Name |Sergei “Surge” Kosovich
Former Alias | Blue Thunder or
BTCurrent Alias | WitchfireAge | 35
Gender | Male
Pronouns | He/Him
Appearance | A former mixed martial artist and retired Noble calling Sergei “built” would be apt. Well toned and muscular Sergei still works out on a near daily basis. At his last weigh-in before he was ousted from the professional MMA community Sergei weighed in at 197lbs, stood 6 foot even and had a reach of 75 inches. It’s been nearly a decade since that weigh-in and while he keeps in shape Sergei has added probably about 8lbs to his frame.
Notoriety | Retired Noble
Danger Level/Variant Type | Class 3 Volatile
Abilities | Bioelectricity
- Voltage | One of Sergei’s primary uses of his bioelectrical nature. Voltage is the direct channeling of bioelectricty to electrify anyone or anything* in contact with Sergei.
*Some things obviously don’t conduct electricity very well. - Zap! | By focusing his bioelectrical energy Sergei can release a bolt of electricity extending about ten feet (three meters),
- Amp | Using short bursts of bioelectrical energy Sergei can very temporarily increase his speed and/or physical strength. While this let’s Sergei seemingly replicate the abilities of weaker Brutes or Agiles he is still capped by what is physically possible for a non-variant human body. While Amping he could potentially flip a car but there would still be no way for him to fully lift one of the ground. Similarly while an Amp could be used to increase his movement speed he would still be hard pressed to keep up with someone on even a bicycle. A large drawback to Amping is that it has to be consciously done, which means despite the ability to speed himself up temporarily it can’t be used to increase the speed of his reactions unless he is already actively Amping.
- Electrical Stimulus Healing | A subconscious use of Sergei’s bioelectrical powers accelerates his own healing from injuries. ESH only effects the healing of wounds and injuries, having no effect on any diseases or illnesses. The acceleration of healing caused by this is impressive from a non-variant perspective but not anything close to any variant with a true healing power. This healing is apparent in that major injuries that Sergei suffers such as broken bones heal in a matter of days if not a couple weeks whereas more minor injuries such as cuts and bruises heal overnight or in a matter of hours, This is no replacement for actual medical care though, ESH on it’s own cannot replace blood loss or set bones. Additionally while his body is actively healing larger injuries all other abilities are dampened in power.
This ability cannot be used to accelerate the healing of others although another person with better knowledge of medicine and science could potentially use Sergei’s skill set to treat other’s wounds. - Shock Absorption | As part of his Variant nature Sergei is immune to the effects of being shocked, electrified or electrocuted.
- Burst | A burst of electrical energy in a twenty foot (six meter) spheroid around Sergei. The burst can be either alternating current or direct current. An AC Burst will fling people and potentially cause anyone caught in the blast to suffer from cardiac arrhythmia (including a-fib) which can potentially cause death. Alternatively a DC Burst is more likely to cause muscle contractions causing those caught in the burst to collapse temporarily.
Either way a Burst leaves Sergei without any bioelectrical reservoir preventing any further use of his power for several hours. - Blackout | An electromagnetic-like pulse centered on Sergei extending out fifty feet (or fifteen meters) in a spheroid. This burst temporarily disables larger electrical devices and permanently fries smaller ones.
This leaves Sergei without any bioelectrical reservoir preventing any further use of his power for several hours.
[Gear]
Attire | As Blue Thunder his attire was similar to what you’d think of as a sentai ranger’s outfit, full body cover with a full helmet all in dark blue. The full cover attire is supplemented with a carbon fiber weave throughout and backed by ceramic plates in areas that didn’t require flexibility.
As Witchfire his outfit consists of a black sleeveless hoodie with highlights of spring green, a solid black gaiter mask and a hardened green visor that extends down from the hoodie and syncs with a spare phone he has giving him up to date info from police scanners and gps. The rest of the outfit is black motorcycle pants with black combat boots and black gloves. The boots are highlighted with green shoelaces. The hoodie and pants are lined with a carbon fiber weave, similar to his previous outfit as Blue Thunder.
Day to day attire for Sergei consists of athletic shorts or pants paired with a hoodie or tank depending on the weather. The entire ensemble is brought together by his worn but nondescript trainers.
Armament/Equipment |As Blue Thunder his equipment consisted of a stun gun, and pair of metal escrima sticks. As well as a communicator watch that was paired with the other members of the Super Sentry Squards on a closed and secure channel.
As Witchfire he’s traded the stun gun and escrima sticks for a pair of metal batons with side handles that have been augmented to also function as hand held tasers.
In day to day life Sergei tends to only carry his keys, wallet, phone and a pair of wireless earbuds. His phone is a knockoff Rhoella that’s a couple generations out of date and the earbuds are of the cheaper variety.
[Temperament & Lifestyle]
Affiliation | Former member of the Super Sentry Squad (a team of Nobles heavily inspired by Super Sentai)
Personality /Habits Sergei lives an incredibly regimented life. In part this comes from a youth of training and time as professional athlete but a good part of the regiment can be traced back to the months that he spent cleaning up his life after rehab. A combination of factors have led to Sergei living a pretty lonely life. Not through any real fault of his own though; being outed as a variant, battling alcoholism, and the loss of Gold Flame (leading to the fracturing of SSS) all severely damaged many of his friendships. Outside of the ring Sergei is genuinely a pretty relaxed and patient person. Quick to smile and with a kind heart Sergei regularly puts others needs before his own. A deeper examination of his psyche might reveal however that this need to put others before himself stems from an intense desire to prove himself. Unfortunately this desire to prove himself is itself rooted in having disappointed his late father, meaning no matter how he humbles himself in his day to day life, or how hard he strives to make the world better the person he is trying to prove himself to will never be there to show approval.
The regiment of Sergei’s life lends itself to having a fairly defined schedule. Monday thru Thursday his days are highly predictable. Wake up about 8/8:30am, a short run and a shower, stopping by his favorite cafe (a cozy little place in Ville Rouge) for a light breakfast with coffee and the daily news, then work for the rest of the day. This all finishes up around 7pm at which point he heads home has a quick dinner relaxes and by 10pm has suited up as Witchfire.
Weekends are a little more flexible. He tries to keep them open so that he can accompany clients for matches, do events as Blue Thunder or spend time with his mother. However on less busy weekends he’s still likely to be found at The Resurgence working out and offering pointers.
Occupation/Trade |
- Retired Professional MMA Fighter
- MMA/Boxing Coach- Small Business Owner
- Vigilante
Skills/Talents |
- Trained in various martial arts including but not limited to Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu, Boxing, Muay Thai, Judo and Greco-Roman Wrestling.
- Multilingual, Sergei grew up in a home where it wasn’t uncommon to be subject to a variety of languages. Both his parents were fluent, if noticeably accented, in English but they also were both fluent in their native tongues. This combination led to Sergei becoming well-versed in both Spanish and Russian as well as the English he spoke in day to day life as a child.
- Good at darts and billiards, a by product of wasted hours spent in bars.
Family |
- Mikhail “Killer” Kosovich, father. Was a professional boxer, deceased. Russian-born immigrant.
- Sofia Kosovich, mother. Painter, lives over in Brigitte. Spanish-born immigrant.
Background |Born the son of a boxer who was himself the son of a bare-knuckle fighter it was only inevitable that Sergai would find himself being trained from an early age in the ways of martial combat. Luckily for all involved Sergai both took to it with both vigor and glee, quickly moving from boxing to a wider variety of martial arts. As a child he didn’t quite see the impact his training was having on his home life. Good trainers and coaches cost money and despite his father being able to “successfully” be a pro boxer he was never a card topper, and as such his family struggled to not only keep Sergai doing what he loved but keep their shabby roof in the Shambles over their head. Eventually his mother would go from painting, something that she loved to do even if there wasn’t much money to be had in it, to waiting tables at a bar in the Ville. Simultaneously his father began taking on more and more cards, it meant more money for the family but it also came at a price to Mikhail’s health.
But through their love and sacrifice alongside Sergai’s tenacity Sergai would make his amateur debut in the summer between his freshman and sophomore years of highschool. Unfortunately this only added to the money problems at home. As it turns out amateur fighters don’t get paid for their fights, and in fact between more specialized coaching and medical expenses it only added to the burden. It was roughly at this time that Sergai began to notice the stress he was putting on his family. Despite his mother begging him not Sergai dropped out of highschool at the age of 17, just before his senior year. Instead he used the time to work a myriad of part-time jobs, primarily fast food, but additionally it meant more time to train, to practice, to hone his craft. Convinced that like his father and grandfather before him that pugilism would be how he would make a life for himself. A conviction that would eventually prove true. Going into the spring of Sergei’s 18th year he was made aware that one of the larger MMA organizers in the country was and had been scouting his most recent matches. With the pressure on Sergai went in to what would be his last amateur fight, not just with something to prove but a hunger and drive to make it out of the amateur circuit, a hunger and drive to make a better life for his parents. A hunger and drive that would change Sergei’s very nature and understanding of himself.
Sergei and his opponent, a strong fighter in his own regard having previously taken a win off of Sergei, were into the third and final round both were gassed and it looked as if the match would go to decision something that Sergei couldn’t risk if he wanted to impress the scout. As the last minute of the match began to tick down Sergei got swept off his feet, his back smacking hard into the mat the weight of it all began to crash down on him. On the verge of tears Sergei suddenly felt a rush of energy in his core rolling through the take-down Sergei regained his feet and in a sudden burst of speed that he had never shown before he slipped through his opponents guard and landed the most substantial uppercut that he had ever thrown. At the same time Sergei could’ve sworn he felt the crackle of electricity pass through his fist and into his opponent. The uppercut alone would’ve been a nasty knocked down this late in the match but to see his opponent drop into convulsions on the mat was an intense shock to Sergei. Despite winning, despite impressing the scout, despite securing a rookie contract with a large promotion Sergei would most remember the terror he felt realizing that
he was a Variant.
Upon the realization of what he was Sergei buried the truth deep within himself, he won what was almost assuredly the most important fight in his life but he was sick with guilt. He had cheated, in fact his mere existence in the octagon was tantamount to cheating. He could never let his nature be found out or everything he had worked for would crash down around him, all the work he put into building a better life for his parents and himself would be for naught so it was that Sergei refused his nature, refused to acknowledge his Variant nature and instead continued on his trajectory as a fighter as if nothing had ever happened.
On the same weekend that Sergei would have graduated, had his life went a different way, Sergei made his debut on the under card of a professional MMA event. In what would be one of his few bouts as Super Welterweight Sergai not only debuted but garnered his first professional victory. A victory worth nearly $25,000, a victory that by itself meant that his mother could return to painting full time instead of spending upwards of ten hours a day in uncomfortable heels in an uncomfortable bar.
And it continued like this, he didn’t always win but he won more than he loss and honestly at the end of the day while the bag was bigger for the victor even the loser’s purse meant more than most could conceive. By the age of twenty he captured his first title, a Middleweight belt that would only be the first in a series of title reigns. The first title was maybe one of the most important as he used the purse to start the process of buying his mother and father a house, a change from the shabby two bedroom apartment in the Shambles that they had been living in. This house, located in Brigitte, is actually where his mother still resides today fifteen years later.
And so it went. For six years Sergei “Surge” Kosovich was a dominant force inside the octagon. Until in the week heading up to his fourth defense of the Light Heavyweight title a story grasped the fighting world. Sergei “Surge” Kosovich was a Variant. The proof? There was none, at least not at first but his match was delayed. Then delayed again. Then his opponent from that last amateur bout all those years ago came forward. He didn’t have proof either, but he had a story and video. The promotion went from delaying the fight to threatening to strip Surge barring a negative DNA test for the Variant gene. A test that Sergei knew he couldn’t pass. Despite having never tapped into his power in the octagon since that first instance he knew what this meant for his career.
At the same time that Sergei was struggling with his professional career’s collapse his father began suffering from seizures. It would turn out that the years of boxing had resulted in severe CTE, the diagnosis was made all the worse for the family when Mikhail publicly disavowed his son. The press ate it up. Not only was Sergei a Variant, not only had he cheated in every professional match he had fought (he hadn’t but the media obviously made their own assumptions), but his own father was disavowing him. Telling the press that he was as blindsided as the MMA community. Friends that had been with Sergei since the early days of his career were suddenly no where to be seen, it honestly seemed that here in what he believed to be his darkest moments everyone had abandoned him. Everyone except his mother. She still took his calls but they were whispered, afraid of upsetting his father due to his precarious health.
And so it was late at night, in a whispered call from his mother, a whisper no longer necessary that Sergei found out about the passing of his father. That night Sergei opened a bottle of whiskey, untouched before but empty by morning. It was the first of many bottles that Sergei would find himself staring down the bottom of. The actual fall into alcoholism wasn’t that sudden though, it was a creeping thing. What did it matter if he day drank, he had no job, no responsibility and was in his prime. He could drink if he wanted to.
The first sign that it was a problem however was sudden. Stumbling drunk at the funeral of his father Sergei was arrested for the first time when he in a drunken diatribe wiped his dick out and pissed on his father’s grave. The anger was misplaced but he felt betrayed and as if the love of a parent that until his “Variant-fiasco” he had thought of as uncompromising and unconditional had been yanked away.
“Public Indecency” read the first summons.
“Driving While Intoxicated” read the second.
“Drunk and Disorderly” read the third.
“Misdemeanor Battery” read the fourth, after a particular gnarly bar fight.
And then the fifth came “Driving While Intoxicated” along with a side of “Destruction of Property” the second DWI in as many years.
It was over. A second DWI was a felony charge, it was no more slap on the wrist fines or drunken nights in jail. This meant prison. Or it should have fortunately, for Sergei, money has a lot of sway on the justice system and what should have been a game over for him instead became a mandatory three month rehab program and year suspension of his license.
He entered into rehab with the blasé you’d expect from a washed up celebrity, intent on doing his time and then getting back to the bottle but those plans changed during a visit from his mother. The only person who had stood by him when had thought he was at his lowest was still standing there when he had found a new bottom. Her breaking down in tears during her visit, confiding that she was scared he was going to find himself in an early grave did a lot of the work to reshape his will. Upon his exit from rehab he had solidified his will and with a determination he had thought he had lost when he was outed as a Variant he put down the drink. It wasn’t easy and to say there weren’t slip-ups would be wrong but he committed to it, attended an alcoholics anonymous group on a weekly basis, cut ties with the freeloaders who had helped to enable his destructive habit and began piecing his life back together.
Back on his feet but still very much struggling to deal with his addiction and public image Sergei finally impressed his Variant nature and began to learn what he could about it. At the same time he reached out to an image consultation firm with the intent to begin to rebuild himself in the public eye. Currently seen as a Variant that abused his powers and took advantage of non-variants, and then seen as a public menace due to the risk and damage that he inflicted via drunk driving. The answer seemed obvious to the consultation firm, if Sergei wanted to change how the public perceived his abuse of his Variant nature he needed to change how he publicly used those powers. This line of reasoning led to Sergei being introduced to Heroes Today, a noble/hero branding firm, and to N.O.V.A. Upon being licensed Heroes Today working with an ex-M.A.D. Noble the Super Sentry Squad was founded. It’s starting line-up featured the Blue, Black, White, Gold and Silver sentries. In addition to the color they all took a code name that represented their power in some. Sergei became Blue Thunder, the electric Sentry, Laney Williams became Black Cloud, the shadow Sentry, Sebastian Elrik became White Nova, the gravity Sentry and nominally the leader of the squad, Baron Johnson became Gold Flame, the burning Sentry, and Rebekah Hawthorne became Silver Wind, the speeding Sentry.
The Super Sentry Squad quickly took off, as heroes they did more than an adequate job but the real success of the Squad was in the merchandising. Super Sentry Squad quickly became a hit with children getting a comic book run, a toy line and eventually an animated series. Everyone except Sebastian quickly became fast friends, the group had purchased a warehouse in the Warehouse District and made it into a kind of loft/headquarters for the group. For Sergei the Squad was not only what he needed to seriously repair the damage to his public persona but also a family that he didn’t know he had been searching for. Ever since he had been ousted from the MMA community he had felt a lack of real friendships and the ones he formed with Laney, Barry, and Beka quickly become the most precious in his life. The four of them became near inseparable and eventually all four went public with their actual identities. Gaining a bit of minor celebrity as a group, it was instant tabloid gossip when Beka and Laney began dating.
Sebastian on the other hand kept his distance and treated the Squad much more like a job. Despite this cold and detached nature he was essential to the success of the team in the field. His tactical knowledge and experience was the difference maker in more than one close scenario. And his connections within N.O.V.A meant that they often had a heads-up on Variant crime before other hero groups.
Sebastian’s brilliant leadership was only brought into question when the proverbial shit hit the fan. N.O.V.A. through Sebastian brought the team on board to deal with securing a warehouse that was believed to be housing violent variants working with The Syndicate and who were suspected of being in possession of a large shipment of black market body mods. As was typical when working with N.O.V.A. all the team’s information came through Sebastian as they were only working together in an unofficial capacity.
The long and the short of it is things went wrong. Explosives that nobody had planned for had apparently been rigged to one of the containers of body mods, Gold Flame was the one to open the container and the one to set off the explosion but Silver Wind darted in to save him, knocking him out of the blast range but in exchange putting herself in harms way. At the end of the day the variants they had been after escaped but the body mods were secured and the only thing it had cost the team was the life of Silver Wind and leg of Gold Flame.
For a short time following the incident Black Cloud, White Nova and Blue Thunder still worked together. It wasn’t comfortable, Black Cloud grieving her loss, Blue Thunder and Gold Flame beginning to suspect that White Nova had known something he didn’t share. The team fell apart. One day Black Cloud just stopped showing up, in truth she just seemed disappear and despite getting a prosthetic Gold Flame had no interest in returning to action so Blue Thunder walked away as well. The Squad was over.
With the Squad’s dissolution Sergei was once again left floundering. He spent a lot of time in those early post SSS days hanging out with Barry but Barry seemed determined to drive him and all memories of the Squad away so eventually Sergei once again found himself mostly alone with nothing to occupy his time or mind. He wasn’t hurting for a job as he still had plenty of the prize money from his days in MMA and was making royalties off the Super Sentry Squad merchandise and show but he needed something to distract himself, something to give himself purpose.
It was on a chilly day in the fall 2077 while he ate dinner and spent the evening with his mother, something he tried to do on a regular basis, that he was given direction. After dinner he and his mother, Sofia, sat in the living room going through old photos and talking about his father. His father was still a painful subject for him but he knew his mother found comfort in these old memories. It was a picture of him after his first amateur fight that broached the subject, Sofia turned to face Sergei and told him “Your father was so proud of you that night, he had always wanted to get into the training side of boxing but could never afford to. You were really his only student and it meant so much for him to see you succeed,”. Neither of them broached the subject of how ashamed he had been to find out that Sergei had “cheated” his way into that success. Nonetheless it gave Sergei an idea, an idea that gave him the direction he needed.
Using some of the wealth he had accrued he bought a smallish warehouse a short walk from the southwest edge of the Ville Rogue. Over the next few months the warehouse would see a transformation. Rings and punching bags were put up, an octagon was assembled, weightlifting and cardio equipment was brought in, old fliers from fights from days long past were put up, an office was constructed up in the rafters and locker rooms and showers near the entrance, finally on the outside, facing the street and the river a large neon blue sign went up declaring the warehouse “The Resurgence: Gym and Training Facility”.
In the spring of 2078 Resurgence opened it’s doors and started taking students. Knowing what it was to come from a family that struggled to make ends meet and knowing that if it wasn’t for his father teaching him he would have never made it to where he was one of the first programs Resurgence started was a class Monday through Thursday from about 3:30pm to 5:30pm offering free self-defense and martial arts courses to the city youths. He intended for it to primarily be for at risk youths or kids from families that were having financial troubles but accepted anyone into the classes, no questions asked. Teaching didn’t come naturally to Sergei but patience did and over time he grew to not only be good at teaching other’s how to fight but enjoy it to. Overtime Resurgence expanded from just being him and two other coaches to being a 24/7 facility that always had at least a trainer or two on hand to assist anyone who needed the help. While Sergei let some of the other coaches take over the later self-defense courses and some of the more general martial arts classes the 3:30pm-5:30pm courses were something Sergei never passed up on.
It was during one of these youth classes only a year or so after the opening that Sergei began to hear rumblings from some of the kids about a couple of gangs over in The Shanty that had begun to extend their reach, putting more pressure on kids to join up. It came to a head when one of his regulars was caught in the cross-fire of gang violence. Knowing he had retired the Blue Thunder name and had let his license as a Noble lapse Sergei found himself stuck morally in between a rock and hard place. His time spent as a “hero” had hammered into him a since of responsibility and running Resurgence had built up in him a sentiment of community with the families throughout southern New Haven. Because of this it didn’t start intentionally, he told himself he would just follow some his students home on their way back to The Shanty, keeping his distance and just keeping an eye out for them.
Because of this his first actions as a vigilante were just him in sweatpants and a hoodie, stepping in between some of his students and thugs who had decided they looked like easy targets. It wasn’t his intention to use his Variance but the Thugs were armed and he wasn’t. Amping himself to increase his speed he closed the distance between himself and the thugs putting them both down with just a touch and a surge of electricity. Regrettably this incident only further provoked the gangs of the Shanty as they were now out to find the Variant that had “assaulted them without provocation” as they put it. This only increased the issues Sergei’s students had from the gangs in the area.
The escalation of violence led Sergei to a decision. If the street gangs of the Shanty wanted to find the Variant that had assaulted them so badly he would come to them. Donning a light sleeveless hoodie, combining it with a gaiter and some gloves Witchfire, the protector of the Shanty was born. He went to war to protect his students, his kids, and by the time he was done the gangs while still existent had adequately slithered back into the shadows. As the violence that plagued his community dwindled the story of Witchfire began to spread, relieved and hoping that word alone would help to deter gang activity he soon retired the mantel of Witchfire to the back of his closet with that of Blue Thunder. It did not however take long before the lack of Witchfire’s presence re-emboldened the less than savory elements of the Shanty and so it was that Witchfire returned.
For going on two years now Witchfire has patrolled the Shanty and it’s surrounding districts on a near nightly basis. Aware that he could reapply for his Noble’s license and publicly step into the light as a hero again Sergei has had a distrust, a fear even, that N.O.V.A. had a direct hand in the death of Silver Wind and maybe even a hand in bringing to light his Variant nature to the public to begin with. While he actively tries to distance himself from the identity of the vigilante known as Witchfire it’s an open rumor in the Shanty that the former hero Blue Thunder, who now runs a gym in the nearby Warehouse district has resumed his heroic activity under the guise of Witchfire.
The Irish Tree
Damycles
