Coldfyre
From Unofficial Handbook of the Virtue Universe
| |
| "Whoa, slow down there, spitfire..." | |
| ColdFyre | |
| Player: @Sightfortheblind | |
| Origin: | Science |
|---|---|
| Archetype: | Blaster |
| Security Level: | 40 |
| Personal Data | |
| Real Name: | Brian Frost |
| Known Aliases: | Cold, Coldy, The Icy-Hot Avenger |
| Species: | Human |
| Age: | 20 |
| Height: | 6'0" |
| Weight: | 184 lbs. |
| Eye Color: | Blue |
| Hair Color: | Natural Blond, often gel'd blue or red |
| Biographical Data | |
| Nationality: | American |
| Occupation: | College student, Lab assistant, Superhero |
| Place of Birth: | Paragon City, RI |
| Base of Operations: | Skyway City |
| Marital Status: | Single |
| Known Relatives: | Mother, father, and an older brother |
| Known Powers | |
| Temperature control, a certain amount of atmospheric molecular control. | |
| Known Abilities | |
| Incredible intelligence, scientific minded. | |
| Equipment | |
| Blast goggles, heavy gloves of some sort. | |
| Watch for his smartass mouth. | |
The hero known as ColdFyre is a standout among superheroes for his remarkable normality. Other than being an extremely smart, nearly genius young man, ColdFyre is a normal human being, born of normal parents, and without any real distinguishing features or character flaws, aside from a wry sense of humor and a hard time getting a girlfriend. He simply had the bad luck, or the great opportunity, to be given his powers.
Contents |
Personality
ColdFyre's personality is perhaps the most interesting thing about him; at least to the psychologist in all of us. The reason for this is the radical change in attitude, personality, and confidence from when he puts on his superhero garb or takes it off. As Brian Frost, the somewhat geeky, incredibly intelligent college student alter-ego, ColdFyre is quite timid and not particularly social, much more comfortable messing with test tubes in the lab than being in the company of other people. He is much more quiet and subservient to others, and even his sense of humor seems to be effected, in that he is usually too shy to even bother making jokes of any nature. All in all, Brian is a kind young man, but very, very soft-spoken when not 'under the mask', so to speak.
However, that all changes as soon as the goggles and hat come on. When under the guise of ColdFyre, Brian's psyche seemingly changes so much, one would be hard-pressed to believe the same young man was only minutes before bumbling, hemming and hawing around a laboratory. As a hero, ColdFyre is brash, straightforward, and confident to the point of being cocksure of himself. There's always a joke to be made, and ColdFyre's almost always the one to be making it. Whether it's toward his enemies at the moment, his teammates at the moment, or just at the situation he has found himself in at the moment, ColdFyre will NEVER pass down a chance to get a laugh. Also, if there are any ladies in the immediate area, watch out: While Brian would never even dream of talking to a girl in anything but the most professional of atmospheres, ColdFyre won't hesitate to hit on and flirt with any girl he finds attractive. It's as if the superhero persona awakens all the confidence in himself that Brian cannot seem to find as a normal person.
As can be seen, Brian's personality is so far apart from his regular to his superhero side, if anyone were to realize they were both the same people, they might go so far as to inquire if the young man has some sort of split personality. Any psychologist or telepath who looks into the matter, however, would find that Brian's psyche is indeed quite whole and normal. This begs the question of what the 'true' personality of this hero is; or which parts of each personality are just exaggerated for concealment's sake.
Powers
ColdFyre's powers, while they seem simple enough, are frighteningly vast in their potential. Put simply, this young man has control over temperatures, as well as a certain molecular control over the atmosphere, to an extent he has not yet found.
Temperature Control
While most of his tricks and moves stem from a combined use of his two powers, ColdFyre's temperature control is the ability he is most confident with at present. Essentially, ColdFyre can raise or lower temperatures of nearly anything around him. What separates him from other heros or villains that can do something similar is that ColdFyre, somehow, can actually create localized fields of changed temperature, and with seemingly relative ease. For example, whereas many heroes can only raise or lower temperature one at a time, Coldfyre could, if he wished, lower the temperature around an area to his right while simultaneously raising the temperature in an area to his left. The limit to how far he can do this seems to be limited to any area within his current field of vision, though it should be noted that this is simply a conjecture made by ColdFyre himself, and that he has not actually tried to do so outside of his field of view.
The capabilities of this are at times fairly obvious, and other times not. For example, by dropping the temperature severely in an area around his hands, ColdFyre can freeze the wator vapor in that area, whether it was already there or created there (See atmospheric control below) to create the ice he uses for most of his attacks. Also, by superheating his own body temperature and the temperature immediately around him to extremely high degrees while simultaneously lowering the temperature just outside of that field to very low degrees, ColdFyre can somehow fake his own body mass, tricking the atmosphere to believe him to just be a warm gas. And, since hot air rises, ColdFyre can use this to extreme degrees to fly, or to much lighter degrees to leap higher than an average man.
It should be noted that, due to his control over localized temperatures, ColdFyre has quite a knack for ice sculptures. Since he can freeze the air and then superheat only the parts he needs to, it gives him a precision that rivals and even outclasses even the most talented artist's mallet and icepick.
Atmospheric Control
If his temperature control is the backbone of ColdFyre's special powers, then his atmospheric control is the rest of his skeleton. Used in conjunction, ColdFyre turns two powers that are interesting enough on their own into an incredibly efficent fighting force.
In essence, ColdFyre can manipulate the atmosphere from a molecular level all the way to an atomic level. What this means is that all of the gases in the atmosphere (Nitrogen, Oxygen, Carbon Dioxide, Argon, wator vapor, and trace other elements) are, to some extent, under the control of ColdFyre. At his own discretion, he can move these elements around, concentrating one or another in a certain, and even cause various element to come together and form bonds to create new molecules. It is through this that he actually creates his ice, by drawing the water vapor in the area toward him, as well as using the hydrogen in the air to create more water vapor by aligning it with the oxygen atoms, and then freezing it with his temperature control. Conversely, ColdFyre can also rearrange the atoms to form oxyhydrogen, a flammable gas at extremely high temperatures. Superheating localized areas of oxyhydrogen gives ColdFyre the ability to make flames in various shapes and forms.
It should be noted here that ColdFyre is well aware of how the trace amounts of Hydrogen present in the atmosphere would scientifically not be likely to help him produce all the ice and fire that he does. It is because of this that he believes he is actually pulling the hydrogen from various non-atmospheric sources around him, like the emissions of gasoline engines from nearby cars.
Abilities/Techniques
ColdFyre's first and foremost ability, and one he is particularly proud of discovering, is how he throws his ice. Though ColdFyre's not a complete wimp athletically, he realizes that just throwing a ball of ice at someone would probably do little but annoy them. So, the scientist that he was, ColdFyre began to experiment with both his main powers until he came across a method of throwing the ice at much higher speeds. When he creates his ice, ColdFyre also pushes every single molecule of atmosphere out of a tunnel-like cylinder between him and his opponent. He then throws the ice into the tunnel and releases his hold on the atmosphere from the point of entry. This floods the atmosphere back into what was essentially a vacuum, letting the rushing in of atmosphere 'slingshot' the mass of ice at extremely high speeds through the vacuum, thanks to the lack of resistance, until it strikes its mark at a rather high velocity.
ColdFyre also uses water for certain attacks. Moving hydrogen and oxygen particles together to make water vapor in a cylinder similar to the vacuum of his ice blast attacks, Coldfyre begins to freeze the vapor at a gradual rate, simultaneously pushing those molecules forward as he does so, to create what appears to be an 'ice beam' at his opponents. Once the water reaches the opponent, it will have completely frozen, encasing him in a prison of ice and causing him to be unable to take action until he can break free. ColdFyre has two version of this attack at present: A regular-strength one which encases his opponent in something similar to a cage of ice, and a high-density version which takes much more time to prepare the water vapor cone, which can not only hold someone, but reach temperatures so low it can chill them to the bone. The stronger version, however, tends to supercool the target, which causes a much more fragile encasing of ice that can be broken free from earlier.
On the flip side of things, ColdFyre also uses oxyhydrogen fire in his repertoire of attacks, though considerably less so than ice. The reasons being for this is that hydroxygen requires much more hydrogen than oxygen per molecule to form, and ColdFyre is still worried about where exactly this hydrogen comes from(See weaknesses below.) Also, his method of throwing ice would not work for fire, as the lack of oxygen in the vacuum would quickly stifle the flame before it could reach the target. Thirdly, and the reason ColdFyre most rarely visits publicly, is that he is fairly conscious of global warming and worries that too much use of such a hotly-burning fire could have adverse effects on the atmosphere. Regardless of this, he still finds way to use it in small junctures to aid him. First and foremost, ColdFyre will create a small ring of fire around one opponent. The superhot flames continuously burn at the one trapped inside, and ensure that he will not step outside them. Cold also shows his artistic side when he ignites oxyhydrogen gas in the shape of a sword and takes a swing at an opponent, which causes them to be burned with intensely hot flames.
One last trick in ColdFyre repertoire is his ability to raise the body temperature of not only himself, but anyone else, with merely a thought. What this does for him in battle is that he can raise the internal temperature of multiple enemies, causing them to become incredibly uncomfortable and give off excess body heat. Then he lowers their temperatures back to normal, causing all that body heat to escape into the atmosphere, giving him more materials to work with (OOC: Endurance ;) ).
Other Abilities
Apart from his powered moves, ColdFyre has a small repertoire of things he learned as a regular guy to help him in his crimefighting. First and foremost is his intelligence. He spends a lot of free time in the lab, often times tinkering on various tiny gadgets and gizmos that help him amplify his abilities, if not actually researching ways to directly modify his physiology for the same effect. Also, his intelligence has greatly helped him to develop his powers. By looking at them from a scientific perspective, ColdFyre was able to analyze and isolate the exact methods of how he does what he does, giving him the building blocks he requires to further hone and perfect his abilities.
Also, while no olympic-class athlete, Brian Frost was gifted with a fairly athletic build. This helps his stamina and ability for close-quarters combat, even if all he can do is throw a mean punch or two.
Also, there are two abilities that are currently unknown to not only ColdFyre, but everyone else, as well. ColdFyre is, in all actuality, a mutant, gifted with the mutant abilities of having an intuitively adaptive mind as well as body. This is why ColdFyre attained his powers, and why he can so easily interpret and perfect them.
Resistances
As can be expected, ColdFyre is incredibly resistant to temperature changes. For this reason, fire and ice in their usual states can not harm him at all. However, superpowered ice and/or fire, or simply much more concentrated versions, still manages to hurt him. As such, villains who use ice or fire, or even an angry guy with a flamethrower, can still put the hurt on the young man. Of course, it also stands to reason that these attacks will not damage him as much as they would a normal human, though.
Also, ColdFyre's body is seemingly resistant to the constant raising and lowering of his body temperature. His own studies have shown him, however, that while his body reacts to the heating or cooling of his body temperature by speeding up or slowing down his functions, it doesn't seem to affect him in the slightest.
Also, Cold has found that he has anywhere from a strong tolerance to a complete negation of alcohol in his bloodstream. His mercurial bodily temperature is either so low that the alcohol diffuses into his bloodstream at an incredibly low rate, or is so high that the alcohol is essentially boiled out of the drink once it's in his stomach, negating its effects entirely.
Another interesting resistance ColdFyre has, or at least, theoretically, is to age. While he is still fairly new with his abilities and hasn't lived particularly long as is, the young scientist has speculated about this since he first came into possession of his powers. As stated earlier, his body operates at much lower temperatures than normal, yet still functions as a regular body would. This has caused Cold to speculate that, in this way, his body could function for much longer than the average human could, which could possibly mean he can stay young for an incredibly long period of time.
Weakness
At the end of it all, however, ColdFyre still has a few weaknesses which can be exploited in battle.
First off is his fragility. While it has been stated that he's somewhat resistant against fire and cold, it's hardly enough resistance to matter in the middle of a battle. On top of that, any other type of attack is still just as effective against him as it would be any other guy. As stated before, at the end of it all, ColdFyre's just a normal guy.
Science and physics, ironically, plays against him in battles as well, due to the Law of Conservation of Matter. To use his powers, ColdFyre needs the necessary atoms that creates his elements on hand. In situations where they are taken away from him, ColdFyre would be left essentially powerless.
Another possible flaw in his character is the weakness of his persona as Brian Frost. Numerous times Brian has escaped a fight, only to return as ColdFyre. If someone were to keep Brian from going into his 'safe zone' and 'becoming' ColdFyre, it is unknown how he would react.
History
The Past
Brian Frost was living a good life. His family had a good house in Skyway City, he and his brother Jordan got along perfectly, and he was constantly making the best grades in his class. Nothing could really be better. All through his early days, it worked out great for him, especially his relationship with his brother. It is quite often that brothers fight and bicker, especially when brothers are as far apart from each other as Brian and Jordan, personality-wise. Brian was the quiet intellectual, always thinking, rarely acting, and Jordan was the musclehead. He was a big, strong kid, always was and likely always will be. In high school, the two took their respective positions, with Brian as the obvious choice for valedictorian and Jordan as the captain of the football team. Even despite their almost entirely different worlds, the two brothers weren't so far apart as one would think. Instead of picking on his brother for his nerdiness and love of science, Jordan was quite the opposite. He had a certain curiosity in his brother's speculations and scientific mind, even though his own mind just couldn't process it like his brother's could. Conversely, Brian was never opposed to engaging in a pick-up game of basketball or the like with his brother, as he wasn't a slouch, physically-speaking. It was almost as if each brother had not only their own talents, but the potential for the other's as well. It was just that neither really had the drive or the passion for the other's chosen path.
Time went on, and things fell as they would. Jordan graduated with the award of "Most Popular," and Brian graduated a year later as the class valedictorian. Both would eventually go to Paragon University, both on scholarships for their merits. They got an apartment together in Steel Canyon at the behest of their parents, who had believed that it would be best for them as individuals to strike out from the safety of their parent's home. And so a successful time at college began. Brian, eager to get a degree so he could actually go into the field of scientifics, began taking classes like a madman, entering summer courses and enrolling in well over the normal amount of classes per semester, and would eventually finish two entire years of college in one. Jordan, on the other hand, was taking his college days slowly and surely, much more interested in the social aspect, and, of course, playing on Paragon's football team, to want to skip too far. Of course, the two brothers retained their interest in each other's pursuits. Brian rarely missed a game, and Jordan assisted and watched Brian in the lab whenever possible.
The Accident
Brian had always been a science geek. His physics professor saw that in him, and pulled some strings to get him a job on campus as a lab assistant in Paragon U's theoretical physics department. The best part of the job was that, in his free time, Brian was allowed to tinker and experiment on his own, as long as he kept everything within the laboratory. A particular topic that was of interest to Brian was the nature of Hydrogen and Oxygen. On one hand, the two element combined together would make water and ice, and on the other, they could be combined together to make oxyhydrogen, a gas that can ignite at extremely high temperatures. Wondering how and why the very same elements could cause such drastically different forces of nature, Brian set about studying and experimenting. With his technical know-how and the vast resources available at Paragon U labs, Brian managed to create a sort of radical containment device. It was simply an oversized capsule-like device with two compartments separated by an electrically charged mesh screen. Brian had set up the device so that hydrogen and oxygen could float in between the two compartments, but as it passed the screen, it would either be rearranged to form oxyhydrogen or water vapor, depending on which side it was on. In the laboratory there was a machine, seemingly built just for this purpose. It could superheat and supercool an object in different places, and was powered by a miniature nuclear reactor. The apparatus was actually designed to experiment on the differences between various liquids and gasses in their super-temperature states. Brian hadn't known if it had been used in this way, to heat something through a device like this, but he figured it would be alright.
Unfortunately for him, it wasn't.
It worked perfectly at first. The oxyhydrogen burst into flames, the water vapor froze instantly. There seemed to be no problems, and Brian was just about to write it off as simply just another force of nature, when something sparked. Brian's eyebrows rose in fright as his containment device began to spark and shudder. It was then that it hit him: The mesh screen and electrical devices in the middle of the device were built cleverly, so as to be a superconducter of electricity, heat, and cold. Brian hadn't thought to account for all three. Unable to contain itself, the fire and the ice began to swirl together, and the now-electrified containment device found its threshold and exploded, causing a chain reaction with the heating/freezing apparatus itself, which cracked, leaking trace amounts of radiation into the room. Brian, who was right in front of the device when it exploded, was knocked backwards, unconscious. In his last moments of clarity, he was almost sure he was dead.
Next thing he knew, he was waking up on an autopsy table, a coroner standing above him, obviously quite surprised at his miraculous recovery. Brian leapt off the table and stared at the coroner, who looked at him like he was seeing a ghost. Brian caught a glimpse of himself in the mirror and realized why: His body was a deathly white, as if he had been dead for some time.
"I... I don't know what's going on..." he said, but the coroner, unable to contain his shock anymore, passed out. Brian bit his lip, looking at himself again in the mirror. "This... this isn't right. I don't feel like this. I feel... fine. Like I could just... warm up any..ti.."
The young man cut himself as, while he was thinking of warming up, his body began to return to its normal color. "... huh. Weird."
The ReBirth
Brian grabbed his clothes and kept himself looking normal as he returned to his apartment, where Jordan and his parents were sitting together mourning. They were all quite excited to see him, obviously. Brian explained that he didn't know what happened or why it happened, but that he was fine after all. The best explanation he could give was that something had shut down his body processes, but being exposed to a neutral environment for a long enough period of time had resuscitated him. None of his family ever really understand his scientific technojargon, so they just thanked the powers that be for his life.
Once their parents had left, Brian felt the need to confide in someone, and who else than his older brother and best friend? "Jordan... can I show you something, if you promise not to freak out?"
"Uh, yeah, sure Brian."
Brian thought about it again, and, like before, lowered his body temperature and appearance to being completely frigid.
"Holy SHIT Brian, what the hell man?!" Jordan freaked out.
"No, no, calm down, man, it's okay. Watch." And with that, Brian went back to his original temperature.
"Dude! That's awesome! Er... what, exactly, are you doing?"
"I'm not too sure yet, Jordan, but I... think I can change my temperature."
"You mean, when you do that... you get cold?"
"Only one way to find out..." Brian smirked and lowered his temperature again, and Jordan's hand outstretched to touch his arm. He pulled it back quickly, shaking it to warm it back up.
"Oh yeah. That's cold. Can you do hot?"
Once again, Brian concentrated on changing his temperature, up to normal and well past. His body took on a slightly reddish hue. Jordan's hand outstretched to his brother's arm again, and poked it gingerly before pulling back again. "Hoowee! That's hot! Dude... you could be a superhero!"
Brian just laughed at his brother and shook his head. "Oh yeah, what are they gonna call me? MC Hammer? Nobody can touch me after all."
"Well, I dunno, dude. If you can raise your own temperature... maybe you can... I dunno, raise other temperatures? Hell, for all we know, man, you could make cold fire!"
Brian just shook his head again, passing off the idea, but something about it stuck. He couldn't help but think about what his brother had said to him about being a superhero. It seemed so silly, so fanciful, and completely out of Brian's realm of expertise. After all, he was more at home thinking, not acting. Driven by the thought, Brian would practice his powers in the sanctity of his own room or at Paragon U's courtyard late at night. Using the scientific method, he continued to experiment, just this time with himself rather than with external sources. If you would ask him, he would tell you it was then that ColdFyre was truly born.
The Present
Hours of research and experimentation later, Brian had finally reached what he would consider a comfortable medium with his abilities. He had understood the gist of everything by this point: On a whim, he could raise or lower the temperature of any area of space he so desired, and furthermore, and this is what really interested him, he could manipulate the atmosphere on a sub-atomic level, moving around various elements at his whim, and even, with a little more practice and concentration, severing and re-attaching atomic bonds. The simplest thing he could do, however, was to create ice seemingly from out of nowhere by pulling water vapor toward his person and freezing the air around it. Finally, he devised a sort of 'sling-shot' method of throwing it by pulling all of the elements in the atmosphere out of a cylindrical pocket of space and throwing the ice into it, allowing the influx of atmosphere into the vacuum to push along the ice at incredible speeds. From there, Brian knew he had the tools, and the know-how. All he needed was a name.
The Hero
Even as he practiced, something Jordan had said stuck with him. 'Cold fire'. Perhaps, in that, he had a name. He threw on an outfit, his nervousness seeming to cause a drop in his body temperature, leaving him stark-white. After rummaging around in his closet for a good superhero costume, and coming up empty, he decided instead upon a pair of white baggy pants he believed were actually Jordans, with a red fire stripe going down the side of each, and a matching pair of boots. He went to his bathroom, grabbing the colored hair-gel and slicking his hair back with the substance, keeping it out of his face and, more importantly, giving it a bright red hue, in order to further the disguise. Finally, he threw on a red baseball cap and a pair of blast goggles he had borrowed from the PCU lab, thinking the combination of the hat, goatee and hair color, and the smokey black goggles covering his face would do enough to keep his identity secret from the outside world. He did, after all, have a mother, father and brother whose safety he'd have to consider if he was out busting criminal heads. He took the metro to Atlas Park, and went in, registering under a false real name as the hero ColdFyre.
On that day, officially, Mark Winters became ColdFyre. Brian Frost, however, was already more than comfortable with the name. And thus would begin the journey of the hero known as ColdFyre.
Brian's initial forays into the hero realm were all but exciting. Unlike many heroes, who could come home with fabulous stories about their daring, extended capers into the realm of various evil factions, Brian, somehow, never managed to do that. He took a much more surgical aspect to crime-fighting: Instead of following a lead all the way through, ColdFyre would strike at opportune moments, returning a stolen artifact from the Circle of Thorns here, breaking up a riot from the Skulls there, but never following it much farther than a single mission or two. Furthermore, these missions would usually be at the behest of other heroes who needed assistance. ColdFyre found that his ice missiles were extremely damaging, as they were so cold the explosion they caused would chill the target to the bone as well as smash against their bodies, causing them to slow down as they attempted to recover from the cold. Another factor that the bad guys learned to fear about ColdFyre, though, was his mouth. Not only did he soon start breathing frosty breath that could chill multiple opponents to the core, but ColdFyre, quite unlike Brian Frost, had quite the tendency to talk smack. When grouped with other recently-registered heroes, ColdFyre would almost constantly be chattering into his team communicator, either throwing harsh insults at his opponents or good-natured jibes at his teammates. It certainly began to cause a stir amongst the hero community, especially his personals-ad-like public requests to assist in missions ("I'm a registered Blaster, security level 15, who enjoys freezing Hellions, a good dinner, and long walks on the beach. I'm looking to join one or more other similarly minded heroes in my interests, especially the Hellions one.") Despite all that, however, Brian was still always somewhat of a secondary hero, content to assist others rather than take the lead himself.
The Loner
After reaching Security Level 20, Brian started to feel more comfortable in his work, and dedicated himself to taking on more responsibilities alone. He busted up the Freaklympic games, a massive crime spree started up by the Freakshow, who to this day remain one of his more despised enemy groups. Brian, at this point, would spend all of his days fighting crime, and all of his nights relaxing at the Pocket D. He'd found the mayhem and mystery at the D provided an inherent source of entertainment, and would oftentimes be found there after a long day of busting criminal heads, drinking an ice water and watching the people around him, even going so far as to engage in conversation. It was here that Brian found the girl that would change his life forever.
Cappi and the Turbo Sharks
One day, sitting in the D like any other, ColdFyre stumbled across a very beautiful girl who went by the name of Cappi. She had distinctly elven features, but would quickly explain to the hero that she was not an elf, but rather a transdimensional being. This intrigued ColdFyre on a scientific standpoint almost as much as her looks did on a more primal one. The two hit it off and became fairly good friends, and Cappi seemed to have finally broken Cold of his loner tendencies. After level 20, ColdFyre did not only assume more solo responsibilities, he began to cut himself off from the groups of heroes running around. While he had been content in his early security levels to simply remain a helping hero, as he grew stronger, and as the wild and outspoken persona of ColdFyre grew from being simply a screen to further separate ColdFyre from Brian Frost into a living, breathing reflection of how he viewed himself as a whole, ColdFyre desired, and to an extent, demanded to separate himself from the crowd. To the young hero, that meant doing what those Heroes in his registered class, Blasters, would rarely do: Do things alone. He would join groups less and less, and on the rare chance when a group of heroes wanted him to join their Super Group for a little permanence, ColdFyre would either politely refuse or join and leave maybe a week later. His loneliness seemed to fit him, and he had grown used to doing things his own way. However, when Cappi asked him if he wanted to join her and her friends in a mission or two, Cold just couldn't say no, and wound up spending the next few months almost exclusively teaming with her and her Super Group, the Radical Turbo Sharks.
ColdFyre started to re-develop his sarcastic attitude, jibing back and forth, especially with the masked Brit Berceuse, until finally, it was Berceuse's idea to induct Cold into the Sharks. (His exact words being something along the lines of "Stop flirtin' and jus' make 'im a Shark, already, Cappi!") This time, ColdFyre accepted. However, the feeling of being in something bigger than himself began to wear on him. He had done so much switching already in his short career, from working to help others to working to elevate himself, that it was beginning to strain on his psyche. He ended up taking off from Paragon one day, going to visit family back in Texas, and even aiding in the defeat of a few giant monsters there. When he returned, Cappi, Berceuse, and all of his friends in the Turbo Sharks had disappeared.
The League of Misfits
Thankfully, they had not gone far. ColdFyre tracked down Cappi, and she told him that her, Berc, Rouge Typhoon, and a few others had gotten together and formed a new Super Group, as the leader of the Sharks had been lacking in leadership, and the soon-to-be Misfits had been working almost exclusively with each other and no one else in the Group, anyway. She was more than willing to allow ColdFyre to join, and he did, with little reluctance. The group started to blossom, and ColdFyre seemed to find his place in the world. Once he was within friends, he began to balance the two warring sides of his approach to heroing. He found it wasn't hard at all to achieve fame and glory while helping those in need. You just had to be loud about it. Cappi had started seeing some guy, named DoubleTime, but, despite his giant crush on her only months prior, ColdFyre didn't seem to mind. He had found acceptance of a different sort within the Misfits, and was happy there, for the first time since he started fighting crime.
Stagnation
Soon, a phenomenon came to ColdFyre's attention that he had not noticed until, perhaps, it was too late. Everyone in his group was out-pacing him. It seemed they had all managed to continually get stronger, or more adept with their abilities, while ColdFyre, meanwhile, remained stagnant. In truth, he had dug up all he had cared to with his powers, thinking they would be sufficient, and that, at Security Level 40, he was as high as he needed to be. Seeing all of his friends and Super Group-mates rising right up past his clearance level and reaching Master Hero status at Security Level 50, however, caused a certain sort of depression within the young man. He had spent so long using his powers, and it had been ages since he last sat down and thought about different applications, he wasn't sure he could even come up with new and interesting ways to use his abilities. After another short hiatus, he came back with a bang. Removing much of his past misgivings about global warming, Brian concocted a few new ways to use oxyhydrogen fire in his repertoire, giving him a much stronger close-range game than he had previously. Even so, he was still massively outclassed, and even the new, younger heroes that were joining the 'Fits as fledgling heroes were shooting right past him. It seemed that nothing he could do would be good enough to keep up. And so, ColdFyre decided, once again, to leave in shame.
Time Away
ColdFyre return exclusively to his persona of Brian Frost, plunging himself headfirst into the studies he had been overly neglecting. However, at the end of the day, hero or not, Brian was still an incredibly gifted genius, and his university studies proved no problem. Within a year, Brian had graduated with honors, gaining his Masters degree in both Chemisty and Physics, with a focus in atmospheric composition and research. He was offered a teaching job within PCU, which he graciously accepted, as it would, of course, allow him to continue his extended use of PCU's laboratory equipment. So Brian's life became much simpler for a good deal of time. He would teach his classes, grade papers, hobnob with other professors, and just generally meld back into normal society. However, he still spent much of time in the labs, constantly working on something. His mind would always wander back to the Misfits, what they were doing and how they were holding up. Sometimes, when he was sure nobody was around, he'd go outside his new residence in Steel Canyon, by the University, and bust up Tsoo, still in his labcoat. He knew the pull of heroing hadn't gone away, especially considering the object he had been working on all this time. One night in the lab, Brian couldn't help but laugh as he looked down on his invention. He had created a pair of metallic and rubber gloves, designed to pull in water vapor and run it through electrolysis within the gloves to sever the bonds and produce pure hydrogen. The gloves would basically provide what his containment capsule from almost two years ago did: a means of creating both water and oxyhydrogen, without having to pull it towards him consciously. The end result, theoretically, would be a massive increase in resources with which to create ice and fire. He knew he had to test them out, and he knew furthermore that he didn't want to do it by himself.
And so, one ice sculpture at Misfit Mansion later, ColdFyre was back in the game, no longer crippled by his lower level. In fact, he was more than ready to get promoted all the way up to Security Level 50 himself.
Character/OOC Notes
- Is my first CoX character, and likely the one closet to my heart.
- He went through several incarnations, but I was never sold on the 'logo on bare chest' idea until one of the stars, with the right coloration, just looked right.
- I honestly switched him to a tanktop, anyway, after everybody in the D always told him to put a shirt on, heh.
- The reason ColdFyre's story is the way it is, is because I find myself fascinated in the psyche of the hero. The way someone can put on a mask and just go beat the crap out of bad guys is interesting to me, and even before I read such comics that actually go into that sort of physchology of it, such as Watchmen, I often wondered what kind of person really lies beyond the mask. So, I took my favorite hero, Peter Parker aka Spider-Man, and decided to push his persona to an extreme, just sto see if it would still resonate the way Parker does. From where I'm standing, I've done alright, although if anyone cares to disagree, by all means let me know on the talk page or in-game.
