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The Redeemers - Unstable Do-Gooders

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The Redeemers - Unstable Do-Gooders

The Redeemers

Founding

Your average caped crusader generally takes one of two paths: the faithful hero, who captures criminals and turns them over to the police for a fair trial in the justice system; or the vigilante, who captures criminals for themselves and act as judge, jury, and in the most extreme cases, executioner. The ladder was obviously unacceptable for any hero who wants to be good with the press. But, the former has its presumptions as well: the justice system is far from ideal. Judges are too often unfair and prejudiced, punishment can be inhumane and costly, and better funded criminals can simply evade the system entirely. Imprisonment can also be horrifically inhumane for metahuman offenders, since more restriction is called for than a cell.

The heroes Ferron, Semblance, and Cyber Falcon sought a middle-ground solution between the faithful hero and the vigilante. The principle, anyone can be redeemed and rehabilitated to a productive member of society. So, they founded The Redeemers, a supergroup focused on capturing metahuman criminals and rehabilitating them in their private facility, outside the problems of the justice system and Hardlocke.

Redemption Hall

Redemption Hall serves as the strategic HQ as well as the rehabilitation center for "customers" they're referred to as. The lowest level is where customers dwell and go about their treatment. It's a virtually impregnable fortress in function, but a friendly clinic in aesthetic. Ferron's engineering firm designed the inner workings, titanium-gold walls and supports with various energy-based defenses to maintain physical security. Semblance's illusion magic also plays a part in keeping customers inside during their six-month sentence. Falcon Sciences manages the psychiatry and psychological treatment, the most labor-intensive aspect of the facility. The upper levels hold the Redeemer's operational headquarters: the flagship members' personal quarters, and various conference and implementation rooms to enact the Redeemer's vision.

Modus Operandi

Before a mission is even executed, a tentative treatment plan is formulated for a would-be customer. This way a customer doesn't sit in a cell while the paperwork is done. Treatment plans are specialized per metahuman based on their abilities, neuroses, and resources. A containment plan must of course also be designed to prevent the customer from escaping treatment. At the end of a treatment, customers are released to halfway houses throughout the city. Unlike the rest of the treatment, these do liaison with government social work to find customers jobs and housing within the general populace. The most successful treatments are even referred to other hero groups, so that they may use their powers to make the world a better place. Some of these customers have even become flagship members of the Redeemers.

Being that their goal is to redeem criminals rather than punish them, the Redeemers have a strict no-killing stance, even when threats use lethal force. When a previous customer becomes a redeemer and breaks this nonviolent stance, they are immediately re-admitted into a treatment program back in the lower levels of Rehabilitation Hall.


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Smog

Smog

Classification: Enforcer
Specifications: Gladiator, Striker
Class Powerset: Tactical Combat
Specification Powersets: Super Agility, Atrophic Manipulation
Tertiary Sets: Atrophic Blast, Parkour, Leadership, Super senses
Other Traits: hardened skin and bones, extra nimble joints, poison immunity

Backstory

Richard Jameson lead a fairly normal childhood, academically gifted and going to a well-funded school.....until his mutant powers began to show. While his family lived in an affluent area, they themselves were very poor, so when a private military group, Grey Fog, offered to recruit Richard and pay for his schooling, it was impossible to refuse. Richard excelled at the Grey Fog academy, especially in biology and chemistry; however, in drills and combat training, his resistance to authority sometimes got the better of him. His methods tended to be effective, but unorthodox, to the ire of his superiors. Despite this, he graduated with honors and medals for combat prowess. When it came time to go to the field, his powers could finally be of use.

He was excellent with a silenced pistol, but his specialty was CQB and melee: he had superhuman reflexes and enhanced strength, so no baseline human was a match in melee. He was encouraged to employ his arm blade as a bayonet. He was a ruthless operative, in solo and small group missions. His specialty, and code name came from a fateful mission in Kosovo. A terror cell had been producing various chemical weapons, but not the typical saren or mustard gas. These were more exotic, psychotropic weapons, meant to turn targets against themselves, rather than neutralize them directly. The mission went awry, and the weapons were detonated while the Grey Fog squadron was still inside. The psychotropics made Smog enraged at first, neutralizing anyone in reach, but even through his intoxication, he could see his blade poisoning each target. He could absorb the toxins and redirect them into his blade. Grey Fog capitalized on this and sent him into countless chemical weapon missions, Richard's mind addled by exposure to exotic toxins. His last mission would be to a Scorpion warehouse in Ironport, he completed his mission according to Grey Fog standards, but one of Scorpion's captors was the cousin of the Redeemer, Grizzer. Grey Fog had little care for civilians, and Grizzer's cousin was killed as a hostage. He challenged Smog, but was not match for his fighting capabilities and was left wounded on site. The Redeemers, then lead by Ferron devised a containment and treatment plan as with any other metahuman threat. The Redeemers failed to catch Smog several times, due to his nimble tactics. He was eventually convinced to come into Redeemer custody by Semblance, using his illusion magic to contain Smog in situ.

Richard responded surprisingly well to treatment, despite the medication having negligible effect on him, due to his biology. When his program ended, he skipped the halfway house and was accepted directly to Redeemer operations. His small unit prowess and skill in developing in situ containment made him an invaluable operative. Another skill of Smog's that went underutilized by Grey Fog was his charisma and empathy: Smog made a reputation of talking threats into custody over pumbling them. He was eventually given flagship status in the Redeemers, and often acts as the field commander for customer apprehension missions. This lasted until the Necrobian's Convergence, which lead to Smog's relapse and eventual termination of his Redeemer status....

Powers

Richard Jameson's most titular mutant power is the ability to absorb toxins and channel them to a blade on his left arm. His first exposure is mildly symptomatic, but subsequent exposures have negligible effect, being entirely localized to his arm blade. This makes him immune to gaseous , topical, and ingested poisons, as well as environmental contaminants(thus the name).

Richard can also channel bio-electrical currents into electric blasts. These can be consciously tuned to deliver shocks precisely tuned to immobilize targets or damage electronics.

As previously mentioned, his left arm has a retractable blade made of hardened bone with silicon incorporated, making it as hard as ceramic, but unbreakable by common means. He resists using his blade, but its often employed to disable an enemy's weapons or armor.

Smog's bones, skin, and other connective tissue have similar hardened chemistry, making him difficult to disable in combat and immune to small projectiles. This connective tissue hardness also applies to his muscle fibers, making him stronger than the strongest Olympian, but with a fairly lean frame.

Smog also has mutantly increased senses, including smell and touch. The increased sensitivity to air pressure makes his reflexes far exceed well-trained baselines humans.

This suite of powers along with extensive education and combat training makes Smog an extremely formidable opponent alone, and his prowess in small unit tactics makes him an invaluable member of any strike force.


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Cyber Falcon

Cyber Falcon

Classification: Guardian
Specifications: Sentinel, Warden
Class Powerset: Devices
Specification Powersets: Force Blast, Force Manipulation
Tertiary Sets: Flight, Super Senses, Super Strength
Other Traits: Personal illusion, Extended Lifespan, Machine mind

Backstory

Elias Falcon came from wealth. His mother, Elizabeth Falcon was the CEO of Falcon Sciences, a major Pharmaceutical manufacturer. Elias went to a well-funded private school, where he excelled at sciences and computer technology. He had the good life of a rich kid until a fateful day in his teenage years: one afternoon, while being brought to school by his mother, they are carjacked by a desperate criminal trying to escape TCPD. His mother was viciously pulled out of the car, when the criminal entered the vehicle Elias tried to fight him off with his left arm, the criminal shot his arm and kicked him out of the opposite side of the car then drove away. The TCPD began a high speed pursuit, speeding down the street to catch the carjacker, but on the way a patrol vehicle strikes Elizabeth and Elias, killing her immediately, and knocking Elias unconscious.

Elias woke from a coma 3 months later, having missed his mother's funeral. Once he had his bearings, he demanded to know the officers involved, channeling his survivor's guilt into rage at the officer who had hit his mother. He researched as much as he could, even hiring a superpowered PI. The PI quickly relayed the rest of the story from the Press, the TCPD killed the carjacker in a standoff soon after the chase, having turned out to be a part of a new gang in Titan City, the Felix gang. Elias used his technical skills to find security camera footage showing the carjacking and discovered that the same officer who shot the Felix gang member had also struck Elias and his mother. He immediately filed suit, but the judge couldn't convict the officer who was a friend of the DA, and well-liked for putting down an upstart gang leader. There was no justice for Elias's mother.

Years passed and Elias continued to hone his technical skills, hoping to one day become a hero who would act outside the corrupt police system. But his schooling was plagued by depression. Working on projects, he often fumbled with tools, usually with his left hand. He increasingly felt like the hand was not his own, that it betrayed him. He was recommended counseling and was diagnosed with Body Integrity Identity Disorder, a disorder wherein one fells parts of their body, often a hand or lower leg, is alien or does not belong. The illness was traced to the carjacking, where Elias felt he failed to fend off the carjacker. His therapist recommended a common, but controversial treatment, amputation of the ill limb, but no doctor would perform the surgery, fearing malpractice suit. The medical system had failed Elias just as the justice system had.

Elias took all-to-common action as a result. He removed his left hand himself, using a laser cutter from the lab to cauterize the wound. His mental health immediately improved: he felt free from the hand that had caused him so much pain. However, reality set in soon after. He struggled to work in the engineering lab at university with only his right hand, and prosthesis suppliers were wary to supply a new limb due to the controversy about Elias's disorder. Elias built his own lab at the luxury condo he lived with his mother in, and assembled his own limb, adding several electronics and tools to improve his new limb over the natural one. His schooling improved drastically with the new functionality, and his peers admired his work assembling his own prosthetic. The gratification became toxic, he started to wonder which other body parts could be replaced and improved. Next were his feet, then lower legs, then upper left arm, then upper legs, avoiding replacing his upper-right torso, which he trusted best. His skill in fabrication and engineering improved with each replacement. He built his first auto-doc to perform replacements of internal organs while he's under anesthesia. After his multi-month quest to improve his body, he had replaced everything from his neck down, except his upper-right torso. His lungs and trachea had been replaced, but his larynx remained natural, so he kept his voice, but most of his head was left intact, fearing facial disfigurement. He returned to university almost entirely robotic, and was met not with praise, but horror, his peers avoided him, fearing his functional but crude-looking prosthesis would electrocute them or spray coolant. Elias eventually finished his undergrad, but struggled to find satisfying work due to his visible cybernetics. He returned to his lab at home, seeking to improve his cognition to make him more socially skilled. He developed a series of cybernetics that he would use to replace the right hemisphere of his brain, responsible for his left hand's actions. After transferring function from right to left hemisphere, he added more logic and mathematical processing, giving him superhuman processing power but he still struggled to improve his social skill, he still struggled to find work even in the company he inherited.

To gain some control over the company, he used some of his wealth to acquire a majority stock in Falcon Sciences, and motioned the company to make investments in researching psychopharmaceuticals, hoping to find better treatments for those suffering lesser-known illnesses like himself. His greatest contribution to this was LABRAT, an AI that can generate other AIs with human-like cognition, then allow the psyche to go awry, monitoring the simulated biochemistry of the aberrant cognition revealing a route of chemical treatment. The press from this development caught the attention of Semblance, who was seeking to improve the justice system to recognize criminal behavior as psychological not sociological. Elias joined the initiative, taking on the mantle of Cyber Falcon, to represent his company.

Elias designed his cybernetics to be modular, so when outside of combat he maintained a friendlier set of modules, with the help of Ferron and Semblance, he designed a more personable set of cybernetics equipped with social enhancements to allow Elias to read others better, and even employing pheromones to make them more open. In containment missions, he adopted a more fierce approach, battle armor with metal wings equipped with built-in weapons. Shortened to "Cy" Cyber Falcon would prove to be invaluable to the Redeemers both in containment and treatment, but he would continue to struggle with bodily improvement, never being satisfied with his abilities and judgement.

Powers

Cy's only true superhuman ability is his technical prowess, his abilities come from the devices he's able to easily fabricate. However, he does have a set of standard modules.

Falcon Armor: used for combat and containment missions
-Graviton Displacers: within his hands and wings Cy has devices with alter local gravity, resulting in force blasts that can move and disorient targets.
-Egg drone: A small golden drove which can apply first aid and force fields to allies, and spray chemicals at foes.
-Feather Missiles: mounted in the shoulders and wings, dozens of tiny missiles can be shot at foes. Some with ballistic intent, but many with similar chemicals to the egg drone.
-Eagle rockets: in his boots and wings Cy has nitrogen rockets which combine nitrogen in the air with oxygen, yielding indefinite fueling and flight.
-Peregrine Actin: these synthetic muscle fibers in Cy's legs and arms (right arm uses a glove) give Cy strength on the order of tons. This also results in increased durability.
-Hawk hololens: advanced optics and HUD that give Cy combat information and distant sight.

Owl Suit: used everyday and in counseling
-Peacock holographics: an advanced set of holographics allow Cy to change his appearance to a more average look, or to a look more comfortable to a patient.
-Swan Social Apparatus: advanced software which analyzes facial expression and body language to give social information not perceptible to the untrained human eye.
-Nest Pheromone system: apparatus equipped in Cy's neck which analyzes phermones coming from another and excretes responding phermones to give desirable social interaction. Generally used to calm patients and make others more open and talkative.
-Nest Failsafe system: a personal force field as a fallback if the social systems fail. Using gravaton displacers, it gently repels attackers to a safer distance, rather than a hard shell one might hurt themselves on.

Golden Eagle Armor: Archvillain-class armor, used for paragon-level threats. More lethal version of the Falcon Armor
-Graviton Field Generator: much like Graviton Displacers, but able to generate local gravity fields to immobilize strong foes. Strong enough to crush baseline humans.
-Piercing Feather Missiles: similar to feather missiles but with advanced explosives and a synthetic diamond tip.
-Seagle Fluctuation System: Cognition module that shifts thought process with the leftover biological brain to keep psychic manipulation at bay.
-Raven Fusion Core: to power the advanced systems, the golden armor has a miniature fusion core, this can also be exposed to generate a massive laser.

With all sets Cy maintains a series of more secret technologies that hinder his biological aging and giving him resilience to toxins and pathogens. He also generally carries a capacitor system to assist against electrical attacks, which are fairly common.

Cy also has numerous more specialized devices to address more specific threats: perception modules to assist against time manipulation, combat analyzers for teleporters and speedsters, intellect-dampening sonics for mages, and many other niche devices for obscure threats.

With the intellect and versatility of Elias Falcon's enhancements, he is arguably the most vital and effective of the Redeemers. The group would struggle to contain any severely substantial threat without him, and Redemption Hall would struggle to keep the lights on without Falcon Science's backing.


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Ferron

Ferron

Classification: Operator
Specifications: Director, Executor
Class Powerset: Power Control
Specification Powersets: Strategy, Force Blast
Tertiary Sets: Flight, Super Agility, Force blast
Other Traits: Brilliant engineer

Backstory

Thomas Steele lived an exurban life in Innswich with his parents and younger sister, all mutants. Jack Steele could change his skin into any metal he was in contact with, so he would carry a necklace of various metals to switch between steel, copper, gold, and titanium. He's of course responsible for the family name, he had it changed to match his power. Thomas's mother, Tiana Steele, had the ability to control technology telepathically. They didn't live life as superheroes, they mostly maintained civilian life as a construction foreman and marketing executive, which makes the tragedy that followed even more bizarre. One evening, shortly after dinner, all three entrances of the large exurban home were kicked in by members of the Unforgiven. Jack wasn't wearing his necklace, so used the metal sink to turn his skin stainless steel, and tried to fight off the Unforgiven in the front door. Meanwhile, at the back, Tiana was attacked by a member with a micro Uzi. She was able to stop the gun, but had no advanced hand to hand training. The Unforgiven fighting Jack unleashed his curse, turning all metal around him into mercury. The appliances fell into pools of metal, the knobs on the cupboards melted away, but so did Jack's skin. He near instantly exsanguinated on the floor. At nearly the same time, Tiana was stabbed multiple times by the Unforgiven attacking her. The third member who'd entered through the garage went to assist his college attacking Jack, but noticed the melee was won, then moved upstairs. Thomas's younger sister Zoe, was running down to see the commotion, she ran into the Unforgiven going up the stairs, who then shot her in a panic. Thomas was oblivious to any of this, having headphones on to a book reading, but heard the gunshot and quickly hid under the bed. The Unforgiven left as quickly as they'd come, giving up on Thomas and fearing the investigation into killing a child. Thomas stayed under the bed for hours, petrified.

Orphaned, Thomas was put in the foster care system from the age of 11. The other kids learned of his mutant parents, and bullied him about their fate: they both blamed them for not using their powers to help people and degraded them for being mutants, "freaks". They bullied Thomas for not showing his powers, which had yet to manifest. Thomas escaped this as much as he could into crude building designs, often skyscrapers. At 13, one of the foster kids challenged Thomas to a fight, as was all too common. Thomas had yet to hit hit growth spurt and was never one for fisticuffs, but was dragged to the yard nonetheless. He was quickly knocked down, then the bully went grabbed Thomas's necklace, his father's metallic chain, and ripped it off of Thomas's neck. Thomas reached out pleading to have it back, and to his shock, it flew through the air and Thomas caught it. Thomas kept his metal moving abilities to himself, fearing his family's fate.

He'd eventually made it out of the foster system and into university for civil engineering. But for every free moment, he tried to track down what had happened to his family. He first went to TCPD, naturally, but they'd closed the case as a random gang killing. He worked with a friend in journalism, they found a series of murders by the Unforgiven around the same time, all targeting mutants. The trail lead to an abandoned warehouse in Charlestown, Thomas had called TCPD to report the likely activity, but they oddly didn't seem to mind. Thomas was forced to sneak in, hoping to pin down Alucard, the Unforgiven who'd ordered the hit. After he'd snuck through the metal wall, he was shocked to find TCPD detectives meeting with the gangbangers, he resisted the urge to charge and instead eavesdropped. Detective Duke had been paying off Unforgiven to take out genetic mutants, whom Duke had determined to be more of a threat than a boon to Titan City. Unable to contain himself, Thomas collapses the ceiling on the meeting, killing the detective immediately, but Alucard unleashed to turn into a lizard beast with metal scales, giving him the strength to survive the crash. Noticing the metal scales, Thomas skins the beast, using his scales to kill the other Unforgiven around, and letting Alucard bleed out, just like Thomas's father had. Thomas road away on an I-beam, realizing what he'd done.

He spent the next years as a guerrilla artist under the name Ferron. He used his ferrokinesis to make metal sculptures out of TCPD equipment: speed cameras, patrol vehices, guns, even light fixtures from precincts. When caught, the boys in blue were no match for the metal mover with their metal bullets, even mechs. Thomas wouldn't kill again: he only disarmed the officers interrupting his work. Thomas eventually tired of this mischief, and focused his powers on helping disadvantaged communities with infrastructure. He helped lower income families improve their homes with his ferrokinesis, fixed their vehicles, and in his largest project, replaces the water system in a community relying on water heavy in lead. This outreach caught the attention of an architecture and engineering firm, who then hired him to head their project to do similar across the country, repairing failing infrastructure employing supers to save on costs. It was soon after this that Ferron was approached by Cy and Semblance, to begin an initiative to rehabilitate criminals outside the justice system, which Thomas was fairly publicly against. With his pull in the firm, he convinced them to merge into the Redeemers initiative, providing most of the civil engineering and construction infrastructure for the facility from then on.

Powers

Ferron has powerful ferrokinetic abilities. These are not based on magnetics like other metal-movers, but applicable to any material with a high enough conductivity, even exotic plastics can be moved if they have a high conductivity. Ferron spent more time training his precision than strength of his abilities, he can easily lift trucks, but he's more proud that he can move circuits within a board.

In battle, Ferron uses these abilities to trap foes in available metal. When there is none, he uses copper placed about his costume to form binds of various sorts. His metal-heavy costume is also used for flight.

Thomas also made it a point to train in melee: he'll form swords and shields out of metal available to fend off close-range combatants.

Ferron stand quietly as one of the most powerful members of the Redeemers Initiative, and uses his abilities in nearly every containment mission to bring down a customer with minimal harm.


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Semblance

Semblance

Classification: Operator
Specifications: Director, Executor
Class Powerset: Illusions
Specification Powersets: Vampiric Emanation, Atrophic Blast
Tertiary Sets: Psychic Manipulation, Teleportation
Other Traits: Shadowalking, Illusory Aura

Backstory

Unlike Ferron and Cy, who had fairly decent childhoods, Quinton Carver had a very troubled childhood. In a lower class neighborhood, only child to an abusive father. One night, his father used a switch and beat Quinton hard enough to lacerate his left cheek, bad enough to need stitches. A few nights later, another round split the stitches, guaranteeing a scar. Quinton was then abused and bullied about the scar, teases as "skywalker" saying his scar was like the prequel protagonist. One night, after a particularly brutal session, Quinton's mother had enough. She downed a heavy dose of Chaser, the infamous superdrug known to give fire powers. For her it worked, and she breathed massive streams of fire over Quinton's father as he drunkenly slept. He awoke still too drunk to help himself. However, the dosage was too much for Mrs. Carver, and her stomach acid caught fire. Quinton regained consciousness as the fire reached the first floor, and thankfully escaped before the house collapsed. He then moved in with his mother's parents, who were much kinder to him, but the damage had been done.

As he reached teenage-hood, he started to be insecure about his appearance. This was of course normal, but the abuse and bullying had taken hold and Quinton was fixated on his scar: it made his whole and body feel disgusting. His anxiety that others saw him as ugly as he saw himself lead him to be socially reclusive. Luckily, his school had a competent enough counseling system that he was given therapy by the school counselor. He tried his best, but his suggestions only seemed to entrench the neurosis. The counselor had a terrible habit for such students. He sent the student to the woods by the school, to a tree with it's bark removed and covered in graffiti and told only "don't touch the tree". It was a totem to an imprisoned god. Normally, the counselor makes sacrifice for the god to cure illnesses, but as Quinton approached the tree, it glowed green.The imprisoned god told Quinton he was special, that his father comes from a line of powerful mages. Quinton was distraught at the idea and struck the tree, angering the imprisoned god. Quinton was still rewarded for his lineage and given powers of illusion, but cursed with a body without features. His eyes, nose, brow, mouth, and hair were removed, and left with blank impressions of features. The imprisoned god conjured a mirror to show the results, Quentin ran away crying, newly abhorred by his appearance.

He ran into the woods for hours, until his legs finally tired. He sat on a stump, calmed by his breakdown, he practiced his new illusion powers. First changing the colors of the trees, then replacing them with skyscrapers. The illusions quickly grew in size until they could be seen from a nearby surburbia. They called TCPD, describing a massively powerful villain in the woods warping reality. As the archvillain team assembled, Quinton decided upon an appearance over his featureless face. He decided upon an appearance much like Idris Alba, but of course younger and thinner. TCPD arrived to find a young adult walking in the direction of the neighborhood, and demanded he put his hands in the air and stand down. Quinton turned invisible instead, even to infrared light, and easily escaped the TCPD. He returned to the counselor the next day, but he'd mysteriously disappeared. Quinton quickly came to terms with his new, fake appearance, and excelled in school, taking keen interest in sociology and psychology, eventually getting degrees in both, and becoming a licensed psychologist.

His first position was at Hardlock. His abilities became extremely helpful with inmates, who often met parole at a way higher rate than average. But Quinton noticed the all-to-common pattern of prisons: inmates come in mildly troubled, and leave hardened and ready to enter a rogues gallery. Quinton lost faith in Hardlock, and took his powers to the field taking on the name Semblance. He sought to find criminals and treat them on the spot, in the middle of a crime. His first problem arose with villains who could outpace him. While Semblance can create an illusion from a far distance, but it's useless when the villain can fly away further. He returned to the imprisoned god, and in exchange for releasing him, was given the power of Shadowalking: the ability to teleport within continuous shadows, allowing Semblance to travel anywhere indoors or at night.

Taking this new ability, he sought out a partner for a larger anti-crime initiative. Cy's LABRAT had hit the press, and Semblance knew where to start. He found no trouble contacting Elias Falcon, and they discussed their sociological agreements, and together they wrote their manifesto and began designs for Redemption Hall, soon after contacting the engineering firm Ferron famously worked for, seeing their emphasis on helping the disadvantaged. The firm was absorbed into Falcon Sciences, and became integral to the design of Redemption Hall. Semblance took on the role of Head Psychologist, taking on the most troubled customers himself. He would continue to be a critical flagship member of the Redeemers, even through countless disasters to the roster.

Powers

Semblances illusions are in a sense "real": they are manipulations of ambient photons. Semblance doesn't need much light to create an illusion, he's able to amplify any light source as enough to generate an illusion. The downside of this is that it's difficult to make illusions personal. Two people in the same room will see the same illusion; it takes practice to form illusions each would see separately.

However, while the illusions struggle to effect multiple targets, they can be extremely effective. Poorly anchored targets will feel psychosomatic effects from the illusions: shown aflame they will feel burning, shown bruised they will be sensitive, and shown injured, they'll act accordingly. Such techniques are key to containment: if a target is convinced that they've already lost, they'll quickly give up.

Taking on a more tactical role, Semblance is known to invigorate allies and demoralize foes with applicable illusions. Given source material, Semblance can create psychologically crippling scenes to bring down a foe, but he resists such tactics as they can only cause more damage later.

Overall, Semblance is a clear-headed support anchor for the Redeemers, and invaluable in the field and in Redemption Hall.


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Chillbane

Chillbane

Classification: Enforcer
Specifications: Gladiator, Striker
Class Powerset: Kinetic Melee
Specification Powersets: Invulnerability, Power Manipulation
Tertiary Sets: Lethality, Parkour, Wall walking,
Other Traits: Accursed blade, Defensive reflex

Backstory

Devon Driscoll unfortunately lived a life in the spotlight. His family was a well-known superteam in the early 2000s, The Weston Seven (although they were down to 4). Devon's father, Bill Driscoll, was known as Quickstep, he was a minor speedster who could run 40 mph, but was better known for his acceleration. Devon's mother, Sharon Driscoll, Propeller, wielded force blasts she could also use to fly. And his younger brother, William Driscoll, known as Mantle, could turn his skin into magma, and the form gave him some super strength. Devon himself wielded considerable ice creation powers, mostly using them to conjure weapons and armor, and took on the codename "Chillbane", a cold bane of criminals. The remaining other three members were Bill's parents and brother. His parents had retired at the age of 55, and his brother lost his life to a Scorpion raid. The family was fairly functional, and enjoyed bonding over crime-fighting in Weston and the surrounding area.

One evening, they got a call from Essex county deputies about a dangerous group of mages barricaded in a mansion in Salem. Mages were oddly drawn to the area, so such a call was common. They assembled and arrived at the mansion with flaming walls around the structure. Devon used his ice powers to bore a hole in the flames allowing the team entry. The mages turned out to be more like cultists, most wielding fire and air attacks. The team neutralized most of the cultists, resistance increasing as they reached the basement. When they broke through, they found the cult's leader praying to what looked like a sword with a flaming blade. The leader tried to grab it from its altar, but the sword burned his hand with each touch. The Weston Seven (all 4 of them) finished off the remaining cultists, and cuffed them to the basement.

Devon felt drawn to the blade; he asked the leader what it was; they called it the Mountbreaker. It looked like a Mongolian saber, but more straight, almost closer to a katana. They told Devon not to touch the blade, that he was unprepared for the evil within. Devon scoffed at the superstition, but his parents warned him not to touch the unknown quantity. When he first grasped the hilt, it seared him just like the others, but then he used his ice powers to cancel out the heat. Once he grasped the blade with cold hands, he was paralyzed for a moment, then his irises turned a bright orange. His mother, Propeller, tried to pull Devon away, but he lifted the sword, and stabbed her then spun around and cleaved her head with the blade. His father, Quickstep, charged in to tackle the seemingly possessed Devon, but even his speed wasn't enough, and he was sliced open with another spinning slice. Mantle, Devon's younger brother, who had been guarding entry, ran into the room, then stood shocked at the unbleeding bodies of his parents. Devon charged him, trying to slice him with the flaming blade, but it had no effect on the Mantle's volcanic body. His brother cried out for Devon to stop and yelled at him to snap out of it. He didn't, couldn't. Devon then used his ice powers to overpower Mantle, a move he often used when they tussled, but it was generally not enough. This time was different, Mantle froze solid, the lava solidified, William could've gone back to his human form, but he feared that more than being stuck like this. Devon kicked the body in the midsection with enough force to crack the whole form. William reverted to human form, severed at the middle. With his remaining consciousness, he asked why. Devon ignored the plea, and began to slaughter the cultists in the room.

The Redeemers where in their early days, Redemption hall only had three containment units ready, but the evening news broke with the calamity at the mansion in Salem, "Chillbane on fiery rampage" was the headline. Smog and Cy mobilized, Cy taking a moment to grab an anti-psionic module. They arrive to the scene with a decimated TCPD barricade. Their powersuits had yet to arrive and two other supers had been dispatched. Smog charged in melee as Cy took the the air, raining graviton waves to destabilize Chillbane. Smog's reflexes were enough to avoid slashes from the flaming saber and dodge icey projectiles, but he was unable to damage Chillbane's ice armor. Cy deployed the anti-psionic device, a sonic generator that normalized brainwaves. Devon regains control for a moment, he melts his armor then pleads Smog to retrieve the sword. Smog nearly does, his skin resistant to the burning, but once the blade left Devon's hand, his eyes returned to bring orange and he recalled the hilt. The melee continued but Smog was able to land a knockout blow with the armor melted. Even while unconscious, the blade could not be retrieved from Devon's hand.

They transferred Devon to a temperature-resistant containment unit and called in Semblance to begin treatment. They sent a sturdy drone into the unit, while Semblance made an illusion of a therapist from outside the unit. Devon attacked the unit, eyes bright orange. When he finally spoke, it was in a language none of them recognized. Cyber Falcon had it analyzed and determined it to be archaic Mongolian. Cy synthesized a voice for the drone to translate in, then redeployed it with Semblance's illusion of a Mongol warrior, doing his best to keep true to history. The entity possessing Devon conversed a bit with the illusion, asking when the next battle was to be had. Pausing to think of a good response, Semblance had the drone say "It is winter, conquest season is over for now." Devon's eyes became brown again, and he passed out, still clutching the hilt, but the flame diminished. Cy immediately went to generate a LABRAT with similar psychosis, and set the automated drug generation. Devon regained consciousness and demanded to know where he was and what happened. His memory ended at his mother pulling his shoulder. Semblance opted to lie, and tell him his family was hospitalized not killed by Devon's actions while under the blade's influence. A drug was generated, similar to other anti-psychotics. It turned out that Devon had a family history of schitzophrenia, and this lead to the reaction to the spirit in the blade, but the drug seemed to work well on keeping the spirit at bay. Devon still struggled with the blade: he could not release the hilt, but he learned to control the blade's flame, and spent much of his sentence training with it to bring some comfort to being cursed to hold it forever, even in his sleep.

When his sentence ended, he opted to join the Redeemers. Crime-fighting was all he knew. As time went on, he eventually learned the truth about his family. When he did, his eyes turned bright for a moment, but he fought off the relapse, and went on the cope with what had happened. He rightly placed all the blame on the spirit in the blade, and worked on the guilt in touching it at all. Chillbane kept his codename, and would go on to become a flagship member of the Redeemers, specializing with customers who also struggled with delusions.
.

Powers

Chillbane's initial power, a mutant one, can generate ice form water vapor in the air. The ice forms a unique crystal structure that is much less dense than normal ice, but much stronger. Chillbane uses this to give himself armor and occasionally melee weapons. When pushed, he also generates ice projectiles and binds to immobilize threats.

With care, Chillbane can control the flame that emits form the hilt and use it to send fiery flares out to foes, or if called for, use it as a sword. It reacts to other materials like a very hot blade, rather than passing through like a stream of fire normally would.

The spirit in the blade still seems to give some of it's combat skill to the wielder, giving enhanced reflexes and mobility, even so far as wall-walking.

When in control, Chillbane is one of the most effective melee fighters and immobilizers the Redeemers have to offer, but he pushes himself constantly to maintain control, and can only go so long without medication.


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Grizzer

Grizzer

Classification: Stalwart
Specifications: Bulwark, Bastion
Class Powerset: Grit
Specification Powersets: Massive Melee, Lethal Assault
Tertiary Sets: Super jumping, Devices
Other Traits: Regeneration, Animal form

Backstory

Grizzer is the group's amnesiac. His birth name, if he was even "born" in a strict sense, is lost to history, as is his age. His memory starts on Victory Beach, hearing sirens in the distance. Paramedics walked over to him, then stopped suddenly as his eyes opened. He rolled his mass over onto his arms, then got up, feeling strangely tall. One of the paramedics seemed less weary of the figure, and encouraged the other "can't be worse than Gherrenfur, c'mon", as they approached, he protracted his claws and growled. The second paramedic started backing away, but the first tried to placate "we're not gunna hurt 'ya, we just wanna make sure you're okay." "I'm fine" the figure finally said, then seemed surprised he could speak English, in an accent that seemed almost too American. The paramedics struggled to get vitals. They asked for a name, and after a moment, the patient said "Jason", it seemed to feel right. Jason then refused to give a last name. TO the best of their knowledge, Jason seemed fine, so they drove him to TCPD to see if they had a better idea how to handle the amnesiac. On the way into the station, Jason finally got a view of himself through the reflection in the window, he froze solid. The reflection showed a massive furry humanoid, mostly human-like, but covered in thick fur, with a face somewhere between wolf and bear. He was massive in width, with retractable claws. After he gathered the image in the window, the surprise wore off quickly, as if he'd expected something like this.

The TCPD didn't do much more than attempt to clothe Jason and send him to the county office for paperwork. At the office, they could do little to find his true identity. They even contracted out a DNA test, but no results as his DNA wasn't human enough to generate a profile. Thought out of ear-shot, one of the employees said he reminded them of her dog, Grizzer. When pressed for a full name, he chose Jason Grizzer. The employee voiced that she didn't think it rang well, but he insisted. He'd soon after obtained a social security number and state ID, then entered the workforce as a dockworker. He quickly learned he has superhuman strength, so it was a good fit. It also allowed him to get by on limited language skills. He continued this work moving shipping crates he could lift himself fairly easily, until a container arrived with a strange symbol on it, the same symbol was tattooed into his forehead. Jason spotted the symbol from across the dock, and immediately ran to open it, against the protest of his co-workers. Once he opened the container, a device inside activated, generating a series of symbols too fast for baseline humans to read. Jason fell into a trance until the symbols ended, then protracted his claws and went into a frenzy, demolishing much of the dock with numerous casualties. TCPD arrived, and took little time opening fire on the ursine beast, but the wounds healed moments after received. He'd taken down a dozen officers before Ferron arrived. With the accessible metal from the dockyard, he was quickly able to subdue the beast in a mass of steel, then transported him to Redeemer Hall.

Within a reinforced containment unit, Jason continued to pound the walls and growl. He seemed immune to sedatives and narcotics. Semblance eventually came in, and tried to modify the scenery to something more calming. He'd arrived on an arctic landscape when Grizzer calmed, and passed out. He awoke with no further memories before the beach and a blank spot once the container was opened. The device wasn't recovered in the cleanup. So the Redeemers were left as lost as the paramedics on Grizzer's past. Their DNA test revealed that his DNA was mostly synthetic and not matching even metabiological records. Much of his sentence was spent trying to recreate the symbols he'd seen. Semblance and Cy tried every alphabet and pictograph known, then tried variations of the symbol on Grizzer's forehead, and were unable to reproduce the results. With that information, the City insisted on pressing charges for the casualties and damage, but the Redeemers would not relent, insisting that he was better off in their care and study. Jason emphatically agreed. While he was resistant to bullets, the fight with TCPD left him extremely weary of police. The Redeemers felt him safe to do field work in containment, since the event was deemed unlikely to repeat. And he remains with the Redeemers, unable to remember his past, but extremely effective as a containment operative.

Powers

The most prominent result of Grizzer's physiology is his superhuman strength. Pushed, he can overhead press 4 tons. His hands are fairly humanoid, though huge, and contain retractable claws made of a material much stronger than steel, registering a 5 on a Moh's hardness test. Between these, Grizzer is a horrific melee combatant.

His physiology also grants an extreme healing factor, able to regenerate from small arms fire almost instantly. Analyzing his DNA, while difficult, showed mutation rates in human genes as would be expected of an 80 year old man, implying Grizzer ages at a decelerated rate.

Having worked with the Redeemers for awhile, he's gained some affinity with various devices used in containment, his favorite being web grenades. He also uses EMP grenades and anti-mystic shielding to handle technological and mystic threats.

Overall, Grizzer fits the bruiser archetype, easily taking the attention and punishment from threats while the rest of the containment team moves in.


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Aztec

Classification: Operator
Specifications: Engineer, Director
Class Powerset: Force Control
Specification Powersets: Lethal assault, Barrier Generation
Tertiary Sets: Kinetic combat, Solid form, Super jump
Other Traits: Knife training, Blueblood magic affinity

Backstory

Alexandra Ortega starts her story as a technician at Redemption hall, manning a LABRAT station. She has gotten a degree in computer science and had family working for Falcon Sciences so she easily secured such a position. She used her paid vacation time to take a trip to Teotihuacan. She admired the stonework and wanted to visit since she was young. When in Mexico, on the way to Teotihuacan, once she'd gotten off the bus, she seemed to walk through a barrier. The other tourists vanished, and the sky was a blood red, covered in strange runes. After recovering from the shock and panic, Alex decided to go to the largest pyramid she could find, guessing that something in the pyramid was to blame.

She ascended the pyramid amoungst the red soil, then noticed a large beast in the distance, assembled of skulls, she hurried inside. As she crossed the doorway into the pyramid, the light returned, and she was back in the real world. Inside the pyramid sat an old woman, with an Obsidian Knife. She looked at Alex, as if looking right through her. A blue wave emanated from the woman, and those within it stopped in their tracks, frozen in time, except for Alex. The weirdness quickly wore off, and Alex seemed strangely comfortable around this strange woman. She presented the dagger to Alex, saying "With Itztli, save us" though her lips did not match her words. Alex tried to inquire, but the woman interrupted, saying "now, go!" Shadows enveloped Alex. She reappeared in hills just outside Titan City.

She spent hours at the top of a hill, pondering what had just happened: a mysterious figure bestowed upon her an item, presumably of some power, and at no clear cost. Alex wasn't paranoid by nature, but this seemed too good to be true, even in Titan City. She examined the dagger: it looked like Aztec ceremonial daggers, but more symmetrical, and adorned with symbols. She had the intrusive though to shove it into her chest, to sacrifice herself, but she opted to try a few other things first. She first tried stabbing it at the air. No effect. Stabbing it into the earth, nothing. Then she tried something seem in media, hand gestures. An hour of tries later, with the dagger pointed down, she slammed her wrist, and a pillar of sandstone shot up from the ground. She spent the rest of her vacation practicing this new item, learning entrapments, projectiles, and even a form of flight.

Monday came and she walked right up to 5th floor, Smog's office, and asked to me reassigned to field work. Smog looked up from his computer and asked "are you feeling okay?" As Alex began to tell the story, Richard interrupted "no, you look really pale, like a bad cold." Alex ignored the worry, and continued to explain, presenting the dagger. Smog expressed similar skepticism as Alex, but agreed to recommend her for field work, after some training and a codename. She quickly arrived on "Aztec", given her heritage, and the woman who seemed to speak for the Aztec gods. She excelled at knife combat training, and went on to make an excellent member of the containment team, and the Redeemers enjoyed having another trapper than Ferron.

Powers

The mysterious woman had given Alex the Dagger of Itztli: an ancient ceremonial dagger blessed by Itztli to generate stone constructs with appropriate gestures.So far, Aztec has been able to generate sandstone, granite, limestone, and, with effort, quartz. She uses primarily limestone, as it's easiest to clean up. She generates walls, pillars, binds, and domes. WIth effort she can conjure crude weapons, most often fists.

Using levitating sheets of granite, Aztec is able to achieve limited flight as a means of travel.

Notably, the dagger has an affinity for her, and if separated, will be found near her when unobserved.

Without the powers, she has had extensive hand-to-hand training, especially with knives, so given a mundane knife, Aztec can do some damage.

Later, after the events of [url=https://cityoftitans.com/forum/convergence] she gains even more magical abilities, along with her dagger.

Overall, she's the Redeemer's primary trapper, with the highest success rate of the flagship members.


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A honestly novel and very

A honestly novel and very interesting concept! I wouldn’t mind throwing a hero in for this, perhaps as a resident therapist perhaps of some sort?

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Is it that novel? yay :)

Is it that novel? yay :)

(Haven't written yet) Semblance is the go-to psychologist, but a facility like this definitely needs more than one :)


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desviper wrote:
desviper wrote:

Is it that novel? yay :)

(Haven't written yet) Semblance is the go-to psychologist, but a facility like this definitely needs more than one :)

I was thinking a Indian mutant or superhuman, who actually possesses a third eye as a manifestation of their mutation, and perhaps had a stint of wildly using their powers in their youth due to outstratization before being enrolled in a program that helped set him straight?

I see powers like maybe Psychic Control/Psychic Blast maybe?

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Would be good to have someone

Would be good to have someone with a psychic-empathy powerset, kinda in the vein of Professor X, but maybe not so powerful :p


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desviper wrote:
desviper wrote:

Would be good to have someone with a psychic-empathy powerset, kinda in the vein of Professor X, but maybe not so powerful :p

A name like Ajna, perhaps?

That being said, what kind of characters are you looking for in general though?

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It's pretty open honestly.

It's pretty open honestly. The containment front can take anyone who can go without permanently injuring a threat. Any medical/psychological type could help the treatment side.


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