Spirit of Stone
From Unofficial Handbook of the Virtue Universe
| |
| Stone ready for action | |
| Spirit of Stone | |
| Player: @BurntHeart | |
| Origin: | Mutant |
|---|---|
| Archetype: | Tank |
| Security Level: | 50 |
| Personal Data | |
| Real Name: | Thomas Jonathan Stone |
| Known Aliases: | Stone, Stonie, Tommy |
| Species: | Human |
| Age: | 27 |
| Height: | 8' 2" |
| Weight: | 452lbs |
| Eye Color: | Brown |
| Hair Color: | Brown, generally covered in stone and dirt |
| Biographical Data | |
| Nationality: | American |
| Occupation: | Owner of Stone's Pottery and Stuff, Licensed Super Hero |
| Place of Birth: | Coalton, West Virginia |
| Base of Operations: | Kings Row, Paragon City |
| Marital Status: | Single |
| Known Relatives: | Margret Stone (mother) and Raynard Stone (father) |
| Known Powers | |
| Stone Melee, Fire Shield, Earth Mastery | |
| Known Abilities | |
| Super Leap, Werewolf | |
| Equipment | |
| Big Honkin' Stone Hammer | |
| No additional information available. | |
Spirit of Stone was @BurntHeart's (player) first real attempt at a fully-realized RP character in the City of Heroes game. Influenced by the idea that a super hero who has limited education, limited sophistication, and southern accent; would be a hoot.
Contents |
Affiliations
Supergroup: The Phoenix Force
Former Supergroups: Guardian Angels Reborn (Disbanded by order of Paragon City Council)
Personality
Generally happy, positive, and optimistic. Tommy tends to see the positives about most of life's situations. He is mostly confused by technology. He will make an attempt to understand how something works, but usually needs to boil it down to it's simpliest explaination. Most common example of this is his understanding of genetics is limited to the idea that genes are legos that make people work. Magic also confuses Tommy and he generally understands magic only in terms of baking.
Powers
Tommy was born a mutant with the ability to control earth. His powers manifested at birth, growing in scope as he grew.
Stone Melee
Tommy is able to encase his fists and forearms in stone and rock, adding crushing power to any punch he throws. Tommy uses the same ability to control stone and earth to call forth a mallet of solid stone, which he then is able to wield in massive strikes that have been known to leave a foe disoriented or sailing through the air. His abilities to influence the earth around him also allow him to create localized siezmic disturbances and even rip massive boulders from the ground at his feet to hurl at an enemy.
Rocky Coverings
Tommy's control over the stones and rocks attracted to his body has grown considerably since his arrival in Paragon City. He is now able to encase and retract a covering of stone over his body, adding in his own defense. His rocky coverings provide protection from blunt weapons, blades, and various physical attacks, but are mainly used to allow him to activate his true defensive powers, his Fire Shields.
Fire Shield
Tommy is able to cover his entire body in flames, ranging from a burning orange, to a white hot plasma. He does not possess the abilty to control fire or flames, but rather creates these flames by exherting tremendous pressure on the rocks covering his body, causing them to erupt in flames. The pressures he places on these rocks is likened to he pressures stones and minerals experience in the Earth's own magma level.
Earth Mastery
During his time in Paragon City, Tommy has been mentored by other mutant heroes who have helped him to learn to control his own mutation. One mentor in particular, Terra Prima, was at one time a ranking member of Freedom Corps. Terra Prima is a mutant who also controls the earth around her and taught Tommy further control of his own mutant powers. Tommy is now able to pull a pillar of stone from the very ground and encase a foe in it, freezing them in place, unable to move. He is also able to cause crags of rock to jut from the ground encircling an enemy and holding them in place. Using the skills he learned from Terra Prima, Tommy has been able to adapt his own fighting style from just a simple smash and bash tactic, to more organized attempts to control the movements and options of a group he is engaging.
Super Leaping
Due to Tommy's massive size, his muscle strength allows for feats not common to most people. The sheer size of his thigh and calf muscles allows Tommy to leap great distances, easily clearing Steel Canyon in three leaps. While his hero license identifies this ability as Super Leaping, Tommy simply refers to it as, "I jump big."
Werewolf Aspects
Two years ago, while a member of the Super Group, Guardian Angles Reborn, Tommy was bitten by a werewolf named Valon, while attempting to rescue a fellow GAR member, Silverblade, with the help of Brimstone Bobby and Steel Scalpel. The infection from Valon took longer than usual to affect Tommy, due to his size and mutant nature, but once the affects took place, Tommy transformed into a Werewolf and terrorized Kings Row for three nights. This event permanently changed Tommy. He has made peace with his wolf half, called The Grey Lycan. Tommy, in his human/mutant form, possesses slightly enhanced sense of smell and hearing, as well as occassional prophetic dreams. In his wolf form, Tommy's mind is moved to a subconsious state and the being known as Grey Lycan is in control of their shared body.
Character History
Childhood
Tommy was born in Coalton, West Virgina, to his parents, Margret and Raynard Stone. Tommy was a large baby at birth and continued to grow larger as he matured. As an infant, Margret had a difficult time keeping Tommy clean, as he appeared to attract dirt and dust like a magnet. Before entering Kindergarden, Tommy's Pediatrist discovered Tommy was a mutant.
By the age of six, Tommy was attracting stones and pebbles instead of dirt and dust, and exhibited the ability to control the earth around him in a limited fashion. An incident on the playground of his elementary school at age nine, resulted in the school board requesting the Stone's homeschool Tommy as he presented a threat to the other students.
The incident involved another boy in Tommy's class, who had been picking on him all year, due to his being covered in stones and pebbles. The bully attempted to threaten Tommy for his lunch money. Tommy, who in spite of his large build, felt he was in danger from the playground bully, erupted in flames that covered is entire body and mildly scorched the bully.
For the remainder of educational years Tommy was homeschooled by his mother, Margret. Margret Stone was not a teacher by trade, and the Stones were not in a position financally to afford to send Tommy to a private school that was better suited to handle mutant students, so the Stone's did the best they could with Tommy's education.
Tommy barely passed the state exam for graduation and to this day retains only a limited remedial education, making it difficult for him to understand complex and abstract concepts.
Early Adulthood
After he recieved his dipolma, Tommy simply began working on the family farm, which his mother primarily maintained. The family farm is used mostly to feed the Stone's themselves and maintain a small flock of sheep. The sheep provide supplimental income for the family via wool. The main income for the Stone's comes from Tommy's father, Raynard, and his job at the Coalton Coal Mine. Tommy had attempted several times to secure employement at the mines himself, believing his mutant abilities would be handy in the mining business, but failed the safty exam for employment three times in a row.
Before he could attempt the test a forth time the Rikti Invasion began. Coalton passed through the war with no direct attacks or damage, but watching the footage of the fighting on the news and reading the accounts of the world's heroes in battles to defeat this enemy stirred a sense of importance in Tommy.
The final attack of the war, the sacrifices of Alpha Team and Omega Team, spoke to Tommy deeply. Then, three years ago, Tommy heard the address Statesman made on national news, his "Call to Heroes" to come to Paragon and train with the surviving heroes, to rebuild the world's hero population. Tommy packed a small bag and informed his parents that he could no longer remain in Coalton and was wasting his powers on farming and an attempt to become a miner. He was needed in Paragon City. His parents supported his decision and drove him to the bus station.
Paragon Years
Fallen Angels
Arriving in Paragon City, Tommy initially had nowhere to live and "camped out" for several weeks in the GIFT office in Galaxy City. During this time he frequented the local hub of hero activity at the time, Gemini Park, or as Stone usually mispronounced it, "Jimminey Parks". In between missions he made time to meet and interact with a variety of heroes who also spent their free time in the park. It was during one of these trips to Gemini Park that Tommy met a fellow hero named Caios. Caios was a member of the group, The Guardian Angels. Stone's attention had been drawn to the Guardian Angels in the aftermath of one of their own being brutally murdered and hung on the side of the PCPD's headquarters in King's Row.
In the days following the murder of the Angel known as Arwyn, Tommy came face to face with her killer, Karnage, during a show down between him and several other heroes gathered in the park. Karnage managed to escape that night and evidence linking him to the murder of the fallen Angel was non-existant.
Stone's involvement and activities during this time of crisis for the Guardian Angels resulted in Caios offering membership in the newly formed Guardian Angels Reborn, born from the ashes of what remained of the Angels in the wake of Karnage's rampage against the group.
Pizza Delivery Boy
Shortly after joining the newly formed, Guardian Angels Reborn, GAR, Tommy was able to secure employment at a Paragon Pizza in Kings Row and was finally able to afford his first apartment, also in The Row. Shortly after moving in Tommy discovered that fellow Guardian Angels Reborn (GAR) member, Brimstone Bobby, was also homeless and sleeping in Perez Park. Tommy and Bobby became roommates and close friends.
Tommy's career as a Pizza delivery boy was short lived when he discovered that this particular branch of Paragon Pizza was owned and operated by a member of the organized crime group, The Family. Tommy's boss, Mr. Donnie, was a crime boss within The Family and used the restaurant as a cover for dealing and distributing Superdyne.
Mr. Donnie attempted to talk Tommy into working for him as an enforcer, but Tommy refused and quit his job. Mr. Donnie then attempted to blackmail Tommy into returning to work for him. Tommy again refused and was prepared to go to the PCPD. This move on Tommy's part was stopped when Tommy recieved an odd phone call from Mr. Donnie. Mr. Donnie had decided to turn himself in and wanted Tommy to be the one to take him in. Tommy discovered later that another fellow GAR member, Caios, had visited Mr. Donnie and "convinced" him to drop the blackmail attempt and instead turn himself in. To this day Tommy is unware that in the process of "helping Mr. Donnie see the error of his ways" Caios had infact, killed all of Mr. Donnie's hench men and disposed of the bodies.
This was Tommy's first brush with the darker side of life in Paragon City, but would not be his last, and not his last brush with The Family, as Mr. Donnie's son, Donnie Jr. later surfaced and attempted to extract revenge on Tommy for his father's incarceration.
Encounter with a Werewolf
Later the same year, GAR found itself entangled in a plot to kidnap another GAR member, Silverblade, by a shady group known only as Black Karma. During the kidnapping incident, Black Karma, sent a werewolf, known only as Valon, into Talos Island, to distract The Angels. Stone, Brimstone Bobby, and Steel Scalpel attempted to engage in a fight with Valon on the bridge which leads to Founder's Falls.
During the battle with Valon, Stone was bitten on his shoulder. Believing his Rocky Coverings had protected him from the bite, the incident was forgotten. Valon was defeated and killed by a silver cruxifix wielded by Brimstone Bobby. Guilt from taking a life, even that of a werewolf, plagued Bobby and soothing this guilt consumed most of Stone's time and thought after the incident, adding another level of dismissiveness to the bite.
Nearly two months after the fight with Valon, Kings Row was plagued by a series of attacks on local villain groups during the first two nights of the full moon. Sketchy reports from witnesses led local heroes to believe a werewolf was attacking and killing villains in the area.
On the third night of the full moon a massive group of over twenty heroes decended on King's Row in small groups of five to hunt for the killer. During the hunt, the group which Stone was assigned to witnessed his transformation into the hulking beast. Stone, in wolf form, was cornered and subdued, reverting back to his natural form by dawn.
After being told that he was the werewolf they had been hunting, Tommy decided to turn himself in to the authorities to be charged with the murder of several members of The Lost, The Skulls, and The Circle of Thorns.
The trial that followed his arrest was confused and disjointed, as the prosecution was aided by a mysterious lawyer representing the families of The Skulls' members who had been killed. This lawyer, Able Kane, appeared to be operating under his own agenda and left the court room near the end of the trial, leaving the District Attorny to pick up the remains of case against Tommy, left in disarray. Later investigations into this "Able Kane," by other Paragon Heroes, turned up links to Crey and wire transfers of large sums of money to offshore accounts. Who this man was and what his agenda was remains unknown.
Tommy was found not guilty in the murder of the Circle of Thorn cultists, as their human souls had already been removed by the Thorn spirits which were residing in them. He was found guilty of involuntary manslaughter of The Lost and Skulls victims, due to the werewolf half of him being in control of his body at the time of the killings.
Tommy was sentenced to community service and was required to spend the three nights of the full moon incarcerated in Paragon Psychiatric and Behavioral Health Center, for no less than six months. He would be released from this sentence after six months, if the cheif of staff deemed his werewolf half no longer posed a threat to the population.
During this time, Tommy was able to establish a mental link with the werewolf portion of his mind, which called itself Grey Lycan. Tommy's black and white view of "Killing bad, Hero good" along with the aid of the staff psychiatrists, as well as help from Caios, allowed Grey Lycan to understand the difference between detaining villains and killing them. Tommy's hero license was returned and Grey Lycan was issued a seperate license of his own for the times in which he was active and Tommy's mind was supressed.
The Good Rock Mens
After his first encounter with the mysterious Devouring Earth, Stone had become slightly obsessed with the idea that he could communicate with the "Rock Mens" or Granites within their ranks. His links to the earth made him believe he could show them the error of their ways and help them to reform. Every encounter with the Devouring Earth ended badly and Tommy's faith in reforming the Granites was waning.
During a mission to save a group of lawyers from a Devouring Earth raid, Tommy happened upon a lone Rubble. This Rubble did not attack him, as the other Devouring Earth had. This Rubble simply watched him. Stone attempted to communicate with him, to no avail. As Tommy ushered the lawyers to safty he turned to see the Rubble still watching him. Tommy's last words to the Rubble as he left the building and the Rubble in peace were simply, "choose good."
Nearly a month later while on a mission to retrieve an important book from the Circle of Thorns, Stone stumbled across a lone Rubble again. The Rubble, barely able to speak in more than grunts and grinding rocks simply garbled to Tommy, "Chaulks Goo!"
After retrieving the book, Stone returned to the tunnels to find the lone Rubble was not alone, but had another Rubble and a Crystal Shard with it. All three garbled out the phrase, "Chaulks Goo!" Then attempted to communicate with Tommy via hand gestures and crude drawings in the dirt.
Tommy discovered that a small band of Devouring Earth creatures had decided they were not willing follow Hamidon's commands any longer and had rebelled. Tommy continued to meet with the Rebellious Earth, watching their numbers swell as more and more were able to disobey the chemical controls of the Hamidon.
Eventually, Stone managed to convince his new friend, Rogue Rubble, to leave the caves the Rebellious Earth were hiding in, and present himself to City Hall to register as a hero. SERAPH were highly interested in studing Rogue Rubble to find out how he and his compatriots managed to shake off the controls of Hamidon, but Stone, along with several other hero friends, managed to convince them to allow him to remain in Tommy's custody and begin working as a hero.
Rogue Rubble is now a ward of Spirit of Stone and the battle cry, "Chaulks Goo!" or "choose good" can be heard echoing out of the occassional tunnel still to this day, as the rebellion against Hamidon continues.
Angels of the Apocolypse
Nearly two years ago the Guardian Angels Reborn became entangled in yet another plot placing the world in jeopardy. This time the group discovered that a band of Rikti from an alternate dimension, alternate from the alternate one the typical Rikti hails from, had managed to infiltrate this dimension.
These "new" Rikti were from a world where the Rikti had been in existance much longer than the normal Rikti and had evolved many new strains of soldiers, beasts, and weapons. Many were well versed in the use of unknown magics, supernatural beings such as Vampires and Werewolves had been converted to Rikti forms, and their weapons ran the gambit from arcane to highly advanced.
GAR discovered an attempt by these Rikti to establish a beach head in Perez Park, giving them the ability to easily pour into Atlas Park, Galaxy City, Skyway City, and Steel Canyon. The team attempted to convince others of the danger, but were largely ignored. GAR banded together, temporarily with a small group of known villains, Karnage, Burnt Heart, Soul Fire, and Replimax. Stone and Rogue Rubble were able to band together the sparse forces of the Rebellious Earth, and Caios managed to call in several favors from contacts in the military to have several units on duty at the Rikti Crash site to be diverted to an assault on Perez Park.
The battle that ensued served as a distraction while a small force of GAR members along with Karnage infiltrated the Alternate Rikti's portal to their homeworld, were Drogan Alheron was being held captive. Once Drogan had been rescued the strike team returned through the portal and blowing it and the Alternate Rikti's homeworld to kingdom come. Once the remaining Alternate Rikti forces had been mopped up in Perez the small band of villains fled for the Rogue Islands.
GAR faced the wrath of the authorities. For aiding and abaiting known villains and diverting military resources GAR was banned from existance by the City Council. For their parts in stopping a potentially devastating invasion of the city, the individual members of GAR were allowed to retain their hero licenses, but the group would be no more.
Several members of GAR, including Tommy joined The Phoenix Force.
Hero of The City
In the time since joining The Phoenix Force, Tommy has tried to stay out of the troubles that seemed to plague his earlier hero career. His work with Rogue Rubble and other Rebellious Earth continue, but for the most part Stone seems to have settled into the role of an average hero nicely.
During this time he worked with Crimson and Indigo in attempting to end several plots hatched by the shady group, Malta, including the distruction of one of their Kronos Titians which was terrorizing Talos Island. For his work in protecting Talos and his continued work in helping to protect King's Row, he was awarded the Hero of the City medal last year, on the steps of the PCPD Headquarters. The medal was awarded to him by Blue Steel in front of his friends, his teammates, an array of Rebellious Earth, and his parents, who couldn't be more proud of their son.
Life with Stone Now
Currently, Spirit of Stone, still resides in King's Row. He lives at Bobby's Bording House, a boarding house built by his friend Brimstone Bobby. Originally the house was going to be a boarding house for heroes in need of a place to live. Since it's dedication the house has now become home to Tommy and Rogue Rubble, as well as Bobby and his wards, Magdeline Waterford Johnson and Jacob Waterford Johnson; twins. The twins are the children of Brimstone Bobby and Empathica, from an alternate dimension...but that's a story for another time.
While, Tommy lives in Kings Row at the boarding house with his newly expanded family, he owns and operates a small pottery shop in Steel Canyon. The property had been given to him by his former GAR team mate, Silverblade, as a Christmas present. Tommy opened Stone's Pottery and Stuff nearly two and a half years ago and has done quite well for himself in the time since. While his pottery is not the height of art in Paragon City, the sheer volume he is able to create, using his powers to control earth, means that nearly anything someone is looking for, pottery wise, can be found in his shop with ease.
