1337
Jul 13, 2018 23:09:45 GMT -5
Post by Mani4c on Jul 13, 2018 23:09:45 GMT -5
Name: 1337
Theme: The Jet Set (Track 10 ver. from the album Forever Young) - Alphaville
Avatar Style: Viral Hybrid: Spammer/Combat
Gender: Male
Appearance: link (Note: Underneath his mask 1337 appears to be a young man in his early 20's with a very prominent scar over the left side of his face, beginning at just below his hairline and ending just above the corner of his left upper lip, the scar extends horizontally in a ragged oval, ending at just the bridge of his nose and moving across his face till it reaches his ear, ending right before the earlobe.
The scar is also filled with jagged, angular lines of glowing scars that pulse a dull red, showing the scar's viral origin.
1337's eyes are a dull amber color, though his left eye occasionally glows a piercing red to match his scar, usually when he's angry or "eager" about something.)
User: None
Personality: If one were to take 1337's appearance as a sign of his personality, one would probably imagine a bomb throwing anarchist, or perhaps a punk rock fan with a penchant for the extravagant...and these aren't necessarily wrong assumptions. He is incredibly vocal about his hatred for people hemming in his creativity, or the idea that corporations or "suits" have any right to dictate the lives of the people that he believes they should be serving, not the other way around. Combined with his rather loud, flashy style of weaponry, programming methods and yes, music, and one's first impressions wouldn't be too far off from the truth.
However, beneath these admittedly prominent impressions, 1337 is a fair bit more complext than one would think. While he detests authority figures stamping out creative thought, be it hacking, programming or music and arts, he isn't blind to the world's need for some kind of system of controls and safeties to keep people and avatars from destroying themselves. He simply thinks that any system that IS in place takes greater pains to control the people themselves than to temper their violent natures, and THAT he will not take lying down.
1337's love of free expression extends to more than just his looks and varied musical taste, he is a prolific and very unpredictable hacker, oftentimes inventing new methods to breach tight security programs on the fly. This also includes his programming as well. 1337's add-ons and weapons are some of his prized creations, and while they may be flashy, they always excel in their function as well, showing a keen intellect and passion for his craft beneath his ambivalent and rebellious behavior.
However, despite all of his positive traits, it must not be forgotten that 1337 was a criminal, and his viral infection can make him rash and unpredictable in negative ways as well. Most obvious is his tendency to flirt, while most find this harmless, many can find his come ons annoying or even a bit uncomfortable, and while if one asks him nicely to stop, he will, most simply try to shut him up with a beating or blaster shot...which is often met with a rather uncomfortable realization that 1337 has an almost unhealthy appreciation for pain. His ability to repair minor wounds to himself with his programming skills means that his masochistic baiting of people is more often than not utterly harmless to him, and when a person tries to injure him he makes it a personal goal to skeeve them out as a way of petty revenge as much as possible, until they either apologize or just ASK him to stop instead of being "rude" as he would put it.
However his penchant for pet revenge can become something of nightmares if he feels seriously slighted, such as when someone hurts his friends or takes advantage of his trust. When this happens, he goes from a prankster to a terrifying force of vengeance, ruthlessly seeking new ways to ruin a person or avatar's life until they either repent for their behavior or are actually dead.
This extends to go so far as to hack a person's pacemaker, or to turn their own vehicles or drones against them, causing "accidents" that can either maim or easily kill the offender. Other times he may ruin them professionally, or financially, destroying their lives until the only thing they HAVE to lose is their life...and then only leaving them with that and nothing more.
This unstable behavior and almost psychotic rage are thankfully rare, and outside of his flirty and trollish attempts at humor 1337 is utterly harmless if one just leaves him to his devices. But the underlying knowledge that deep in his head, something was irrevocably damaged by the viral accident that caused his "creativity", and that despite his claims to the contrary, he is in some way broken in the mind, makes him someone who is either to be feared...or perhaps pitied, a fine intellect with a wonderfully diverse set of skills and out of the box thinking...doomed to have a touch of madness till the day he dies, all because of a simple accident.
History: 1337 himself has said that before his life as a hacker, he wasn't truly alive, simply being another wandering, purposeless Rogue avatar that had been randomly spit out onto the digital landscape. 1337 began his life as a hacker (and by his reckoning, his life in general.) like most other Rogue avatars in his profession did, by joining a gang of other avatars who introduced him to his calling, as well as sharing his other interests. This gang was known as "Dedsec", a "plucky group of creative minds" who specialized in E-pranking and internet vigilantism. The group was strictly small time, more interested in finding new hacking methods or messing around than causing any harm...but that didn't save them when, completely by accident, they stumbled upon something that would later take the death of an NPD officer and several broad daylight kidnappings to uncover...the Mega-corporations Cyborg Augmentation experiments.
The information was uncovered when 1337 and another comrade, $kull, were messing with the email of a high ranking member of Chiron's cybernetics development lab. They were mostly thumbing through the scientist's files, looking for something to tamper with, when they discovered a hidden backdoor to a Deep Web file sever, a sever that was filled to the brim with incriminating video, diagrams, and documentation. The two were mortified by what they found, and in their haste to copy the files and find out what to do with them, they triggered a security program that not only locked them out, but pinpointed their location.
The duo went to their friends and tried to find a way to relocate, but by then it was too late, the Megacorps moved fast, and their wrath was as brutal as it was swift. 1337, $kull and the rest of Dedsec were besieged by heavily armored avatars that swiftly began deleting them, cutting down most of the hacker collective in minutes, only missing 1337 and $kull because one of their comrades gave their own life to distract the hit squad while they escaped into the underbelly of the digital world.
They lived like this for years, eventually losing track of time as they moved from place to place, hoping that the mega-corporations had forgotten about them or just given up. But their lives as drifters ended one fateful day, when Abraxas and his army stormed the North American Cyber city. The pair were among the thousands trapped in the battle zone when the invasion started, dodging blaster fire and explosive shells as they tried to find somewhere, ANYWHERE to hide until the battle passed.
And for a while, they seemed to have found safety in a small alleyway that ended in a dead end. The two were huddled between a large dumpster and the end of the alleyway, $kull trying to make himself as small as possible while 1337 was taking notes on the various viruses that were being gunned down by the hundreds. The two hid there for hours, until there was the roar of engines overhead and a shuddering explosion that sent a shower of concrete and brick onto the two, who barely avoided being killed by the debris. The blast had also thrown a mutilated carcass into the alley, a dead Pustule, one of Blights poisonous suicide troops.
1337 and $kull just stared at the thing, wondering why it didn't collapse into code, until after almost 20 minutes of staring, 1337 crept over towards the prone virus and began to take out a code sampling tool. $kull went out to stop him of course, telling him that for all they knew it was simply BSODing and could wake up if he stabbed it with the sampling needle. But, 1337 countered that the virus would have rebooted naturally by now, and ignored $kull's warnings, stabbing the creature in the eye...a grave mistake that 1337 would regret for the rest of his life.
The pustule had been an experimental mutation created by Genome, when it "died", it would collapse onto the ground and go dormant, it's acid producing program becoming hyper productive as it mixed with a virulent viral infection that would either kill or horribly maim the victim. When it was stimulated enough, it would rise with enough energy to charge at a random target and attempt to grab them before detonating in a massive spray of searing acid and viral infection.
The pustule roared and reared up, grabbing 1337 and violently beginning to convulse as it prepared to explode...and then $kull tackled it, knocking 1337 away and shoving the pustule against the far side of the dumpster, trying to force it down to the ground so the blast of acid would be directed upwards and away from his friend.
The pustule detonated violently before it could be forced to the ground completely, killing $kull and spraying over 100 gallons of acid across the alleyway in thick globs of searing slime. one glob flew past the dumpster and struck 1337 in the eye, infecting his code with a viral contagion even as the acid burned it's way into his flesh.
1337 screamed in agony, stumbling down the alleyway as the acid caused the walls of it to collapse onto the great acid puddle that used to be $kull and the pustule. the wounded youth made it about 10 feet out of the alley, the area still a battleground, before being struck by a blaster round fired by either an NPD commando or a Drone (1337 could not remember which, and the battle was so chaotic that nobody could truly tell who shot him even months later.)
The pain from the acid, the virus eating into his cognitive code, and now being shot, was too much, and 1337 blacked out, forced into a BSOD from the sheer pain he was forced to endure. When he awoke, 1337 was in a makeshift medical wing in the Red Light, having been rescued by Delta Squad during the melee. But, the period of time in between 1337's injury and leaving the Red Light infirmary, and his eventual discovery by the NPD is incredibly sketchy, with various conflicting sightings (many of which may have been manufactured by 1337 himself to keep the NPD off of his back.) and possible theories as to what he had been doing.
All that is known is that he was found and captured about 2-3 weeks after the official end of hostilities, having been caught breaching sensitive NPD facilities to find information on something, when he was brought in for questioning he refused to answer the officers as to his motives, simply playing it off as some spiteful attempt at seeing if the NPD had managed to improve since Abraxas had "stomped their shit in" at the start of the war.
It was only at Mani4c and The Doctor's discretion that he wasn't indefinitely incarcerated. He'd demonstrated novel ways of breaching security programs in his break in attempt, and in the wake of Abraxas' attack, novel hacks meant creative and most importantly EFFECTIVE means of defeating them. Mani4c and The Doctor both argued that they had more to gain by employing 1337 than simply locking him up and waiting for his inevitable escape attempt once he'd discovered a work around to their cells, and that perhaps, if his given motive was to "test" them, than he could improve their security WITH them instead of being arrested.
Ever since, 1337 has been the assistant experimental officer for the NY-NPD's R&D department, working under Bit's command and eagle eyed supervision as he developed new weapons and hacking methods for the NPD to use...though how much he'd hid for himself is unknown, and given his tendency to balk at things like safety protocols or rules, it'd doubtless that he HAS hidden some kind of trick up his sleeve...
Add-Ons: Combat - Samurai Edge: Named for a weapon from an ancient video game, this lightweight pistol is very accurate, capable of hitting an avatar between the eyes at 150 yards and leaving a tight grouping if fired rapidly. This accuracy is good, because the pistol itself deals only a low amount of damage per shot, focusing more on pinpoint strikes and firing quickly while on the move than firepower.
This add-on can fire five times per post, dealing a low amount of damage per shot. However, it does not lose accuracy while the user is firing one handed or while moving, making it incredibly useful for quick escapes or hit and run tactics.
Combat - "The Light Show": The answer to a question that only 1337 would ask, "What would happen if I made a rave light-show into an automatic weapon?" Enter...well, the Light Show, a weapon about as subtle as its maker. The gun is a compact SMG that fires multicolored hard-light ammunition, making it incredibly effective at shredding through light cover (no pun intended) and the combat jumpsuits used my most if not all avatars despite only dealing low damage per round.
Unfortunately, despite it's flashy looks, the weapon is next to useless against heavy armor, anything that negates 15% of the users taken damage or more practically blocks any hopes of penetration, due to that fact that, unlike a laser, hard light shards aren't much different from flechettes or shrapnel, armor just makes them bounce off. Another draw back is accuracy, this gun is NOT meant for precice targeting or fighting one enemy unless they're so mobile that they're impossible to hit WITHOUT spray and pray tactics. The rounds just spray out like a fire hose, and while that's perfect up close, beyond 150 yards your barely going to get scratched, let alone killed.
Despite these drawbacks this weapon is fantastic at suppressing fire against rank and file goons, as nobody in their right minds would be willing to walk into a hail of razor sharp shards of hard-light without plate armor or a barrier program.
This weapon can spray out a hail of 30 low damage rounds per post, however, the rounds fire in a conical pattern that makes precision impossible, and the weapons damage becomes borderline nonexistent past 150 yards or against opponents using Armor programs or add-ons that reduce damage by 15% or more.
Combat - The Pedigree: This weapon's name is an odd one, apparently only a few folks get the joke, and nobody is telling, so let's move on.
This weapon...is a sledgehammer, at least it's ONLY a sledgehammer at first blush. This weapon is capable of bypassing armor programs in a way similar to most gravimetric weapons do...aka, an incredibly powerful shockwave is formed whenever the heavily weighted head of the weapon strikes something be it the floor, a speeder, or an avatar's groin.
This particular model seems to have been stolen from a demolition site, as it's gravimetric generator, despite looking nonexistent, is capable of sending a 9 foot tall avatar in full high-resistance plate armor flying on it's ass a good 5 feet from where they started, making it incredibly devastating against normal assailants. It's certainly overkill for anything 1337 could be expected to be attacked by anyways.
This weapon is incredibly heavy, meaning 1337 can only swing it once per post, however, it deals a large amount of damage that can bypass armor mods or destroy physical barriers (such as walls or drop-shields) in a single strike. It also can knock a normal sized avatar back a good 10 feet, while anything 7 feet to 10 feet tall gets knocked back 5, anything from 11 feet to 15 feet will stumble back and be off balance when they start their turn, negating any type of charging attacks they might have been using at the time they were struck.
Combat - Wub-Wub: This is possibly the most insane weapon ever created...so of course it's 1337's own custom work. The "Wub-Wub" as 1337 calls it, is a jerry-rigged device capable of producing incredibly potent, directed sonic waves. These waves can ignore physical armor programs, and the power of the sound vibrations it creates can even crack hardened barriers with a little bit of time and concentrated fire. The effect on an avatar's code is also nothing to scoff at, as the vibrations cause the opponents to literally glitch as their injured, their appearance becoming indistinct and static laced as incredible pain wracks their bodies.
What kind of sonic waves could unleash so much horror? What possible sound did 1337 make this nightmare weapon produce?...Dubstep.
Yes, despite ALL of the pain this weapon can cause, it's chosen battle cry...is electronic music played at upwards of 700 decibles, which would kill a human in the real world...REALLY. This weapon deals a large amount of damage per post, and can deal continuous damage if the target is immobilized or tracked effectively by the weapon, after 3 posts however, the gun must take time to recharge, rendering it unusable for 3 turns. The damage dealt also ignores armor programs, however barriers DO work, but will be damaged by the weapon and eventually break if subjected to constant or repeated firings.
Interestingly enough, 1337 has installed a second track into the weapon and made it so it could only be accessed by a certain key...however, he hasn't revealed the track yet, and he has confirmed that the change in sound is not going to effect how dangerous it is.
Connectivity - "The Duke": This is 1337's main mode of rapid transport...and like all of his toys its about as subtle as the man himself.
This car evokes a classic muscle car from the 1960's-1970's, and it's as fast as one of those road monsters as well, roaring past speeders at a neck-breaking connectivity speed of 450% (The real world equivilant of about 300 Miles per hour!) and boasting great maneuvering due to 1337's probably illegal modding of the speeder, this speed demon is only bested by high-speed pursuit vehicles, flight equipped avatars/speeders who don't need to worry about smashing into traffic, or high-end racing speeders...and that's still not all it can do.
It's chassis is lightly armored, making it durable against small arms like smgs or pistols, and in a move that flagrantly breaks about 10 digital traffic laws, it's been modified to make it's own (temporary) roads beneath it's wheels, sticking to a hard light track that forms beneath it and slightly ahead and behind it's bumpers, The Duke is able to climb sheer surfaces and even drive HORIZONTALLY across the outside of buildings with this technology.
Obviously 1337 hasn't demonstrated this little trick, as a vehicle capable of just making it's own pathways would be horribly dangerous and difficult to capture if 1337 ever went rogue or scampered off, and as a result he's had to lock the program down while in the NPD's employ to hide it, disguising it as a simple traction boosting mod for use in racing. (AKA: this program is for setpieces in plots or for admin approved fun, it will not be used without asking another mod first.)
Downloaded Programs: Combat - Self Hack(Speed): This is one of 1337's more dangerous abilities, and the danger doesn't extend to just his opponents either. 1337 has innovated a new form of hacking...self hacking, using one's code breaking skills to unblock the "natural" limiters that an avatar's framework has in place, allowing for explosive increases in his physical abilities, in this case, his speed is increased by 300%, allowing him to dodge bullets a medium range and move at speeds that allow him to unleash a flurry of 10 blows with his bare hands to an opponent in one post.
However, the drawbacks to this Hack are similar to a high-level overclocking, his body produces an insane amount of heat, and this hack is automatically reverted after 3 posts, with the nasty side effect of HALVING his movement speed, which leaves him incredibly vulnerable if he's caught in the middle of a fight when it hits him. This weakness lasts for 5 posts after the mod shuts down, and he cannot use this hack on himself again while his body is recovering.
Combat - Self Hack(Power): Another Self Hack, this one focusing on 1337's physical power. This hack causes an energy surge that allows him to deal a very large amount of damage per strike with his bare hands, when combined with his Pedigree hammer, this hack is capable of unleashing a hellish amount of pain to anything unfortunate enough to get hit by him.
However, this hack has a number of drawbacks, chiefly among them is the fact that his ranged weapons aren't effected by this mod, after all, muscle power has no bearing on how much getting shot hurts someone. On top of limiting him to melee for a period of three posts if he wants to use this mod to it's fullest, the side effects that it heaps upon him after it's inevitably purged by his body's self repair functions are crippling in a hand to hand brawl, his attack power (melee wise) is halved, and his lack of strength makes his accuracy suffer by 60% as well due to the recoil of his weapons. This weakness lasts for a period of 5 posts after deactivating, and as with his speed boost, he cannot use it again until his body recovers.
Combat - Self Hack(Durability): The last of 1337's self Hacks, this time granting him a surge of durability for a period of three posts before requiring a 5 post recharge.
This mod causes his framework to harden against all damage, granting him a 20% immunity to any attack that strikes him while the hack is active. But, like with his other hacks, this mod has some hefty drawbacks, especially for soemone who's already lacking a non download damage mitigation program, his durability is reduced by a whopping 70% when he's hit by the hack's recoil, and if he combines this mod with one of or BOTH of his other self hacking mods, he could very well land himself in an unwinnable bind.
Combat - Hold Your Breath!: An experimental weapon mod that has been altered into a DP until it can be properly mass produced, and ironically using the same thing that infected him in the first place, 1337's latest toy is a two-type explosive that uses reverse engineered acid and poison gas that has been extracted from what few remains of Blight's viral troops could be preserved.
Hold your Breath! Is the gas grenade Variant, and has been modified so that it is capable of effecting even viral avatars. When detonated, any avatar that isn't rendered immune thanks to IFF recognition (in which the grenade instead acts like a wonderful pine air freshener), or is wearing specialized anti-gas gear or armor filters is immediately rendered weak by the burning fumes of the grenade.
This cuts their attack power and accuracy by 50%, and makes them move at only two-thirds of their top speed as their eyes, nose and lungs are assaulted by the biting toxins, sending them into a massive coughing fit that is just short of completely debilitating.
Unfortunately, the virus is short lived, only working for 4 turns until the victim is able to purge the toxin from their bodies, and due to how an avatar's "Immune system" works, the grenade becomes ineffective until 5 posts after the target has recovered, rendering it unusable.
Combat - Venom Bath: The acid variant of 1337's Blight adapted weaponry, This grenade is a volatile mixture of acids and poisons held under high pressure in a breakable shell, when the pin is pulled the pressure within the grenade skyrockets, and 5 seconds after, the bomb detonates in a spray of caustic and infectious fluids that covers a wide, spherical swath of 25 feet in each direction.
This acid causes extreme pain, eating through armor and searing the flesh of anyone hit by it for a period of 5 turns. However, priming another grenade takes time, and 1337 can't produce another grenade for 3 turns after any victims have recovered from their wounds. If no one is injured by the grenade, than it only takes 3 turns for it to be used again.
This DP causes a large amount of damage over a period of 5 turns, and the acid also damages any armor programs that the victim has equipped, reducing any damage resistance programs to only half of their effective strength.
Theme: The Jet Set (Track 10 ver. from the album Forever Young) - Alphaville
Avatar Style: Viral Hybrid: Spammer/Combat
Gender: Male
Appearance: link (Note: Underneath his mask 1337 appears to be a young man in his early 20's with a very prominent scar over the left side of his face, beginning at just below his hairline and ending just above the corner of his left upper lip, the scar extends horizontally in a ragged oval, ending at just the bridge of his nose and moving across his face till it reaches his ear, ending right before the earlobe.
The scar is also filled with jagged, angular lines of glowing scars that pulse a dull red, showing the scar's viral origin.
1337's eyes are a dull amber color, though his left eye occasionally glows a piercing red to match his scar, usually when he's angry or "eager" about something.)
User: None
Personality: If one were to take 1337's appearance as a sign of his personality, one would probably imagine a bomb throwing anarchist, or perhaps a punk rock fan with a penchant for the extravagant...and these aren't necessarily wrong assumptions. He is incredibly vocal about his hatred for people hemming in his creativity, or the idea that corporations or "suits" have any right to dictate the lives of the people that he believes they should be serving, not the other way around. Combined with his rather loud, flashy style of weaponry, programming methods and yes, music, and one's first impressions wouldn't be too far off from the truth.
However, beneath these admittedly prominent impressions, 1337 is a fair bit more complext than one would think. While he detests authority figures stamping out creative thought, be it hacking, programming or music and arts, he isn't blind to the world's need for some kind of system of controls and safeties to keep people and avatars from destroying themselves. He simply thinks that any system that IS in place takes greater pains to control the people themselves than to temper their violent natures, and THAT he will not take lying down.
1337's love of free expression extends to more than just his looks and varied musical taste, he is a prolific and very unpredictable hacker, oftentimes inventing new methods to breach tight security programs on the fly. This also includes his programming as well. 1337's add-ons and weapons are some of his prized creations, and while they may be flashy, they always excel in their function as well, showing a keen intellect and passion for his craft beneath his ambivalent and rebellious behavior.
However, despite all of his positive traits, it must not be forgotten that 1337 was a criminal, and his viral infection can make him rash and unpredictable in negative ways as well. Most obvious is his tendency to flirt, while most find this harmless, many can find his come ons annoying or even a bit uncomfortable, and while if one asks him nicely to stop, he will, most simply try to shut him up with a beating or blaster shot...which is often met with a rather uncomfortable realization that 1337 has an almost unhealthy appreciation for pain. His ability to repair minor wounds to himself with his programming skills means that his masochistic baiting of people is more often than not utterly harmless to him, and when a person tries to injure him he makes it a personal goal to skeeve them out as a way of petty revenge as much as possible, until they either apologize or just ASK him to stop instead of being "rude" as he would put it.
However his penchant for pet revenge can become something of nightmares if he feels seriously slighted, such as when someone hurts his friends or takes advantage of his trust. When this happens, he goes from a prankster to a terrifying force of vengeance, ruthlessly seeking new ways to ruin a person or avatar's life until they either repent for their behavior or are actually dead.
This extends to go so far as to hack a person's pacemaker, or to turn their own vehicles or drones against them, causing "accidents" that can either maim or easily kill the offender. Other times he may ruin them professionally, or financially, destroying their lives until the only thing they HAVE to lose is their life...and then only leaving them with that and nothing more.
This unstable behavior and almost psychotic rage are thankfully rare, and outside of his flirty and trollish attempts at humor 1337 is utterly harmless if one just leaves him to his devices. But the underlying knowledge that deep in his head, something was irrevocably damaged by the viral accident that caused his "creativity", and that despite his claims to the contrary, he is in some way broken in the mind, makes him someone who is either to be feared...or perhaps pitied, a fine intellect with a wonderfully diverse set of skills and out of the box thinking...doomed to have a touch of madness till the day he dies, all because of a simple accident.
History: 1337 himself has said that before his life as a hacker, he wasn't truly alive, simply being another wandering, purposeless Rogue avatar that had been randomly spit out onto the digital landscape. 1337 began his life as a hacker (and by his reckoning, his life in general.) like most other Rogue avatars in his profession did, by joining a gang of other avatars who introduced him to his calling, as well as sharing his other interests. This gang was known as "Dedsec", a "plucky group of creative minds" who specialized in E-pranking and internet vigilantism. The group was strictly small time, more interested in finding new hacking methods or messing around than causing any harm...but that didn't save them when, completely by accident, they stumbled upon something that would later take the death of an NPD officer and several broad daylight kidnappings to uncover...the Mega-corporations Cyborg Augmentation experiments.
The information was uncovered when 1337 and another comrade, $kull, were messing with the email of a high ranking member of Chiron's cybernetics development lab. They were mostly thumbing through the scientist's files, looking for something to tamper with, when they discovered a hidden backdoor to a Deep Web file sever, a sever that was filled to the brim with incriminating video, diagrams, and documentation. The two were mortified by what they found, and in their haste to copy the files and find out what to do with them, they triggered a security program that not only locked them out, but pinpointed their location.
The duo went to their friends and tried to find a way to relocate, but by then it was too late, the Megacorps moved fast, and their wrath was as brutal as it was swift. 1337, $kull and the rest of Dedsec were besieged by heavily armored avatars that swiftly began deleting them, cutting down most of the hacker collective in minutes, only missing 1337 and $kull because one of their comrades gave their own life to distract the hit squad while they escaped into the underbelly of the digital world.
They lived like this for years, eventually losing track of time as they moved from place to place, hoping that the mega-corporations had forgotten about them or just given up. But their lives as drifters ended one fateful day, when Abraxas and his army stormed the North American Cyber city. The pair were among the thousands trapped in the battle zone when the invasion started, dodging blaster fire and explosive shells as they tried to find somewhere, ANYWHERE to hide until the battle passed.
And for a while, they seemed to have found safety in a small alleyway that ended in a dead end. The two were huddled between a large dumpster and the end of the alleyway, $kull trying to make himself as small as possible while 1337 was taking notes on the various viruses that were being gunned down by the hundreds. The two hid there for hours, until there was the roar of engines overhead and a shuddering explosion that sent a shower of concrete and brick onto the two, who barely avoided being killed by the debris. The blast had also thrown a mutilated carcass into the alley, a dead Pustule, one of Blights poisonous suicide troops.
1337 and $kull just stared at the thing, wondering why it didn't collapse into code, until after almost 20 minutes of staring, 1337 crept over towards the prone virus and began to take out a code sampling tool. $kull went out to stop him of course, telling him that for all they knew it was simply BSODing and could wake up if he stabbed it with the sampling needle. But, 1337 countered that the virus would have rebooted naturally by now, and ignored $kull's warnings, stabbing the creature in the eye...a grave mistake that 1337 would regret for the rest of his life.
The pustule had been an experimental mutation created by Genome, when it "died", it would collapse onto the ground and go dormant, it's acid producing program becoming hyper productive as it mixed with a virulent viral infection that would either kill or horribly maim the victim. When it was stimulated enough, it would rise with enough energy to charge at a random target and attempt to grab them before detonating in a massive spray of searing acid and viral infection.
The pustule roared and reared up, grabbing 1337 and violently beginning to convulse as it prepared to explode...and then $kull tackled it, knocking 1337 away and shoving the pustule against the far side of the dumpster, trying to force it down to the ground so the blast of acid would be directed upwards and away from his friend.
The pustule detonated violently before it could be forced to the ground completely, killing $kull and spraying over 100 gallons of acid across the alleyway in thick globs of searing slime. one glob flew past the dumpster and struck 1337 in the eye, infecting his code with a viral contagion even as the acid burned it's way into his flesh.
1337 screamed in agony, stumbling down the alleyway as the acid caused the walls of it to collapse onto the great acid puddle that used to be $kull and the pustule. the wounded youth made it about 10 feet out of the alley, the area still a battleground, before being struck by a blaster round fired by either an NPD commando or a Drone (1337 could not remember which, and the battle was so chaotic that nobody could truly tell who shot him even months later.)
The pain from the acid, the virus eating into his cognitive code, and now being shot, was too much, and 1337 blacked out, forced into a BSOD from the sheer pain he was forced to endure. When he awoke, 1337 was in a makeshift medical wing in the Red Light, having been rescued by Delta Squad during the melee. But, the period of time in between 1337's injury and leaving the Red Light infirmary, and his eventual discovery by the NPD is incredibly sketchy, with various conflicting sightings (many of which may have been manufactured by 1337 himself to keep the NPD off of his back.) and possible theories as to what he had been doing.
All that is known is that he was found and captured about 2-3 weeks after the official end of hostilities, having been caught breaching sensitive NPD facilities to find information on something, when he was brought in for questioning he refused to answer the officers as to his motives, simply playing it off as some spiteful attempt at seeing if the NPD had managed to improve since Abraxas had "stomped their shit in" at the start of the war.
It was only at Mani4c and The Doctor's discretion that he wasn't indefinitely incarcerated. He'd demonstrated novel ways of breaching security programs in his break in attempt, and in the wake of Abraxas' attack, novel hacks meant creative and most importantly EFFECTIVE means of defeating them. Mani4c and The Doctor both argued that they had more to gain by employing 1337 than simply locking him up and waiting for his inevitable escape attempt once he'd discovered a work around to their cells, and that perhaps, if his given motive was to "test" them, than he could improve their security WITH them instead of being arrested.
Ever since, 1337 has been the assistant experimental officer for the NY-NPD's R&D department, working under Bit's command and eagle eyed supervision as he developed new weapons and hacking methods for the NPD to use...though how much he'd hid for himself is unknown, and given his tendency to balk at things like safety protocols or rules, it'd doubtless that he HAS hidden some kind of trick up his sleeve...
Add-Ons: Combat - Samurai Edge: Named for a weapon from an ancient video game, this lightweight pistol is very accurate, capable of hitting an avatar between the eyes at 150 yards and leaving a tight grouping if fired rapidly. This accuracy is good, because the pistol itself deals only a low amount of damage per shot, focusing more on pinpoint strikes and firing quickly while on the move than firepower.
This add-on can fire five times per post, dealing a low amount of damage per shot. However, it does not lose accuracy while the user is firing one handed or while moving, making it incredibly useful for quick escapes or hit and run tactics.
Combat - "The Light Show": The answer to a question that only 1337 would ask, "What would happen if I made a rave light-show into an automatic weapon?" Enter...well, the Light Show, a weapon about as subtle as its maker. The gun is a compact SMG that fires multicolored hard-light ammunition, making it incredibly effective at shredding through light cover (no pun intended) and the combat jumpsuits used my most if not all avatars despite only dealing low damage per round.
Unfortunately, despite it's flashy looks, the weapon is next to useless against heavy armor, anything that negates 15% of the users taken damage or more practically blocks any hopes of penetration, due to that fact that, unlike a laser, hard light shards aren't much different from flechettes or shrapnel, armor just makes them bounce off. Another draw back is accuracy, this gun is NOT meant for precice targeting or fighting one enemy unless they're so mobile that they're impossible to hit WITHOUT spray and pray tactics. The rounds just spray out like a fire hose, and while that's perfect up close, beyond 150 yards your barely going to get scratched, let alone killed.
Despite these drawbacks this weapon is fantastic at suppressing fire against rank and file goons, as nobody in their right minds would be willing to walk into a hail of razor sharp shards of hard-light without plate armor or a barrier program.
This weapon can spray out a hail of 30 low damage rounds per post, however, the rounds fire in a conical pattern that makes precision impossible, and the weapons damage becomes borderline nonexistent past 150 yards or against opponents using Armor programs or add-ons that reduce damage by 15% or more.
Combat - The Pedigree: This weapon's name is an odd one, apparently only a few folks get the joke, and nobody is telling, so let's move on.
This weapon...is a sledgehammer, at least it's ONLY a sledgehammer at first blush. This weapon is capable of bypassing armor programs in a way similar to most gravimetric weapons do...aka, an incredibly powerful shockwave is formed whenever the heavily weighted head of the weapon strikes something be it the floor, a speeder, or an avatar's groin.
This particular model seems to have been stolen from a demolition site, as it's gravimetric generator, despite looking nonexistent, is capable of sending a 9 foot tall avatar in full high-resistance plate armor flying on it's ass a good 5 feet from where they started, making it incredibly devastating against normal assailants. It's certainly overkill for anything 1337 could be expected to be attacked by anyways.
This weapon is incredibly heavy, meaning 1337 can only swing it once per post, however, it deals a large amount of damage that can bypass armor mods or destroy physical barriers (such as walls or drop-shields) in a single strike. It also can knock a normal sized avatar back a good 10 feet, while anything 7 feet to 10 feet tall gets knocked back 5, anything from 11 feet to 15 feet will stumble back and be off balance when they start their turn, negating any type of charging attacks they might have been using at the time they were struck.
Combat - Wub-Wub: This is possibly the most insane weapon ever created...so of course it's 1337's own custom work. The "Wub-Wub" as 1337 calls it, is a jerry-rigged device capable of producing incredibly potent, directed sonic waves. These waves can ignore physical armor programs, and the power of the sound vibrations it creates can even crack hardened barriers with a little bit of time and concentrated fire. The effect on an avatar's code is also nothing to scoff at, as the vibrations cause the opponents to literally glitch as their injured, their appearance becoming indistinct and static laced as incredible pain wracks their bodies.
What kind of sonic waves could unleash so much horror? What possible sound did 1337 make this nightmare weapon produce?...Dubstep.
Yes, despite ALL of the pain this weapon can cause, it's chosen battle cry...is electronic music played at upwards of 700 decibles, which would kill a human in the real world...REALLY. This weapon deals a large amount of damage per post, and can deal continuous damage if the target is immobilized or tracked effectively by the weapon, after 3 posts however, the gun must take time to recharge, rendering it unusable for 3 turns. The damage dealt also ignores armor programs, however barriers DO work, but will be damaged by the weapon and eventually break if subjected to constant or repeated firings.
Interestingly enough, 1337 has installed a second track into the weapon and made it so it could only be accessed by a certain key...however, he hasn't revealed the track yet, and he has confirmed that the change in sound is not going to effect how dangerous it is.
Connectivity - "The Duke": This is 1337's main mode of rapid transport...and like all of his toys its about as subtle as the man himself.
This car evokes a classic muscle car from the 1960's-1970's, and it's as fast as one of those road monsters as well, roaring past speeders at a neck-breaking connectivity speed of 450% (The real world equivilant of about 300 Miles per hour!) and boasting great maneuvering due to 1337's probably illegal modding of the speeder, this speed demon is only bested by high-speed pursuit vehicles, flight equipped avatars/speeders who don't need to worry about smashing into traffic, or high-end racing speeders...and that's still not all it can do.
It's chassis is lightly armored, making it durable against small arms like smgs or pistols, and in a move that flagrantly breaks about 10 digital traffic laws, it's been modified to make it's own (temporary) roads beneath it's wheels, sticking to a hard light track that forms beneath it and slightly ahead and behind it's bumpers, The Duke is able to climb sheer surfaces and even drive HORIZONTALLY across the outside of buildings with this technology.
Obviously 1337 hasn't demonstrated this little trick, as a vehicle capable of just making it's own pathways would be horribly dangerous and difficult to capture if 1337 ever went rogue or scampered off, and as a result he's had to lock the program down while in the NPD's employ to hide it, disguising it as a simple traction boosting mod for use in racing. (AKA: this program is for setpieces in plots or for admin approved fun, it will not be used without asking another mod first.)
Downloaded Programs: Combat - Self Hack(Speed): This is one of 1337's more dangerous abilities, and the danger doesn't extend to just his opponents either. 1337 has innovated a new form of hacking...self hacking, using one's code breaking skills to unblock the "natural" limiters that an avatar's framework has in place, allowing for explosive increases in his physical abilities, in this case, his speed is increased by 300%, allowing him to dodge bullets a medium range and move at speeds that allow him to unleash a flurry of 10 blows with his bare hands to an opponent in one post.
However, the drawbacks to this Hack are similar to a high-level overclocking, his body produces an insane amount of heat, and this hack is automatically reverted after 3 posts, with the nasty side effect of HALVING his movement speed, which leaves him incredibly vulnerable if he's caught in the middle of a fight when it hits him. This weakness lasts for 5 posts after the mod shuts down, and he cannot use this hack on himself again while his body is recovering.
Combat - Self Hack(Power): Another Self Hack, this one focusing on 1337's physical power. This hack causes an energy surge that allows him to deal a very large amount of damage per strike with his bare hands, when combined with his Pedigree hammer, this hack is capable of unleashing a hellish amount of pain to anything unfortunate enough to get hit by him.
However, this hack has a number of drawbacks, chiefly among them is the fact that his ranged weapons aren't effected by this mod, after all, muscle power has no bearing on how much getting shot hurts someone. On top of limiting him to melee for a period of three posts if he wants to use this mod to it's fullest, the side effects that it heaps upon him after it's inevitably purged by his body's self repair functions are crippling in a hand to hand brawl, his attack power (melee wise) is halved, and his lack of strength makes his accuracy suffer by 60% as well due to the recoil of his weapons. This weakness lasts for a period of 5 posts after deactivating, and as with his speed boost, he cannot use it again until his body recovers.
Combat - Self Hack(Durability): The last of 1337's self Hacks, this time granting him a surge of durability for a period of three posts before requiring a 5 post recharge.
This mod causes his framework to harden against all damage, granting him a 20% immunity to any attack that strikes him while the hack is active. But, like with his other hacks, this mod has some hefty drawbacks, especially for soemone who's already lacking a non download damage mitigation program, his durability is reduced by a whopping 70% when he's hit by the hack's recoil, and if he combines this mod with one of or BOTH of his other self hacking mods, he could very well land himself in an unwinnable bind.
Combat - Hold Your Breath!: An experimental weapon mod that has been altered into a DP until it can be properly mass produced, and ironically using the same thing that infected him in the first place, 1337's latest toy is a two-type explosive that uses reverse engineered acid and poison gas that has been extracted from what few remains of Blight's viral troops could be preserved.
Hold your Breath! Is the gas grenade Variant, and has been modified so that it is capable of effecting even viral avatars. When detonated, any avatar that isn't rendered immune thanks to IFF recognition (in which the grenade instead acts like a wonderful pine air freshener), or is wearing specialized anti-gas gear or armor filters is immediately rendered weak by the burning fumes of the grenade.
This cuts their attack power and accuracy by 50%, and makes them move at only two-thirds of their top speed as their eyes, nose and lungs are assaulted by the biting toxins, sending them into a massive coughing fit that is just short of completely debilitating.
Unfortunately, the virus is short lived, only working for 4 turns until the victim is able to purge the toxin from their bodies, and due to how an avatar's "Immune system" works, the grenade becomes ineffective until 5 posts after the target has recovered, rendering it unusable.
Combat - Venom Bath: The acid variant of 1337's Blight adapted weaponry, This grenade is a volatile mixture of acids and poisons held under high pressure in a breakable shell, when the pin is pulled the pressure within the grenade skyrockets, and 5 seconds after, the bomb detonates in a spray of caustic and infectious fluids that covers a wide, spherical swath of 25 feet in each direction.
This acid causes extreme pain, eating through armor and searing the flesh of anyone hit by it for a period of 5 turns. However, priming another grenade takes time, and 1337 can't produce another grenade for 3 turns after any victims have recovered from their wounds. If no one is injured by the grenade, than it only takes 3 turns for it to be used again.
This DP causes a large amount of damage over a period of 5 turns, and the acid also damages any armor programs that the victim has equipped, reducing any damage resistance programs to only half of their effective strength.
