Skull Sovereign
From Unofficial Handbook of the Virtue Universe
| |
| The ancient genshu armor | |
| Skull Sovereign | |
| Player: @PoptartsNinja | |
| Origin: | Magic |
|---|---|
| Archetype: | Brute |
| Threat Level: | 50 |
| Personal Data | |
| Real Name: | Experiment D303 |
| Known Aliases: | Kyle Sands, Dust, Skull Sovereign |
| Species: | Human |
| Age: | 20 |
| Height: | 6'2" |
| Weight: | 167 lbs |
| Eye Color: | Unknown |
| Hair Color: | Brown |
| Biographical Data | |
| Nationality: | American |
| Occupation: | Unknown |
| Place of Birth: | Paragon City |
| Base of Operations: | the Rikti War Zone |
| Marital Status: | Single |
| Known Relatives: | Kelly Sparks, Eric Slate |
| Known Powers | |
| Short-range Earth and Electrical control, possible immortality | |
| Known Abilities | |
| Magical aptitude, extensive knowledge of things the armor has experienced directly | |
| Equipment | |
| The genshu armor | |
| 'Theme' song: Mordred's Song Battlefield, a voice in the dark | |
Contents |
History
No Outcast
The quietest of three 'triplet' siblings 'rescued' as children from an overturned van by a gang of marauding Outcasts, Kyle Sands was always a calm, intelligent young man gifted with a deep love for learning new things. Where his siblings, Eric Slate and Kelly Sparks, were wild and adventurous, Kyle was laid back and down-to-earth. Typically a happy child, Kyle's mutant powers were considered something of a joke by his Outcast caretakers. Where Eric had strong ties to the Earth, and Kelly had a deep bond to electricity, Kyle had a significantly weakened blend of the two. While his powers weren't especially weak, they worked against each other in an almost active fashion, practically destroying any possible functionality they mave have provided.
Worse than simple weakness, Kyle showed neither interest nor aptitude in any of his caretakers' more criminal activities; and proved a lousy lookout. He never really questioned why they stopped bringing him along, although his brother and sister proved far more capable and were inducted into the outcasts as quickly as their rapidly-improving powers would allow. Kyle was never invited to join, in spite of meeting their minimum requrements (being a low-powered mutant); but whether it was because he was far overshadowed by his brother and sister, or whether they simply assumed he'd have no interest is unclear.
The Preston Apartments Bombing
The Preston Apartment complex had always been something of a thorn in the Outcasts' side. Located in Steel Canyon, the complex repeatedly refused to cowtow to the Outcasts' attempts to intimidate them into paying 'protection money'. Home to several low-power heroes, the Apartments were protected well enough that the Outcasts couldn't crack them without the use of overwhelming physical force of a type that attracts far more police attention than they were willing to accept.
Until one anonymous member suggested a similarly-anonymous bombing. Members of the Outcasts were chosen to commit the act based on their power and celebrity status. Included on the team were Kyle's siblings, Eric and Kelly (now calling themselves the 'Terror Twins'), who had sheer brute power on their side. The bombs themselves went off without a hitch, but either Eric fowled up his part in the escape, or felt Kelly fowled up hers and left some evidence behind. Thinking quickly, Eric returned to the scene of the crime and planted some evidence linking the deed to Kyle. To make the story more believable, he asked Kyle to 'hold onto some things' for him. Ever trusting, or perhaps not willing to let his siblings get in trouble, Kyle accepted the incriminating bomb-making gear without question. It didn't take long for crack team of Longbow investigators to track Kyle down, as he had no reason to even suspect he should be trying to hide.
Trial and Imprisonment
Tried as an adult at the age of fifteen due to the severity of the crime, Kyle's trial was a 'triumph of justice': which is to say, the evidence against him was overwhelming so the trial was quick and didn't cost a lot of money. Unable to afford his own lawyer, Kyle was provided a public defender and lucked into a lazy, hard-drinking man who managed to both offend the jury on Kyle's behalf and talk the judge into a life-without-parole sentence under the guise of 'defending' his charge.
Legally bound by his unsympathetic, borderline incompitent lawyer, Kyle swiftly found himself on a slow truck to the Zig--and this time there would be no breakout, no rescue, his friends and caretakers in the outcasts, not wanting to engage a Longbow escort, simply wrote off the nearly-powerless young man as a loss.
Always difficult, Kyle was unprepared for the hard, violent life he found in the Zigursky Maximum-Security Penetentiary. Fifteen, handsome, and with no powers of any real value in a prison fight, Kyle was at the complete mercy of the other inmates. Although he suffered an occasional beating or humiliation, his first year was relatively easy. It was only after he was asigned Wilson Baratta, AKA "Marauding Madcat", as his cellmate that Kyle's prison stay turned into a living hell.
Wilson, until then a small-time thug serving for simple brutality and resisting arrest, was simply a man with a minor mutation: his fingertips ended in short, dull claws which were barely useable in a fight and offered no protection against either guns or PPD tasers. A closet sadist, Wilson opted to spend his five years in prison honing his criminal knowledge and 'growing stronger' by fighting nearly anyone who'd give him the time of day. In addition to the more typical prison pasttimes of beatings and sodomy, Wilson took to repeatedly 'trying out new claw techniques' on his then-sixteen year old cellmate, torturing him both physically and mentally in an effort to actively find new ways of causing pain.
Escape and Villainy
It's not exactly clear how Kyle and Wilson escaped, but they did it together in the span of less than half an hour: demolishing a hole cleanly through the floor of their prison cell and straight into the prison's sewer system, allowing the pair to escape. Although Wilson was recaptured almost immediately (and later sentenced to life without parole for killing a correctional officer while attempting to escape prison), Kyle himself somehow evaded and outran the police by hiding inside a suit of ancient Samurai armor on semi-public display by a private collector. He later vanished into Brickstown's slums.
It wasn't long after that the supervillain 'Skull Sovereign' turned up in the Rogue Isles. Although the two were vastly different in terms of strength, their powers are similar and it's now suspected that the two are one in the same. Additionally, Skull Sovereign's armor resembles the set stolen from the unnamed private collector in Brickstown.
Skull Sovereign is considered something of an enigma by experts in Paragon City. At first, his actions and motives seemed both erratic and truly malevolent, and he seemed to take special joy in targeting Longbow agents. However, as time passed it became increasingly apparent that, while Skull Soveregn was more than happy to knock his human victims unconscious, he's never dealt them lasting harm; and while he has broken bones on occasion, he tends to specifically target arms and legs rather than ribs or skulls.
It's also become apparent that, although he was almost immediately inducted into Arachnos' Project Destiny, Skull Sovereign is more than happy to actively work against Arachnos plots; and seems to take particular delight in thwarting Crey Industries, Malta, and Nemesis; and also frequently works against the Circle of Thorns. Although by itself this wouldn't be unusual, it's believed that Skull Sovereign had a hand in ending a Circle of Thorns plot that would have resulted in the deaths of all the Mu descendants on the planet: nearly 1/5th of the Earth's population.
Not long after, he was cut loose from Project: Destiny; and took an active role with the Vanguard forces in the Rikti War Zone. Vanguard considers him a huge asset against the Rikti, and he's been an active participant in several assaults on the crashed Rikti mothership as well as numerous assaults on heavily-fortified Rikti positions, and even a participant in a supposed peace conference. Longbow suspects those peace talks fell through, but it's believed now that Nemesis may have been involved somehow, and that Skull Sovereign played a key part in thwarting the Prussian Prince of Automatons, who has remained surprisingly quiescent of late.
Kill Order
Things with Skull Sovereign have recently come to a head. While invitations to Lord Recluse's tower have been a matter of course for him in the past, a rather heated 'discussion' with Ghost Widow lead to her questioning both Skull Sovereign's motives and methods. Unsurprisingly, he withdrew from his mutual protection pact with her; resulting in Ghost Widow 'reclaiming' her shared magical secrets. Weakened by the loss of Ghost Widow's magic, the armor may have temporarily lost some of its hold on the young Kyle Sands.
Unfortunately for Skull Sovereign, this news also reached Longbow, along with a rumor (likely courtesy of Ghost Widow): Skull Sovereign was planning a massive assault on Paragon City, causing the honorable government of the Rogue Isles to cut him loose. Fearful, Longbow has issued an 'attack on sight, shoot to kill' order for Skull Sovereign which they have even extended into the Rikti War Zone, fearing it to be the most likely vector for his attack.
Personality
Although he's typically outwardly happy and quick to make jokes, Kyle Sands is a very lonely young man with a tendency towards depression. He feels isolated from the rest of humanity, both due to his personal history and due to the genshu armor. A part of him secretly believes he's truly lost his way, although he keeps struggling to do right by his own principles, he's worried they've degraded, or that his ethics are somehow inherently inferior to those of other people. A part of him silently believes he deserves everything that's happened to him, and a larger part hates himself for being too weak to stop Wilson.
Kyle is quick to give strangers his respect, and is fairly trusting; but he's been burned often enough that he rarely gives anyone his complete trust. Kyle still wants desperately to regain his innocence, but understands that's simply not possible. He'd be willing to settle for proving himself innocent of the orignal crime for which he was convicted, but he's been involved in enough shady dealings he doubts that it will change anyone's opinion of him in either the short- or the long-term. Although he's long-since abandoned his personal quest to become 'stronger', without it he's begun to drift emotionally, and has started subconsciously putting distance between himself and the rest of humanity.
Friends and Associations
Skull Sovereign is allied with Vanguard, and has been trusted to lead Vanguard troops in combat in the past. He's a reasonably capable tactical commander, but his strategies tend to rely a bit too heavily on brute force and frontal assaults; so Vanguard only calls him up when such tactics are necessary.
Kyle Sands has made no known alliances, and has no acquaintences. He does, however, have siblings:
His sister, Kelly, has continued her life of petty crime. It's believed she remains an active member of the Outcasts, and Kyle has made no attempt to contact with her since his escape from prison.
His brother, Eric, was hired by Crey Industries as a security contractor; but was quickly adopted by the company as a salaried employee working in Crey's Paragon Protector program. His current location is unknown, and Kyle has made no attempt to contact him since his escape.
Abilities
Electricity Control
Skull Sovereign is able to project short-range Electrical pulses and intense static shocks. Additionally, he's able to convert kinetic, energy, and other impacts and attacks into electrical energy and 'ground' them out before they can do much harm. He's also highly energized, and seems to subsist entirely on absorbed energy, needing neither food nor water.
Earth Control
Skull Sovereign is able to draw on stone, either channeling it through the earth itself, or compressing the dust into the air into shapes as-needed. He tends to prefer armoring his fists in solid stone and creating bulky weapons, but can also cause tremors and uphevals of earth and stone without much additional effort.
Magic
Although not a strong practicioner, Skull Sovereign has picked up several magical spells both from Ghost Widow and other sources. Although not a wizard, his magical abilities are respected by Vanguard's magi, and he's been 'adopted' as an honorary Vanguard wizard. Unfortunately, the Legacy Chain takes a much more negative view of his gradually-expanding magical talents and have taken to monitoring his magical activities and regularly reporting them to Longbow.
According to the Legacy Chain, Ghost Widow has recently stripped Skull Sovereign of what little magic she'd taught him, and believe the process has rendered the Genshu Armor quite vulnerable.
The Genshu Armor
Skull Sovereign's armor has had many names in the past, but was most reciently worn by a Japanese supervillain named 'Genshu', or 'Sovereign', in the 1970s. Genshu was a master swordsman, but was killed in a gang-war with the Warriors--not in a swordfight, for none could beat him on even terms, but shot in the back by a desperate thug.
Genshu's armor had strong magical properties, and Genshu always believed that without it, he'd lose his expert swordsmanship. Although the armor was originally thought to be some sort of power amplifier, it's now believed that it simply regulates the abilities of the wearer. Current theories suggest that the armor may be preventing Kyle's earth and electricity powers from interfering with each other, allowing both to reach their full potential.
What He Thinks About You
Dame Demolition "Lucy was my first friend. Without her, I'd be traveling a very dark path right now--it's because of her that I'm trying to better myself. I haven't seen her in a long, long time. I hope she's doing alright."
Aglow & Brickbreaker "I'm going to be selfish, and wish Lilah and her new husband nothing but happiness."
Trashtalk "I've seen her around, but our first and so-far only conversation was brief because I pissed her off. She and First Player make a cute couple, though she'd probably kill me if I told her so."
Character Notes (contains spoilers)
Kyle and his siblings are Paragon Protectors, from a batch of rejects created to introduce 'earth' and 'electric' powers into the Paragon Protector line. Of fifty clones, all were considered failures and either dumped or inducted into Crey security as cyborgs and power-armor wearers. Kyle and his siblings were being transported to such a facility when their transport was broken into by Outcasts when the driver stopped to get a Gyro. Physically, Kyle and his siblings were approximately about age eight when they were 'rescued', and are actually about seven years younger than their physical and mental development suggests.
Kyle's brother, Eric, was responsible for the Preston Apartments bombing; but has set up enough evidence to make Kelly look responsible if Kyle decides to seek the truth (AE Arc: Trouble Always Comes in Threes. Arc ID: 433675).
