Difference between revisions of "Think Tank"

Revision as of 16:28, 9 September 2013 (view source) Epelesker (Talk | contribs) (Helping out Bluhman by transferring from the old site. Divide and conquer!)		Latest revision as of 18:53, 3 October 2013 (view source) FrozenViolet (Talk | contribs) m
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	* Headshot was originally Flame-Stag's nemesis. However, the way I wrote Think Tank's backstory facilitate's the headhunter's skills and purpose much more finely.		* Headshot was originally Flame-Stag's nemesis. However, the way I wrote Think Tank's backstory facilitate's the headhunter's skills and purpose much more finely.
−	[[Category:Character]][[Category:Female]][[Category:Mutant]][[Category:Telepathy]][[Category:Telekinesis]][[Category:Cyborg]][[Category:Hero]]	+	[[Category:Character]][[Category:Female]][[Category:Mutant]][[Category:Telepathy]][[Category:Telekinesis]][[Category:Cyborg]][[Category:Hero]][[Category:Writer]]

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Latest revision as of 18:53, 3 October 2013

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Think Tank is a powerful mentalist hero residing in Millennium City. Having had most of her face and head destroyed in a precision strike by the bounty hunter known as Headshot, Think Tank has only been able to survive through extensive surgery done by her scientist husband. Though she has sustained considerable brain damage, and is technically without a body now, she has managed to survive, communicate, and even fight quite effectively using nothing but her telepathic abilities.

Origins

Mrs. Gilman

Carol Bernard never suspected that she was out of the ordinary. She had done alright in her studies at her school in upstate New York, eventually gaining an interest in writing fiction. She went to university in Rochester, earning her BA in English, and then going on to be a modestly successful writer of young adult fiction.

It was during her time in University, however, that she had met someone that she seemed to truly connect with. Harry Gilman, perusing a career in neural science, consistently had an interest in her writing. Though the two never really talked outside of formal or academic situations, it was quite clear that a strong companionship was forming. After Gilman had finished his study at the University of Rochester, he went on to graduate school to earn his master's degree. Gilman began picking up fame in Millennium City when he joined with Harmon Industries as the lead engineer on a new anti-psionic field (APF) generator. When Gilman needed a speech to commemorate the release of this new product, he turned to Ms. Bernard, who definitely did not fail to deliver an enticing and engaging snippet on the possibilities of the APF. Having now realized the extent to which the two were inseparable, both in complementary skills and mutual companionship, they finally decided to get married in 2010. Mrs. Carol Gilman was now a highly successful speechwriter for various entrepreneurs around Millennium City, as well as a popular columnist for the paper in city limits.

Headshot

For around a year, Mrs. Gilman lived happily with her husband, Dr. Harry Gilman. Harry continued to make upgrades to the APF, constantly keeping villain groups such as PSI and VIPER on their toes. A huge amount of civic development was able to proceed, thanks to the APF's wide distribution protecting more dangerous parts of the city.

However, VIPER wasn't one to accept such setbacks easily. After around 8 months of lost time and useless psions, VIPER decided to call in the big guns. Initially, Headshot had been ordered to use his sniping skills to precision-strike the APF generators and create an opening for Canadian Psionic units to make an entrance. However, it soon became quite apparent that Dr. Gilman's advances in technology had made it so that the APF's also had a personal force field, capable of deflecting any shots that Headshot made at them. By the time he had reloaded his rifle, the forcefields around the generators had repaired themselves. He would have to take another approach.

Meanwhile, VIPER's Canadian scientists had been hard at work creating a psionic amplifier engine, which could boost the abilities of their Psionic units to overcome the APF's strength. However, the scientists were not able to keep up with Dr. Gilman's developments, which entailed repeated upgrades to the system's strength, and even a system that could enable heroic psions to keep using their abilities inside the field. At this rate, VIPER's development would never catch up to Dr. Gilman's upgrades. Millennium City would soon be completely blocked off from VIPER thanks to the APF.

During this time, Headshot had been doing research on Dr. Gilman. He realized that, if he couldn't disable the APF system itself, he would have to instead sabotage the mind behind APF so that VIPER scientists could close the gap. However, it would not be so simple as taking Dr. Gilman out of the picture. His prominent position in Millennium City's security force meant that his death would not go unnoticed, or uninvestigated, and the city's law enforcement would swiftly and mercilessly descend upon Headshot and VIPER. Instead, Headshot gathered more and more intelligence, until he came to his conclusion - Change his target to Mrs. Carol Gilman, Bereave the scientist, and watch as VIPER's R&D charge headlong past the incapacitated Dr. Gilman.

Around the time of the APF's first anniversary, Dr. Gilman held a ceremony to commemorate its extended period of success. All manner of powerful and influental figures of the city attended it - James Harmon, Police Chiefs Surhoff and Harrison, and even Mayor Biselle himself. Of all these figureheads, Headshot was set on only removing the key piece: Mrs. Gilman. Standing directly adjacent to her husband, Carol was momentarily quite surprised to receive a throatful of lead, as Headshot pulled his trigger, firing a high-caliber round straight through Carol's neck and exiting the upper-back of her skull. Chaos ensued. Police units mobilized to try and find the source of the bullets. Harmon and Biselle fled for their own protection, while Dr. Gilman knelt by his slain wife, crying in disbelief.

Revival

Dr. Gilman was undoutably aghast by the assassination of his wife. Shortly following the shot, Gilman immediately called up Paramedics to attempt to resuscitate his wife, but to no avail. The first vertebrae of Carol's spine had been completely decimated, alongside her esophagus and windpipe. Her brain was intact, but she was confirmed legally dead shortly after. No security organizations within city limits had any plans to follow up on Mrs. Gilman's assassination.

Gilman was not ready to accept the death of his wife. He begged doctors to extract the brain from his wife's cranium. It was intact, but had already suffered immense damage from oxygen starvation inside the dead body. Paramedics were able to hook it up to a resuscitation machine, but the brain was still stuck without a body.

Meanwhile, Dr. Gilman had fallen far behind in his development. He had lost most of his will or concentration to work, after the trauma he had sustained from the loss of his wife. For some months, he took an extended leave from his research, giving VIPER ample time to develop countermeasures to Gilman's APF. Millennium City was once again in danger.

Gilman, during his grieving, had soon began to grow obsessed with his wife's brain. He became defensive, never spending a waking moment without keeping his eyes on the portable resuscitator. However, one night, he began hearing his wife's voice, telling him to stop concerning himself with her well-being. It was at this point that Carol's latent telepathic abilities began to manifest. All her life, she had honed the ability to communicate telepathically, but it was only after having her entire body destroyed that the ability came to surface. No longer was Carol just a dormant brain in a jar; Gilman now realized he had never lost his wife.

Dr. Gilman began to recover from his loss. He still had to bring his wife along with him, though, as he was now her eyes and mouth. Without her own sensory organs, it was only through telepathy that she was able to explore the outside world, and only through telepathy that she was able to communicate with others. As time went on, Dr. Gilman began to tell Carol about her own death. The oxygen starvation she had suffered from had caused most of her memory of the ceremony and her assassination to be lost, not to mention the loss of most of her learned language and writing skills. As she learned more and more, however, her memories began to reform. She constructed her reflections of the assassination, until she was finally able to remember herself staring down the afar barrel of a sniper's rifle. She remembered the yellow mask that the killer had worn, as well as the nebulous hole-like pattern it beared. She recognized how her killer had looked, and transferred the memories to her husband.

Since City Law Enforcement was not willing to help out, Dr. Gilman began to do independent research about this nebulous figure, all the while VIPER continuing its extended assault on Millennium City. Since Headshot had now completed his task and received his bounty, he returned to wandering around Millennium City, waiting for more work. A mistake on his part, because it was one day at the shopping center in downtown that Gilman was able to catch a glimpse of the yellow-masked man, waiting silently atop a balcony.

When Carol heard the news about Headshot's presence in Millennium City, she immediately demanded that she had a combat-capable body made for her, so that she could fight back against the bounty hunter. The APF project, which had already been on extended hiatus, was officially discontinued after Dr. Gilman had been labelled a madman for attempting to build some robotic body for his dead wife. Where once he had received widespread support from his colleagues concerning the APF, he was now on his own in this project.

Yet it was only his wife's help that he needed. He worked without rest, over 7 weeks, to construct a robotic body for his wife. In addition to making the body, Gilman had been able to use a reversed version of his APF to grant Carol extended psionic powers. After completing the body and connecting the resuscitation device to the body, Carol Gilman was mobile once again. Think Tank had been conceived.

Vindication

Think Tank's expanded abilities, thanks to Dr. Gilman's system, enabled her to scan the sensory input of every person within an 8 kilometer radius of her. The system also enabled her to create powerful telekinetic waves and projections. All this, combined with the immense armoring Dr. Gilman had equipped on the body, enabled Think Tank to be extremely well protected, and very formidable in combat.

With her sensory scanning, Think Tank was easily able to home in on Headshot's location. A battle ensued. Headshot attempted to fire at Think Tank, now determined to go straight for the fatal shot. However, Headshot's fortified senses were one with Think Tank's, and she was able to dodge Headshot's first bullet. The armoring of the body was insignificant, compared to Think Tank's ability to perfectly predict her foes actions and use her telekinetic abilities to shift the entire body out of the way of danger. Finally, in a moment where Headshot needed to reload, Think Tank made her final move, lunging directly towards Headshot and letting loose a powerful wave of psionic force. Headshot had been knocked out.

With the apprehension of Headshot publicized, Dr. Gilman informed the people of the city about Think Tank's origins; how he had suffered through the assault on his wife, and how he had worked with her to grant her the ability to move and express herself once again. Now that the Gilman's vendetta had been fulfilled, the city could get back to work.

Now, Dr. Gilman continues developing the APF to match VIPER's capabilities. The system has been gaining strength since, but not nearly at a fast enough rate to catch up to that of most villain groups. Not to worry, however, because Dr. Gilman now has Think Tank's supernatural abilities and specialized equipment to work alongside. Even if Carol has lost her ability to effectively communicate and write, she and Harry remain a healthy and companionate couple.

Detailed Information

Personality

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Unfortunately, the brain damage that Carol had sustained from her attack from Headshot has caused some irrevocable damage to her psyche. Before Think Tank had been created, Carol had reportedly been an outgoing and organized lady, who always took care to keep her readers up to date and informed, with personally-written letters for her close friends.

Currently, however, it is a little hard to gauge Think Tank's personality. The only way she can really communicate with others is through her telepathy, which she chooses to use fairly infrequently. Dr. Gilman reports that she's become very shy since having had her body replaced, explaining her reluctance to communicate with others. Aside from this, Think Tank's actions and modus operandi strike many people as very erratic, with little of the thoughtful organization that was present in Carol. Dr. Gilman also reports that she is still a very empathetic and caring person, but there's little evidence of this aside from Dr. Gilman's statements and his account of her treatment of him.

One thing is for certain; she is extremely grateful to be alive right now, even in her partial form. She is fully aware of her own capabilities and performance, and is ultimately quite self-assured in uncertain situations. Though she has difficulty communicating, she is also very level-headed, and can handle novel problems and challenges with ease. Even if some of her innate talents and skills have been lost, she has very little difficulty constructing new ones.

Combat Specifications

To start, Think Tank's brain is both Telepathic and Telekinetic. Think Tank's telepathy is natural to her, letting her easily scan the thoughts and senses of her opponents. Despite her mind-reading ability, though, she cannot influence or control her opponents. Instead, Think Tank's primary mode of combat is by using her telekinesis to project waves of force, flinging her opponents about and striking them with invisible mental constructs.

On the other front, Think Tank's brain is fixed in her Neural Preservation Suit. The NPS serves to bolster her psionic abilities considerably, granting her her telekinetic abilities. In addition, it is hooked up directly to the remains of the brain stem, enabling the brain's higher thought functions to control how the robotic body moves. The NPS' physical capabilities are impressive, enabling Think Tank to move around 923 lbs and run at speeds of up to 17 miles per hour. The suit has an almost infinite battery life, and even continues to protect and preserve the brain if the suit loses functionality. Think Tank has become so accustomed to using the suit that it acts almost as an extension of her body - her Hyper-reflexes show through when she evades attacks, and this, on top of her already formidable armored plating, make her extremely difficult to destroy.

The downsides of the NPS include its very rudimentary sensory systems, and an inability to protect the user from outside psionic influences. Because of these limitations, Think Tank has adapted a very unusual way of fighting with her telepathy - Sensory Scanning. By using her telepathy to assume the vision, hearing, and other sensory qualities of her allies or foes, she can perceive the world in a much fuller manner than just by herself. In addition, when she uses this ability on a foe she is fighting, she can perfectly predict when they will attack or defend against her, making it nearly impossible for the enemy in question to even lay a finger on Think Tank. The weakness of this tactic is that, when fighting against robotic or other mindless enemies, she will have to rely on her suit's incomplete sensory feedback. Lord help her if she runs into a psion more powerful than her; they can both defend against her telepathy, and even interfere in the brain's operation of the suit, effectively rendering Think Tank unable to control her own body. Harry Gilman has been making some leeway to improve Think Tank's psionic defense systems, but there is certainly a trouble of tradeoffs between how protected Think Tank is from outside influence, and how effectively she can use her power.

The NPS does not come with any sort of special transport features. However, Think Tank has been able to use her telepathy to project a powerful stream of psionic energy below her, enabling her to glide across the ground at speeds nearing 48 miles per hour.

Misc

• Headshot was originally Flame-Stag's nemesis. However, the way I wrote Think Tank's backstory facilitate's the headhunter's skills and purpose much more finely.