Sideswipe
From Unofficial Handbook of the Virtue Universe
Contents |
History
Alex Turner was born November 9th, 1982 to Richard and Samantha Turner. He had an unremarkable, ordinary childhood up until around the age of eleven, when his mutant genes activated. One day, realizing that his father had left his briefcase behind when leaving the house, Alex chased after him. After a minute or so of struggling to catch up to the family car, Alex suddenly found himself rushing past it.
Alex spent several weeks unable to control his powers. He couldn't slow down, and any forward momentum would send him hurtling forward. Furthermore, most things that he tried to touch would either fly out of his hands or crumple, if they didn't outright explode.
Eventually, a combination of sedatives and then practice enabled Alex to slow down and control his powers. A few years later, and the young mutant had developed fine control over his abilities. Not only could he slow down to normal speeds, but he could suppress his kinetic projection to the point that he could function normally. His control would continue to develop.
When he was sixteen years old, Alex and several friends from the greater Seattle area decided to band together to form a supergroup. Each of them had taken to super heroics individually, and they decided that they could do more as a group. Thus, the Seattle Sentinels were born, their members consisting of:
Blitz: Alex himself.
Guard Dog: A gruff young man whose mutant genetics rendered him indestructible, but not invulnerable. While he would still feel pain and suffer the normal effects of blunt force trauma, his cells were physically indestructible.
Flutter: A young woman whose mutation left her with a pair of angelic-looking wings. Capable of emitting a bright, bio-luminescent light from her wings, Flutter combined her ability to blind her foes with expert-level marksmanship with a bow.
Cantrip: A young man from a magical family. While his magical abilities were limited to minor spells & simple tricks, he had completely mastered them.
Smackdown: A wrestling enthusiast. Skilled in CQC, but decorated like a professional wrestler and seemingly protected by a bravado shield.
Wisp: A young woman with the ability to turn herself ghost-like and ethereal, capable of phasing through solid objects.
Bounce: A mutant with the ability to turn any small object she touched with her hands as bouncy as a standard bouncy-ball, but retaining their other physical properties such as hardness. She was also pin-point accurate when bouncing any object effected by her powers.
Stickjock: A LARPer with an enchanted foam mace.
The Seattle Sentinels were an overnight success on the streets of Seattle. While they were mostly untested kids, they were effective as a unit and frequently praised in various forms of news media. Unfortunately, their successes fed into their egos, and they eventually began to target organizations that were better off left to the older, more experienced heroes of the city.
They eventually earned the ire of the Russian mafia, who staged a raid on their secret hideout after tracking one of the members into the facility. The initial attack left many of the Sentinels dead, and left Alex in critical condition. While doctors were able to stabilize him, they were also forced to amputate his left arm.
Upon waking in the hospital and learning that most of his friends were dead, Alex snapped and went on a rampage. In a surprise attack, Alex murdered every member of the mafia cell that attacked the Sentinels' hideout. He disappeared shortly afterward.
Some time later, a one-armed assassin calling himself Shear appeared, a sword-wielding speedster who carried out assassinations at breakneck speed.
Shear quickly earned a name for himself in underworld circles, not only because of his efficiency and growing skill as an assassin, but also for the brutality of the assassinations he carried out. Applying superspeed to his killings typically resulted in showers of gore.
However, the loss of his arm and other damage from the explosion that took it, as well as his spiraling depression were taking their toll, severely limiting his speed and capping the potential of his abilities. Regardless, Alex made due, even if his loss of potential would result in further injuries (and further loss of speed) later on.
Eventually, Shear crossed paths with Warpcore, a fellow speedster and superhero. His routine interference eventually lead Shear to forming a vendetta, and eventually taking action. To that end, Shear hatched a plot to steal the other speedster's powers, given that they had grown exponentially stronger than Shear's own damaged abilities.
He succeeded.
And for a time, Shear used his stolen power in lieu of his own. It was a constant tug-of-war, and Shear maintained his connection through force of will alone. Drawing on the otherworldly entity's power, Shear was given physics-bending powers and could move faster than ever. And while he didn't realize it, exposure to the entity was healing his damaged body.
It was around this time that he met Lonnie, and after the two hit it off in Pocket D, they quickly began dating. Lonnie didn't exactly agree with his career choices, but as they got to know each other, she came to understand why he had fallen as far as he had.
Lonnie's influence, coupled with his renewed physical health eventually helped Shear claw his way out of the spiral he had fallen into. He decided to abandon his life as an assassin and do what he could to make up for his actions. The first step was healing the rest of his damaged body.
Thankfully, being an elite assassin meant that he had more than enough money to do so, not to mention underworld connections. Alex was able to use these resources to obtain a cloned-tissue replacement for his lost arm.
Once he was whole again, Alex relinquished his hold on the otherworldly entity whose powers he had stolen. And having healed his body, the entity's power also restored Alex's lost potential. He couldn't bend physics and run back in time anymore, but his mutant powers had grown to the level that they were always meant to.
Alex cast aside Shear and took a new name for himself: Sideswipe. Soon afterward, he joined Vanguard.
(More to come.)
Powers, Abilities & Equipment
Sideswipe's primary mutation causes him to generate and store a surplus of kinetic energy when he moves, proportionate to the strength and range of motion. He is also, to a lesser degree, capable of siphoning kinetic energy from his environment.
Technically, Sideswipe generates surplus kinetic energy from any movement he makes. However, the most efficient method for generating energy seems to be running. When he runs, he generates energy proportionate to his speed. The faster he runs, the more energy he generates.
Sideswipe's secondary mutations allow his body to cope with the stresses of super speed, enhancing his ability to process sensory information, protecting him against friction & wind resistance, and enhancing his stamina.
While Sideswipe originally relied completely on his super speed & ability to project kinetic energy, years of working as an assassin forced him to expand his skillset. Sideswipe is proficient in various forms of martial arts & the art of stealth.
Sideswipe's equipment consists of a customized set of Vanguard equipment. He forgoes the traditional chest and leg armor in favor of an impervium-weave bodysuit & light-weight leg padding, but retains the Vanguard mask, gloves and boots. Notably, the mask functions as a life-support device, allowing him to operate in hostile environments.
