In the early 1990's, Marvel greats Jim Shooter, Barry Windsor-Smith and Bob Layton created their own comic book company, derived partially from the rights to the Gold Key Comics of the 1960's. The Valiant Comics universe included these Gold Key characters mixed with original ideas, and within a year was exceeding Marvel, DC, and Image Comics sales. Although the universe eventually stumbled, rebooting first as Acclaim Comics and then the modern Valiant, the original Valiant universe was something to behold.
Magnus, Robot Fighter was first introduced by Gold Key comics in the 1960's title Magnus, Robot Fighter 4000 AD. He was rigorously trained from birth by 1-A, a "Freewill" robot, to battle other Freewills if ever they threatened the citizens of North Am, the united continental government of North America in the 41st century. Initially, it was believed that 1-A's training alone was responsible for Magnus's abilities, making him the pinnacle of human perfection. Once Magnus was reintroduced by Valiant Comics, however, it was established that he was a second generation Harbinger, born with inherent powers that made him suitable as a Robot Fighter. In fact, Magnus's parents were natives of the 20th century, and he was transported to the late 40th century as an infant after the time-bending Unity War only due to the intervention of Solar and the Geomancer.
Magnus is capable of hardening his skin through force of will, an act of mental concentration which gives his flesh the resilience of steel. When focused, Magnus is superhumanly strong, capable of tearing robots apart with his bare hands, or decapitating them with a single blow. Even in his "normal" state, Magnus is several levels tougher than the average human. He has heightened speed, agility, and reflexes, and his vision and hearing are extraordinarily acute. He also possessed considerable endurance and recuperative powers, enabling him to go for days without sleep or recover from serious injuries in a matter of hours. Magnus's natural durability is enhanced by his tunic made of durium cloth, capable of dispersing energy assaults and harmlessly absorbing some amount of kinetic impact as well. For a time, Magnus also possessed a cybernetic implant in his brain, allowing him to "hear" data transmissions on the robot-to-robot frequency used by North Am's robs. This allowed him to receive instructions from 1-A from afar, monitor signal traffic from the "mainbrain" complex which provided programming and instructions to all North Am robs, and gave him an edge against packs of Freewills who believed they could communicate silently to one another without him hearing.
Solar is actually Phil Seleski, a nuclear scientist who was transformed by his experimental reactor into an energy being resembling Phil's favorite comic book hero -- Doctor Solar, the Man of the Atom. In his new state, Solar has mastered the energy - matter - energy conversion process, and appears in a human form only out of habit. He is immortal and possesses no need for food, water, air, or sleep in order to survive. In essence, he is a self-sustaining quasi-nuclear reactor, capable of running forever barring complications. Solar can run down by overusing his powers, however, as expelling or otherwise losing too much energy can weaken his overall integrity. He then needs to absorb particles as fuel for his internal reactions, the more high-energy the particles the better. At his "standard" resilience levels, Solar is vulnerable to being punctured by something as simple as a knife. He is little more than a roiling mass of volatile energy on the inside, meaning anyone caught too close to Solar when his skin in penetrated will often be incinerated by the lethal spray of energy. Although the physical injury isn't very important, the loss of leaking energy will weaken Solar if he doesn't concentrate and seal the leak quickly. By converting his energy storages into mass, Solar can increase his density and develop variable superhuman levels of strength and imperviousness to harm. Converting too much energy into mass, however, will form enough compact density to create a point singularity effect. A supercharged Solar destroyed the original Valiant Universe by changing all his energy into mass at once, creating a black hole which ripped apart the fabric of reality. In order to avoid super-compressed mass, Solar can make his body physically larger, spreading his mass-energy over larger dimensions and becoming giant sized in the process. He could also detach portions of his body at will for various purposes, and then reattach them later. For instance, he was once running low on energy fighting a Manowar, and had no immediate source of energy to recharge from. He therefore detached one hand and sent it flying at the speed of light to the nearest star, where it soaked up massive amounts of energy and then returned and reconnected with Solar, recharging his entire body. He has also split into multiple bodies (often unintentionally), dividing his mind and available energy between different forms.
Solar possesses enhanced senses and sensitivity to energy. He can detect radiant energy or wavelengths moving through his environment, letting him zero in on existing energy sources. When in his human form, Solar can modify his vision to perceive other invisible spectra of electromagnetic waves, giving him infrared or x-ray vision, and more. He can receive electromagnetic signals, and therefore pick up radio transmissions or phone calls mentally, reversing the process to communicate this way as well. Solar can selectively release electromagnetic energy from his body throughout the spectrum, producing light, heat, or deadly radiation. Solar's power over light extends to creating holograms representing his thoughts. His energy can be released as planes of force that sever molecular bonds, slicing cleanly through metal. More active electromagnetic signatures can cause atoms to explode violently or disintegrate altogether. His power extends over gravity as well, allowing him to levitate himself or other people and objects. Solar can fly at the speed of light when in his massless energy, seemingly teleporting from one location to another to the eyes of the average person. Solar's ability to absorb and feed on energy can also be used strategically. He can shut down any electronic system or energy source by drawing the energy from it. He can also "create" cold by absorbing the available molecular kinetic energy in an object that represents heat. With a controlled manipulation of individual atoms, Solar can even transmute elements and rearrange molecular structures.
Turok, Dinosaur Hunter was an 18th century Kiowa who wandered into the Lost Land, where dinosaurs roamed and time was not absolute. After the Unity War destroyed the Lost Land, Turok was cast out back into the timestream, returning to Earth in 1987. Turok was always in peak physical condition, possessed exceptionally keen and well-trained senses, and was an excellent tracker and huntsman. He used a variety of weapons, including a simple knife or bow and arrows, to modern equipment such as infrared goggles or sub-machine guns. He also carried a bow given to him by Mothergod during Unity, which had a collapsible blade in its top shaft and could fire arrows with tremendous force. He initially had a quantity of electronic arrows for the bow as well, including explosive and high-voltage variants, but soon exhausted his supply.
Rai is part of a nearly 1,000 year line of heroes defending Japan since 3050 on into the 41st century. Tohru Nakadai, the neophyte Rai from the start of the Valiant Universe, is 42nd in the line of Spirit Guardians. The Rai spirit energy was never officially classified, although it appears to be a specialized form of ectotheric energy. According to the Malevs, ectotheric energy is created by "electrical impulses racing over neural networks, creating a reaction in the quantum field" -- in order words, thought. Grandmother, the Freewill robot consciousness who maintained the entire island of Japan, created (or harnessed) the Rai energy to empower a champion, the Spirit Guardian to the body of Japan. Although Grandmother could empower a Rai herself, the Rai energy was typically passed down directly from one Rai to the next in a special ceremony, with Grandmother only monitoring the process. As Rai, Tohru Nakadai gained superhuman strength, speed, agility, endurance, leaping ability, reflexes, and recuperative powers. He may also have had a slightly increased lifespan; his father, Rentaro Nakadai, was over 115 years old when he retired as the 41st Rai, although he was beginning to feel his age. Rai could also shape his spirit energy into solid weapons. Among the weapons he formed were a katana long sword, wakizaki short blade, nunchaku, triple irons, bo staff, throwing spears, shuriken stars, a bow and arrows, kama (a short sickle), and kusarigama (short blade attached to a long length of chain, with a spiked ball on the end). These weapons were considerably strong -- the katana could even slice through Spider-Aliens' Commando class armor with one strike. Rai's spirit energy was also similar enough to electromagnetism to interact with electronic and mechanical systems. He could employ his energies to power up a starship's engines, or pump enough raw energy into a battle suit to overload its circuitry and make it seize up. While acting as Spirit Guardian, Rai was also linked directly to Grandmother, able to hear her voice anywhere within Japan's boundaries. He could travel nearly instantaneously throughout Japan by merging with Grandmother's nerveweb, the mechanical conduits running the entire length of the enclosed country. He could "phase into" the walls or architecture in one part of the country, and step out of the walls of another part hundreds of miles away in a matter of moments.
Peter Stanchek was one of only two known Omega Harbingers in the modern era, alongside his chief nemesis, Toyo Harada. Pete is different from other Harbingers because his powers developed completely on their own, without an outside trauma or the influence of another Omega Harbinger to catalyze his abilities (at least, in the original series). Relatedly, Pete has the ability to "pop" Harbinger powers in others, causing the latent and relatively minor skills Harbingers manifest naturally to develop into fully functional super-powers. There seems to be no skill or process involved in "popping" a Harbinger -- Sting triggered several Harbingers simply by rummaging around in their heads telepathically, and the full manifestation just happened. The primary attribute of the Omega power is advanced telepathy and telekinesis. Sting can read the thoughts of other people, monitoring their conscious thoughts or, with effort, digging deeper into their minds to pull out other forms of information they possess. He can exert influence over other minds, letting him alter or remove memories, compel people to fall asleep or perform simple actions, make them ignore his presence so that he becomes virtually invisible, and manipulate long term behavior such as when he pushed Kris into becoming his girlfriend. His nickname "Sting" comes from the side effect of when he enters or exits someone's mind too quickly. As a telekinetic, Pete can project mental force to hurl objects over great distances or subject them to significant impact. He can fly, and levitate other people or vehicles along with him. His TK can be used very delicately, to the point where he can extract bullets from someone's body without causing much additional trauma. Sting can also deflect harm, causing different forms of assault to vector away from him and his friends. Later on in the series, it was established that the Omega Harbinger power included the ability to access all other Harbinger abilities as well. Different versions of Sting were thereafter seen using various abilities such as invisibility, intangibility, force fields, laser blasts, electricity, and so on.
Faith Herbert had a limited power of levitation when she was "popped" by Peter Stanchek, and thereafter developed a full power of self-propelled flight.
Charlene Dupre fully developed her powers after contact with Pete Stanchek, gaining the power to produce thermo-energy. This typically manifests as flames which ignite on her skin without harming her. With practice, "Flamingo" learned how to generate pure heat without creating flame, such as keeping herself warm in winter, melting metal into slag, or producing waves of intense heat into her surroundings. She could also project "flame blasts", sending out streams of flame from her hands to ignite objects from a distance.
John Torkelson possessed naturally exceptional muscles and strength before being "popped" by Sting. As Torque, he spontaneously developed a superhuman level of strength, endurance, and resistance to physical injury. His recuperative powers may also have been enhanced. He is the natural father of Magnus, Robot Fighter.
X-O Manowar is Aric of Dacia, a 5th century Visigoth held alternately in stasis or active slavery for nearly 1600 years by the Spider-Aliens. He escaped during Solar's destruction of their fleet by claiming one of their elite Manowar class exoskeletal augmentation armors for himself. The X-O armors were originally quasi-sentient silicon-based lifeforms, discovered by the Spider-Aliens and then put through extensive genetic augmentation and nano-technological manipulation to create the battle suits recognized today. Earlier models include the X-O Wolf and X-O Commando classes, which are far more plentiful, but the X-O Manowar is the pinnacle of the Aliens' advancements with bio-technology. It's only major drawback is that the armor asexually produces a new spawn only once every 2000 years. When a spawn capsule is created, it cannot "birth" into a truly functional Manowar class armor unless it first bonds with a host and consumes the creature entirely, stripping it down as raw materials to properly synthesize a new battle suit. Once active, an X-O armor responds to whomever wears its control ring. The ring automatically resizes itself for each new host, and enables a constant psychic link between the wielder and the armor. The armor can function as a self-mobilizing sphere, and can be summoned from miles away by the control ring, instantly opening up to wrap around and armor the wielder once they meet. The Manowar armor can still function for a wearer who does not carry the control ring, albeit quite poorly, so long as no one else is wearing the ring and trying to exert their control. The ring and the armor are as one, and so the ring can physically "melt" through the armor and back onto the wearer's finger to restore their connection to one another.
Aric Dacia originally wore a Manowar class armor named Shanhara, although he preferred to call it the "Good-Skin". The armor functions as a living transducer, absorbing all manner of kinetic energy and impact, electromagnetic energy and radiation, and converting that energy for the wearer's use. This enabled Aric to survive tremendous amounts of force, incredible temperature extremes and, of course, battle with the Sun God himself, Solar. Not only a protective measure, this also gives the armor a virtually limitless supply of power. Aric gains tremendous physical strength inside the armor, letting him ram through walls and tear apart metal with his bare hands. The armor employs matter / energy conversion and reversion processes to create a fully self-sustaining environment for Aric -- it enables him to survive underwater or in outer space, could produce oxygen and nutrition for him, and then isolate and remove his biological waste. The Manowar armor could even place Aric in suspended animation for 1600 years, keeping him un-aging in stasis for centuries, yet maintaining his nutrition and muscle coordination mechanically. In addition to maintaining Aric's body, the armor could also repair it. The armor's natural self-repair capabilities also extended to the wearer, allowing it to heal him of a wide variety of injuries or purge various impurities: it could metabolize alcohol or deadly poisons out of his system, undo massive radiation poisoning, etc. Even after Aric was bitten nearly in two by a bionisaur, the suit could not only hold his body together but could eventually restore him to the peak of health. Unfortunately, injuries that severe need considerable time to repair -- Aric needed to wear the armor constantly for 10 years straight in order to recover from the bionisaur attack. X-O Manowar has advanced sensory capabilities. The armor is capable of detecting various forms of psionic energy, electromagnetic energy, or radiation over a distance. A sensor mounted on the upper left arm is capable of scanning around and behind Aric, showcasing side and rear views inside his faceplate as a picture-in-picture projection. The right shoulder has a remote scanning module which can detach and fly under its own power, sending sensory data back to Aric's faceplate for observation. He can also fire a coin-sized tracer from that shoulder module, attaching it to a target and tracking them over a long distance.
For offensive purposes, the Manowar class armor uses pulsed ion cannons as its primary armaments. Mounted on each forearm, the cannons were originally capable of pumping out 80 megahertz of power, but the armor evolved after Unity and upgraded into double barreled 100 megahertz cannons. The beams can be focused to varying degrees, firing off a standard force blast, a more concentrated penetrative laser beam, or a wide area-effect discharge. The original armor has two additional devices on its chestplate. On the left breast was a free-flying module containing energy dampening coils. The coils expanded on impact, creating a web of filament cables that skewered a target and sapped away its energy supply. The right breast was an Omni-Beam projector, initially useful only for illumination as a spotlight or flare, or to generate a force field around the Manowar armor to further increase its durability. After the armor evolved, only the Omni-Beam projector remained. It was now additionally capable of firing a high-intensity force beam, a graviton-based tractor beam, and an energy dampening beam that simulated the effects of the old coils. Shanhara also created a sword for Aric after the upgrade. Stored in a collapsed state on the inside of his forearms, the handle could shoot up into his grasp and telescope to its full length, forming an ionically-charged blade capable of slicing through virtually anything.
For flight, the Manowar armor is capable of manipulating both gravimetric and electromagnetic forces. It can neutralize gravity in order to hover, and create localized gravimetric pulls to move through the sky. To achieve high-speed flight, the armor locks onto existing lines of magnetic force and pushes off against them, shooting through the magnetic field at supersonic velocities. Field manipulation also enables the armor to achieve and break orbit, and potentially move at relativistic speeds between planetary bodies.
Shadowman's origin is complicated. Jack Boniface was assaulted by Lydia, one of the Spider-Aliens genetically engineered to appear human, who poisoned his drink and then began drinking his blood with her venomous fangs. She was interrupted before killing him, however, and Jack survived. He found a Mardi Gras mask on the road the next night and became Shadowman, believing something in Lydia's bite had changed him. In fact, however, Lydia had inhibited his powers as Shadowman. Jack had been chosen by a voodoo cult to oppose the evil of Master Darque, but Darque knew of their plans. He arranged for Lydia to infect Jack with an alien virus at the very moment the voodoo cult was performing the ritual to empower Jack as Shadowman from afar. The mask had been deliberately left for Jack to find by the cult, and was charged with the necromantic energy, otherwise called Shadow Power or Darque Power, that the Shadowman legacy and Master Darque shared. The mask was slowly feeding Jack more Darque Power over time to strengthen him, but the alien virus was preventing him from reaching his full potential. Later on, before the Chaos Effect, Jack was also cursed by Master Darque to be powerless in the presence of a certain symbol, which was tattooed on Darque's forehead. This meant that Jack lost his Shadowman powers and fearlessness in Darque's presence, even at night.
Anyway, Jack experienced physical and psychological changes in the dark. After his initial transformation, Jack spontaneously developed an increased level of physical fitness, even by daylight, but which became much more pronounced at night. He developed a slightly superhuman level of strength (roughly Class 1), speed, agility, endurance, balance, coordination and reflexes whenever in the dark. Naturally, his night vision was exceptionally good too. His healing abilities were superhuman as well, allowing him to regenerate at a highly accelerated rate in the dark. At the peak of his "Shadow Power", after the Chaos Effect and the disappearance of Master Darque, Shadowman developed several new powers. His strength was several magnitudes greater, and his healing power was strong enough to shrug off multiple stab wounds, and recover from a pole rammed through his chest. So long as he had enough time to finish healing before daybreak, it seemed Jack could survive most anything. In addition, he could now wrap himself in shadow, becoming virtually invisible in the dark or when away from a direct source of light, sense the presence of evil or dark forces that were "invading his night", and could slow his movements through space. Basically, this last power allowed him to survive long drops without injury -- landing lightly on the street or the roof of a car after jumping off a building -- or perform elaborate twists and turns in mid-air, letting him reposition himself during a leap or fall to grab ledges, land on awnings, and so forth. His Shadowman symbol now manifested as a tattoo on his chest at night. Jack could release raw necromantic energy from this tattoo, at times enough to completely incinerate several human beings in one blast. The tattoo also acted as a minor portal into "unreality", allowing Shadowman to stand straight while being shot at, and the bullets would simply disappear through his chest without penetrating. He could also be completely on fire, and the tattoo could flare up and suck all the flames off of his body and into itself.
Jack always became more wild and fearless at night as Shadowman, more aggressive and capable of performing daredevil stunts without worrying about the consequences. Although his power levels and personality change was typically marked by the passage of day and night, it was really the presence or absence of light that governed his "transformation". He became stronger and more fearless in shadows or low-light areas even during daytime, and could be rendered nearly powerless at night when in the presence of a particularly bright and effluent light source.
The three immortal brothers (Gilad, Aram and Ivar Anni-Padda) are the result of a genetics experiment. A time-lost geneticist from the far future landed over 5,000 years in our past. She discovered the time-arcs, a naturally occurring phenomena connecting different points in the timestream, but found that normal beings could not survive transit through the time-arc. She experimented on an early human couple so that they would produce offspring specially suited for time-arc travel.
Gilad Anni-Padda, alias Gilad the One, Gilad Abrams, the Eternal Warrior, or the Fist and the Steel of the Earth, is over 5,000 years old. He is the middle child of three immortal brothers who hail from Anatolia at the dawn of recorded history. Gilad physically appears to be in his early 30's and maintains peak physical condition, in addition to his naturally ultra-dense cellular structure. As a result of all this, he possesses a mildly superhuman level of strength, speed, agility, endurance and reflexes. His healing and regenerative powers are phenomenal. Gilad can recuperate from injuries at a highly accelerated rate, purge his body of poisons and toxins, and recover from wounds that would normally cause fatal or permanent damage. He can completely repair his eyes after being blinded, or re-grow missing limbs in a matter of weeks. Third degree burns over most of his body are gone within a day or so. Because nothing has yet been discovered that will actually kill him (in particular, no one has tried decapitation yet), Gilad can be slowed down, or temporarily crippled, but eventually his cellular structure will fully restore itself to peak condition. The Eternal Warrior has maintained certain aspects of his fighting style since his youth, when he stalked and killed leopards before his teens. Believing in the "Leopard Spirit", young Gilad Anni-Padda wore a makeshift glove on his right hand made out of the clawed paw of a leopard he killed, and wrapped his left arm in thick padding to absorb the force of their strikes. In modern times, Gilad Abrams tends to wear a glove with metal spikes sticking out of the knuckles, and jackets with the left sleeve covered in some form of armor or metal plating as a blocking shield. One particular jumpsuit included a retractable steel whip beneath the armor on his sleeve.
Aram Anni-Padda, the youngest brother, is most commonly known today as Armstrong. His regenerative powers are roughly on par with Gilad's. Armstrong seems to possess greater strength, tolerance for pain and resistance to physical injury than Gilad, but his brother is by far the more skilled fighter whereas Aram is more of a brawler.
Ivar Anni-Padda is paradoxically the chronologically oldest and physically youngest of the three brothers. Being first born, it was he that Jakerkt selected for her experiments with time travel, stealing him away from his tribe shortly after Aram was born. Ivar was physically "charged" so that the normally random time-arcs would be attracted to his presence, making him a kind of temporal lightning rod. True to Jakerkt's theories, Ivar could travel through the time-arcs without being destroyed in the process. After escaping from Jakerkt, Ivar crafted a lifestyle of adventure around riding the time-arcs from one period of time to another, one obviously patterned after Doctor Who by the writers. Because of his non-linear progression through time, Ivar has lived far less than the 5,000 years his two younger brothers have. Over the centuries, Ivar has gained access to technology that helps him on his journey. Although time-arcs tend to gravitate towards manifesting near Ivar when they otherwise randomly appear, that isn't the case all the time. If he misses a time-arc, Ivar can be stuck in whatever time period he has landed in for days before the next one appears. And since time-arcs appear all over the world, Ivar may not be able to practically reach the next arc when it manifests. After all, before the 20th century and the development of mass air travel, it could take weeks to get from one place on the globe to another. Therefore, Ivar employs a special earpiece that begins trilling whenever a time-arc is about to open nearby. He also has a time compass which helps him plot out the coming time-arc manifestations in advance, to make sure he's on-scene when it happens. Normally, Ivar's travel through the time-arcs is completely random, sending him anywhere in history. During the Timewalker series, however, he and his friend Mac were working on a system for navigation, using pictograms to help set coordinates. by scrolling a date and the Harbinger bird symbol on the time compass' screen, for instance, he could appear in the midst of the Harbinger Wars.
Obadiah Archer was a latent Harbinger whose abilities catalyzed more fully after a near-death experience. His primary ability was an intuitive accuracy with everything from a basketball to deadly weapons. He could shoot someone's eye out from 300 feet away or orchestrate an elaborate series of bounces and ricochets to strike multiple targets and make them all land just as he wished. Archer's natural coordination extended into complete body control, which helped him instinctively duplicate any physical action after witnessing it and master every fighting style and the use of any weapon he came across. This also extends to intuitively recognizing a fighting style while it's in practice, allowing him to analyze and predict an opponent's movements in combat. He has mastered other disciplines as well, such as contortionism and lock-picking. Archer's keen aim also came with incredibly good eyesight, and the ability to see in the dark. He often carried a crossbow, which he forged with his own hands.
Geomancers like Geoff McHenry are the speakers for the Earth. They possess psychometric powers, manifesting once a generation, which allow them to divine information from the psychic energy on physical objects. This often comes to them as voices from the object. For instance, when Geoff's mother lost her ring, he could hear it "calling" to her from where it had dropped. A Geomancer could read the psychic impressions left on an object by the people who touched it in the past, letting him read the history of the object and events that happened around it, as well as the specific thoughts people were having when they touched it. The Geomancer is linked to the Earth above all else, and can receive clairvoyant or even precognitive visions as information is gathered from the four corners of the earth and made available to the Geomancer through their contact with it. A Geomancer also tends to age at a significantly slower rate once chosen.
The H.A.R.D. Corps, Harbinger Armed Response Division, were a counter-strike unit created by Omen Enterprises (with unofficial support from the government) specifically to oppose Toyo Harada and his Harbinger Foundation. Each member had been in a vegetative coma prior to being recruited, and Omen revived them using special psi-borg technology that enabled the members to duplicate Harbinger abilities artificially. Each neural implant could only sustain one Harbinger power at a time, meaning H.A.R.D. Corps members were limited by their need to contact home base in order to access and switch powers. The Corps used headsets to stay in constant contact with their mission supervisor (originally Softcore, but later other handlers like Lifeline and Safeguard), who used satellite micro-beaming technology to switch members' powers on command. If headsets were lost or disabled, team leader Gunslinger could make a priority override, calling out power switches for the entire team to Softcore. Because of this liability, electromagnetic interference could prevent H.A.R.D. Corps from calling in their power switches. Still, interference with the micro-beams did nothing to scramble the neural implants themselves, meaning Corps members would usually be able to access their last chosen power even if power switching was neutralized somehow. Additionally, Harbinger powers had to be copied from the original source, necessitating H.A.R.D. Corps capture various Harbingers long enough to "record" their ability for Softcore's transmitters to replicate. Although this sounds impractical, H.A.R.D. Corps seemed to have a working copy of every major Harbinger or Eggbreaker seen working for the Foundation, with the exception of Toyo Harada himself.
H.A.R.D. Corps powers included Strength Mode and Invulnerability (probably taken from Thumper, Lump or Rock), which manifested separately. Invulnerability was originally the "default" setting for all Corps members between missions. A similar power, called Ultra-Mass, gave the Corps unbelievable weight and density in addition to invulnerability. The power of flight, called Airborne, was probably taken from Sparrow and Swallow. Offensive energy powers included Stun Ram (a non-lethal force beam), Sunburst (the ability to project flames, presumably from Flamingo), Arc Control (electrical bolts, from Eel), Strobe Burst (a blinding flash of light, from Flashbulb), Neural Spikes (energy javelins that harmlessly penetrate the skin but cause intense pain and paralysis, Spikeman), Detonation Mode (generating violent explosions within matter on contact), and Grenade Mode (a similar power, involving explosive energy spheres that could be hurled at opponents). Other abilities included Shield Mode (relatively flat energy disks that could be used for protection, from Screen), Invisibility (from Camouflage), Ghost Mode (intangibility), Tsetse (a sleep-inducing touch), Static (the power to jam electronic signals or transmissions), Jolt (inducing adrenaline surges in others on contact), and Decoy (creation of holographic illusions of either people or objects), all from Eggbreakers of the same names.
Bloodshot, otherwise known as Angelo Mortalli or Michael Lazarus, was the first truly successful test subject of Project: Rising Spirit. A clandestine Japanese venture, Rising Spirit was attempting to create superhumans by implanting nanite technology in the bloodstream. While effective, this process drastically shortened the subjects' life-spans, with cellular degeneration and burnout in less than a year that earned them the nickname "Speedshots". Mortalli was the first subject who did not show signs of deterioration, thanks to his latent Harbinger abilities which helped counter-balance the changes in his body, stabilizing the process. During the nanite infusion process, Mortalli's mind was basically flushed clean, leaving him a total blank slate memory-wise. Upon first awakening as Bloodshot, his only "memories" were the extensive database of files molecularly imprinted inside the nanites, giving him a vast wealth of practical knowledge to draw from. This included extensive skill in all known martial arts, armed combat, weaponry, and vehicles, as well as dossiers and background information on various intelligence operatives, organizations, governments, etc. A single word or phrase can sometimes trigger a rush of data through Bloodshot's mind. Sometimes the information comes so reflexively, he isn't even fully aware of it consciously. Once, while being hit on at a bar, Bloodshot instinctively began spouting out about his job as a neo-classical art dealer, apparently an imprinted cover identity he didn't even know was "on file" in his brain.
The nanites augmented his physical capabilities, giving Bloodshot slightly beyond peak human levels of strength, speed, agility, endurance and reflexes. His senses were also highly acute, including ranged viewing and night vision, enhanced hearing, and the power to sense, identify and track men by their individual smells. He could even sense a build up of electrical energy in the atmosphere. These capabilities were at least partially due to the nanites giving him "total body control" -- Bloodshot could consciously modulate his adrenaline production, oxygen intake levels, blood pressure, and so forth in order to maximize his physical prowess at a given time. He also had an internal clock, making him instantly aware of how much time had elapsed since he passed out. Bloodshot's healing and regenerative powers were ridiculously high as well. He routinely got shot and then merely waited for the nanites to pop the bullets out of his skin and seal the wounds. Bloodshot's intelligence was also practically enhanced by the nanites, enabling him to calculate probabilities and quickly run analytic scenarios for any given situation, allowing him to predict outcomes and choose the most likely battle plan to succeed. As a consequence of the nano-computers in his bloodstream, however, Bloodshot was uniquely vulnerable to tasers and electrical attacks. In addition to his nanite-driven abilities, Bloodshot was also a Harbinger with the power of electronic telepathy. This power was latent until Project: Rising Spirit experimented on him, and its manifestation is apparently what kept him from becoming another "Speedshot". Bloodshot can mentally read information from computer systems whenever he's in close quarters or direct contact with them. He cannot "read" computer disks on their own, and must place them inside a computer terminal to extract info from them. He can override other electronic systems, causing security protocols to shut down, taking remote control over computerized machines, interfere with scanner readings, and so forth. Bloodshot's transformation has left him with a red circular scar on his chest, like the symbol of Japan. The more active the nanites become in his system, the paler his skin becomes until he is practically ghost white. An unnatural red glow also emanates from his eyes when his powers are active.
Takao Konishi, the 43rd Rai, inherited Bloodshot's abilities almost 2000 years after his death. Bloodshot's nanite-enriched blood was harvested from his corpse by his killer, and became an object of great value over the following centuries, eventually earning the title of the Blood of Heroes. After Grandmother became Freewill in 3050, she created her Spirit Guardian, the Rai, in Bloodshot's image. After gaining possession of the Blood of Heroes, however, she hid it away deep in Japan, to prevent her enemies from getting control of the blood and its electronic telepathy power, which threatened her. In 4003, after the fall of Japan and Tohru Nakadai, the Geomancer selected an Archie named Takao Konishi to receive the Blood of Heroes and continue the Rai line. A latent Harbinger, Konishi survived the transference and gained all of Bloodshot's abilities: his data files, total body control, enhanced physical prowess and regenerative powers, even Michael Lazarus' personal Harbinger power of electronic telepathy, which Konishi referred to as "Mindlock!" This power was key during the Malev War, when North Am was conquered by space robots. Konishi also developed his own Harbinger power of projective empathy. The Rai's own feelings and emotions radiate from his person, influencing the feelings of those around him. This makes him a supernaturally convincing orator, able to guide anyone willing to be persuaded to see things how he wants them to. People who have already made up their minds, those aware of his power's effect, and the unnaturally obstinate, can resist his influence to varying degrees.
Obadiah Konishi, the 44th Rai, is the son of Takao Konishi and Leeja Claine, and was born with nanite-enhancements already in his blood. His naturally-occurring powers were limited. He inherited some of the enhancements given to his father by the nanites (augmented strength, speed, reflexes, healing powers), but none of the pre-programmed knowledge from the Blood of Heroes itself. After undertaking a personal quest to recover the Blood of Heroes harvested from his late father, Obadiah was injected with his father's blood and incorporated the nanites and their programmed abilities into himself. He developed total body control, mindlock and electronic telepathy, empathic influence and, of course, the white skin, red eyes and circle on his chest. He later manifested his own Harbinger ability as well, a variation on the power to channel ectotheric energy which his mother possessed.
Stronghold was an activated Harbinger who broke ties with Harada. He had the power to absorb outside sources of mass on contact, increasing his own mass proportionately. The objects he touched dematerialized as he absorbed them, effectively disintegrating the object permanently. This made his power instantly lethal when employed against living beings. The mass he absorbed was initially converted into muscle mass and added density, leaving him with roughly human proportions but enhanced levels of strength and durability. After a certain amount, Stronghold's accumulated mass began expanding his height as well, causing him to grow to giant sizes with even greater levels of strength and durability. Once his body became more massive, Stronghold could not simply revert back to normal proportions on command -- he needed time to work off the excess energy his body has accumulated, slowly reverting to his original frame.
Live Wire was a Harbinger with magnetic abilities. She could mentally "push" objects, creating magnetic fields which caused metal items to levitate and fly about under her control. Creating a repulsive magnetic force let her hurl pieces of metal with great force, and she wore pieces of flair on her jacket and costume which she could fire at will as a tiny shrapnel storm. Amanda also wore a length of metallic wire, typically wrapping it around her waist like an animated belt. She could reach out with the wire, using it like a prehensile band to grab objects or entangle her opponents. By manipulating magnetic fields she could also create a positive and negative electrical charge on each end of the wire, lighting it up to shock anyone who came into contact with the wire. Live Wire could also move herself around magnetically -- she could attract herself through the air towards a particularly large piece of metal, such as when she flew up and clung to the underside of a helicopter. By creating controlled magnetic field vectors around and beneath her body, Amanda could levitate and fly at various speeds. She often employed her wire as a focal point for the counter-fields she used to support herself.
Para-Man wears a suit based on the same tech employed for the H.A.R.D. Corps' psi-borg implants. With the suit, he is capable of mechanically replicating several different Harbinger powers, although not at the same power level as the H.A.R.D. Corps. Para-Man gains superhuman strength and increased resistance to physical injury, the power of self-propelled flight, energy shields which can be projected from his hand to absorb and deflect attacks, and offensive weapons in the form of a heavy-concussive Stun Ram, and high-voltage discharges with Arc Charge. Richard Grant, the first Para-Man, died due to a neural incompatibility with the suit that caused his body to shut down shortly after donning it. John Sinclair, Para-Man II, experienced this incompatibility differently. The armor began to malfunction and somehow imprinted the Harbinger powers on Sinclair, giving him the ability to access those powers naturally.
Sonar wears a sonic manipulator armor designed by the Weaponeer organization. The suit can amplify nearby sounds, giving her superhuman hearing or a sonar-like sensory web to map out her surroundings, and can also counter sonic activity with white noise, preventing loud noises from carrying over a distance to hide her presence. She can project sonic waves offensively, either as blasts from her hands or an amplified sonic scream from her voice, which can strike targets with concussive force or make objects shatter or disintegrate under a sustained barrage.
Mach wears an enhancement armor that exoskeletally augments his physical speed. This enables him to run at velocities exceeding 100 mph, boosts his reflexes so that he can dodge and avoid injury, and allows him to rapidly batter an opponent with a flurry of punches.
Tank is a self-activated Harbinger like Archer, whose latent power activated during a crisis. His body is capable of reflexively countering most forms of harm, assuming a virtually indestructible state. He can shrug off physical impact, knife attacks, bullets, and intense heat. Tank still remains vulnerable to less physical forms of harm, such as gas attacks, drowning, etc. Additionally, because his power is a reflex action, Tank can be overwhelmed if caught off-guard with a significantly high-velocity assault. His impervious skin gives him the equivalent of enhanced strength to some degree, allowing his indestructible fists to act like battering rams.
Hwen Dong Fong, who changed his name to Doctor Hwen Mirage, was nearly killed after confronting the wielder of necromantic energy known as Master Darque. The villain attempt to consume Mirage's life energy and add it to his necromantic pool, but Hwen's will to live and the love of his wife Carmen was enough to prevent Darque from claiming him. Instead, Doctor Mirage was reborn as a phantom, composed entirely out of necromantic energy. Although he appeared normal to the eye Mirage was now insubstantial, unable to touch solid matter and unaffected by gravity, causing him to float and fly under his own power. He could manipulate his energy for various purposes, such as radiating heat and light, projecting concussive blasts, and exerting psychokinetic force to levitate matter or manipulate objects from a distance. He could also turn invisible at will, and later learned how to alter his features and clothing holographically. In his phantom state, Mirage no longer needed sleep and could not intake food, water, or oxygen. Instead, he harnessed ambient sources of necromantic energy in the environment to "recharge" when necessary. When he refrained from using his powers too frequently or strenuously, Mirage either didn't need to recharge or could survive simply on the "background radiation" of necromantic energy in the universe. The energy he discharged for his powers, however, was the same necromantic energy that made up his body. As a result, over-exertion of his abilities, or some other form of necromantic energy drain, could disrupt his cohesiveness. Hwen's willpower and Carmen's love could repower him to some degree, but in more extreme cases of depletion Doctor Mirage would have to seek out an active source of necromantic energy to replenish himself. Corpses were the most obvious source of death energies, and graveyards were practically overloaded with power. Individuals began radiating necromantic energy before they fully succumbed to death, and Hwen could use his body to complete a circuit of necromantic energy, absorbing escaping energy from a dying being and then feeding it straight back into them as fast as they lost it. This enabled him to stabilize or even resuscitate people from a near-death state. Mirage had certain necromantic senses which enabled him to detect death energies and other kinds of magic existing or being employed in his general area. Doctor Mirage specifically existed as "positively charged" necromantic energy, a counterpoint to Master Darque's negative energy. This meant that the two of them cancelled each other out, making it almost impossible for either one to directly affect the other. After the Chaos Effect, Doctor Mirage learned how to gather and consolidate large amounts of necromantic energy in order to fully convert himself back into a solid state. The drawbacks were that he lost his energy manipulating powers while solid, and could only maintain his cohesive state for a certain number of hours before reverting to his phantom state. Mirage could also revert to his phantom state at will, before his maximum time limit expired.
Colin King, Ninjak, was meant to be the firstborn genetic progeny of Project: Hope and Glory, a British Intelligence eugenics program whereby both top agent John King and his bride were given bio-chemical agents to enhance their DNA, in the hopes of producing a perfect human specimen. The project was bolloxed, however, because John's new wife was already pregnant when they married, meaning young Colin was not only not his father's son, but also imbued with only half the genetic cocktail of Hope and Glory. Despite this, Colin has demonstrated near paranormal levels of physical and mental capabilities. He is in superb physical condition, excelling in a wide variety of sports, martial disciplines, and combat techniques. His immune system is second to none, and his intellectual abilities are astounding. Colin is not only a mechanical genius and top computer hacker, but he also possesses uncanny foresight and problem solving skills making him a master planner, capable of anticipating his opponents and crafting elaborate and multi-faceted schemes which keep him on top of any situation. Thanks to his childhood in Japan, the "Ninja Union Jack" or Ninjak uses a variety of Japanese style weapons. He carries nunchaku, triple irons, a collapsible sword, sai daggers, etc. His costume is composed of chameleonic kevlar, protecting him from harm and blending in with his surroundings to make him difficult to spot. He also uses a small supply of weighted throwing ovals that can be razor sharp, explosive, smoke or gas pellets, tracers, and so on.
The Armorines employ body armor designed by U.S. government scientists by reverse-engineering portions of the X-O Manowar armor, which they had temporarily acquired from Aric Dacia. The Armorine suits utilize power augmentation layers to boost the strength, speed and reflexes of the wearers. Localized power cells enable the wearers to divert excess strength to the upper or lower body as needed. Besides their inherent armored durability, the Armorine suits are further protected by an integrated force field system that projects a fraction of an inch from the "skin" of the armor. Like the strength amplification system, additional power can be fed into the force field on command to increase its effectiveness. The primary weapon system is an ion cannon mounted on the left forearm, based largely off of X-O Manowar's wrist weapons. The weapon is primed by charged capacitors fed into the cannon from an ammo belt extending out of the chest. The right forearm stores a retractable ion-charged blade for close-quarters combat. A tertiary weapon system is the particle beam cannon stored in the right shoulder. The p.b.c. is immensely powerful, but using it puts a considerable drain on the suit's energy reserves. It can only be used once every few minutes, and discharging the p.b.c. can limit the armors' overall effectiveness until energy levels can be replenished. The Armorine suits are equipped with photo-reactive camouflage panels on the outer surface, enabling them to darken at night or partially blend in with surrounding foliage for stealth missions. Each of the four suits is equipped with a MODS helmet for a Multi-Optics Display System. The visors project a computer-generated bit-mapping of the environment for the wearer, which replaces their normal vision. This allows the Armorines to operate in variable light conditions, automatically incorporates infrared and optical light enhancement into their vision, and can illuminate to focus on specific objects or targets. Their visors also use picture-in-picture HUDs (Head's-Up Displays), allowing the quartet to see what each of the other members sees, as well as maintaining a 360 degree view of their own surroundings. All Armorine units are run by a pilot (who wears the armor) and a co-pilot, who is com-linked to the pilot from a distance and monitors the armor's energy levels, power allocation, and the pilot's life-signs.
The Starwatchers (also derogatorally nicknamed the Psionic Overlords, or "Psi-Lords"), are the 41st century version of H.A.R.D. Corps. As the Harbinger Wars were coming to a conclusion on Earth in 2900, the H.A.R.D. Corps abandoned Earth to seek their destiny amongst the stars. Their psi-borg technology eventually evolved into "molmachs" -- molecular machines, or nanites, capable of truly transforming a normal human into a super-being. The first Starwatchers transformed by the nanites gained golden skin, red eyes, and near-immortality. The first batch of Starwatchers were created in the 3150's, and are still alive and prospering in the 4020's. Initially, Starwatchers could access the full range of Harbinger powers programmed into the original HARD Corps databases, switching powers mentally instead of relying on a Softcore "handler" to work with them. After one of their own went mad with power and conquered a planet, however, the Starwatchers' ruling figures re-wrote the nanite coding to limit Starwatcher abilities. The Starwatchers were reconstructed into three sub-classes. Dressed in red, Bastion-class Starwatchers had superhuman strength, invulnerability, and the power to cast energy shields to deflect attacks or contain others behind a protective barrier. In orange, Gunner-class Starwatchers had the energy projection powers, including concussive force rams, electrical bolts, blinding flashes of light, explosive matter detonation, neural spikes, and high-temperature pyrotechnic attacks. Finally, in yellow, Scout-class Starwatchers employed varied abilities such as a sleep-inducing touch, flight, invisibility, intangibility, and hyper-speed. In addition, the molmachs keep Starwatcher operatives linked to their main operations commander, sharing information instantly as necessary. Each Starwatcher also wears a syntheskin composed of carbon-silica gel. Shaped and hardened by the molmachs, these armored suits can adapt for space flight, are stronger than diamond, yet employ micro-sensors to receive and transmit sensory data through the suit, allowing the wearer to "feel" through the syntheskins as if they were their own flesh.
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Monolith's Power Descriptions Archives
Monolith's Power Descriptions Archives
"If you want to tell people the truth, make them laugh, otherwise they'll kill you." -- Oscar Wilde
Monolith's Power Descriptions Archives
Orka, the Human Killer Whale is an Atlantean who was dramatically enhanced by Doctor Dorcas, using a process similar to the one he used to turn Todd Arliss into Tiger Shark. Orka underwent electrochemical enhancement which gave him considerable superhuman strength and stamina, layers of whale-like blubber capable of withstanding anti-tank weaponry, and an intuitive and vocal capacity for speaking with killer whales, allowing him to summon the creatures and command their actions. Orka's own power was initially increased by the presence of killer whales, thanks to Dorcas' Morphotron machine and the power transfer belt Orka wore. As a Homo Mermanus, he originally possessed gills enabling him to breathe underwater. Dorcas' procedure modified his physiology to give him true amphibious powers, allowing Orka to exist indefinitely on land. Like the Sub-Mariner, though, his strength still depended on the water, and would ebb when he became dehydrated. Later on, Orka was taken in by the Brand Corporation who further augmented him, increasing Orka's size to over 20 feet, reinforcing his blubber and durability, and amplifying his strength level to Class 80 on land and Class 100 underwater. The mutagenic process employed by Brand has proven unstable, however, as Orka has shrunk back down to roughly nine feet tall on various occasions.
Monolith's Power Descriptions Archives
Star-Lord is a hybrid born to a human mother and Jason, Prince of Spartoi. The original story was that he was later transfigured into a force for good by the entity known as the Master of the Sun. Although the original stories suggested this transformation may have given Peter Quill superhuman powers and abilities, the current story appears to be that he merely gained highly exotic technology and equipment. Given further revisions to Quill's history in recent months, it's unknown if he ever met the Master of the Sun at all anymore.
His uniform gave Star-Lord the ability to fly unaided and survive in the vacuum of space. His primary weapon was an element gun, a side-holstered blaster which is capable of channeling earth, wind, water, and fire by tapping nearby planetary biospheres and accessing their elemental nature. It can thus act as a flame-thrower, generate funnels of compressed air, stream of pressurized water, a battering of rock and earth particles, etc.
After his battle with the Fallen One, Quill abandoned his old identity and weapons and, over time, acquired several cybernetic implants in his brain and left eye. These gave him a number of built in features such as a universal translator, scaled vision allowing him to visually perceive all forms of energy patterns, and an integrated memory chip that gave him perfect recall of everything he had experienced since getting the cybernetics. His cyborg parts were removed by Kree surgeons when he was inducted into a "no-tech" guerilla squad to oppose the Phalanx occupation.
His uniform gave Star-Lord the ability to fly unaided and survive in the vacuum of space. His primary weapon was an element gun, a side-holstered blaster which is capable of channeling earth, wind, water, and fire by tapping nearby planetary biospheres and accessing their elemental nature. It can thus act as a flame-thrower, generate funnels of compressed air, stream of pressurized water, a battering of rock and earth particles, etc.
After his battle with the Fallen One, Quill abandoned his old identity and weapons and, over time, acquired several cybernetic implants in his brain and left eye. These gave him a number of built in features such as a universal translator, scaled vision allowing him to visually perceive all forms of energy patterns, and an integrated memory chip that gave him perfect recall of everything he had experienced since getting the cybernetics. His cyborg parts were removed by Kree surgeons when he was inducted into a "no-tech" guerilla squad to oppose the Phalanx occupation.
Monolith's Power Descriptions Archives
Pretty Boy is a cybernetic organism whose body has been almost completely replaced by bionic systems. Initially, he got his nickname because of his good looks and the fact that pseudo-flesh covered all of his cybernetics, making him look human on the outside. After suffering serious injuries, though, he was rebuilt with only his head still looking human, and the rest an openly visible metallic chassis. Pretty Boy has enhanced strength, speed, agility, endurance, reflexes, and durability, along with heightened vision and hearing. His arms are able to telescope to many times their original length, and after his rebuilding he has a "cable-trap" in his chest which pops open and ensnares his opponents at close range, immobilizing and crushing them. Pretty Boy can also reprogram the minds of other people, using cyber-filament wires which extend from his optic sensors into the eyes of his victims. These give him direct neural access to his victim's brain, allowing him to alter their memories, personality, inclination or violence, and so forth.
Monolith's Power Descriptions Archives
Monark Starstalker is a quasi-sentient nanotool constructed by the Technos Group in another star system. Although he initially believed himself to be a bounty hunter who employed nanotech, Monark is in fact nanotech running a bounty hunter program. Because he has only recently learned of his true nature, Monark's full conceivable range of capabilities is unknown. It has been seen that, when physically damaged, his construct form will temporarily shut down and rebuild the damaged areas. A hole straight through his stomach was rebuilt in moments. Presumably, Monrak does not require food, water, air, sleep or possibly rest of any kind. His physical abilities seem to be roughly peak human.
Monark Starstalker can employ his personal nano-cloud in numerous ways. It can expand around Monark to make him invisible to the naked eye or ranged detection, or alter his appearance behind an animated full-body hologram, disguising him as someone else. Even while visible, the nano-cloud makes Starstalker tough to get a handle on -- it neutralizes enhanced vision and targeting software, and distorts perception and reaction time. When Monark is in motion, the nano-cloud makes the light reflecting off his body a few instants slower than the body itself. This means he's already moving before anyone registers it, and opponents will always end up striking out at where he was a moment earlier, not where he is now. The nano-cloud also has sensory functions. The cloud can extract information from any direction Starstalker causes it to expand, and then feed all that information back to him. This allows him to "see" in all directions at once, over greater distances, around corners or through solid objects. The nano-cloud is also electromagnetically compatible, enabling it to absorb information encoded on electronic mediums, or transmit and receive information along radio signals or other scanning beams. It can also function as a nano-virus, inhibiting the functions and processing power of computerized systems. This can happen within the cloud's normal range of expansion or Starstalker can "pitch" some nano-particles at a target so that they operate over a greater distance and independently of the main cloud around him.
Monark employs other items based on his nanotechnology as well. His sidearm is a vortex pistol that zaps bounties into unconsciousness without permanently harming them. He carries a sword forged from nano-assemblers that gives it a molecule's-width edge able to slice through virtually anything. Finally, Starstalker works with a cybernetic falcon-drone named Ulysses, who is capable of flight in atmosphere or space. Ulysses has at least some governing power over the nano-cloud, although it's difficult to say how much considering Monark only recently learned of his true nature. It's possible Ulysses and Monark are two parts of the same "batch" of nanotech, or Ulysses may be a "handler" sent by the Technos Group to monitor the "Starstalker Series Nanotool" in the field. Whatever the case, Ulysses has independent sensors that can share and exchange data with Monark and the nano-cloud. He has energy shields which he can materialize to protect Monark Starstalker from a short distance away. At least before Monark learned his true nature, Ulysses was responsible for governing Starstalker's repair functions when he was unconscious.
Monark Starstalker can employ his personal nano-cloud in numerous ways. It can expand around Monark to make him invisible to the naked eye or ranged detection, or alter his appearance behind an animated full-body hologram, disguising him as someone else. Even while visible, the nano-cloud makes Starstalker tough to get a handle on -- it neutralizes enhanced vision and targeting software, and distorts perception and reaction time. When Monark is in motion, the nano-cloud makes the light reflecting off his body a few instants slower than the body itself. This means he's already moving before anyone registers it, and opponents will always end up striking out at where he was a moment earlier, not where he is now. The nano-cloud also has sensory functions. The cloud can extract information from any direction Starstalker causes it to expand, and then feed all that information back to him. This allows him to "see" in all directions at once, over greater distances, around corners or through solid objects. The nano-cloud is also electromagnetically compatible, enabling it to absorb information encoded on electronic mediums, or transmit and receive information along radio signals or other scanning beams. It can also function as a nano-virus, inhibiting the functions and processing power of computerized systems. This can happen within the cloud's normal range of expansion or Starstalker can "pitch" some nano-particles at a target so that they operate over a greater distance and independently of the main cloud around him.
Monark employs other items based on his nanotechnology as well. His sidearm is a vortex pistol that zaps bounties into unconsciousness without permanently harming them. He carries a sword forged from nano-assemblers that gives it a molecule's-width edge able to slice through virtually anything. Finally, Starstalker works with a cybernetic falcon-drone named Ulysses, who is capable of flight in atmosphere or space. Ulysses has at least some governing power over the nano-cloud, although it's difficult to say how much considering Monark only recently learned of his true nature. It's possible Ulysses and Monark are two parts of the same "batch" of nanotech, or Ulysses may be a "handler" sent by the Technos Group to monitor the "Starstalker Series Nanotool" in the field. Whatever the case, Ulysses has independent sensors that can share and exchange data with Monark and the nano-cloud. He has energy shields which he can materialize to protect Monark Starstalker from a short distance away. At least before Monark learned his true nature, Ulysses was responsible for governing Starstalker's repair functions when he was unconscious.
Monolith's Power Descriptions Archives
Moses Magnum was originally just a madman and arms dealer. He was granted seismic power by Apocalypse to serve as an agent of chaos. Moses' power, which he calls his "Magnum Force", generates tremendous amounts of vibrational energy. He can project vibro-force blasts of intense concussive energy from his hands, or cause shockwaves to radiate from his position, omni-directionally flattening his foes or sending seismic tremors through the ground in order to cause earthquakes, open fissures, etc. His Magnum Force can be channeled out from his fists to increase the strength of his blows to at least Class 90 force, and he can lift tremendous amounts of weight as well. A personal vibro-field can protect him physically from a similar amount of force. He is also sensitive to vibrations in his environment, giving him highly acute hearing and the ability to sense movement and impact within his vicinity. At one point, Moses Magnum's power had destabilized so that any contact with land caused his vibrational power to build to uncontrollable levels, creating earthquakes and seismic upheavals wherever he stood. To compensate, he had to spend his entire time in the air or at sea to avoid destroying himself and the world around him.
Monolith's Power Descriptions Archives
Commcast possesses electronic telepathy, the ability to actively receive and store all forms of electronic data and transmissions in his mind. He does so passively, in a manner that does not interfere with the regular transmission, and can receive electronic signals over a great distance -- even isolating himself in a rural area did not completely shut out the information. Bashur has an infinite storage capacity in his mind, containing every piece of information he has been exposed to. Unfortunately, this data is streamed into his mind far faster than he can accurately scan it all consciously. Though the information is present in his mind, it takes a combination of meditation, effort, and sheer willpower for Commcast to locate and extract specific bits of info on command. Routing the Dominus Objective through his Black Box armor created an artificial "file search" capacity, enabling him to summon up information at will simply by focusing on it.
Monolith's Power Descriptions Archives
Batman is the ultimate physical specimen, a human fighting machine who has trained himself to the point of perfection in as many disciplines as he can. He possesses Olympic-class strength, speed, agility, endurance, and reflexes. He is a master of karate, kung fu, aikido, judo, savate, jujitsu and most forms of armed combat as well. He is an excellent detective, trained in using his senses to the fullest in recognizing and identifying facets of his surroundings, analyzing them both mentally and through a variety of forensic sciences he has mastered. Batman is also a master of disguise, voice-modulation, stage magic tricks, military strategy, and has a near-photographic memory. Through yogaic and similar mental conditionings, he has excellent control over his body's automatic functions, including heart rate, breathing, pain sensation, and so forth. His cape, cowl, and costume are all bulletproof against everything but the heaviest-calibre projectiles. His cowl's lenses are equipped with infrared and night vision capabilities, as well as HUD information displays, and the cape is also fireproof and can be used as an air-foil to assist in gliding maneuvers. His patented utility belt contains a wide selection of collapsible equipment, including batarangs (blunt and razor edged, plus rope-tied to act as grappling lines), gas masks, bolt and electronic lock picks, smoke and gas pellets, flares, hypersonic emitters, acid capsules, laser torches, and an assortment of forensic science tools such as evidence bags and chemical powders for fingerprint analysis and so on.
Halo is an Aurakle, a non-humanoid ball of sentient light energy which accidentally took a human host, the sociopathic girl Violet Harper. Halo herself is a sweet and innocent being, and harnesses her Aurakle energies through her human form to create light auras around herself in all the colors of the rainbow: red, orange, yellow, green, blue, indigo, and violet. Every aura gives her the power of flight, but otherwise they each possess unique properties. Her orange aura can be focused as a concussive beam from her hands, while the red aura generates heat out from her skin or as energy bolts, melting objects or starting fires where it lands. The yellow aura recreates the light of the sun, creating a blinding glare which disorients her opponents and proves equally fatal to vampires as regular sunlight. Green is her stasis aura, an energy effect which paralyzes living beings, rendering them immobile for a period of time. Blue is her distortion aura, misaligning light waves around her body so that she becomes invisible while projecting her image somewhat off-center of her true location. Thus, opponents are fooled into thinking she's standing somewhere other than where she actually is. The distortion aura can be expanded to encompass her entire team if necessary. Finally, the indigo aura acts as a tractor beam, allowing her to grab people or objects in an energy field and pull them towards her or tow them along as she flies. She initially could not access her violet aura personally, because that allowed her malevolent Violet Harper personality to take over their shared body again. However, Halo switched to a new woman's body in the 90's, so it's a wonder if the problems with her violet aura still exist.
Katana is a master swordswoman and unarmed martial artist. She carries a short knife and her katana, Soultaker. This blade is incredibly durable and sharpened to a razor-edge, capable of slicing through solid metal. It also has mystical properties, causing it to steal the souls of men she kills, and store them for eternity within the blade. Certain rituals can be performed to communicate with the souls trapped in the sword, or reincarnate them into new bodies.
Black Lightning gained electrical super-powers from a cybernetic belt he wore. Though he was initially reliant on the belt to generate his power for him, the belt's energy apparently reacted with his latent meta-gene, internalizing his powers. BL is capable of bodily producing electricity, which he most commonly releases as bolts of "black lightning" from his fingertips. Additionally, he can generate an electrical aura around his body, electrocuting people and objects on contact and protecting him from harm by incinerating, deflecting, or dispersing most forms of projectile or energy-based assaults. He can also absorb other sources of electricity, recharging his personal batteries and depowering mechanical devices in the process.
Brion Markov underwent experiments at the hands of Helga Jace in order to tap into the planet's "geo-force", giving him a variety of superhuman powers. As Geo-Force, he can somehow tap into the planetary mass of our world in order to increase his strength and resistance to physical injury considerably, reaching at least Class 50-75 levels and able to slug it out with Superman (albeit quite briefly). He can also manipulate the planet's gravity fields, focusing "plus G's" to pin opponents to the ground or force projectiles to drop out of the sky as gravity overtakes their forwards momentum. Brion can produce "lava-blasts", volcanic force discharges focused from his hands that carry intense heat and explosive force as they strike. He can also produce anti-gravity, lightening an object's weight to increase the amount of mass he can lift physically, render objects virtually weightless, or sending them flying into the air in opposition of the Earth's gravitational pull. By turning his anti-gravity power on himself and using his lava-blasts as propulsion, Geo-Force is also capable of flight. Because of the nature of his powers, Brion requires contact with Earth itself (or at least its atmosphere and gravitational field) in order to maintain his powers and his life essence. It's possible he could re-establish a metahuman bond with another planetary mass besides Earth if he were taken off-world for extended periods of time, but this is unclear.
Metamorpho the Element Man was transformed into a humanoid of raw elemental materials by the Orb of Ra. In his altered state, Rex is able to create within his body any element or elemental combination known to man, dramatically altering his body's shape and composition. He can change himself into wood, steel, plastic, rock, bread, water, air, etc, and alter his shape to turn his body into a steel block, a giant umbrella, a pile of sand, or change his hands into weapons like blades, hammers, or anvils. A portion of Metamorpho's mass was broken off during a planet-fall incident, and ended up reconstituting itself into a unique entity, which eventually became known as Shift. After recognizing himself as separate from Metamorpho (and even less bound by the laws of man), Shift became capable of psionically altering the elemental composition of other matter in his vicinity as well. Since reabsorbing Shift into his physical structure, Metamorpho presumably has these same enhanced powers.
Looker is Emily Briggs, the lost descendent of the royalty of Abyssia, an underground colony of people whose ruling bloodline were once irradiated by Halley's Comet to gain phenomenal psychic powers. Lia's latent metahuman potential was reactivated by the Abyssians when they found her living on the surface world, transforming the unassuming Emily into an Amazonian bombshell named Looker. Besides her enhanced physical appearance, Lia also developed a wide range of telepathic and telekinetic powers. She is able to levitate and propel herself through the air at will, and lift other objects as well, throwing them about with great force or manipulating them with extreme delicacy. She can project telekinetic force blasts from her mind or summon force fields for protection. For telepathy, she can read the surface level thoughts of people near her, or probe deeper into their minds to extract any information they possess. Lia can communicate mind-to-mind with other people, and project psychic assaults which cause pain, paralysis, or unconsciousness in others. She also has the powers of mesmerism and mind control, frequently employed by getting someone to look into her eyes first. Looker can remove or alter people's memories, make them carry out specific commands she gives them, manipulate their emotions so that they fall in love with her, and so on. After being turned into a vampire, Lia developed superhuman strength, speed, endurance, reflexes, and near-indestructibility. Her vampiric hypnosis powers greatly enhanced her psychic mesmerism, and she developed mental control over creatures such as bats, wolves, insects, and rats, and could transform herself into a bat, a wolf, or a cloud of mist. She even developed a limited ability to control the weather. Lia's unique physiology adapted to her situation far better than a normal human being -- she was capable of restraining her bloodlust most of the time, and made sure to hypnotically condition any vampire she sired with her bite to never attack other people, and only feed on animals. Her psychic powers enabled her to operate during the daytime and in direct sunlight, but her vampiric abilities were only active after nightfall.
Windfall has a metagene which allows her to manipulate surrounding air currents. She can generate anything from a slight breeze to a hurricane force gale. Windfall can fly using her winds to carry her through the air, and can lift other people and objects in the same manner. Offensively, she can produce winds strong enough to blast through an oak tree, or knock a steel door off its hinges. She can use whirling cyclones to deflect attacks or trap opponents within a small area.
The Atomic Knight has his origins in a rather campy sci-fi series produced by DC, set in an alternate future where nuclear war has devastated the planet. Gardner Grayle and his Atomic Knights were a group of post-apocalyptic heroes wearing radiation-proof medieval armor. In modern times, Grayle was inserted into mainstream continuity by the retcon that the post-apocalyptic future was actually a virtual reality simulation, created by the military as a theoretical testing ground for what life would be like after nuclear war. Gardner's mind apparently developed its psychic potential while he was stuck in VR all that time, giving him precognitive powers that popped up occasionally, alerting him to dangers set to come in the future. As the Atomic Knight, he wears a suit of power armor fueled by internal atomic energy and solar energy reserve tanks, which recharge constantly. Typical of power armors, the Knight's suit gives him superhuman strength, reflexes, and resistance to physical injury. It also has multiple visual scanning modes and can withstand intense radiation, as it was designed with the notion of a post-nuclear war holocaust in mind. The suit enables him to fly, fire concussive force blasts, generate low- or high-temperate beams that stimulate freezing or burning effects, and can produce tangible energy "stasis fields" for containment purposes. Given the suit's design theory, these fields presumably block radiation as well.
Sebastian Faust's father, the evil Felix Faust, sold his son's soul in exchange for power decades ago. To Felix's dismay, though, that power went to Sebastian instead of him. Faust is capable of wielding what's known as "soul magic" -- by harnessing the inherent spiritual energy of other people, he can use it as a power source to perform a variety of magical feats. This of course has many drawbacks to it; first off, Faust still has no soul of his own, and so is dependent on the presence of other ensouled beings to perform his magic. Second, ripping away at a person's soul can have dire consequences for them, ranging from altering their personality, to sending them to Hell, to instant death. Finally, all magic comes with a price, and Faust's magic is no exception; even if he succeeds in doing "good" with his powers, karmic feedback will frequently create some sort of consequence that works against him or his friends.
Technocrat was Geoffrey Barron, a weapons designer who took to wearing his own Technocrat 2000 armor in battle. The armor was designed to provide him with increased resistance to physical harm and injury, and could project force fields to further enhance his defensive capabilities. For offensive maneuvers, it was equipped with taser shots that conducted an electrical charge into his opponents.
Charles Wylde was Geoffrey's best friend and bodyguard, who was mortally wounded during their stay in Markovia and first meeting with the Outsiders. Faust, using his soul magic, managed to save Wylde's life by merging him physically with a grizzly bear that was nearby. Wylde gained significantly increased height and mass, along with superhuman strength, endurance, reflexes, and resilience, plus at least some level of heightened senses. He also had brown fur over his entire body and claws on the end of his fingernails.
The Eradicator was a Kryptonian artifact that survived the world's destruction and eventually made contact with the adult Kal-El and the planet Earth. Originally a handheld interface no more than a foot-and-a-half tall, the device had its own artificial sentience, a psychic link with Superman which it could use to communicate with him or influence his behavior, and a range of additional capabilities including spiritual cleansing, genetic reconfiguration, molecule manipulation, life preservation, and many more. Once it even attempted to recreate Earth's yellow sun into a red sun like Krypton's. After being tossed into the sun, the Eradicator's essence survived as pure energy, taking on a humanoid form as The Krypton Man. His energy state was discorporated, but was eventually reconstituted in the Fortress of Solitude shortly after the death of Superman. By converting raw stone mass into an organic body for itself, and placing the real Man of Steel's body into an energy matrix for him to draw upon, the Eradicator was formed into a duplicate of the Last Son of Krypton. A genetic copy of Superman, he possessed the same powers including immeasurable strength, supersonic speed, relatively tireless stamina, superhuman hearing, flight, and virtual invulnerability from harm. In addition, his history as an energy being allowed him to sense the presence of electromagnetic energy, pinpointing energy sources in his environment and tracing energy residue back to its source, and he could also release energy from his hands as blinding light, intense heat, electricity, magnetism, or concussive blasts strong enough to pulverize a man. He was limited by the fact that he could not directly absorb solar energy like Superman, but had to draw energy indirectly by communing with the solar matrix he had placed Kal-El's body in. Furthermore, his eyes were now incredibly sensitive to light, and so he had to wear a visor to filter out harmful glares and could not use the various "vision powers" of Superman. Destabilized by kryptonite radiation in battle with the Cyborg, the Eradicator's energy was absorbed into a host body, David Connor, and in this state he joined the Outsiders. His energy powers were now self-perpetuating, and his vision had become relatively healed, though he still didn't possess telescopic sight or what not.
Nightwing is described under Teen Titans.
Arsenal is described under Teen Titans.
Grace Choi is from the Bana-Mighdall tribe, making her a halfbreed Amazonian with enhanced physical prowess. She is Amazonian in height, possessing superhuman strength, running speed, endurance, and resistance to all manner of physical injury. When her body IS harmed, she also has superhuman regenerative powers to compensate for the damage.
Thunder is the daughter of Black Lightning, possessing the meta-gene. She has the ability to increase her molecular density at will, becoming virtually indestructible with a thought. This also enables her to strike targets and cause far greater physical damage than normal, and she can also send shockwaves through the ground by stamping her ultra-dense feet.
Indigo is a future-spawned gynoid, created as a vessel for Brainiac 8 with a trustworthy personality and appearance. Indigo possesses superhuman strength, stamina, and durability, along with nanite recuperative powers and a highly-developed computer-like mind -- she is capable of processing vast amounts of raw data and sensory information efficiently and simultaneously, performing advanced calculations, vectorings, and analyses in seconds. Her senses are highly acute, including vision and hearing that expand beyond the human range of detection, the ability to detect other cybernetic or mechanical lifeforms, and scanning for various types of electromagnetic energy signatures. She can plug herself directly into other mechanical systems to download information, assume command of the machine's functions, or recharge her power supply. Indigo is also capable of self-levitation and can produce energy as protective force fields and energy bolts with either concussive or stun pulse effects.
Jade is the daughter of Alan Scott, the original Green Lantern, and his nemesis-turned-bride, Thorn. She naturally channels the power of the Starheart which her father wielded with his magic ring, commonly using the "power pulse" birthmark on her palm as a focus for her power. Jade can biologically recreate any of the basic functions of a Green Lantern's ring -- she is able to fly under her own power, and survive in the vacuum of space or under extreme environmental conditions thanks to the personal force field she generates. This force field is also capable of protecting her from all manner of physical assault and punishment. She can generate and shape emerald energy to fit whatever form she thinks of, with her imagination and willpower the only limitations. She can create basic force blasts, intense light, walls, protective domes, projectile spheres and blades...or create more exotic constructs like animated figures and animals, working fire hoses, or electronic equipment that functionally sends and receives radio or television signals. Not a true Green Lantern, Jade's power is not inhibited by a time limit, the color yellow, or a finite power supply beyond her natural endurance in using her powers. During a period when she was powerless, however, she was given a GL power ring based on the yellow weakness and 24 hour time limit problems, but Kyle later restored her powers when he became Ion. On rare occasions, Jade has demonstrated the potential for manipulating the growth and animation of plant-life, based on her mother's abilities, but never developed this power.
Huntress, in the same vein as Batman and Nightwing, has trained for years to be a human fighting machine, mastering many forms of armed and unarmed combat. Like the Bats, she makes use of a wide variety of weapons and paraphernalia hidden in her utility belt and satchels. She primarily carries a quarterstaff and handheld crossbow or bolt-caster, even handguns at times.
Starfire is described under Teen Titans.
Captain Marvel Jr is described under Teen Titans.Captain Boomerang II, Owen Mercer, is heir to the legacy of the Flash, of Cobalt Blue, and of the original Captain Boomerang all at once. His father was Digger Harkness, the first C.B. trapped in the 30th century for a time, and his mother was Meloni Thrawne, the descendent of Professor Zoom the Reverse-Flash and the first Cobalt Blue (Barry Allen's lost twin brother). She also married Barry's son and is the mother of Bart Allen, Impulse / Kid Flash II, making Owen and Bart half-brothers. As Captain Boomerang, Owen carries a variety of trick boomerangs that he was initially schooled in throwing by his father. Among his arsenal are razor-tipped, explosive, acid-releasing, sonic, and incendiary boomerangs. He is capable of tapping into the Speed Force (or whatever's left of it these days) to move in short bursts at many times faster than the speed of sound. This allows him to throw his 'rangs with tremendous force behind them and sprint out of danger or to quickly relocate himself on the battlefield.
Halo is an Aurakle, a non-humanoid ball of sentient light energy which accidentally took a human host, the sociopathic girl Violet Harper. Halo herself is a sweet and innocent being, and harnesses her Aurakle energies through her human form to create light auras around herself in all the colors of the rainbow: red, orange, yellow, green, blue, indigo, and violet. Every aura gives her the power of flight, but otherwise they each possess unique properties. Her orange aura can be focused as a concussive beam from her hands, while the red aura generates heat out from her skin or as energy bolts, melting objects or starting fires where it lands. The yellow aura recreates the light of the sun, creating a blinding glare which disorients her opponents and proves equally fatal to vampires as regular sunlight. Green is her stasis aura, an energy effect which paralyzes living beings, rendering them immobile for a period of time. Blue is her distortion aura, misaligning light waves around her body so that she becomes invisible while projecting her image somewhat off-center of her true location. Thus, opponents are fooled into thinking she's standing somewhere other than where she actually is. The distortion aura can be expanded to encompass her entire team if necessary. Finally, the indigo aura acts as a tractor beam, allowing her to grab people or objects in an energy field and pull them towards her or tow them along as she flies. She initially could not access her violet aura personally, because that allowed her malevolent Violet Harper personality to take over their shared body again. However, Halo switched to a new woman's body in the 90's, so it's a wonder if the problems with her violet aura still exist.
Katana is a master swordswoman and unarmed martial artist. She carries a short knife and her katana, Soultaker. This blade is incredibly durable and sharpened to a razor-edge, capable of slicing through solid metal. It also has mystical properties, causing it to steal the souls of men she kills, and store them for eternity within the blade. Certain rituals can be performed to communicate with the souls trapped in the sword, or reincarnate them into new bodies.
Black Lightning gained electrical super-powers from a cybernetic belt he wore. Though he was initially reliant on the belt to generate his power for him, the belt's energy apparently reacted with his latent meta-gene, internalizing his powers. BL is capable of bodily producing electricity, which he most commonly releases as bolts of "black lightning" from his fingertips. Additionally, he can generate an electrical aura around his body, electrocuting people and objects on contact and protecting him from harm by incinerating, deflecting, or dispersing most forms of projectile or energy-based assaults. He can also absorb other sources of electricity, recharging his personal batteries and depowering mechanical devices in the process.
Brion Markov underwent experiments at the hands of Helga Jace in order to tap into the planet's "geo-force", giving him a variety of superhuman powers. As Geo-Force, he can somehow tap into the planetary mass of our world in order to increase his strength and resistance to physical injury considerably, reaching at least Class 50-75 levels and able to slug it out with Superman (albeit quite briefly). He can also manipulate the planet's gravity fields, focusing "plus G's" to pin opponents to the ground or force projectiles to drop out of the sky as gravity overtakes their forwards momentum. Brion can produce "lava-blasts", volcanic force discharges focused from his hands that carry intense heat and explosive force as they strike. He can also produce anti-gravity, lightening an object's weight to increase the amount of mass he can lift physically, render objects virtually weightless, or sending them flying into the air in opposition of the Earth's gravitational pull. By turning his anti-gravity power on himself and using his lava-blasts as propulsion, Geo-Force is also capable of flight. Because of the nature of his powers, Brion requires contact with Earth itself (or at least its atmosphere and gravitational field) in order to maintain his powers and his life essence. It's possible he could re-establish a metahuman bond with another planetary mass besides Earth if he were taken off-world for extended periods of time, but this is unclear.
Metamorpho the Element Man was transformed into a humanoid of raw elemental materials by the Orb of Ra. In his altered state, Rex is able to create within his body any element or elemental combination known to man, dramatically altering his body's shape and composition. He can change himself into wood, steel, plastic, rock, bread, water, air, etc, and alter his shape to turn his body into a steel block, a giant umbrella, a pile of sand, or change his hands into weapons like blades, hammers, or anvils. A portion of Metamorpho's mass was broken off during a planet-fall incident, and ended up reconstituting itself into a unique entity, which eventually became known as Shift. After recognizing himself as separate from Metamorpho (and even less bound by the laws of man), Shift became capable of psionically altering the elemental composition of other matter in his vicinity as well. Since reabsorbing Shift into his physical structure, Metamorpho presumably has these same enhanced powers.
Looker is Emily Briggs, the lost descendent of the royalty of Abyssia, an underground colony of people whose ruling bloodline were once irradiated by Halley's Comet to gain phenomenal psychic powers. Lia's latent metahuman potential was reactivated by the Abyssians when they found her living on the surface world, transforming the unassuming Emily into an Amazonian bombshell named Looker. Besides her enhanced physical appearance, Lia also developed a wide range of telepathic and telekinetic powers. She is able to levitate and propel herself through the air at will, and lift other objects as well, throwing them about with great force or manipulating them with extreme delicacy. She can project telekinetic force blasts from her mind or summon force fields for protection. For telepathy, she can read the surface level thoughts of people near her, or probe deeper into their minds to extract any information they possess. Lia can communicate mind-to-mind with other people, and project psychic assaults which cause pain, paralysis, or unconsciousness in others. She also has the powers of mesmerism and mind control, frequently employed by getting someone to look into her eyes first. Looker can remove or alter people's memories, make them carry out specific commands she gives them, manipulate their emotions so that they fall in love with her, and so on. After being turned into a vampire, Lia developed superhuman strength, speed, endurance, reflexes, and near-indestructibility. Her vampiric hypnosis powers greatly enhanced her psychic mesmerism, and she developed mental control over creatures such as bats, wolves, insects, and rats, and could transform herself into a bat, a wolf, or a cloud of mist. She even developed a limited ability to control the weather. Lia's unique physiology adapted to her situation far better than a normal human being -- she was capable of restraining her bloodlust most of the time, and made sure to hypnotically condition any vampire she sired with her bite to never attack other people, and only feed on animals. Her psychic powers enabled her to operate during the daytime and in direct sunlight, but her vampiric abilities were only active after nightfall.
Windfall has a metagene which allows her to manipulate surrounding air currents. She can generate anything from a slight breeze to a hurricane force gale. Windfall can fly using her winds to carry her through the air, and can lift other people and objects in the same manner. Offensively, she can produce winds strong enough to blast through an oak tree, or knock a steel door off its hinges. She can use whirling cyclones to deflect attacks or trap opponents within a small area.
The Atomic Knight has his origins in a rather campy sci-fi series produced by DC, set in an alternate future where nuclear war has devastated the planet. Gardner Grayle and his Atomic Knights were a group of post-apocalyptic heroes wearing radiation-proof medieval armor. In modern times, Grayle was inserted into mainstream continuity by the retcon that the post-apocalyptic future was actually a virtual reality simulation, created by the military as a theoretical testing ground for what life would be like after nuclear war. Gardner's mind apparently developed its psychic potential while he was stuck in VR all that time, giving him precognitive powers that popped up occasionally, alerting him to dangers set to come in the future. As the Atomic Knight, he wears a suit of power armor fueled by internal atomic energy and solar energy reserve tanks, which recharge constantly. Typical of power armors, the Knight's suit gives him superhuman strength, reflexes, and resistance to physical injury. It also has multiple visual scanning modes and can withstand intense radiation, as it was designed with the notion of a post-nuclear war holocaust in mind. The suit enables him to fly, fire concussive force blasts, generate low- or high-temperate beams that stimulate freezing or burning effects, and can produce tangible energy "stasis fields" for containment purposes. Given the suit's design theory, these fields presumably block radiation as well.
Sebastian Faust's father, the evil Felix Faust, sold his son's soul in exchange for power decades ago. To Felix's dismay, though, that power went to Sebastian instead of him. Faust is capable of wielding what's known as "soul magic" -- by harnessing the inherent spiritual energy of other people, he can use it as a power source to perform a variety of magical feats. This of course has many drawbacks to it; first off, Faust still has no soul of his own, and so is dependent on the presence of other ensouled beings to perform his magic. Second, ripping away at a person's soul can have dire consequences for them, ranging from altering their personality, to sending them to Hell, to instant death. Finally, all magic comes with a price, and Faust's magic is no exception; even if he succeeds in doing "good" with his powers, karmic feedback will frequently create some sort of consequence that works against him or his friends.
Technocrat was Geoffrey Barron, a weapons designer who took to wearing his own Technocrat 2000 armor in battle. The armor was designed to provide him with increased resistance to physical harm and injury, and could project force fields to further enhance his defensive capabilities. For offensive maneuvers, it was equipped with taser shots that conducted an electrical charge into his opponents.
Charles Wylde was Geoffrey's best friend and bodyguard, who was mortally wounded during their stay in Markovia and first meeting with the Outsiders. Faust, using his soul magic, managed to save Wylde's life by merging him physically with a grizzly bear that was nearby. Wylde gained significantly increased height and mass, along with superhuman strength, endurance, reflexes, and resilience, plus at least some level of heightened senses. He also had brown fur over his entire body and claws on the end of his fingernails.
The Eradicator was a Kryptonian artifact that survived the world's destruction and eventually made contact with the adult Kal-El and the planet Earth. Originally a handheld interface no more than a foot-and-a-half tall, the device had its own artificial sentience, a psychic link with Superman which it could use to communicate with him or influence his behavior, and a range of additional capabilities including spiritual cleansing, genetic reconfiguration, molecule manipulation, life preservation, and many more. Once it even attempted to recreate Earth's yellow sun into a red sun like Krypton's. After being tossed into the sun, the Eradicator's essence survived as pure energy, taking on a humanoid form as The Krypton Man. His energy state was discorporated, but was eventually reconstituted in the Fortress of Solitude shortly after the death of Superman. By converting raw stone mass into an organic body for itself, and placing the real Man of Steel's body into an energy matrix for him to draw upon, the Eradicator was formed into a duplicate of the Last Son of Krypton. A genetic copy of Superman, he possessed the same powers including immeasurable strength, supersonic speed, relatively tireless stamina, superhuman hearing, flight, and virtual invulnerability from harm. In addition, his history as an energy being allowed him to sense the presence of electromagnetic energy, pinpointing energy sources in his environment and tracing energy residue back to its source, and he could also release energy from his hands as blinding light, intense heat, electricity, magnetism, or concussive blasts strong enough to pulverize a man. He was limited by the fact that he could not directly absorb solar energy like Superman, but had to draw energy indirectly by communing with the solar matrix he had placed Kal-El's body in. Furthermore, his eyes were now incredibly sensitive to light, and so he had to wear a visor to filter out harmful glares and could not use the various "vision powers" of Superman. Destabilized by kryptonite radiation in battle with the Cyborg, the Eradicator's energy was absorbed into a host body, David Connor, and in this state he joined the Outsiders. His energy powers were now self-perpetuating, and his vision had become relatively healed, though he still didn't possess telescopic sight or what not.
Nightwing is described under Teen Titans.
Arsenal is described under Teen Titans.
Grace Choi is from the Bana-Mighdall tribe, making her a halfbreed Amazonian with enhanced physical prowess. She is Amazonian in height, possessing superhuman strength, running speed, endurance, and resistance to all manner of physical injury. When her body IS harmed, she also has superhuman regenerative powers to compensate for the damage.
Thunder is the daughter of Black Lightning, possessing the meta-gene. She has the ability to increase her molecular density at will, becoming virtually indestructible with a thought. This also enables her to strike targets and cause far greater physical damage than normal, and she can also send shockwaves through the ground by stamping her ultra-dense feet.
Indigo is a future-spawned gynoid, created as a vessel for Brainiac 8 with a trustworthy personality and appearance. Indigo possesses superhuman strength, stamina, and durability, along with nanite recuperative powers and a highly-developed computer-like mind -- she is capable of processing vast amounts of raw data and sensory information efficiently and simultaneously, performing advanced calculations, vectorings, and analyses in seconds. Her senses are highly acute, including vision and hearing that expand beyond the human range of detection, the ability to detect other cybernetic or mechanical lifeforms, and scanning for various types of electromagnetic energy signatures. She can plug herself directly into other mechanical systems to download information, assume command of the machine's functions, or recharge her power supply. Indigo is also capable of self-levitation and can produce energy as protective force fields and energy bolts with either concussive or stun pulse effects.
Jade is the daughter of Alan Scott, the original Green Lantern, and his nemesis-turned-bride, Thorn. She naturally channels the power of the Starheart which her father wielded with his magic ring, commonly using the "power pulse" birthmark on her palm as a focus for her power. Jade can biologically recreate any of the basic functions of a Green Lantern's ring -- she is able to fly under her own power, and survive in the vacuum of space or under extreme environmental conditions thanks to the personal force field she generates. This force field is also capable of protecting her from all manner of physical assault and punishment. She can generate and shape emerald energy to fit whatever form she thinks of, with her imagination and willpower the only limitations. She can create basic force blasts, intense light, walls, protective domes, projectile spheres and blades...or create more exotic constructs like animated figures and animals, working fire hoses, or electronic equipment that functionally sends and receives radio or television signals. Not a true Green Lantern, Jade's power is not inhibited by a time limit, the color yellow, or a finite power supply beyond her natural endurance in using her powers. During a period when she was powerless, however, she was given a GL power ring based on the yellow weakness and 24 hour time limit problems, but Kyle later restored her powers when he became Ion. On rare occasions, Jade has demonstrated the potential for manipulating the growth and animation of plant-life, based on her mother's abilities, but never developed this power.
Huntress, in the same vein as Batman and Nightwing, has trained for years to be a human fighting machine, mastering many forms of armed and unarmed combat. Like the Bats, she makes use of a wide variety of weapons and paraphernalia hidden in her utility belt and satchels. She primarily carries a quarterstaff and handheld crossbow or bolt-caster, even handguns at times.
Starfire is described under Teen Titans.
Captain Marvel Jr is described under Teen Titans.Captain Boomerang II, Owen Mercer, is heir to the legacy of the Flash, of Cobalt Blue, and of the original Captain Boomerang all at once. His father was Digger Harkness, the first C.B. trapped in the 30th century for a time, and his mother was Meloni Thrawne, the descendent of Professor Zoom the Reverse-Flash and the first Cobalt Blue (Barry Allen's lost twin brother). She also married Barry's son and is the mother of Bart Allen, Impulse / Kid Flash II, making Owen and Bart half-brothers. As Captain Boomerang, Owen carries a variety of trick boomerangs that he was initially schooled in throwing by his father. Among his arsenal are razor-tipped, explosive, acid-releasing, sonic, and incendiary boomerangs. He is capable of tapping into the Speed Force (or whatever's left of it these days) to move in short bursts at many times faster than the speed of sound. This allows him to throw his 'rangs with tremendous force behind them and sprint out of danger or to quickly relocate himself on the battlefield.
Monolith's Power Descriptions Archives
Sangre has integrated technology enabling him to instantly transmute himself into water, causing all manner of physical impact or assault to pass harmlessly through him. This also enables him to collapse into a liquid state and flow through cracks or tight spaces unhindered. He is also capable of cooling water vapor from a gaseous to a liquid state, summoning water literally out of thin air. He can cast globules of water around a victim's head, forcing them to drown.
Serafina is the most clearly mechanically-enhanced of the Children of the Vault. She can extend an array of wires from bio-plugs on her arms, chest, and spine in order to interface with machinery. Once plugged in, she is able to copy any and all information from computer hard drives into her own mind, and can also edit and delete this information as she chooses. Even without directly connecting to machinery, Serafina can hack into transmission feeds from a distance to "see" through security cameras, and emit a "blackout" field that prevents electromagnetic transmissions from traveling in her range, selectively or generally. Her human senses are masterfully enhanced as well. She can differentiate between psionic illusions and reality on sight. Serafina is also able to detect genetic and bio-chemical data down to the molecular level. This makes her an extra-ordinary tracker, capable not only of tracing a target's path but also identifying any person or object they might have touched and recognizing subtle shifts in their body chemistry or metabolism, such as changes in adrenaline levels or pulse rate. She can also manipulate bio-molecular ingredients to some degree. On her own, she can plant subliminal thoughts in people's minds in close proximity, placing an idea in their head. When mechanically enhanced, however, Serafina capacity for influence and illusion increases dramatically. When a human being is hooked up to any kind of technology for her to interface with, she can project her consciousness through the machine and into the person's neuro-chemical pathways, effectively simulating a psychic link. She can then interact with someone's astral form with her own psychic self, modifying her "appearance" and their environment as she chooses. Plugging directing into someone's thoughts gives her considerable persuasive abilities, allowing her to plant powerful and controlling directives into their minds. By plugging into Lady Mastermind, she was also able to access and manipulate Regan's telepathic illusion power as she saw fit, while the woman herself remained in a coma.
Fuego is a walking furnace of thermal energy. His body constantly expels heat at temperatures in excess of 1500 F, giving him the appearance of a charred and smoldering corpse. This heat can be projected outwards as beams from his hands or waves emanating from his entire body. Besides its intense temperature, Fuego's power discharge is also self-augmenting -- he draws energy out of his environment to sustain and magnify his flames, neutralizing resistance and retaliation to his attacks. He can also scan his environment for heat signatures, registering various kinds and sizes of thermal output, including being able to track a man by his body heat.
Aguja projects scatter-bursts of energy, disrupting matter at a molecule level on contact so that it explosively atomizes at the point of impact. She can also cast spheres of light around herself and others, which can levitate them through the air or act as a force field to protect them from harm.
Perro is able to manipulate gravitational force. He can bend gravity as it affects certain objects, causing them to "fall" upwards, sideways, or diagonally in any direction. He can also increase the pull of gravity, enough so that his redirectional effect was strong enough to instantly overcome Cannonball's downward momentum. He also seems to possess superhuman strength, though that may simply be applied G-forces channeled through his fists to maximize the power of his blows.
Serafina is the most clearly mechanically-enhanced of the Children of the Vault. She can extend an array of wires from bio-plugs on her arms, chest, and spine in order to interface with machinery. Once plugged in, she is able to copy any and all information from computer hard drives into her own mind, and can also edit and delete this information as she chooses. Even without directly connecting to machinery, Serafina can hack into transmission feeds from a distance to "see" through security cameras, and emit a "blackout" field that prevents electromagnetic transmissions from traveling in her range, selectively or generally. Her human senses are masterfully enhanced as well. She can differentiate between psionic illusions and reality on sight. Serafina is also able to detect genetic and bio-chemical data down to the molecular level. This makes her an extra-ordinary tracker, capable not only of tracing a target's path but also identifying any person or object they might have touched and recognizing subtle shifts in their body chemistry or metabolism, such as changes in adrenaline levels or pulse rate. She can also manipulate bio-molecular ingredients to some degree. On her own, she can plant subliminal thoughts in people's minds in close proximity, placing an idea in their head. When mechanically enhanced, however, Serafina capacity for influence and illusion increases dramatically. When a human being is hooked up to any kind of technology for her to interface with, she can project her consciousness through the machine and into the person's neuro-chemical pathways, effectively simulating a psychic link. She can then interact with someone's astral form with her own psychic self, modifying her "appearance" and their environment as she chooses. Plugging directing into someone's thoughts gives her considerable persuasive abilities, allowing her to plant powerful and controlling directives into their minds. By plugging into Lady Mastermind, she was also able to access and manipulate Regan's telepathic illusion power as she saw fit, while the woman herself remained in a coma.
Fuego is a walking furnace of thermal energy. His body constantly expels heat at temperatures in excess of 1500 F, giving him the appearance of a charred and smoldering corpse. This heat can be projected outwards as beams from his hands or waves emanating from his entire body. Besides its intense temperature, Fuego's power discharge is also self-augmenting -- he draws energy out of his environment to sustain and magnify his flames, neutralizing resistance and retaliation to his attacks. He can also scan his environment for heat signatures, registering various kinds and sizes of thermal output, including being able to track a man by his body heat.
Aguja projects scatter-bursts of energy, disrupting matter at a molecule level on contact so that it explosively atomizes at the point of impact. She can also cast spheres of light around herself and others, which can levitate them through the air or act as a force field to protect them from harm.
Perro is able to manipulate gravitational force. He can bend gravity as it affects certain objects, causing them to "fall" upwards, sideways, or diagonally in any direction. He can also increase the pull of gravity, enough so that his redirectional effect was strong enough to instantly overcome Cannonball's downward momentum. He also seems to possess superhuman strength, though that may simply be applied G-forces channeled through his fists to maximize the power of his blows.
Monolith's Power Descriptions Archives
Murmur has the ability to influence the actions of others. She accomplishes this by first making physical contact with a person, and then verbally directing them as she wishes. Generally speaking, Murmur relies on single word commands such as SIT, SLEEP, or ATTACK to direct people. In other cases she has removed Flex's fear and hesitancy by saying COURAGE, or triggered Virgo's teleportation equipment by saying PARIS. Besides these short and forceful commands, Murmur can also employ a more subtle hyper-persuasive ability, making people considerably more willing to believe what she says or agree with her suggestions so long as she's touching them.
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Pete Wisdom has the power to generate "hot knives", small blades of intense thermal energy, hotter than the surface of the sun. When fired, the hot knives travel at incredible speeds and are capable of piercing just about anything this side of adamantium, including Colossus' organic steel body. Though normally the size of a standard knife blade, Wisdom can manifest a hot knife of much larger diameter if he concentrates. He can cause the hot knives to materialize around his body, hovering in mid-air over his shoulders until he chooses to send them flying out, or make them sprout from his fingers as if they were talons. He can manifest a small cluster of hot knives in the air in front of him as a shield which incinerates projectile attacks to protect him from harm, and can survive jumps from great heights by using the heat generated by the hot knives as a thermal buoy, lowering him more-or-less gently to the ground.
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Whirlwind is a mutant able to spin his body at superhuman speeds. This rotational ability effectively turns him into a human top. He is able to spin at a few hundred mph, without suffering from vertigo, loss of equilibrium, or relevant distortion to his visual or hearing capabilities. By angling himself slightly, Whirlwind can propel himself forwards at speeds greater than 50 mph, and his reflexes are quick enough that he can make slight alterations to his course, dodging around moving targets or attacking opponents with ease, making him extremely agile. His dexterity while spinning is extraordinary, allowing him to open a bank vault, change his clothes, or perform any number of tasks while in motion. With enough momentum, he can even send himself straight up the side of a wall, or across water. He can use his power to sail for short distances through the air, lowering himself to the ground from a great height, or popping up off of level ground to a great height. Whirlwind is able to strike an opponent a few hundred times at high speeds, battering them unconscious even with his normal strength level. Interestingly enough, Whirlwind seems capable of manipulating the winds produced by his spinning to a certain degree -- he can cause them to expand outwards from his body to create a raging cyclone around him, focus a jetstream of compressed air down his arms and towards a particular target, or spurt off miniature tornados into his path. At one point, he commissioned the Tinkerer to upgrade his offensive capabilities, and was given a new costume with reinforced chain mail armor to protect him from impact, allowing him to strike at and damage stronger materials than before without injury. He was also granted rotating buzz saws which were mounted on his wrists as close-quarters weapons, and a selection of shuriken and razor blades that could be launched out from his suit on command while spinning, making him extremely deadly. In more recent years, Whirlwind has taken to wearing more generic straight blades on his armor.
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The Order was the brainchild of Tony Stark following the passage of the Superhuman Registration Act -- hand-selected public figures and activists chosen to undergo the Soma process, a genetic engineering cocktail similar to his own Extremis which would re-write their physiologies and grant them pre-constructed super-powers. Each member of the Order was given the power of flight, in addition to a power set specially tailored to their request and skills. Members were originally "drafted" for one year stints, after which the Soma process would automatically shut down. Other safeguards were built into the process, deactivating the Order's powers whenever certain substances entered their bodies, such as alcohol. The Order was built around a Greek pantheon structure, with Stark identified as Zeus and his former executive assistant, Pepper Potts, running the day-to-day activities as Hera. During Civil War, an initial assortment of members included an Apollo, Hercules, Poseidon, Hermes, Aphrodite, Helios, Athena, Hephaestus, and Artemis. Several heroes allegedly died in the final fight of Civil War, and the original Apollo, Hercules, and Aphrodite were never seen again. A new Apollo joined the survivors in The Order #1.
Virginia "Pepper" Potts started out in the secretarial pool at Stark Industries, but eventually rose to become acting CEO of the corporation. As "Hera" for the Order, she did not undergo the Soma Process, but did employ telepresence enhancements to communicate with the team and provide information. A special set of headwear and neck-brace allowed Pepper to access the Stark SatNet and Dataspine. The SatNet is a Satellite Network allowing instantaneous and real-time satellite observation of any place on Earth. This enabled Pepper to track and monitor the team's activities in the field. The Dataspine is a more powerful and refined version of the standard Internet search engine, enabling access to an enormous amount of raw data and information. Pepper used the Dataspine to call up information on the team's foes, locate lost government files, access SHIELD databanks, etc.
Pepper was later injured in a terrorist bombing, with shrapnel penetrating her chest much like the incident which created Iron Man in the first place. Tony Stark saved her life using repulsomagnetic technology, an upgrade on the original pacemaker magnetics from his original chestplate. A repulsor field generator was installed in Pepper's upper chest, and may also have contained some Extremis-based bio-technology, as her physical strength, reflexes, reaction time, intelligence and senses were also boosted in the process. She developed a sixth sense for electromagnetic fields, enabling her to feel nearby sources of electrical energy and power output. By manipulating the repulsor generator, she could levitate herself on a buoy of magnetic fields, or generate a defensive repulsor field for protection.
Pepper's repulsor tech was designed specifically to interface with the Mark 1616 search and rescue armor. The suit utilized her generator as a power source, converting its energy into superhuman strength, magnetically-reinforced armor plating, jet thrusters for supersonic speed, and repulsomagnetic fields. As Rescue, Pepper could expand a sphere of protective energy around herself, or cast repulsor fields over a distance, using them to protect other people, or as transport bubbles to ferry people to safety, catch falling jet airliners, etc. Her on-board operating system was JARVIS, Just Another Rather Very Intelligence System. More than just a tutorial program, JARVIS coordinates the Rescue armor's advanced array of sensors, capable of telescopic, infrared, ultraviolet, x-ray and MRI visual modes, radar, sonar, stress analysis, and accessing the Stark Dataspine for vast amounts of information. Although Rescue typically relies on Pepper as its power supply, it does possess back-up solar arrays that feed off of sunlight to charge the batteries with minor amounts of power. Thanks to this, Pepper can mentally operate the Rescue armor from a distance, or allow JARVIS to run the suit completely independent of her.
Anthem (Apollo) has the power of a supercell thunderstorm. It is unclear whether he purely generates electrical energy within his body, or draws upon ambient charge in the atmosphere, but Henry Hellrung is capable of manipulating large amounts of electricity and converting it for metahuman abilities. He possesses at least Class 50 strength, superhuman speed, endurance, reflexes, telescopic "super-sight", and resistance to physical injury. He can convert energy to fly at supersonic speeds, and Anthem's electrical storages can also be redirected from his hands. While he can project standard electro-bolts, he can also perform tasks as delicate as providing sustained current for electronic devices, or as extreme as ionizing his environment to summon a massive electrical storm, violently energizing a city block in all directions from his position. Anthem can also create diffuse electrical fields in front of him for protection, incinerating solid projectiles and neutralizing energy beam attacks by disrupting their electromagnetic flow patterns.
Heavy (Poseidon) was critically injured in the same ambush that first damaged Tony Stark's heart years ago, leaving him barely alive in an iron lung before he was re-engineered by the Soma process. His physiology was redesigned to interact with a super-colloidal fluid -- by immersing himself in the fluid and inhaling it through his lungs, Dennis regained his health and full range of motion. He adopted a special wet-suit costume which kept the super-colloidal fluid constantly circulating over and through his body. As Heavy, he was uniquely suited for aquatic activity, since his body now relied on the fluid for proper respiration in place of open atmosphere. He also manifested seismic-level strength, superhuman swimming speed, endurance, and tremendous resistance to physical injury. His strength was such that he could generate shockwaves through water or solid matter on impact.
Calamity (Hermes) was crippled after being hit by a drunk driver, and designed his own mechanical prosthetics to replace his legs from the knees down. The Soma process, combined with Stark-Tech, modified and significantly improved his bionic legs to give him superhuman speed, and genetically engineered the rest of his body to match. Jimmy's new streamlined legs enable him to run at speeds exceeding Mach 3, and his reflexes, dexterity, and perceptual abilities have been increased proportionately so that he can perceive his surroundings while moving at supersonic speeds and react accordingly. He is able to dodge bullets, run across the surface of water, strike opponents hundreds of times a minute at super-speed, change clothes in the blink of an eye, and even zip in and out of a room, performing a complicated task faster than it takes someone to finish a sentence or notice he was even there. His stamina and metabolism have been augmented as well, making his body far more fuel efficient and cutting down on the build up of fatigue poisons in his system.
Pierce (Artemis) is an Olympic athlete and archer. Her bow was capable of firing razor-tipped titanium shafts, and probably contained an assortment of trick arrows as well. The powers granted her by Soma were never identified, although presumably it was something like superhuman agility or senses.
Maul (Hephaestus) had the power of deconstruction, which he channeled through his personal war-hammer. Maul could generate a coherent energy field which he focused through the head of his hammer, causing it to break down solid matter at a molecular level on contact, dramatically increasing its destructive power. Each blow of the hammer created a violent explosive deconstruction wherever he struck.
Corona (Helios) gained solar conversion powers from the Soma process, but used mechanical aids in his chest harness to control his abilities. Corona could absorb the radiant energy generated by light and heat, especially from sunlight, and store that energy within his body and equipment. He could then rechannel that power as plasma-based energy discharges from his fists. Technically, Corona's powers were designed for passive absorption, feeding off of ambient energy that built up naturally in his environment. With some adjustments to his equipment, however, Carlos could drain power away from active sources such as the Infernal Man, canceling out that villain's heat-based projections. These active energy patterns ran a serious risk of burning out his equipment, though, and could kill Corona if he didn't quickly release the pent up energy.
Avona (Athena) developed a psychokinetic link to her sword, enabling her to manipulate its motions from a distance and pull the blade back to her grasp whenever they were separated. The sword possessed a highly advanced artificial intelligence program designed by Stark Industries, providing Avona with information and tactics. Ranged sensory mechanisms allowed the sword to give proximity warnings, track motion in its vicinity, and measure changes in nearby temperature. It was capable of providing identification and details on opponents, either through an internal database or wireless modem access. The sword could also analyze weaknesses and make strategic suggestions for Avona to follow up on in combat.
Veda (Demeter) is able to create "golems", earth constructs animated by her own life-force. Maggie is able to focus on any mass of rock, dirt, mud or sediment in her vicinity, causing it to rise up and shape into a quasi-human form. This power seemed to work even with the geologically inert concrete on city streets. She is able to create one or dozens of these creatures at a time, multi-tasking her mind in order to guide all of them simultaneously. Each golem possesses some level of superhuman strength and durability. Because they are sustained by animatory force instead of internal support structures, the golems can also suffer considerable damage such as lost limbs or gaping holes in their chests and remain mobile. Too much force, however, can force them to break apart and send enough psychic feedback back to Veda to temporarily incapacitate her. The fraction of her own life energy present in each golem gives them limited self-awareness and choice, enough for simple attack and defend activities without Veda's personal supervision. She can directly take over control of any golem's actions if she chooses to, and has a "multi-sight" power that allows her to see through their eyes, assimilating multiple different points of view at once.
Mulholland Black (new Hephaestus) was a mutant who lost her powers on M-Day. She used the Soma process to artificially recreate the powers she lost. Holly's power allows her to draw energy from the history of Los Angeles. This works as a psychometric conversion process, harnessing the residual psychic energy created by past events and permeating the entire city, and then metabolizing it into psychokinetic force of various kinds. The exact reasoning behind Mulholland Black's connection to LA is unclear -- whether she is specifically linked to the geographical area by her powers like Meggan or Snowbird, or only psychologically limits her powers this way, is unknown. Another limitation is that Holly needs to be consciously aware of the past events before she can draw upon their psychometric residue, and so she has spent considerable time in libraries studying up on Los Angeles's city history. Once she has focused on some historical energy, Mulholland rechannels it as PK force. Her original, uncontrolled mutant manifestations were as radiant discharges of explosive energy blasting out from her body. When using her warhammer, Holly conducted psychokinetic force through the hammer as exponentially amplified force for her blows, and concentrated energy bolts. She also began developing more subtle forms of psychometric attunement. By spending time in the presence of Avona's dead body, Holly psychically connected to the residual thought patterns of the woman's mind, enabling her to communicate with Avona's "ghost" and elicit information from her. She also apparently locked onto to Calamity's active psychometric signature well enough to intuitively track and predict his movements, allowing her to physically tag him even while moving at supersonic speeds. After the S.P.I.N. tech removed her Soma powers but restored her decimated mutant powers, Mulholland Black demonstrated more controlled psychokinetic tricks such as levitation, protective shields, and the retrieval and direction of objects from a distance. This may have been an indication of what her power levels were like prior to M-Day, but that wasn't expressly stated.
Supernaut (Ares) has used the Soma process to create a permanent cybernetic link between him and his Omega-class battlesuit, the Supernaut. The cybernetic connections within his brain and spine make Milo alone capable of jacking into the armor and operating its systems. The suit gives him Class 75 strength, computer-enhanced reflexes, and reinforced armor plating for a superhuman resistance to physical injury and temperature extremes. It has a highly-advanced sensor array enhanced by retractable antenna in the head module, allowing Supernaut to receive radio signals and transmission, track flying objects using radar mapping, and "paint" targets using laser targeting beams. This enables him to track and predict targets in motion by computing trajectory and velocity, and make pinpoint shots striking exact spots the size of a quarter. His weapons array includes palm, forearm, chest and shoulder-mounted barrels, as well as waldo arms that extend from his back with blasters capable of 360 degree targeting. The exact nature of his firepower hasn't been discussed, but it apparently includes projectile assaults, missiles, rockets and energy blasts. Jet thrusters in his boots also give him the power of self-propelled flight; it is unknown if Milo is independently capable of flight like the other Order members.
Aralune (Dionysus, maybe?) developed the power of biological polymorphism, allowing her to change shape and assume a number of radically different organic forms. She can grow at least five stories tall and can also selectively increase her size, such as causing her hands and forearms to bulge up to massive proportions, magnifying her strength. Becky can transform into creature forms, "warskins" with tremendous strength, claws, and highly durable armor-like skin. She has also morphed into dragons or giant insects. By shifting into a jellyfish form, Aralune can make her body sufficiently elastic and resilient enough to absorb the impact of a super-speedster and hold them stuck in place, or harmlessly contain a nuclear explosion. She can also grow wings from her backside, although her natural flight power makes this rather unnecessary. Becky's power also functions as a healing ability -- whenever she is significantly injured, her body reduces to a liquid state and can slowly reconstruct itself from the base level up.
Virginia "Pepper" Potts started out in the secretarial pool at Stark Industries, but eventually rose to become acting CEO of the corporation. As "Hera" for the Order, she did not undergo the Soma Process, but did employ telepresence enhancements to communicate with the team and provide information. A special set of headwear and neck-brace allowed Pepper to access the Stark SatNet and Dataspine. The SatNet is a Satellite Network allowing instantaneous and real-time satellite observation of any place on Earth. This enabled Pepper to track and monitor the team's activities in the field. The Dataspine is a more powerful and refined version of the standard Internet search engine, enabling access to an enormous amount of raw data and information. Pepper used the Dataspine to call up information on the team's foes, locate lost government files, access SHIELD databanks, etc.
Pepper was later injured in a terrorist bombing, with shrapnel penetrating her chest much like the incident which created Iron Man in the first place. Tony Stark saved her life using repulsomagnetic technology, an upgrade on the original pacemaker magnetics from his original chestplate. A repulsor field generator was installed in Pepper's upper chest, and may also have contained some Extremis-based bio-technology, as her physical strength, reflexes, reaction time, intelligence and senses were also boosted in the process. She developed a sixth sense for electromagnetic fields, enabling her to feel nearby sources of electrical energy and power output. By manipulating the repulsor generator, she could levitate herself on a buoy of magnetic fields, or generate a defensive repulsor field for protection.
Pepper's repulsor tech was designed specifically to interface with the Mark 1616 search and rescue armor. The suit utilized her generator as a power source, converting its energy into superhuman strength, magnetically-reinforced armor plating, jet thrusters for supersonic speed, and repulsomagnetic fields. As Rescue, Pepper could expand a sphere of protective energy around herself, or cast repulsor fields over a distance, using them to protect other people, or as transport bubbles to ferry people to safety, catch falling jet airliners, etc. Her on-board operating system was JARVIS, Just Another Rather Very Intelligence System. More than just a tutorial program, JARVIS coordinates the Rescue armor's advanced array of sensors, capable of telescopic, infrared, ultraviolet, x-ray and MRI visual modes, radar, sonar, stress analysis, and accessing the Stark Dataspine for vast amounts of information. Although Rescue typically relies on Pepper as its power supply, it does possess back-up solar arrays that feed off of sunlight to charge the batteries with minor amounts of power. Thanks to this, Pepper can mentally operate the Rescue armor from a distance, or allow JARVIS to run the suit completely independent of her.
Anthem (Apollo) has the power of a supercell thunderstorm. It is unclear whether he purely generates electrical energy within his body, or draws upon ambient charge in the atmosphere, but Henry Hellrung is capable of manipulating large amounts of electricity and converting it for metahuman abilities. He possesses at least Class 50 strength, superhuman speed, endurance, reflexes, telescopic "super-sight", and resistance to physical injury. He can convert energy to fly at supersonic speeds, and Anthem's electrical storages can also be redirected from his hands. While he can project standard electro-bolts, he can also perform tasks as delicate as providing sustained current for electronic devices, or as extreme as ionizing his environment to summon a massive electrical storm, violently energizing a city block in all directions from his position. Anthem can also create diffuse electrical fields in front of him for protection, incinerating solid projectiles and neutralizing energy beam attacks by disrupting their electromagnetic flow patterns.
Heavy (Poseidon) was critically injured in the same ambush that first damaged Tony Stark's heart years ago, leaving him barely alive in an iron lung before he was re-engineered by the Soma process. His physiology was redesigned to interact with a super-colloidal fluid -- by immersing himself in the fluid and inhaling it through his lungs, Dennis regained his health and full range of motion. He adopted a special wet-suit costume which kept the super-colloidal fluid constantly circulating over and through his body. As Heavy, he was uniquely suited for aquatic activity, since his body now relied on the fluid for proper respiration in place of open atmosphere. He also manifested seismic-level strength, superhuman swimming speed, endurance, and tremendous resistance to physical injury. His strength was such that he could generate shockwaves through water or solid matter on impact.
Calamity (Hermes) was crippled after being hit by a drunk driver, and designed his own mechanical prosthetics to replace his legs from the knees down. The Soma process, combined with Stark-Tech, modified and significantly improved his bionic legs to give him superhuman speed, and genetically engineered the rest of his body to match. Jimmy's new streamlined legs enable him to run at speeds exceeding Mach 3, and his reflexes, dexterity, and perceptual abilities have been increased proportionately so that he can perceive his surroundings while moving at supersonic speeds and react accordingly. He is able to dodge bullets, run across the surface of water, strike opponents hundreds of times a minute at super-speed, change clothes in the blink of an eye, and even zip in and out of a room, performing a complicated task faster than it takes someone to finish a sentence or notice he was even there. His stamina and metabolism have been augmented as well, making his body far more fuel efficient and cutting down on the build up of fatigue poisons in his system.
Pierce (Artemis) is an Olympic athlete and archer. Her bow was capable of firing razor-tipped titanium shafts, and probably contained an assortment of trick arrows as well. The powers granted her by Soma were never identified, although presumably it was something like superhuman agility or senses.
Maul (Hephaestus) had the power of deconstruction, which he channeled through his personal war-hammer. Maul could generate a coherent energy field which he focused through the head of his hammer, causing it to break down solid matter at a molecular level on contact, dramatically increasing its destructive power. Each blow of the hammer created a violent explosive deconstruction wherever he struck.
Corona (Helios) gained solar conversion powers from the Soma process, but used mechanical aids in his chest harness to control his abilities. Corona could absorb the radiant energy generated by light and heat, especially from sunlight, and store that energy within his body and equipment. He could then rechannel that power as plasma-based energy discharges from his fists. Technically, Corona's powers were designed for passive absorption, feeding off of ambient energy that built up naturally in his environment. With some adjustments to his equipment, however, Carlos could drain power away from active sources such as the Infernal Man, canceling out that villain's heat-based projections. These active energy patterns ran a serious risk of burning out his equipment, though, and could kill Corona if he didn't quickly release the pent up energy.
Avona (Athena) developed a psychokinetic link to her sword, enabling her to manipulate its motions from a distance and pull the blade back to her grasp whenever they were separated. The sword possessed a highly advanced artificial intelligence program designed by Stark Industries, providing Avona with information and tactics. Ranged sensory mechanisms allowed the sword to give proximity warnings, track motion in its vicinity, and measure changes in nearby temperature. It was capable of providing identification and details on opponents, either through an internal database or wireless modem access. The sword could also analyze weaknesses and make strategic suggestions for Avona to follow up on in combat.
Veda (Demeter) is able to create "golems", earth constructs animated by her own life-force. Maggie is able to focus on any mass of rock, dirt, mud or sediment in her vicinity, causing it to rise up and shape into a quasi-human form. This power seemed to work even with the geologically inert concrete on city streets. She is able to create one or dozens of these creatures at a time, multi-tasking her mind in order to guide all of them simultaneously. Each golem possesses some level of superhuman strength and durability. Because they are sustained by animatory force instead of internal support structures, the golems can also suffer considerable damage such as lost limbs or gaping holes in their chests and remain mobile. Too much force, however, can force them to break apart and send enough psychic feedback back to Veda to temporarily incapacitate her. The fraction of her own life energy present in each golem gives them limited self-awareness and choice, enough for simple attack and defend activities without Veda's personal supervision. She can directly take over control of any golem's actions if she chooses to, and has a "multi-sight" power that allows her to see through their eyes, assimilating multiple different points of view at once.
Mulholland Black (new Hephaestus) was a mutant who lost her powers on M-Day. She used the Soma process to artificially recreate the powers she lost. Holly's power allows her to draw energy from the history of Los Angeles. This works as a psychometric conversion process, harnessing the residual psychic energy created by past events and permeating the entire city, and then metabolizing it into psychokinetic force of various kinds. The exact reasoning behind Mulholland Black's connection to LA is unclear -- whether she is specifically linked to the geographical area by her powers like Meggan or Snowbird, or only psychologically limits her powers this way, is unknown. Another limitation is that Holly needs to be consciously aware of the past events before she can draw upon their psychometric residue, and so she has spent considerable time in libraries studying up on Los Angeles's city history. Once she has focused on some historical energy, Mulholland rechannels it as PK force. Her original, uncontrolled mutant manifestations were as radiant discharges of explosive energy blasting out from her body. When using her warhammer, Holly conducted psychokinetic force through the hammer as exponentially amplified force for her blows, and concentrated energy bolts. She also began developing more subtle forms of psychometric attunement. By spending time in the presence of Avona's dead body, Holly psychically connected to the residual thought patterns of the woman's mind, enabling her to communicate with Avona's "ghost" and elicit information from her. She also apparently locked onto to Calamity's active psychometric signature well enough to intuitively track and predict his movements, allowing her to physically tag him even while moving at supersonic speeds. After the S.P.I.N. tech removed her Soma powers but restored her decimated mutant powers, Mulholland Black demonstrated more controlled psychokinetic tricks such as levitation, protective shields, and the retrieval and direction of objects from a distance. This may have been an indication of what her power levels were like prior to M-Day, but that wasn't expressly stated.
Supernaut (Ares) has used the Soma process to create a permanent cybernetic link between him and his Omega-class battlesuit, the Supernaut. The cybernetic connections within his brain and spine make Milo alone capable of jacking into the armor and operating its systems. The suit gives him Class 75 strength, computer-enhanced reflexes, and reinforced armor plating for a superhuman resistance to physical injury and temperature extremes. It has a highly-advanced sensor array enhanced by retractable antenna in the head module, allowing Supernaut to receive radio signals and transmission, track flying objects using radar mapping, and "paint" targets using laser targeting beams. This enables him to track and predict targets in motion by computing trajectory and velocity, and make pinpoint shots striking exact spots the size of a quarter. His weapons array includes palm, forearm, chest and shoulder-mounted barrels, as well as waldo arms that extend from his back with blasters capable of 360 degree targeting. The exact nature of his firepower hasn't been discussed, but it apparently includes projectile assaults, missiles, rockets and energy blasts. Jet thrusters in his boots also give him the power of self-propelled flight; it is unknown if Milo is independently capable of flight like the other Order members.
Aralune (Dionysus, maybe?) developed the power of biological polymorphism, allowing her to change shape and assume a number of radically different organic forms. She can grow at least five stories tall and can also selectively increase her size, such as causing her hands and forearms to bulge up to massive proportions, magnifying her strength. Becky can transform into creature forms, "warskins" with tremendous strength, claws, and highly durable armor-like skin. She has also morphed into dragons or giant insects. By shifting into a jellyfish form, Aralune can make her body sufficiently elastic and resilient enough to absorb the impact of a super-speedster and hold them stuck in place, or harmlessly contain a nuclear explosion. She can also grow wings from her backside, although her natural flight power makes this rather unnecessary. Becky's power also functions as a healing ability -- whenever she is significantly injured, her body reduces to a liquid state and can slowly reconstruct itself from the base level up.
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Charcoal like Jolt before him possessed a genetic quirk which allowed Arnim Zola to mutate him into a superhuman being, rather than reducing him to a disfigured creature like most of Zola's other experiments. Charlie can trigger a transformation into a being of pure carbon matter -- he develops a rocky hide, additional mass, trunk-like feet, less fingers on each hand, and his head sits directly on his shoulders with no visible nose or ears. He is larger in this state, and possesses superhuman strength and resistance to physical injury. By condensing his mass, he can transform portions of his carbon into virtually indestructible diamond for additional protection. His body can also be elastic to a certain degree, stretching his arms or expanding his form to fit a specific space, like blocking a tear in a wall. His carbon state can be broken or damaged without him suffering permanent injury; he can reattach a severed arm simply by touching it to the stump, and even recover in a matter of minutes after being broken into dozens of small pieces. He can even use this ability to his advantage, snapping off a small piece of his finger and planting it on a person or object. He can then track that piece of himself mentally over a distance to locate his target again. Finally, Charcoal can raise the temperature of his body until it ignites, turning into his Burning Man state. He produces radiant heat energy and flame from his skin in this form, can project fiery plasma blasts from his hands, and fly by means of thermo-explosive propulsion from his feet.
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Stellaris is a being of unknown origins. At first, she claimed to be the last survivor of a race judged unworthy and annihilated by the Celestials. Later events, however, suggested that she was not even truly alive, an artificially engineered entity literally at one with her mechanical armor. Whatever her true nature, Stellaris outwardly appears to be an attractive woman possessing a living armor that responds to her every mental command. The armor can alter it's mass accordingly, taking on the appearance of regular street clothes, spandex, or bulky reinforced armor. Though she has expanded her armor to stand over 9 feet tall in the past, Stellaris possesses roughly Class 100 strength, the power of flight, and tremendous resistance to physical injury even at her armor's slimmest construction. The armor can split off portions of itself from her main mass in order to form vehicles like a motorcycle, sky-cycle, or a guided missile or space cruiser which form around her. She can produce solar blasts from her fingertips, and construct weapons of various kinds onto her arms or body on command, forming automatic weapons, heat blasters, sonic shatter-pistols, meteoric fireball launchers, etc. Stellaris can survive unaided in the vacuum of space, and achieve faster than light travel under her own power. She is also capable of matter transmission, teleporting herself to distant locations with a thought. Her armor can produce magnetic fields to latch on to metal objects, and contains a wide variety of scanner technologies -- she can sense Celestial energies, and any entity touched by them, tracking them over a great distance. She can also pick up on human lifesigns in her vicinity, and perform advanced genetic scans so that she can immediately recognize someone in the future, regardless of how they've physically changed or disguised themselves.
Monolith's Power Descriptions Archives
Prudence Leighton was capable of transmitting her consciousness into the body of any other woman within her line-of-sight. This enabled her to inhabit and control another woman from a distance as a disguise or to carry out covert operations while her own body was safely secured elsewhere. Whether Prudence could "bounce back" to her own body at will or needed to return her host body to line-of-sight with it first is unclear. Steinbeck was a mutant with the ability to expel high-temperature spurts of flame from his throat cavity, enough to virtually incinerate a human being in seconds. "He" was also apparently a post-op transsexual, which explained Prudence's ability to enter that body and sustain her presence there for months as "The Quiet Man".
Monolith's Power Descriptions Archives
The Host is capable of storing all manner of microscopic organisms in her body. She can sense their presence in her vicinity, distinguish between different kinds, and compel them to be drawn in through her mouth. Her body is immune to any and all detrimental effects of the pathogens she hosts, and the physiological alterations that make this possible also give her enhanced strength, endurance, reflexes, and durability; she can rip the bumper off of a car, and shrug off a head-on collision in minutes. The Host can also expel the viruses and diseases she sustains through her mouth. Her range is apparently limited to coughing distance, but she contains a wide variety of different plagues from all over the world, capable of inflicting any number of symptoms on her victims. She can also cure her victims virtually instantaneously if she calls the pathogens back to her before they succumb.
Monolith's Power Descriptions Archives
Bolt is an electro-caster, able to produce electricity within his body and generate it outwards through his skin. He can create an electrified aura that distorts his facial features and shocks anyone who comes into contact with him. Bolt can also cause his electricity to be discharged from any area of his body, but normally directs it as blasts from his hands.
Monolith's Power Descriptions Archives
Debrii generates a telekinetic attraction field from her body, capable of drawing objects less than her own weight to her from roughly 15 feet away, maximum. Thus she can attract nearby "debris" into her orbit, and manipulate it as long as it remains there. Debrii keeps this matter swirling around her body most of the time, and even in the absence of solid matter she can gather enough pollutants out of the atmosphere to create near-solid masses of soot and dust to manipulate. She can gather her debris in tight packets of mass as makeshift shields to deflect or absorb attacks, or hurl it as high-velocity streams at an opponent. She also would occasionally swing masses along with her fists or feet to increase the impact. Debrii once demonstrated the power to construct a large amount of loose matter around herself into a giant exoskeleton body, possessing tremendous strength.
Monolith's Power Descriptions Archives
Microbe has the power of germ empathy, enabling him to communicate with micro-organisms in his vicinity. He anthropomorphesizes the sensations he receives from these micro-organisms, and believes the germs are actually talking to him. Microbe can use his power to sense the presence of humans around him by the bacteria they carry with them at all times, and recognize the difference between humans and androids or shape-shifting baboons attempting to pass as humans. His empathy is sensitive enough to tell him how long it has been since a person has bathed, brushed their teeth, and so on. He can also tell how long an animal has been dead. Microbe can exacerbate the effects of different bacteria on people, causing them to become sick or nauseous to varying degrees, or do the opposite and sterilize wounds by keeping micro-organisms away from open and exposed injuries. With the proper micro-organisms present he can fix a flat tire, cause metals to rust, prevent milk from spoiling, manipulate flesh-eating bacteria so that they only attack cancer cells, and other specific effects.
Monolith's Power Descriptions Archives
Rage was exposed to an odd mixture of toxic wastes while hiding in a drainage ditch. He was 13 years old at the time, but his body aged at an accelerated rate over the following months, making him look at least ten years older. He also developed considerably increased height and muscle mass, reaching at least Class 85 strength, along with superhuman speed, endurance, and resistance to all manner of physical harm. His power is at least partially related to his emotional state -- his aggressive demonstrations of strength (hurling a punch for instance) are on a higher level of strength than all other demonstrations (simply lifting, etc).
Monolith's Power Descriptions Archives
Turbo wears the Torpedo suit, a battle armor designed by the Dire Wraiths through their human agents to be a counter to Rom and his Spaceknight armor. It is a skintight bodysuit controlled by micro-circuitry and cybernetically responsive to the wearers thought waves. It was designed to be used by female Dire Wraiths in their human forms, and so humans cannot so far use it to its full abilities. Mickey Musashi (a human female) could use it at roughly 50% of full power, while Brock Jones and Mike Jeffries only reached about 30%. The nuclear-powered turbo jets on the wrists and ankles which provide most of the suit's abilities can either be smoothly retracted into the cuffs of the boots and gloves or extend into their active circular fan modes. When wearing the armor, Mickey possesses Class 20 strength, has superhuman reflexes, and can fly at over 5000 mph. Channeling the power of the suit through her gloves can amplify the amount of force she delivers with a blow, creating "hyperpunches" equivalent to Class 100 strength. Focusing the power through her leg turbines allows her to stamp the ground hard enough to trigger shockwaves in her immediate radius. The turbines in her wrists can also be directed to fire compressed streams of air outwards, exceeding 100 mph. A force field generated around the armor enables Turbo to breathe normally and survive the pressures of high-speed travel through the air, and act as radiation dispersers, harmlessly absorbing various forms of energy and redirecting it out from the armor, either directly behind her or as "energy shrapnel"...dozens of weaker versions of the original energy blast firing off from the surface of the armor in all directions. Rom Spaceknight had augmented the suit's protective visor so that it could detect the unique bio-signatures of Dire Wraiths, seeing them no matter what shape they assumed. The suit possessed a self-cleaning function that removed inks or dyes automatically, but Mickey was able to will the suit to change colors or designs with a thought.
Monolith's Power Descriptions Archives
Ultra-Girl is a pink Kree taken to Earth by a group of expatriates to be raised in secret. Her powers came from an artificially-engineered mutation referred to as "the V-factor". She has Class 50 strength, superhuman speed, agility, endurance, reflexes, and durability, as well as hyper-regenerative powers. She can also fly and has bio-rhythmic vision which allows her to recognize the difference between various humanoid genetic codes -- she can differentiate humans from mutants, aliens, or artificial lifeforms like androids.
Monolith's Power Descriptions Archives
SHIELD, the Strategic Hazard Intervention Espionage Logistics Directorate (formerly the Supreme Headquarters International Espionage Law-enforcement Division) has occasionally employed various superhuman agents in the past, often in the form of special strike forces.
The first SHIELD Super-Agents team was formed by Nick Fury with Marvel Man, Blue Streak, Vamp, and Texas Twister. He had planned on Captain America leading them, but Cap declined and ceded leadership to the Falcon. This was the beginning of a year long storyline where Cap was assault by agents of the Corporation, and we learned early on that there was a traitor leaking information out of the Super-Agents. Marvel Man (later Quasar) was a dead ringer for a Fantastic Four villain named Crusader, and Texas Twister had started out applying for the Frightful Four, but in the end it was revealed that both neophyte heroes Blue Streak and Vamp were agents of the Corporation. With the traitors uncovered and Texas Twister leaving, the Agents dissolved.
Texas Twister was caught in a nuclear accident that was caught in a tornado. Instead of becoming a beaten and battered radioactive corpse, he emerged from the funnel cloud with the power to manipulate winds at will. Generally, he projects his power as a whirling cyclone emanating from his body, which lifts him up so that he can fly, and he can carry other people and objects aloft in this funnel as well. Expanding the winds out from his body can batter any person or object in his vicinity, sending them flying uncontrollably through the air. Controlled manipulation of his power can also create a reverse-cyclone effect, drawing oxygen away from his victims to leave them breathless and make them pass out. He can also produce concentrated wind blasts from his hands which can blast through concrete and knock his opponents off their feet. His body is specially adapted to using his power, making him virtually immune to vertigo and dizziness and giving him superhuman vision, reflexes, and durability to compensate for the effects of riding on the inside of a tornado.
The Vamp was a Corporation spy placed in the SHIELD Super-Agent program by her superiors. A skilled hand-to-hand combatant, Vamp was given an absorbo-belt by SHIELD techs which allowed her to assimilate the strengths of other people. When facing an opponent, she cybernetically gained access to their fighting skills, knowledge of martial arts, and reflexes, while her strength was increased by the addition of their physical power to her own, giving her a constant advantage over any human opponent. The belt did not seem capable of duplicating superhuman powers or strengths, however.
Besides the belt, Vamp also possessed a natural super-power supposedly given to her by the Corporation, which she kept secret from SHIELD. Vamp could transform into a monstrous creature called the Animus, possessing an overly muscular (and decidedly non-feminine) physique, as well as a swollen oversized skull. These transformations were triggered by her supervisor using a remote device. The Animus had sufficient superhuman strength and durability to trade blows briefly with an angry Hulk, giving her at least Class 90-100 strength. She also possessed telekinetic powers enabling her to project psychic force blasts from her gargantuan head, levitate and propel objects through the air, or even animate unliving matter. The Animus at times caused the floor beneath the Hulk to rise up and entomb him effectively for a short period of time, and operated a VW bug or animated the Lincoln Memorial statue from a distance in order to assault Captain America. Vamp/Animus was limited by the fact that she had to remain immobile while employing her psychic powers, and the crystalline club she carried which acted as a focus for her powers. The nature of the club is unknown, but it manifested out of thin air whenever she transformed into the Animus. Given the highly artificial nature of her powers, it's possible Animus only channeled psychic energy which was being beamed to her through the club from a distant location. The Hulk once shattered the club and the resultant feedback nearly destroyed Vamp's mind. After learning of the Vamp's telekinetic power, Captain America suggested that she was the one who telepathically alerted another Corporation agent to his whereabouts earlier...but there was no real evidence that Vamp possessed telepathic powers, nor did she confirm Cap's suspicions.
Blue Streak was the second Corporation spy within the Super-Agents, there on behalf of the west coast branch of the criminal organization just as Vamp was representing Corporation-East. Initially, his "specialty" was little more than a set of rocket-powered skates, a single balancing wheel mounted under each foot. Later, after setting off on his own, Blue Streak adopted a set of standard four wheeled roller skates, padded costume and special paraphernalia. His rocket-skates enabled him to travel at speeds around 125 mph and makes leaps up to ten feet into the air. His maneuverability allowed him to bounce off walls and change directions very quickly, and his later skates were aided by retro-rockets on the front to slow him to a stop within a few feet. After setting off on his own as a super-villain, he traded in his roller disco costume for full body padding and an oxygen mask to help him breathe at his top speeds. He also carried a supply of tacks in his belt and could fire blue laser beams from his gauntlets.
The second round of SHIELD Super-Agents were gathered by G.W. Bridge to assist Nick Fury on his personal missions. On their first mission, they battled a collection of super-villains hired by Hydra to steal the Helicarrier, and not only won but Nick and Dum Dum Dugan convinced a rookie villain, Ivory, to switch sides and join the Super-Agent Initiative. Unfortunately, it was revealed less than a year later that Knockabout, Violence, and Psi-Borg were Hydra double-agents, and they killed Ivory and attacked SHIELD before being killed in turn by agents repelling their assault.
Psi-Borg had certain bionic components built into her brain and nervous system to give her psionic powers covering the range of most telepathic and telekinetic abilities. Her mental sensitivity enabled her to lock onto individual brainwave patterns, detecting the presence of other people in her immediate area and compensating for her eyesight in total darkness or if she were blinded somehow. She could project psionic blasts from her hands to knock opponents unconscious, psionically manipulate the thoughts and actions of others to a certain degree, fly under her own power, and project psionic shields which render her and other people invisible to the naked eye. Psi-Borg could also telekinetically sustain a comfortable environment for herself and others in adverse conditions, including maintaining a breathable atmosphere in vacuum or ultra-high velocities and modulating temperatures to a comfortable level.
Knockabout stood well over six feet tall and possessed superhuman strength and resistance to physical injury.
Violence was a normal human who employed a variety of normal and exotic weapons. She carried regular handguns as well as those that fired lasers, flame jets, or high-explosive bolts. She also had retractable knife blades in her wrist cuffs and carried a set of telescopic night vision goggles. Violence occasionally rode a hover-cycle equipped with side-mounted machine guns.
Ivory was a Wakandan who received vibration powers during an accident when Vibranium shards were blasted into her body at a microscopic level. Among the powers she demonstrated were the ability to pulsate her own molecules in order to pass intangibly through solid objects, send controlled vibrations through her surroundings in order to pinpoint hidden entrances, and create vibro-shockwaves which could tunnel through solid matter or tear objects apart from the inside out, shattering them. Ivory could also create an impact-dampening field, either to cast a protective shield around herself and her allies, or selectively drain objects of momentum in mid-flight. She could also apparently use her vibration fields to affect other superhuman powers, dampening them at low levels or actively causing them to backlash on their host at higher intensities. Thus, she could shield herself from being detected by Psi-Borg's scans, or reflect Angar's hallucinatory scream back at him.
The Elite Agents of SHIELD strayed away from the super-being special teams employed previously, relying more on members with specialties in different fields or unique forms of combat. So far, they haven't been revealed as evil traitor-spies, but we'll see.
Silicon has two liquid metal bionic arms replacing those he lost in an accident. They give him a vise-like grip and are capable of launching guided mini-rockets from the forearms. He can also project wire-guided interfacers from his fingertips to hack into mechanical systems and override them to operate under his command, or extend portions of his metal as tendrils to grab and manipulate objects from a distance.
The Kid is a highly agile sharpshooter, carrying a pair of handguns as his primary weapons.
M-80 is an explosive expert. She carries a variety of hand-held detonators based on impact, remote signal, or timer functions to trigger their explosions, so that she can throw them at her targets or set them in place. She also carries strips of cloth studded with explosive pellets at even intervals, which can be used to set off sequential or simultaneous explosions in straight lines when planted, or used as "lash" weapons.
Nails is a peak human physical powerhouse, possessing Olympic level strength and considerable hand-to-hand combat training.
Skul wears a plate over his heavily damaged face. He carries rifles and automatic weapons into battle.
The first SHIELD Super-Agents team was formed by Nick Fury with Marvel Man, Blue Streak, Vamp, and Texas Twister. He had planned on Captain America leading them, but Cap declined and ceded leadership to the Falcon. This was the beginning of a year long storyline where Cap was assault by agents of the Corporation, and we learned early on that there was a traitor leaking information out of the Super-Agents. Marvel Man (later Quasar) was a dead ringer for a Fantastic Four villain named Crusader, and Texas Twister had started out applying for the Frightful Four, but in the end it was revealed that both neophyte heroes Blue Streak and Vamp were agents of the Corporation. With the traitors uncovered and Texas Twister leaving, the Agents dissolved.
Texas Twister was caught in a nuclear accident that was caught in a tornado. Instead of becoming a beaten and battered radioactive corpse, he emerged from the funnel cloud with the power to manipulate winds at will. Generally, he projects his power as a whirling cyclone emanating from his body, which lifts him up so that he can fly, and he can carry other people and objects aloft in this funnel as well. Expanding the winds out from his body can batter any person or object in his vicinity, sending them flying uncontrollably through the air. Controlled manipulation of his power can also create a reverse-cyclone effect, drawing oxygen away from his victims to leave them breathless and make them pass out. He can also produce concentrated wind blasts from his hands which can blast through concrete and knock his opponents off their feet. His body is specially adapted to using his power, making him virtually immune to vertigo and dizziness and giving him superhuman vision, reflexes, and durability to compensate for the effects of riding on the inside of a tornado.
The Vamp was a Corporation spy placed in the SHIELD Super-Agent program by her superiors. A skilled hand-to-hand combatant, Vamp was given an absorbo-belt by SHIELD techs which allowed her to assimilate the strengths of other people. When facing an opponent, she cybernetically gained access to their fighting skills, knowledge of martial arts, and reflexes, while her strength was increased by the addition of their physical power to her own, giving her a constant advantage over any human opponent. The belt did not seem capable of duplicating superhuman powers or strengths, however.
Besides the belt, Vamp also possessed a natural super-power supposedly given to her by the Corporation, which she kept secret from SHIELD. Vamp could transform into a monstrous creature called the Animus, possessing an overly muscular (and decidedly non-feminine) physique, as well as a swollen oversized skull. These transformations were triggered by her supervisor using a remote device. The Animus had sufficient superhuman strength and durability to trade blows briefly with an angry Hulk, giving her at least Class 90-100 strength. She also possessed telekinetic powers enabling her to project psychic force blasts from her gargantuan head, levitate and propel objects through the air, or even animate unliving matter. The Animus at times caused the floor beneath the Hulk to rise up and entomb him effectively for a short period of time, and operated a VW bug or animated the Lincoln Memorial statue from a distance in order to assault Captain America. Vamp/Animus was limited by the fact that she had to remain immobile while employing her psychic powers, and the crystalline club she carried which acted as a focus for her powers. The nature of the club is unknown, but it manifested out of thin air whenever she transformed into the Animus. Given the highly artificial nature of her powers, it's possible Animus only channeled psychic energy which was being beamed to her through the club from a distant location. The Hulk once shattered the club and the resultant feedback nearly destroyed Vamp's mind. After learning of the Vamp's telekinetic power, Captain America suggested that she was the one who telepathically alerted another Corporation agent to his whereabouts earlier...but there was no real evidence that Vamp possessed telepathic powers, nor did she confirm Cap's suspicions.
Blue Streak was the second Corporation spy within the Super-Agents, there on behalf of the west coast branch of the criminal organization just as Vamp was representing Corporation-East. Initially, his "specialty" was little more than a set of rocket-powered skates, a single balancing wheel mounted under each foot. Later, after setting off on his own, Blue Streak adopted a set of standard four wheeled roller skates, padded costume and special paraphernalia. His rocket-skates enabled him to travel at speeds around 125 mph and makes leaps up to ten feet into the air. His maneuverability allowed him to bounce off walls and change directions very quickly, and his later skates were aided by retro-rockets on the front to slow him to a stop within a few feet. After setting off on his own as a super-villain, he traded in his roller disco costume for full body padding and an oxygen mask to help him breathe at his top speeds. He also carried a supply of tacks in his belt and could fire blue laser beams from his gauntlets.
The second round of SHIELD Super-Agents were gathered by G.W. Bridge to assist Nick Fury on his personal missions. On their first mission, they battled a collection of super-villains hired by Hydra to steal the Helicarrier, and not only won but Nick and Dum Dum Dugan convinced a rookie villain, Ivory, to switch sides and join the Super-Agent Initiative. Unfortunately, it was revealed less than a year later that Knockabout, Violence, and Psi-Borg were Hydra double-agents, and they killed Ivory and attacked SHIELD before being killed in turn by agents repelling their assault.
Psi-Borg had certain bionic components built into her brain and nervous system to give her psionic powers covering the range of most telepathic and telekinetic abilities. Her mental sensitivity enabled her to lock onto individual brainwave patterns, detecting the presence of other people in her immediate area and compensating for her eyesight in total darkness or if she were blinded somehow. She could project psionic blasts from her hands to knock opponents unconscious, psionically manipulate the thoughts and actions of others to a certain degree, fly under her own power, and project psionic shields which render her and other people invisible to the naked eye. Psi-Borg could also telekinetically sustain a comfortable environment for herself and others in adverse conditions, including maintaining a breathable atmosphere in vacuum or ultra-high velocities and modulating temperatures to a comfortable level.
Knockabout stood well over six feet tall and possessed superhuman strength and resistance to physical injury.
Violence was a normal human who employed a variety of normal and exotic weapons. She carried regular handguns as well as those that fired lasers, flame jets, or high-explosive bolts. She also had retractable knife blades in her wrist cuffs and carried a set of telescopic night vision goggles. Violence occasionally rode a hover-cycle equipped with side-mounted machine guns.
Ivory was a Wakandan who received vibration powers during an accident when Vibranium shards were blasted into her body at a microscopic level. Among the powers she demonstrated were the ability to pulsate her own molecules in order to pass intangibly through solid objects, send controlled vibrations through her surroundings in order to pinpoint hidden entrances, and create vibro-shockwaves which could tunnel through solid matter or tear objects apart from the inside out, shattering them. Ivory could also create an impact-dampening field, either to cast a protective shield around herself and her allies, or selectively drain objects of momentum in mid-flight. She could also apparently use her vibration fields to affect other superhuman powers, dampening them at low levels or actively causing them to backlash on their host at higher intensities. Thus, she could shield herself from being detected by Psi-Borg's scans, or reflect Angar's hallucinatory scream back at him.
The Elite Agents of SHIELD strayed away from the super-being special teams employed previously, relying more on members with specialties in different fields or unique forms of combat. So far, they haven't been revealed as evil traitor-spies, but we'll see.
Silicon has two liquid metal bionic arms replacing those he lost in an accident. They give him a vise-like grip and are capable of launching guided mini-rockets from the forearms. He can also project wire-guided interfacers from his fingertips to hack into mechanical systems and override them to operate under his command, or extend portions of his metal as tendrils to grab and manipulate objects from a distance.
The Kid is a highly agile sharpshooter, carrying a pair of handguns as his primary weapons.
M-80 is an explosive expert. She carries a variety of hand-held detonators based on impact, remote signal, or timer functions to trigger their explosions, so that she can throw them at her targets or set them in place. She also carries strips of cloth studded with explosive pellets at even intervals, which can be used to set off sequential or simultaneous explosions in straight lines when planted, or used as "lash" weapons.
Nails is a peak human physical powerhouse, possessing Olympic level strength and considerable hand-to-hand combat training.
Skul wears a plate over his heavily damaged face. He carries rifles and automatic weapons into battle.
Monolith's Power Descriptions Archives
Vector was mutated into a bizarre appearance, with a kaleidoscope of colors and starscapes imprinted on his skin. He gained a telekinetic vectoring power, allowing him to apply kinetic momentum to objects in order to attract or repel them on command. He traditionally used his power to repel opponents directly (like Iron Man's repulsor rays), or tag various objects in his vicinity and send them flying at his target. He can also radiate his power as a repulsor field, deflecting any and all material objects or energy beams that come close to him. Concentrated releases of his power can tunnel through solid rock or metal, and flay the skin off of the Incredible Hulk's body. With controlled manipulation of his power he can levitate and move objects along at any speed or direction he chooses, moving heavy objects where he wants them to go or assuming control of projectiles or energy beams fired at him, redirecting them towards a new target. By repulsing himself from the ground underneath him, he is able to hover and fly at will.
Vapor converted into a living gaseous state after receiving her powers, and can only transform back to solid human for brief periods of time, with concentration. She is unaffected by gravity in her gas form, and can fly and waft about under her own power. Also, she cannot be harmed by physical impact or injury, though certain things like fire or electricity can still affect her gaseous form at times. Vapor can transmogrify herself into any gas she can imagine, from base elements to artificial chemicals: hydrogen, oxygen, mustard gas, chlorine, cyanide, etc. As a result, she has a number of different powers based on her current state, including providing atmosphere to breathe when there is none, inducing unconsciousness as a narcotic or anaerobic gas, causing intense irritation and burning in the eyes and lungs, becoming acid in order to eat through metal, and so on. Depending on the type of gas she becomes, Vapor can even become invisible to the naked eye and have no identifiable odor to give away her presence.
Ironclad changed into a man made of living metal after the crash. He initially had a rough and uneven appearance, but later shifted to a smooth metallic skin. He possessed superhuman Class 50 strength and considerable resistance to physical injury in his normal state, and had the power to increase his mass at will by accessing an extra-dimensional source. This would temporarily magnify his strength and durability even further, allowing him to pin people or objects down by pressing on them, and make him virtually immovable no matter what level of impact was directed at him. He could also decrease his mass, making him lighter than normal so that he could leap great distances into the air.
X-Ray was transformed into a being of hard radiation. His default state is x-rays, but he can alter his radiation output to various different wavelengths at will. Existing only as pure energy, he requires no food, oxygen, or rest, and is unaffected by most forms of physical assault, suffering only psychosomatic pain when struck by sufficient force. By relaxing his hard radiation form, he can become intangible, and can turn invisible as well by shifting out of the visible spectrum of light. He is able to fly at the speed of light, and release his energy as concentrated radiation blasts, generating different levels of light, heat, hard radiation force, and of course intense radiation which can cause electronic interference or radiation poisoning. If necessary, he could produce extremely specific forms of radiation, such as different doses of gamma rays to trigger or reverse the Hulk's transformations.
Vapor converted into a living gaseous state after receiving her powers, and can only transform back to solid human for brief periods of time, with concentration. She is unaffected by gravity in her gas form, and can fly and waft about under her own power. Also, she cannot be harmed by physical impact or injury, though certain things like fire or electricity can still affect her gaseous form at times. Vapor can transmogrify herself into any gas she can imagine, from base elements to artificial chemicals: hydrogen, oxygen, mustard gas, chlorine, cyanide, etc. As a result, she has a number of different powers based on her current state, including providing atmosphere to breathe when there is none, inducing unconsciousness as a narcotic or anaerobic gas, causing intense irritation and burning in the eyes and lungs, becoming acid in order to eat through metal, and so on. Depending on the type of gas she becomes, Vapor can even become invisible to the naked eye and have no identifiable odor to give away her presence.
Ironclad changed into a man made of living metal after the crash. He initially had a rough and uneven appearance, but later shifted to a smooth metallic skin. He possessed superhuman Class 50 strength and considerable resistance to physical injury in his normal state, and had the power to increase his mass at will by accessing an extra-dimensional source. This would temporarily magnify his strength and durability even further, allowing him to pin people or objects down by pressing on them, and make him virtually immovable no matter what level of impact was directed at him. He could also decrease his mass, making him lighter than normal so that he could leap great distances into the air.
X-Ray was transformed into a being of hard radiation. His default state is x-rays, but he can alter his radiation output to various different wavelengths at will. Existing only as pure energy, he requires no food, oxygen, or rest, and is unaffected by most forms of physical assault, suffering only psychosomatic pain when struck by sufficient force. By relaxing his hard radiation form, he can become intangible, and can turn invisible as well by shifting out of the visible spectrum of light. He is able to fly at the speed of light, and release his energy as concentrated radiation blasts, generating different levels of light, heat, hard radiation force, and of course intense radiation which can cause electronic interference or radiation poisoning. If necessary, he could produce extremely specific forms of radiation, such as different doses of gamma rays to trigger or reverse the Hulk's transformations.