Racer Red

From PRIMUS Database
Revision as of 15:22, 4 March 2016 by FrozenViolet (Talk | contribs)

Jump to: navigation, search


"A gun doesn't make you a soldier and powers don't make you a hero.
How many of you mutants are mistakes? Accidents of nature and science?
When it comes down to it you are freaks. You become heroes because it's expected.
Because you want power. Recognition.
You aren't selfless or kind or concerned for mankind's future.
You are just as entitled, and arrogant, and self-centered as anyone else.
You just want to be special.
Well you are special; you're walking radioactive bombs and man-sized volcanoes.
This isn't the stuff of heroes. That's how you describe a monster.
You are not heroes.
You are liabilities.
Take my advice and stay home. Live a normal life. And for God's sake, get cured.
Purge was wrong to force this on you, but they were right about one thing:
You do not belong here."


RRlogo55.png



Flags.png
40
The Fastest man on wheels
Racer Red
Sergiojumpsuit.jpg
"Can't stop. Won't stop."
Freeform
Player: @Realsorceror
Affiliations
Nationalassban.png
Super Group
Rank
· Other Affiliations ·
Identity
Real Name
Sergio Kohler
Aliases
Surge, Red Rider
Birthdate
1979
Birthplace
California
Citizenship
American
Residence
Iowa
Headquarters
Unknown
Occupation
Professional racer
Legal Status
Sponsored Hero
Marital Status
Single
· Known Relatives ·
Janine Kohler (step-mother). Biological parents are deceased.
Physical Traits
Species
Human
Sub-Type
N/A
Manufacturer
N/A
Model
N/A
Ethnicity
German
Gender
Male
Apparent Age
33
Height
5'10
Weight
164lb
Body Type
Athletic
Hair
Blonde
Eyes
Blue
Skin
Fair
· Distinguishing Features ·
Everpresent goatee and slicked back hair. Always wearing shades or a helmet.
Powers & Abilities
· Known Powers ·
...none.
· Equipment ·
The Hellhound, a highly advanced motocycle-like vehicle. Shock rods, heat saber, laser rifle, standard gadget array
· Other Abilities ·
A competent melee fighter and excellent wheel-man.



Racer Red is well known for his strong words and shocking stances on modern vigilantism and the presence of metahumans in socity. But who is the man behind the helmet?

Sergio Kohler is a minor celebrity and pop-culture personality who started his career as a stock-car racer and branched out into other areas in the entertainment industry, most notably as a stunt man and lead actor in action movies. He is also the spokesperson and face for several brand-name products and commonly shows up in television commercials and advertising.

His superhero persona originally started as a heel in his racing career. After a publicly unknown turning point in his life, however, the act became reality. Racer Red is now an actual costumed hero fighting crime atop his unusual motorcycle-like vehicle, and is well known for assisting police in high-speed chases. He is possibly even more well known for his inflammatory views on metahumans.


Personality

Sergio is a constantly active, driven individual juggling his time as a hero, entertainment icon, and commercial spokesman. As a result, he is always battling stress and fatigue, resulting in occasional 'celebrity breakdowns'. In most cases, however, he is polite and genial.

As a very devout man, Sergio's faith colors his morals and worldview, leading him to take stances that more secular persons may find arbitrary. He has a host of other strongly held opinions that can at times create tension and distrust in certain company. Surge has obvious bitterness and frustration towards mutants which is often mistaken for racism.

Appearance

Kohler is a fastidious individual who takes care to make himself presentable and well groomed whenever possible. When in public his attire is fashionable and "in-style", at least according to the latest Hollywood trends. When he actually chooses to dress himself rather than have robots choose his clothes he tends to pick quality European clothing, probably an influence of his father.

Because he recives most of his funding from corporate and private sponsors, Racer Red's bike and uniform are covered in decals and emblems like one would find on a professional race car driver.

Abilities

Racer Red is a completely mundane human; No quirks or mutations, no super soldier program, no magic powers. He doesn't even have a powered suit or a unique style of kung-fu. What he does have is one of the meanest personal vehicles on the road and the skill to use it in unconventional ways.

Equipment

87-ARM Hellhound - The second and lighter of the ARM models, the Hellhound is identifiable by it's red and white color scheme and iconic 'mane' of shifting armor plates that flare back over it's passengers. The mane also hides an assortment of long and short ranged weaponry such as flamethrowers and micro-rockets. The Hellhound was partly destroyed in a firefight with a harrier jet.

86-ARM Unicorn - The original and arguably more powerful of the existing ARM vehicles, the Unicorn was named after the heraldic symbol for purity. The solid, tank-like motorbike bears little resemblance to it's graceful namesake, however. The machine has a dangerously potent particle beam cannon mounted on the front end, vaguely resembling a unicorn's single horn. Other unique abilities include it's reactive cloaking technology and dense, armor plated treads. Although it was once decommissioned, the Unicorn was rebuilt using parts of the Hellhound wreckage.

13-PRV Griffin - Based on his father's blueprints, the Griffin was built in a collaboration between Surge and Adapto. As a result it is the first ARM-type vehicle to be capable of flight. However, this also makes it the lightest and least armored.

History

Niklas Kohler was a German engineer and inventor born in the late 1940's who gained minor renown for his retro-future designs for household appliances and robotic assistants. While at the 1974 World's Fair he was introduced to Dr. Kathrin Schneider by their mutual friend, Aaron Walker. Katherine was studying the phenomena of human mutation in the hopes of helping those afflicted with deformities. Within a year the two were married and soon moved to America following Katherine's research in human mutation.

Only a few years later their son, Sergio Kohler, was born. With the high population of mutants and superheroes in America, Niklas's focus on appliances shifted more toward gadgetry and eventually to crime-fighting tools. While he was no hero himself, he befriended the vigilante Vanguardian and with the young man's help tested a new line of weaponry and HUD technology. As a result the Vanguardian and the Kohler family quickly rose to a prominent place in the public eye during the 1980's.

In 1987, however, tragedy struck. While returning home from the lab, Katherine was assaulted and murdered by mutant gang members. His wife seemingly killed by the very people she'd wanted to help, Niklas was devastated. Although he put on a show of strength for the sake of his son, his close friends and coworkers knew something had changed in him.

Spoiler:
The Vanguardian quickly tracked down and captured the suspects. However, something in their confession led him to investigate further, eventually bringing him at odds with the dangerous Dr. Ominous. Over the next few years he pieced together details of a terrible ritual involving the seven sins of man. Discovering the identity of Pride and the location of Gluttony, Vanguardian attempted to bring the ceremony to an end. Instead, Dr Ominous led him into the path of The Ravener. He fought to his death.

While Niklas presented the face of a grieving father to the world, inside his mind was filled with cold logic, judgment, and hatred. The weapons he crafted were no longer nonlethal. He improved on his armor and AI designs, resulting in a unified, reactive battlesuit. Most worrying of all, however, where the highly advanced A.R.M. (armored response motorcycle) vehicles that he built in a feverish, dream-like trance. While the advanced designs were applauded by his peers they were deemed too expensive and unnecessarily potent for dealing with inner-city crime.

Meanwhile Sergio was dealing with his mother's death and his father's odd behavior by throwing himself at school and whatever hobby caught his interest. His many short-lived passions included acting, martial arts, and eventually stock-car racing. Seeing his son excel for his father's praise brought a measure of pride and sadness to Niklas' heart and seemed to temper his other emotions.

For a time Sergio saw his father return to semblance of his old self. The man even recovered enough to begin dating again, later marrying one his wife's former colleagues, Dr. Janine Brandt, who had stayed close with the family after Katherine's death. While Janine and Sergio initially didn't see eye to eye they eventually came to an understanding. With the house now a home once more, Sergio continued his pursuit of a career in the sports and entertainment industry.

As time passed, however, Surge began to suspect that something else was amiss. Although his father was no longer partnered with a superhero, he continued his work on combat hardware and his many unexplained cuts and bruises suggested Niklas was testing the equipment himself. More troubling was the similar state of Janine, who claimed she'd been performing 'field work' for the lab. With the recent news reports of violence against mutants being performed by soldiers using equipment much like his father's, Surge was led to a very depressing conclusion; his father was exacting blind revenge on his late wife's killers and the new woman he married was an accomplice using the body trail for her research.

In 2004 Sergio approached his father claiming he wanted to join his crusade against mutant kind. Niklas felt nothing but pride at his son piecing the secret together and understanding what needed to be done. He gave Sergio the second A.R.M. he'd built and began bringing him along on patrols and raids with his secret group of soldiers. That same year Surge gathered the members of several mutant gangs together and created an ambush for the crusaders, resulting in a bloody firefight between the factions and the apparent death of his father. (See the "Outrun the Past" story).

Although the trust between them had shattered, Janine and Sergio collaborated on a story painting Nikla's death as an accident and ensuring he be remembered as a hero. After splitting the family assets, the two of them parted ways on awkward terms. Now more alone than ever, Sergio coped in the only way he knew how; throwing himself headlong into a new hobby. He took the 'Racer Red' character he'd developed in his racing career and turned it into a reality. With that stunt, his sponsorship exploded, turning Racer Red into a corporate icon.

Many of his backers became nervous, however, when Surge began voicing anti-meta sentiment and verbally clashing with other heroes. This culminated in 2012 at a public discussion held by Thundrax at which Kohler gave his unpopular speech denouncing mutants as false heroes. This act brought him to the attention of the hero community at large and sparked numerous debates.

Fortunately the young heroine Scripture decided to intervene. She met him in person and took the time to hear his story while challenging his views with her faith. Humbled and impressed, Sergio offered the then homeless girl a place to stay. She accepted and be a powerful influence on his life as well as reeling in some of his more disagreeable behavior.

All good things must come to an end, however, and Scripture's own past caught up with her and pulled Racer Red into the conflict with her former mentor, Testament. He and a wide range of other heroes were able to save the girl, but in the final conflict the game changed. Whereas Testament was wicked and zealous, the beings who arrived to destroy him were arguably just as bad; demons, undead, and magic-users of the darkest sort. Kohler made the heavy decision to turn on these creatures and, at the battle's climax, struck down the lich Toxtira.

Affiliations

Trixi Danger - Surge has encountered the unpredictable (and probably crazy) Queen of Crime three times thus far. He's not a fan. And she dresses like a circus hooker. If he had to pick a nemesis it would definitely not be her, but sometimes fate has other plans.

Scripture - Surge has taken in the unusual girl as his...roommate? Daughter? Mentor? Ward? It's complicated, but they are definitely the best of companions. Probably going to be a buddy-cop sitcom sometime. Maybe. Scripture's strong faith and good natured have brought Sergio out of shell and perhaps saved him from following in his father's footsteps.

Lassie - Lassie is an artificial intelligence created by his parents. While not truly sentient it has developed several quirks and other peculiarities resembling a personality over the years. Lassie runs the appliances and automated systems in Surge's house and also accompanied him in the Hellhound's onboard computers.

Public Opinions

"I am not looking at politics, I am looking at results. I have seen him selflessly dive head first into danger with absolutely zero 'powers' under his belt. Self sacrifice to protect others is a fairly good measure of a man. I would like him to receive some higher end fighting and defense training, however." - Sparrowhawk

"You know, I have a hard time -completely- hating the guy. Sure, he dislikes... quite a few things, actually, but he's also smart enough to realize that sometimes those things can be helpful as well as harmful. Plus, it takes a special kind of man to stick by his guns, even when he receives so much flak for his opinions, so I can respect him for that." - Riptide

"I disagree profoundly with his views, however when an innocent bystander is being threatened by a villain, and someone steps in to save them, the politics of the savior don't matter worth a damn. I've devoted my life to making sure people with his views can't impose them on society, but his bravery and his service shouldn't be dismissed merely because he's going to be on the wrong side of history." -Thundrax

"A compassionate man with an unpopular opinion. I have had the pleasure of speaking to Sergio Kohler on a personal level, and was pleasantly surprised to find there was a great man, a true hero, underneath. He merely needed a gentle nudge in the right direction to return him to the proper path: only time will tell if he chooses to heed my advice, but I have all the faith in the world that he will make the right decision." - Scripture

"Lions do not have spots, Racer. Do you not get the Discovery Channel? Also, thanks for not shooting me, I appreciate that." --Snow Leopard

"Kind of a prick. He's a reliable prick, though. I guess someone should give him, like, a tolerance in the workplace course, or something?" - All-Star

"...Perhaps I was too harsh on Kohler previously. He should learn it does not matter what saves the normal passerby from the voracious flesh-consuming giant insect. Judge not by appearance or skill, but by content of character. On that note, my previous judgement of him I have since retracted. He's a hero like the rest of us - just needs to take a step back and realize the pointlessness of putting politics in a place where it doesn't belong." - Snowtalon

"So... he's intolerant AND a religious nutjob? How refreshing and surprising! He even made MY skin crawl the one time I met him." - Zee the Zombie

"Hah. No. You really don't want my opinion on him. Not my real opinion anyway." - Nightfang

"He seems to have a rather high opinion of himself, but most males and most entertainers do. However, if Scripture believes he is a good man, I can trust her judgement." - Lorekeeper

"He's passionate, and does what he thinks is right. The only difference between most heroes and himself is that he doesn't like most heroes, and he still helps where he can. I may find him personally abrasive, but that doesn't mean I can't respect the work he does." - Kyle Foster

"If pissing off the maximum number of people as quickly as possible were a race, he'd win that one every time. Really, its kinda funny to watch. Sorta cool though that he doesn't care if he pisses off his sponsors, can admire that." - Danni Dash

"Only dealt with him once or twice, never had a chat with 'im. I don't think he takes kindly to my lot, being a man o' god. Like his bike, neutral on the man riding the bike, and wary of the fact that he might just hate my guts." - Leonard Castellar

"I can't say I know much about who Racer Red is, in bottom line. But who hasn't seen a film or such featuring him, these days?" She shrugs her shoulders before continuing. "He defends his opinions as if he thought they were the absolute truth. While I'm sure he'd be right on certain topics, his opinions concerning the metahumans seem to be, to say the least, harsh. I try not to get offended by it anymore, because there's probably a reason behind all the apparent hate. Or at least I hope so." - Natasha Roy

"...I don't like this guy. I saw him shoot someone in the head once. It was awful." - Wicket

Rumors

Racerredtime.png

- Racer once appeared on Top Gear as The Stig.

- Racer Red has a mysterious older brother named Biker Blue.

- Racer is actually a lone Sentai Ranger searching for a team.

- Racer nicknamed his bike "Kitt".

- Racer is a 'robosexual' stalking his android waifu.

- Racer Red has teamed up with a magical teenage battle-nun. They fight crime.

- Racer wants to become mayor of Millennium City?

Metagame

Theme Song - The Distance - Cake

Mood Music The Stand, The Protomen - Derezzed - Daft Punk - Stylo - Gorillaz

Forum Threads - Ask Racer Red! - "Outrun the Past" - Tragedy Strikes Rally - Serial Arsonist - Electric Women

The Finish Line