Break Through
From Unofficial Handbook of the Virtue Universe
| |
| grandson of Cyrus Thompson aka BreakNeck | |
| Break Through | |
| Player: @Elusive | |
| Origin: | mutant |
|---|---|
| Archetype: | scrapper MA/SR (speedster) |
| Security Level: | 50 |
| Personal Data | |
| Real Name: | Dwayne Thompson |
| Known Aliases: | BT, Dwayne, Break |
| Species: | human |
| Age: | 18 |
| Height: | 5' 10" |
| Weight: | 135 |
| Eye Color: | brown |
| Hair Color: | black |
| Biographical Data | |
| Nationality: | Black American |
| Occupation: | student |
| Place of Birth: | Paragon City, Rhode Island |
| Base of Operations: | Paragon City, Rhode Island |
| Marital Status: | single |
| Known Relatives: | grandfather Cyrus Thompson (deceased), father Lionel Thompson (strained), mother (name unknown at this writing), auntie Elaine Seavers |
| Known Powers | |
| Scrapper with martial arts primary and super reflexes secondary. Pools are Fitness, Superspeed, and combat jumping from Leap category. | |
| Known Abilities | |
| speedster with martial arts experience and streetwise fighting instincts from years in gang. Also, can win enemies and influence people | |
| Equipment | |
| have sneakers will travel | |
| No additional information available at this time. Watch this space for developments. | |
IMPORTANT NOTE: Though it of course never caught on, part of the intent behind this character was to get people to make speedsters related to Cyrus Thompson. I also wanted to bring more attention to the great CoH comic book storyline written by Troy Hickman, and see if it were possible to make BreakNeck a more integral part of the game. Prior to my creating this character, there was no Cyrus Thompson statue in front of the King's Row train station. Whether Break Through helped to inspire that or not is open to debate. Further, I was hoping to someday see other players 'steal' my idea. It's entirely possible Cyrus Thompson and his wife had a large extended family, and that their many offspring each had several children. While Dwayne was raised by his mother an only child, his father Lionel Thompson (one of potentially many of BreakNeck's sons) left him when very young, and being a confidence trickster, probably sowed his wild oats quite a lot. So it's entirely possible that YOU could make up a speedster character who is somehow related to Cyrus Thompson, and have fifty levels of roleplaying fun just like I did.
Having read Troy Hickman's comic book story "Smoke & Mirrors" in the City of Heroes comic books (still available at the official website as of this writing) I found myself fascinated by the idea of an old man who used to be a speedster, dying out of sacrifice by using his powers one last time to save humanity, and I was wondering just what was he saving? What would be worth his own life? What legacy did he leave behind?
Originally this idea was going to be a combination of characters, but that changed. Break Through was originally going to be Cyrus Thompson's daughter. She'd have no speed powers but be able to slow other people down, effectively being a kinetic controller. Then her son (Cyrus' grandson) would be BreakNeck Junior. However I'd just spent fifty levels playing a controller and so Dwayne's mom went on the back burner indefinitely. I instead gave Dwayne the name Break Through, which kinda merged the ideas I was having. In the 'canon' of his backstory, he's the first known relative offspring from Cyrus to manifest powers, but he may not be the only one. Follow:
Contents |
Physical Description
Dwayne is a tall and lanky young black american male, with an overconfident swagger.
Character History
Dwayne was born and raised in Paragon City. He spent most of his childhood in King's Row. Though legally married when he was born, Dwayne's parents separated about when he started grade school. They divorced before he was ten, and his relationship with his father's side of the family became sketchy about then. His mother won custody and they moved to what's now the Hollows. When their house was destroyed they moved to Skyway for a time. Now his mother has a nice place in the newly renovated Faultline apartment neighborhood.
PLEASE NOTE: If Dwayne's father, Lionel Thompson, has any special powers due to being the son of Cyrus Thompson, he's never revealed it to anyone Dwayne knows. Lionel is not a superhero. He's a con artist and a vagabond, and Cyrus all but disowned him in the latter years of his life. Dwayne rarely speaks with Lionel. It appears that the genetic mutation skips a generation. Dwayne's mother has no genetic mutation.
Having a working single mother, Dwayne found it easy to keep secrets from her. While she struggled to make ends meet, Dwayne joined a gang. Said gang was an early competitor with the Hellions and the Skulls which are now long forgotten. In trying to trick the Hells and the Skulls into fighting one another, Dwayne's gang got caught up in a political quagmire that backfired. Today, Dwayne's gang are known among the Hells and Skulls only as The Marked. Dwayne's the only known living member of said gang, whose real name he keeps to himself.
During the final gang fight where The Marked were decimated by the Skulls and the Hellions, Dwayne's speed powers first surfaced, but surprise and inexperience left him out of control. He was able to escape, but he was unable to save his friends, and only the timely arrival of his mystical auntie Elaine kept him from completely losing it. She helped him cope with his newfound abilities, and her connections as a social worker helped him get off the streets, back into good terms with his mother, and auntie Elaine even helped Dwayne begin to put the pieces together about his newfound abilities and where they came from.
He read up on whatever he could find in the library about his grandfather. Cyrus Thompson had been in the military as a youth, and military experiments were done on Cyrus in hopes of making him a better soldier. Those experiments were not to the military's satisfaction so they let Cyrus go, but now his own DNA had been altered. Those altered genes skipped a generation (Lionel Thompson shows no signs of mutant powers) and first manifested itself in Dwayne.
Dwayne was never able to hide his identity. He was in a public place the first time it happened and there were several witnesses who claim to see him move and cause a sonic boom which destroyed glass and left a couple people too close to him deaf. Also, after his grandfather passed away, the truth about BreakNeck came out in the media, so it wasn't hard for the local media to put two and two together. Dwayne doesn't want a secret identity anyway. He craves the attention too much. However, his family and most particularly his mother is not pleased with his chosen hobby, so he often finds himself downplaying the risks and dangers involved when talking to people, for fear his mom might learn how close to death he was and respond in that way only mothers know how.
Since accepting the legacy of BreakNeck, Dwayne's worked on a couple projects for War Witch, gone back in time, helped to take down the other gangs in Paragon and forge a nonviolence treaty between them, helped bring a cure to The Lost, done errands and favors for most all the major Surviving Eight, and done his grandfather proud. BreakNeck had already died before Dwayne became Break Through, but Dwayne likes to think he's living up to the legacy - quite the quick shoes to fill.
Break Through joined CAPES on a trial basis, with the understanding that if he focused on his studies he could get into college faster than the usual student. Now that his speed powers were under control, he was using speed to cram for exams and get homework and studying done at a fraction of time. However, although cramming allowed him to learn a great deal of information in a short time and retain it for testing, it was later determined that this boost of knowledge was not always long-lived. Some faculty also questioned if his use of special powers during testing was not a form of cheating. With frustration, Dwayne was not able to graduate high school in time to get into the next semester of college. He was instead held back, even though he'd already done all the curriculum requirements for his senior year.
Then some unexpected news arrived from Tibet. Dwayne was made aware of an agreement that his grandfather had made to some people in Tibet who were now in great need of the prowess of a speedster. Although Dwayne was initially reluctant to fulfill his grandfather's promise, he left Paragon City for the first time in his life to assist tibetan monks in a series of endeavors that he has since undisclosed to others, having been sworn to secrecy. His return to Paragon City brought him to the discovery that an alien named Twilght Son has a way of allowing Break Through to go back in time and perhaps meet his grandfather before his death. Dwayne hopes to take this opportunity to change history and save his father, but how that will pan out or whether it's even possible, only time will tell.
Personality
Dwayne's a bit of a spitfire and often talks before he thinks. He's impulsive, impetuous, pretentious, and behaves as if he's under the illusion that he's incapable of dying. However, he's fiercely loyal to those he chooses to be friends, and will often say what he thinks with a brazen honesty that's refreshing and occasionally even charming. He also likes being the center of attention whenever possible, and is not afraid to crack a joke at the expense of the bad guys he's about to pound into submission.
Dwayne has absolutely no reservations about selling out his newfound celebrity to sell breakfast cereal or a line of sneakers. In that, he's got a bit of his father in him. Lionel Thompson was always a bit of a confidence trickster. Dwayne is often looking for shortcuts to fast money. This occasionally gets him in hot water.
Affiliations
Supergroup: CAPES although to be honest it's more of an honorary because his character was never quite old enough to be in college, and roleplay opportunities were few and far between with the group. He's also spent the past year or so out of Paragon City. He just recently returned. It is uncertain if he'll still be accepted into the fold again after his long absence.
Abilities
Primary Powers
Speed is his top priority. The ability to get from point A to point B faster than the laws of physics should allow is what keeps him going. Dwayne's also able to jump higher than some, although not to supreme levels. Furthermore, he's a respectable combatant with plenty of moves and obvious knowledge both of conventional streetfighting and various forms of martial arts.
Secondary Powers
He's able to aquire and lose girlfriends at the drop of a hat.
Weaknesses and Limitations
His metabolism causes him to have to eat and drink more than the average person. He can't fly without extraneous assistance. He's not particularly fond of squash or brussel sprouts.
Trivia
- Most peer heroes call him BT. (pronounced 'bee-tee').
- Likes pizza. A lot. We're talking a LOT of pizza. All kindsa toppings. And tacos. Taco Pizzas are a recent discovery for him.
- A girlfriend made his first costume. They no longer speak, but she based it loosely on his grandfather's pictures, and Dwayne has changed the costume design very little since she made it, despite the fact ICON keeps trying to get him to improve his look. He's not pleased with their alternatives thus far. It's possible he keeps the costume as is because it's the only thing of hers that he has left, but he'd deny that if pressured.
- Although when his powers were first developing, he did once move his hand and generate a sonic boom, he's been unable to duplicate that since. His speed seems to peak at a little over one hundred miles per hour, which is nowhere near the speed of sound.
Creator Contact Information
Global: @Elusive
Official Forums: ZachsMind
VirtueVerse: ZachsMind
