Enrico Warthen cvnu (Reboot, unfinished)

Enrico spent much of his life as that kid that always knew the answers and always got A's in school, and when he didn't he got B's and was a little upset with himself, and yet never seemed to look down on others for their grades or if they were impaired. He did however make it clear just how willing he was to fight someone if they started picking on kids, or respond very bluntly if he thought someone was doing something with very poor judgement or too much emotional involvement. Still, he had his own issues to deal with. Enrico had difficult interacting with other people, often fearing he would screw up and even the smallest mess up could overwhelm him if it screwed up his schedule. If too many things were going on around people he would sometimes just break down and go elsewhere where he could hide and try to piece himself back together.

When Enrico actually finally got to go to college, just science and the normal tasks just wouldn't do. He had skills and he wanted to help people with them. So he joined a military school. Physically Enrico was no layover, although he may have had some lacking in dead runs, especially in full gear, in almost every other area Enrico got to the top of what they had before their instructor even had time to criticize him on it. He had no problem obeying orders or being extremely formal while training because he knew it would get him where he needed to be. And before long, his problem with stamina wasn't something they could critique on him either. In fact even here Enrico managed to keep up with occasional advanced scientific study.

His dedication and skill he showed, especially once introduced to actual combat, earned Enrico a chance in a secret part of the military rising in rank rather quickly due to his abilities of prediction and organization that he could manage even in the midst of battle. It was in the middle of this that Enrico met and fell in love with a French woman, and eventually after marriage a child was born. But this joy was not meant to last it seemed. Only weeks later Metahumans, hostile and wild, had set themselves to kill everyone in the city. Enrico and his team took them down as swiftly as they could and it was a brutal fight considerably worse then what Enrico had faced before, but even after success it was not enough. His wife had died leaving him only with his child. His team as witnesses to the brutality and the fact that, even though they succeeded in taking them down, there was a chance they might have been able to have done it sooner if they were not held back by the rules of the government.

And thus Enrico broke off and formed the Circle of Steel with the help of his unit. An organization outside the government, they would take on the threats that they couldn't have before. Using this Enrico decided it would be wise to use his intellectual prowess and knowledge to increase his abilities so he could actually stand up to metahumans on much more equal ground next time. It was an extensive work, something that took even longer due to simultaneously keeping up with leading the Circle of Steel and keeping his daughter a secret. When it was discovered she had powers, and powers that were rather incredible, Enrico knew she'd end up getting involved one way or another. She ended up joining the Circle of Steel, in which he quietly did a bit extra for her then others, though it could easily be sold off as due to her gifts.

When Enrico formed the Circle of Steel he took on a new name while acting as it's head, while making certain that there was no legal means of putting him away for abandoning the military and forming the Circle. The name of

Although Enrico may not often refer to himself as a mastermind, it is a fitting word for the type of intellect that sits in his head. Enrico sees the world in variables and absolutes, he looks at a wall and sees it's strengths and it's weaknesses and how he can use it, he looks at a chemistry lab and gauges it's price and precision of product, a fire and thinks of how it's caused and what fuel it's using. Typically Enrico things conceptually or visually, he'll measure distances, types of materials, amount of people and their probable jobs and skills, in just any average day. When Enrico walks into a crowd he looks at everything, this can be very overwhelming, but it's how he thinks.

It's why to Enrico the world moves ever so slowly. Everything he did he used his mind for, he played Lazer tag or paintball he'd predict trajectories, rate of fire, and the tactics and skills of his opponents. Enrico discovered patterns in everything that existed and utilized him to become an incredible tactician something he enjoyed. And then he used his skill for science growing up, researching things in high school most people would never learn.

After his experience in the military Enrico's knack for probability only grew, constantly helping him perceive the potential outcomes of a variety of situations and individuals, telling him how things could go about even when it seemed to be totally wrong.

Once he took up science again for some time it was easy for him to stick the knowledge inside his head for future use. Piling it up within him until, for all intents on purposes, he was a great deal more knowledgable then a number of scientists in a rather wide field. This skill helped him in the construction of his own armor and gave him a serious advantage when trying to find ways to take down unusual enemies since he was more likely to be able to find the scientific method to take care of them.

Due to Enrico's experiments he has been able to create the ability in which he can manipulate various forms of energy in a very particular fashion. Potential energy, kinetic energy, thermal energy, etc. This ability primarily helps him in close rang combat, as the instant he touches another person or is in close proximity he can manipulate the force they're exerting and alter it's direction. Allowing him to shove attacks out of the way, or with a bit more effort, reversing or changing the direction of the force back on them. For instance placing his hand against the chest and taking all the energy they had moving forwards and putting it into his hand to send them flying backwards, and possibly stopping their heart in the process. This is an example of his ability to manipulate kinetic energy.

However his ability to alter kinetic energy actually goes far beyond that. Enrico can utilize the spinning of the earth, and the very galaxy, that flings them through space at impossible speeds, and manipulate it's effects on him, permitting him the ability to actually fly, stop suddenly, or give a hit that is extremely powerful. The problem with this is that he isn't necessarily altering the universe itself, but only it's effect on him, which means if he were to use all of it's effects on him at once the earth might keep moving while he ends up using too much of its force on him for a punch and leaving him behind a bit too far.

Potential energy manipulation is a tricky business. Enrico cannot exactly turn potential energy into energy instantly, there has to be some reason for it. However what Enrico can do is choose the direction and state of that energy. When standing on a bridge Enrico would have potential energy for the distance of his fall, he can reverse that direction so that he goes up instead of down the same distance. When used to alter the state of potential energy there is a completely different method, for instance, a battery can create electrical energy through a chemical process. Enrico can cause the process, but instead of the battery creating electricity it creates kinetic energy and is launched from his hand.

The ability to reconfigure light has turned out useful more then once. There are a few uses that Enrico makes of this, sometimes as simple as avoiding getting blinded, sometimes using it to be able to see in every direction, but then there are more complex ones such as reconfiguring all the light into one spot sending a blinding light towards a person. Or manipulating it in a very difficult fashion that causes him to become invisible, usually in one direction. This is actually difficult to keep up, because he has to focus enough to keep it going about everything that's happening and not make it look odd, for this reason he rarely uses it during combat.

Enrico's ability on energies like radiation, heat, electricity, and the like work in a similar fashion to each other. In most cases, he simply alters their path or focus point. Due to his distance limitation, Enrico can't do much except around his body or on something he's touching. If Enrico were to grab a sheet of metal, he could choose where the heat of the sun is focused on it, potentially making it melt in a chosen spot. Lightning can be caused to curve around him if it gets close, radiation the same way, if he were in an electric chair or touching an electric fence he could switch it's path whether back into itself, out into the air, or through a specific part of him so it didn't actually harm him but still went through and out probably leaving burns. In the same way he can pull radiation, electricity, or heat out of something he teaches, allowing him to instantly neutralize radiation in someone only leaving it's physical effects, or pull their heat from them, or could cause someones neurons to stop functioning. The latter of these is actually far more difficult as it is on a much smaller scale.

Another form of energy that varies in form is that of sound. It is one of the harder forms of energy for Enrico to reconfigure by far though it is possible. Enrico primarily can only move it around him, or concentrate it near him to be released later. For this reason he can silence his footsteps or voice, and can actually shout or cause noise repeatedly concentrating the sound in such a way he can release it all suddenly in a very painful blast.

There are other forms of energy he can manipulate, most of which will fit into one of the previous categories, that of gravity or magnetism resemble potential and kinetic energy, that of chemical energy is extremely hard to use in its form but easy to turn into another form of energy.

Although this ability primarily takes place inside his head, his nervous system is extremely important for it to properly work throughout the rest of his body. Through experimentation Enrico discovered if he were tased or paralyzed without being able to stop it, his abilities would be massively hindered throughout his limbs.

Although Enrico was partially born with an ability to perceive things at a much slower rate then other people, this was only within his head, he was not actually able to make his senses keep up any better and was still rather limited especially when tired. Because of this Enrico did a little extra work on how one can increase the speed and depth of a persons perception. While his discoveries led to many things he found the best personal way to increase his, without going into it for another decade before he could finish it. This was unique to Enrico in the sense the operation itself was unique to him. He found a way to manipulate the tissue of his brain and speed up his nervous system to an incredible rate for bursts of speed based off of how much he was thinking or if something unexpected occurs. This enhanced perception is thus much more limited without him actually putting attention to it.

When using it, Enrico is capable of seemingly slowing down time to almost a halt, although this often leaves a somewhat blurred image on things moving especially fast or in odd lighting, since his eyes have trouble keeping up with how fast he's thinking. This lets him actually watch a bullet move, for what might take the bullet a half a second to cover the distance, might seem to him a full minute. Primarily this helps him think through situations far better then before.

In part the reason this is possible is because of tissue alteration, allowing his brain to operate at such insane speeds without damage was the main issue that Enrico had come up with. While studying this he realized without the ability to actually see things properly, Enrico might not have as much use of his power as he'd like. So he added to his quest to cause his senses to bring him far more detail then they were before when he was paying attention to them, this helps him to obtain a wider field of attention and focus on many more senses at once in greater detail.

One of the more basic additions he made was an enhancement of his muscles ability and control. It is far inferior in many ways to his other abilities but enough to be worth noticing. The weight of Enrico's muscles actually increased considerably when doing this, but it also brought out worthwhile results. Enrico can easily move as fast as legends such as Bruce lee, break a grown mans wrist just by clenching it casually, and break through stone with his fists with ease(although he would doubtless experience cuts and bruises on his hands). Due to this enhancement he was forced to work on his bone structure as well so that it could survive the tough work he'd put them through.

Enrico is a highly experienced soldier who has spent over two decades of training, more then half of which was intense enough to let him fight against metahumans and come out on top. His skill and learning sets him on top of some metahumans with effort even without his superhuman abilities. Be it hand to hand combat, firearms, explosives, or strategy, Enrico has gone through it all time and again to come out on top eventually. Even after leaving the military Enrico worked hard to always advance in skill, analyzing every time he saw someone fight in a new way or a superior fashion in order for him to always be learning and figuring it out.

The combination of Enrico's brilliant mind and enhanced perception and brain permits him a form of resistance to telepaths and empaths as many can't handle to keep up with him trying to read him, and trying to influence him is equally difficult due to Enrico leaning a lot on logic over emotion many times. When Enrico is concerned his mind is being invaded he commonly practices a purge of his own mind by using his enhanced perception to greatly speed up his mind analyzing every bit of information running through it and then rushing in with a sudden amount of simultaneous thoughts, feelings, and memories (often physically painful) to try and force out any invader.

Allan J. (Joseph) Payne: Allan Joseph Payne is an alias of Enrico's he constructed for the express purpose of misdirection. He uses this name when trying to avoid identification and as it does not really exist, is presumed that he is someone who managed to make his past disappear up until a few months after the creation of the Circle of Steel. Although most people seem uncertain about if he actually is with them, investigative forces are fairly certain Allan J. Payne is either the leader or a high ranking member of the Circle of Steel. Enrico has even used this name among new members of the Circle of Steel and their allies, cementing the idea that Allan J. Payne is a man who exists. Although his original unit is aware of his identity, he has convinced them to avoid using his name around other people and to keep it a guarded secret. Along with just finding it a better idea to keep his real identity secret due to people knowing his military background being a danger, and that the military would then be more onto him, he secretly worries this may somehow lead to connecting him to his daughter which Enrico is very determined to avoid.