Michael Summers
From Unofficial Handbook of the Virtue Universe
| |
| Michael Summers | |
| Michael Summers | |
| Player: | |
| Origin: | Magic |
|---|---|
| Archetype: | Defender |
| Security Level: | 50 |
| Personal Data | |
| Real Name: | Michael Summers |
| Known Aliases: | None |
| Species: | Human |
| Age: | 33 |
| Height: | 6' |
| Weight: | 180 lbs |
| Eye Color: | Green |
| Hair Color: | Blonde |
| Biographical Data | |
| Nationality: | American |
| Occupation: | Preceptor of the Void Guardians |
| Place of Birth: | Ravenswood, IL |
| Base of Operations: | Callisto, moon of Jupiter |
| Marital Status: | Single |
| Known Relatives: | None Living |
| Known Powers | |
| Strong Empathetic abilities; Cosmic Energy Control | |
| Known Abilities | |
| Confidential | |
| Equipment | |
| Standard Void Guardian Issue Com-link, emergency teleport beacon | |
| No additional information available. | |
Michael's player can be reached at the global handle @Bleedingseraph
Contents |
Personality
Usually a sarcastic wise-cracker, Michael's new responsibilities have certainly made him a more solemn man. Combined with the sacrifices he has made for his new role as Preceptor of The Void Guardians and the losses he has suffered since, Michael has become a more bitter individual. Fortunately, he still makes an effort to attempt to rise above the gloom he feels perpetually pushing down on him. Unfortunately, this has made him prone to several instances of mood swings of late.
Affiliations
Michael Summers currently acts as the Preceptor for the Sol System Chapterhouse of the Void Guardians. Of late, the only organizations that the Void Guardians work with are the crew of the G.S.S. Starlance and The Cerulean Legion.
Powers
Like all of the Void Guardians, Michael derives the majority of his powers from the Cosmic energy known as the "Radiance." The Radiance seems to harness raw cosmic forces that are shaped and directed by the will of the user.
The Radiance has exponentially increased Michael's Empathetic abilities, as well as granting him the power to wield raw cosmic radiation, fly, and perform a number of other feats.
Empathic Abilities
Growing up, Michael was known as a "sensitive" boy. He always seemed to know the right things to say and when to say them. He never gave it a second thought- it seemed as natural as breathing to him.
The Radiance (and the Source Shards before it) exponentially increased this ability to extreme levels. Using emotional manipulation Michael has learned to increase the adrenaline flow through his teammates, among other things. Using the Radiance, Michael is also now able to mend wounds by forcing new cell growth and repair.
Radiation Blast
Though summoning strands of Cosmic Force and channeling them through the human (or alien) form may seem a simple task to many of those gifted with the Radiance, each wielder, it seems, learned to harness these forces in different ways. In Michael Summers' case this means firing beams of raw Radiance energies from his eyes, hurling bolts of it at his enemies, or gathering in the ambient powers around him and hurtling them in the form of Neutron Bombs or minor Atomic Blasts.
Abilities
Aside from his cosmically derived powers, Michael Summers is an accomplished pilot in both rotary and fixed wing aircraft, as well as having experience with spacecraft of varying natures.
Pre-Void Guardians
The United States Airforce
Signing up after high-school, Michael joined with the airforce. After several tours of duty, he began climbing the ranks.
A fighter pilot by nature, it seemed, Michael had both the daring spirit and self confidence to excel in the field. After working as a test pilot (working on the Raptor series aircraft), Michael signed up for and was accepted into NASA's space program.
After a few shuttle flights and space walks, Michael felt at ease. It seemed he had worked for and achieved a childhood dream- being an astronaut. Something about space had always called to him, had always made him feel at home.
In his time planetside, Summers began delving into engineering and development. He successfully designed several shuttle systems and engine blueprints.
It wasn't long before he was pulled into the private sector and ran into an old friend.
The Cerulean Legion
Michael worked with Talbot on many small projects, eventually teaming up with him and a few others to design a lunar base. Mere days after construction was completed, John approached Michael and initiated him into The Cerulean Legion. After his initiation, Michael spent many months testing his powers before descending on Paragon City alongside the rest of the Legion.
His time in the Legion had its triumphs and its disasters. He accelerated in his abilities with unusual speed, pushing the limits of his powers on a regular basis. His zeal landed him in various medical facilities throughout Paragon, but his spirit was unwavering.
While in the Legion he met a woman named Kirste Kallunki. The two of them saw much of each other, becoming a regular duo seen throughout the various neighborhoods of Paragon, fighting back hordes of the Circle of Thorns and other adversaries. They soon fell in love, despite all the dangers such a relationship carried with it in their chosen line of "work." They battled through various trials, as all relationships must, but seemed to prevail.The two didn't face their first true test, however, until the emergence of the villain known as Harbinger, and a boy calling himself Christopher.
Harbinger had followed a Legionnaire through a hole in space time, traveling from a distant, possible future. It was a future filled with terrible possibilities, one where heroes were hunted and killed by a power hungry overlord named Scion. Harbinger had chased the Legionnaire on Scion's orders, to hunt and eliminate him. Instead, Harbinger decided to stay and form his own powerbase. The boy calling himself Christopher seemed to hold particular interest in Michael and Kirste. Merged with a Kheldian, Christopher quickly made use of himself in the Legion, having reputedly served with the heroes in his own time. He revealed that Harbinger had been Scion's right hand and assassin, a mutant known to warp and wield magnetic fields. The helmeted villain had hunted and killed members of the Legion in particular... including Kirste Kallunki, and Christopher's own sister, Marissa. It wasn't until a severe encounter with Harbinger's newly organized group, "The Crimson Order," that the man's identity was revealed.
He was Michael Summers.
The Michael of Christopher's timeline had never bonded with a Source Shard, instead developing his own mutant abilities of Empathy and Magnetic control to overwhelming levels. In Harbinger's own words he had originally joined with Scion to try to save the heroes of his universe... to sacrifice the few to save the many. However, Scion forced him to sacrifice those closest to him-Michael's wife, Kirste Summers, and his daughter, Marissa Summers. Christopher then revealed that he was the son of his reality's Michael and Kirste Summers.
Harbinger escaped the battle, handing the Legion a near-defeat due to his tactics and their surprise. As he left, he dropped a building on Michael and Kirste. Everything Michael thought he knew about himself collapsed in that pile of brick and steel.
Harbinger repeatedly harassed Kirste and Michael, in addition to nearly killing the hero known as Night-Star, an ally of the Legion's. But, a huge change was in the wind for Michael.
While Night-Star was in the hospital and dying, the youth was given the powers of a Void Guardian. His life renewed, he left to learn more of his abilities. When he returned, he approached Michael and offered him a chance to leave the Legion and join the Void Guardians.
The Void Guardians
Michael was very hesitant to leave the Legion when offered the chance to become a Guardian. He had made a commitment to Talbot, and his fiancee, Kirste, was on the team as well. Night-Star, now calling himself Omega-Star, pulled Michael to the surface of the moon. The Legion's lunar base had been abandoned in the light of Harbinger's unmasking for security reasons. As the two of them stood on the lunar surface, Omega explained the Void Guardian's reason for being. Already on somewhat bad terms with his old friend, John Talbot, and itching for more time in space, Michael agreed to join Omega-Star.
His initiation was much more invasive and traumatic than joining the Cerulean Legion. It took nearly every ounce of Michael's will to push his Shard aside and merge with the Radiance that Omega-Star channeled through him. As the cosmic forces of the Radiance permeated his body, the Source Shard that powered Michael was extracted. He had a moment of lucidity before collapsing into unconsciousness.
Michael's body shut itself down for almost forty-eight hours as the Radiance rebuilt it, making it strong enough to handle cosmic energies. When he awoke he was laying in the bed of his apartment. Omega was waiting in a chair off to one corner. The two spoke at length about the Radiance. Michael learned that Star had been changed much more that he had. When he was gifted with the Radiance he was given all of the power of the Guardian who initiated him, as well as his memories... and all the memories who came before him.
Over the next few days Michael began to master his powers. Eventually, he approached Talbot and returned the Shard that once powered him.
Kirste and Michael continued their relationship, though things were a bit more strained. Michael had been called away to the Sigma-9 star system several times to the Motherhouse of the Void Guardians. There, he was chosen over Omega (who, because of time needed to get used to his new condition- namely the memories crowding his head, was not feasible) to be the Preceptor for the Sol System's Chapterhouse of Void Guardians. He had much in the way of learning to do. About the Radiance, about the Void Guardians, and about the Guardians' enemies.When he returned from his sojourns, he felt uneasiness and sadness in Kirste. The longing for him to be there as he was before the Guardians.
Torn apart, Michael did the only thing he thought he could do. He left.
Months passed without word from Michael. He remained in Sigma-9, arranging for the construction of the new Chapterhouse and recruiting new members. He was joined in the Guardians by Satsuma, an old friend of his, and, surprisingly, Christopher Summers- he and Kirste's son.
In this time, Kirste moved on, and Michael convinced himself that his decision had been the best one he could have made. He had intended it to save her undue pain from his constant absences and inability to see her whenever he wished. Hindsight has proven this wrong, but he still clings to it as having been his only option at the time.
Michael returned to the Sol System, Omega-Star had been seen to the beginning stages of construction for the Void Guardians' base below the surface of Jupiter's Moon, Callisto, with the help of Satsuma.
Summers began working with Portal Corp, as the Void Guardian Motherhouse has deemed the inter-dimensional experiments cause for concern. Unwilling to risk his lessors, Michael took the responsibilities upon himself. In addition to these duties, Michael was recruited to fight in the Temporal Distortion known as Recluse's Victory. During his time fighting through the time stream, Michael encountered the Ouroboros Organization and eventually began working with the Menders to repair the damage being wrought.
On the downside, Michael's relationship with his time-lost son began to be strained due to Kirste's engagement to Michael's old friend, John Talbot- and Michael's inaction over it. Michael felt pangs at the engagement, having seen the two of them together in Peregrine and having felt the emotion between the two, but resolutely stood by his course- remaining away from Kirste and John both.
In his mind he had to make the sacrifice that was best for the both of them. At least, this way, one of them could still be happy.
The End of a Hero
After an attack on the Sol Chapterhouse by the combined might of the Rikti and the Valtoan race, Michael (along with Satsuma Choshu, Christopher Summers, and Caranoth) found himself trapped on the Rikti Homeworld for several months. The four Void Guardians fought for their lives as they struggled to find a way back home, eventually uncovering a massive Rikti Force preparing to mobilize and invade Earth once more.
Knowing the course events would take from his dealings with Ouroboros, Michael brought his people to an axillary portal of the Rikti Forces (one originally intended to invade Portal Corp's headquarters on Peregrine- an action Michael helped prevent in his time with Ouroboros). There, he began to activate the portal, using his Portal Corp. Authorization Codes to activate the Portal on Earth to receive him. Unfortunately, the Rikti attacked Michael and his Guardians as the portal was activated, destroying it in the process. Michael was thrown through the portal as it exploded, leaving him battered and bloody as he emerged on Earth.
After a few days of unconsciousness, Michael awoke and relayed the events that occurred to Kirste and John Talbot, as well as the Void Guardians who came to retrieve him. Satsuma, Caranoth, and Christopher were still trapped in the Rikti Dimension. Only mere days away from the date the Rikti were set to Invade Earth once more, Michael sought to warn as many as he could without betraying Ouroboros' existence. Unfortunately, he knew that mobilizing the forces would lead to his ultimate disappearance from the timestream as he knew it. Michael had traveled forward in time, as well as to the past, with Ouroboros, and in the futures he saw after the second Rikti War he was not present with the Void Guardians.
Feeling his own death was eminent regardless of what he chose, Michael began recruiting forces to help him rescue his people trapped in the Rikti Dimension, and to hinder the Rikti war machine as much as possible in the process.
Michael gathered all the Sol Chapterhouse Void Guardians along with a few members of the Cerulean Legion, and prepared to cross into the Rikti Homeworld to do what had to be done. As the heroes assembled in Portal Corp, they were joined by Harbinger and the Crimson Order. Harbinger gave no real explanation for his actions or his aid, but Michael accepted the help.
The three groups breached the Rikti Dimension without incident, heroes and villains working side by side to do what had to be done. After several brutal battles, the fighting began to take its toll. A few members of the Crimson Order fell in battle, as well as several Void Guardians.
In the End, while the heroes battled the Rikti forces gathered around a network of portals, Harbinger revealed a 'present' he and his team had brought for the Rikti- Several shaped charges of extreme potency. The Crimson Order planted the explosives, revealing that someone would have to remain behind to detonate them. Michael immediately knew why he never appeared in his time stream with the Guardians again. He was the one who had to stay behind.
Fighting off other volunteers, Michael ordered everyone through the portals and back home. As Kirste and several others moved forward to stop him from beginning the detonation sequence, Harbinger raised a magnetic shield, keeping all the others away from Michael. Stating that if Michael was going to die, he had to see it with his own eyes, Harbinger elected to stay behind with Michael to detonate the bombs.
After a few hurried and tearful goodbyes, the heroes left the Rikti Dimension for Earth- some willingly, others pushed out by Harbinger's magnetic powers. Kirste was the last to go, fighting to the end, but she was finally thrown through a portal as Michael and Harbinger came under heavy fire by the Rikti. Gouts of flame and debris followed Kirste through the portal as he last sight was Michael being impaled by Rikti Weaponry as he detonated the explosives, Harbinger fighting beside him.
The Rikti Invasion began that very day.
Since then, people have reported seeing Michael in Ouroboros and throughout the timestream. Whether this is truly Michael in the present, or his past self working as a Temporal Agent remained to be seen.
