Post by Jordanna on Apr 13, 2006 20:56:19 GMT -5
Character's Name: Major Jerod Owen Vance (ret.).
Mutant Nickname: The Grenadier.
Mutant Power: Vance is capable of creating "kinetic grenades"--orbs of energy which explode after about ten seconds, or upon contact with a solid object. He generates them from the palms of his hands. After throwing them, he is able to control their speed and trajectory telekinetically. (His kinetic grenades are the only objects he can manipulate in this way.)
Vance also has an extremely low level of telepathy. He cannot consciously read minds, but he sometimes picks up random perceptions from the people around him--especially those who are under duress. This makes him a skilled interrogator, able to sense dishonesty. In a fight, his perceptions often allow him to react with what seems like lightning reflexes, but it is in fact a near-precognizance of his opponent's moves.
Occupation: Former U.S. Army officer. Now a vigilante, waging his own private war against Nicholas Tiernan.
Gender: Male.
Age: Forty-four.
Height: 5' 9".
Hair Color: Dark brown, with a small whitish patch above the left temple where a scar runs up onto his scalp.
Eye Color: His right eye is a normal brown; his blind left eye is clouded and grayish.
Physical Description: Vance is a solid man, neither very tall nor obviously muscular, but quite powerful. He has a somewhat dark complexion. His hard, square-jawed face is marked by a long scar that runs up the left side of the face and across the left eye, which is blind and discolored.
Country/Hometown: New York City, USA.
Immediate Family: Ex-wife, Doris (estranged). Son, Nathan (currently serving in Iraq). Daughter, Deanna (deceased).
Personality: Vance is an embittered and violent man. Ordinarily he is cold and calculating, with a strong military discipline, but his temper can explode when provoked. He feels no trace of remorse for killing anyone connected with Nocturne (and even other criminals), or for any damage he might cause in the process. He is not fighting to protect either mutants or humans, but purely for revenge. He is extremely intelligent, and capable of great thoughtfulness; however, he refuses friendship and compassion, accepting nothing more than a working relationship with others.
Weaknesses: Vance is physically blind in his left eye, and psychologically blinded by his desire for revenge.
His kinetic grenades are concentrations of his own physical energy, and are thus a great strain on him. If he is tired, sick, or injured, they will be less powerful; and if he does not carefully balance the number and strength of the grenades he creates, he can dangerously overexert himself. Once generated, they cannot be prevented from exploding, and he is as vulnerable to the force of their detonations as anyone else is.
His low-grade telepathy tends to pick up on "emotional static", making him edgy and uncomfortable in crowds.
Additional Skills: Vance is practically a one-man war machine. His advanced Army training made him into a skilled combat and weapons expert, a ruthless military strategist, and a resourceful survivalist.
Hobbies/Interests: Surprisingly, there is a little-seen intellectual side to this killer. Beneath his iron exterior, he has retained a fondness for literature--especially Shakespeare--and a purely academic interest in military history. He can engage in scholarly conversation about the tactics of great generals ranging from Caesar to Schwartzkopf. He has a pet theory that Adolph Hitler was a mutant with some form of mass-mesmerism power, which he will expound upon with enthusiasm if given a chance.
Personal History: Early in his life, Jerod Vance was far different from the bitter vigilante he would become. As a teenager, he actually considered becoming an historian or a professor of literature, but his Vietnam-veteran father encouraged him to experience military service before settling down as a civilian. Vance discovered that he had an aptitude for warfare, and although killing was then distasteful to him, he chose to devote his abilities to the service of his country. He became a career Army officer, and served with great distinction for many years.
Vance's mutation was recessed unusually deeply in his genetic makeup, and it remained dormant throughout his youth. It only manifested after the age of forty, while he was serving in Iraq. A rocket-propelled grenade tore apart the vehicle he and his men were riding in, killing several soldiers and badly wounding him. When enemy forces moved in to finish them off, he instinctively fought to protect the other survivors--and blew away the attackers with his newly developed kinetic grenades. Then he passed out from shock and loss of blood.
Waking in an Army hospital in Germany, Vance found that on top of his mutation, he had lost the vision in his left eye and was badly scarred. He was given a medical discharge from the Army, but he never received any award for saving the lives of his men, and it proved difficult to get even the basic benefits that were due to him. He found that anti-mutant prejudice now cast a shadow over his entire career, robbing him of the respect he had earned in his years of struggles and sacrifices.
Disfigured and disillusioned, Vance returned home to his wife and children, who were now in their late teenage years. Even knowing he was a mutant, his family tried to comfort and support him; but Vance could not adjust to civilian life, and he was gripped by bitterness over all that had happened to him. Struggling in a brief succession of low-grade civilian jobs, he began to drink heavily, and his temper grew violent.
When his son decided to join the Army, Vance forbade it, fearing that the same thing might happen to him--but Nathan went against his wishes. His anger at this broke the family apart, and his wife left him. Only his daughter remained with him, determined to reform him, but he resisted her efforts. Consumed by depression and anger, he was unable to hold down a normal job, and finally descended into the mutant underworld, where he quickly came to the attention of Nocturne. With no love for the ordinary human race which had rejected him, he spent more than a year working for Nocturne as an enforcer, backing up threats and destroying the property of those who refused to pay protection to the mutant mafia. However, he never took a life during this period.
Vance reached a turning point when he was sent to burn down the business of an old man he had known since childhood. At last realizing the hurt he was causing to innocent people--human or otherwise--he rebelled against Tiernan, who responded to this disloyalty by putting a death order on him. The assassins who took on the job intended to kill Vance with a bomb planted in his car... but it killed his daughter Deanna instead.
Driven half-savage in his rage and grief, Vance swore to take revenge and destroy Nick Tiernan. Over time, he gathered a small group of other ex-members of the mutant mafia, who had provoked Nocturne's wrath and somehow survived. They joined him in his private war against Nocturne, which they were prepared to fight by any means. For now, they make their living mostly by stealing from hardened criminals--both human and mutant.
Anything else:
Vance will not reveal to others that he once worked for Nocturne; only a few of his fellow ex-thugs, who knew him at the time, are aware of that secret. His particular satellite is Frank "Handy" McCarty, a little man with four arms, who is also an ex-member of the mutant mafia. In a largely unrealized way, the two almost parallel Nocturne and the Ferret.
At this time, Nocturne mistakenly believes that Vance was killed as intended by the car bomb.
Mutant Nickname: The Grenadier.
Mutant Power: Vance is capable of creating "kinetic grenades"--orbs of energy which explode after about ten seconds, or upon contact with a solid object. He generates them from the palms of his hands. After throwing them, he is able to control their speed and trajectory telekinetically. (His kinetic grenades are the only objects he can manipulate in this way.)
Vance also has an extremely low level of telepathy. He cannot consciously read minds, but he sometimes picks up random perceptions from the people around him--especially those who are under duress. This makes him a skilled interrogator, able to sense dishonesty. In a fight, his perceptions often allow him to react with what seems like lightning reflexes, but it is in fact a near-precognizance of his opponent's moves.
Occupation: Former U.S. Army officer. Now a vigilante, waging his own private war against Nicholas Tiernan.
Gender: Male.
Age: Forty-four.
Height: 5' 9".
Hair Color: Dark brown, with a small whitish patch above the left temple where a scar runs up onto his scalp.
Eye Color: His right eye is a normal brown; his blind left eye is clouded and grayish.
Physical Description: Vance is a solid man, neither very tall nor obviously muscular, but quite powerful. He has a somewhat dark complexion. His hard, square-jawed face is marked by a long scar that runs up the left side of the face and across the left eye, which is blind and discolored.
Country/Hometown: New York City, USA.
Immediate Family: Ex-wife, Doris (estranged). Son, Nathan (currently serving in Iraq). Daughter, Deanna (deceased).
Personality: Vance is an embittered and violent man. Ordinarily he is cold and calculating, with a strong military discipline, but his temper can explode when provoked. He feels no trace of remorse for killing anyone connected with Nocturne (and even other criminals), or for any damage he might cause in the process. He is not fighting to protect either mutants or humans, but purely for revenge. He is extremely intelligent, and capable of great thoughtfulness; however, he refuses friendship and compassion, accepting nothing more than a working relationship with others.
Weaknesses: Vance is physically blind in his left eye, and psychologically blinded by his desire for revenge.
His kinetic grenades are concentrations of his own physical energy, and are thus a great strain on him. If he is tired, sick, or injured, they will be less powerful; and if he does not carefully balance the number and strength of the grenades he creates, he can dangerously overexert himself. Once generated, they cannot be prevented from exploding, and he is as vulnerable to the force of their detonations as anyone else is.
His low-grade telepathy tends to pick up on "emotional static", making him edgy and uncomfortable in crowds.
Additional Skills: Vance is practically a one-man war machine. His advanced Army training made him into a skilled combat and weapons expert, a ruthless military strategist, and a resourceful survivalist.
Hobbies/Interests: Surprisingly, there is a little-seen intellectual side to this killer. Beneath his iron exterior, he has retained a fondness for literature--especially Shakespeare--and a purely academic interest in military history. He can engage in scholarly conversation about the tactics of great generals ranging from Caesar to Schwartzkopf. He has a pet theory that Adolph Hitler was a mutant with some form of mass-mesmerism power, which he will expound upon with enthusiasm if given a chance.
Personal History: Early in his life, Jerod Vance was far different from the bitter vigilante he would become. As a teenager, he actually considered becoming an historian or a professor of literature, but his Vietnam-veteran father encouraged him to experience military service before settling down as a civilian. Vance discovered that he had an aptitude for warfare, and although killing was then distasteful to him, he chose to devote his abilities to the service of his country. He became a career Army officer, and served with great distinction for many years.
Vance's mutation was recessed unusually deeply in his genetic makeup, and it remained dormant throughout his youth. It only manifested after the age of forty, while he was serving in Iraq. A rocket-propelled grenade tore apart the vehicle he and his men were riding in, killing several soldiers and badly wounding him. When enemy forces moved in to finish them off, he instinctively fought to protect the other survivors--and blew away the attackers with his newly developed kinetic grenades. Then he passed out from shock and loss of blood.
Waking in an Army hospital in Germany, Vance found that on top of his mutation, he had lost the vision in his left eye and was badly scarred. He was given a medical discharge from the Army, but he never received any award for saving the lives of his men, and it proved difficult to get even the basic benefits that were due to him. He found that anti-mutant prejudice now cast a shadow over his entire career, robbing him of the respect he had earned in his years of struggles and sacrifices.
Disfigured and disillusioned, Vance returned home to his wife and children, who were now in their late teenage years. Even knowing he was a mutant, his family tried to comfort and support him; but Vance could not adjust to civilian life, and he was gripped by bitterness over all that had happened to him. Struggling in a brief succession of low-grade civilian jobs, he began to drink heavily, and his temper grew violent.
When his son decided to join the Army, Vance forbade it, fearing that the same thing might happen to him--but Nathan went against his wishes. His anger at this broke the family apart, and his wife left him. Only his daughter remained with him, determined to reform him, but he resisted her efforts. Consumed by depression and anger, he was unable to hold down a normal job, and finally descended into the mutant underworld, where he quickly came to the attention of Nocturne. With no love for the ordinary human race which had rejected him, he spent more than a year working for Nocturne as an enforcer, backing up threats and destroying the property of those who refused to pay protection to the mutant mafia. However, he never took a life during this period.
Vance reached a turning point when he was sent to burn down the business of an old man he had known since childhood. At last realizing the hurt he was causing to innocent people--human or otherwise--he rebelled against Tiernan, who responded to this disloyalty by putting a death order on him. The assassins who took on the job intended to kill Vance with a bomb planted in his car... but it killed his daughter Deanna instead.
Driven half-savage in his rage and grief, Vance swore to take revenge and destroy Nick Tiernan. Over time, he gathered a small group of other ex-members of the mutant mafia, who had provoked Nocturne's wrath and somehow survived. They joined him in his private war against Nocturne, which they were prepared to fight by any means. For now, they make their living mostly by stealing from hardened criminals--both human and mutant.
Anything else:
Vance will not reveal to others that he once worked for Nocturne; only a few of his fellow ex-thugs, who knew him at the time, are aware of that secret. His particular satellite is Frank "Handy" McCarty, a little man with four arms, who is also an ex-member of the mutant mafia. In a largely unrealized way, the two almost parallel Nocturne and the Ferret.
At this time, Nocturne mistakenly believes that Vance was killed as intended by the car bomb.