Captain Turbo
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Captain Turbo is a character who has existed - in one form or another - since Closed Beta. He is a Golden Age hero played to Silver Age sensiblities. Assume what you read below is IC knowledge. However, sections marked with a * are considered to be classified to all characters without Top Level UNTIL clearance.
Contents
History
Captain Turbo - born approx. 1916 - is a Millenium City-based super hero, former leader of the Liberty Squadron, reserve member of the Freedom Reserve and current member of the Silver Age Sentinels. Turbo is known for being one of the few active Golden Age heroes operating in Millenium City and the only surviving member of the Liberty Squadron. He maintains his honorary rank and title of Captain in the United States Army following the expiration of his commission.
Early Life*
Captain Turbo, born Thomas Lee Taylor, was found on the doorstep of a ranch home belonging to William and Luanne Taylor. The childless rancher couple took the infant as their own but quickly discovered he was not your average child. From that first night he display uncanny toughness, his skin proving to be resistant to all of the local physician's scalpels making innoculation impossible. This would prove costly in the years to come as young Thomas suffered from many diseases commonly avoided at the time, however his natural immune system eventually overcame each infection with no lingering effects.
Thomas was raised on the Taylor Ranch outside of Houston, TX. His parents owned and sold cattle for a living. Due to his strange abilities, Thomas was homeschooled by Luanne William and his two cowhands - Mateo and Luis - would drive the cattle to New Orleans, LA to sell. At age 6 Thomas demonstrated the ability to fly. By age 10 Thomas was using his abilities to help find and corral the cattle for his father which proved a necessary skill when Mateo and Luis fell victim to their greed and helped a rival rancher scatter the Taylor's herd. After the scattering incident in 1926, the Taylors chose not to use anymore outside help and ran the ranch themselves, with Thomas making the drives with his father.
In 1933 the Lone Ranger debuted on radio and from the first moment, Thomas was hooked! The young man was spell-bound by the tales of Western daring-do by a vigilante law man and often fantasized about leaving home and punching villains in the name of justice! Fate, it seemed, was keen to grant him his wish.
In 1938 while William was tending to the herd and Thomas was caring for his ailing mother, rival rancher and corrupt politician Solomon Ryder came to William and told him to sell the herd and the land he lived on to Ryder for a pittance or there would be blood spilled. William, not a man to be bullied by a crook, drew a scattergun on Ryder but was gunned down by Ryder's men. A mile away, Thomas heard the gunshots and flew from the house where he found his father among the cattle. William, though mortally wounded, was able to tell his adopted son what happened before he passed. There, on the blood-soaked range, Thomas Lee Taylor swore to bring his father's killers to justice.
Longhorn: Vigilante Justice*
After his father's burial, Thomas began his quest to bring down Ryder. Solomon Ryder owned everything and everyone in and around Houston and as such the local authorities were unwilling to prosecute, much less properly investigate the murder of William Taylor. With those options denied him, Thomas turned off his radio, hung up his spurs and grabbed his lasso. If traditional justice was to be denied to him, then he would become a crusader like his beloved Lone Ranger. Donning a rancher's uniform, a bandana and a black domino mask Thomas transformed himself into Longhorn, the Crusader of the Open Range.
For weeks Longhorn harassed Ryder's illegitimate businesses and cowed his followers into abandoning and betraying him. Within a month all of Ryder's criminal enterprises - from prostitution to racketeering - were crushed under Longhorn's proverbial hoof. Longhorn wasn't satisfied with just crushing Ryder's enterprises: he wanted the city cleaned up too so real justice could be had. With the help of Ralph "Mutt" Sawbucks (a photographer) and Abigail Montgomery (a reporter and part-time stage actress) of the Houston Chronicle, Longhorn successfully exposed several corrupt members of the local government. The resignations of the corrupt judges, police and District Attorneys cleared the way for Longhorn - as Thomas Lee Taylor - to push for the investigation into William Taylor's murder. The newly sworn-in D.A. pledged to bring Solomon Ryder to the justice of the Houston court system. However, no one was willing to testify against him and the only evidence that existed was in the hands of Ryder's men. Once again, Longhorn was needed!
For two weeks Mutt and Abigail scoured the Houston underworld and provided Longhorn with the leads he needed to bust up what was left of Ryder's criminal empire. During their recon missions, the pair overheard two goons in a Houston bar nervously wondering if this was all somehow connected to the old rancher they had "knocked off" a few months ago. The duo reported their findings minutes later to Longhorn over the phone and found him standing next to them seconds later. After tersely warning the pair to "run like Ol' Scratch was on yer tail" Longhorn burst into the bar. He proceeded to throw everyone out of the bar (most through windows) and finished with Ryder's two men. After tossing them out, he leveled the bar in a terrifying display of superhuman strength. Picking the crooks up off the street outside he offered them a choice: come clean and confess their crimes to the police or be part of an experiment in unpowered human flight. They confessed everything.
That night the Houston P.D. supported by a newly deputized Longhorn used the information they gained from the two murderers to track Ryder to an underground hideout in the outskirts of Houston. There they found Ryder, all alone. The Houston police allowed Deputy Longhorn to cuff Ryder and drag him topside where Mutt was waiting to take his picture. Fourteen weeks after his crusade began, Longhorn got his man. Two months later Ryder was found guilty on seven counts of conspiracy to commit murder, fifty-four counts of assault & battery, 107 counts of extortion, and one count of first-degree murder in the case of William Taylor. Solomon Ryder was hanged a week after his guilty plea was read.
With Solomon Ryder dead and his criminal empire reduced to ashes, Thomas Lee Taylor once again traded his domino mask and bandana for spurs and a lasso. The spark of crime-fighting, however, would not go away so easily.
A New Life*
Despite returning to his duties at the family ranch, Thomas kept up on the news at home and abroad. Despite the repeal of Prohibition, organized crime was still strong and the Depression only contributed to the crime rate nation-wide. To make matters worse something happened in 1938 and now men and women across the globe were popping up with powers just like Thomas. Thomas began to wonder during his time in the pastures and on the cattle drives if maybe he wasn't supposed to be doing more with his life. He had his mother to consider and since her health was suffering he didn't want to uproot her and relocate to a colder climate.
In February 1939, Luanne Taylor died of complications from pneumonia. In her last few days she chose to reveal to Thomas the full story of how he had been found by the Taylors twenty-three years earlier. She encouraged her adopted son to move on with his life soon and go do for the rest of the world what he did for Houston. With her blessing, Thomas began planning his future as Longhorn. The following April Thomas sold the Taylor Ranch to a young couple from Wyoming and took a train to Chicago. Upon arriving in Chicago Thomas used his impressive strength to land a job with the Chicago Bridge and Iron Company where he worked for two years as an iron worker. By day he worked in the high steel and by night he donned his old costume and fought crime as Longhorn alongside the Black Mask. Over those two years he established a working relationship with Black Mask VIII and a sometimes tense but mutually beneficial relationship with the Chicago police department.
Tragedy struck December 7, 1941 with the bombing of Pearl Harbor by the Japanese Imperial Navy. Thomas, seeing an opportunity to use his gifts to benefit even more people, signed up with the United States Army and accepted a commission as a Captain. The rank was due in part to his previous crime-fighting efforts and strong recommendations from the Chief of Police and Mayor Edward Joseph Kelly.
Thomas - commissioned Captain Longhorn - was assigned to the city of Detroit where he was assigned to lead a rag-tag group of costumed adventurers called the Liberty Squadron, a division of the Defenders of Justice!
The War Years
In Detroit Captain Longhorn continued to work as a day-laborer and fight crime in his free-time. His unusual physiology required him to get no more than two hours of sleep a day leaving him twenty-two hours each day to serve his fellow man. By day he helped assemble tanks for the Army and by night he lead the Defenders in daring raids on domestic Nazi spies and super criminals.
Captain Turbo and The Liberty Squadron
"All that is necessary for the triumph of evil is that good men do nothing." - Edward Burke
The Liberty Squadron consisted of Longhorn, Iron American, Morning Glory, Caliber, and The Star-Spangled Songbird. Each was a commissioned officer in the U.S. Army except for Songbird who was a registered nurse who moonlighted as a crime-fighter. She was given special dispensation to serve with the Defenders in combat missions due to the high casualty rate associated with the rise in super-powered crime.
It took the Defenders a few weeks of fighting as a team to really learn to work together, not surprising since all had been solo crime-fighters previously. It took a serious threat from Hubert Langley - alias Professor Gyro - to get the team to end their petty squabbles and fight as a real military unit.
On January 27, 1942 Professor Gyro - clad in a fully-functioning war mech and supported by a dozen super-powered thugs - attacked the assembly plant where Thomas worked and held the factory and its workers for ransom. The Detroit P.D. cordoned off the area and tried to negotiate with the obviously insane Professor Gyro. Meanwhile, inside the factory Thomas radioed his comrades for backup and within fifteen minutes the Liberty Squadron infiltrated the factory. Thomas slipped away unnoticed and donned his costume (a copy of which was conveniently hidden in the employee locker room) and prepared for battle.
Giving orders via a wristband radio, Longhorn helped the team coordinate their attack on the criminals. While the other Defenders took care of the goons, Longhorn set his sights on Professor Gyro and his war mech. The crazed professor fired dozens of machine gun rounds at Captain Longhorn but did little more than shred his outfit, destroy machinery and make Longhorn very angry. While Iron American shielded the hostages, Longhorn dismantled the mech. After ripping off it's arms, he wielded one like a baseball bat and hit the mech - and Professor Gyro - so hard that both flew clear across the factory and through the wall on the other side. In the aftermath of the battle, one of the young autoworkers ran up to Longhorn and told him, "Man, you hit like a turbo-charged locomotive!" Captain Longhorn was so taken with this compliment that he asked his superiors that very day to change his official title to "Captain Turbo." The name stuck and Captain Turbo, Hero of the Automotive Worker was born!
During this period Captain Turbo also struck up a strong friendship with Detroit-based super hero, Captain Paragon. At Captain Paragon's request, Turbo served as a reserve member of the Freedom Reserve and was able to provide assistance for the Reserve by way of his military contacts. The two were often sparring partners and fought many battles side by side, the Defenders and the Reserve teaming up to take on super-powered threats that neither could tackle alone.
Disappearance
In March of 1945 the Third Reich attempted a desperate attack on U.S. soil perpetrated by Nazi super-soldier Eisenblitz, a team of S.S. operatives and the Nazi Scientist Dieter Holzman. Holzman had developed a weapon that could place an entire city in suspended animation. The Nazi objective was to target Washington D.C. and use it as a bargaining chip to push the Allies off the European continent. The mission was thwarted by the combined might of U.S. Military Intelligence, the Canadian Mounted Police, the Freedom Reserve and the Liberty Squadron who intercepted the Nazis trying to cross Lake Michigan. While Captain Paragon and the Reserve fought the super-powered team Fantastisch Männer, Captain Turbo took on Eisenblitz. The titanic battle lit up the night sky for miles and for an hour the Detroit police and U.S. Army received calls about repeated lightning strikes and what appeared to be a massive electrical event occurring on Lake Michigan. Though badly burned and shaken by Eisenblitz's ferocious and seemingly limitless electrical power, Captain Turbo surged ahead and managed to pierce the villain's defenses, sending him sprawling to the deck of his boat.
Seeing that the mission was doomed to failure, Dr. Holzman tried to activate a failsafe on the device which would cause it to explode taking Detroit with it. Captain Turbo rushed to the device as Holzman jumped into a life raft with his assistant and fled. Turbo managed to smash the controls but this only dampened the power output of the device. Seeing no other alternative, Turbo snatched up the device and dove into Lake Michigan. At the last possible second, a very determined Eisenblitz latched onto Turbo and followed him into the lake. Moments later a massive explosion rocked Lake Michigan and capsized the boats on which the battles were taking place.
In the aftermath of what would be dubbed the Battle of Lake Michigan, most of the Nazi soldiers were captured however half of the Fantastisch Männer escaped and the hero Caliber was killed in combat protecting Star-Spangled Songbird. Captain Turbo and Eisenblitz never surfaced. A U.S. Navy dive team searched for Turbo for two days however the debris kicked up by the explosion and demand for the divers in the Pacific Theater ended the search for Detroit's hero. It would be over sixty years before he was seen again.
Captain Turbo Found!
In September 2009 a salvage team working on a sunken tanker in Lake Michigan came across Captain Turbo buried in the lake bed, frozen in suspended animation. He was brought to the surface and taken to UNTIL Headquarters where researchers spent three weeks slowly reanimating him. Upon awakening he was informed of the year and that his commission with the U.S. Army had expired, though his sacrifice during the Battle of Lake Michigan had earned him the right to his title. His M.I.A. status was overturned and he was authorized to return to crime fighting. After a brief stint assisting the Army in the Southwestern Desert, Turbo returned to Millennium City to try to adjust to a world that left him far behind.
To further complicate matters, Turbo discovered that he is very wealthy! Due to his M.I.A. status, his funds at the time of his disappearance were held in trust including considerable shares (after numerous splits) in Harmon Technologies. Turbo has funneled much of this money into local charities but still retains enough to help support any heroic endeavors he and his allies may undertake. To help him adjust to the modern world and distribute his enormous assets, Captain Turbo has hired publicist Mindy Mayweather. He has recently taken up with the Silver Age Sentinels including the newest incarnation of his WWII ally and friend: Captain Paragon, now known as Horizon.
Modern Adventures
Eisenblitz Returns!
Roughly four months after the Qulaar invasion, Eisenblitz resurfaced in Millenium City. The villain attempted to steal a Lemurian artifact from the Millenium City Museum but was thwarted by Captain Turbo who was on hand for the dedication ceremony. Eisenblitz blamed Turbo for the sixty years he lost in suspended animation and the fact that the Third Reich labeled him a failure following his disappearance. After escaping, the villain went on to improve his electricity-warping technology with upgrades stolen from Harmon Technologies, an event that caught the attention of Defender. With clues provided to him by Defender and the MCPD, Captain Turbo tracked Eisenblitz back to an abandoned warehouse in Millenium City where the two clashed. What ensued was a titanic battle that nearly leveled the building and succeeded in destroying the Doomsday Device Eisenblitz was attempting to assemble. Following the battle, Eisenblitz was transferred to Stronghold where he was held while awaiting extradition to Nuremberg to answer for crimes against humanity during World War II.
The TurboBot 9000
Captain Turbo took a hiatus from costumed adventuring during the summer and fall of 2010 to assist U.N.T.I.L. and Bureau 17 in the development of a new crime-fighting android called the TurboBot 9000. The android bears a resemblance to Captain Turbo and possesses all of his strength, speed, and durability. Officially, TurboBot 9000 was developed as part of a community outreach program and to allow a heavy-hitting hero to be in two places at once. Captain Turbo was chosen as the android's model due to his historical significance and sterling public image. Unofficially, the TurboBot is the pet project of Dr. Dieter Hammerschmit an expert in circuitry, robotics and artificial intelligence for U.N.T.I.L. Dr. Hammerschmit claimed to be a fan of Captain Turbo and his long history of crime-fighting and wanted to develop a machine that could fight crime on his behalf long after he is gone. To date, the Turbobot 9000 has performed according to specifications and is currently deployed on Monster Island.
Powers*
Super Strength
Captain Turbo's strength is at the mid-range of most super strong superbeings. At his last UNTIL conducted test he registered a maximum weight of just over 12.5 tons. It should be noted that his strength has steadily increased over the course of his life and he may become more powerful as he grows older.
Invulnerability
Captain Turbo has proven resistant to most forms of physical damage, having taken artillery rounds to the chest from an Anaconda Tank and only been knocked over. While not completely invincible to physical he seems to come close. Oddly enough, when around allies Turbo seems to be much weaker. Some suspect that his powers are adversely affected by allies in close proximity or maybe he just gets distracted by them and thus is more susceptible to attack.
Flight
Captain Turbo has been clocked by UNTIL as flying at speeds exceeding Mach 2.5. It is believed he can push speeds up to Mach 4 in times of high stress. When flying in populated areas Turbo rarely flies at speeds exceeding Mach .75.
Super Speed
Captain Turbo has a top land speed of roughly 100 MPH. His recent acquisition of super speed is thought to be from a combination of exposure to cosmic radiation on Monster Island as well as a super-charged blast of electricity from several of Eisenblitz's minions which he received while busting up a narcotics operation run by Eisenblitz in Westside.
RP Hooks
- Is your character a Legacy hero "a la" Black Mask? If so, Captain Turbo may have known your predecessor and even been friends or had a rivalry with them.
- Is your character represented by an agent or publicist? So is Turbo! Maybe their agents are scheming to get them both into the lime light and this leads to trouble with a capital T!
- Is your character into history or currently enlisted in the military? If so, boy does Turbo have some stories to tell!
