Red Leader
From Unofficial Handbook of the Virtue Universe
| |
| Red Leader | |
| Red Leader | |
| Player: Steel_Revenger | |
| Origin: | Technology |
|---|---|
| Archetype: | Corruptor |
| Threat Level: | 31 |
| Personal Data | |
| Real Name: | Jack Harper |
| Known Aliases: | Red, Jack |
| Species: | Human |
| Age: | 24 |
| Height: | 5'11 |
| Weight: | 180lbs |
| Eye Color: | Dark Brown |
| Hair Color: | Black |
| Biographical Data | |
| Nationality: | Rogue Isles |
| Occupation: | Research Scientist, now unemployed |
| Place of Birth: | St. Martial |
| Base of Operations: | St. Martial |
| Marital Status: | None |
| Known Relatives: | Confidential |
| Known Powers | |
| Focused energy blasts through his gauntlets, manipulation of dark and negative energies, flight | |
| Known Abilities | |
| Genius level IQ, coping skills, common sense | |
| Equipment | |
| The Negative Engine and related add-ons | |
| Don't turn the dial on his right gauntlet too fast or he'll spend the next five minutes or so in a
daze, babbling in tongues. | |
Contents |
History
Birth and Life in the Rogue Isles
Jack Harper was born on the island of St. Martial in September of 1983. From an early age, it was quickly apparent that he was much more intelligent than his peers, sailing through grade school, high school, and eventually obtaining his degree at Aeon University at the age of eighteen. He then pursued a career at Aeon Corp, where he quickly grew to despise Dr. Aeon thinking him some mad scientist that grew too big for his boots as well as just finding him insufferable in general. He kept these feelings secret, until such a time when he was ready and prepared to accept and survive the consequences for acting out his fantasy of walking in, telling him off and eventually beating him up.
The Broken Toaster
Jack had always had a particular fetish for toasted goods, bagels in particular. He almost went berserk after the old toaster in the break room broke. Not wanting to go through life without his toasted bagels, he took it upon himself to fix the toaster in his spare time. This grew into a frustrating obsession over the next several months when the toaster broke again and again and again. So Jack would fix the toaster again and again and again, each time adding a new component or three. Eventually, the toaster became self aware and walked out the front door, finally forcing Jack to wait on a replacement.
Reprisals
Shortly after the Rampaging Toaster was broken out of the Ziggurat prison by an Arachnos attack and began making a name for himself in the Rogue Isles, the name of his maker was made known somehow and Jack was soon subject to a series of attacks and murder attempts by virtually every party his creation had enraged. He recieved burns from Hellions, broken bones and almost a new pair of cement shoes from the Family, bruises and temporary deafness from Goldbrickers, the occasional beating from Arachnos troops, and warrants issued for his arrest by Longbow. Jack realized he needed to find this Toaster of his, and get him to stop pissing people off before he runs out of luck and gets killed.
Weekend at the Mount of Madness
Just after he began to search for his wayward "son", he got treated to a mountain climbing trip by one of his friends. Certain that his wounds had healed good enough and that he wouldn't be targeted for assassination, he accepted and went with them to Mount Diable to an area away from Dr. Aeon's Power Transfer System set up for mountain climbers. While taking time to "relieve himself" behind a rock, Jack fell through into an old, shallow cave. It was there that he believes he came into contact with and became possessed by one of the strange entities seen all around Cap au Diable. While he seemed fine to himself and his friends, Jack was in fact, possessed by one of the demons from within Mount Diable.
The Dark Construction
Every night for the next several weeks, when Jack slept, his body was being used by the demon inside him to build what he would call, the negative engine. At first he had no idea what was going on, only that his friends and co-workers would see him collecting and buying parts, then assembling them at home and at his workplace, speaking only in what sounded like tongues and oblivious to everyone and everything around him when he was working on this strange project. Frightened and at the same time intrigued, Jack set up some hidden cameras to help track where he was going when the demon took control.
Finally knowing where he was going, Jack discovered the hidden places where the plans and the device being built were kept. What he found was a strange and unsightly looking harness with several attachments. The plans themselves were written in an esoteric language that would take Jack years to figure out. Despite this, Jack could figure that there was more to be built. Something told him that this thing should be destroyed and the demon exorcised, but his scientist's curiosity won out and he decided to wait and see what this would become. Jack would never see the demon complete the device.
The demon was forced out of him when he was being mentally tormented by a fortunata seeking revenge for what the Rampaging Toaster did to an Arachnos facility while rooting out a Council spy. The psionic attack caused the gremlin to emerge from Jack and try to run off before being destroyed by an Arbiter drone. After some time of deliberation, Jack decided that he would finish the device. Since then, he has been seen wearing progressively more esoteric and grim looking equipment that he has built after deciphering what he can from the bizzare blueprints he wrote while under demonic possession.
The Birth of Red Leader
While trying to figure out and build whatever was written onto those blueprints remains one of Jack's top priorities, another equally more important task is keeping tabs on his creation, the Rampaging Toaster. He decided that he would track every single one of his footsteps since his arrival on Mercy Island. Starting with fake paperwork stating that he himself was a prisoner sprung from the Ziggurat prison, he met with and talked with the fortunata, Kalinda. During which he gave himself the name Red Leader after being asked what he called himself and having to think up a name on the spot, which was for the most part, inspired by the bright red hooded sweatshirt he wore at the time. With a good lead given by Kalinda, Jack began his quest to find and hopefully bring an end to the reprisals he recieves as a result of the Toaster's actions.
Personality
Jack Harper, being born in the Rogue Isles, was raised to be loyal to Arachnos, to see them as the right and true rulers. Despite being brought up to believe in a lot of the hype and propaganda surrounding Lord Recluse and many other higher-ups in Arachnos, he does acknowledge the strong possibility that a lot of what he's heard has probably been greatly exaggerated, and fully accepts the constant infighting between Arachnos factions as a fact of life. He makes no excuses for himself and very seldom lies, giving him a blunt and sometimes cold approach. He has been known to have a taste for toasted foods, from toasted bagels to toasted subs, unable to eat any sort of bread product unless it were toasted or he were dying.
Jack is not a very social being, usually concerning himself almost entirely with his work or personal leisure. He can easily be approached and engaged in conversation but usually doesn't initiate social interactions himself unless the subject matter interests him. He has a very calm and cool demeanor, and very seldom gets angry. For Jack, the pursuit of knowledge, discovery and progress are the greatest goals one can strive since seeing Carl Sagan's "Cosmos" as a young child and reading Arthur C. Clarke in his teen years.
Powers and Abilities
The Negative Engine
The Negative Engine is something which can only be described as "TechnoMagic" a combination of technological and magical elements. Jack has absolutely no idea how or why it works, but he does have a good idea on what it does. The Negative Engine draws power directly from the Netherworld, from there it can be used to power the various energy blast attacks that Jack uses to deal damage to his foes, or it can be used directly to apply various effects such as healing allies, or inhibiting and causing ill effects on foes. It's appearance is that of a gothic looking harness with skull motifs hooking into it as well as wires linking it to attachments such as his gauntlets and boots. Normally, Jack wears a bright red hooded sweatshirt over the harness, with holes cut in strategic places to allow the skulls and other such attachments to hook in.
Energy Blast
Utilizing the power drawn from the Netherworld by the Negative Engine, Jack is capable of converting this power into pure energy which is focused and shot out through his gauntlets. These blasts generally have a very long range which Jack prefers to keep his opponents at. His long range, combat philosophy is augmented by the fact that his energy blasts have a good chance of knocking would-be attackers off their feet and away from him.
Dark Miasma
The dark, eldritch energies drawn by the Negative Engine can also be used in their initial, pure form to perform various tasks, from healing Jack and any allies he may have, to slowing down enemy progress creating a buffer to allow Jack to shoot with impunity. Jack is constantly working to figure additional uses for this dark energy, which is directly tied to how well he can translate and utilize the blueprints from which the Negative Engine is built.
Flight
By channeling some of the Negative Engine's power through certain devices in his boots, an anti-gravitational force can be exerted, allowing Jack to fly. The Engine's blueprints also specify a set of wings which can be used to gain extra height and speed. Jack has since figured out how to construct and affix them to the harness.
Drawbacks
While not readily apparent, Jack is certain that being so close to a font of negative energy has it's dangers, he's just not sure of what they might be. The Negative Engine itself is activated by turning a dial on the right gauntlet, and it must be turned slowly. If the dial is turned too quickly the rush of negative energy can overwhelm Jack, causing him to stand there in a daze, babbling in tongues for several minutes or snapped out of it, usually by a hard slap (or three) to the face. So far, this was the only bad thing Jack has experienced, while using the Negative Engine.
Lately, Jack has been noticing some other effects while using the Negative Engine, while not harmful he has seen that he leaves a light, wavy trail of energy while running as fast as he can, and some people have told him that he has a faint, purple glow when in total darkness. Because of how these effects present themselves, Jack relates Negative Energy exposure to radiation exposure. While he now identifies new possible risks, he continues to wear the harness in the interest of science.
Possibilities
Finally able to look into the Negative Engine's components and study them without fear of causing damage, Jack has significantly expanded his knowledge on its inner workings. However, he has only scratched the surface so far as to what can be done with such technology and its derivatives. He has begun to write down his thoughts and findings in a journal formatted to be a research report, this is really for his purposes as he has no plans to publish the journal until he is certain he can patent and utilize his research so that it is not usurped by any of the Rogue Isles more unscrupulous scientists and entrepreneurs.
Journal Entries
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