Bright_Ops

Teen Titans: Ouroboros

While the reopening of Star Labs was somewhat controversial due to safety concerns of its future scientific developments, before it could be reopened at all it needed to be refurnished and rebuilt. While it wasn't exactly dilapidated (Jump City wasn't Gotham after all), the buildings of Star Labs had been empty and abandoned for some time, with most objects of value either being taken by the original owners, sold off when the company shut down, was looted by trespassers during its period of abandonment or simply left to rot and gather dust.

While Lex Corp almost certainly could afford to have construction crews from just about anywhere in the world flown in to handle the labor of being the labs back to structurally sound condition, it was simply cheaper and easier to hire one of the experienced local companies to do the work. The decision was also motivated by a desire for positive public relations; Lex Corp spokesmen being able to say during interviews that they was providing employment and money to local businesses might not have negated the controversy of the Labs and its history, but it did serve the purpose of making the whole situation more palpable to the officials of Jump City and thus more willing to go against the public outcry.

The fact that the company in charge of this construction project, Mistletoe Construction, was distantly owned by Lex Corp via complicated legal arrangements and business transactions was not publicly known. But in the public eye, appearances are important.

And it was the appearance of independence that Pandor was going to take advantage of.

Having slipped into Mistletoe Construction's primary office a few days prior, it had taken him a bit of time to work out exactly whom he needed to be watching; While one would automatically assume that he should have gone for one of the higher ranked members of staff, if not the CEO themself, but the realities of corporate culture meant that the people who actually did the work that allowed the company to function were generally a few rungs down the ladder.

It had taken a bit of searching, but in time he found that his target was a member of the financial department named Karen. Pandor had staked out Karen's computer in the form of a small spider hidden behind her neglected snack tub of mixed nuts from her latest doomed attempt to motivate herself to have a healthier lifestyle in order to learn what passwords he needed to know. Then, when Karen had to leave work early because one of her feral children had bitten another at school, her manager was pleasantly surprised when she came back five minutes later having gotten a call from her husband that he was on his way to the school and she could stay at work.

After that, it was simply a matter of writing out the billing information for the Star Labs job and emailing it to Lex Corp... after making a minor alteration to what account the money was meant to be sent to. The email was sent fifteen minutes before 'Karen' went on her coffee break... and wasn't seen again until the next morning when she came back into work, an event that would be filled with anger and confusion alike.

While Lex himself was regarded as a business genius and in truth might have figured out something strange was afoot that the bill arrived a day or two early, a corporation the size of Lex Corp almost certainly didn't have its CEO bogged down with dealing with what were effectively minor affairs such as dealing with a bill from a subsidiary company. The faceless office drone in question, once they confirmed that the price on the billing email in question lined up with what to expect and appeared to be a legit email from Mistletoe Construction (because it was), simply authorized the payment and went onto the next piece of business.

The payment itself did not go to Mistletoe Construction, but into a dummy account. It would not stay there long. It would go through a ripple exchange to have the fiat currency converted into e-cash and then into bitcoin. The whole transaction would go through a randomized cryptographic extension at the protocol level, then through a two tiered secure laundry service that Pandor knew he could trust. For all intents and purposes, the money disappeared into the ether once it was sent out and trying to trace it would be next to impossible... or at least so expensive and time consuming to do that it would honesty be better to take the loss at face value.

It would need to be, because if there was one thing Pandor had learned in his life, it was that corporations tended to hate losing money... and when they got upset, people tended to disappear.

Teen Titans: Ouroboros

Out of interest, any villain or neutral characters that wanted to start off in prison? Bob might come and visit just to be friendly.

Post Apocalypse Drop-In Worldbuilding

Location

Perth, Western Australia, Australia

When the world came to an end, Australia was noticeably hit harder by changing environmental forces than most. Western Australia, already rather inhospitable and home to a number of industrial practices that further degraded the environment such as coal mining, found itself outright abandoned by human life as they either fled for most habitable areas or died out due to resource isolation.

However, as is the nature of life and the environment, nature abhors a vacuum. A new breed of wildlife and plant life that either endured the collapse or evolved in the conditions afterwards has sprung up and are reclaiming the state at a slow but steady pace.

While the ruined buildings of humanity remain in the city of Perth, covered in fresh plant life, stories speak of new inhabitants.

Creatures/Faction

Theorised to be the descendants of the octopus family of creatures, the octopi are an amphibious species of humanoid that have very recently started to emerge from the waters of Western Australia around the city of Perth. The species seems to possess the ability to ‘shape shift’ to an incredible degree, maintaining a more traditional octopus like body which they primarily use to swim around, but also able to change their shape into a more human like base structure… through there are notable differences.

For starters, the texture of the octopi’s skin is ‘rubbery’ and closer to that of their primary octopus like bodies than human flesh. They are also able to change the coloration and patterns along their flesh at will, likely an evolved form of their original ability to camouflage themselves… through it seems like they prefer bright, inhuman colours: if this is a sign of them being poisonous or venomous or simply them preferring bright colours for cultural reasons is unknown to outsiders at this time.

When in their humanoid form, they lack hair. Instead, growths akin to their tentacles seem to grow from their heads in a hairlike manner. They have one thumb and three fingers on each hand. Regardless of form they are in, their octopus like pupils remain the same.

At this time, the Octopi species appears to be in a late tribal, early city state point of societal development.

From Ashes We Rise: The Galaxy At Large

Pentious was declared to be officially back under human control with surprisingly little fanfare. Even as Rik had launched his one man assault on Forge Delta, the militant forces of the machine cult marched on the last remaining forge held by the greenskins in order to drive them out at long last. The assault wasn’t as one sided as the purge of Forge Delta, but human ingenuity, industry and cold, logical hatred of the ork invader and everything they stood for carried the day all the same.

The lack of fanfare could be attributed to a number of causes. Reclaiming both of the lost forges revealed the full extent of the damage that had been done and the sheer scale of the repairs that needed to be undertaken was daunting, if a duty to be taken with grim resolve all the same. Already the logistics for such work was being worked on with the dedication of the faithful restoring defiled but reclaimed holy sites.

Other hinderances towards what would have otherwise be a joyous day were related to the fact that the war with the orks wasn’t over yet. They had been driven from the forges, denying the greenskined wretches access to vast amounts of technology, industrial power and the strongest strongholds on the planet… but there was still plenty of tribes remaining on the planet. Pentious was still infested with orks, but now it was only a matter of time and effort to be rid of them for good.

Pentious was still at war. People were still going to die in the days to come. But for the first time since the orks had slammed themselves into the ground with their crudely repurposed asteroid ships, a true human victory was finally in view. An end of the war in which humanity remained as the dominant and only power on Pentious was starting to dawn, and while it wasn’t the time to celebrate yet, high morale surged through blood, wire and circuit all the same.

From Ashes We Rise : The Imperium Is Born

Hive Jefferson was dead.

There was no other way that anyone who has spent the majority of their existence could describe what it was like to step into the empty hive city; While every hive had their areas that had been abandoned or fallen into ruin, there were always hums or the roars of distant machinery and humanity to remind the listener that they were never truly alone for better or worse.

There was no echo of distant machines or mulling crowds when the 8th Legion stepped over the threshold. The only noises they could hear were their own footsteps and the distant cries of neglected stone and metal as they finally gave out from centuries of neglect.

Konrad found the place reminding him somewhat of the Ghosthive in Houston, but this place felt unnerving in a vastly different way: The Ghosthive had been unnerving due to being the home of predators that didn’t belong in a sane universe, but he couldn’t help but shake the feeling that they were old enough to have caused early humans to fear the dark.

Jefferson held the heavy air of somewhere in which something utterly horrific had taken place, but the source of that horror was much more mundane in origin. The solders of the Pan Pacific had decided to use the time that fortifying the 8th’s foothold had granted them to load up everything of value they could carry… and destroy everything they couldn’t in an act of scorched earth.

The extent of the damage was still being worked out. The environmental shielding had been shut off and sabotaged so that the hive was completely exposed to the radioactive, polluted environment that was the wastes outside the hive and the ventilation systems had been made to pump toxic fumes instead of air for an extended period of time. A different investigative force was making its way to the main reactor to see what its current status was; Early reports were promising, since the core still existed rather the be a massive, empty bubble of wreckage that could turn a man into charcoal from the inside out within seconds.

Konrad’s squad were tasked with investigating the current state of various water treatment and recycling plants throughout the hive. Truth be told, the report wasn’t promising so far. The two stations they had visited so far, there had been far less water in the system then their should have been for a hive of this size; The fact that there was still something in the reservoirs suggested that the retreating solders had taken a considerable amount of it with them rather then there being a hole somewhere in the pipe system.

Of cause, the putrid sludge that remained couldn’t really be called water anymore. Between the waste, toxic chems and what he could only assume were the corpses of the former water treatment staff, recycling it into something even remotely close to clean water was going to be a tall order… and if his dealings with the old water guild back home was anything to go by, he doubted that the new guild that would arise if Hive Jefferson was repopulated would honestly bother to remove the corpses before putting the swill back into circulation.

Still… it was possible that they hadn’t poisoned the stations further down the hive. Go down far enough and adding toxic chems to the water supply might actually make it safer to drink after all.

From Ashes We Rise : The Imperium Is Born

The Mercia Front: Between Assaults

The original success of the 8th Legion on the Mercia Front played a major role in the war against the Pan-Pacific on Mercia's soil. Losing control of so many hives in Southern Mercia in a matter of months with little in the way of warning or defense caused a massive upheaval to the Pan-Pacific wider plans. With battle still raging against the Thunder Warriors and other Imperial forces on the eastern hives of Mercia, the hives and territory that the 8th had taken posed a very real threat of cutting off Pan-Pacific controlled hives and forces in the east from reinforcements and supplies from more stable territories.

According to some analysts, if the 8th had regrouped and taken advantage of the confusion to push, they could have actually made this encirclement happen and caused considerable damage to the military of the Pan-Pacific Empire. In practice through, such a lightning assault simply wasn't possible due to a number of factors: The first and most important was that there simply hadn't been enough active members of the 8th legion to try. While their operation was an astounding success and losses were well within accepted parameters, the 8th legion didn't have a large force to begin with and the losses they did take had a large impact on their options moving forward.

A choice had to be made. The 8th could take a gamble and rally themselves together to make a push to encircle and cut off the eastern front while the Pan-Pacific was reeling from losing so much ground at once, or they could hold they territory they had taken until reinforcements arrived to help fortify and hold the region or go on the offense themselves. In the end the 8th decided on the latter plan of action.

As Legion Master Pho Scraphurst was quoted saying about the decision: "We have delivered a jab to our enemy that has caused their jaw to be exposed for a follow up uppercut. However, in order to launch that uppercut we would have to abandon all pretense of defense to put force behind the blow... and unfortunately we simply do not have the strength to make that blow powerful enough to put 'em down. Sure it would hurt 'em, but they would be able to counter attack and unless they're completely stupid they'll quickly regain the undefended hives we've taken with a minimum of fuss. Better to draw out the fight then launch a half arsed attack that'll do more harm then good."

Another factor in the decision to hold and wait for reinforcements to secure Imperial control of the territory was the fact that there were still several Pan-Pacific strongholds within the area the 8th had claimed for the Imperium. Minor hives or independent structures, but still bastions with enemy forces still occupying them. The threat of these bastions reporting back to their higher ups that the territory was undefended or launching assaults of their own to reclaim some of their former territory if the 8th left them be was unacceptable.

So while the 8th legion waited for enforcing Imperial forces and supplies to arrive, the 8th took the time to ensure the stability of Imperial rule in the hives they had claimed, prepared what defenses they needed to in order to hold their prizes in the event that a counter offensive came before the region was fully garrisoned and secured and launching minor campaigns and sieges against what Pan-Pacific strong points remained. These operations also served as a form of training and bonding among the 8th legion, preparing them for larger scale operations and outright siege warfare that they would no doubt encounter going forward.

As the months passed, the Imperium was able to bring in the fresh forces and supplies needed to properly hold its new territory, as well as set up facilities to properly recruit fresh members for the 8th legion going forward. While this did have the negative side effect of allowing the Pan-Pacific Empire a chance to dig in and prepare for fighting on the southern front of Mercia, the Imperium had a strong and secure foothold to launch its future liberation campaigns from.

-Remembrancer Zygena Ravenlow, attached to the 8th Legion.

Teen Titans: Ouroboros

That's okay. And looking forward to it here too.

Teen Titans: Ouroboros

@Master Crim You alive?

From Ashes We Rise: The Galaxy At Large

The unenlightened would have believed that a forge or a hive was merely a collection of machines. A series of buildings and nothing more. But those that knew better understood that such places had a life of their own. All one needed to do was listen and they could hear the thoughts and feelings of such machinery and hallowed locations… and if you were really good, you could speak with them.

It was hard for Rik to describe the state of Forge Delta in a manner that could be truly comprehended by others. Sure, he could give an analysis of the damaged and corrupted systems he had found so far and it would be easy to show just how intense the cleansing and repair work was going to be, but actually explaining what it was like to stalk its passages and rooms…

The closest Rik could put into words to be understood by someone else was that Forge Delta was like an impossibly large canine filled with other, smaller canines that had all been neglected, abused and riddled with parasites. It had once been treated with love and kindness and even now parts of it remembered human touch but… most of it had not been so fortunate. Delta was in absolute agony and had been for a long time. The pain and abuse was all many parts remembered or knew.

If Forge Delta had been a biological creature, Rik would have moved to put it down. A tragic fate to be sure but… to leave it to suffer would have been unforgivable to him. However, the machine was superior to flesh for a reason and the damage could be undone and repaired… but sacrifices would have to be made for the forge to recover and be rehabilitated.

Pain and fury had driven a number of programs and machines utterly feral, lashing out mindlessly at any target that presented itself. Some could and would be rehabilitated, but others were simply too far gone to save. Despite their future grim fate, Rik could still made use of them in the short term; Many greenskins had met their righteous end during Rik’s culling via the very programs and machines they had enslaved and mistreated for years.

While Rik’s purge was still ongoing, having moved from the areas that could be monitored to the blind spots and hidden spaces between areas, he had made sure to send out a message to his people that Forge Delta had largely been secured and was in the clean up stages. It had been days since he had started the reconquest… and it would be days still till he felt confident enough in the progress of cleansing and repair to risk sleep. But for a few moments after the message was sent out and reinforcements were on the way, Rik allowed himself to close his eyes and just… listen.

The forge was still in pain. It was still sick, riddled with parasites and the waste they had left behind. Not to mention it was going to be some time for it to recover. But in this moment… For the first time in decades, it wasn’t actively being tortured. For the first time in decades, despite the pain it could see the light at the end of the tunnel and know that the worst was over.

For just a moment, Rik allowed himself to hear the collective machine spirit of Forge Delta… and it was as beautiful as it was heartbreaking.

Teen Titans: Ouroboros

Pandor

Name: Bartolomeo Peckish

Alias: Pandor

Image/Description:


Due to the nature of Pandor's signature power, no one actually knows what his original face, form or even gender is for certain. Whatever it might have been, he seems to prefer being male since that will generally be the gender he falls back to and generally uses the most. While the flesh and body might change, what remains consistent is the red hood and the white mask that he wears when he isn't pretending to be someone or something else.

Age:
Impossible to tell from appearance alone, but he's actually in his early to mid twenties age wise.

Gender:
Complicated, but seems to identify as male.

Race:
Mutant Human.

Alignment:
Villain

Mentors:
Numerous, through they were generally unaware of his true identity at the time. Check Backstory for details.

Skills/Meta Abilities:

Shape Shifter: Pandor is naturally gifted as a shape shifter, being able to alter his body to take on the appearance of anyone or just about anything mundane that he wants provided that it is a living creature. While he is taking a non-human form, he gains access to the abilities that it has access to... provided that they are a result of a physical characteristic of the body in question. His shape shifting does not allow for the use of any magical abilities that the creature may possess.

For example: If he was to take the form of a spider, he would be able to climb most surfaces easily because that is a physical trait. If he was the take the form of a venomous snake, he would have venom because the venom sacks are a physical part of the snake. If he took the form of a cockatrice however, he would not have its death stare since that is a magical ability and not a physical one.

He has experimented with partial transformations (IE, shifting a limb into that of a different species while keeping the rest something else), but the results of this have been... difficult to maintain to say the least. He also needs to understand the biology of what he is transforming into in order to get the benefits (and weaknesses) of it; He could look exactly like Aqua Man if he wanted to, but without understanding the biology behind being an Atlantian and what makes them so powerful it would just be appearances alone.

Mixed Martial Arts: While he earned them individual under teachers that any civilian can have access to, Pandor is a brown belt at Taekwondo, skilled at American Kick Boxing and practiced at Muay Thai. While individually not that impressive, combined with Pandor's innate shape shifting makes him a very dangerous person to fight in close combat.

Biology Minded: While likely a side effect of his powers, Pandor has taken the time to learn about biology. He is not one of those professors who understands seemingly everything about what the field has to offer, but his education has given him a solid foundation and the ability to figure things out as he pushes ahead.

Personality:
Pandor is one of nature's actors and thus it is really difficult to pin down a personalty... at least, pinning down what his actual personalty might be. Some suspect even he doesn't fully know what kind of person he is at heart, since when someone asked him what it was like to be a shape shifter he answered "You have to be careful. You spend too long pretending to be other people and sooner or later you'll forget who you're meant to be when you're not wearing the mask."

While he would never admit it, the reason he wears his trademark mask when he isn't required to pretend to be something else is because he no longer remembers what he originally looked like and the mask... comforts him. It gives him a sense of identity that when the mask is on, he is himself. As such, he will come down on anyone who tries to steal or damage his mask with anger and furious vengeance that will be swift and brutal. Even allowing someone to touch his mask is an act of trust that goes beyond words for him.

When Pandor is wearing his mask and is being himself, he is rather civil and generally aloof to the problems of people he doesn't know. His views on some of the work he does (stealing, spying and assassination) is that it is just a job to him; The universe is cold, uncaring and the capitalist system of America punishes those who can't make ends meet in a largely stacked game. Interestingly, he doesn't wear the costume while working: The mask comes on when Pandor is off the clock.

Pandor is not the kind of villain who blows open a bank vault, grabs as much as can be carried and leaves; Quiet and subtle are his watch words. A good job is one where no one knows anything happened until sometime after the fact.

That being said... while Pandor isn't generally social those few people who he considers friends he treasures highly. Loyalty is hard earned but once he offers it, Pandor will always be willing to help a friend out.

As far as he is concerned, Pandor is Pandor. Whatever his name or identity was before, it's dead now.

Likes: Professionalism, Video Games, Table Top Role Playing Games, Fan Forums.

Dislikes: Unprofessionalism, Hackers (in a Video Game context), Power Gamers, Internet Trolls.

Backstory:
Pandor has told numerous tales of his origins. He has claimed to have originated as one of many children born to a farmstead up near the frozen north of the world whom joined his father one day on a business trip down south and simply never returned north having been born with the ability to change form at will, the son of a doctor who lived in the far east who uncovered the secrets of how to change his form in ancient occult texts before before forced to flee his homeland due to a war... and one interesting tale about being a noble born from a distant land whom had come across the occult when normal experiences and sensations grew boring. Which, if any, of these tales are actually true he keeps completely to himself.

The sad truth is that Bartolomeo was just a normal kid born and raised in a strict religious household who did well at school, played basket ball on the weekends and went to church on Sunday. That life changed as he started puberty and his mutant power to shape shift developed. His family rejected him, with his father driving him to the nearest city, giving him a tent and five dollars before abandoning him on the streets to fend for himself.

Bartolomeo disappeared, like many other children abandoned or forced to flee from their homes and live on the streets. Pandor appeared shortly afterwards and the rest, as they say, is history. Using the funds he started to build up from his life of crime, Pandor invested it into further his education; False identities were created for those activities (such as schooling) that required such things, but for the most part all he needed was the money to pay for the class and an eager face to learn and he would be accepted just about anywhere.

Bob

Appearance:
'Bob' as he has come to be known stands at an intimidating nine feet tall with wide shoulders and whose body mass suggests that he is more solid then most walls. While clearly human in origin, the unnatural size of his body when compared to the average human combined with the fact that he seems to lack the health issues that commonly plagued those with gigantism suggests unnatural origins; A theory that gains ground quickly when one looks closely enough to see the old, faint but visible surgical scars in strategic locations.

It's clear he's been punched in the face rather hard a number of times and those have left their mark, but his face still maintains a degree of chubbiness and his blue eyes seems to hold something of an innocence to them. His hair, such as it is, is kept either very short or outright shaved off, but his eyebrows reveal that he has blond-brown colored hair.

Name:
Robert

Nickname:
Bob
Honest Bob.

Alias:
Bob

Age:
17

Gender:
Male

Species/Race:
Human (Genetically enhanced/experiment)

Powers/Abilities:
Bob possesses superhuman strength, durability and endurance. During tests at the Justice League after being recovered in order to test the extent of his abilities, in a purely physical contest it was found that he could engage in a spar with core members of the Justice League (Wonder Woman, Superman, ect). He couldn't win these spars due to a combination of the experience gap and lacking the super speed and agility required to keep up, but he could tank their hits and those blows of his that landed could cause pretty solid damage in return.

Brawler: Bob is not a martial artist. He hasn't learned any recognized form of martial arts or self defense. He does however know how to punch and kick things and he's got the raw supernatural might to make them count regardless of where they hit with the ability to tank blows in return.

Supernaturally Strong Willed: Bob possesses an insanely strong will. This is utterly surprising to many due to his lack of basic education and low intelligence making them believe he is weak minded, but the truth is that if he decides on a course of action or that something needs to be done, it's going to happen no matter what. Making him do something he doesn't want to do is a nightmare to attempt.

Alignment: Hero!

Mentor: Bob has learned from and interacted with various members of the Justice League, all of whom he looks up to and has nothing but the upmost respect for. The closest one to him personally through is Captain Marvel. Of all the Justice League members, Captain Marvel had the easiest time being able to connect with Bob and his kin. The second closest, to the surprise of many, was Batman.

Backstory:
Memories of his life before the abduction when he was seven are hazy at best. He knows that he is American, but he can't remember the state or city he grew up near. He remembers memories of his mother and sister, but he cannot remember their names or even what they actually looked like. He cannot even remember his last name, only remembering that his name is Robert because his mother called him that, but everyone else called him Bob for short.

What is known for certainty is that when he was seven years old, he was one of many children across the Americas (North and South) that were taken by a criminal organization that were performing human experiments to try and create superhuman dumb muscle able to stand up to and combat the various super humans/aliens that were on Earth to be sold to whomever wanted to buy the results.

Children were collected and submitted to these experiments due to cold, unethical progress; It was found that pre-teens between the ages of 4 to 8 took to the treatments best in both stability and results. It also allowed them to better 'mold' their uneducated minds to put the 'dumb' in dumb muscle. It took eight years in order to perform all the treatments to let the results settle and the time between surgeries was generally used to condition the 'product' to be loyal, obedient and prone to violence.

This would have been Bob's fate... had the Justice League not caught wind of what was going on very quickly after the first wave of these genetically modified brutes hit the black market and tracked them back down to the source and shut it down with a fury rarely seen.

In the aftermath, there was the major problem of what to do with the 'product' created by the now broken criminal group. Many children were able to go home with a variety of treatments done to reverse the tampering that had happened to them, but Bob was not so lucky. After a point, what was done couldn't be undone and since he was more or less finished and they had simply been waiting the last time period to let his genetics settle before selling him off, Bob was well beyond the line of no return.

Since there was no evidence of where he originally came from and letting Bob and those like him wander around free with their inhuman strength and conditioned to be criminal dumb muscle was an insanely bad idea, Bob and those like him became a ward of the Justice League so that they could have their conditioning broken and given the education they had been denied so that they could be apart of the world rather then just a thing to be used for dark intent.

After discussing with his mentors at the League about what kind of life awaited him and his kin, Bob made it clear that he personally wanted to be a hero... but he acknowledged that he didn't really have a lot of experience with the world in general and didn't trust himself to go it alone. Acknowledging both Bob's desires and short comings, Batman introduced Bob to Robin and the Teen Titans by extension.

Personality:
Bob is surprisingly kind and gentle for someone of his size, strength and background once the violent conditioning was broken. He is also possessed of a child like desire to help others and be a hero. Bob is neither smart nor educated, but he values both and actively strives to push himself to improve his mind, even if he is clearly very far behind those in his age group.

Other:
Despite appearances, Bob isn't stupid; He was conditioned to not think for himself and was denied education, but he is actually one of the fastest learners among his genetically enhanced kind. He can read at an elementary school level and understands basic mathematics. He can't actually write through... he lacks the fine motor control needed to do so properly.