Groundwave
From Unofficial Handbook of the Virtue Universe
| |
| Groundwave: Scientist, Crime-Fighter | |
| Groundwave | |
| Player: @SusieBot | |
| Origin: | Technology |
|---|---|
| Archetype: | Controller |
| Security Level: | 30 |
| Personal Data | |
| Real Name: | Lyndon Ford |
| Known Aliases: | GW, Gwave |
| Species: | Human |
| Age: | 32 |
| Height: | 6'2" |
| Weight: | 175 |
| Eye Color: | Hazel |
| Hair Color: | Red |
| Biographical Data | |
| Nationality: | U.S. Citizen |
| Occupation: | Scientist, Registered Hero |
| Place of Birth: | Baltimore, Maryland |
| Base of Operations: | King's Row, Paragon City |
| Marital Status: | Single |
| Known Relatives: | Richard Ford, Father; Beatrice Ford, Mother; Paula Ford, Sister |
| Known Powers | |
| Earth-Shaping through applied radiation | |
| Known Abilities | |
| Scientific knowledge | |
| Equipment | |
| Geo-Beam Projector | |
| No additional information available. | |
Groundwave is a wholly Silver Age character -- a scientist, driven by guilt, with a single amazing device that grants him a narrow range of powers. He is inspired mostly by characters such as the Ray Palmer Atom, a scientific hero who has a very limited power, but uses his genius to find new ways to apply it.
I think it is important to emphasize how average he is without the Geo-Beam Gun. Outside of his genius, Groundwave possesses very few remarkable traits.
Contents |
Personality
Groundwave is a scientist first, and a super-hero second. He can be awkward, goofy, or downright corny. But he is quite intelligent, and can be assertive when he feels that he is arguing from a position of scientific and logical soundness.
Powers
Earth-Shaping
Groundwave's sole crime-fighting device is the Geo-Beam Gun. Originally invented as a large-scale mining tool, the Geo-Beam gun uses focused beams of radiation to promote rapid crystallization of minerals. Through directed application of these beams, earth and rock can be solidified, liquified, or displaced, facilitating the rapid creation of tunnels, mounds, or even complex shapes.
For carries a portable version of the Geo-Beam Projector, the Geo-Beam Gun. With its onboard computer rapidly manipulating the Geo-Beam projection array, the Geo-Beam Gun can be used to form stone restraints, mud pools, stalagmites, and even localized earthquakes and geo-thermal vents. Using these constructs, Groundwave battles crime in Paragon City.
Geo-Beam Radiation
In the course of his research, Groundwave has discovered that Geo-Beams have a wide variety of effects on human physiology. The Geo-Beam can be used to heal wounds, accelerate human metabolism, or alternately, to weaken a target's strength and constitution. Groundwave has thoroughly tested these Geo-Beams, but refuses to attempt new Geo-Beam programs on living organisms without extensive tests.
Magnetic "Skating"
Groundwave travels through the city by combining the Geo-Beam Gun with an electromagnetic plate in his boots. By polarizing the ground directly in front of him, and activating his boot magnets, Groundwave can "skate" at a height of approximately two inches above the ground. This frictionless mode of travel, akin to a mag-lev train, allows him to attain land speeds upwards of sixty miles per hour across flat terrain.
Abilities
Scientist
Groundwave has advanced degrees in Physics and Geology, and possesses a keen scientific mind. He will often apply this scientific knowledge to facilitate investigation of scientific crimes.
Hand-to-Hand Combatant
While he has not been formally trained, Groundwave can, when pressed, throw a punch.
Equipment
Geo-Beam Gun
Groundwave carries the Geo-Beam Gun in a holster on his right hip. This device, a smaller version of the large-scale Geo-Beam Projector, uses an advanced on-board computer to rapidly modulate Geo-Beams, enabling the user to create complex crystal lattices in earth, stone, or metal.
Groundwave has not yet achieved the upper limits of complexity for these lattices -- it is theoretically possible that Geo-Beams could be used to create lattices as complex as modern computers, or neural networks comparable to the brain of a small animal.
Weaknesses and Limitations
Normal Human
Without his Geo-Beam Projector, Groundwave is a normal human male. If he is caught unaware, unprepared, or simply outnumbered, he is extremely vulnerable to threats as mundane as gunfire or knives.
Fugitive
While he has not been formally charged, Lyndon Ford is sought by U.S. authorities for questioning for his involvement in the "Keysburg Disaster" (see below).
More importantly, the Trion Corporation will go to any lengths to secure Ford, and the Geo-Beam prototype. It is believed that Trion has extensive business dealings with Crey Industries, and may be utilizing that partnership to track down Ford.
Character History
Trion Corporation
Scientist and inventor Lyndon Ford worked for the mining division of the Trion Corporation, a multi-national corporation based in Texas and specializing the in the acquisition and processing of rare metals, chemicals, and radioactives. A genius engineer, Ford invented a device that he called the "Geo-Beam", which uses low frequency electromagnetic waves to transport high-energy particles through solid earth. These particles cause rapid, but unstable, crystallization. Careful, shaped utilization of these particles allows the Geo-Beam to move massive amounts of earth, allowing the rapid creation of tunnels and constructs. However, the crystal deteriorates rapidly once the beam is deactivated.
The Keysburg Disaster
Ford was in the process of testing the Geo-Beam on a limited scale when it was confiscated by Trion management and deployed to the small mining town of Keysburg, West Virginia. There, an accidental overload of the device created a Geo-Beam pulse that displaced several thousand tons of rock, burying part of the town of Keysburg and killing a dozen people. Upon hearing of the disaster, Ford took his research and the only remaining Geo-Beam prototype, and fled from Trion. We believe that Ford went to ground in Paragon City, where he continued refining the Geo-Beam.
Ford suspects (correctly) that Trion is continuing to search for him. The original Geo-Beam Projector prototype was destroyed at Keysburg, but Trion sees the potential in the device and desperately wishes to "re-acquire" Ford and his research.
Crime-Fighter
Ford made his first appearance as Groundwave four months after Keysburg. Wielding a portable Geo-Beam Gun, Groundwave apprehends criminals by locking them in constructs made of shaped earth. His first recorded apprehension occurred on 12 June of 2006, when Groundwave captured two members of the "Hellions" gang while they attempted to rob a local woman. The two criminals were found, unconscious and covered in mud, by PCPD patrols.
In addition to its earth-moving abilities, the Geo-Beam can also be tuned to emit several wavelengths of beneficial or dangerous radiation. Groundwave has been witnessed "zapping" criminals with the beam and sapping their strength, as well as turning the beam on himself to heal wounds or increase his energy level. Ford conducts constant experiments, utilizing a small home laboratory, to identify new Geo-Beam programs. A perfectionist, and unwilling to risk another Keysburg, Ford will not utilize a new program outside of the laboratory until it has been tested extensively.
On-the-job Education
Groundwave has, intermittently, been battling crime in Paragon City for nearly a year. In that time, he has developed an extensive arsenal of Geo-Beam applications, as well as a rudimentary set of survival skills (taking a punch, falling a short distance, basic physical fitness, etc.).
While he is inarguably a second- (or third-) string hero, Groundwave has made some powerful enemies. He has battled directly with Arachnos forces in Faultline (being obligated, thematically, to battle criminal activity in that neighborhood), faced Council adversaries on Striga Isle, and, most recently, confronted the supernatural dangers of Salamanca. The latter is especially surprising, as Groundwave is obviously distrustful of magic, and has elected to avoid cases of the supernatural variety in the past.
