Operative Falcon

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Victory for Arachnos!
What if this whole crusade's
A charade?
Blackweb Commander
Operative Falcon
Origin: Natural
Archetype: Arachnos Widow
Threat Level: 43
Identity
Real Name: Thomas Falcon
Known Aliases: Captain Falcon[1], Huntsman Falcon
Nationality: Etoile Islands
Occupation: Wolf Spider Huntsman (retired[2]), Blood Widow
Place of Birth: Cap au Diable
Base of Operations: Cap au Diable
Marital Status: Single, rumors be damned.
Known Relatives: Maddox "Mad Dog" Falcon (father, 16.01.1923 - 5.08.2005), Candice Falcon née Amélie (mother, 27.06.1950 - )
Physical Data
Species: Human
Age: 37 (23.3.1972 - )
Height / Weight : 6'2" / 156lb
Eye / Hair Color: Grey-blue / Grey
Known Powers
Wired reflexes. Awakened psychic.
Known Abilities
Extensive combat training. Killer reputation. Deadpan snarker.
Equipment
Blood Widow uniform, Widow combat implants. Psi-amp.
Note: Most of the above is disputed by various rumors.
Updated: 10/10/2010 - Player: @Most Definitely Skary

"I'm telling you man! I saw it with my own eyes! He tore a Crab's arms right off! With his bare hands! From a wheelchair! I swear I'm not making this up!"

- Heard in Arachnos boot camp.



"Accident during cross-branch live-fire exercise. No casualties."

- Official report of the incident.



The world has Chuck Norris. Technophiles have Linus Torvalds. Heroes have Blue Steel and Ascendant. Cooks have Alton Brown. Wolf Spiders...

Wolf Spiders have Huntsman Thomas "Captain" Falcon.

Contents

Character Background

Falcon, for all intents and purposes, is a living legend. Ludicrous rumors and tongue-in-cheek "Falcon Facts" are passed down from one generation of up-and-coming Wolf Spiders to the next, steadily multiplying. It keeps the morale high and the recruits motivated, so the Arbiters turn a blind eye to it at worst, and in at least one case, encourage it.[3] Falcon himself at first resented his popularity and reputation, but quickly accepted his role as paragon to Etoile's amoral and heavily armed youth, finding quite some enjoyment and use in upholding the image.

Though at first he appears callous and uncaring, as soon as one gets past his hard outer shell, they quickly find he's no different on the inside. Raised as a soldier, he has a certain detached, stoic mannerism. Unlikely to show (or give in to) genuine emotion, he has a mastery of deadpan delivery and a good poker face[4]. Prone to snark and sarcasm, his adopting of a calm, serious demeanor is a good sign of the going about to get tough for someone pretty soon.

The Dog

All legends need a beginning. Falcon's story begins in the closing years of World War Two. In bunkers deep underneath a French forest, a young American soldier found a highly advanced battlesuit. The prototype, discarded and sentenced to oblivion for being decades ahead of its time, in the hands of a eager soldier (whose name is lost to time) proved a potent weapon that helped turn the tide of several metahuman battles. Christened the "Mad Dog" by his old squadmates, he returned to the States a hero. It did not last particularly long.

For the Mad Dog was powerful. No mere battlesuit, in the hands of its rapidly learning pilot it became a one-man army. Frighteningly adaptable and all but impervious to conventional attack, it let him quickly take his place amongst the strongest of America's heroes. And once there... he grew restless. The man's powers were given to him, immense power given to a boy who joined up not for patriotism, not for duty, but for the simple joy of combat. He was only a hero because it gave him opponents to fight. And when those ran out, he made his own.

The Mad Dog didn't have a hero's morals. He lied, he bribed, he called in favors from crooks he let slip earlier. He prepared until, in the early days of February 1951, he struck without warning. Capable of rapid or stealthy travel as necessary, he conducted a number of daring and brutally effective superpowered robberies across the southwestern and southern United States. He made use of a network of contacts to smuggle his spoils safely out of the country, less sizable cuts but reliably. In every encounter, the Mad Dog proved capable of either out-running or out-gunning the local heroes. It provided both entertainment and profit, but he wanted more. Pretty soon it became obvious the Mad Dog was heading, slowly but surely, for USA's crown jewel, Paragon City.

And yet when, on June 15th, he struck, he still had the element of surprise. Taking down a group of local heroes, as well as the gang of metas they were busy stopping, he finished the bank job and disappeared before the city's famed heavy hitters could arrive on the scene. His next raid, three days later, would also have been similarly successful, had it not been for the actions of a 31 year old heroine, against whose immense psychic powers Mad Dog's suit proved insufficient protection. The location of his hideout compromised and several renowned flying heroes rapidly approaching, the Mad Dog decided to cut his losses and evacuate. His staging point secured by other heroes, he was chased out of the city in a prolonged airborne engagement. Despite Paragon's defenders' worries, he did not return the next day, or in three days' time, or in the months to come. It wasn't until six years later that the Mad Dog returned to Paragon, and returned in force.

March 23rd, 1957. The first rays of a spring sun pushed away the night's chill. On that peaceful morning, alarms blared. The dark shape of an all-but forgotten suit of armor scythed through the heroes who rushed to stop his escape. Only one opponent even gave the Mad Dog pause, a veteran of his first attack, by then a respected hero in his own right. He briefly gained the upper hand, before the Mad Dog surprised him with an energy bolt weapon. The injured hero was forced to fall back, warning others that the villain's suit has been upgraded since his last foray into Paragon. Shortly, only one thing stood between the Mad Dog and freedom, and it was another familiar face.

By some miracle (say some; other suggest it was no coincidence) Sister Psyche was nearby, in the position of the only one capable of stopping or delaying the Mad Dog's escape. She turned her psychic might upon the villain, but where she expected to again encounter the chaotic mind of a calculating but amoral youth, she found that of a hardened soldier, consciously covering itself in a mental shield, fighting intrusion. She underestimated him, and it cost her dearly. The Mad Dog had no intentions of letting her figure out a way past his defenses, and he hounded her mercilessly, putting the heroine on the defensive. She found herself forced to fall back, long enough for the Mad Dog to escape, victorious.

Although she failed to stop him, Sister Psyche's mental struggle with the Mad Dog gave her a degree of insight into what became of him since their last fight. Defeated, he went into hiding. Although wealthy, he lacked access to components and knowledge necessary to repair the damage his suit sustained during his escape. Utilizing his contacts in Arachnos, the Mad Dog had himself smuggled out to the Etoile Isles, where he was offered asylum and payment in return for his services. He was to lend his might to the upcoming coup, and he eagerly agreed, proving instrumental in a number of decisive victories, helping pave a way for Lord Recluse's rule.

As part of his payment, he requested help in repairing and upgrading the armor, the workings of which he didn't fully understand. Arachnos' scientists were only too happy to help, reverse-engineering what they could, at the same time making use of the Mad Dog's immensely adaptable battlesuit to field test experimental technology. All the while, the Mad Dog worked to improve himself as well, removing vulnerabilities, first and foremost in his own mind. His rematch with Sister Psyche proved his efforts worthwhile.

He prepared for his return to Paragon well. Between the experimental energy weapon (a prototype for the later, miniaturized Power Maces) and his mental defenses, he proved a tough nut to crack for Paragon's heroes. Numerous successful raids later, he was finally ambushed by the duo of Galaxy Girl and Dauntless on April 4th. They forced him into a standstill long enough for other heroes to join in on the fray. The resulting battle saw the Mad Dog take heavy damage but fight his way through and escape his pursuers, seemingly defeated.

Paragon City breathed a sigh of relief, but the respite was temporary. The Mad Dog would yet return, in July that year, and in December, and many times after. He'd return repaired, rearmed, changed. He'd have his suit modified for speed, or resilience, or firepower. Old equipment and tricks would give way to new, unexpected ones. Each time the Mad Dog would find a way to single out and best the ones responsible for his last defeat[5], then embark on a crime spree that would end only when the heroes managed to force him to retreat and lick his wounds until, months later, the cycle would repeat. Rarely, his escape would be foiled and he would be captured, but between outside help and his being underestimated out of his suit, the Zig never held him long.

Still, time waits for no man. The constant repairs and upgrades left progressively less and less of the Mad Dog's suit's ingenious and ultimately indecipherable[6] original workings. As the years passed, it was slowly growing weaker, while Paragon's heroes were becoming stronger. Although his retaliatory strikes haven't ever failed, his raids were becoming shorter, stopped with increasing ease. The Mad Dog decided it was time to retire. Arachnos, however, had one last job to offer him.

November 23rd-24th, 1970. The Mad Dog attacked Paragon for the last time. This time however, he didn't seem to care for revenge, or for money, targeting the city and its protectors with an uncharacteristic ferocity. More worryingly, he possessed an unseen before level of power, and it was only due to the fast thinking of a young speedster that he was unable to finish off a number of wounded heroes. The Mad Dog proved a challenge to several of Paragon's finest, but beyond that, he proved a trap.

Destiny coming full circle, Sister Psyche was amongst those facing him that day. Although she couldn't read or influence his mind[7], she played an important part. A young seer contacted her telepathically, sharing her terrible premonition. The heroine quickly warned her teammates and pitted her telekinetic might against the Mad Dog, sending him into the night sky when his engines failed. Within moments, the battlesuit's power source, all safeties circumvented or removed, went critical, a frighteningly powerful explosion tearing it apart and instantly incinerating the pilot, high above the city.

November 23rd, 1970, the Mad Dog was no more.

November 24th, Maddox Falcon was born.

The Wolf

Very few know that the only man to die in that explosion wasn't the Mad Dog's original pilot at all. A small-time crook, calling himself the Iron Hydra, notable only for his zealous hatred of heroes and all they stood for. He was only too happy to don the offered armor and go on a hero-hunting spree. Arachnos didn't expect him to be too successful, but then, they neglected to tell him that overcharging the armor turned it into a walking bomb. He wasn't missed.

Despite the plan's failure, Arachnos honored its bargain. Records were changed, documents falsified, and the Etoile Isles retroactively gained a new citizen. It wasn't all that rare, after all. As far as anyone knew, Maddox Falcon had always lived there, an Etoiler with American ancestry, a not widely known but respected freelance military advisor. His expertise, especially regarding metahuman threats, made him a small fortune, while his rumored Arachnos connections kept would-be robbers away.

Maddox was content to retire from active villainy. He had challenged some of the best Paragon had to offer, and repeatedly emerged victorious. He could have lived just off his fortune if he wanted to, or teach his skills and discipline to a new generation. But there was another reason, and her name was Candice Amélie.

A French girl, less than half his age and already burned out on her dream of finding a Prince Charming. She got it into her mind to seduce and marry a rich old man, milk him for all he's worth for a few years, then look for a new one. The former went off without a hitch, Maddox falling head over heels for the elegant brunette with fair skin and a sweet voice. However, the more she learned about her fiancé's past and his connections, the less breaking his heart seemed a good idea.

So it was that, again, her plans had to change. Seeing a choice between a life of faked affection, and an unnaturally shortened one, she went with what she excelled at anyway. In the many years following their wedding in June of 1971, she slowly grew to accept, even appreciate her situation, a loving husband and a decently luxurious life. Sadly, the same couldn't be said about her lone son.

Thomas Falcon was born March 23rd, 1972. His mother never saw the need to show him the same affection she so carefully faked for his father. He was a living, breathing reminder of her failure, a target for the helpless anger she didn't let herself feel towards her husband, lest her masquerade slip. By the time she could reconsider her approach, the damage was done. Even as a child, he was silent, stoic, described as unnaturally mature for his age. A loner at first, that changed as age caught up to his peers.

Without a real mother, Thomas turned to his father for affection, and that did not come cheap. His years as both a soldier and the Mad Dog had turned him from a headstrong, reckless youth into a disciplined man. Wishing to spare his son the follies of youth, he never treated him as the child he was. When others found their fun in mindless games and innocent childlike malice, Thomas learned to love a challenge, a sense of achievement and, often related, the feeling of sore muscles after a good workout. Still, despite his physical supremacy and budding powers of intimidation, he was never a bully. Preying on those weaker than him was never of interest, he would much rather seek out and prove wrong those who thought they could do it.

Secondary education brought changes to minds and bodies as hormones started buzzing. To Falcon, they were just another challenge to face and overcome, but for his peers, they were an excuse to start fighting for dominance and mating rights. It was a constant, fierce battle, fought on many levels. On the physical, he was the uncontested champion, capable of breaking up fights just by showing interest in joining the losing side, to his great regret. On the social one however, he wasn't even a player. He was a prize, a pawn to be claimed by those wanting the status symbol of dating the toughest guy in school. He didn't care for all that, but he played along, changing hands constantly.

Growing up in the Etoile Isles has a certain influence over a man's growth. Thomas' childhood was spent surrounded by Arachnos propaganda, a common sight at the various publicity stunts, mingling with the military[8], even the Fortunatas. Nobody was surprised when he enlisted in 1990, straight out of high school, even if he expected the life of a Wolf Spider to be too bland for him. Reality took to proving him wrong with haste. The assistant instructor didn't expect the silent, smug pup to dodge his swing. Falcon didn't expect his counter to be blocked. The Falcon and the Hawk met as rivals, and it only got better from there.

Mike Hawkinson was a driven man. One year Thomas's senior, he was raised not so much on as by the streets of Haven. He learned early on that, if he wanted anything from life, he'd best be prepared to take it by force. He had a habit of setting his mind on something, and woe betide anything that dared stand in his path. His own training completed, he stayed as an assistant to further his own career. And ever since that first exchange of blows, Falcon seemed a threat to it. Luckily for both, the camp's then superior, a Taskmaster by the name of Matthew Riley, found their rivalry rather amusing.

Two men used to being leaders had to clash. And they did, each the other's reason to improve. Different but quite evenly matched[9], not a week went by without one or the other showing signs of their latest scrap. That isn't to say they were enemies, though. A memorable incident saw them turn on another assistant who tried to separate them, only to resume their fight without missing a beat. They were friendly rivals on many levels, and their ultimate confrontation wouldn't come for another decade.

Falcon, his own training done, took up Old Man Riley's offer to fill a vacancy as another training assistant. Now equal in rank, their rivalry gained another facet. Their respective groups of recruits became pawns in their competitions, encouraged and pushed to give their best, to prove better than the other groups. Some broke under the stress. Some thrived, establishing themselves as natural leaders in their own right. Most just adapted, falling in the footsteps, driven by part fear part ambition. It was a good system, and it worked for several rotations until two things happened.


Appearance

"[Falcon]'s like a M.B.T. Looks big and strong, then you realize it's running circles around you."

- Taskmaster Riley, Arachnos boot camp, 1991.


Something of an on and off posterboy for the Arachnos military, Falcon is easy to recognize. Tall, impressively built, athletic, he has neat, fairly long hair in a grey shade of blond and stubble that refuses to stay shaved for any length of time whatsoever[10]; and recently, an eyepatch always worn over his destroyed right eye. His father's genes and those of his alabaster-skinned mother combined to give him a pale, greyish skintone. He's not known to pay much attention to his attire, preferring freedom of movement over appearances, though he has a fondness for his official uniform, as well as his father's sturdy tan duster.

Falcon's hands and forearms show heavy surgical scarring from the implantation of his Widow Claws. He used to be fairly self-conscious about them, wrapping his arms in bandages to hide them, but he's gotten over that particular oddity. He'll still wear fingerless gloves with most long sleeves, however.

Powers & Abilities

Stuff of Legends

Falcon's reputation is not quite unearned. Like most obsessive hobbyists, he seeks to excel in his chosen field. Unfortunately for the world, for him it's martial prowess. Falcon's long training and rigorous self-discipline has made him into a deadly combatant. He's known to toy with an opponent in a spar, subtly handicapping himself, not pressing advantages, concerned less with winning and more with enjoying the fight. Although he hasn't mastered any fighting styles, he's familiar with numerous, changing between them as the situation demands or the mood strikes him. In actual combat however, he becomes a relentless attacker, preferring quick, decisive strikes.

Falcon used to be a remarkable shot, however, he isn't used to the reverse grip the loss of his right eye requires. Following his Widow inception, he hasn't bothered to retrain. He can still shoot in ways that don't involve precise aiming, though.

Living Weapon

Carefully misinformed, Falcon eventually agreed to a degree of augmentation during his Widow inception. His hands and forearms show extensive surgical scarring, a sign of the Widow Claws implanted into his body. The razors extend and retract on demand, keeping the scars between his knuckles fresh. The weapons are wired into his nervous system, and he has been subjected to voluntary psychic conditioning that gives him instinctive skills in their use, including the ability to accurately aim a dart at a target.

Mind's Fortress

Falcon's father saw his own mind as a weakness. Through mental discipline, he remade it into a fortress impenetrable to even the strongest psychics. He made certain that the skill would be passed down to his son. Through his Arachnos contacts, he arranged for the Fortunatas to give his willing son the same treatment he received. Between the ages of twelve and eighteen, between his father's advice and encouragement and the repeated attempts by the increasingly skilled Fortunatas, Thomas had conditioned his mind to bar even the Mistresses entry[11]

A psychic attempting to force their way into Falcon's mind will encounter a strong mental force pushing them out, even if unconscious or asleep. That same force will severely dampen any attempt at direct psychical assault. He has to consciously suppress it to allow others access into his mind. Conversely, he can consciously fight an intrusion, which has been likened to the normal torrential face wind having to be fought while climbing a slippery iced over slope, while blind , and with most of the footholds being trapped. It's rumored Falcon's mind will fall back to an entrenched second line of defense if overwhelmed, sacrificing full consciousness for the security of critical areas. If any one psychic managed that feat, they aren't telling.

The Awakened

Considered one of the successes of Arbiter Morozova's Project: Awakening, Falcon is technically a psychic of low to moderate potential. The technicality is that most of his powers haven't been encountered, or very rarely. Although they bear resemblance to more traditional psychic powers, they do so in a warped, distorted way. Psychic evaluations of him have repeatedly revealed the simultaneous presence and absence of numerous signature patterns that are considered otherwise inextricably linked.

Despite the legion of psychics and scientists all too eager to research such a unique specimen to gain a better understanding of how psychic powers work, he'd really rather they all leave him alone and let him do his job. Unfortunately for them, he can force them to.

Foresight is 20/20

Falcon's precognition is a good example of his unusual powers. The precision of his predictions puts him firmly in the top five percent of known precogs, however it only extends an extremely short distance forward in time - often as little as seconds ahead. His foresight is insensitive to destiny and, thus, limited by free will. It cannot reach past the process of decisionmaking, but as soon as one settles on a course of action, when nerves flare up and muscles tense, he knows the end result. It might not seem much, but the knowledge of where a bullet will go before the trigger is even pulled can be invaluable.

At first, Falcon's precognition was nothing but trouble, impossible to control and distorting his perceptions from an instant out to several seconds, almost causing a mental breakdown. Once reigned however, it became a potent tool in its own right. Rudimentary Seer training lets him suppress his second sight unless called upon or something important is about to come up. In combat, he'll use it to weave himself a safe path around enemy attacks while exploiting perceived vulnerabilities. His training also lets him to work with assumptions as to the decisions of others and especially his own; he can extrapolate to learn the immediate results of a course of action before he commits to it, even if it's something as simple as checking the next card on a pile.


Affiliations

"Takes a sick fuck to get spider arms stapled to your spine... Yes, that includes you, but you're my sick fuck.".

Quotes and Comments

  1. ↑ "Second person to make a Falcon Punch joke gets a one-way Falcon Punch to Warburg detail. And since I just did it, you're all out of luck." - TacOps Tozi
  2. ↑ "Promoted, demoted, promoted, retired, reinstated, promoted, retired, reassigned, and promoted twice." - himself
  3. ↑ "Stop spreading lies, soldier. It was him versus five, not four." - attrib. Arbiter Howe
  4. ↑ Falcon is said to own a complete suit of Arbiter uniform, female. There have been no official statement and no witnesses.
  5. ↑ There was only one exception. Following his final defeat at the hands of Galaxy Girl and Dauntless, the Mad Dog didn't attack them. Instead, he symbolically took his revenge on the retired heroine and her murdered sidekick by hunting down and defeating the one responsible, the recently escaped Protean. In return for turning him in to the authorities, Galaxy Girl agreed to vouch for his request for a day's truce, so he could pay his honors at Dauntless' grave. The two spent several hours in private conversation but despite it, the Mad Dog's raid continued the next day.
  6. ↑ Some say, extraterrestrial.
  7. ↑ Later she'd discover that it was being actively, remotely shielded by a cabal of Arachnos psychics and mystics.
  8. ↑ "Tell me, Wolf, how does getting your ass handed in by somebody half your age feel?" - Maddox Falcon
  9. ↑ Falcon was quicker on his feet and better trained, while Hawk was stronger and tougher. Both had similar experience and a way of telling their bodies to shut up about the pain and keep going.
  10. ↑ "Chuck Norris' beard hides a third first. Thomas Falcon's stubble doubles as a fully functional chainsaw." - Wolf Spider rumor.
  11. ↑ "Damnit. He's locked us out again. Somebody get Korol."
    "Do you think she can force herself in, Mistress?"
    "I have no idea. But I want to see the face of whichever yields."
Retrieved from "https://virtueverse.net/wiki/Operative_Falcon"
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