Shockwave Ryder
From Unofficial Handbook of the Virtue Universe
| |
| OUTATIME | |
| Shockwave Ryder | |
| Origin: | Technology |
|---|---|
| Archetype: | Controller |
| Security Level: | 50 |
| Identity | |
| Real Name: | Gabriel Ryder |
| Nationality: | Unknown |
| Occupation: | Techno-shaman |
| Place of Birth: | The future |
| Base of Operations: | Paragon City, RI |
| Marital Status: | Single |
| Known Relatives: | None |
| Physical Data | |
| Species: | Posthuman |
| Age: | 25? (Unknown) |
| Height / Weight : | 5' 8" / 130 pounds |
| Eye / Hair Color: | Brown / Black |
| Known Powers | |
| Gravity Control, Time Manipulation Levitation, Teleport, Machine Telepathy | |
| Known Abilities | |
| Amazing recall, good at improvising, smartest person in the room (just ask him) | |
| Equipment | |
| Gauntlets, goggles, other tools; hoverboard | |
| Updated: 7/28/2014 - Player: @Megajoule | |
Gabriel Ryder, techno-shaman, surfs the unstable line where the impossible meets real and science fiction becomes fact. The future is twenty minutes behind him and gaining all the time.
Contents |
Affiliations
The Shockwave Ryder has given aid to many groups, including S.E.R.A.P.H., D.A.T.A., and Portal Corp., but never truly belonged to any of them. His latest association is with the Futurist Society, one of the many projects of city councilman and former "Overlord" John Magnus; he believes they have potential, and wants to see that it's not squandered.
Personality
Gabriel Ryder is a man of mercurial moods. He presents himself as supremely competent, knowledgeable, and prepared for any scientific or technological crisis, no matter how bizarre. (Neuron has sped up time in twelve square blocks? An expanding baby universe threatens to displace our own? Crey's latest jingle is dangerously catchy? No worries, he's got just the thing.) He's right enough of the time to be rather smug and cocky about it. He likes to talk, often going on and on about what he's doing (or just did) without actually explaining anything because, well, you wouldn't understand anyway. On the other hand, he can be snappish and impatient, and has nothing but contempt for individuals and organizations he believes are stupid, greedy, short-sighted, and/or too quick to resort to violence, blaming them for much of what's wrong with the world or will be in the future.
Privately, he's almost a different person: broody, pessimistic, and so very tired.
Powers
Ryder's gauntlets can literally grab and manipulate the very fabric of spacetime. All of his powers come from these and other devices.
Gravity Control
Ryder can reverse, intensify, or change the vector of gravity within a medium-sized area. Many of these capabilities are shared by a semi-autonomous drone [Singularity], which he sometimes calls his faithful assistant or his familiar.
Time Manipulation
Ryder can accelerate, slow, or even stop time for brief periods within a small volume. He often uses this to give himself and any allies the benefits of faster reactions and foresight, while further entrapping enemies.
Levitation
Although he prefers to travel by hoverboard (see below), Ryder can levitate and move slowly about under his own power.
Teleport
Ryder can fold space and open wormholes, moving himself and others from one location to another without passing through the intervening space.
Machine Telepathy
Ryder has a wireless "bodynet" woven into him, which allows him to operate and communicate with his future-tech gear. As much of this equipment possesses at least some level of intelligence, he effectively "talks" to it and it "talks" back. Due to special custom programs which he wrote before and after arriving in this time, he is also able to interface with and/or hack into most modern computer systems and networks at close range. Making phone calls without an actual phone is among the least of his abilities.
Abilities
Ryder possesses advanced, doctorate-level knowledge of many scientific fields and disciplines, some of them quite obscure (in this time period, anyway). While it seems likely that some of this information and memory is artificially augmented (by having the equivalent of an encyclopedia in his head), his ability to apply and make use of it shows that he really is almost as brilliant as he thinks and says he is.
Physically, he is much less imposing, being of merely average height and build; while he is in excellent health, much of that seems to be the result of future medicine. He is nearly immune to natural and artificial pathogens, has enhanced reaction time, and can see in near-darkness.
Weaknesses and Limitations
Ryder's biggest weakness is his arrogance. He tends to assume that he is uniquely qualified to understand and deal with "unusual problems" and is reluctant to accept advice or assistance from others. He is often taken aback (though sometimes secretly pleased) when someone actually understands his glib, jargon-laced explanations of what's happening and how he's going to stop or fix it. He tends to respond better to intelligent questions than to challenges to his authority or demands that he stop and repeat himself more plainly. He can also be surprised to encounter foes whose technology matches or even exceeds his own, though he quickly rises to the challenge.
He is always a little bit "out of touch" or "out of step" with popular culture and idiom of this era. He has the perspective of a historian or anthropologist rather than a native, and a tendency to miss details in favor of the big picture. His memetic defenses actually prevent him from understanding many jokes, and his own sense of humor is... different.
If somehow deprived of his tools and technology, Ryder would be virtually helpless. This is much easier said than done, however, as some of it is literally part of him.
Equipment
As noted above, Ryder makes use of a variety of future-tech tools and gadgets in his work. He operates these with a combination of gestures and mental commands. He is never seen without his gauntlets, and rarely without his goggles; the full capabilities of the latter have not yet been revealed, but include text and graphics display up to the level of augmented reality, a memetic filter, and flash compensation. Other specialized tools with nigh-incomprehensible functions are attached (some of them permanently) to his utility belt, or retrieved as needed from a handy dimensional pocket.
Ryder's preferred mode of transport is a shiny red hoverboard, suspended by antigravity and propelled by small efficient thrusters. Its maximum lift is only a few hundred kilograms, enough for Ryder himself and another person or some cargo. Items placed on its upper surface become stuck there as if by magnetism, requiring deliberate effort to remove. Ryder can turn this feature off with a thought.
Character History
The world, or at least Paragon City and the FBSA, knows Gabriel Ryder as a fast-talking, fast-thinking young man who shows up whenever things get strange even for a city of heroes. He seems to have a quip, a solution, and/or a gadget for everything, pulling the last of those out of his utility belt or (seemingly) thin air as needed. When mad science goes wrong, the Hamidon spawns a new horror, or the cellphone network wakes up and starts making calls of its own[1], the Shockwave Ryder will swoop in on his hoverboard and save the day.
This is a lie, a cover story, a public persona. It's the best kind of lie, one with a lot of truth in it. Show people what they expect to see and they stop paying attention, don't notice what the other hand is doing. Here, then, are some lesser-known facts about Gabriel Ryder that he's let slip to other heroes:
Gabriel Ryder is from the future. How far, and what things are like there, he won't (or can't) say. He appears to be a free agent, not part of Ouroborous (though he's been known to dress like them, now and then) and doesn't use their Pillars to travel through time. He is evasive on what method he does use and whether he is bound by the Carbon Law.
Gabriel Ryder is not entirely human. He protests when someone calls him out on this, explaining that he doesn't have anything extreme, just the usual genetweaks and nanomune system, some nerveboosts and a bodynet, a lowlight vision mod... "oh, and a backup heart, that's come in handy a few times." In short, pretty much what everyone has where he comes from.
Gabriel Ryder is older than he looks. Much, much older.
Gabriel Ryder has seen how the world ends - all the ways, in fact. According to him, the probability of human extinction (at our own hands or otherwise) has been rising for the last century - roughly coinciding with the splitting of the atom, the current heroic age, and regular contact with life from other worlds and dimensions - and is due to peak at nearly 100% within the next fifty years. (After that, things start to look better... if we're still here.) His real mission in this time is to try to improve those odds, all by himself if necessary. "Archimedes said that with a lever and a place to stand, he could move the Earth. My tools are a little more advanced than his, and this, right here, is where I've chosen to make my stand. A nudge here and there, and a little luck... Anyway, what's the alternative? Lie down and wait for the end? Don't think I haven't thought about it some days."
"Gabriel Ryder" is almost certainly not his real name.
Trivia
- ↑ This actually turned out to be an alien data entity that had downloaded itself through the Very Large Array, not a spontaneously-emergent AI.
