Name:
Codename: Wire
Age: 28
Gender: Male
Place of Birth: England.
Affiliations: Gem, a 25 year old woman and prodigy programming engineer. She has been his closest friend for 9 years and assigns him his clients. Her whereabouts are known only to Wire.
Occupation: "Private investigator"
Appearance: Wire wears a dark-silver steel helmet that covers his whole head. It's only prominent feature is the eye hole, which measure from his eyebrows to the tip of his nose and consists of a single black one-way bullet-resistant visor, but it has numerous scrapes and small dents in it. He wears a black leather jacket, with a dark grey nylon inlay, sleeves and hood, which he leaves unzipped over a dark green and black brandless short wetsuit (as in it doesn't have elongated sleeves or legs). He wears a pair of black trousers which he tucks into a pair of black boots that reach halfway up his calf muscles. He wears a pair of dark green and black gloves. On his back he carries a duffel bag to keep things he may need for a job in, including his two titanium gloves.
He stands at 6 feet and 1 inch. He is Caucasian, and has brown hair and light brown eyes.
Powers:
- Reconstructed Nerves: His nerves send signals at the speed of a wire. On average that is 300 000 times faster than a normal human nerve. This has had a variety of effects on him.
- Radically Variable Time Perception: For reasons unknown to him, when his brain recognises that it needs to react to something (as in, when he focuses on a task or object that will require quick reflexes), his perception of time will slow as much as it needs to. For example, if someone was about to fire a gun at him, his perception of time would slow much more than if he needed to catch a ball that someone was throwing to him.
- Time Stop: Also for reasons unknown to him, when he overrides his breathing reflex and consciously tries to breathe, his brain slows his perception of time by as much as it can. It is unknown how
much it slows it, but time in all regards appears to stop, and he cannot move a muscle. He can simply watch and think. He has gained a mastery over this ability in his years with it.
- Limit Breaking: [i]Also[/i[ for reasons unknown to him, the limits that the brain usually enforces on his muscles has been removed. This means that he can use 100% of his muscle power if he needs to, but at great cost to his health.
- Resistance to Telepathy: While his current thoughts can be read if he is not altering his perception of time, while he is at Time Stop, his thoughts are unreadable as they are happening so fast. Digging into his memories is inadvisable, as the strength of his nerve signals can cause some feedback.
- Nerve regeneration: He cannot suffer permanent nerve damage.
- Remarkably Fast Learner: This was a skill that he gained with the rest of his powers. He wonders often if this implies some untapped potential.
Skills:
- Proficient at Hand to Hand Combat: With pinpoint accuracy he can attack weakpoints and dodge blows. He can even soften blows by leaning into them the instant they make contact with him.
- Peak Human Physical Condition: As simply walking can train his muscles if he wishes it, he has quickly gained incredibly strong muscles and cardiovascular strength.
- Hacking: In his time with Gem, he has picked up a few tricks.
- Problem Solving: His brain is very logically wired, and he has all the time in the world to think things through. And the more that he has, the less time he seems to need to..
Equipment/Resources :
- The only weapons that he uses are a pair of large titanium gloves; a memento of a lost friend. With them he can punch as hard as he wishes without risking damage to his hands.
- He has a titanium mask that he uses to hide his identity, and is equipped with a radio/phone and voice scrambler. It gives a very metallic sound to his words.
- He does not have a large amount of funds, but earns enough to live in relative comfort.
- He has a short range emp emitter which requires a special disposable core for each use. When it goes off, it can completely fry electrical equipment in close proximity to it, and shuts them down if they are within a moderate range.
- He has a makeshift portable computer, about the size of a smart phone but much thicker. It has all manner of ports to connect to all manner of different outputs and inputs, and is used primarily for hacking and taking digital information. It is made from smartphone and computer parts, and is far from waterproof.
- He had support from Gem for most of his career, but it is unknown what their current relationship is.
Weaknesses:
- Electricity can be particularly dangerous for him. As his nerves give little to no resistance to currents, shocks that make it through his skin pass straight through him to ground. This can mean that if he is hit by an electric shock, he may not even flinch as he can counter the spasms as it passes through his body; especially as it passes through so quickly. However, if it passes through his heart, he is at serious risk of death from even a small shock.
- He has all the weakness of a normal Human, as the only thing superhuman about him is his nervous system. This also means that when he utilizes his superhuman strength by using the full potential of his muscles, he will cause damage to himself in doing so. This also means that the reaction time of his brain is vastly superior to the reaction time of his body.
Mark had a strange upbringing. His parents were both biologists who studied the harshest habitats on earth in a joint effort. They hoped to discover the secrets of the life that lived there like no one had before them, and to do that, they needed to go to the ends of the earth for prolonged periods of time. And when Mark was born, he was taken along for the ride. When he was 15, he made the difficult decision to stop traveling the world and focus on his studies, but refused to let them put their research on hold until he grew up. He lived on his own in an apartment on the edge of London, and for the first time in his life went to a normal school. He didn't make many friends; he had never truly learned how with people his own age. He had it tough, but the gifts that his parents sent him and their occasional visits kept him strong. He studied hard against adversity. But it wasn't enough.
When his results came through at the end of his A levels (FYI these are the qualifications you need to get into University) he didn't get what he needed. The fates seemed to be ganging up on him. He didn't know what to do with his life anymore. He wasn't the science genius that he wanted to be. At the exact moment when he was dreading making the call to his parents who he assumed were eagerly awaiting his results to come through, there was a knock at the door. In utter fear that he was in for a surprise visit, he looked through the peep hole in the door, only to see a large parcel on his doorstep. They had never sent a package of this size before. He opened it to find a two tailed scorpion and a letter. It read that his parents were sorry that they couldn't be there with him, so they sent someone else. This was a scorpion that they had found in the Atacama desert, where it really had no right being. But somehow it managed to survive in a place where nothing else does: it reminded them of him, and that they wished that he would take great care of it. They said It wasn't poisonous, and if he wanted to let it crawl over his hands he should be wary of it's claws. They wished him well, and gave their love. Mark carefully folded the letter and put it with the rest; Then he had a good long look at his new friend. He opened it's cage, and reached in to put it on his hand. It scuttled on, scurried up his arm and then it sunk both of it's tails into his forearm. He didn't recoil, he just winced as he slowly took it off and placed it back into it's cage. He let out a hollow laugh: really his parents were the only people on his side. Then he felt a strange sensation flow up through his arm, and promptly fell unconscious.
When he awoke, he tried to gasp.. but couldn't. A piercing noise was filling his ears, and he couldn't see, he couldn't move and he wasn't breathing. He could feel that he was on the floor, but that was about it. His eyelids felt like they had been stapled shut, and now he was panicing. He didn't know if he was dead or he was dying or if his spirit was trapped in his body, but all he knew was that he couldn't get out of his current position. He tried to shout for help to no avail. Then a tinge of pain reminded him that it was all that damned scorpion's fault. His parents had been mistaken: it was terribly poisonous. It was terribly poisonous and they should have known better. They should have known better and now he was going to die. Or maybe he was already dead: he really didn't know. His mind turned from panic to anger as he stopped thinking about what he couldn't do but what he would do if he ever got out of this situation.
And then he heard the phone ringing. He opened his eyes, and he got up with a start. A start so vicious that he damn near threw his arm out of socket.
Over the following weeks, Mark learned many things. He once again had feeling in his right thumb, which had sustained nerve damage after a nasty fall in his youth. He could get more out of his muscles than he could before, but after a while they began to hurt. When he truly focused on a task or on an object, time would seem to slow down as much as he needed it to: it was as if his brain was overclocking itself when it felt like it needed more processing power. He didn't know if there was a limit to how much his perception of time could change, and he has never found out. But most interestingly of all, upon overriding his reflex to breathe, time would almost stop. He couldn't move in this state, only think and watch what his eyes would show him. He didn't know why or how this came to be, but ultimately put it down to something we did not yet understand about the brain. But he concluded that his nerves could regenerate, and it was possible that their entire make-up had been changed: they sent signals like wires. Also, he found that his memory had improved and explanations seemed easier for him to grasp. It was as though things that he struggled with before just made sense. And his muscles always seemed tired. And he was always hungry. And it didn't take much to make him out of breath.
He found out that basic use of his muscles would put them under strain unless he exercised constant control: they no longer limited themselves so he had to consciously. His fitness was growing incredibly quickly, just by living his life. As he grew in his control, his breathing-pauses were becoming less and less frequent and easier to handle; he was ending every day with less fatigue as his body adapted and he learned to use only as much force as was necessary. He was finally feeling confident with what the universe seemed to have given him.
He retook his exams and passed with flying colours. He went to University and that was where his life went in a decidedly different direction than he had anticipated. And then blatant corruption came to his attention. To have it constantly in his peripheral vision irritated him to no end, and using his new abilities, he fought it with an ease that surprised him. He could deduce things as though he were a trained detective, and he could only put it down to the same reason time stopped when he focused on his breathing: he simply had no idea. It was exposed and no one knew how, much to his delight. All went back to normal, with him being the weird kid that was nice, but was a little off. If only they knew. A knock small knock resounded on the door, and he paused for a second. He opened it expecting a surprise family visit, but instead there was an envelope with no deliverer. It read in letters cut from a newspaper that they knew what he had done, and that they congratulated him on the good work. An organisation was interested in his services if he wanted to continue to fight the good fight. It was signed by Gem, with nothing else other than a phone number. He didn't quite know what to make of it.
He continued with his life, but the letter burned away at the back of his mind. He finished his first year, and with no real friends and very little to do in his dorm alone, he called the number. It didn't ring, and went to static before cutting off: "the number you have dialed is incorrect". He really didn't know what to make of that. A few days later on a supply run, a girl was about to bump into him as they walked past. His brain slowed everything down slightly, as it tended to do. He went to move out of the way, but she moved in closer. He felt what anyone else would have ignored, as he felt her hand slide something into his jacket pocket as she made eye contact and mouthed "sorry". He stopped walking as he turned to watch her walk away. She didn't turn around, and her pace slightly quickened. He felt into his pocket and found a phone. Then he followed her. He tailed her without trying to hide his presence, and she broke into a run. He caught up to her as she hid in a coffee shop. He wore a hat, and took off his jacket, ordered two coffees and then sat down opposite her. He offered one to her, and with a timid appreciation, she accepted. She looked younger than him, and by this point he was 19.
She introduced herself as Gem, and that he was the first to be so difficult. She ran a secret outfit of what she called 'vigilantes for hire'. She made them known to people oppressed by rather shady business practices, and then they would work to expose the illegal activity, and reap a large fee from the customer's lawsuit. They were a group of about 6 people at the moment, all like Mark, but none as successful. They all needed Gem's help to bring down the hammer of justice, but he did not. Gem explained that she ran everything, kept everyone anonymous, and was making a decent amount of money. Then she asked if he truly wanted to join them, or if he had simply satiated his curiosity. He took a deep breath to digest all the information, and then accepted a temporary role while he finished Uni. If he liked what he saw, he may consider working with her full time. She smiled, and then proceeded to leave with a man in the opposite stall who gave Mark a grin before leaving. He had a tazer on his belt.
When he finally decided to work full time, he was given a mask, and he chose the code name Wire. He impressed his comrades with his apparent inability to make a mistake, and he famously dodged a bullet (in actuality he had dodged the bullet before the trigger could even be pulled, and even then only by mere millimetres did he escape unscathed). It all was going well until they made an enemy. Their groups sudden increase in efficiency had gained them a notoriety even if it didn't make it to the media. Their success was now their greatest weakness. Multiple traps were set, and one by one the group members died. They could never get to Gem, she hid herself too well, but she could do little to discourage the band not to avenge their fallen friends, as they had done for some many others. Wire was the only one who was unkillable, and in a particularly emotional conversation, where she blamed him for why their friends were dead, and accused him of being a traitor as the only one to stay alive, he revealed his powers to her. The reconciled, and then they worked together to finally bring them to justice. And they did just that.
Now just the two of them, they didn't know whether or not they should continue on with their business. Wire was for it, but Gem was much more curious about his scorpion, and how he came upon it. They discovered after half a year of digging, and at the age of 22, Wire finally found answers to a question he had neglected to ask. There was a hidden bunker in arguably the most sterile place on earth: the Atacama desert. It was used by a very ambitious and promising cell of scientific researchers in their attempts to cure all manner of ailments. One such cure was a cure for nerve damage. However, they were not as good at budgeting as they were at science, and they were quickly running out of funds and the faith of their investors. They were having to resort to increasingly peculiar proposals to keep their interest up. They had gotten the research for nerve damage off the ground by attempting to administer the serum through a scorpion sting, but they were ultimately unsuccessful. The team was dissolved, and the scientists involved were moved to other groups. Mark and Gem could only guess that as Mark's had two tails, it must have been thrown out as it had been born a mutant, and so was unsuitable for testing. The sheer coincidences that surrounded his rebirth gave Mark serious doubts that that was all that it was: coincidence. But that wasn't something that he could fathom, much less come to any logical conclusion about. Upon this realisation, they decided that they had best get back to work. Then the Awakening happened.
TL;DR, Mark gained his powers before the Awakening as a young man, through a bizarre sequence of coincidences. He worked as a 'vigilante for hire' as part of a group bent on bringing an end to corruption, and getting paid to do so. This was headed by Gem, a computer prodigy with a drive. They gained notoriety and were systematically killed off, all but Mark, who had picked the codename Wire. Together him and Gem took their attackers down, but ceased their work for fear that the next time they came under attack, they wouldn't be underestimated. They instead worked to discover the origins of Mark's powers, and they were successful in the endeavor, and began to prepare to get back to work. Then.. well. That kinda got scuppered.
Wire has recently gained some notoriety as a "private investigator" in America, who is willing to take any job if the pay is good enough. As there was no previous public record of his exploits, it is unknown what side he places himself on, or whether or not his only concern is money.
Gem no longer seems to be in the picture.
Psychological Profile: Wire is a character who is very difficult to read. They always seem as though they are in control, but that is only skin deep. For what it's worth, he has a warmth to his character that is difficult to dismiss, despite the distance he keeps himself at. He always carries a watch.
Wire is constantly in a state of anxiety, although the degree of anxiety varies significantly. He still feels guilty about the loss of his colleagues, as the only conclusion that he can come to as to why they died is that it was his fault. He believes to have buried this away, but it still burns deep within his mind and is the reason why he works alone. He only tolerates Gem as she is safe in a location he would die before he would give up. He is very logical to the point that he factors in his own emotions and the emotions of others in his decision making. When thinking things through, he tends to debate things in his head between two voices, and doesn't know whether or not this makes him mentally unsound. He believes that a higher power keeps the universe ticking, and the Awakening has confused him immensely on what form this power could take. He believes that it is impossible for him to have simply stumbled into his powers, that there must have been some force of fate at work. He has decided that it would be impossible to know, and so he has decided just to keep on surviving with what he has been given.
Stance on the League: Wire does not have much trust in the league. He firmly believes that it is doomed to end in catastrophe, or at least attract catastrophe. He would rather not be affiliated (and in extension, responsible) for such a "powder keg or power and inexperience."
I've had him for a while, but never fleshed him out quite this much..