Soldier Celsius
Agent "Frosty" Saliard Foster, perhaps better known as Soldier Celsius, is a crimefighter and UNTIL field operative working in Millennium City and the surrounding area.
Sal was discovered half-frozen in a glacier in the Australian territory of Antarctica in late 2012 by a visiting Canadian survivalist. Interested in the phenomena due to the "Shadow in the Ice" incident during the mid-00's, the survivalist, one Elliot Hall, swiftly freed Sal from the glacier. Sal, having no memories prior to the glacier, and thus no knowledge of how to talk and only a cursory understanding of walking, was rather hasty in stumbling off with Hall's survival pack. About a week later, Hall found his pack, roughed up a bit but the contents themselves untouched, right about the same time as a ship headed left port headed for the US with a stowaway ice-creature on it.
For two months, Sal wandered across the US before making his way to Millennium City, if not by sheer chance, as by this point, Sal had still yet to even learn English. It's likely that Sal's powers awakened, at least at a subconscious level, at this point, as the greatly increased temperature required him to have some way of preventing melting. Then, one cold morning in December, out behind a Westside gas station, Sal was discovered by a local policeman, Officer Daniel Foster. Daniel took the icy trespasser in, gave him a name, clothes on his back (which, in retrospect, did not do very much for the melting problem) and a place to stay. Daniel even paid a tutor to teach Sal English. Much later, Sal would ask Daniel exactly why he went to such lengths for someone who had yet to even speak a word to him. Daniel's reply to such a question would end up being the foundation for what drove Sal to become a hero.
"Because I wanted to."
Sal had constantly obsessed over becoming a police officer, following in Daniel's footsteps. However, the discovery of Sal's latent ice powers lead Daniel to suggest that Sal aim higher, and look for where he could use his powers to the fullest. With this, Sal finally made the decision to take the plunge and join UNTIL.
UNTIL Interview Document 811-031 Excerpt 3A - Name of interviewer has been concealed for security purposes
UNTIL Interview room - Interviewer █████ ████████ waits at the table. Interviewee FOSTER, SALIARD enters shortly. Interviewee quickly seats himself, and the interview begins.
█████ ████████: Please state your name. Last name, then first.
INTERVIEWEE: Foster, Saliard.
█████ ████████: Mister Foster, you're here seeking permanent employment with UNTIL, correct?
INTERVIEWEE: Correct.
█████ ████████: Now, before anything else, there are a few issues with the form you filled out previously.
INTERVIEWEE: Like what?
█████ ████████: Well, first of all, "I dunno" is not a suitable answer for the species field. Additionally, we did a background check, and it is extremely unlikely you are related to comedian and actor Jackie Vernon. Physically impossible, even.
INTERVIEWEE: Well, that second one was a mistake on my part, but, as for the first one, I really didn't know what to put down. The trail's gone kind of cold on that one.
█████ ████████: ...
INTERVIEWEE: Of course, of course. Sorry. It's just that I really just could not answer the question. I don't know what I am.
█████ ████████: You don't know what you are.
INTERVIEWEE: Correct.
End Excerpt 3A.
Operation Bearhunter was an UNTIL-PRIMUS joint anti-superterrorist operation that took place in September of 2013. The Bearcave, a terrorist organization led by the villainous Beast-Tooth, had raided a Canadian government warehouse, stole a though-dormant experimental weapon, and hopped the Yukon-Alaska border. Their final destination? Anchorage. Bearcave planned to use the weapon as a bargaining chip with which to negotiate the release of several dangerous criminals, including villains Sal would later find himself face-to-face with, such as Crumplezone.
Sal was part of a team made up of superpowered UNTIL and PRIMUS operatives charged with acting as one of the main fighting forces against Bearcave forces. When they eventually clashed outside of the Wrangell - Saint Elias Wilderness reserve, it was in a day-long skirmish that left thirty-two UNTIL and PRIMUS operatives dead, and countless more Bearcave soldiers. The fighting only ceased when Sal managed to cause an avalanche than ended up wiping out the majority of the Bearcave's forces, finally necessitating a retreat.
UNTIL higher-ups initially planned, due to Sal's role in Operation Bearhunter, to have him stationed at a permanent outpost near the initial site of OB. Sal had recently received a promotion, and the new callsign of Soldier Celsius to go along with it. He was perfectly content with a permanent position in Alaska, or at least he would've been, had he not received a visit from a mysterious individual. To this day, Sal has yet to find the identity of the stranger, but what is more important is what he actually said to Sal.
"Go to Millennium City. There, you'll find the truth."
This reminded Sal of the harsh reality. Sitting in Alaska, merely just doing whatever UNTIL needed him to, wouldn't get him any closer to the truth. Being recently promoted, he took advantage of the situation and put in for a transfer to a permanent position in Millennium.
Within the month, Sal's transfer had been approved and he had arrived in Millennium, where he found himself in a wholly different environment, and, with a new environment came new adversaries. It was during this time that Sal gained most of his current nemeses. Discounting Bearcave, he had also come toe-to-toe with the likes of dangerous criminals such as the red-hot Flairgun, the sky-high Tank-Killer, and the downright insane Dr. Devoger. It was also around this time that Sal started using his callsign as more of a superhero identity, donning the Soldier Celsius costume for the first time. Deep underneath Westside, in the depths of the Kelvin Kave, a new hero had been born.
Shortly after taking up full-time hero duty, Sal decided that his talents would be best put to use in a superteam, more specifically, Eternals, Inc. After applying and being accepted into the organization, Sal managed to integrate quite nicely at first. For a time, Sal worked diligently with the organization and Heroes, Inc. as a whole, fighting against villains such as Crossword and King Quantus. Whilst in the organization, he met a variety of fellow heroes, including the likes of the British warlock known as Leonard Castellar and the jungle rogue, Jangala. After a period of inactivity following the defeat of King Quantus, Sal ended up resigning from Eternals, looking to take his ever-continuing search for not only justice, but the truth behind exactly what he is into his own hands.
Sal is classified, in lieu of a proper name, as a "Stage 3 Ice Mass" by UNTIL, PRIMUS, and all other related organizations. Fitting the name, Sal is composed entirely of solid ice. Normally, his surface is one smooth face, with no cracks or ridges. On the surface is also an extremely thin layer of vapor, which is the outer layer of Sal continually melting and being refrozen. Sal's ice, while substantially more durable than average ice, is only marginally more resistant to heat. Due to the lack of bones, internal organs, or musculature, focused heat (as in, melting holes into Sal) does not do much. Sal's real weakness lies in radiated heat, or a generally heated area. In short, a miniature heater is more likely to be effective than a plasma beam.
The origin of Sal's species is completely unknown as of yet. UNTIL has cross-referenced various physical details of Sal with all existing data of any extraterrestrial and/or extradimensional beings, to no avail. This is certainly not helped by the fact that, being made of solid ice, Sal has no DNA or other identifiers of the sort. However, in spite of this, Sal has exhibited several qualities described as "curiously human," such as a limited sense of touch powered by Sal's own semi-vapor nature.
Although he's recently been kicked upstairs to a "cushy desk job" due to Sal's own transparent love of fighting supercriminals versus his actual margin of success, Celsius remains among the more formidable UNTIL/PRIMUS-affiliated supers in North America. His physiology and powerset makes him less like a human and more like a natural humanoid engine of war.
Ice & Vapor Manipulation & Combustion - Celsius' primary power. He's capable of creating, reducing, reshaping, and reforming extremely large structures of ice and frost at will. Although it's far easier with a source of liquid water nearby, he can also draw in large amounts of water vapor from the surrounding area to form his structures. Sal's structures range from things as simple as blades or bludgeons to fully-realized ice-forts constructed in the midst of combat, all with the benefit of extremely sturdy construction. Although there's nothing special regarding the actual water he uses to construct objects, whilst he's consciously focused on a singular object, Celsius is able to focus his powers and harden said object, making it more resistant to shattering.
Thermal Absorption - Although he is clearly made of ice, Sal is almost more accurately described as a thermal energy being, able to manipulate it with the same ease as he does ice. By venting excess thermal energy from himself, Sal can reach much lower temperatures than normally possible, and by absorbing thermal energy, he is able to lower the temperature of the air around him at the cost of heating himself. This allows the iceman to pull out a number of tricks in a pinch, such as...
The Nanokelvin Beam - After his third (fifth?) crushing defeat at the hands of Kaptain Kelvin, Celsius began to seriously test the limits of his control over the fundamental concept of temperature. After much study and countless ruined water bottles, Celsius honed said temperature control to a point where he can come within a hair's breadth of the impossible-attain absolute zero: A nanokelvin, or one-billionth of a degree above zero degrees kelvin. This lethal projectile is able to near-instantly freeze something to a point so cold that the laws of physics as we know them begin to cease operating in reasonable ways. The beam's drawback, however, is that it can easily go out of wack and flash-freeze Cel's own body with its extreme temperature, rendering him helpless and prone to shattering until he can thaw himself.
Solid Ice - He's made entirely out of perpetually melting and freezing water. This has all the obvious benefits, as he doesn't need to eat, sleep, or breathe, and he can reshape and alter his form at will, which means inflicting wounds by conventional means is a tricky prospect. In addition to this, Celsius possesses a large amount of raw physical power that can be exerted through his humanoid form. He has no internal organs or even "brain" to speak of. The only exception to such a rule is that the glowing orbs on his head are infact functioning eyes, and damaging/destroying them means removing Celsius' vision until he can reform them. The obvious drawback to this is that, should his form be entirely dispersed in a body of water, it may take a long time for his mass to properly refocus and reform, depending on the size of the body of water.
KAPTAIN KELVIN
"Ice age after ice age, these monkeys have always feared the cold. It's high time we remind them why."
Real Name: Unknown
Powers/Abilities: Thermal Dominion, Large-Scale Ice and Vapor Manipulation
Occupation: Supervillain
Origin: Unknown
Whether due to overconfidence or just plain stupidity, Celsius isn't a hero that often finds himself afraid of his opponents. Kelvin is the exception to this rule. Almost everything about him is a frustrating mystery. Much like Celsius, nobody knows exactly what he is, but Kelvin's air of mystery goes much further. What is known about him is that he seems to be the same sort of anomaly that Celsius is, was apparently formed before is many, many times older than Celsius, and tends to look down on just about any organic life on Earth. Kelvin's activity has been known to stretch back prior to the largescale advent of superpowers on Earth, and his actual origin been rumored to stretch back much, much further.
Celsius fears Kelvin with very good reason. He holds every ounce of Celsius' already immense power, but has noticeably had time to strengthen and hone said abilities to the point where Celsius' mere Thermal Manipulation has become Kelvin's Thermal Dominion, a zone of absolute power within which molecular motion is under his complete and utter control. It's because of this that Kelvin has handed a complete and utter humiliating loss to Celsius every time they've clashed. The only thing that keeps Celsius calm is that, within the past year, Kelvin has apparently gone inactive. In the meantime, Celsius is content to further study his own powers, until one day he can even the score.
Threat Level:
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Operative's Comments:
"Kelvin, Kelvin, Kelvin... I don't even know where to begin. The guy's an absolute monster in combat. Not me, nor any of my teammates were able to so much as touch him. I can't imagine how many years he's got on me, but however many they are, this guy knows the truth. He'll just never utter a word of it..."
AT LARGE
BEAST-TOOTH
"Survival of the fittest. It's only natural."
Real Name: Jude Holman
Powers/Abilities: Unconventional Brain Physiology, Enhanced Senses
Occupation: Terrorist
Origin: Metahuman
While many of Celsius's enemies are those he's more than capable of putting a fight up against in terms of power, he's got no chance against out-planning the likes of Beast-Tooth. The Canadian government's secretive "Bearcave Project" took place almost entirely off the books. Maximum security inmates conveniently "disappeared" from their cells, transported to a government blacksite and used as fodder for perverted experiments. Spliced with reptilian and insectoid DNA, the inmates were turned into varying degrees of creatures more than human. Among these inmates was one Jude Holman, sentenced to 150 years in prison for the double-murder of his wife and her lover.
The researchers didn't know what they had unknowingly created. From the ashes and havoc wrought within the halls that served as their proverbial womb, the super-terrorism cell known as "The Bearcave" emerged, with the enigmatic "Beast-Tooth" leading them. Beast-Tooth, despite the savage connotations, is a master planner. The experiments altered the physiology of his brain beyond the limits of a normal man, allowing him to think and perceive concepts in ways that humans can't comprehend. While the Bearcave's actual manpower is on the weaker side, all of Beast-Tooth's plans are wrapped in several different contingencies and backups, a puzzle in of themselves to actually figure out. Beast-Tooth is a man that considers his self-worth in how many steps ahead he is of his enemies, and he's more than got the mind to sustain such a philosophy.
Celsius' first true act of heroism was using his powers to shatter Beast-Tooth's ambitions in Alaska, forcing the Bearcave to retreat further up into the wilderness to lick their wounds. Since then, however, Beast-Tooth has been a constant concern for any and all of Celsius' operations up north.
Threat Level:
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Operative Comments:
"Beasty... I hate dealing with this one. Even if you catch him, wreck his base, and smash every single one of his mooks, he still finds a way to pull off his plan in the end. The worst kind of scumbag."
AT LARGE
FLAIRGUN
"Baby, you and I are gonna be STARS!"
Real Name: Bryant Morris
Powers/Abilities: Heat Projection
Occupation: Terrorist
Origin: Metahuman
Bryant grew up used to being the center of attention. As a child, adults and the other children alike took an interest in him due to his charismatic personality, even in his earlier years. As Bryant matured, so did his personality, and with that, did his popularity. He was always the focus of every group or social gathering he took part in, and he loved every single second of it. So, shortly after graduating from high school, when his fire-based metahuman powers awakened, Bryant couldn't wait to put on the tights. Flairgun debuted in late 2011, fighting alongside a number of other heroes in thwarting a bank robbery. After the fact, Flairgun was surprised, dumbfounded even, when the news crews didn't flock to him. In fact, they completely disregarded him, same as the heroes he fought alongside. The truth finally began to dawn on Bryant. He was a second-stringer.
This began the downward spiral. Bryant's hero career continued for a number of months, and the outcome never changed. Flairgun's efforts in a group were overlooked in favor of other heroes, and his solo work was ignored entirely. Months of constant failure to achieve fame, coupled with the stress of hero work itself, caused Bryant to do something that really should've happened sooner, and that is snap. Flairgun reinvented himself, this time, as a villain, and proceeded to carry out the same crimes he had previously worked to stop, and, for the first time, Bryant was actually getting some attention. News outlets reported on his crimes, heroes responded to them, and citizens feared them. He couldn't be happier.
Due to his fascination and obsession with his crimes taking place in the most theatrical manner possible, he has often attempted to provoke Celsius in particular to respond to them, greatly enjoying the juxtaposition between their powers.
Threat Level:
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Operative Comments:
"Ugh. UGH. This guy. What a creepazoid. I'd say he'd make a good hero if he was on our side, but he really wouldn't. Why does he like me so much?"
AT LARGE
THE DENIIGI
"..."
Real Name: N/A
Powers/Abilities: Superior Strength and Durability, Weather Control, Formidable Warlockery
Occupation: None
Origin: Unknown
Of all the strange inhabitants of the precarious Canadian arctic, there are few that are as mysterious as the Deniigi. For what researchers speculated must have been the better part of four or five centuries, the Deniigi was sealed deep beneath the ice in a once-great stone prison. What is clear is that it is a creation of some sort. By who or what, it isn't known, but the way every piece of it is meticulously attached, a craftman's touch makes even a creature as strange as the Deniigi stand out.
Take the word "creature" with a grain of salt, however. Although the Deniigi appears to have no method of communicating with those around it, its affinity for magic is by no means just a natural trait, but a honed skill. It is believed that the Deniigi possesses thousands of years worth of wisdom, yet is often overcome with anger at its inability to share it. As such, it settles for lording over what remains of its master's domain, namely a temple that was dislodged by Celsius' powers during his first battle with the Bearcave. Since then, the Bearcave and a number of other villainous forces have attempted to awake the normally-peaceful Deniigi and incite it into wreaking havoc and destruction all across Canada.
Threat Level:
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Operative Comments:
"This thing's really weird. A big ol' mishmash animal parts and bones, yet it doesn't really seem to have that much villainous ambition. At least, not until some jackass comes along and tries to wake him up. Just who taught this twenty-foot-tall moose monster magic anyway?"
DORMANT
CLASSIFIED MAN
"I'm afraid it's classified."
Real Name: Classified
Powers/Abilities: Classified
Occupation: Classified
Origin: Classified
Quite possibly one of the most mysterious supervillains to ever operate in the northeast, and that's saying something. Classified Man was known for taking an obsessive approach to the concealment of his identity, often bordering on the fetishistic. His name, his powers, his motives, his background, his actual activities, or even what he manages to do whenever he manages to sneak into UNTIl and PRIMUS warehouses undetected were anyone's guess.
Threat Level:
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Operative Comments:
"He's... uh... yeah, I guess."
DECEASED
Ice Ice Baby by Vanilla Ice
Cold As Ice by Foreigner
It Was a Good Day by Ice Cube
O.G. Original Gangster by Ice T
Ice Cream Man by Van Halen
| ||
|---|---|---|
| Founder: Captain Collider | ||
| Frontiersmen: Aliona • Atom Man • Bullet Ant • Crawdad • Desperado • Katsuo • Orchid • Particle Man Primordo • Prism • Rocket • Roadrunner • Soldier Celsius • Starlancer Tryton • Ultima King • Uplift • Watchman • Wildling | ||
| Allies: QUARK | ||
| ... Ad Infinitum ... | ||
