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I aim to misbehave. |
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— Himself |
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A former astronaut long believed to have been killed with his crew when a solar mass ejection destroyed their ship in orbit. He survived, but still-burning fragments of star are riddled throughout his body, emanating massive amounts of energy. Only a sophisticated containment suit keeps him from destroying everything around him.
Personality
Terawatt is typically calculating and precise. He rarely makes a move without having considered a variety of possible outcomes. But once he has chosen a course of action he is relentless in pursuing it. He does not tolerate failure from his minions. He is prone to sudden, violent outbursts without warning and sometimes without any apparent cause. These episodes can end just as abruptly, with Terawatt displaying no awareness that he had been acting differently at all.
Background
Derek was raised in Chicago and early on developed a fascination with airplanes. He spent many days doing his homework in a park near the airport while he watched planes land and take off. He eventually (or inevitably) joined the US Air Force, where he excelled at flying and participated in several combat encounters. He later joined the astronaut program and completed a number of routine missions in space as a crew member and eventually as commander.
What was supposed to be a routine station supply run turned disastrous. A small coronal mass ejection had blasted out of the Sun's surface, nearly on course to hit Earth. Instead it caught the ship in orbit. Most of the crew were killed instantly in an enormous explosion that was filmed by several nearby satellite observatories. Derek had survived thanks to a latent healing power that the sudden trauma had activated, but he had several chunks of star matter embedded in his body. Unconscious, he drifted in the debris cloud for days as it stretched around the Earth and, piece by piece, descended into the atmosphere.
Since the explosion, the massive energy signature had been tracked by a shady, quasi-governmental research organization with suspicious and poorly-documented funding sources. They dispatched an acquisition team to secure and contain the energy source, assuming it could be developed into a power source or weapon. Once they discovered it was a person, they quickly developed an additional containment layer to stabilize the subject for further research and exploitation. Derek did not adjust well to being confined even in a fairly luxurious secured suite, and soon found ways to manipulate the suit to allow bursts of energy out of it. He carefully formed a plan, pretended to be friendly with the guards, and accumulated enough information to finally break out of the facility and escape. He has begun to think that somebody in the NASA program was somehow involved in causing the explosion. He has spent his efforts acquiring research and materials to cure himself, and to find the person responsible for his condition.
SKILLS
ATHLETICS - Competent: Military fitness habits
COMBAT REFLEXES - Expert: Extensive military training
MATERIALS SCIENCE - Novice: Since the event, he has been forced to learn how to maintain and augment the suit as his condition evolves.
NAVIGATION - Expert: Years of experience piloting aircraft (and spacecraft) over often unfamiliar terrain with nothing but nav equipment or a few minutes of studying a map for guidance.
ORBITAL MECHANICS - Competent: Shuttle piloting
PHYSICS - Competent: Shuttle piloting
PILOT - Expert: Shuttle pilot
STRATEGY - Competent: Officer training
SURVIVAL - Expert: wilderness areas (caves), rural areas (farmhouses).
TACTICS - Competent: Officer training
WEAPONS SYSTEMS - Competent: Former fighter pilot
POWERS
ENERGY PROJECTION - Supreme: He is riddled with chunks of still-burning star embedded all over his body, emitting enormous amounts of energy. By flexing his suit in certain ways he can open gaps in the material that allow bolts of solar energy to flare out. The energy is characteristic of eruptions on the surface of a star: intense heat, light, and UV radiation, often accompanied by electromagnetic disruptions. Smaller, controlled bursts can puncture thick walls, building foundations, or armored vehicles. Uncontrolled bursts or full exposure (due to the suit being severely damaged in some way) can threaten an area the size of several city blocks depending on the fluctuations of his energy output. Venting large amounts of energy out of the suit is quite painful to the point of often being temporarily debilitating, so Terawatt limits his own intentional usage to smaller scales. He can expel narrow streams of energy from the extremities of the suit to fly.
HEALING - Supreme: The event triggered a latent healing ability that allowed him to survive the blast and the subsequent several days in the vacuum of space. It also leaves him in pain as his tissue perpetually burns away and regenerates. He no longer needs to eat or breathe; any food he tried to eat would be evaporated instantly. The majority of his healing ability is constantly focused on compensating for the damage done by the stellar matter embedded in his body. Due to this, other trauma like gunshots, stabs, or broken bones will repair significantly faster than a normal human but not the near-instant speed he would otherwise be capable of.
ADVANTAGES
CONTAINMENT SUIT The outfit is made from a highly-durable material designed to withstand the pressure and heat of the energy he emits. Most of the suit's strength is directed toward the interior surface; it's not particularly bulletproof, but a puncture would allow uncontrolled energy beams to escape. As an experimental device its range of motion is not yet perfectly calibrated to the wearer, and certain extreme movements can cause small tears in the material. Terawatt uses this design flaw to project energy with some degree of control by flexing his fingers or other joints in certain ways. The material has an innate partial self-repair capability that allows it to mend these frequent ruptures and other small perforations. Its primary advantage is that it keeps him from being knocked unconscious by an overload of energy output.
MILITARY CONTACTS He maintains contact with buddies he served with, and will occasionally recruit them or people from that network to perform some services for him.
MINIONS He has recruited a group of criminal minions primarily from military or mercenary backgrounds, with common street criminals filling out the rest of the group.
NASA CONTACTS He still knows several people at NASA and maintains contact. They are mainly interested in finding a cure for his condition, but he can sometimes convince them to do seemingly innocuous things that further his other plans.
WEAKNESSES
CONTAINMENT SUIT Substantial damage to the suit can allow larger amounts of energy to escape, which is a painful process for Terawatt. Large compromises can render him unconscious due to the enormous amounts of energy being expelled. He cannot remove the suit and is effectively imprisoned in it. A cell or other structure composed of or lined with a coherent layer of similar material can effectively shield against his energy projection.
DERANGEMENT The nearly constant pain, the inability to touch people or to eat, and the sense of confinement from being sealed in the suit have all contributed to a variety of mental and emotional disorders. He is prone to outbursts of extreme violence with little warning; he distrusts almost everyone; criminal activity is an acceptable means to support his various goals, which usually include finding a cure for his condition or seeking revenge on people he believe caused it.
PURSUED The organization that had imprisoned him after his return to Earth is still attempting to recapture him, and they usually send teams to investigate any traces of his energy signature detected by their satellites. They possess the knowledge and resources to manufacture more of the material his suit is made of, including shielded uniforms and mobile containment cells.
