Gold Meteor
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Contents
It's a long story
Gold is relatively new in Millenium City, but she has a long, long story in "That Other City" of heroes and villains, a story that's too ingrained in CoH lore, and that I have no plans to retcon. For Goldie's complete life story, please refer to: http://www.virtueverse.net/wiki/Gold_Meteor
Her moving to Millenium City assumes that both MC and "That Other City" exist in same world/universe. It worked for Superman vs. The Amazing Spiderman back in 1976, and given how deep-rooted CO is in the Silver Age, then I see no reason why it shouldn't be a valid explanation.
Long story short
After nearly two centuries of watching over Earth, in the end The Lady Grey turned out an infiltrator from the invaders. After Vanguard's fall, the UN re-assigned Gold to UNTIL to finish the fight with Batallion.
A new land of opportunity
Millenium City seems to be the only place in America where metahumans can use their powers for profit without being accused of Anticompetitive Behavior. Time for the Aikawa-Goldshire family to seek for greener pastures!
Now, Hannah isn't intending to put all of her private discoveries in the market. For starters, humanity is not ready yet for a lot of things, and giving mankind personal matter transponders or the way to break the third law of thermodynamics would be just as auspicious as giving the A-Bomb to the Catholic church of the dark ages. There's also the issue of her ego, giving away her secrets equals giving away her power, something she won't do. Finally, during Detroit's reconstruction as Millenium City, other metahumans have already patented enough methods of clean energy there for electricity to be dirt-cheap.
Nevertheless, she still has plenty of harmless, (relatively) small-time ideas she can patent to further build their family's nest egg, and she's very curious regarding how cut-throat an environment of enterpreneurial super-scientists can get.
Skeletons in the Closet
While working in UNTIL means her identity isn't a particularly well-guarded secret, she has two big secrets to keep, namely the two Omega-class metahumans in her household she keeps away from ASPRA. One of them is her daughter, Sumaki, and the other is the matter manipulator Haley Hadron.
While Sumaki is only "half registered" in UNTIL as a trained combatant (with only a fraction of her actual powers registered), Haley is a complete wildcard. As of now, both are students at Ravenswood Academy, which gives her silent backup from UNTIL in keeping their secrets safe. Still, as Haley's heroics gradually reveal more of the nature of her powers, she gradually becomes more of a liability. What's more, after Haley's refusal to "play ball" with Ameriforce One during Russia's takeover of Crimea, the NATO has been rather persistent on whether UNTIL has means to deal with the "rogue mutant and potential terrorist" should things come down to it.
Breaking the Third Law for Fun and Profit
The secret to Hannah's seemingly unlimited power supply lies in an exception clause for the third law of thermodynamics.
According to black hole research, the Quantum Vacuum is continuously creating particle/anti-particle pairs that cancel each other out. However, under very special circumstances (like close proximity to a black hole), an object can steal one particle in the pair right before they destroy each other, leaving the remaining particle to wander. This is the origin of the Hawking Radiation, which is one of the only three ways humanity has so far to detect black holes.
The quantum vacuum is where Hannah gets her power from.
Here's Another Fine Mess You've gotten me into!
NEMESIS: Callion
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This Omega-class threat's first documented appearance was in Burning Sands, when PRIMUS deployed its forces to contain the fight he was having with Grond, both at a stalemate. After that, he was seen in Paris chasing Eurostar and Amsterdam fighting Gravitar.
Callion is a product of the private, one-sided arms race between Gold Meteor and her rival, Sovereign Blue. While Hannah took a high energy physics approach to transhumanism, Sovereign Blue turned inwards, by tapping on humans' psychic potential and magnifying it for weaponization.
A clone based on Menton's DNA and augmented with Sovereign Blue's psyware applied to transhuman mods, he weaponizes the energy of an Alpha-class latent psychic to become an Omega-class juggernaut.
Upon completion, Callion was released into the world and his memory got wiped except for subconscious programming routines that drive him to prove his superiority as the ultimate life form by the most violent means available, turning him into a sociopath. Sovereign Blue is convinced that Callion and Gold Meteor are bound to clash, and then she'll prove whose technology is superior without having to dirty her own hands.
During his arrival to Millenium City, he tried to wash the coast away with two artificial tsunamis and killed sixty two registered metahumans of threat levels Alpha to Delta with raw telekinesis before being stopped by Gold Meteor and an unidentified Omega-class metahuman. This in addition of causing millions of dollars in property damage by stealing a decommissioned Mega Destroid from the Battle of Detroit Museum, which he proceeded to animate like a puppet.
Callion was last seen fighting nuclear-powered metahuman Kyndall during Gold Meteor's incursion in North Korea to confiscate stolen Omega-grade metatechnology.
Trivia
- Because of the source Hannah's mods use to get their power, when powered on, Hannah emits Hawking Radiation, which is the only way to detect her presence when in stealth mode.
- Threat Level: Omega. After an incident in which a reality warper stole her secrets and ended up with Gold Meteor invading three members of the G8 in order to confiscate all stolen technology (in addition to deploying Omega-grade resources to stop Callion's arrival to Millenium), all pretenses at keeping a low profile were dropped and Gold Meteor was confirmed as an Omega-class threat. This revelation has put UNTIL as a whole under fire by the international community as the countries of the G8 demand Gold's head on a pike in order to preserve their hegemony. While Secretary Marshall Eckhardt won't turn her over (as he wouldn't with any of his crew), he has been attempting repeatedly to talk Major General Goldshire into retiring. Said attempts, however, have yet to bear fruit.
Fiction: Court Martial
“I’ll ask once more. Major General Goldshire, did you deploy a kilsat on American soil?” Asked the prosecutor.
“Negative.” the female voice answering was even, clear, and firmer than most people on a Court Martial defendant’s seat should. “I deployed a focused teleforce blast with an effective yield of two point six teratons on top of a hostile Omega-class threat, one kilometer away from Millenium City’s shore. The blast’s point of origin was not a satellite, nor anywhere in Earth’s orbit, low or otherwise.”
“And you feel no regrets about the potential risk of deploying mass destruction weapons right next to a population center, at all?” His jaw was near stiff as he talked and his pupils were contracted, and while his hands were behind him, his right hand was tightly squeezing his left wrist. This was the fifth time he repeated himself just this week, and he didn’t manage to make the defendant commit a mistake, not even once.
“Millenium City. Population: Three point eighty eight millions. Michigan. Population: Nine point eight eight three millions…” the Major General’s voice raised evenly at intervals the two times the prosecutor tried to interrupt her. “Witnessed telekinetic force of the Omega-class threat: Six hundred thousand Newtons per meter and deploying a force field, unable to be safely contained by any means at our disposal, metatechnological or otherwise. Estimated casualties should I have not intervened: Twenty millions. Resulted casualties after the operation: Thirty, with one hundred wounded, none showing evidence of tissue damage resulting from contact with anti-matter, which is what would have happened if they had been exposed to a near-miss from the teleforce blast. Answering your question: No, and I’d do it again if another such scenario happens.”
“Did you or did not you intrude into the India/China border at Uttarakhand, attack both armies, and destroy military facilities on both sides, lobotomizing key personnel?”
“Both armies were in a squirmish that, at the moment of my intervention, had tallied fifty dead and six hundred wounded. As an U.N.T.I.L officer, it is my duty to intervene in any such conflicts. Both armies were in possession of illegal Omega-class metatechnology in breach of international law, which compelled me to confiscate every single piece, be it in physical samples or data.”
“DID YOU OR DID YOU NOT break protocol by acting before notifying the security council and the respective governments!?” the prosecutor was unable to keep his tone from raising as a vein was nearly popping in his forehead that went with the blush anger was bringing to his features.
“The involvement of said armies with the Malta Group was already demonstrated, should I have delayed, the probabilities of Malta operatives or samples of the stolen metatechnology escaping would have skyrocketed. Also, my notification reached the security council at the same time I was acting, not later as you claim.”
“Are you aware that not notifying a government before engaging in a military operation within their borders is tantamount to invasion?”
“Pre-emptive strikes have been a legitimate procedure since George W. Bush’ administration. My operation didn’t breach any international laws.”
“Enough.” The judge’s voice broke in as he hit his gavel. “Prosecutor, defendant, go back to your seats.”
At the bench, the Secretary Marshall let out a sigh while running fingers through his graying hair. The court-martial hadn’t lasted yet even a month, but adding judge duties to his already numerous work functions was taking its toll on the middle-aged German. Still, keeping as small an inner circle as possible is one of the things that has kept U.N.T.I.L honest so far, even if that means that he and the security council have to wear more than one hat within the organization.
“Is there anything you have to say, Major General, before we hear the jury’s verdict?” Secretary Marshall Eckhardt asked with a heavy voice and eyelids that were starting to feel heavier.
“Yes” the shoulder-length haired woman at the defendant’s seat said while standing up, drawing the attention of all attendants. She wasn´t tall or physically imposing, but the Major General, a.k.a Gold Meteor had something about herself that drew people’s attention, something that went beyond her golden skin or glossy segmented armor styled in superhero fashion; an aura of total confidence.
“Am I a potential Omega-class threat? Probably, and that’s precisely why you need me. We all know the only reason we’re here now is to play nice to the G8, but I don’t need to remind you that every month we repel at least six attempts at cyberwarfare from at least two of UN’s member countries, in addition to the increasing red tape they try to wrap us in. Truth of the matter is, the only reason we’re any meaningful today is because we have the force of arms to enforce international law in spite of rogue states. Does having a Delta-class on board scare them? Of course, it scares them shitless, that’s why they need me pointed out as an enemy rather than on this side…”
“That’s enough, Major General.”
“…I’m done.”
“Field Marshall, the jury’s verdict, please.”
Field Marshall Ben-Israel stood up from his place at the jury box. “… of the crimes of acts of war against the countries of North Korea, India, and the People’s Republic of China by means of Mass-Destruction Person, in addition to deployment of weapons of mass destruction on American soil, the defendant, Major General Hannah Goldshire is found…”
Fiction: If something can go wrong...
Major General Hannah Goldshire a.k.a Gold Meteor was just about to sign the papers in front of her.
Soon after she was declared not guilty in court martial, she was offered a nice and comfortable position behind a desk, same which she had been turning down for months. The desk job was Secretary Marshall Eckhardt's attempt at damage control, and both knew it.
After Gold Meteor outed herself as an Omega-class threat by deploying WMD-grade resources to stop an Omega-class psychic juggernaut, the G8 sent the UN 4 ultimata in three months, demanding her head on a pike. The world powers liked the UN better in the days when it still was a toothless organization, the days before UNTIL. Now, the G8 not only finds out UNTIL can enforce the law in spite of rogue states, they also possess Omega-class metahumans in their ranks who can single-handedly stop wars and nullify their hegemony.
They wanted the threat she posed nullified, by wathever means available.
Secretary Marshall Eckhardt was aware UNTIL was treading on very thin ice right now, and had been maneuvering with the expertise only decades of experience provide in order to keep UNTIL (and their lives) from meeting an untimely end. He knew UNTIL would be in danger as long as the threat of Gold Meteor existed, unfortunately for the Secretary Marshall, he was a man of principles, and he wouldn't turn any of his crew over to save his own skin. He repeatedly tried to talk her into an early retirement, but she wouldn't budge, and the alternative to have her "serve time" didn't work either. So now here he was, trying what he considered the closest to an acceptable middle ground.
Surprisingly, after a week of considering and consulting with her family, she accepted.
Major General Goldshire already had paperwork and fountain pen in hand, and the secretary Marshal could feel his stress levels drop in a proportion inverse to the distance between the pen and the paper when an urgent call from Eckhardt's homologue at NATO interrupted the moment.
"Eckhardt, turn on the T.V."
Things had gotten worse before they could get better. As hard as the international community and the public tried to obfuscate the incident, nothing can be kept hidden from the internet. A new upstart metahuman group had just hijacked T.V's signal to declare war on "those who think themselves untouchable and hide behind the laws." Other metas were following her example, and both the Major General and the Secretary Marshall knew that, as pretty as it sounded, this was by no means something good.
Gold Meteor was already putting the paperwork in the shredder halfway through the broadcast; her face meant business as she stared at the screen. "Don't worry, I got this" were her words before her material form disappeared in a flash of light.
UNTIL's Secretary Marshal picked a bad month to quit smoking.