Fly-By Knight
From Unofficial Handbook of the Virtue Universe
Sometimes, you get a costume drop so good that it keeps you up at night dreaming up new characters for the sole excuse of using it!
| |
| "Face me, foul fiend!" | |
| Fly-By Knight | |
| Player: @Pulcinella | |
| Origin: | Technology |
|---|---|
| Archetype: | Scrapper |
| Security Level: | 29 |
| Personal Data | |
| Real Name: | Lance Jefferson Knight |
| Known Aliases: | "Lancelot" (USAF call sign) |
| Species: | Human |
| Age: | 27 |
| Height: | 6'3 |
| Weight: | 234 lbs |
| Eye Color: | Blue |
| Hair Color: | Red |
| Biographical Data | |
| Nationality: | American |
| Occupation: | Knight-Hood Aeronautics CEO, crimefighter, former USAF fighter pilot |
| Place of Birth: | Cleveland, Ohio |
| Base of Operations: | Confidential |
| Marital Status: | Confidential |
| Known Relatives: | None |
| Known Powers | |
| None | |
| Known Abilities | |
| Confidential | |
| Equipment | |
| "Portal Blade", rocket boots | |
| ' | |
Contents |
History
Knight Sky
As long as he could remember, Lance always wanted to be a knight. Not merely be granted the title by the queen of Such-and-Such, no: he really wanted to be a bona fide knight in shining armor, defending the city, protecting the innocent, defeating the evil by deeds and inspiring the good by example. Unfortunately for him, "knight" isn't really a career choice in our modern world. Lance thus settle on what he thought was the closest thing: he became a fighter pilot for the US Air Force. His steed would be one of steel and fire and his sword would come at high-velocity through the sky.
However, as time went by, Lance started realizing that army life and his idealized vision of knighthood were worlds apart. Even though he was one of the best pilots of the USAF, a yearning for a higher purpose tugged at his heart, a yearning he thought he could never satisfy until that fateful letter came in, the envelope bearing the logo of a company he'd never heard of before: Knight-Hood Aeronautics.
Knight Fall
Knight-Hood Aeronautics was founded in the early 1970s by Theodore Knight and Maximilian Hood. Specializing in commercial aircraft carrier technology, its R&D division still churned out quite a few remarkable designs still used to this day by Longbow and Wyvern, namely the jet-packs used by both of these organizations' flying operatives. These successes however created strife between the two business partners: Knight felt that the company could continue providing low-cost technology for Paragon City's heroic defenders while Hood saw the proof that they could become a very successful - and very rich - military contractor. Fortunately, due to Knight being the majority stockholder, it was his more altruistic vision that won out.
But bad things tend to happen to good people. Knight suddenly fell gravely ill, falling victim to bone cancer. Knowing that his time left on this Earth was very short and having no one to whom leave his shares of the company, the condemned man spared no expenses searching for the perfect successor, thus preventing his business partner from transforming Knight-Hood into a weapon factory. And the best they could find on short notice was Lance Jefferson Knight, USAF pilot.
Knight Life
Now back to that letter. It informed Lance that he was now the majority stockholder and CEO of Knight-Hood Aeronautics. Enclosed in the envelope was another envelope, this one containing a hand-written letter from Theodore Knight. In it, the deceased exposed how Lance would have to continue steering the company into a new era of heroic implication, continuing the development of groundbreaking technology to aid in the reconstruction effort of Paragon City and the ever-going fight against its criminal elements. The letter also warned him against Maximilian Hood and of his warmongering intentions.
Having no experience in managing a multibillion technology company, the overwhelmed young man still saw an incredible opportunity in this amazing development. If upper management was giving him the cold shoulder, he found ready support in the R&D staff who had always been supportive of the old Knight's views. Together, they could not only fulfill Theodore Knight's dream, but also Lance's.
Appearance
Lance Knight stands tall and broad-shouldered. A flock of bright red hair frames a face bearing a constant trusting smile and twinkling blue eyes. Even though everything in the way he moves and talks speaks of power and steadfastness, always his voice and smile will betray the gentleness of a benign giant.
Personality
If we had to get the flaws out of the way first, it would be easy to say that Lance is idealistic and naive. Not only does he strive to hold up virtues that would be considered oudated by today's jaded standards, but he also has a tendancy of thinking that others - especially other heroes - subscribe to the same views. But perhaps it's the fact that he always believes in the potential for the best in everyone that constitutes his greatest quality.
Equipment
"Portal Blade"
Although Lance wanted to wield a weapon that would yield back to the knightly days, he was still aware that he would at some point come face to face with opponents who were not of flesh and blood: stone, metal and even semi-corporeal protoplam would not succumb to an ordinary steel blade. In order to overcome this dificulty, the Knight-Hood researchers recycled an old scrapped project, that of the "Portal Jet", an experimental aircraft that would create punctual portals on its flight path and thus "jump" from one point to the next. The equipment needed to port a whole plane was revealed to be bulkier than the plane could ever carry, no matter the size of the craft; otherwise, the ported material would be severely damaged. Due to the very high risk to human life and the impractical applications, the technology ended up on a dusty shelf.
However, it the same technology was applied to a 3-foot edge, programmed to activate on the point of impact only and allowed to do botched ports, it would essentially function as a blade. When the Portal Blade is swung, matter hitting the impacting edge is ported through the sword to the back edge and gravely damaged in the process. This comes with a few limitations however. First, the sword is so heavy that it needs special gloves to use; these gloves use a special inertia buffer (another botched prototype for orbital flight) to actually reduce the sword's weight and help the wielder recover from swings. Otherwise, it's impossible to use the 270 lbs weapon in an effective manner. Also, it's theorized that certain materials will simply cancel out the porting effect. Even though the sword was designed to withstand sudden impact along its porting edge mechanism, it can act no better than a heavy metal club in this case.
And then God forbid if you try to stab with it: using both edges at the same time represents a slight chance of having all life as you know it stopping instantaneously and every molecule in your body exploding at the speed of light.
Rocket Boots
It's fortunate these things are at least comfortable, because the Knight-Hood scientists still haven't figured out how to propel nearly 500 lbs of man and equipment through the air using a fuel reserve the size of two coffee cups. For the moment, Lance uses a PPD-issued Raptor pack to fly around town. The pressure is heavy on his staff - with a name like the Fly-By Knight, you can't just take the bus!
UPDATE: Finally, the answer was in an abandoned escape pod fuel compound. The original mixture was too concentrated and threatened to explode on detonation in a conventional engine tube. However, the solution is perfect for a highly concentrated thrust conduit! (Give me a break, I just read the memos those science guys send me!)
Trivia
So yeah, that was a very not subtle reference in the Portal Blade section. I figured if I'm going to do pseudo-science, I might as well pay homage to the masters!
As I was listening to music and writing this, it occured to me that this character's theme music should be the Back to the Future theme.
My project for this character is to try and go through all the latest hazard zone content in order: the Hollows, Faultline, Striga, Croatoa and then Cimemora.
There's nice potential here to make a villain out of Maximilian Hood. Contact me if you think you'd be up for this.
