AmericAgent
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| AmericAgent | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Player: @blingdenston | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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| Character Build | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Class Focus: | Munitions | |||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Power Level: | 40 | |||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Research & Development: | Arms | |||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Biographical Data | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Real Name: | Unknown | |||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Known Aliases: | Grayson Hurwitz | |||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Gender: | Male | |||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Species: | Human | |||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Ethnicity: | Caucasian | |||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Place of Birth: | Hermiston, OR | |||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Base of Operations: | Millennium City, MI | |||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Relatives: | Confidential | |||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Characteristics | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Age: | 25 | |||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Height: | 6'3" | |||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Weight: | 209 lbs. | |||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Eyes: | Blue-black | |||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Hair: | Blond | |||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Complexion: | Tanned | |||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Physical Build: | Athletic | |||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Physical Features: | Bears a notable resemblance to a young Kirk Douglas | |||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Status | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Alignment: |
Neutral Good | |||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Reputation: |
Prominent | |||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Identity: | Secret | |||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Years Active: | 7 | |||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Citizenship: | United States of America | |||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Occupation: | PRIMUS Special Agent | |||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Education: | Collegiate-level education in various fields | |||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Marital Status: | Single | |||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Known Powers and Abilities | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Peak-Level Human Attributes | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Equipment and Paraphernalia | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Bleeding-edge armored battle dress (in Standard, Hazardous Environment, Winterized, and Stealth configurations), customized X-9 pulson blasters, U-JF Heavy Blaster Carbine, compact explosive ordnance, Tier 3 Medical Stimulant Patches, experimental single-seat interceptor aircraft, Harmon Industries monofilament grapnel launcher | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Attributes | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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Endurance |
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| Agility |
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Speed |
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| Fighting |
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Projectiles |
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| Durability |
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Resistance |
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| Intelligence |
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Psyche |
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| Intuition |
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Charisma |
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| ReldinBox Template | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||
1987 - A Sacrificial Offering
1987 was a very bad year for the woman identified only as 'Supplier D-3'. Her beloved husband, a life-long farmer (aside from a decorated turn in the Navy Underwater Demolition Team during Vietnam) was killed in a freak logging accident, leaving her with two 9-year-old girls, a 5-year-old boy, and another child on the way. The pre-natal medical costs combined with the hospital bills from the failed attempt to save her husband crippled the family's savings, while a mysterious blight wiped out the year's crop of watermelons and cantaloupe. And then, at the worst possible time, an IRS audit discovered troubling inconsistencies in the family tax records (records, she swore, that were kept religiously by her husband and herself, but which went missing in an unexplained barn fire), and began to place liens and warrants against the farm and the meager remainder of the family wealth.
At the darkest moment, a visitor came calling. She introduced herself as Marina Delyle, and said she represented a company, the Snake River Real Estate Concern, that was interested in purchasing the land. 'Supplier D-3' demurred, in honor of her husband, who had intended to leave a thriving farm to his children. But, the offer Ms. Delyle tendered was incredible: a fortune in cash, legal aid to settle with the government, and a sweetheart renter's agreement, allowing the family to keep the farm. It was, in short, a Godsend. It was too good to be true.
The deal went down, tentatively, and the largesse of the Snake River Real Estate Concern (kept ever-so-quiet, at Ms. Delyle's insistence) was a balm to the family's shattered nerves after nearly a year of disaster after disaster. Such a relief was everything that even the upcoming birth of the fourth child seemed like a lark. The darkness of death, blight, and ruin gave way to the light of a bright, happy future. That's when Ms. Delyle came again, with a slight addendum to the deal. The Concern asked for but a trifling gesture to conclude the business with the family: the soon-to-be-born child.
Like a killer venom, Ms. Delyle's words raced to the the widow's heart: a life of comfort, ease, and success was assured for her three children and herself, never to be visited by pain and want. The Concern would arrange for the birth of the child, would list the boy as stillborn, pay for a burial at a cemetery of her choice, and the child would be taken in by parents carefully chosen by the Concern, just as affluent and successful as 'Supplier D-3' was about to be. He would be raised in safety and comfort, and given a life even more splendid than that that the Concern's money and influence would make possible with his birth family. Or...the child could say with his mother, with his sisters and brother. And the deal would fall through. The Concern's lawyers would find a hole, a loop through which to duck out. Then they'd stop haggling with the Government, let the IRS return to haunt the farm and the family with all it's prying and weighing. Everything the family had had a taste of would dry up, would die, as her husband had, as the crops had. They'd be four defenseless innocents against the howling winds of Pandemonium.
The widow conceded, and the child was born, was listed as dead, and an empty casket was buried. Ms. Delyle and the medical team hired by the concern, spirited the child away, never to be seen again by his family, who were indeed well taken care of. Instead, he was brought to a pair of new parents, and inducted into a new family, one larger and darker and older than the one he'd been born to: VIPER
Dreamwalker
The 1980s were an odd time for the "Venomous Imperial Party of the Eternal Reptile", an exciting time full of activity, profit, and intrigue. But, to many of the 'elder statesmen' of VIPER, the group had lost its way. The fanatical spark that had brought the Chosen of the Serpent together was guttering, their greatest mystical treasure was lost to them, and the heady days when VIPER agents held the world by the throat and nearly broke it to the Serpent's will were gone. The new VIPER, it seemed, were just jumped-up thieves and thugs in silly costumes, building doomsday weapons to hold cities at ransom and playing hide-and-go-seek with super-powered fools. Even the commands of the Serpent Itself often held little sway, and one intransigent New York Nest had to be destroyed entirely to spur VIPER into aiding in the Demonflame Incident of 1986.
The low point came in 1990, when an ambitious Nest Leader's plot to conquer Washington, D.C. and then the rest of the United States failed disastrously, leading to the near-extermination of VIPER both in the States, and across the world. But, while the spooked Thirty Founders and the few Nest Leaders remaining scrambled to salvage and rebuild VIPER's infrastructure in the United States, others amongst the organization smelled change on the wind, and began preparing for the greater VIPER to come. Amongst this number was Political Division sociologist Marina Delyle, who had been preparing a special project since the mid-80s, which she began to put into motion.
VIPER agents are rife throughout the political, financial, and military structures of modern society, but they are all limited by one major factor: these agents are, universally, the sort of people willing and able to join VIPER. Even the most skilled VIPER infiltrator is through-and-through of VIPER stock, and as such is prey to the failings of VIPER agents: they are sneaky, corrupt, vengeful individualists who, when the chips are down, will always show their true colors. In a word, they are evil.
Delyle did not mean this in a Manichean sense of cosmological dualism (despite being a corruptor, a traitor, and a thoroughly awful person, she was quite blind to her own darker nature), but rather in the sense that, at their core, a VIPER agent MUST be antithetical to the societies upon which they prey. As such, there was always a fissure in their facade that would shatter the illusion (usually, it seemed to her, at the worst possible moment). Her plan was thus: rear an agent, trained to the human limit in all the skills useful to an infiltrator, inundated with images and lessons aimed at producing an archetypal personality, all the while using subliminal and experiential messages to implant an undercurrent of loyalty to VIPER within.
These "Dreamwalkers" would be the perfect specimens of a successful social or national personality, at once: a perfect patriot, cognizant of and dedicated to the responsibilities of citizenship; a trained scholar, familiar with the history and culture of their nation; a supreme athlete, capable of performing beloved national sports at a professional level and perfect for service in the military; and a perfect blend of conservative traditionalism, a guardian of their homeland's past, and liberal openness, ready to extend the privileges offered by their nation to all classes. They would be selected from appropriate ethnic stock, chosen from families with histories and genetics considered especially conducive to fielding specimens with the desired traits.
They would also each come from an isolated enclave disguised as their cultural equivalent of a "small town", and inundated with a complex subliminal message: a strong desire to take responsibility for and guide the affairs of their homeland, a sense that their 'parents' and childhood friends and caretakers were exemplars of virtue and national pride, and a deep and unwavering respect for and attraction to serpents.
Delyle had procured resources across the globe for her project, but none were so important as the subjects: a series of children she had secured from birth, carefully selected from parents of the highest quality, and had placed in the care of sleeper agents awaiting the beginning of Project: Dreamwalker.
Youth and Training
The boy bought from the desperate Oregonian widow was named 'Grayson' and raised by a pair of agents operating as the Hurwitz family in the small town of Cleopatra Falls, Ohio. The Hurwitzes were one of fifteen families and an entire village's worth of employees and teachers prepared as educators in the Dreamwalker program. Grayson and his peers were, from their earliest moments, reared upon a specially prepared portfolio of American culture and academic and athletic rigor. Each of the subjects, eight males and seven females, were placed into a special course tailored towards their emerging personalities and aptitudes. One girl was to be the Queen Bee, another the Liberated Woman, while others were the Determined Homemaker and the Heartbreaker. One boy was the All-Star Athlete, another the Political Animal, others the Hero Cop and the Self-Made Man.
Young Grayson's path was 'Hometown Hero', and the training program he was subjected to was intended to foster in him 'small-town values', 'politically-moderate tolerance' and 'strong civic duty'. His father was position as Cleopatra Falls' sheriff, while his mother's backstory was adjusted to include a stint as an Army medic. Every moment of contact with the child was engineered to establish a storyline: small-town boy, middle-class but respected family, with strong messages of responsibility and early conditioning in authoritative action and tactical thinking.
