Take One
From Unofficial Handbook of the Virtue Universe
Contents |
Origin
Richard DeMeyer managed to transform himself from an average but highly intelligent young man into an almost perfect physical and mental specimen of humanity in just a few years. When asked how he did it, he told reporters that anyone could do the same if they used his special diet and exercise methods. When asked why, he told them that he just wanted to punch people without getting arrested for it, and becoming a registered hero seemed to be the smarter solution.
Armed with peak-human abilities and a martial art which managed to merge the best of every style into a superior whole, Take One [1] began his crusade on crime. At first he turned his wrath upon street-gangs and drug peddlers, but as he started following the money-trail of their filthy trade he got involved with the greater mysteries and conspiracies of Paragon City.
Powers
Rich started out as a normal human being with the unusual ability to learn almost anything nearly instantly, in a manner similar to that of an idiot savant but without the debilitating handicaps usually found in those individuals.
Take One has surpassed human levels of physical and mental perfection through meditation, exercise and diet. He never gets sick or infected, doesn't need to sleep and can go without food and water for extended periods of time. He is far stronger than he looks, capable of lifting several times his own weight and leaping great distances.
A master of several forms of martial arts and a dabbler in many more, he still prefers to use a mongrel technique that he has invented himself by picking the best ideas from several styles and combining them into a simpler but more efficient whole. It is a brutish style not unlike the special forces combat systems of the Green Berets, Spetsnaz, and similar outfits.
Take One avoids damage by accurately predicting where the worst attacks will come from, and not being there. If he can't avoid the attacks altogether he positions himself in a manner which will allow him to block the attacks or direct them to a less vulnerable part of his body. Finally he has learned to ignore pain and possesses an awareness of his own body which makes him both unusually tough and lets him heal injuries incredibly fast.
In a fight, a lot of his brainpower is occupied performing precognitive calculations to foresee his opponents actions and decide on suitable countermeasures. He becomes preternaturally aware of his surroundings and while his eyes, ears and other sensory organs don't function much better than before (perfect, but within human limits) his brain is much better at filtering and sorting what they register.
Significant Events
Big In Japan
Shortly after registering as a hero, Take One saved a group of Japanese tourists from being robbed, kidnapped or worse by some of Paragon City's ubiquitous criminal elements. The tourists' story became big news in Japan and Take One was invited to go there to participate in various TV shows. He also ended up with an endorsement deal for Red Beast and made a few ads for the Japanese market, which earned him a nice amount of money and made him world famous in Japan.
C.A.P.E.S
Richard graduated from Paragon City University with a plethora of degrees, and the scorn of his teachers. With a solid education in most subjects offered at the PCU, Take One was prepared to become not only a judge and executioner but an investigator as well. A modern renaissance man, he is able to hold his own when confronted with experts in all fields of science and lore. During his time at PCU, Rich joined the Campus Alliance of Preternatural and Extraordinary Students (C.A.P.E.S). The members of the group enjoyed several years of close collaboration even after graduation. After the first generation of members left the school the group was closed down by the academic council, to prevent similar events as those which had plagued the institution before. C.A.P.E.S was later resurrected by a few enthusiastic students but has not managed to recapture its former glory.
Nemesis' Nemesis
The Crey Clone Saga
The Kheldian Incident
During his time at university Take One lived a double life, spending much of his free time in the Rogue Isles fighting villains on their own turf. At one time he was infiltrating a Council base and was implanted with a nictus. Instead of bringing the creature back to the mad scientist who had hired him for extraction, he returned to Paragon City with the nictus intact.
The Kheldian community discovered that the merger had been incomplete, the nictus being wounded and too weak to take control over Rich's superior mind. They decided to try a desperate plan in order to nurse the weak nictus back to health. While the nictus couldn't control Rich he was still able to tap into its quantum manipulating powers, and he spent several months with the wounded nictus inside him, with inconclusive results.
The nictus only seemed to stir in response to Take's girlfriend at the time, seemingly having developed a crush on her. Rich was not pleased with this and decided to solve the problem on his own since the Kheldians' methods so far had failed to deliver a solution that didn't risk the life of himself or his passenger.
His time in the Rogue Isles had earned him the trust of the infamous Scirocco, and as that mad terrorist was preparing to use the power of the Malleus Mundi to recreate the world in his own warped image, Take One had memorized the book while he had it in his possession before delivering a powerless copy to Scirocco. With the power of the book in his mind Take One used his contacts at Portal Corp to find a life-less alternate Earth where he could conduct his experiment.
Take One entered that alternate dimension and sat down to meditate upon his problem. He focused his entire will on a single task, keeping all the variables and parameters of an increasingly complicated wish in his mind, before he slowly let the Malleus Mundi work its magic. After it was over an exact copy of Take One sat facing him, the only difference being that the copy was fully merged with the now cured nictus. Together they returned to Primal Earth where they parted ways as friends. The warshade went on to join the PPD under the name Quantum Agent to prove that warshades could be just as good cops as Peacebringers.
Art And Strategy
In March of 2008 Take One opened a dojo/gym for teaching his exercise methods and martial arts styles. It's called Art And Strategy and he has so far mostly attracted clients from military and law enforcement agencies but Hero Corp and Longbow have also showed some interest. Since it opened he has invited several other masters of various combat styles to join the dojo as teachers.
The Second Rikti War
Death and Resurrection
In late August of 2010 Take One heroically sacrificed himself to prevent an invasion of his own clones, from Praetoria, by manually setting off explosives to seal the portal[2]. The sole survivor on the Primal side of the portal was one of his clones, fortunately the very one who had tried to stop the plot all along and who was almost considered trustworthy by the authorities.
S.A.M[3] arranged for the clone to take over as the original Take One, both as a way to cover up the mess they made of the whole affair, and as way of thanks for him helping save the world. It would also let them keep close tabs on him, in case he suddenly had a change of heart and went rogue.
The clone is physically identical to Take One but not nearly as intelligent. It has conventional but effective martial arts training and seems to possess a preternaturally strong will, as proven by its ability to resist the 5th Column's brainwashing and actually stand up against its creator, Protean.
To explain the clone's relative lack of skill and expertise, S.A.M provided a cover story explaining that Take One was experimenting with a new martial arts style and would have to reduce his security level until he had mastered it sufficiently.
In an almost comic-book level of retconning, the original Take One returned from Praetoria wearing an ugly white suit and wielding guns and mysterious powers of kineticism that he had picked up in the explosion and ensuing dimensional shenanigans. He found the impostor and had a nice chat with the guy. They decided that it was probably best for everyone if the clone went back to Praetoria and the original Take One remained on Primal Earth. To get back at S.A.M for screwing with them, they never told anyone about the switch.
References
