Bolter Blue
From Unofficial Handbook of the Virtue Universe
| [[Image:|300px|]] | |
| Bolter Blue | |
| Player: @mercator | |
| Origin: | Science |
|---|---|
| Archetype: | Blaster |
| Security Level: | Confidential |
| Personal Data | |
| Real Name: | Barry Northman |
| Known Aliases: | None |
| Species: | Human |
| Age: | 30 |
| Height: | 6'1" |
| Weight: | 184 lbs |
| Eye Color: | Brown |
| Hair Color: | Black |
| Biographical Data | |
| Nationality: | American |
| Occupation: | Volunteer Research Staff with SERAPH |
| Place of Birth: | Waldport, OR |
| Base of Operations: | Argosy Industrial Park |
| Marital Status: | Single |
| Known Relatives: | Both parents, living |
| Known Powers | |
| Energy Projection, limited Flight | |
| Known Abilities | |
| Bachelors Degree in Physics and Metallurgy, Masters in Nuclear Science, Eagle Scout | |
| Equipment | |
| Confidential | |
| No additional information available. | |
Contents |
The Origin
Truth be told, Barry Northman was always bored at his job. He graduated high school with honors a year early and started college that summer, eager to make a difference in the world. School was interrupted by the Rikti Invasion and while he didn’t participate, he was among the lucky few who’s lives were impacted minimally.
Barry finished college with degrees in Physics and Metallurgy and pursued his Masters in Nuclear Science under a grant from the Terra Volta Research Foundation. His benefactors, impressed with the work he accomplished while in college, offered him a job directly on the research team looking into ways to improve the cities’ reactor system with both conventional and recently acquired Rikti technology.
In his years as an aspiring student and collegiate, Barry always wanted to make a difference. But the problems in his later life were elusive and not easily tackled. They were the problems that took years of painstaking research and countless hours of testing.
It was here that disaster struck. Seizing opportunity and lax security, Sky Raiders stormed the labs where Barry worked. Gunfire and explosions rocked the facility, causing containment leaks near the testing chambers. Barry, at work inside these chambers wasn’t aware something was wrong until it was too late. Alarm Klaxon’s fired and startled Barry, causing him to drop test samples and tear his protective suit. Exposure, accidental dosing and the resulting failure of the test reactor tore the building apart, scattering fragments of equipment, structure and maimed personnel across McEllerson Pier.
In the aftermath, Barry would ask some simple yet deviously difficult questions. As the recovery team medical staff confirmed Barry was alive and in good condition he ran through a checklist of his new problems. Chief among them was his employment status. With the lab destroyed, there likely wasn’t going to be work again for years to come.
Joining Hero Corps was a obvious answer. Under the guidance of SERAPH he could continue to do basic research and have a level of autonomy to research his new abilities. There was the promise of resources to help establish a private lab where he could conduct extensive testing.
The Question
How did Barry survive?
When his suit tore, Barry was assured a painful death. At best, exposure to the isotopes he was working with in the quantities on hand would have resulted in systematic organ failure in 72 hours. A painful, ugly end.
The serum he inadvertently ingested as he scrambled for the counter agent to his radiation poisoning was part of another teams research into enhancing human physiology to better endure long-term exposure to harmful elements. According to the research, at best it should have made him more resistant to the radiation, possibly immune (if you pursue an extreme scenario line of thought).
And then there’s the matter of the shrapnel. Gunfire, Rocket explosions and an exploding test reactor should have flattened everyone within 500ft. Barry, however was among the few to survive and more bizarrely he was without hardly a scratch. His unconscious body was found in the center of a modest blast ring approximately 4ft in diameter.
To complicate matters, residual radiation was far below levels expected from a containment failure of that magnitude. As well as there being little evidence of exposure among the dead or the living, suggesting some kind of energy sink absorbed all radiation that was permeating the room moments before the event.
The Hypothesis
The Combination of extreme circumstances released a potent dose of Adrenaline, mixed with the gene serum allowing him to absorb the ambient radiation forming stable quantum lattices. These lattices allow the instinctual release of energy in the form of concussive force.
Powers
The blasts produced by Barry's genesis have been recorded to average 15Ns of force, though field examinations will show them exceeding that by an order of magnitude. Barry has honed this ability through practice into two main expressions: A high-intensity 'Bolter Blast' and an area dispersal energy disc.
As an addendum to the documented powers under his official disclosure, Longbow has recognized his ability to fly and cleared Bolter Blue for low-altitude maneuvers.
