Hellion Firestarter
From Unofficial Handbook of the Virtue Universe
Fire Manipulation
Flame Mastery
Oliver O'Rourke (father)
Vivian Morris (mother †1994)
Brad Torres (adoptive father †2011)
Martina Torres (née Ramos, adoptive mother †2012)
Contents |
Appearance
Hunter stands at 6 feet 4 inches, with a weight-lifter physique at 270 pounds, with a bit of fat that hides his abs. He keeps his ginger hair in a wide but short stripe down his scalp, and a scruffy beard lines his jaw. Thanks to his occupation, he has a number of scars. A series of deep claw scars run over his left eye (though do not damage it), thanks to a hostile embodiment of repressed feelings (it's -- not a long story, but still). A pentagram is branded over his heart and tattooed thinly in red. Another old, faded claw scar runs down the middle of his torso a few inches. There are a few bullet wound scars in his stomach, and a couple to match on his back. A more recent jagged scar runs from his upper back down to his ribs. Another ragged scar runs down his left flank, earned from his first experiments into interdimensional travel.
History
The Burning Doom
Adam Torres (now known as Hunter O'Rourke) was adopted by Brad and Martina Torres when he was one. He doesn't like to talk about those years, but they weren't terribly pleasant. He emancipated at 16. Brad Torres died a year later bemoaning his 'waste' of a son, and Martina went a bit bonkers and offed herself a year after. Adam drifted in gang-adjacent activity while coming to terms with his sexuality, and landed with the Hellions at age 19 thanks to a man known as David Martinelli who he met at a hookah party. He remained a Blood Brother, not worrying about moving up the chain and just content.
In early 2019, the abandoned building Adam and his crew were hanging out in was raided by police. Adam ran to find an artifact to help and found a statue of unknown function. He accidentally dropped it, and the building blew up. Adam was the only survivor, waking up in the rubble with the ability to throw fireballs and manipulate flame.
He moved up to the rank of Fallen following the deaths of the next crew he was placed in in early June. He has a lot of experience with demons and magic in general, and is pretty experienced with editing spells to suit his needs and exploring the function of new artifacts. Wholly original spells are beyond him. His approach to artifacts may seem a bit lackadaisical, but his coping mechanism for intense anxiety and uncertainty is bravado. It's worked so far, mostly.
Exorcism
It was revealed that the force that granted Adam the power to throw fireballs was actually sourced from a powerful entity kept contained within the statue he broke. As the nearest person with a damned soul (thanks to bleeding for the Hellions), it stuck to him. Unfortunately, Adam's soul makes for an inadequate containment device, and the entity would gradually grow in power enough to kill Adam and free itself. He, Mike Ramiro, Mario Salvatorre, and a Blood Brother under his command named Dave, attempted to exorcise the entity from him.
What happened next is complicated and Adam prefers not to explain what happened to anyone. It was revealed that Thalvath was bound to another being, called Teras Ora, who was determined to carry Thalvath into Hell.
Severed Soul
Following his and Mike Ramiro's 2019 birthday party, Adam went home and drunkenly performed a ritual to sever his feelings for Mike away. He opted to carve symbols into his flesh rather than sacrifice his cat Podge, but thanks to his mental state and inebriation, he did so inexpertly, and the ritual worked too well. All of his emotional attachments were drawn out of him and given form to do battle with, instead of just his feelings for Mike. After a bloody battle that cost him his eye, he won.
This was generally regarded as a bad move by all of Adam's friends. Unbeknownst to him, the ritual actually cut out a piece of his soul, and thanks to certain extenuating circumstances (revealed by the exorcism), he was sure to die soon if his friends didn't do anything. They managed to solve the problem and put his soul back together, and Mike and Adam got together.
Twenty-Two
Adam wanted to better explore his newfound ability of interdimensional travel shortly after the 4th of July. He got lost in a cluster of universes that experienced time at a faster rate than Primal Earth (though, confusingly, possibly only after he arrived there). He moved to increasingly faster worlds, each ravaged or soon-to-be ravaged by an alien force. Unfortunately for him, the 'cooldown' on his universe-hopping ability stayed bounded to time as it was on Primal Earth, resulting in longer and longer stays in these accelerated universes (though, that connection to Primal Earth made it so he aged at the same rate he should have if he stayed in Paragon). The last universe he visited was an empty, overgrown Earth that seemed bereft of aliens. A ship of theirs found him though, and took him away. He doesn't remember a lot of what followed, but he was made to work and do other things while the aliens moved through deep space.
When he was finally able to hop again, he stopped himself halfway through a jump, and was able to reach the space between dimensions, where he could find his way back home. He was clearly unwell when he returned only a week or two after the time he left, and he took to coping by hiding in his apartment or doing all kinds of hard drugs, including superadine. After a month or so, a Gravedigger known as Coccyx who worked under Mike Ramiro would offer his services, 'redirecting' Adam's addictions somewhere else. Once that was done, Adam hopped to another universe in order to spend recovery in an accelerated dimension, though without telling anyone that.
When he returned, it was almost two years later from his perspective, or six hours from Mike's perspective. Adam was more or less fine now, wisened with experience and clarity of purpose. He was also able to figure out that the total time he spent in accelerated worlds, was just over 22 years from his perspective. In the time since he's been back, he's started going to therapy!
Libram
Adam found a ritual to make a magic Google for his library of magical knowledge. He didn't notice that this magic Google would be a magical construct with some semblance of personality and intelligence. It is named Libram. Libram can consume any written knowledge and instantly know its contents, but the original material is usually lost. The ritual also came with a warning that if it is fed too much knowledge, it will figure out how to think on its own.
It'll be fine.
Arcane Eye
After a few weeks of assembling the components and people necessary for the ritual, Adam managed to get a replacement for his ruined eye on the 26 of October! The eye looks just like his old eye (even down to the heterochromic specks), and even hurts to touch! Now he can see magical fields, detect the usage of magic, determine the source of magical energies and beings, and more, but he has to learn what all the new 'colors' mean.
Another Adam
There's another Adam. He's from this reality and has the same memories. He's not a lost twin, or a clone. Where Adam was picked up by the Hellions, the other Adam was picked up by the Council and forced into the role of Galaxy, and then Void Hunter. So that's weird.
The Tim Gunn of Exorcism
On October 1st, Adam and Mike met Dr. End Times -- a powerful lich who, in the spirit of the season, was dressed as Skeletor. The lich revealed that he was able to open a portal to Hell, as Adam was convinced was necessary for the second attempt at exorcism. After several weeks of preparation and one uncontested victory at a costume contest, the time had come in mid November. Using a piece of the very artifact he broke that gave him his powers, Adam, Mike, Doc, Doc's apprentice Jericho, and Adam's lexicoid Libram ventured into a specific and ancient Hell, where a jail had been prepared long, long in advance for this exorcism.
Libram created a shield around the floating rock of an island they found themselves on to keep out the ash clouds, and both Doc and Jericho reinforced the barrier. They seemed to work unnoticed, and the exorcism began in earnest.
The entity being cast out -- Thalvath, the Burning Doom -- at first attempted to allow the exorcism to go through. Its goal was always escape, but when it realized where it was, it fought fiercely against it. But, thanks to Mike, Doc, and Jericho, the exorcism was successful. Libram drew in the barrier and, like a white blood cell in reverse, allowed the ash clouds to consume Thalvath. Thalvath always bonded to things damned -- it was why it was bound to Adam in the first place -- but in that Hell, surrounded by ash clouds of eternal damnation, the reaction was like matter and antimatter. The Burning Doom was no more, but so was Teras Ora, who had become something like a friend to Adam.
Hunter
Depowered
The time spent with Thalvath and its power had more than left its mark on Adam. He was used to going toe-to-toe with incarnate-level threats, traversing dimensions, flying at mach speeds... In a single moment, all of that was gone.
His Hellion superiors were happy to avoid the eventual confrontation that would need to happen if he kept getting more and more powerful. He was forced to pick up his gun and learn how to use it again, and practice hand-to-hand, instead of burning or blowing up his problems. At first he didn't mind it so much, but as the days passed and the reality of his power loss set in, it started to wear on him. He directed his attention on his next project: finding his birth family.
Mike invited him to a city-wide attack on Kings Row by the Carnival of Shadows, to help chase them out and direct traffic. Armed with only his fists and a handgun, he did his best -- but his best just...wasn't very much. It was also revealed that Mike was training his Skulls in a different direction from the main gang, using different tricks and being a more 'moral' (as moral as a gang could be) branch. The combination of his own lack of power, and the confirmation of Mike planting very deep roots in his dream of what the Skulls could be made him realize just exactly how different he and Mike were, and just how Romeo and Juliette ends.
As is typical, Adam eventually discovered it wasn't that serious. Mike invited Adam out to help a friend bake as an attempted peace offering. While in the back kitchen of Angel's Scissors 'n' Sweets, Adam revealed that his demotion to Blood Brother months previously was intentional on his part; he wanted to divest himself from the Hellions. Had he told Mike that was why he was demoted, then Mike possibly would not have established his own crew. Why didn't Adam tell Mike? Because he didn't think to! Just like why Mike didn't tell Adam about his crew! What goobers.
With less baggage to deal with, Adam refocused his attention back on finding his birth parents. He had already gone to Providence to request his adoption records and his original birth certificate be unsealed. They arrived in the mail on the 9th of December, along with a confirmation of paternity. Adam Torres was named Hunter at birth, and was born to Vivian Morris in Paragon City. The confirmation of paternity listed Oliver O'Rourke as the father, and adoption records listed Hunter's surname as O'Rourke, not Morris.
Since Adam had no idea how to actually locate these people, Mike offered to investigate, as did a cop who owed him. It took time, but his father was found and wanted to meet. His mother had died in childbirth. Adam was eager to meet his dad, and went to visit. Adam came out the other side wondering if he should change his name. Ultimately, he did, to Hunter O'Rourke. His double opted for the name Orion, since the reason for 'Hunter' was the constellation Orion.
Flame Swords
In Hunter's newfound quest to regain his power, he endeavored (with the help of his gang) to find a suitable replacement. He found that replacement in the hidden Sword of Manatoth. With a name like that, it had to be important, right? He and his gang collected it, but on contact with Hunter it bound itself to him, forming a sword 'tattoo' on the palms of both hands. He couldn't remove the sword, and now he could summon two giant swords made out of fire. The Sword of Manatoth was supposed to be for the benefit of all of his crew, but with it stuck to him, they were a little irritated at how on-brand this was.
After a period of getting used to the new applications of his fire sword, including reducing an insubordinate Hellion to ash during a Rebelle and flight that was just different enough from his old method that he repeatedly crashed, he was carried out of Pocket D by a strange figure -- the Guardian of Manatoth. The Guardian claimed to be created by the sword as a countermeasure against theft, and had the Sword's 'memories'. The tired and irritated Guardian had been following Hunter and only now caught up to him. He was intent to kill Hunter in order to reunite with the Sword and go back to sleep. The Sword chooses a worthy bearer, and Hunter, as a Hellion, was very much unworthy.
After a back and forth between the Hunter, Mike, friends Mojo and Seeps, versus the Guardian, a decision was made. The Sword couldn't be removed easily, as it had bound to Hunter very strongly -- and since death was not a prefered option, an exchange was required. The Guardian took the sword back and replaced it with a perfect mimicry of Hunter's old powers, with an intrinsic weakness that could be removed in case Hunter got even worse. Hunter didn't mind at all, he just liked having powers again. And, in fact, it came with a benefit! Where before he had to wait six hours between dimensional travel, now he could at will. The Guardian affirmed he would never see any of them again, and left, deciding to stay awake instead of going back to sleep.
Before he left, the Guardian dropped a bombshell: a piece of Teras Ora had clung to Hunter's soul.
Pieced Together
Repowered and raring to go, his first mission was to bring Teras Ora's soul together. He was short on ideas though. Coccyx came to the rescue, though, and Coccyx's entire family made it their mission too, for reasons that are...unclear, at best. Though there was a slight mishap, they were ultimately successful, and Teras's whole soul was contained within a rock.
After a long period of more or less forgetting about him, Hunter and Mike finally got around to talking to him. Terry expressed his desire for a body, and actually knew a ritual that could make a copy of the body he had in life. Components needed to be made, and the means of doing so would be difficult. The Guardian would know.
The Guardian begrudgingly helped out, pointing Hunter and his friends to the pieces needed, modifying them to suit the ritual, and even setting up the ritual site. Hunter went through with the ritual, and Teras Ora was restored to life!
Terry was quick to indicate that the ritual was 'heard' by the same aliens that Hunter met in his 22 year venture beyond Primal Earth, and they were already on their way.
