Magic Master
From Unofficial Handbook of the Virtue Universe
| |
| Magic Master | |
| Player: CaptSammy | |
| Origin: | Magic |
|---|---|
| Archetype: | Controller |
| Security Level: | 50 |
| Personal Data | |
| Real Name: | Matthew Martin |
| Known Aliases: | The Amazing Martin |
| Species: | Human |
| Age: | 32 |
| Height: | ' |
| Weight: | ' |
| Eye Color: | Brown |
| Hair Color: | Black |
| Biographical Data | |
| Nationality: | USA |
| Occupation: | Stage Magician |
| Place of Birth: | Ohio |
| Base of Operations: | ' |
| Marital Status: | Willow Tell |
| Known Relatives: | Sam Allen - Cousin |
| Known Powers | |
| Magical powers of Illusion - Ability to harness Radiation | |
| Known Abilities | |
| ' | |
| Equipment | |
| The Magical Amulet his father passed down to him, bestowing on him magical powers. | |
| ' | |
Contents |
Biography
Ancestry
Sara Allen was a rebellious 17-year old stuck in Ohio who longed to travel and have great adventures. While attending a traveling carnival she watched a sideshow act where a handsome magician, Manuel Martin, pulled her out of the audience. She decided to run away and join the handsome magician as his assistant. They began traveling as a team and they married two years later. Shortly thereafter, they had their first child, Matthew.
The Early Years
Living on the road in a travelling carnival sideshow was fascinating at first, and the two cared for each other deeply, but with a young child, the strain of travelling became much more difficult. The young family stuggled through it, but Sara started yearning for home and stability. When a second child, Mary, was born a few years later, Sara moved back to Ohio. The two never divorced, and loved each other, but Manuel could not leave the traveling life and the lights of the stage, and Sara needed to raise thier children. While there were other children in the traveling company, Sara desired a more stable and social upbringing, complete with a real and proper education. Manuel often came home to his family every winter when the carnival was on hiatus, and the children often spent a few weeks every summer traveling with the show. Matthew became a skilled young magician and sometimes even accompanied his father onstage.
Matthew and Mary grew up down the street from thier cousin Sam Allen, and they were all quite close. Within a couple years, Manuel took over the carnival and the troupe made camp for the couple months of winter in Ohio, bucking the trend of heading south to a warmer climate. Mathhew and Mary had a suprisingly easy time adjusting between both diverse worlds, making friends easily in school, and among the other carnival youth.
Taking the Mantle
After school, Matthew passed up the chance at college to take the mantle from his father and star in the traveling show. A few of the other children did the same, and the show started to take on a much younger, hipper feel, while also staying true to the circus/vaudeville past. Matthew assembled a crew of great young talent. One of those young talents was a trick shot archer named Willow Tell. She and her partner Tina Torch doubled as Matthew's lady assistants. Willow had traveled with the company as a child, while her father Willard Tell performed his act. Matthew and Willow had been childhood friends that slowly became romantic partners.
Manuel retreated from the troupe and tried to finally settle down with Sara in Ohio, but found the life impossibly dull and moved to Paragon City where he worked at small clubs doing small shows. Matthew visited with his father (and his cousin Sam, now in Paragon City himself) whenever the show was in that area.
The Rikti Attack
Manuel Martin's secret was that he was capable of REAL magic, and was a member of the secretive Midnight Squad. He was working with a group of Midnighters who were professors at Paragon University. He was called to the campus for an emergency meeting when the lights started appearing in the sky on that fateful day. Sensing the threat of the large group of magic-wielders, the meeting was one of the first places hit during the initial Rikti attack.
Manuel barely survived the attack and was trapped in the ruble and fading fast. He managed to bind his magic powers into the antique amulet he usually wore. However, during the attack, the strange crystal in the amulet took on some of the radioactive energy of the Rikti blasts.
Manuel's nephew Sam Allen was in the neighboring building during the attack. Manuel sensed him and reached out to him for help. After extracting himself and his friends from the adjacent building, Sam came to his uncle's aid. Although he freed his uncle from the wreckage, it was too late for him. He gave Sam the amulet and a key to a safety deposit box to give to his cousins Matthew and Mary, and perished shortly thereafter.
Passing the Torch
The axiom in the performing arts is that 'the show must go on', and due to the open warfare of the Rikti in Paragon, Matthew continued on with the tour until that fall after the Rikti had been pushed back. It was then that the entire troupe came to Paragon to give Manuel a proper sendoff. At that time, Sam gave Matthew and Mary the key and the amulet (which Sam had stored in a lead box due to its radioactivity).
The two went to the First National Bank of Paragon to retrieve the contents of the saftey deposit box. Inside they found a lot of notes describing Manuel's secret life as a Midnighter. The notes also described that amulet that his father wore. It is a hierloom, but also a mystic charm that was the source of his magic powers. The notes said that if Manuel was dead, Matthew should find the amulet and recite an incantation over it. Matthew took out the pendant and recited his words. Immeadiately the jewel in the pendant let out a blinding light. The light also released a huge burst of the radioactive energy it stored up from the day of the attack. The bank's sensors tripped an alarm and the bank vault automatically closed to protect the other patrons of the bank. Matthew and Mary were trapped inside the vault. The magic inside the pendant protected the two and they absorbed the radioactivity into thier bodies. Also, the mystical, magical powers of his father were bestowed on Matthew.
Hearing thier was an alarm at the bank where his cousins were at, Sam (now the superhero Captain Sammy, flew to the bank and puched through the vault to let his cousins out. The magic protected Matthew, who was now able to use his fathers magic, as well as harness the power of the radiation he had been infected with. Matthew's magic also protected Mary, but the radiation made her quite ill for some time, but eventually recovered and was also able to suppress (and harness when needed) her own radioactivity.
Going Forward
Mary moved from Ohio to Paragon City after she recovered and her cousin Sam got her admitted to the Paragon Scholastic Academy, a prestigious prep school for the gifted and the wealthy. Mary suppressed her powers to fit in.
Meanwhile Matthew went back to the carnival "because the show must go on". He traveled with his troupe, but during the offseason he would come to Paragon and lived with his cousin, who helped refine his powers. Going by the superhero name Magic Master, he worked alongside Captain Sammy in Paragon City. However, Matthew always faithfully rejoined his troupe every year for the performance season. Now with superpowers himself, he started to notice the potential around him in the troupe.
His fiancee Willow Tell was an impressive trick archer. Sam had introduced Matthew to the famaous Manticore once. Willow's natural ability was astoundingly similiar and with time and training, she could equally as formidable.
Willow's best friend and 'target girl' was Tina McClure, who also performed a 'fire-eater' act in the show. Matthew knew that Tina actually had the ability to harness and control fire, but had always considered this a curse, not a blessing. With training that could change.
Ivan Strong had been the carnival 'strongman' for many years under his father. For all the amazing feats of strength he performed, Matthew knew Ivan was actually holding back. Matthew had seen Ivan bench press a car while he was kid, but Ivan only did 'more normal' feats of strength in public.
Matthew began working with these people to refine thier powers and abilities. Many were uncomfortable using and developing thier powers, they just wanted to retreat to the world of the sideshow and stay away from normal society. Their respect and admiration for Matthew and his father caused them to reluctantly go along.
== Thorn in the Side == (scheduled to be changed to Nemesis and other changes when everything is figured out)
That all changed one day, when the Circle of Thorns invaded the Paragon Scholastic Academy. They were supposedly just holding the children of infleuntial people hostage, but there purpose was far more sinister. They were intending to sacrifice the teenage niece of the US President, and replace her with a clone, so that they could get past the President's security and assasinate him. The president is guarded not only by the usual secret service, but is also shadowed by a speical detachment of Longbow operatives to deal with any super-powered threats to the President's security. Unfortunately his niece does not get that extra treatment, a weakness the CoT were trying to exploit.
There was little security at the school, and the super hero response to the attack was week because it coinceded with a major villianous assault on Bloody Bay that sent the Freedom Phalnax and many of the city's leading heroes to push back against Arachnos. There was also several Rikti invasions throughout the city.
A team of Armour Clad heroes (("The Steele Brigage"??)) were the initial responeders but the Circle had an overwhelming amount of firepower and they were able to hold off the determined heroes.
Hearing of the situation, Captain Sammy responded to the crisis worried about his young cousin Mary and several other students who he knew. Captain Sammy immeadiately contanct Matthew and told them that he needed all the help he could get. Matthew went to come alone, as the others were not well-trained at this point, but the others insisted that come to help Mary. Captain Sammy also contacted a few other groups of heroes who had ties to some of the students at the school, and a nice force of heroes started to assemble.
Meanwhile, inside the school, Mary had joined up with several of her student friends. They had all been secretly hiding developing super powers in order to fit in, but now came together to sabotage the invaders from the inside.
As night fell, the assembled group of over 30 heroes outside began to take it to the Circle. Combined with the efforts of the small team of teens inside, they were eventually successful in stopping the crisis.
Night Force
After the battle, the group of performers-turned-heroes decided to embrace their destiny and use thier gifts, powers, and abilities for the good of the people of Paragon. Thier team of heroes know as The Sideshow became a part of the Night Force organization. A band of seperate, but interconnected teams that continue to operate as a team, but also support each other. They work out of a common base to pool resources. Mathhew leads his team against all the evil Paragon can throw at them.
