Mind Ripper
- For those whom God to ruin has designed
- He fits for fate, and first destroys their mind.
- —John Dryden, Fables, The Hind and the Panther (1687)
Mind Ripper is the first Nemesis designed for the character Gunfighter. Originally conceived of before putting together a background for the hero, I chose to tie this Nemesis to the character's backstory as an example of what happens when plans go wrong.
Personality
Mind Ripper is a bit of a sociopath; she doesn't really care about people, doesn't care who she hurts in the process of getting what she wants. She occasionally recalls a time before her "adjustments" where she had some empathy for people, but it's a recollection without feeling behind it. All that matters to her is what she wants at any given time-and how to get it.
Powers
Mind Ripper's powers derive from her telepathy. This is bad enough on its own, but she is also able to imbue those who serve her with a level of telepathy as well-although not nearly as advanced as her powers. This allows her to work in conjunction with her henchmen as a hive mind, with her as the queen.
It's an open question as to whether or not long-term exposure to this mind allows the henchmen any free will at all.
Weaknesses and Limitations
Mind Ripper is easily distracted; her attitude of "want-get-have" can be derailed slightly by offering her something else she wants. While she isn't quite as bad as "SQUIRREL!", her focus can be jarred, and allow a hero an opportunity to take advantage of it.
Minions
Most of Mind Ripper's henchmen are simple thugs. They would be negligible as a threat if she couldn't imbue them with a portion of her own telepathic powers and operate in concert with each other.
Character History
Asner didn't seem like a candidate to go around the bend when she was recruited by PRIMUS after spending a few years working in a police department in Rhode Island. Good detective skills, talented shot, motivated to go after bad guys-didn't matter if they had special powers or not. Unfortunately, she also had an allergy to the enhancement serum used by PRIMUS for their superhuman operatives, so she was kept away from the action. This situation changed with the issuance of SPD-31, where she was one of twelve operatives selected for special assignment.
The means for these operatives to act varied. A third was chosen to be equipped with high technology; a third was chosen to receive cybernetic enhancements. The final third held the most dangerous path-but potentially the most rewarding: experimental genetic remapping, theoretically allowing SPD scientists to encode powers into the subject's DNA. Asner was one of the four selected for this remapping, and each of the four was given a chance to back out. Asner eagerly volunteered.
It didn't go so well for her. The remapping succeeded in encoding a telepathic power in Asner; but the sudden bombardment of minds intruding into her own snapped her; the only way she could handle it was to deaden her own feelings, reducing the thoughts of others to a dull roar. A few weeks later, she discovered that it was simpler to simply turn off the minds that were intruding.
By this time, SPD-31 had been rescinded, and Asner was deemed to be too dangerous to herself and to others, and was planned to be taken to the Stronghold; unfortunately, the ones who made such decisions didn't reckon with her ability to read minds-and she escaped before she could be taken. Since then, she has become heavily involved with the superhuman criminal element-and has come into regular conflict with another of the SPD-31 volunteers, Gunfighter.
| Coreth's Characters
| ||
|---|---|---|
| Heroes | Asteroid • Gunfighter • Mindblade • Runelord • Shadewalker • Silver Paladin • Ultrawarrior | |
| Nemeses | Black Blade • Doctor Whatsisface • Fhtagath • Mind Ripper | |
| Supergroups | Paragons of Virtue | |
