Records indicate that the superhero Barricade was not originally named Kolsyn Atraxii, and had his name changed at the age of 22, shortly before he met and married heroine Rosita Ceballos AKA Rosita Atraxii AKA The Temptress. Temptress is a well-known superhero with powers of flight, telepathy, and pheromone secretion. Simply put, Temptress enthralls foes, rather than fighting them. The father, Barricade, was a known mech pilot and sidekick to Temptress. Barricade was a defensive hero, utilizing a rare Questionite frame as well as powerful forcefields to protect Temptress while she worked. Their relationship was not entirely unknown, but the public seemed under the impression that Barricade was a robot. Together, Kolsyn and Rosita had a single child, and temporarily retired from hero life.
Cytos Atraxii developed technokinesis at a very early age, possibly in infancy. Temptress claimed in an interview that Cytos would give animation to his toys, depending on their electrical conductivity. As such, the parents had commissioned several metal toys for Cytos to play with. This would keep Cytos's very focused mind entertained.
"We obviously weren't going to discourage him," Temptress relates, "He was our special boy, and he needed an outlet. At the time it was harmless child's play. We never expected how things turned out."
Temptress is referring to an incident which occurred on a Sunday afternoon, when Cytos was 8 years old. He was playing at home while the parents had gone to a quick town-hall meeting about the neighborhood watch. Cytos entered the garage full of child-like excitement about his father's mech. He attempted to summon a mech of his own, but could not fully comprehend his abilities. Power tools, lawn care instruments, and even pieces of the family car responded to Cytos's commands and attempted to merge with his flesh. The trauma mutilated most of his body, and gave Cytos minor PTSD.
Enhancements and Early Hero Years
Dr. Synthia James, AKA The Doc, had been an old friend of the family and oversaw the operations to restore Cytos's life. Due to the overwhelmingly intricate merging of metal to flesh, the campaign to save Cytos's life took several long years. More than 60% of his body was amputated, including both legs, and his left arm. Several internal organs had to be replaced, including his eyes, voice-box, stomach, left lung, and heart. Keeping his torso balanced on his legs requires a unique harness. However, as a result of his abilities possibly, the conversion was a sweeping success, and two years later, he was restored from his medically induced coma.
Cytos spent the remainder of his childhood at home, under a very watchful eye. His new implants helped regulate his abilities, but he was never quite the same. An article published in 2001 in the Queens Digest magazine mentions Cytos as a "Real Life Robokid." Despite his handicap, Cytos faded from public memory, and eventually found work as the sidekick "Cyberkid."
Cyberkid
As Cyberkid, Cytos mostly stayed on-base for the super-team "American Way" fixing any devices that got broken. The super-team operated on the assumption that being technokinetic meant that Cytos also UNDERSTOOD the tech, which was simply not true. The team juggled Cytos through several different jobs, but none suited him. Oddly, the team never took him into the field for their operations. This eventually led to a falling out, and Cytos leaving the group. Rather suspiciously the second-in-command, Freight Train, was assassinated shortly afterwards. Cytos was never blamed for the incident, but due to his history, it is very likely this was his first kill.
Contract Killing
Origins with CIERS
Cytos personally registered with the "Contract Infiltration, Examination, and Reconnaissance Syndicate" (
CIERS), and was accepted almost instantly. CIERS is actually a front company for what could best be described as an assassin family. Unlike the typical shady ninjas or rogues people associate assassins with, CIERS was very clean, very tight, and all above-board. CIERS would receive contracts from the government, or various political figures, and had (or has) a very strict set of rules on targets. They operate on a skeleton crew, usually employing a maximum of 10 assassins at once. Cytos is believed to have been amongst 8 others at the time of his joining. His training was focused less on subtlety, and more on effectiveness.
Cytos developed his abilities significantly within CIERS, learning to coalesce strong suits of tech armor. He developed an affinity for a spider motif, presumably based on his weapon of choice, twin katars. However, after a few brief years with CIERS, he found many of their rules to be too hindering. He never severed ties with CIERS completely, but instead moved into freelance.
Freelance and Tragedy
Working freelance gave Cytos considerably more freedom with his work. He began to openly and actively engage in Hero work, fully registered with UNTIL. However, he still took assassination requests steadily, usually very choosy with his targets. Most of his targets were former heroes or soldiers with significant intel, and unstable personalities. For example, if a popular hero suddenly turned out to be a sleeper agent for VIPER, Cytos would eliminate them quietly. Cytos continues this work for years, before an unfortunate tragedy struck.
One of Cytos more recent targets was a supposed villain named Miracleworker. He was apparently a former hero now in league with ARGENT to oversee their military operations. As Miracleworker had significant insider intel that could potentially destabilize law enforcement operations, Cytos was hired for a clean kill. However, it turned out the target was actually his own father, in deep cover, trying to sabotage a potential nuclear strike ARGENT had been facilitating. Because of the sensitivity of the operation, it was kept a secret even from the people who hired Cytos. This was a crippling emotional blow, and Cytos relocated to Millenium City.
Current Operations
Cytos currently operates out of Millenium City, as before doing hero work for UNTIL, and taking up assassin contracts. He is currently in the middle of a substantial emotional crisis, and is being exploited by CIERS agents. At present, he is on a mission to eliminate former hero American Star, as well as other contracts. He has become less picky about his operations, and more careless with his body. He is prone to pursuing whims as they come, even recently upgrading his body to a more human-like appearance.
Personality
Cytos presents himself as a typically courageous and sociable person. He's not afraid to introduce himself to others, but also less likely to intrude than most. While most commonly accepted pastiches of assassins render them as cold-hearted murderers, Cytos is unquestionably warm, humorous, and inquisitive. He strives to be polite, but can develop a temper is provoked. He tries to keep his lingo modern, and his tastes relevant. He often has a habit of complaining about anything that annoys him, or making an odd "nyeeeerrrrr..." sound if something frightens him. He's not very excitable, and when confronted, his words tend to trail off quietly.
General Perception
The public at large knows Cytos as a very occasional, but effective hero. He's never been famous enough to be merchandised, but never unknown enough that people don't recognize him. Because he doesn't relentlessy dog any single villain group, he has formed no personal vendettas. That said, some heroes know of, and are less accepting of his position as an assassin. Some find Cytos impossible to trust, since his intentions are often concealed.
Powers, Abilities, and Tech
Powers
Technokinesis - - Much like telekinesis his mind projects signals to cause motion, but there is something of a translation barrier in the way. To date, Cytos has displayed no advanced aptitudes with technology. His mind thinks it, his powers do it. This is similar to mages creating golems; they cast the spell, but the spell interprets the directions and acts accordingly. While Cytos's powers are active, he produces a glowing orange aura that appears to be constantly shifting circuitry. This aura forms the circuits and servos necessary to move, bend, and energize metal. It has a range of about 3 meters.
Technopathy - Though Cytos expresses no outwards understanding of technology, it is because this power is being inhibited, and undeveloped. This power exists, but remains dormant.
Tech
Implants - - Dr. Synthia James, in charge of Cytos's rehabilitation, fitted him with a multipurpose cranial implant of note. This implant allows him direct communications via phone lines, can look up information directly, and even serves to filter his technokinetic abilities. Whereas before, Cytos could think and make any metal move, the implant acts as a middle man, providing limitations to what he can do. It has the unintentional side effect of block his Technopathy. Cytos is also implanted with artificial eyes, and an artificial voice box that remains heavily synethesized. (Think like GLaDOS, but male.)
Armor Suits - - While most tech heroes are quick to assume Cytos is using the pinnacle of technology, the truth is the opposite. His powers attract, combine, and reconfigure metal into only its most basic functions. It is more akin to a medieval knight donning armor than advanced robotics. Metal panels are held in place by magnetized nodes, which Cytos maintains with his mind. As long as he can focus, he can instantly repair any armor he's wearing. But taking enough hits from enough sources, will mentally exhaust him, and his armor will drop.
Electrical Projection - Cytos's body only produces a limited amount of energy on its own. To assist in the usage of his powers, he often equips power cores to his chest. These are not surgically implanted, and provide no medical advantages, but they help to sustain his more complicated armors. Because the core is not entirely necessary, it can be used to project electricity in the vicinity. This can temporarily extend the range of his abilities, or fire electric arcs to harm foes.
Questionite Blades - No assassin would be complete without weapons, and in Cytos's case he has a set of Questionite wristblades. These barbed extensions are retractable, and sharp. Using them, he can piece through some of the toughest armors, to get to the squishy bits inside.
|300px|]]
