Omnimouse
From Unofficial Handbook of the Virtue Universe
| |
| Omnimouse | |
| Player: @Serpine | |
| Origin: | Mutant |
|---|---|
| Archetype: | Scrapper |
| Security Level: | 50 |
| Personal Data | |
| Real Name: | Norbert "Nort" Ralston |
| Known Aliases: | None |
| Species: | Mouse (Mutated) |
| Age: | 8 (Considered legally adult) |
| Height: | 3'11" |
| Weight: | 60 Lbs. |
| Eye Color: | Black |
| Hair Color: | Light grey |
| Biographical Data | |
| Nationality: | American |
| Occupation: | Crimefighter, Journalist |
| Place of Birth: | Skyway City, Paragon City, Rhode Island, USA |
| Base of Operations: | Paragon City |
| Marital Status: | Single |
| Known Relatives: | Ben Ralston (adopted father) |
| Known Powers | |
| Enhanced strength, agility, and resistance to injury: Meeting or exceeding the maximums for a full-size adult human athlete. | |
| Known Abilities | |
| Trained in several martial arts forms. Skilled in photography and writing. | |
| Equipment | |
| A prototype combat suit developed by Quixote Systems Inc: Made of advanced puncture resistant materials and has an integrated gravity harness. | |
| No additional information available. | |
Contents |
Personality
Norbert has attempted to model his actions and worldview based on the ideals presented in licensed comics and docudramas about earlier heroes, in gratitude for his "rescue" while still a seemingly normal rodent. He prizes honesty and integrity above all things, and tries to project a professional yet friendly demeanor in hopes of inspiring others to heroism. Overall he is not troubled by the negative reactions his appearance generates, be it hostile or just condescending: He prefers to use his unique nature advantageously to lure enemies into underestimating him or allow him to comfort and aid others like children who might be intimidated by dealing with a more impressive looking hero. He can be a bit naive, being essentially an eight year old with a comic book based world view, and occasionally his natural instincts (particularly involving food) get the better of him leading to short lapses of unpredictable behavior. He also finds the notion that he should enjoy cheese to be very amusing: He can't stand the stuff.
History
The Test Subject
Norbert's earliest memories, dim as they are, are of being a mouse of normal shape and size alongside numerous other rodents and other test animals in a lab. The animals in the lab, and later even some humans, were subjected to painful, unethical, and extremely illegal test procedures, believed by those who have studied the matter to have been attempting to isolate biological changes from a previously unknown mutagen. The mortality rate on test subjects was high, and it is unlikely he would have survived, save that a band of heroes apparently located the lab and defeated its owners in spectacular fashion. Norbert in particular, who while normal in appearance had been born with a superior intellect to his fellow rodents as well as a bizarrely altered internal physiology, was fascinated by the cacophony of sounds and color as the heroes went about their task. As well he was amazed by their careful teamwork and camaraderie, like they were a family of totally disparate looking creatures, something he had never experienced since the other mice instinctively shied away from him.
As the battle raged one of the heroes, apparently realizing that the test animals were in the path of destruction, swiftly unlocked their cages so they could flee the carnage. Along with the others Norbert skittered off, hiding in the expanding field of rubble until the chaos subsided. Once the area was secured and the other heroes had dashed off to bring the human test subjects to medical care and the villainous scientists to the authorities, the hero who freed them returned to gather up the released animals so they to could receive proper care. To his constant regret since however, Norbert's animal instincts took over and he panicked and fled when the hero approached.
Escaping the lab into the streets, Norbert became just another one of the common street vermin that infect a city, at least at first. Over the next year he found that his size and intelligence were rapidly increasing. He soon could dimly understand the workings of the world from the perspective of its primary inhabitants, the humans, and he had even begun to vaguely resemble them. By his second year he had evolved to the point that he could (when sufficiently cloaked) be mistaken in build for a human child, and that he was vastly stronger and faster then one. He put these traits to good use when scavenging for food and shelter. It was also around this time that he first encountered some discarded comic books, stories licensed from the real life adventures of beings like the ones that had freed him years ago. While he couldn't read he understood the images clearly: Good guys defeat bad guys. It was his defining moment.
A Chance Encounter
Do to his existence as street vermin, Norbert had long been aware that humans preyed upon one another in the back alleys and dark places of the city. He had previously assumed this was just part of nature, much as when he fought over food scraps with the other city animals. But now the comic books he had found had given him a different vision on the matter. He began shadowing the movements of the more predatory humans, waiting for his moment. He would wait for them to attack another, thus proving them to be the "bad guys" from the comics, and then charge in using his already impressive strength and the element of surprise to rescue the victim. Soon a rumor about a giant white rat attacking human vermin began appearing in tabloids and filler stories in cheap newspapers. In one of these stories the writer had mistakenly typoed a phrase about the "ominous" sense of dread the criminals now felt as an "omnimouse" sense of dread, a mistake that was picked up and joked about by several late night talk shows. The legend had begun.
Almost another year had passed, and the mysterious white rodent had continued his heroic deeds, and was now being regularly referred to in the papers as Omnimouse: "In a city were even the mice are heroes" even became a momentary catch phrase among the media. Around this time a corporate attorney for Quixote Systems, Inc., a government experimental weapons contractor, had ended up in the wrong section of King's Row and was about to become the latest victim of a vahzilok organ harvest. Fortunately for him, Omnimouse happened upon the scene, tracing a particularly foul smell. The mouse moved aggressively to defend the lawyer, but having mostly fought gang thugs, was totally unprepared for the savageness of a cadaver's attack. Nearly outmatched, he collapsed from his wounds just after defeating the monster.
When he awoke, Norbert found himself in a human hospital. Terrified at its resemblance to the research laboratory from his first hazy memories, the poor creature ended up cowering under the bed, and required a great deal of coaxing by Ben Ralston (the rescued attorney) and medical staff to get him to come out. In fact, it was only the clever use of a comic book to lure him that worked, performed by one of the nurses who was inspired by his childlike demeanor. Soon he accepted the medical care and comfort offered by the staff, and when he recovered was taken to the home of Ralston, who felt simultaneously indebted and fascinating by the seeming intelligence of the creature. This intelligence became all the clearer as Omnimouse began to pick up a few human words and seemed to want to understand the strange symbols in the comics it was given. Ralston had never had a child, and quickly came to regard his rescuer as sort of a surrogate son, renaming it Norbert after his father.
Corporate Sponsorship
Even if successful, most corporate attorneys lacks the resources to raise an intelligent, enlarged, super powered, and extremely ravenous rodent. Thus Ben Ralston turned to his employer for assistance. Knowing that the owner, Arthur Cervantes, of the company fancied himself a super hero (Office Knight) he figured it would be an easy sell to get aid for the heroic white mouse from the papers. He had no idea how easy. Cervantes adored the notion, envisioning Omnimouse as the perfect potential pitchman for QSI's new toy division, as well as a potential recruit to the corporate sponsored super hero team he had planned. Norbert soon was learning English and history from the finest tutors, had the best doctors determining his ideal diet and medical needs, and was encouraged to replace his naturally learned fighting techniques with actual training from martial arts experts that were associated with the company in its role as weapons contractor. Norbert was easily overwhelmed by this, he was learning about how the world really worked, an actual hero was funding his training, and he could get all the comic books he wanted.
As Omnimouse, Norbert served cheerfully as a corporate mascot for Quixote Systems, Inc. for some time, and was honored to serve as a tester for a prototype flight suit they were developing (modified to take advantage of his unique biology). He went back to fighting crime in the streets with his new training and equipment, and became somewhat of a hit with the media when they wanted a "cute" hero story. He also enjoyed spending time with his "father" Ben, who he learned had ended up abandoning his dreams of being an investigative journalist to instead pursue law do to parental pressures. The relationship between the to was solidified when Ben used some legal trickery, combined with public pressure from adoring fans, augmented by QSI's corporate contacts and money to have Norbert legally declared his son and a full sentient citizen of the USA in a surprising series of court victories. While he was overjoyed with the results, Norbert was a bit disturbed by how easily QSI had manipulated the laws and media to achieve the ends. This led him to reevaluate the company, its owner Cervantes, and his relationship to both. Unable to fully align the needs of the company and his needs to pursue heroism unfettered he resigned his position as corporate mascot, and moved out from Ralston's home lest the latter's continued connection to QSI cause friction.
A Mouse On His Own
Alone in the city once again, though now with a much greater understanding of it as well as a decent fan base and a supportive parent, Norbert decided to pursue a dream he had long had. After settling in a small apartment, he soon set himself to poring over archives and news clippings, trying to find evidence of the heroic action that had freed him from the lab during his first memories. He wanted to thanks these heroes for their efforts and inspiration, but unfortunately could not clearly remember them do to the still undeveloped nature of his mind when he had still been just a caged test subject. Worse still, few public records seemed to match up with his recollections, so he was frequently frustrated. However, while his efforts failed to solve that quest, they combined with his father's talk of his own lost dreams served as a new source of inspiration for the Omnimouse. Soon Norbert was taking courses in photography and journalism at the university, dreams of exposing more subtle villainy via media as well as defeating the more overt forms as he had always done.
Unfortunately his appearance does not lend itself entirely well to such a career. Going undercover is out of the question, and it’s hard for an interview subject to take a four foot tall mouse in a suit seriously, even if it is capable of defeating super villains. Still he has endeavored with his new pursuit, getting degrees and taking what small jobs he can doing small news pieces as he works to build credentials in the industry. And always he keeps his ears to the ground in hopes of getting any clues regarding the heroes he still wants to thank.
Affiliations
The Omnimouse has been loosely associated with Quixote Systems Inc for much of his heroic career, ever since he rescued and was later adopted by one of their corporate attorneys, Ben Ralston who was also responsible for the recognition of the mouse hero in court as a sentient citizen. Unfortunately in spite of QSI's being headed by another hero, Office Knight, the company's extreme focus on profit eventually caused an unbreachable rift. Thus he is no longer considered an employee or spokesman for the company, though they continue to maintain his suit and provide some living expenses as they (much to his frustration) still profit from exclusive licensing rights to his heroic image.
Outside of heroic duties, Norbert Ralston has done freelance work for several newspapers and television news programs, including the Paragon Times and PCN. Do to his non-human nature and odd appearance however he is considered a novelty act at best and so hasn't been able to get the regular hard-core journalistic jobs he wants.
More recently he and his frequent teammate Banshee Bunny have joined the Guardians of the Golden Age.
Powers
Obviously unlike other mice, Omnimouse possesses numerous human traits including brain structure, general build, height, and muscular development. Beyond that he possesses several unknown organs, similar in structure but dissimilar in function to those found during the dissection of rikti monkeys, an extreme oddity considering that the date of the rikti attack was over a year after his lab escape. These organs appear to generate large amounts of bio-chemicals throughout his system at all times, and increasing amounts when he is under stress, that grant him enhanced strength, agility, and damage recovery easily exceeding that of human athletes twice his size: He has been recorded lifting over 200 pounds. The energy output of his biology is sufficient to serve as an external power source to the prototype Quixote Systems combat suit that he wears into battle (see Equipment).
Weaknesses
Like a conventional mouse, Norbert lacks the structures in his eyes that would allow the detection of red light (his suit's color scheme was chosen by a focus group at Quixote Systems Inc, not him). His immediate resistance to illness is low, though most maladies are swiftly burned off by his enhanced metabolism. He also has to eat a tremendous amount in relation to his body mass, over five times what a similarly built human would, or his accelerated bio-system begins to swiftly shut down. Doctors believe that his lifespan is likely to be short as well, though it is obviously lengthy by mouse standards, it will likely be only a third of the human norm.
Abilities
In his desire to emulate the heroes his dimly remembers, and to gain better control of his runaway biology, Omnimouse has put great effort into studying the arts of hand to hand combat. He has studied combative styles such as karate, muay thai, and American kickboxing as well as the more internally focused techniques of tai chi chuan. He also has a degree in journalism from Paragon University and graduated from a program in professional photography.
Equipment
Omnimouse wears a tight fitting prototype combat suit developed by Quixote Systems Inc as a test bed for several government contracted experiments. The suit is composed of a mix of ultra high molecular weight polyethylene fibers and an experimental undisclosed material, and provides superb resistance to punctures, corrosives, and extremes of temperature. In addition, it incorporates a more advanced miniaturized version of the personal lift and propulsion system used by the hero Office Knight (aka Arthur Cervantes, the owner of QSI), specially retrofitted to be powered by access bio-energy given off by its diminutive wearer. This version of the system allows lacks the fine hovering control of Office Knight's, but has demonstrated similar flight cruising speeds of over 30 mph. While technically the suit is still the property of the corporation, and Norbert is no longer an employee, he is allowed to continue using it because it provides invaluable test data and there are few others out there with the build or biology to support it.
OOC NOTES
( One day I started mispronouncing ominous as bit of a goof, and thought it sounded sort of heroic that way. Thus a hero was born. )
