[SUDS] Cycles of Power (High T-Low M)

[Death's Spook]

Reserved for my characters

Name: Sara Sage

Age: 24

Side: The Organization/The Pokemon HQ Lab

Rank: Administrator of the Organization, Chief researcher of the Lab

Gender: Female

Appearance: Sara stands at about five and a half feet tall, with a bit of a narrow frame. She has a fair amount of muscle on her frame: not enough to stand out or be distracting, but it's definitely clear that she's worked on her body. Her olive skin carries a number of old, faded scars from before her Tinkering days. She has brown eyes too hard to truly be called chocolate colored, and she has slight bruises under them. Her one concession to vanity over function is her long, straight, dark hair, down to her waist (of course, she refuses to be stupid about it, and so her hair carries large multitudes of needles with each one having modified microbes and poisons capable of killing a Groudon with their potency).

In terms of her clothing, Sara tends to favor dark greens in her wardrobe. This is not because of any preference for the colors, but rather because those are the colors of the plants she modifies to produce her clothing. The tightly woven vines have been modified to produce a green substance similar to spider silk, making her shirt and pants essentially bulletproof and very knife resistant. Her shirt reaches to the point where shirt also has glove-like parts, covering and armoring her hands. Her shoes are the one article of clothing she did not make personally, and so are instead just a generic pair of darkly colored sneakers.

Personality: Sara's defining trait is her curiosity. She likes learning, understanding, problem solving, and because of this passion, she's gotten good at it. Even before she became a parahuman, she was a systems thinker, calculating, foreseeing possible issues, and discovering new things because of it. After becoming a Tinker, this talent of hers only became more pronounced, as raw data and capability evolved in her mind to yield one of the most brilliant individuals in the world.

With one major exception.

Though Sara is intelligent to the point of being terrifying, she has no filters when it comes to social interaction. Although she's technically capable of telling lies, she's usually brutally honest with everyone and is a horrible liar anyway. This gets bad enough when her opinions could get insulting, but her natural curiosity makes it even worse. She'll not only ask normal completely inappropriate questions ("Are you knocked up?"), she'll also ask questions that are downright creepy ("Your Thinker power is really cool. Can I dissect your brain after you die?"). Needless to say, this results in a tendency to shove her foot so far down her throat it comes out of her anus. Thankfully, she's aware of her tendency to screw up diplomatic interactions, and therefore she tends to avoid them.

History: Sara was born and raised in Orre, the daughter of biologist and a inventor working in the lab. Since she could toddle, Sara was surrounded by science, machinery, and Pokemon, and her naturally bright mind took to learning everything it possibly could. She reveled in books and libraries, and tended to be in the corner, hiding in a book. Even when she got her first Pokemon, a Tentacool, she kept him around more as a pet than as a battler, preferring to focus on her studies. She was talented enough that Michael personally took an interest in her learning, and she was fully expecting to have original research done by the age of 16. But, that changed when Fateen entered the lab, screeching, pointing at her and calling /her/ the "heroine to be".

From that moment, Michael was merciless in training her and her Pokemon in preparation for the impending war. The next five years were a crash course for her in tactics, training, hand to hand, preparing her for everything she might need to take on Cipher. She continued working in the lab as well, but the quantity of her work (if not the quality) dropped stupendously. The primary thing that suffered, though, was her social interaction. Although she could tactically plan on a battlefield and punch out nearly anyone who crossed her, Sara never really learned how to just interact.

Then the lab exploded. She was in Pyrite at the time and was around long enough for the first Cluster. At first, she thought that she did not get any powers (in fact, she only became aware people had them when she found Thomas). But, when she and Thomas holed up for the night in ONBS, Sara's mind positively came alive. Tinkering with the various bits of scrap metal, stray wire, and some houseplants ONBS had lying around, Sara merged them together and essentially created her own personal minion. Everywhere she saw and thought, inventions came to mind, solutions began to unfold, and she realized that though her power was seemingly low key, the mad science she was using was absolutely not normal. She was a parahuman.

Initially, she debated putting together a group of parahumans to serve at the lab, but come morning, she realized just how horrible and undesirable that was, especially because of her lack of social capability. So, in essence, she dragged Thomas aside and told him that he was going to be leader, with her running the administrative aspects in the background. This turned out to be a far better arrangement, as she got time to invent, didn't really screw things up with the average citizen of Orre, and accidentally made her first real friend out of Thomas in the deal. She supplies the logistics of the lab, organizes the intelligence, and acts as one of the lab's foremost tacticians.

Pokemon:

-Euryale the Hydreigon
--Euryale, despite being a Hydreigon, acts almost as the baby of the group. She doesn't enjoy fighting, and prefers being kind and gentle to everyone she may meet. That said, just because she's meek and dislikes violence, doesn't mean she's weak. When the situation calls for it, she /will/ remind you that there's a reason her species is called the Brutal Pokemon.
-David the Delphox
--David is the quiet member of the group. He rarely says a word, not because he can't talk, but rather because talking is waste most of the time in his eyes. So when he does say something, please. Pay. Attention. It's important. And just as Euryale is an exercise in Bewaring the Nice Ones, David is easily able to demonstrate the being one of the quiet ones doesn't mean you're a pushover, either. If there's a dirty deed that needs to be done, it's likely that David will be the one pulling the trigger.
-Sampson the Breloom
--Sampson is quite possibly the single most hard headed creature in existence. If he doesn't want to do something, no one can make him do it unless they've somehow garnered his respect, a near impossible feat. In fact, the only people Sampson will show any deference to at all is Sara and Tox, and it's heavily implied that it's only because they've saved his life at one point.
-Hippolyta the Aegislash
--Hippolyta is downright the most courageous being in existence. It doesn't matter if she's faced with a Shadow Groudon mounted with 14 different machine guns it can fire at will: she will face the situation without blinking. But while she prefers being upfront, she's far from stupid, and knows that sometimes you have to attack from an oblique angle before ripping the enemy apart baresworded.
-Clytemnestra the Togekiss
--Clytemnestra acts as the mother of the group. She actively revels in making sure each member of the group is emotionally supported and has at least one person they can go to for troubles. That said, pleasepleasePLEEEEAAAAASE don't touch any of the group. Mothers are very protective, even if they're Togekiss, and you wouldn't believe the horrors Air Slash can leave on people.
-Tox the Tentacruel
--If Euryale's the heart of the team, and David is the team's black hand, then Tox is the undisputed leader. When faced with any sort of situation or crisis, he deals with it with a truly unnerving amount of sangfroid, before coming up with a ploy out of who-knows-where that bails everyone out.

Powers:

-Tinker 9 (Biotechnological augmentation)
--Sara's power lies in a highly advanced grasp of scientific principles, allowing her to create and invent potent technology. In her case, she specializes in making biology and technology marry up, enhancing one another to create something more. Because of this specific specialization, she's essentially a cyborg, as are most of her Pokemon.

Spoiler:

Laboratory: In Sara's opinion, her greatest invention. Laboratory is essentially a genius loci, a span of many rooms about a hundred meters underneath the Pokemon HQ. It's a living being and a beautifully balanced ecosystem rolled into one, and Sara controls it through an AI that's nearly unhackable because it has both technological and biological aspects intertwined, making it extremely difficult to even be accessed. Laboratory is essentially designed to be a bunker and an HQ at the same time, and its state of the art security systems make it a nightmare to navigate for anyone without proper clearance.

Improved body armor: Sara's clothing functions as a very powerful lightweight body armor.

Nano-technologically modified bacteria: These are Sara's main form of weaponry when she feels that just bashing someone's head against the wall is insufficient to the situation. She has a limited number, but they're designed to take out someone cleanly and efficiently from the inside out.

Biological system enhancement: Sara's a cyborg, basically. And so are all her Pokemon except for Clytemnestra and Hippolyta.

-Brute 7
--Sara has programmed a large multitude of redundancies into her biological systems. Her muscles are capable of lifting far more than usual. Her enhancements to her body make her strong, extremely tough, a very quick healer, and all but immune to the debilitating effects of pain. A punch from Sara at any real level of effort can shatter concrete without so much as visibly scratching up her knuckles.

-Mover 5
--Sara's powerful muscles also enable her to move rather quickly. She capable of dead sprinting at about 70 kph, and keeping it up for quite some time. Although she is far from being able to fly, she is extremely nimble, capable of ascending barriers and maneuvering up to rooftops and across obstacles like a professional in park our.

Other: (Randomness is good. Stealing the moon is bad. Have fun!)


Name: Benjamin "Benji" Verres

Age: 26

Side: Cipher

Rank: Acting head of Cipher

Gender: Male

Appearance: Benjamin does not seem to cut a particularly imposing figure: he's a measly 5'3", and though he has muscle, it is not very visually defined. His blond hair is cut in a mushroom cut down to his ears, and combined with his round face, it gives him a babyish look. This is furthered because he's completely clean shaven, and he tends to wear a dopey grin. However, this grin never reaches his cold grey eyes; in fact, it fails to even approach them.

As to general bearing: Benjamin favors very garish outfits. His general attire includes a pink suit and a neon green tie. He speaks with a somewhat higher pitched voice that's generally considered annoying. He walks as though he's carefree and childlike. All of his demeanor is almost enough to ignore the red stains that sometimes appear on his suit sleeves.

Personality: Benjamin (or "Benji" as he prefers to be called) doesn't seem like the typical leader of an evil organization. He's upbeat, friendly, cheerful, and considerate. He takes a great amount of joy in being silly, and enjoys cute, fluffy things. He has a passion for the color pink, and can often be found spinning in place in his office. And there's absolutely nothing else to his personality. Nothing. At all. Nope.

Well, except for the fact that he's completely evil, but the world is strange and it would boring if we are all the same.

Behind his cheerful facade and his casual demeanor, Benjamin is one of the most terrifying example of "monster" out there. More terrifying is that his cheer appears to be almost genuine, and in fact, it will peak when he is doing things like torturing others to death. But his real danger comes from the fact that he's a brilliant manipulator, and a natural at mind games. He can corrupt, connive, and convert nearly anyone to his games, and his interest is solely in power. Not power in the sense of "I can brawl with Arceus" sort of power, but a more lasting and potent power than that: he seeks control over others, and basically always has it. It doesn't matter how strong the opponent is, he'll do his best to break them with fear and despair and he'll usually succeed too.

History: No one appears to know where Benjamin came from. The first Cipher saw of him at all was when he suddenly appeared by Ardos's side as one of his yes-men. The only remarkable things about him were that he liked pink things, cute Pokemon, and that his Pokemon were quite competent. But as time wore on, Ardos, having taken his vengeance on Michael, began to lose steam. This turned out rather fatally for him and his inner circle, as the Lab apparently didn't waste a lot of time getting Ardos back. Benjamin was the only survivor, and took over.

People thought that Benjmain's takeover would be a harbinger of Cipher's ruin and ultimate destruction. They kept assuming this until both the Lab and Mt. Battle got "messages". "Messages", for those who don't know what the word means in this context, means "each party got a half of Miror B's bisected head." And thus everyone learned that just because something is silly and humorous, does NOT mean it is not dangerous.

Benjamin continued to establish himself as the head of Cipher, manipulating and conniving his opponents and allies equally to ensure his position was maintained. The syndicate has become a well oiled machine under his administration, and he keeps a staff close at hand who are all powerful in their own ways. By balancing their psychoses and other issues off of one another, he has been able to keep them working for him despite their… disparate personalities.

Pokemon:

What Benjamin's Pokemon are like and what their names are is not a well known thing. Their identities are known because Benjamin trains them regularly and people spy, but their various traits are the subject of rumor. Terrifying rumor, in fact: there are reports, for example, that his Snorlax is a "humanitarian" (and /not/ in the Mother Teresa sense). As leader, he uses his prerogative to keep his own cache of Shadow Pokemon (other than his Espeon, whom he keeps on hand) whose main purpose is not battling, but rather being the former Pokemon of some heroes (both dead and alive), designed to screw with people's heads.

-Snorlax
-Azumarill
-Jumpluff
-Arcanine
-Flygon
-Espeon (Shadow)

Powers:

-Breaker 6
--Benjamin is capable of influencing the mass of objects up or down to any extent he likes. Thankfully, he is limited to influencing a volume only about the size of his closed fists put together, and he cannot affect parts of objects. He also cannot affect the mass of any biological structure, thanks to the Krane Effect. However, this power is still one he can use to deadly effect: any increase in mass thanks to his power does /not/ change the velocity of a given object, leaving him capable of throwing fastballs that gain the mass of semi trucks in midair, or having his Flygon whip up a sandstorm as he gives individual grains of sand the mass to rip through organs.

-Trump 2
--Benjamin is completely immune to any powers that would act on his mind or emotions. Master talents cannot directly affect him, nor can any Stranger talents that rely on emotional responses.

-Thinker (?)
--There is speculation that Benjamin has some sort of Thinker power, guarding him. The reason is that, whenever there happens to be a physical conflict, Benjamin has the luck of the devil himself (possibly because he's a /candidate/ for being the devil himself), simply happening to avoid where the most dangerous areas are. That's not to say he's impossible to hit, just that it's very very difficult, like trying to catch a leaf in the wind.

Other: (Randomness is good. Stealing the moon is bad. Have fun!)


Name: She's currently using the alias "Molly". But it's almost definitely not her real name

Age: Mid-twenties? She won't say.

Side: Not officially on a side, but appears to be sympathetic to the labs aims

Rank: Chief Executive of Herself

Gender: Female

Appearance: "Molly" easily tops six feet in height with a couple inches of clearance. Her hair is dyed pitch black and has barely visible blond roots, and it would fall to below her shoulders if she didn't have it in a bun. She has clear muscle definition, but it seems to be more emphatic on her lower body than her upper body. Her body is lithe in general, and its form is one that is best defined as "smokin' hot".

If it were Molly's choice, her clothes would be dark, velvet, and generally be long and flowy. However, as she's in Orre, she makes do with the far more practical dark pair of slacks and sturdy sweatshirt. She keeps her Pokeballs in her sweater pockets, which are fairly deep and have zippers on them. Her bearing isn't particularly noticeable, as she makes a specific effort to be as unremarkable as possible.

Personality: "Molly" is defined primarily by a deep, abiding love for everyone around her. It distresses her to see suffering and pain, and she does her level best to compensate for the Orre region's horrors. Therefore, anyone who interacts with her will have a sense of fulfillment and happiness, as she makes absolutely certain that she is as kind as she can possibly be to all those around her.

That said, "good" and "stupid" are very far apart from one another. She's extraordinarily socially adept, and most people are open books to her. Not only that, but she's a brilliant tactician, supplementing her already potent powers with lessons in ventriloquism, lip reading, and sending a projection with a Pokemon that has a hidden radio so that she can make it look like the projection is speaking. Her improvisations in high pressure situations combined with her capacity for thinking long term make her perfect for the role she's chosen to take as Orre's (hidden) benefactor.

However, "Molly" has an issue in that is innocent, but in a really twisted way. She's completely unaware of the ramifications of lying and manipulation, and sees nothing wrong with either. Living lie detectors can't detect any signs of lying at all, and she can fool a polygraph, which may lead people to see her as a sociopath. Even though she sees manipulation as a tool that can be used to help, anyone who discovers the extent and sometimes the seeming cold bloodedness of her manipulations and lies will come to distrust her in record time, and may even see her as being downright evil. But in her opinion, manipulation exists: it's not bad, it's not good, it just depends on how the person using it.

History: No one really knows where "Molly" came from. In fact, most people don't even know she exists, let alone that she's a parahuman who has been attempting to steer the train wreck that is the Orre region into non-horrible standing, and she endeavors to keep it that way. But her hand is often in play, and her influence is notable. If a hero finds something catching his eye and it reveals a child to save, if an agent of Cipher misses a critical detail that would reveal a mole acting against them, if members of rival gangs pass by each other without seeing one another, averting a horribly bloody battle, it may just be that Molly's hand is at work.

When Molly needs overt action, she uses her projections to do the dirty work. Therefore, though she appears to be perfectly normal, she is several heroes and unaffiliated capes. Most of them are not well known, simply appearing, fulfilling a function, and vanishing into the crowd, never to be heard from again. This suits her just fine, as it keeps /her/ out of the spotlight and allows her to do good without any risk to her person. However, very potent Thinkers (who can process the data all at the same time) and Tinkers (whose various machines can do the data analysis for them) who have devoted time to it can evaluate the various discrepancies between the projected progress of the region and the actual result, and realize that there is another variable in play, one they have been unable to account for. Needless to say, these Thinkers and Tinkers usually keep this to themselves, although both Cipher and the Lab have heard whispers of a mastermind in play.

Pokemon:

-Taylor the Gliscor (F)
--Taylor believes quite a bit in having /fun/. She's perky and pranky, and almost everyone she meets becomes a victim of her juvenile sense of humor eventually (this especially goes for her brother Colin, who needs to "lighten up"). However, when she fight, there really is no such thing as kid gloves.
-Theresa the Dragalge (F)
--Theresa is a champion, a team player. If there are those who are in need, she will not stop until they are helped. She is calm, coolheaded, and never unnecessarily showy, though. When she helps, she does it through a kind words and kind actions. Of course, "kind action" in Orre sometimes means "kicking the **** out of the guy causing problems", but it is what it is.
-Matthew the Lucario (M)
--Matthew is actually not originally Molly's Pokemon at all. Instead, he was trained by a member of Cipher, until his previous trainer met an unfortunate end, possibly at Matthew's hands. He scavenged around Orre until he found himself in desperate straits, only to be saved by Molly and Coraline. Although he will do whatever he believes is in Molly's interests and generally listen to her commands, he's very independently minded, and reacts angrily to any attempts to actually control him. But he also has a lighter side he'll occasionally show, making very funny but completely inappropriate jokes at the wrong times.
-Coraline the Houndoom (F)
--Coraline is very recognizably Molly's first Pokemon. She's a bit of dreamer and a loner, often needing time to wander off by herself. When she does talk, she's usually soft spoken and gentle. The exception to this, though, is when speaking to Matthew, where she'll get snarky and annoyed because of the difficulties everyone has trying to get him to be a team player. Of course, there are speculated to be other reasons, but both Coraline and Matthew will protest angrily and loudly if they are so much as implied.
-Colin the Parasect (M)
--Colin believes fully in being as cautious as possible when approaching any given situation: he likes having plans and backups and further plans to deal with any given situation. However, the frequency with which his plans actually get to be applied is close to zero, forcing him to improvise most of the time. A /lot/. But he's gotten really good at that.
-Mors the Jellicent (M)
--Mors is the oddball in Molly's team. Even though everyone else is well stabilized and kind, Mors is both a jerk and more than willing to eat you. Molly has him in check primarily because she can take him, but on occasion she is willing to let him off the leash. Mors is very unruffled about all the things that happen in Orre, and refuses to get mad about anything (instead, he gets even). Despite his overtly sociopathic tendencies though, he cares about his team members, especially Molly.

Powers:

-Thinker 4
--"Molly"'s Thinker power is actually several smaller ones coming together to form a general potent power. She is capable of passively perceiving all waves on the electromagnetic spectrum within a one-half kilometer of her location. Her power also gives her the mental capacity to understand it all simultaneously and hold it all in her head to create what's essentially a perfect, detailed, spherical picture of her range.

-Blaster 7
--"Molly" is also capable of manipulating all of the waves she perceives to create several different forms of attack, such as moving all of the infrared in an area to a specific location to cook someone, or focusing several beams of light to burn out someone's eyeball.

-Stranger 10
--This is "Molly's" most dangerous tactic. Between her Thinker power and her manipulation of light, she can create several independently acting detailed illusions simultaneously to manipulate situations to her advantage. Because of the specific nature of her power, she is several heroes and independent parahumans at the same time. Like sock puppetry, only in real life. This also allows her to hide under a veil, completely invisible, and because of the nature of her power, her illusions have increased credibility because they register as having the same body heat as a regular human.

Other: (Randomness is good. Stealing the moon is bad. Have fun!)