Forum Replies Created
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Ernesto Etienne/Triggerfinger: Ernesto Etienne is a self-made man, and his journey from a kid in the slums to one of the most prominent crime lords of Midnight City wasn’t an easy one. His struggles may have left him with a sense of respect and compassion towards his enemies and innocents, but they also left their marks; he’s a cold and efficient assassin who will carry out his missions with ruthless professionalism, and he’s earned a well-deserved reputation for NEVER missing a target. God help you if the Blossom Needles crime family put a hit on you.Ernesto Etienne/Triggerfinger blends his natural skill with marksmanship with the powers granted to him. He is blind, but his senses of hearing, smell, and taste have been enhanced to extraordinarily high levels, allowing him to tell where the precise location of a target is. His perceptiveness and intuition also serves him well, and he relies on gut instinct and his hearing to process incoming threats. As a result, Triggerfinger is one of THE top marksmen of Atlas, capable of hitting targets even if they are miles away.
Triggerfinger’s price for his powers was his sight.
Markus Petra/Groundpounder: An absolute powerhouse of a beast with a brain the size of a walnut, Groundpounder is perfect for smashing and breaking… and nothing else. With absolutely no intelligence beyond smashing, rage, and eating things, he remains blissfully unaware of his lot in life, and serves as an attack dog for villains to point in a direction and let loose. The big lug may want to help, but that doesn’t mean much when he’s so convinced heroes are the bad ones…
Groundpounder is the biggest and strongest of the Parthenon Mutations, possessing a strength level far exceeding even other heavy hitters like Sgt. Hardshell, Black Maratia, or even Patriarch. He can shake off direct hits from tank artillery, tear train engines apart, punch hard enough to create shockwaves, and more. His TRUE power, however, is his ability to manipulate his own body density; by decreasing his mass, weight and density, he can make himself nearly intangible and float in the air like a balloon… then shift his density to the OPPOSITE end of the spectrum and drop like a stone, causing untold destruction when he lands.
Groundpounder’s price for becoming a Paradigm was his intelligence.
Jason Talisman/The Dreamcatcher: Jason Talisman has absolutely nothing to offer in physical strength; he makes up for it with his knowledge of the human subconscious… and what he needs to poke and prod at to completely break someone in mind and spirit. Eloquent, soft-spoken and sadistic, he loves nothing more than to haunt a man’s nightmares and use their bad memories, buried traumas, and insecurities to take them apart, bit by bit…
The Dreamcatcher can enter the minds of others through their dreams and manipulate their subconscious for a variety of effects. He can inflict horrific nightmares on his victims, use their worst fears and insecurities against them, force them to relive repressed, traumatic memories over and over again, and more; if he’s feeling merciful, he’ll just shut their minds down and kill them. The Dreamcatcher’s physical body has a defense mechanism in the form of pheromones; he constantly produces them and will cause anyone who breathes them to fall asleep, trapping them in the dream world with him.
The Dreamcatcher’s price for becoming a Paradigm was his physical strength, leaving him an emaciated husk confined to a bed.
Roderick Benson/Radioactro:A Paradigm notorious for how thoroughly his injection changed him, Radioactro is a broken man on the wrong side; having lost everything in a screwup-turned-disaster, whatever kindness and selflessness he had has been drowned out by inconsolable cynicism and anger at the world, leaving nothing but an unapologetically brutal Paradigm running on a horribly misguided desire to do something right. Give him a reason to believe you deserve it, and he will tear you apart.Out of all the people forcefully changed and transformed by nefarious experiments, Radioactro is the one who received the worst of it; he has been turned from a human being to a sentient chemical spill, his consciousness and mind contained within a single particle of radioactive sludge. He must rely on a metal containment suit—Fire Glider’s old, newly-modified suit, to be specific—for movement and to contain the radiation he constantly emits. When in the armor, he is quite slow and zombie-like, but he is extraordinarily durable and is strong enough to hit with the force of a bullet train. The suit has also been modified with a number of offensive and defensive weapons such as an arm-mounted radiation cannon, small railguns, and a jetpack that grants him limited flight. Radioactro can also exit the armor at will through a small hatch on the stomach and attack opponents as a tidal wave of raw sludge, and can absorb various types of liquids and radiation into himself to increase his mass and size.Roderick Benson did not lose a part of himself when transformed into a Paradigm.[This character is where I REALLY started getting better with my poses]
Lydia Chastain/Black Maratia: It’s no secret that superheroes battles tend to destroy their surroundings, and a harsher reality? They can’t save everyone. Sometimes they end up worsening the issues that were already there, and socialite Lydia Chastain is a victim of all three circumstances; the end result is a sadistic control freak who truly believes there aren’t any good people left.
Between growing up surrounded by horrible people, having to rebuild her family’s influence from scratch, and her deep-seated fear of feeling helpless, the only comforts she had was her family and fiancé; losing them and everything she had rebuilt in the Nightlighters’ first battle was just the final straw, and Lydia dedicated her life to getting her revenge; her chance finally came in the form of Project: G.E.M, and they turned her into what she hated, granting her immense power but sterilizing her. Now with her sadistic misanthropy out in full force, Lydia uses charisma, sex, and her beauty to seduce, charm, and bring her victims under her thrall. As more lovestruck men flock to her, she keeps finding new ways to guarantee herself victory; she has used her newfound mind control abilities to force a vampire to bite her, transforming her into a vampire herself; in weaponizing the violent rampages brought on by overdosing on bloodsucking, Lydia Chastain just might end up being one of the most dangerous threats Atlas has ever seen.
Lydia Chastain/Black Maratia is partially inspired by the Jorōgumo, and her original Toolkit abilities give her the physiology of a black widow spider; her senses and strength have been greatly enhanced, she can crawl across walls and ceilings, produce and manipulate copious amounts of silk, and is armed with retractable claws filled with venom. However, her greatest power is her mind control; by maintaining eye contact with a victim for 7 seconds, Maratia will be able to control them with both verbal and nonverbal commands; the power only works on men. She can also telepathically communicate with spiders, using them both as servants and as attack dogs.
Black Maratia later gains vampiric abilities by brainwashing a vampire into biting her; she is thus also incredibly durable and capable of extraordinary feats of strength, agility, speed, and stamina far exceeding what a human is capable of. As a Turned Vampire, Maratia can turn her body into mist and reform at will. As with all vampires, Maratia’s bloodsucking ability is a multi-tool based on her own emotions; she can use it for nourishment, to heal any wounds she sustains, and to sexually gratify herself. The fangs themselves also serve as an effective weapon, as she possesses a bite force equivalent to that of a saltwater crocodile. However, sucking too much blood will reduce her mind to a feral animal state and send her into a mindless berserker rage… something she deliberately weaponizes as a last resort.
Black Maratia’s price for her powers was her fertility; the Teardrop compound rendered her permanently unable to have kids.
Ted Breckenridge/Oil Slick: Driven by the thrill of the hunt, Ted Breckenridge is a bounty hunter to the core; he has no real loyalty to G.E.M, but between the chip in his head and the fact they pay well, he sticks around. Ruthless, determined, and focused on the prize like a hawk, he’ll complete whatever objective is given to him with brutal efficiency, and sometimes he’ll go after more than just his target, all for just a bit more payment. Still, despite his ruthlessness, he’s not completely heartless; there remain lines he refuses to cross, and genuinely likes many of his fellow villains; he’s exceptionally fond of Fire Glider, sympathizing with her horrid past and letting her tinker with his bike.
Ted Breckenridge/Oil Slick has a Toolkit that grants him the ability to control raw oil. Though he mainly uses it for his bike and as a deterrent for pursuers, he can also turn it into a solid form to create walls and traps, and can shoot it from his mouth as well. He is also capable of turning his body into liquid oil as well, which he often uses as a means of escape. Oil Slick’s bike is also heavily modified with G.E.M tech that he and Fire Glider added; it is equipped with small railguns, a flamethrower, a larger gas tank, and various other offensive and defensive capabilities.
Oil Slick did not lose an aspect of himself when injected with Teardrop.
Preston Harper/Plaguewing: 13-year old Preston Harper is a testament to the depravity Project: G.E.M has sunk too. Once an average middle school student trying to make friends and impress the girl he liked, the thing that made Preston stand out above all else was his relentless desire to see the world; there had to be SOMETHING that made the planet awesome. Project: G.E.M granted him his wish… just not in the way he wanted.
Now, Preston is a frail and sickly husk kept alive by pills and life support, isolated from his fellow villains to keep the diseases ravaging his body from infecting everyone else. The only time he’s ever released is at night, and what comes stumbling out of his cell… isn’t him; all that remains is a screeching, stinking horror of flesh and teeth and wings, that only exists to main and infect everyone it can with diseases they don’t have cures for. Preston can’t remember anything that happens in those nights. But he DOES remember the days where he wakes up. Every day, he’s crushed under the realization that the people dying from maggots and sickness are all suffering because of him.
Preston Harper/Plaguewing’s Toolkit is activated by the light of the full moon; when exposed to moonlight, he will transform into a massive, bat-like creature while his mind regresses to a feral animal state; in this form, his senses, agility, and balance are amplified, gains echolocation abilities, and fly. His most dangerous power, however, is his ability to control disease; he constantly generates a cloud of pathogens around him and has enough brainpower to use them offensively; he can decide how potent his diseases are and has control over all maladies, even ones from other worlds.
In a twisted bit of irony, Preston Harper’s price for becoming a Paradigm was the weakening of his own immune system; he is more susceptible to getting sick and must constantly take medication to keep himself alive.
[BEGIN PRADIGM EXPERIMENT: PHASE NO.2]
[Improvements of Teardrop have been noticeable. There is now less chance that a subject loses a part of themselves, but the subject is at higher risk for permanent, noticeable physical change.]
Salvatore Barrows/Don Bulletproof: There’s a reason why many heroes are grateful Dante Brosshollow left his father’s drug empire; had he stayed, he almost certainly would’ve turned out like crime lord Salvatore Barrows. Sadistic, violent, vicious, and completely, utterly paranoid, Barrows spends his days overseeing the criminal underworld’s massive drug, weapon, and human trafficking network… and violently beating his underlings to death at the slightest provocation and with the ease of flicking a switch, and ever since becoming a Paradigm, he’s only gotten worse. He’s dreaded across the criminal world for his violent temper and mood swings, and the one person who doesn’t have to walk on eggshells around him is his childhood best friend and former crime lord, Ernesto Etienne, and even then, he’s only there to reel in Barrows. Since becoming a Paradigm, Barrows has been using his trafficking network to supply the organization that turned him with a steady supply of people; guinea pigs for their experiments.
Salvatore Blandford/Don Bulletproof’s Toolkit is rather simple; he has the ability to change his flesh into organic steel at will, granting him immense durability and strength.
Don Bulletproof did not lose part of himself when injected with Teardrop; he is the first sign that the compound was beginning to improve.
Elizabeth Tolman/Mothwoman: The long string of natural disasters the people of the Grand Lands have suffered will go down in history as one of the most intense few months they’ve ever endured… and the strange sightings of a winged figure with massive red eyes among the carnage have become a destructive omen. But few have noticed that approximately a week before the first earthquake hit, MassiveMart cashier Elizabeth Tolman disappeared without warning. Even fewer have made the connection that the two events and the red-eyed figure are all correlated.
Now having been reduced to a mothlike-wraith by Project: G.E.M’s nefarious experiments, the missing Elizabeth Tolman finds herself surrounded by disaster and death wherever she goes, cursed to know that she is the cause of the catastrophes. A kind and empathetic woman with absolutely no control over her powers, the crushing horror and guilt she feels may be what eventually causes her to snap.
Elizabeth Tolman/Mothwoman’s Toolkit is based on the urban legend that inspired her; she is incredibly strong and agile and her senses of hearing, smell and sight have been enhanced past the peak of human perfection. She is capable of seeing in darkness with incredible clarity, flight, adapting to a variety of environments, clinging to walls, and generating silk. However, her defining power is her ability to trigger natural disasters wherever she goes; she has caused hurricanes, floods, tsunamis, earthquakes, and a vast variety of other cataclysms. Mothwoman currently has no way to control her powers, and is desperately searching for a way to do so.
Mothwoman’s price in exchange for her powers was her ability to physically feel; she describes it as if she’s floating in a nightmare.
Project: G.E.M: END Phase 1
NOW ENTERING PHASE 2
Norris Allmond/The Basilisk: it’s quite uncommon for a subject of Project: G.E.M to be truly evil before receiving their injection; career criminal Norris Allmond is one of those individuals. A low-functioning sociopath who doesn’t even bother to hide his horrid sadism, he takes a perverse delight in spreading pain and misery to as many people as he can, and the vast majority of his fellow villains regard him with sickened loathing. Now that he’s been transformed into a Paradigm, Allmond takes an icy glee in the new ways he can inflict harm…
Heavily inspired by the Greek myths of Medusa, the Basilisk’s Toolkit revolves around the abilities of a snake. He is capable of shifting from a human to a giant, snake-like form; when in this form, he can sense vibrations, possesses an incredibly powerful healing factor, is incredibly agile and fast despite his size, and he is capable of feats of immense strength in both his bite and his body; he will often contract around an object to crush it. However, his most dangerous weapon is his gaze; he can turn anyone he makes eye contact with into stone.
The price for Basilisk’s power is unknown; it is generally believed to be his mental self-restraint, which allowed his raw sociopathy to get even worse.
Aiden Hubert/Frostbite: It would be exponentially easier to pity Aiden Hubert (birth name Kun Tum Es) if he actually had some semblance of decency (even for a villain) in him, at least capable of being a team player or even be willing to learn from his mistakes.
Unfortunately, he’s none of these, and the end result is a crude, lazy, unintelligent, confrontational, and abrasive moron only mildly tolerated by his fellow villains, regulated to simple bank robberies because he’s simply too incompetent for anything else. Many are left in wonder how he’s managed to live as long as he has on his dog-eat-dog jungle home-world of Centune, but the fact he was part of a tribe might have something to do with it. Despite his general idiocy, Aiden is still capable of surprising moments of insight… and he may not be entirely okay with his superiors as he seems. It appears he has some history with not only Nightlighter Yikuma, but also fellow villain Patriarch.
Frostbite’s Toolkit is to control pre-existing ice around him, which he primarily uses to create massive structures like shields and spikes as defense. He is also noted to prefer fighting in humid or watery areas, as he can freeze the water into more ice he can use. Frostbite has the potential to be a global threat, but his lack of intelligence thankfully keeps him from realizing the full scale of his Toolkit.
Frostbite’s price for receiving his powers was his ability to taste; he deeply misses the taste of jungle fruit as a result.
