and practice has developed Arthur into an excellant tactician.
• Marine Telepathy
  
  Arthur has many powers, but this is the one most often remarked upon. Unique even amongst Atlantean's, there has never been a recorded instance of an individual possessing this talent before in history. While often dismissed as just 'talking to fish', that is an extremely heavy handed description. It's more like an ability to use low-level telepathy to communicate indirectly to marine life, while also having some degree of empathy towards the creatures 'moods' and 'wants'.

People of Note:

• Queen Atlanna Ep Orvax
  
  Mother to Arthur and Orm, current queen of Poseidonis.
• Crown-Prince Orm Ap Marius
  
  Brother to Arthur, son to Atlanna, Crown-Prince of Poseidonis.
• Vulko of Poseidonis
  
  Mentor to Arthur, advisor to Atlanna, political rival of Orm. Nicknamed 'The Scholar'.
• Princess Mera Ep Nereus
  
  Princess of Xebel, married to Orm.
• David Phaydon
  
  Sworn enemy of Arthur Curry. Called 'Black Manta'
• Thomas Curry
  
  Father of Arthur Curry and one time lover of Atlanna. Deceased
• Dr Stephen Shin
  
  Marine biologist, former mentor to Arthur Curry.

Character Goals:

To my mind there's two kinds of Aquaman that writers try to push. One who's an utter joke, no better than a fish whisperer who regularly gets trounced if the villain is wielding anything more powerful than a hair dryer, and the other an Über-badass who's trying way to hard to compensate for the other interpretations wussiness. I'm gonna try and strike a happy medium between the two, having a tough lad who's also not afraid to crack a joke or two while punching folk in the teeth. On top of that there's a few other aspects of his character I'd like to highlight. Namely; being a man from two worlds, inhabiting a mostly alien domain, having far more weighty responsibilities than most other heroes, and his being a warrior among costumed heroes. Finally I'd like to tap into some of the Arthurian Mythos that occasionally colours Aquaman stories.

Sample Post:

Shoals of Trench flesh rippers, eager to sink sharp little teeth into unprotected Atlantean flesh. Hordes of Tritonis' screamers, mad as hell and baying for blood. Organised Lemurian Cohorts, a slow and unstoppable juggernaut of martial might that promised doom to their enemies. Cybernetic soldiers, self-declared God's, monomaniacal would be conquerors, alien invaders, petty crooks, highly trained mercenaries, undead sorcerers, corrupt business officials, and on one noteworthy occasion an extremely irate ex-girlfriend. Arthur Curry had faced them all, and conquered on every occasion. It was a source of no small measure of pride to him in fact, that his name was quite possibly the most feared in all the Seven Kingdoms of Atlantis, that when Atlantean warriors sat in their circles at night to eat their supper they all told stories of 'The Golden One's' achievements, or that when the people of earth ranked their greatest heroes his name regularly featured among them (Or at least the title 'Aquaman' did, but Arthur chose to ignore that.)

He would have quite happily given up all that hard won respect from both the bottom and surface-dwellers at that very moment though, if only to escape his current unenviable task; escorting Mera of Xebel, his newest - and quite possibly to date greatest – rival, towards her destiny.

Becoming his brothers bride.

When Arthur had first been handed this job he had thought to himself lucky. A mission that didn't involve him risking life and limb fighting some soulless monster of the deeps? Fantastic! Just carting some spoiled rich girl from one cushy palace to a slightly different cushy palace? Easy, just load her into the back of the reef-raider, hit the cruise control, then put his feet up and relax. It was gonna be the first thing resembling a holiday he'd had in almost four years! He shoulda realized at the time it was too good to be true, that there was a reason no body wanted this gig. After all, why else would Poseidonis send it's resident dogsbody to fetch the princess of Xebel, if not because every slopey-shouldered noble with a lick of influence, surely better suited for such a delicate diplomatic task than a bruiser like him, knew better than to take the damn job on!

Ever since he had collected her from her father Nereus in Xebel - and tense meeting in itself, considering that Arthur had disfigured him years ago in a duel - she had been nothing but hassle. Whatever pain Nereus might have felt since losing to Arthur's hands was nothing compared to the constant headache caused by Mera's constant complaints, criticism's and cutting barbs. It seemed she couldn't even look at Arthur without spitting venom. At first he had thought it was just her pre-wedding nerves, perhaps a frightened girls way of dealing with the fact that in a few short weeks she would be marrying a man she had never before met, purely to strengthen the links between two kingdoms that liked nothing better than to declare war on each other. Now though, now he wasn't so sure.

Now he just reckoned it was because she was a bitch.

The sliding doors behind him opened with a whoosh, the fragile peace Arthur had in the cockpit in danger of disappearing. Luckily it wasn't Mera come to berate him for some new infraction, instead it was Vulko. The old Scholar had joined Arthur in his task on the pretence that he desired a break from hectic life in the capital, though the blonde Atlantean suspected that the truth was that Vulko's divisive personality had angered the wrong noble, and he was merely making himself scarce while the heat died down. Never one to rest on his laurels, the old advisor had set right to the task of arguing the odds with the Princess of Xebel whenever the opportunity presented itself. No subject was too big or too small for that pair, and it seemed that Orm Ap Marius' inherent dislike for the Scholar was a trait his bride-to-be passionately shared. Not that Arthur minded. If she was screaming at Vulko then she wasn't screaming at him.

Vulko looked flustered, heavy black brows arched in a furious frown, mouth clenched in a grim line. The doors had barely whispered shut behind him before he was getting down to bitching.

“That fool of a woman, she is infuriating in the extreme!” He said, throwing himself into the seat next to Arthur.

“You don't say?” Replied the Prince, his sarcasm a touch too mild because the Scholar didn't notice it. That or he chose to ignore it and forge on anyway.

“I do say! I do indeed! She vexes me at every opportunity. If I say up, she immediately set's her self to not just saying down, but left, right, sideways and backwards too. Anything, as long as it runs contrary to whatever I have said!” Vulko had leapt back up from his seat, his face going from a deep crimson to a deeper violet, Arthur half wondering if the older man was mid-heart attack.

“What'ya wanting me to say Vulko? She does the same thing to me, or she did leastways, till I realized the trick was to ignore her. I reckon she only does it for the rise she gets outta us. No rise, no fun. No fun, and what's the point?”

“So your advice, as roundabout and littered with grammatical errors as ever, is to take the high road?”

“Pretty much.”

Vulko seemed to think about it for a moment, before scoffing loudly.

“Hardly a suitable option for one such as myself! I mean, really, I have tutored some of the greatest statesmen and orators our fine city has ever borne witness too! For one such as I to cede an argument to one such as her, well it's preposterous! Incredulous even! It would be like a warrior of your calibre submitting to a child armed with a stuffed toy! I shan't, nay, I can't do it!”

Arthur chuckled softly. The old bullshit merchant always did have a knack for making him laugh, even if it was rarely intentional.

"You're a glutton for punishment Vulko, and that's all there is to it."

A light on the control panel began to flash before Vulko could answer, a sharp beeping echoing throughout the craft. Arthur sat up, eye's darting across the ship readouts, his good humor evaporating faster than a glass of water left in the desert sun. Seeing exactly what he had prayed he wouldn't, Arthur moaned a curse and hit the emergency stop. The Reef Raider cut power immediately, lights dimming before dying completely while the quick-engine stop kicked in, the vessel going dead in the water. Arthur hit a few more buttons before switching his attention to the bay windows in front of him, eyes searching the inky darkness of the water.

"Orin. . . " Vulko edged, but the Prince shushed him with a glare. The two sat in tense silence, Arthur's gaze alternating between the control panels until the doors behind them opened with the same whispered whoosh that they had opened with earlier. Only this time it sounded a hell of a lot louder, like anyone swimming ten miles away could hear those doors echoing open. And if they didn't hear the doors open, then they'd sure hear the one who opened them.

"What is the meaning of this? I demand to know why we have stopped!" Princess Mera breezed in, all haughty arrogance and spoilt ignorance. Arthur spun on her, fixing her with the same intense glare he had unleashed on Vulko.

"Quiet!" He hissed, before returning his attention to the window. Mera, unused to being spoken to in such a fashion, or dismissed so lightly, was momentarily stunned into silence. Her face fell slack with shock and she took a faltering backstep, as if struck. Her amazement didn't last long, mores the pity, before her natural sense of outrage took hold. She surged forward, fury building up as she prepared to give the Champion of Poseidonis a tongue lashing so severe that Atlantean's would speak of it in hushed tones for generations to come.

"Now see here. . . "

"Mera! Shut your mouth, or so help me God I'll shut it for you!" Spit flew from Arthur's mouth as he snarled at the Xebel princess. None present were left in any doubt whether the blonde meant to back up his threat or not. Mera fell silent, frown so deep it looked like she was trying to crack her face in half, but at least she was silent. The Prince once more returned his attention to the seas, and this time he wasn't interrupted.

Shapes began to emerge from the dark water in front of them, indistinct blurs in the distance slowly coalascending into almost man shaped figures. Lot's of figures.

"Damn. . . " Arthur muttered under his breath, getting slowly up from his seat.

"What are those. . . things?" Said Mera, voice full of awe as she approached the window for a closer look.

"The Trench." Whispered Vulko, the old Scholar's cheeks a pale white, his pupils wide and darting. The Trench, terrors of the sea, nothing but teeth, and claws, and all consuming hunger. They came from the deep, dark places of the world, plaguing the Seven Kingdoms, hordes of the creatures descending like a storm upon unprepared settlements and travelers, leaving nothing but bones in their wake. There was no talking to the Trench, no bargaining or diplomacy. You either killed them or died, because once they got your scent they never gave up the hunt.

"Do you think they've seen us?" said Mera, face up against the window. Suddenly there was a crash like thunder, the princess throwing herself back from the window with a high-pitched shriek. Against the window was pressed a bulbous, sick-blue skinned head, pitch black eyes staring intently into the cock pit as it worked it's overly toothy maw against the glass, trying futily to bite it's way in. Arthur, standing in front of a weapons cabinet, glanced over his shoulder at the beast.

"Yeah. I reckon they've seen us."

[Veridis Quo]

Robin

| Identity |

Tim Drake
Robin
Boy Wonder

| Origin & Backstory |

Tim Drake was born into a wealthy family, as his father was a well respected businessman and archeologist. When he was a toddler, his father took him to see the "Flying Graysons" - a family of world-class acrobats. Tim was fascinated by the Graysons' tricks, and the youngest of them (Dick Grayson) became somewhat of an idol to him during that evening. He even got his photo taken with the young Grayson, who promised to dedicate his next trick for Tim. What Dick then performed was the quadruple somersault, a move that no one outside of the Grayson family had ever been able to pull off. And Tim was overjoyed to see it all. Although the night seemed to be going perfectly, the next turn of events shocked everyone.

The Grayson family's final performance was sabotaged by the mob, resulting in the death of Dick's parents.

Sometime later, when Tim was nine years old, Batman's new sidekick was revealed through news-footage captured of the Dynamic Duo in action. Although the whole world missed it, Tim recognized one of Robin's moves as a quadruple somersault, a move that was unique to the Flying Graysons. With this knowledge in hand, Tim began to suspect that Robin was Dick Grayson - the only member of the world-class acrobat family left alive. He found out that Dick had been taken in as a ward by Bruce Wayne, which lead him to believe that Bruce was, in turn, Batman.

Tim followed the adventures of the Dynamic Duo for the next few years. Even at the age that he was, the database that he had amassed for Batman and Robin, filled with the notes he took, were the most accurate and detailed in the world on the subject. Tim knew why their identities were kept hidden, and chose not to reveal his work to the rest of the world. Instead he kept an eye on the Caped Crusaders of Gotham, even after Grayson became Nightwing and Jason Todd took his place as the second Robin.

When Todd was killed at the hands of the Joker, Tim began to notice a shift in Batman's behaviour. The Dark Knight had become much colder, more ruthless in the face of evil. While Todd's death weighted heavily on him, it was clear that the feelings within Bruce Wayne would soon consume him and twist him into something unrecognizable. It was then that Tim confronted Dick Grayson for the first time.

After helping Grayson solve a mystery at a crime scene, Tim was able to convince Dick that Batman needed Robin. And while Dick rushed off to Bruce's side, he left as Nightwing, not Robin. Upon his arrival in Gotham City, Both Batman and Nightwing were captured in an elaborate trap set up by Two-Face.

Tim Drake, at thirteen years old, contacted Alfred Pennyworth and worked with him to free Bruce and Dick. He was able to save both of them in a night that would have been their last. When Tim finally asked Bruce to take him in as the new Robin, Bruce refused.

(EDIT: This picture seems to be from the "New 52" timeline. It doesn't quite follow the same story as the original, but the two are close enough when it came to Batman's reluctance in training Tim.)

It was Alfred, who had noticed the turmoil within the Batman as Tim had, that convinced Bruce to give the young boy a chance.

Over the next year, Tim was trained under the tutelage of Batman and Nightwing.

| Attributes |

Martial arts, acrobatics, and detective work training (although he has only attained mastery in detective work). He is also especially skilled with electronics, and is equipped with many gadgets, including explosive disks and bird-shaped batarangs (or shurikens). Because he isn't as naturally gifted in acrobatics and fighting as the previous Robins, Tim uses additional equipment to supplement his normal gadgets. To improve his maneuverability through the air, Tim wears a cape that is very similar to Batman's. When deployed, it can act as a glider and allow him to have control over his descent. To help with hand-to-hand combat, Tim carries a portable bo staff attached to his utility belt.

| Character Notes |

• Robin’s metal quarterstaff (or bo staff) is almost as tall as he is when deployed. When he’s done using it, the ends of the pole retract into the center. This forms a much smaller, portable version of the quarterstaff, which can be carried in the back of his utility belt. He can take it out within a moment’s notice and, with the press of a button; the weapon grows into its full length, ready for action.
• Batman’s batarangs are bat-shaped pieces of metal. Robin’s are bird shaped, but I’ll be referring to them as “shurikens” since that’s what most sources call them. I can’t really call them batarangs because they’re not bat-shaped, but Robin’s shurikens will pretty much have the same properties as Batman’s, just under a different name.
  
  
  (Funny enough, I like Cartoon Network's rendition of Robin's shurikens the best.)

| Character Goals |

Tim Drake’s Robin looked up to Bruce and Dick, and now the two of those characters have lost someone they in turn look up to. I want Tim to try and make things better for them, as he likes to help people deal with grief. And he has done this before, when he noticed that Batman was going through rough times shortly after Jason Todd’s death. Tim realized what Batman needed before Batman did. With Alfred’s help, he convinced Batman and Nightwing to train him and take him in as Robin. And it turned out Tim was right.

To me, Tim seems like the type of guy who’ll offer help even when it's not asked. Even when he’s turned down, he tries to help anyway. I think it’s because he can see what other people need better than they can. While all superheroes seem to care deeply about their friends, Tim seems to also have a very high degree of empathy that tunes him into the emotional state of others. It’s going to be challenging for me to get this concept down right, especially balanced with the fact that Tim, like other Robins, can get pretty serious.

Aside from helping Batman and Nightwing (and anyone else, for that matter. But I don't really know how Tim and Jason interact with each other) cope with the fall of Superman, I also want Robin to tackle some problems without them. While it’s great to see Robin work with Batman (or Nightwing), I also like seeing Robin work with other superheroes and stand up on his own. I want to hit a good balance of working with Batman/Nightwing and working without them. But, before all of that, what the other players want comes first.

| Sample Post |

The story of Revenant (a supervillian I sort of made up just now, who would only take a very minute part in the overall story):

Revenant Part 1: Origins

Long before the time of Gotham, a different hero fought and gave everything for a different city. Much like Gotham, this city, too, was corrupted to its core. Crime was rampant, and the city guard could do little to protect the people. A hero, whose name has long been lost to history, rose to fight for the people, and he stood alone in his struggle against the forces of darkness.

He triumphed many times, sometimes getting by with just the skin of his teeth. He got on fine with that, for as long as the city was safe, any sacrifice was a small price to pay. But what troubled him more than the villains he fought was the people themselves. They were apathetic to his cause since the beginning, as if none other than the unnamed hero cared whether the city could be changed or not. All they did was watch, as they always did. Yet he was willing to give everything for them still.

And one night, he did. The villain he fought this time proved too strong for him to battle alone. The hero was brought to his knees, and he turned to the people. There was hope in his heart that this once, in his time of greatest peril, one would rise from the crowds and stand to fight alongside him. After all, that was all he needed: just one ally in the night. He was that close to defeating the evil that stood before him.

But the people just watched. They did nothing while the hero was dragged to the icy mountain peaks, far away from the city, where he would face his doom.

In his final moments, the hero was betrayed by the very people that he had given everything to protect. He saw the truth then; that the people did not want to be saved, that they did not want a hero. And how could they see as the hero saw? There was not one among them who valued courage over life. Most of them forgot the hero’s name, and in time, the hero became nothing more than a foot note in the textbooks. Even most historians did not know of his existence.

Revenant Part 2: First Encounter

Gotham City, NJ
December 26, 2015
8 PM

It was the worst blizzard Gotham had seen in years. The heavy snow had swallowed up the city like some white monster, and more was falling from the skies as if the heavens had frozen over. Perched on top of a grim looking gargoyle, way up high, was Robin. His cape danced wildly against the wind, and he grit his teeth to steel himself as another cold gale blew over him. From up here, it felt like he could watch over the whole city.

“Master Drake,” Alfred’s voice rang through the transmitter in Robin’s ear. “It seems even the criminals had the sense to stay at home tonight. I’m sure Gotham could survive one night without its protectors.”

“We don’t know that.” Tim said, barely keeping himself from chattering the words through his teeth. “Someone needs to watch over the city tonight. Especially since his hands are full.”

Ever since Superman’s death, the Batman had focused on one thing alone: finding out who was behind Doomsday. In the current state of events, the best thing to be done for him was to let him work on that. If Robin made sure the city was safe tonight, it was one less thing weighting down on Batman’s shoulders. And, so far, things had been going pretty smoothly. Tim had the weather to thank for that. In a blizzard like this, Alfred was right, even the crooks didn’t bother showing up on the streets. Aside from stopping a mugging scene earlier on, most of Robin’s night had been quiet, save for the howling wind.

“How’s he doing?” Tim asked, but he already knew the answer. Alfred seemed to sigh and take on a more somber tone.

“Master Bruce has been stuck to that screen of his since yesterday. He’s been watching that same footage.” Alfred spoke. “I’m worried for him.”

“Me too.” Robin replied, although Alfred’s tone made him worried for the old butler, too. There was a moment of silence between them. It broke when a message played through Robin’s ear piece.

“Citizens report of a breaking and entering at Avanna pier.” A female voice announced through Gotham City Police Department’s radio frequency. She was speaking to the other police units, but Batman and Robin often listened in on these radio calls to be alerted of any crime taking place. “I need the nearest unit to investigate.” The voice finished.

“Copy that, heading over right now.” The male voice of a police officer said over the frequency. “I’ll be there in 15 minutes.”

I’ll be there in five. Robin thought.

---

There were a set of warehouses near the pier, and most of the cargo was either stored inside them, or next to them, waiting to be sent out. When Robin arrived on the scene, a transport truck was already speeding towards the exit. It had a shipping container on its back, and was going way over the limit. Robin had one chance to get on the truck, and he took it. He threw himself off from a nearby rooftop and onto the truck’s back. With nimble steps, he skipped over to the top of the truck and hopped down to the hood.

When he saw who was driving, a moment of shock and terror colder than the air around him gripped Robin. The truck’s driver was not quite a machine, and not quite a corpse, but something twisted that morphed the characteristics of both. It was an abomination in between. The mechanical parts of him were made from a sleek, reflective dark metal, and the biological parts of him showed a dark grey, leathery skin. It was as if a mummified corpse was merged with a robot.

As soon as Robin had landed on the roof, the driver had slammed the brakes. The truck came to such an immediate stop that Tim was thrown off of it, and landed into a roll across the snowy pavement. Under normal circumstances, he would have been able to maintain his balance on the truck, but seeing that creature inside had shaken him up. He pulled himself to his feet, just in time to see the thing get out of the driver’s seat. It stepped down onto the street, and began to take confident strides towards Robin.

“It’s hard to believe someone came.” The creature said. Its voice was partially robotic, but what surprised Robin even more was the tone of sophistication it carried. This wasn’t some crazed monster. From the way he stood to the way he spoke, it almost seemed like he was a proud warrior, or some highborn noble. “But I planned for this,” The half mechanical voice continued. “There is a set of explosives planted in Gotham City Radio Station’s headquarters. In ten minutes, they will bring the whole building down.”

The Gotham City Radio (GCR) had shows scheduled for the rest of the night. There were still people in there.

“You have come to stop me.” The creature continued. “And you also want to save the people of Gotham. You cannot do both.”

Robin’s hand immediately went to his belt, and with a flash, he threw out a bird-shaped shuriken at the truck’s front left tire. The shuriken bounced off ineffectively. Upon a more careful look, Robin saw the letters “GCPD” on the tires.

“Reinforced tires. Stolen from the GCPD’s armored vehicles.” Robin said under his breath. He fished a disk shaped grenade from his belt, and threw this one straight at the truck’s engine. As the disk flew onwards, the creature jumped in its way. It raised its metallic arm to shield itself, and was engulfed in an explosion as the disk made contact. When the smoke cleared, the creature stood as he was, without so much as a scratch on him.

“You have nine minutes.” The thing said. And it was right. The GCR was so far away, that even Robin needed at least 5 minutes to get there. On top of that, he would need to locate and disarm the bombs. There was absolutely no time to waste.

“I’ll be back for you.” Robin said with anger in his voice. The frustration of having to choose between saving people and letting a criminal escape was made visible in his tone. He could have asked for Batman, but there was no way he'd show up in time, even with the batwing. The closest person to handle the job was Robin.

He fired a grapple gun up at one of the buildings, and was launched up to the air as soon as the line was connected. With a little bit of sleight of hand, he threw a tracking-device (a tiny magnetized coin shaped device) at the container loaded onto the truck. He did it while he was still being pulled up into the air. It would be impossible for anyone to notice that.

As soon as he landed on the buildings, Robin broke out into a run. He jumped from rooftop to rooftop, and his left hand went up to his ear.

“Alfred, I need the bike sent to my location.”

There was a moment of silence accompanied only by Robin’s boots slamming against the rooftops.

“Done.” Alfred’s voice came in. He was a fast worker.

“And look up the blueprints to the Gotham City Radio headquarters.” Robin spoke as he ran. “Find any structural weak points where someone might place a bomb.” He considered asking Alfred to leave an anonymous tip with the police to get the building evacuated, but there was no way that everyone would be out within the next eight and a half minutes. All it would cause was commotion, and it would make it harder to find the explosives.

“A bomb threat? I’ll alert Bruce immediately.”

“He won't be here in time. And I can handle it.”

“There’s no need to take any risks, Master Tim. I will-”

“He doesn’t need this, Alfred. Not tonight.”

Robin spotted the red bike cruising through the streets beneath him. It was unmanned, guided by its own automated system. “I see the bike.” He said to Alfred. “I’ll take care of this before he can show up.”

There was an air of silence in between them again. Robin leapt off of the buildings and glided down with the help of his cape. In a graceful motion, he landed on the seat of his bike and took manual control. The engine roared and the bike shot through the streets at break-neck speed.

“Keep this between us?” Robin asked.

Alfred, it seemed, had finally gave up.

“I trust you know what you’re doing, Master Drake.”

Revenant Part 3: Gotham City Radio in Peril

Tires screeched against the pavement. A red bike slid across the ground on its side, and Robin kicked off from it as it neared the front entrance of Gotham City Radio’s headquarters. When he burst into the front lobby, two secretaries visibly jumped in their seats. Alfred’s voice was guiding him as he ran towards a door labeled “Stairs”.

“Continue to the bottom floor of the parking lot.” The butler’s voice buzzed in. “Among the smaller ones, there should be two large columns that hold up the frame of the building.”

Robin kicked the door open and vaulted across the handrails. He landed three floors below, and rushed into the parking lot. The two columns were there, both equally spaced across the building’s area. While other, smaller columns were also holding up the building, the two large ones seemed like the most likely targets.

If the creature behind all of this was smart, the explosives could have been placed anywhere else. After all, this was just a diversion. The whole building didn’t need to be blown up. Just one bomb hidden in a potted plant could kill dozens in an office. But, as much as Tim hated it, if that were the case, then he’d already lost. While he was never one to like gambling, he had to take his shot that the bombs were exactly where he’d expect them to be. And as he neared the closest of the two columns, he saw an inconspicuous looking cardboard box. It was almost… too easy.

When he lifted the box, he saw the bomb inside. Its detonator was one of the more advanced kinds, but Tim had seen it before in training. He took out the defusal kit on his utility belt, and began fumbling away at the device. As he unscrewed a lid, he could feel a bead of sweat roll down the side of his temple as gentle as a bird. It's wet path left a cold streak on his face. When he began lifting and sorting through the wires to look for the one he wanted, he noticed his hands trembling. It wasn't like him. He didn't know how to react to it. The wire he needed to cut was right there in front of him.

Keep it together. He thought to himself. Maybe it was a mistake to have left Bruce out of this. Maybe he should have listened to Alfred. Maybe Batman could have made it in time. Maybe-

The sound of a satisfying snip sent ease through Tim’s shoulders. He knew the bomb was defused now. There was no visible signal, as the detonator had no mounted clock. Nor was there an audible beeping that had stopped, since it didn’t have a sound module either. He just knew he had defused it successfully, because he’d done it a hundred times in training before.

As he got over to the second column, he saw yet another inconspicuous looking object. A plastic bag, filled with garbage, had another explosive hidden inside it. Again, it was too easy, almost eerily so. Tim was about to begin working on this one, when he realized that he had just over a minute left. The previous one had taken him almost double that time to defuse, and although he was confident in his abilities, he knew it was impossible to beat that record. He had to think of something. He had to act.

Tim tucked the bomb under his arm and bolted back towards the stairs.

“Alfred,” He spoke into his comm’s piece. “How tall do those blueprints say the radio tower on the roof is?”

“The tower itself is 95 feet tall.”

As he got to the stairs, Robin fired his grappling gun at the highest set of handrails that he could see. He zipped up to it, and repeated the process again, shooting his grappling gun at the highest railing visible to him from there. Once more, and he had made it all the way to the top of the building. The door leading out of the staircase burst open as he tackled it with his shoulder, and he was out in the bitter cold of the rooftops again. The famous radio tower on top of the GCR stood tall and proud against the city. Although the building itself wasn’t very big, the radio tower was impressive in its own might. Robin fired his grappling gun again, and with a few swings and jumps, landed on the tip of the tower. By his count, he had about five seconds. If his calculations (and identification of the explosive type) were right, his plan had a chance of working.

“Bruce is going to kill me for this.” He sighed. There'd be time for that later.

He swung his arm into the air, lurching his entire shoulder into the throw. As the bomb went straight up, Robin stepped off from the tower and fell straight down. The package exploded into a blossom of fire behind him, and the snowflakes all around were lit up in a golden flash as he descended. He deployed his cape and landed on the ground, safe, but shooken up. He began to stand up and sigh in relief, but the loud croaking of metal sent the hair on his neck standing.

The tower had been damaged, and it looked worse than he’d expected it to. Although it was in one piece, a part of it was breaking off from the rest of the frame. It had bent out of shape and was leaning over the streets far below, swinging from side to side in the fierce wind as if threatening to fall. It needed to be pulled back and anchored against the tower, but Robin knew he didn’t have the strength to do that. No mere human had the manpower to pull off such a feat.

The bike! Robin’s thoughts exclaimed. It had a towing line installed into its back. Although it didn’t have the strength to bend steel, the piece that was dangling over the street could easily be pulled back if he could get his motorbike up here.

Robin dove off from the side of the street, and once again used his cape to land safely on the ground, this time on the streets.

His bike was still there, and a group of civilians had cautiously formed a large circle around it. When he landed next to it, everyone began to back away immediately. As soon as he lifted the bike back onto its wheels, people were already clearing the way for him across the streets, but he didn’t turn around and head for the roads. He got on the bike, and drove it straight into the front lobby.

When he burst in through the front door, the same secretaries from earlier screamed at the top of their lungs (it seemed that they were dialing for 911 after the explosion), and Robin kept driving his bike until he made it into the staircase. It was very cramped, and he had to ride with his front wheel streaking across the walls as he made each turn. The bumpy ride up the stairs was slower than he had expected it, so he twisted the handles of his bike and began glide on and off the walls as he spiraled up. The roaring monstrosity he rode snaked its way up the stairs, and the sound (amplified by the enclosed space) was so loud that anyone daring to use stairs was scared off. When he finally made it to the top, he rode the bike straight out of the door leading to the rooftop.

Tim stood the bike up against its support, and pulled the towing line out from behind it. With the line around his arm, he climbed up to the tower and tied it around the metal hunk. The piece was beginning to grow more and more distant from the main body of the tower. He shuddered to think of what would happen if he hesitated a moment longer.

When he jumped down and climbed onto his bike, he wasted not a second in revving up the engine. The bike struggled against the weight, but it was slowly and surely moving forward, pulling the metal hunk back onto the tower. When it was close enough, Robin left the bike as it was, and the automated controls kept the bike moving forward at an even pace.

“Almost done.” He muttered to himself. Once he climbed back onto the tower, he began using the steel-lined rope from his utility belt to tie the metal hunk in place.

After a few knots, the metal piece was firmly tied against the main frame of the tower. The part that had begun to bend out of shape no longer had all of the weight it previously did. Although it looked like a shoddy job, it seemed stable. Tim stopped for a moment to let out a sigh of relief, hoping not to be interrupted this time. But now, a news helicopter had begun to float on by, with its blinding lights fixed on the Boy Wonder. He climbed down once again, detached his towing line (the steel-rope he used was enough to keep the metal hunk in place) and drove his bike off to the nearest rooftop below.

One after the other, he kept driving off the rooftops until he finally made it to the street level. As he sped away into the night, he checked the transmission of the tracker he’d placed on the shipping container earlier. The signal was lost. Robin cursed under his breath.