Protocol 9
From Unofficial Handbook of the Virtue Universe
| File:Hate magic.jpg | |
| This is why I -hate- magic! | |
| Protocol 9 | |
| Player: | |
| Origin: | Technology |
|---|---|
| Archetype: | Defender |
| Security Level: | 50 |
| Personal Data | |
| Real Name: | N/A |
| Known Aliases: | None |
| Species: | Human (cyborg) |
| Age: | Unknown |
| Height: | Approx 6'2" |
| Weight: | 250 lbs. |
| Eye Color: | N/A |
| Hair Color: | N/A |
| Biographical Data | |
| Nationality: | US Citizen |
| Occupation: | Licensed Superhero |
| Place of Birth: | Unknown |
| Base of Operations: | Paragon City, RI |
| Marital Status: | Single |
| Known Relatives: | Unknown |
| Known Powers | |
| None inherent | |
| Known Abilities | |
| Forcefields, directed radiation bursts (cybernetic enhancements) | |
| Equipment | |
| Standard issue DATA Taser dart, Assault Mode exoskeleton | |
| Last known surviving member of the Linked Legion (all charges dropped due to diminished capacity during time of group's operation)
Currently on assignment in timeline Phi Sigma 1209 | |
Contents |
Biography
Code Name: Protocol 9
AKA: Niner, Uncle Nine, Barry (note: absolutely despises this one; use with caution and only from behind core-rated anti-radiation gear.)
Affiliation: Sentinels United (current); The Linked Legion (dissolved upon death of commanding officer)
Current Rank: Field Commander
Personality
Niner is one of the resident wiseasses of Paragon City. He can be counted on to comment on almost any situation, with his comments ranging from flip observations to dark humor.
Despite his configuration as a back-rank combatant, Niner has a tendency to stay at the front, regardless of the consequences to himself. He hates to leave a task undone, or pass over any targets in the area, unless other considerations have higher priority.
History
Past
Protocol 9 is the last surviving minion of the supervillain Pax Cybernetica, who commanded a large number of cybernetically-linked henchmen to do his dirty work. He was a growing regional threat, and was on the verge of moving into a higher weight class, until the Rikti invaded.
Taking advantage of the temporary amnesty offered to villains who assisted in repelling the invasion, thh Master deployed nearly all of his confirmed assets into the fray. Unfortunately, the tide of battle turned at Heatherwood, a district just north of what remained of Baumton, making the villain reconsider his choice. Giving one final order to his (disposable) subordinates, he attempted to make his escape from the front lines. Unfortunately, the flurry of activity caused by this final order drew the attention of Rikti forces, who annihilated his position, killing the vast majority of the 'borgs under his command, as well as causing the defensive line to crumble.
After the conflict, SAR teams scouring the battlefield found what was left of the Legion's units. Although the rescuers assumed nothing could have survived, the sight of a lone figure crawling out of a pile of the dead convinced them otherwise. The lone survivor was taken to a nearby hospital, and was later transferred to DATA Labs once his identity was realized.
The majority of the history concerning the Linked Legion and their exploits have been sealed within Niner's records, in order to protect him from vengeful survivors and next-of-kin. A Freedom of Information Act request has been received to unseal the applicable parts of his file; it's dispensation is still undergoing review.
Post-War
Although the survivor was, at least physically, a grown adult (discounting the extensive cybernetic augmentation), his mental age was approximately toddler-level, with no grasp of language. (The fact that his vocal cords had been surgically removed didn't help matters.)
The next few years would be marked by rapid mental growth, as the survivor attempted to cram effectively two decades of learning into a brief amount of time. Although the enhancements in his brain allowed him to absorb and recall information quickly, personality growth was severely impeded as the memories of what had occurred while under his previous employer's control clashed with his developing sense of ethics. The (ultimately successful) legal battle concerning his culpability, as well as several near-violent encounters with victims and relatives of those killed by Pax Cybernetica, lead to a near-breakdown.
The low point occurred when a DATA technician named Albert Loy attempted to kill the subject by lacing his nutrient feed with a toxic substance. (Interestingly enough, Dr. Loy's actions were not out of revenge, but merely personal gain. See: Doctor Domination) Believing that he bore the guilt of his comrades' and Master's action, the subject attempted a complete format of his brain, including autonomic responses - effectively, suicide. He was interrupted and talked out of it by Dr. Wen-Lee (Henry) Tsung, his managing physician. However, most of the damage had already been done: almost all memories of his time under the Master, as well as a large percentage of regional and absorbed knowledge were lost, setting him back years on his recovery.
Hero
In 2006, the subject expressed an interest in becoming one of Paragon's resident superheroes, and was licensed in October of that year. When prompted for his professional name, he selected 'Protocol 9'. When queried, he revealed that that was the last command of his former employer: "Protect at all costs." Although the Master had meant it as a way to escape using his minions as sacrificial pawns, Niner decided to creatively re-interpret the command, choosing to protect the city his Master once menaced.
Incidents of Note
Protocol Zero
In December of 2006, Niner and fellow Sentinel Tigra Swipe were following weapons shipments to the street group known as The Lost, trying to find where the weapons were coming from. They found out the hard way; dropping in uninvited as an exchange was being made, they came face-to-face with the Lost's Rikti contact. Unfortunately, that wasn't the only thing they found.
As soon as Niner came into visual range of the Rikti, something within him took over. Ignoring the startled shout from his teammate, Niner rushed the Rikti in a blind, berzerker fury - but without any shielding or even basic tactics, he was taken down within seconds. Tigra Swipe, after a grueling battle that took the combatants from one side of the warehouse to the other and back again, finally managed to defeat the Rikti, though the effort left her barely able to keep upright. After he regained consciousness, Niner remembered what had happened, and the details scared him to his core.
Niner had been under the influence of a Protocol, a command of his last, unlamented Master. It subsumed his will entirely, leaving him focussed only on completing the order. There was, of course, a catch: the Protocols were never left dormant, they could only be given real-time by the Master. And given that said Master was scorched vapor in the ruins of the Heatherwood subdivision, what had just happened was utterly impossible.
Not having any better ideas, a "wait-and-see" stance was taken; Niner and the techs at DATA installed a firewall along the paths they think were used to trigger the command, and an emergency beacon was implanted for Niner to activate with a mental command in case he thought he was about to lose it.
After several months of quiet on that front, the Protocol raised it's ugly head again in April of 2007. Responding to a mayday from a Portal Corp. facility in Talos, Niner and fellow Sentinel Swath enountered a Nemesis force, who were locked in combat with a Rikti assault unit. The firewall failed, barely holding long enough for Niner to hit the beacon, and he charged blindly into combat as well. He fared considerably better this time around, managing to subdue a platoon's worth of Nemesis and Rikti, but once the last opponent dropped, so did Niner. Swath, using her own cybernetic abilities, managed to rouse him back to consciousness, and the two went on to clear the facility without any further incident.
Using data gathered from Swath's dive, the DATA technicians took a closer look, and found what they believed may have been the trigger: Niner was equipped with a set of command and control processors, which allowed him to make minor firing adjustments on the fly, as well as coordinate small units in combat. However, these processors were not part of his original spec: much to Niner's dismay, thay had in fact been salvaged from what remained of Interface, the Master's lieutenant. They were being used to close a critical part of Niner's mind; without them, he would have remained in a passive drone-state, awaiting orders from the dead Master. With them, however, he effectively ordered himself and maintained his sentience. With removing the offending hardware out of the question, the decision was reached to simply keep them off whenever the Rikti were likely to appear.
The trick seemed to work, although it lead to a marked decline in Niner's efficiency in the field. After one particularly disastrous incident in Mornington Crescent, Niner finally got fed up and started digging for information. On the theory that the War was where everything started, Niner solicted the help of Sentinels ally Tolarin, a mystic master, in order to see exactly what had happened. Accompanied by Swath and another Sents ally, Friction SYSTEM, the group used a time-viewing spell of Tolarin's to revisit that hellacious day.
Interestingly, the vision they received was from two viewpoints: one from the drone who would become Niner, and one from Interface's point of view. They watched as the Master gave his final known order, Protocol 9, and was promptly vaporised by a plasma strike. Shortly after the Master's death, however, Interface began to give an order of his own volition - Protocol Zero. Killed before he could finish relaying the order, Interface's attempt at vengeance had been quashed - although it was not dead.
The travelers could see another astral signature overlaid that of Niner - that of Interface himself. With Niner's mind subsumed into a drone state by the presence of a superior, it was up to the other three to defeat the shade. By harrying it, they loosened it's control enough for Niner to fight back, and the shade was finally disappated.
With the banishment of Interface's ghost, it was presumed that the Protocol had died with it. The theory was put to the test dramatically; less than a week after the time vision, the Rikti struck Paragon City in force, heralding the start of the Second Rikti War. There was no sign of Protocol Zero in the resulting fighting; the Master's last chain had been broken.
Blood-Stained Hands
Despite Vanguard's declaration of "victory", the Rikti threat was far from diminished. Less than a month after major combat operations had ceased, a small unit of Rikti soldiers managed to kidnap several doctors, and transmitted a ransom demand: a list of various medicines, antibacterial and anti-viral. The decision was made to pay the ransom, and Niner was asked to make the delivery. (His objections to the payoff could be heard clear across Founder's Falls.)
Accompanied by teammates Swath and Western Dragon, the team approached the drop point: a series of tunnels underneath Dark Astoria. As they entered the cave system, Niner could hear an argument among the Rikti; it quickly became clear that they had no intention of honoring the ransom agreement, and intended to kill the hostages. Stashing the medical supplies by the cavern entrance, the three quickly carved a swath of destruction through the makeshift base, and escorted the hostages and supplies back to safety (despite being interrupted by a Rikti bombing raid on Talos, which appeared to be coincidental).
It wasn't until several weeks later that Niner received the results of the hostages' debriefing.
Based on overheard fragments of conversation by their captors, it appeared that the request for medicines was not for the garrison annihilated by Niner's team, but for a Rikti creche at a hidden location. The initial suspicion of an infection raging through the Rikti ranks hadn't been far off, but it wasn't the military having the trouble. It was children.
Receiving this information shook Niner's confidence greatly. Resigning his post as the liason officer with the allied group Young Sentinels, he went on a brief leave of absence to try and decide whether he had any right to continue as a hero.
After several weeks of independent duty, as well as a session with the unit psychologist, Niner resumed active duty, though not the liason position. His earlier, near-genocidal tendencies towards the Rikti had been sharply blunted, although he still responds with force to any reports of an attempted invasion.
Nuclear Shadow
During a checkup in early 2007, DATA technicians noted an irregularity in scans of Niner's nuclear powersource: minute amounts of the containment housing embedded in his chest shows signs of partial crystalization. Given that it seemed minor, no action was taken at the time. Subsequent scans revealed that the irregularity was apparently spreading, with a sharp increase in it's rate in the aftermath of the Second Rikti War. The phenomenon was noted by Dr. Tsung, Niner's primary physician, along with some of his hypotheses.
In early 2008, the irregularities became known to the Sentinels as well. A scan to determine any negative effects of a power surge absorbed during a mission showed that the core was now practically unscannable, the sensors' returns snarled beyond comprehension. Puzzled by the results (and suspicions raised by Niner's very hasty dismissal of the matter), Sentinels acting medic Jalna Pine went through Niner's medical record, and noticed an oddity: a gap in scan results for the past several months. After one false start, Jalna managed to pin Niner down and get him to admit the truth - the records she had been perusing were not complete. Niner had been in the process of rewriting the most recent batch of results when he was interrupted by the call for help that would end up putting him under the scanner in the first place.
The minor irregularities had, in fact, been spreading continuously for the past year, and were the source of several instances of sudden power loss and weakness. The material surrounding his nuclear reaction was indeed crystalizing, scattering any attempts to scan it and potentially threatening it's containment. After being verbally blasted by both Jalna and Swath, Niner agreed to submit to regular scans in order to track the spread of the problem.
While the scattering effect of the crystalization made a detailed scan nigh-impossible, Swath was able to jury-rig a tracking system by combining some of the nanites that made up her cellular structure with the hardier nanites that powered much of Young Sentinels leader Steller Flair's gear. Once the tag-teamed nanites were injected, a clearer picture of just how far the problem had spread became clear.
The answer was, "too far". The crystalization had spread to a point where it became self-propagating, and given that no other examples of the nuclear core existed (not to mention the fact that what they could tell of it's design seemed completely unable to maintain a nuclear reaction) meant that Niner only had a set amount of time to live. In order to lighten the load, Niner was placed on light duty, and utilized his Assault Mode skeleton as much as possible in order to lighten the load on his core, but that would only delay the inevitable.
In late April 2008, the inevitable came. While participating in a rescue operation within an Igneous temple, the walls surrounding Niner's core began a runaway reaction strong enough to burn out the nanites left behind to monitor it's state. After grabbing the hostage, the remaining members of the rescue team signaled an evacuation of the surrounding area and retreated to a safe distance to watch the end.
Nothing happened.
Fully aware that they could be approaching a ticking nuclear bomb, several of Swath's servants entered the temple to recover Niner, who was conscious but unresponsive and apt to sudden, violent spasms. Once he was safely ensconced in Swath's lab, scans revealed something startling: Niner was alive, but his core had apparently burned away, leaving only the nuclear fire still raging within his chest. The sheer incongruity of this prevented the rescuers from realizing it's significance until a help file in the City-supplied medical database opened itself: "Care and Feeding of Your Nuclear 90".
What everyone had assumed was Niner's power source had in fact been an inhibitor, designed by the Master to damp the energy of the reaction to a level that could be used by the cybernetic enhancements he had installed. It took Swath about a week to design and build parts that could withstand that level of punishment; once they were installed, Niner was performing better than before.
Deployment
Unfortunately, Niner never really got a chance to push the new equipment, nor find out how he could be an unknown member of the Nuclear 90. Less than a week after being released from Swath's lab, Niner was called to Portal Corp. for consultation. This in itself was unusual; Niner had been a bit of a persona non grata on Peregrine Island after an incident in 2007 involving a rescue mission, a Portal Corp. security team and several dislocated bones. However, the situation required Niner's personal attention.
A scout team investigating the timeline Phi Sigma 1209 had brought back footage of what appeared to be the only survivors remaining: black-clad, silver-helmeted cyborgs on patrol. Somehow, in some small corner of reality, the Master had ended up on top.
It took another week to get everything together: reconstruct the old uniform, make a new pair of shields, and install a dummy layer to stop from being reabsorbed into the link. Once his affairs were settled, Niner entered the portal. His mission: determine if the Master was capable of crossing dimensions on his own (the native Portal Corp. had self-destructed, leaving a large part of the island underwater), and ascertain if there were any pockets of resistance to be either bolstered or evacuated. Until his return (or if a prearranged signal is received), timeline Phi Sigma 1209 is considered "under quarantine", and all travel there is prohibited.
Return
After several months (subjective) roaming the ruins of Phi Sigma 1209, Niner returned to Primal Earth with news of small, scattered resistance movements and confirmation that the timeline remained isolated. Since then, he has been working on gathering resources to send back to the resistance movement with the aim of either evacuating them to Primal Earth or bolstering their position enough to mount an overthrow of the Legion.
While waiting for the beauracracy to slowly work its magic, Niner has resumed occasional patrols in Paragon, both in his "normal" mode and with the new Assault 9 power armor. Although no light has yet been shed on how Niner could be one of the Nuclear 90, he has not hesitated to take advantage of the power his nuclear core supplies him.
Abilities
Forcefields
Niner was originally designed as a shield unit, and retained most of the necessary gear to generate forcefields both around himself and around designated targets. It serves as his primary function during operations in the city. Recently, he has also reconfigured some of the projectors into repulsion generators, designed to knock back and close-range attackers. However, the current mark of the system has been a major drain on his resources, and is used sparingly.
Radiation Attacks
Owing to a nuclear power source contained in his chest, Niner is capable of releasing streams of radioactive charged particles at hostile targets. Although the damage done isn't in the league of many other registered heroes, that doesn't stop him from shooting up anything that looks unfriendly; on more than one occasion, this has served to distract a hostile target from an injured hero long enough for them to regroup.
He has also shown the ability to perform an undirected venting of particles, capable of hitting multiple close-range targets; however, this too is used sparingly, due to the strain it places on his regulator.
Scout Frame
Niner can bolster his abilities by use of an exoskeleton containing its own (albeit smaller) power source. Niner typically wears the frame for large-scale incidents or for enemies that are normally out of his weight class. The frame has far greater jump capability than Niner himself has, allowing him to go nearly a mile in a single bound; the additional power supply also allows him to bolster both his offensive and defensive abilities. The armor itself grants additional protection against incoming fire, and tapping into the onboard power supply allows Niner to boost the effectiveness of his deflector field or concentrate and lob a ball of radiation at gathered targets.
Assault Mode
After his return from Phi Sigma 1209, Niner has since had a dedicated power armor constructed to make full use of his nature as one of the Nuclear 90. The Assault Mode armor concentrates almost wholly on offense, but is not as fully developed as the Scout Frame. See: Assault 9.
Other Notes
Cybernetic Enhancement
Although Niner is approximately 52% artificial parts, he made the decision in the early part of his career to restrain his physical abilities to near-human norms. As a result, he did not displayed any common "super" abilities such as super-speed, flight, etc. As a result, he was usually the last one to the scene, frequently muttering about everyone "leaving the poor groundpounder alone again".
On the advice of a teammate, he eventually increased some of his limits to beyond human norms, but considering what he's being compared against in the form of all the other supers in Paragon, it's not uncommon for people not to realize this fact.
Teleporters
Owing to the unknown nature of his power source, Niner has an aversion to using the City's medical teleport system, fearing it may somehow interfere with whatever keeps the nuclear reaction contained. This has almost gotten him killed once: after being ambushed by three Prince-class Clockwork and entourage in Skyway City, he was too badly injured to make it to the nearest hospital. (The Clockwork had managed to disassemble his communications gear and vocoder, leaving him unable to request assistance.) Only the lucky chance of a teenager noticing him in the alley and helping him to safety kept Niner alive. (See: The Overlooked).
Ironically, this doesn't stop Niner from judicious use of the Pocket D Teleport Pass. Apparently, cognitive dissonance is possible even in cybernetically-enhanced brains.
