Hardcastle
From Unofficial Handbook of the Virtue Universe
| |
| Heroine in the Isles | |
| Hardcastle | |
| Player: @Steampunkette | |
| Origin: | Magic |
|---|---|
| Archetype: | Brute |
| Security Level: | 50 |
| Personal Data | |
| Real Name: | Hannelore Moreau (Sophie Moreau) |
| Known Aliases: | None |
| Species: | Human |
| Age: | 27 |
| Height: | 6'3" |
| Weight: | 194lbs |
| Eye Color: | Grey/Blue |
| Hair Color: | Red |
| Biographical Data | |
| Nationality: | Etoille Native |
| Occupation: | Superheroine |
| Place of Birth: | The Etoille (Rogue Isles) |
| Base of Operations: | Cap au Diable |
| Marital Status: | Involved |
| Known Relatives: | No known relatives |
| Known Powers | |
| Superstrength, Flight, Invulnerability | |
| Known Abilities | |
| Confidential | |
| Equipment | |
| Confidential | |
| No additional information available. | |
Contents |
Public Knowledge
The leader of the SPEAR (Supers Protecting the Etoille Against Ruin) Hardcastle is a fairly enigmatic woman. Several months ago she crawled out of the ocean off the coast of Sharkhead Isle wearing little more than the torn remnants of a mask and her underthings. Before that she'd never been seen to anyone's knowledge. Facial recognition software has been employed time and again to various photographs of her with no matches using any database. These tests have been performed by the Council, Arachnos, the Column, Vanguard, the Freedom Corps, and InterPol. Whomever she is, she did not exist before she crawled from the sea.
Several weeks after rising from her watery birth, Hardcastle was seen wearing various makeshift costumes from hoodies and jeans to lycra workout clothes. Eventually she managed to locate a person willing to make a spandex costume for her, a tailor in Sharkhead named Marcus rutherford who was attacked by Arachnos within hours of assisting the heroine. However Hardcastle was on hand and managed to stop the Crab Spider assault group from taking Mr. Rutherford from his home. He has since been relocated, via smuggling, to England, where his family has since found a way to make him vanish. Noone has ever seen Hardcastle without her mask, in public she wears it at all times, even when attempting to go incognito.
It was during a Freakshow attack that Hardcastle realized she needed help and had no way of cleaning up the crime of the Isles alone.She contacted various local heroes and created a network effect, going to contacts in the heroic underground to spread the word, even contacting visiting officials and dignitaries, after saving them from various attacks, in order to ask them to spread word of her team-gathering intent back to the US and Europe. Soon the SPEAR was born. She gathered a core croup of allies, and more and more. The Fight Doctor, Dendrocnide, Void Dreamer, Strike Girl, and more all answered the call. Etoille Natives, US-Born Heroes, Time Travelers, and even a tree made mobile by the Hamidon's will and sentient by the Midnighters. Virtuous folk as well as those who sought to be redeemed.
Early History
Hannelore Moreau was born into a happy family in Port Oakes in 1982. The daughter of Jean and Wilhemina Moreau, a Lawyer and an accountant, she was not a poor child by any stretch of the imagination. Raised in a loving home, she was the apple of her father's eye, his little princess. Whenever work would allow it, he would take her around the Etoille to visit local tourist attractions, libraries, or shows around the Etoille. He spoiled her, terribly, and treated her as if she were the only person in the whole world during their daddy and daughter days. When Hannelore was around six or seven she raced home with a report card from her classes, she'd received the Honor Roll and wanted to go out to celebrate on a Daddy/daughter day. She searched the house for her father for a few minutes and spotted him in the backyard from the second floor window. She raced downstairs and out the back door, waving the card in her hand, just starting to call out "Daddy!" when his hand flashed up from his hip, put the barrel to his temple, and ended his life with the abruptness of a thunderstrike.
She spent the next several months in the care of psychiatrists attempting to reach her. So far as they could tell she'd simply shut down. One day she just "Got Better" out of the blue. During a lunch period she looked down at her food, smiled, and took the spoon from the orderly who had been feeding her in order to feed herself proclaiming "Yum! Pudding!". From that moment on she seemed a perfectly normal and happy, well-adjusted girl. Unbeknownst to the doctors they'd just witnessed a mental breakdown reach it's fruition. In that moment Hardcastle was born inside the mind of Hannelore Moreau. Traumatic Dissociative Personality Disorder is the clinical term. But for Hanners it meant she had a friend inside her head willing and able to "Take Over" when the world became too much for her.
Emotional Retraining Period
Over the course of the next decade, Hannelore was nursed back to mental health by Hardcastle. They both had access to all of the same memories, so Hardcastle would go to class, and Hanners would gain the knowledge learned. It took years to pull Hannelore from the dark place in the recesses of her mind, but with hard work and friendship.
During their High School years, Hannelore was, more often than not, in control of their body. She took an interest in Noir films and murder mysteries as a way to settle her nerves in relation to her father's tragic end. Meanwhile Hardcastle preferred the more physical pursuits of exercise, sparring, and the martial arts. They did their best to seem utterly normal in front of their classmates, but Hannelore's Mother knew something was wrong with her baby girl. She didn't know what it was, but she'd seen both sides of her daughter. Wilhemina did her best to provide for Hannelore in the years following Jean's death. She was doing the work of two parents to maintain the lifestyle the girl had grown accustomed to, and the stress was nigh-unbearable.
Hannelore decided to forgo college, and instead use her college fund to support herself during Police Academy. She explained to her mother she wanted to protect other young women from violence. It took time, but they finally agreed to disagree, and Hanners went into training. It was during her time in Academy that she made a close friend in the form of David Mayers. Mayers was a good kid, or at least pretended to be. He and Hannelore were friends throughout academy, it was he who nicknamed her "Hanners". They were assigned to the same classes, took the same tests at the same time, and she pushed him to succeed, helped him throughout training to become a better cop.
Graduation was a day of intense celebration Wilhemina, Hannelore, David, and other friends of the family spent the whole evening having a blast. Dancing, music, food, and drink, a marvelous time was had by all! In the morning further good news arrived; David and Hanners were both being picked up by the Sharkhead Isle police Precinct of the Rogue Isles Police Department. They partnered up, the Sergeant liked what he saw and kept them partnered for the next few years.
During this time Wilhemina Moreau became ill after a devastating, but not fatal, heart attack. She lingered for months on end, but finally passed away. Hanners had time to handle the grieving process, and a close friend to share her pain with, in the form of David. Hardcastle faded into the back of Hannelore's mind, ready to finally go away and leave Hanners an adult with no mental illness.
Hanners and David both proved to be an admirable duo, handling cases, crime scenes, and investigations with startling proficiency! Little did Hannelore know, David was on the take. He'd cheated his way through academy, and lied his way through his career as an officer. When Hannelore received a promotion to Detective, he was understandably upset, but he took the snubbing personally. Very, very personally.
The Rebirth of Hardcastle
After her promotion, Hannelore was targeted by her long time friend, Mayers, for removal from her duties. He tampered evidence, lost crime scene photos, and generally did his best to undermine her, in the hopes she'd be demoted, or he'd be promoted to join her. But somehow she managed to continue solving cases and land convictions. In the end, he had to take drastic measures.
She received a call from Mayers late one night, about a crime scene in Sharkhead, the Warehouse district. She headed out, not knowing she'd never be able to return. On arriving she knew something was suspicious, there were no squad cars, no sirens, no tape. No way Mayers would have forgotten to call backup or gone through basic procedure. Hannelore headed up the stairs to the area he'd indicated was the location of the murder. In her mind she wondered if he was going to propose, out of the blue, or if it would be a candlelit dinner. He was obviously hiding something, after all.
Hanners was near the window when the gunshots rang out. Three, in rapid succession. He'd shot her in the back and sent her tumbling, face first, to the ground some twenty feet below.
Her body bounced off the rocky shore and into the sea, her face badly broken, her body dying. It was only through random happenstance that she survived at all. The red coral of Sharkhead and industrial chemicals dumped by the Cage Consortium combined with her blood to restore her, more or less. Within her mind, however, Hannelore had retreated to the dark corner, again. This time with the intent to simply give up and die, to drown. It was Hardcastle who pulled them out of the sea, clothing torn and bloody, Seaweed plastered to her face giving the illusion of a mask. She knew what happened and sought a change of clothing and a way to hide her identity.
It was easier than she'd imagined it would be. in addition to the incredible strength and durability granted by her accident, she healed remarkably fast. Her cheeks, nose, and left eye socket had all been crushed in the fall and healed at odd, broken angles. She broke her face, intentionally, reshaping the bones as they knitted to give herself a new appearance. This is why no facial recognition software recognizes her: Her facial structure has been altered drastically.
Homeless
With Hanners retreated to the dark corners of their joint mind, Hardcastle was forced to find a way to survive on her own. She sought aid wherever it could be found, usually after rescuing citizens from the Family or Freaks, begging for shelter, food, or clothing. More often than not the oppressed Rogue Isles natives turned her away, but she managed to scrounge a living. It was Rutherford that helped her the most. The former tailor had actually been the Etoille superhero "Starstreak" in the late 70s and early 80s, but he had to hang up his cape in the face of pressure from Arachnos. For weeks he was her only contact with the superheroic underground. But when Arachnos learned he'd been helping her, they attacked brutally.
She stopped them, and helped Rutherford leave the Etoille forever, to live with family near to Manchester. Before he left, however, he gifted her with several important items. His "Black Book" of underground hero contacts in the Isles and his journals from his years of fighting against Recluse and his evil allies. It was shortly after Rutherford's escape that Hardcastle started making contact with the various contacts in the books, letting them know who she was, that Rutherford was safe, and her intent in the Etoille.
It was while Hardcastle was living on the streets of the Etoille that she met the Fight Doctor, Dendrocnide, Glitch Girl, and a dozen other would-be heroes. It was while living in the streets she became a leader to the SPEAR.
Her first, greatest, achievement occurred when she had nothing to lose but her life.
The Doctor is In
In the weeks following the creation of the SPEAR, Hardcastle was hard-pressed to manage the group while on the streets, trying to get enough food and water to survive until the next morning. The Fight Doctor learned about her predicament and extended and offer Hardcastle could hardly refuse. She was invited to stay in the secret underground bunker of the Fight Doctor. located in Sharkhead Isle it is hidden as a sewer access panel in an alleyway in the warehouse district. An incredibly utilitarian living space it contains little more than the Doctor's most basic needs, a bed, a bathroom, a kitchen, a training room, and a large multi-monitor computer station where all of her recordings can be played back for analysis.
Over the course of those weeks, the Doctor did her dead level best to become closer to Hardcastle. to the woman she presumed existed beneath the mask. Hardcastle tried to explain, delicately, but shockingly Hannelore stopped her, kept her from telling everything. the friendship the Doctor was offering, combined with Hardcastle's own cajoling, was finally reviving Hanners from her second "Death". During this period, the three became close, emotionally. Friends, and then something... more. though Hannelore was not ready for a relationship, she also wasn't ready to stand in Hardcastle's way.
An Unexpected Find
The entire time Hardcastle had been staying with the Doctor, she was searching for a potential base of operations for the SPEAR. She found it in a rather unusual way, as a Sky Raider attack in the nerva Archipelago took her by surprise and sent her carreening out of the sky towards a small island near Primeva. She crashed at high force into the slope of the small mountain in the center of the island and went into it. The mountain was false. A shell thrown up some time in the past to hide a remarkable discovery. The former base of the Interrogators. A group of Vigilante heroes who came from and to the Etoille to fight against Arachnos during it's violent rise to power in the wake of President Marchand's death. The last of the Interrogators had died before Hannelore was born, tortured to death for further information on other Superhero groups in the Isles. The base, unmanned and unguarded, stood for nearly thirty years without even so much as an investigation.
She quickly set about renovating the remains of the base and found that it was actually a rather extensive underground complex. Calling on dozens of contacts from Rutherford's journal she brought in help rebuilding and disguising the mountain hideout. Mystics have layered several enchantments over the mountainside to keep it from being detected, magically or otherwise. Technicians have re-wired the base's power systems to withstand the higher draw needed for modern computer systems and a talented technomage combined a magical lightning generator with the base's technological aspects, providing a power-source untraceable by Arachnos.
Since the renovation began, Hardcastle has spent her non-crimefighting time breaking apart fallen rubble or rebuilding collapsed sections of the base. It was during the initial renovation that Hanners finally gave herself to the Fight Doctor on an emotional level.
Further Complications
Shortly after the major remodeling of the SPEAR base Hardcastle was targeted by the Cult of the Shaper for her connection to the red coral of Sharkhead Isle. It was hoped that her death would unleash the beast and many waves of Corallax, Slag Golems, and Freakshow cultists have sought to bring her down. Twice she's gone to the chamber of the Shaper itself to fight against Calystix and his various minions, she even wound up fighting toe to toe and alone against Captain Mako himself, after she tried to assist Barracuda in returning to a human form. To this day Hardcastle swears that Barracuda is not a lost cause and has an intense rivalry with Mako.
Strike Girl, a Paragonian Heroine who fled to the Isles contacted the SPEAR for aid and protection. She is currently running from a Paragon Police Department investigation into the disappearance of her mentor the Sovereign Star, a super-strong shield-bearer and protector of the city. Hardcastle has become convinced she is innocent of all charges, and with the Fight Doctor has adopted the girl as their charge and child. There are some disquieting rumors, however, that Strike Girl is actually their daughter from the future. such speculation is based on her signature red glow when fighting, similar to Hardcastle's, her skin tone and hair color, which match the Fight Doctor's fairly well, her features which bear a family resemblance to both the Doctor and Hardcastle, and her own playful joking that she is from the future. This possibility initially terrified Hannelore, but she seems to have calmed. Shortly thereafter Fight Doctor gave Hardcastle a "Real Name" since she'd lived without one for so long. Sophie. Though thus far she's kept that name to herself.
The Hardcastle Clone Attempt. Fight Doctor, Hannelore, and Hardcastle agreed that their current arrangement was disruptive to their relationships, at best, since only Hardcastle or Hannelore could be in control of their body at any given time, and there was some friction over who would get to spend time with the Doctor on a given date. So they sought out what they understood to be a reputable group of individuals interested in aiding their cause. They wanted to clone Hardcastle's body and move Hannelore's awareness into it. Things turned out rather badly, and Dendrocnide was nearly killed in an explosion as the laboratory went up in flames. From the ashes of the facility only one clone remained: QT-143.
They rescued the clone and took her to the medical facility of the SPEAR base. She was in pretty bad condition for several days before she managed to recover. It was decided that a "Family Vacation" was in order, and Hannelore, Sophie, Fight Doctor, and their adopted daughter Strike girl called in favors owed by the Midnight Club to send them to the past for a 10 day vacation on the beaches of Ancient Greece. they returned the day after they left to find QT had recovered conciousness.
QT Has since sought to make a name for herself in recent days, and with the help of Glitch Girl is seeking to reinvent herself as an individual not directly connected to Hardcastle. She's since dyed her hair blonde, cut it, and dressed herself in Blue and White to counter Hardcastle's Gold and Red.
Glitch Girl, Fight Doctor, and Hardcastle came to a startling realization, recently. Namely that Hannelore was the inheritor of quite a huge estate, most of which was in banks in the Cayman Islands, safe from Recluse's sponsored bank heists. This money has been transferred into the control of Void Dreamer and Hannelore to be spent on the SPEAR's concerns and furthering the defense of the Etoille.
The Future
What does the Future hold for Hardcastle? Only time can tell. But with a Coming Storm on the Horizon you can be certain she'll look to continue helping the Etoille, however possible.
