"The Force...is entropy."

Personal Details

Name: Lazuli Sarisang

Height: 5'4"

Weight: 127 lbs

Eye Color: Hazel

Hair: Medium Brown

Birthplace: Unknown

Occupation: Magitek Scientist; Engineer

Alias: Ananke

Identity: Secret (details public record)

Powers + Abilities

Acceleration is a vector quantity denoting the rate of change in velocity of a physical body, with respect to time. Any change in the velocity of an object results in an acceleration: increasing speed (which is what people usually mean when they say acceleration), decreasing speed (also called deceleration or retardation), or changing direction. Lazuli possesses the ability of instantaneous acceleration - she is able to alter the velocity of her body (or any individual part of it) without any delay.

In striking, for example, most fighters throwing a punch begin with a stationary, unmoving fist. When they decide to attack, the fist gains speed, from zero to whatever their maximum at that given moment, within a noted time period until full extension, stops, and reverses course in the same manner. For almost all beings in existence, no matter how fast, there is a period of movement (no matter how brief) where the body is not moving at maximum. As well, there's a period at the end of the punch before it retracts where the fist is not moving. Even speedsters are not exempt from these.

Lazuli, however, is. If she were to throw a punch, from a stationary position her fist moves at its maximum (or whatever her choice up to that maximum) with literally zero time delay. Likewise there need not be any pause at the end of the punch before retraction, nor a time delay as her arm reverses course. It allows her to "move faster" and outpace those of similar and even superior speeds - even, at times, those who've begun moving before she has - simply because she can achieve the height of her speed before they can reach the same.

Although she does seem to possess some degree of enhanced reflexes (unverified), this does not mean her reflexes or cognitions themselves are instantaneous, nor is she a speedster. Just the same, she fatigues just like any other person. Over time with physical depletion, even while she may accelerate to max instantly, the maximum speed which she is able to achieve may decrease (as well as increase as she herself improves physically).

While not notably stronger than any other woman of her height, weight, and build with training, her ability allows her to strike with force much greater than she would appear capable, simulating what might often appear from the outside to be a degree of enhanced strength when hitting things.

Complementing this ability, her body seems to naturally project an aural field that absorbs and partially disperses all outside influences acting on her. She isn’t impervious to damage, but it does net her an invaluable benefit. Its effect manifests for all kinds of external forces, energies, and other effects, and is also active throughout the inside of her body. Among other things it means she isn't damaged by inertia, and simulates a considerable degree of enhanced durability.

In conjunction with this her body is able to function well beyond the level of most normal humans and even many of those enhanced to their peak. Most beings, despite what their physical bodies could potentially be capable of, are limited by the body’s physical composition and ability to withstand equal opposing forces. A person could conceivably break a cinderblock but also stand a fair chance of breaking his or her hand. In her case, Lazuli would stand virtually no chance of damaging herself because the incoming forces on her body would be mitigated while the force she generates on the external object is unaffected. This allows her to bypass physical as well as subconscious mental limitations on nearly any action where force is involved, decreasing perceived as well as actual risk. This, along with her instant acceleration, makes her sometimes seem to have enhanced strength through striking force.

As a result of experiments performed after her capture at the hands of Nordok's Imperium, Lazuli's body exhibits (and often suffers from) molecular instability. A more recent development, the experiments physically altered her body beyond any recognition of its former self, with the additional side-effect that it may undergo further changes at any time. This has given her the ability to change her appearance at any time, should she be able to control it. However, changes may also occur unwittingly, and have painful effects as her body suddenly rearranges itself.

Equipment

As a Magitek scientist--and one with her particular assignment--Lazuli has access to contacts, classified information, and physical resources, in the event she should find herself in danger. She may be known to carry on her person various types of grenades including fragmentation, napalm/incendiary, gas, and sonic. She also carries gravity grenades, and an even stronger piece, a gravity bomb.

She may also carry remote tracers for tracking and miniature bombs used to set off smaller, much more controlled explosions.

Magitek implements often take a considerable deal of control to use. Given the environment some of their users including Lazuli must function in, it became necessary to fit her with a Neural-Optical Operated Computing System (NOOCS) ("nooks"), a piece of Magitek originally designed by Abigail Aensland based in part on modifications to extant project designs by Antonia Dain. Miniature clear lenses adhere to the eyes like contact lenses. Through the eyes, they form a link to the entire brain initially via connection through the optic nerve to the chiasma and finally to the thalamus, whereby connectivity is spread throughout the rest of the brain, itself a biologically connected network.

The neural lenses receive and record data through the eyes. Features include such things as transparent vision (which functions like x-ray vision but is not affected by lead), night vision, neural, biological, and other scans, and the ability to track a body by the atmospheric heat it leaves while moving through the air. Data may be fed to the user through the lense, but is also fed and filtered through a quantum computer in order to avoid overwhelming the wearer. These may or may not be used to establish connection to Internet and Intranet systems via proxy. The established connection within the brain allows Lazuli to control flow and perception of all information with her own thoughts, making it a handsfree device as well as allowing faster and more diverse operation. Additionally, they may serve as a defense mechanism, protecting the wearer from hypnotizing, mind control, and most other effects based on eye contact. The neural lenses allow the user to operate other compatible Magitek equipment without the use of hands, such as with the use of gravity bombs.

Additionally she may carry around a custom made set of what appears to be audio speakers, designed and built by a contact within the company. Seemingly normal, they possess all the functionality of normal speakers, but additionally a molecular charge may be applied, making them capable of adhering to any surface. There is also a hidden attack functionality, by which they can be manipulated, their sound turned to weapons. Their sound may be projected radially, or manipulated to concentrate force on a single target (though some bleedout is unavoidable) and can project sounds over two hundred decibels, more than enough to kill any normal human. These can be set to a proximity trigger or activated at her own whim.

Reasonably effective with other arms, Lazuli's pride and joy is the C360 Blaster—a magnetically powered variable range weapon that was designed as a plasma pistol, but built with complementary parts so that it could be assembled into various configurations including an assault rifle, sniper rifle, and grenade launcher. The C360 fires metal core rounds propelled by magnetic coils within the pistol's frame. Compared to chemical propellant based weaponry, this provides the advantage of reduced overall weapon noise, virtually non-existent recoil and increased accuracy, though it does require an independent power source (housed in the rear of the pistol) and necessitates increased weight.

Gallery

The weapon is equipped with a Smartlink system, a targeting system improving her aim in conjunction with the NOOCS lenses as well as enabling tracking capabilities in the grenade launcher configuration. Command-and-control telemetry feeds as well as biorecognition systems prevent unauthorized use of the weapon, as it is calibrated to Lazuli's unique bio-signature. Use by others is disabled by default, but she could enable use by another with a thought, controlling the weapon as if it were a part of her own body.

The standard mode is the pistol configuration. Sporting more power than any normal pistol, it is effective at penetrating conventional body armor, but on unarmored targets the velocity of expelled rounds almost always leads to through-and-through wounds from mid-range shots, meaning less energy transfer into the target and less damage. The assault rifle configuration allows for higher penetrating power, enough to pierce higher yield armor and even cause damage to armored tanks, and sports a rate of fire of approximately 1700 RPM. However, sustained fire leads to fast overheating, meaning it must usually be fired in short bursts. The sniper rifle configuration sports the greatest penetrating power, and with specialised ammo types may penetrate virtually any armor short of true adamantium. It also sports the greatest range; with the Smartlink system Lazuli can fire effective out to about 3000 yards with minimal deficiency. However, a single shot leads to overheating and requires a three-second cooldown period. The grenade launcher sports roughly the same range as the assault rifle, but fires plasma grenades rather than the typical projectiles. These can be fired one at a time, or with a charge, expelling up to all of its ammunition (seven grenades) at once (depending on how long the charge). A homing function allows them to track and follow vehicles and persons once the target is locked, and with a half charge (4) could completely dismantle a fully armored tank, rendering it inoperable. Not safe for use in close quarters.

Each type save for grenade launcher may be fitted for suppression via a magnetic baffler which slows expelled rounds to subsonic velocities before they exit the barrel. This makes the weapon completely silent, save for the sound of the round passing through the air. The effectiveness of sound suppression diminishes with heavier configurations, being all but negligent in the grenade launcher. In other configurations, the trade-off is reduced noise for less velocity and thus reduced penetrating power, less damage to shields and armor. However, upon penetration (then easier with unarmored targets), this results in more energy transfer into the target, more damage from shockwaves and cavitation.

Arguably the greatest benefit to Lazuli is her familiarity with the C360. During testing, other experienced shooters unfamiliar with its weight have found even the pistol's weight uncomfortable, and determined field maintenance to be a virtual impossibility. For this reason it was not mass-produced, as it would not be considered a remunerative venture. Lazuli has the only working model in existence, however, and has adapted perfectly to the use of the weapon. She's fast enough that swapping on/off gun configurations takes an average of 22 seconds to assemble or disassemble parts on it. In practise, to swap from the pistol to assault, sniper rifle, or grenade launcher would take about 22 seconds under conditions where she could remain still and operate with complete focus. To strip down one such configuration and swap to another would take roughly 44 seconds (to strip it down and then attach the new parts), or to strip it back down to the pistol would be ~22 seconds.

Ancient Treasures - Notka's Armour

After receiving a particularly discreet set of orders assigning her to the dark warrior, former altruist Ali Sani Bashir, he and Lazuli journeyed off-world with a small party to an ancient temple in search of some ill-defined set of artefacts. There, while separated from the group Lazuli stumbled upon a treasure of her own. An old but functional set of armour last belonging to an off-worlder called Drexia Notka, passed down a family line for generations, now fell into her hands. Since, it has integrated seamlessly with most of her equipment including the NOOCS.

The armour is well-insulated, heat-resistant and protects against temperature extremes on either end of the spectrum, to an extent. Its upper limits are yet untested but cold resistance as well as a portable internal oxygen tank allows the user to survive in the vacuum of space for roughly forty hours as long as the suit's seal remains unbroken. Composed primarily of durasteel, a material that is hardier than steel, though less so than titanium, and much lighter in weight than both, she maintains mobility beyond what the armour's appearance might lead one to assume. It provides some degree of telepathic shielding as well as a built-in inertia inhibitor for g-force resistance from extreme impacts.

A dual-thruster jetpack allows for periods of sustained flight and is also fitted with a rocket attachment at the head for offensive purposes. The gauntlets double as a multi-faceted tool enabling equipment of various utility pieces at her disposal, including flamethrowers (5-metre range), wrist-mounted rocket launchers, grappling hooks, and potentially more locked in compartments elsewhere on her person. Presently, these include:

• Portable buzzsaw
• Backup whipcord thrower
• A hologram projector

The armour was also accompanied by a collapsible, lightweight variant vibrosword and a smaller, concealable vibroblade. Lazuli keeps these in her possession, but has since come to favour a lightsabre created and formerly wielded by Ali Sani Bashir.

Not yet.

t__m

"If I can think of it, I can build it."

Personal Details

Name: Franklin Park

Codename: Ananke(?); Hardware

Nicknames: Patsy, "Wide-Eyes"

Occupation: Currently on unemployment; Mercenary (aide)

Identity: Complicated

Birthplace: Detroit, Michigan or Gothic City

Origin: Mutant (X-gene)

Age: 23

Hair: Black

Eyes: Black

Gender: Male

Height: 5’7”

Weight: 135

Affiliates: Ananke

Bio

Franklin Park was born in Detroit, Michigan, or Gothic City. He lived back and forth between divorcees so many times by an age he could remember that neither parents in his dysfunctional family could agree on which. Because of this, as a child Franklin was never allowed to establish firm roots anywhere - not until his father died, after which he stayed in Gothic for most of the rest of his life. However not much is known - the constant moving and resulting "new kid syndrome" left him with a social anxiety and outright awkwardness, and school records even as far back as elementary are nonexistent; at least until he needs a normal job, after which he suddenly attended a college prep high school, graduated early into the Ivy League or some other college (prestigious, close to the heart of an employer, or both), and then graduated university with honors. Other records - medical, legal, or even occupational - may also be duplicitous.

Some time ago Franklin seems to have run into Ananke and the two are partners. It is unknown whether he has any personal details or not, though it seems he operates with the same functional knowledge as anyone else, slightly more. He acts in many cases as the mercenary's physical presence and, some believe, personal techie in exchange for a cut of the pay from clients. Why would she choose a socially awkward outsider with no real credentials? That's anybody's guess, but the system seems to work. Some who know of a connection say Franklin is Ananke, and that he plays up the "connection" for several reasons including power or personal mystique.

Powers + Abilities

Franklin is a mutant with an X-gene and an intuitive talent for electrical and mechanical devices, bolstered by the power to perceive electromechanical energy at work. With his power he can instinctively recognize functional and potential applications of any technological, mechanical and electrical devices in his visual range, as well as conceive of modifications to and countermeasures against such applications. His skills and abilities altogether allow him to design and build any device he can conceive, and to build, modify, operate, and disassemble any device he sees. It should be noted that Franklin cannot operate a device if he physically is not able (for example, a device which absolutely requires three arms to function, because he does not have three arms, or a suit of armor fitted for a particular size). However, he could conceive of a way to modify such a device so that he could physically operate it. In most simplest terms he would describe his power as such:

"If I can think of it, I can invent it."

This is not exactly true. Franklin still requires materials to work with and cannot create something from nothing. But when a man creates something, his mind works through principles, theory and various other logical steps. For a genius to build a working circuit board, he or she must understand how circuits work, properties of viable materials, the properties of those things to be used in conjunction with the circuit board, optimal environmental conditions, et cetera. Some details are worked out unconsciously, but others may need to be consciously accounted. Even creating something as simple as a lever requires some understanding of how physical objects interact. Franklin's intuition essentially allows him to "cheat" by working out all steps beyond conception, subconsciously.

This intuition and ability are beyond even his own understanding and intellect. For someone of his age and financial status with his resources, Franklin is reasonably gifted in matters of software and engineering. But it could be said, without absolute lie, that he isn't as smart as his ability. Because he doesn't consciously work out every step in the design and creation process, these post-conception steps "float below the radar" and elude his conscious understanding. Even in creating a device he might not be able to tell anyone exactly how it works the way it does, but asked to take it apart and put it back together so that it still worked, he could do so without a problem. His mental state in these times is often similar to a person sleepwalking or working at a tedious task for which they need not devote any significant mental resources. For the love of his ability, he prefers to deal in conception and let his mind take care of the rest.

Franklin's mutation also gifts him with a secondary ability. What it is, exactly, is anyone's guess. Most would assume technopathy. Franklin says of himself that he can "talk to" technology and "get it to do what [he wants]." This may or may not be true, but he has been known to literally talk to technology and receive positive outcomes, and never without talking. He has also never used his ability on any piece of technology outside of his vocal range. One theory is that he is a technopath and these facts are all coincidental due to focus; this is often combined with the theory that he's a schizophrenic, and the only way he focuses his mind enough to use his ability is to interact in this way. Ananke refers to it as a "technological empathy."

Franklin is not known to possess any exceptional (or even ordinary) martial arts skill or physical giftedness.

Designation: Workabee is based on most likely stolen defense and monitoring protocols called Panoptes from a private organization. Workabee refers to individual members of a single facet of the modified program. Each bears an appearance resembling (i.e. visually indistinguishable from) any number of species of bee; however the appearance workabee is intentionally misleading.

Sensory Device

Each workabee is individually a monitoring and attack drone. Miniature lenses record and feed back to a number of screens where Ananke may monitor each and all. The visual perception of the average workabee includes all frequencies within the range of the human visible spectrum, as well as those which are not. Additionally, each is equipped with audio sensors and radio wave communication. Audio sensors are accompanied by specialized sound filters. A drone must be able to register even minute sounds to serve practical purpose in a world of metahumans and supernatural stealth, but as well it must not be overwhelmed by the sound of its own movements.

In addition to allowing Ananke to perceive directly, both visual and auditory sensors feed data back to a central processing unit to provide her with more information. Where the general populace may not have use for a drone with the ability to see or hear beyond the ability of the human itself to perceive, a workabee records activity & data beyond these and relays them in an understandable way to a central processing unit - perchance allowing her to pick up on hidden communications, bodies (objects), and other information in any given situation.

Taste, touch, and olfaction don't exist in the most typical human sense. Instead drones register environmental details through specialized tactile and electrochemical sensors which present them on-screen as numbers and mathematical formulae. These formulae are understood by Ananke and may be further decoded into language normal persons would understand, for relatability.

Storage System

Bees are known to store nectar and other substances within their stomachs, and many (though not all) species are known for "pollen baskets" called corbiculae. Anatomically similar, each workabee drone is built with small sacs, and many are fitted with artificial corbiculae. However, rather than survival purposes, these are solely for storing samples of substances.

Artificial scopa along the body, in addition to registering environmental details, act as collection systems. By simply being present, these elongated hairs read atmospheric content and are capable of detecting all manner of chemicals, from the simple atoms in oxygen to natural plant emissions to pollutants and man-made toxins; as if simple analysis is not enough, samples may then be collected for further use.

Additionally, liquids and other substances may be absorbed/extracted through these hairs or otherwise a "tongue" and usually stored within small individual molecular sac formations within the body.

Offensive measures

Artificial pheromones/allomones: Bees operate heavily through use of pheromones, through emission and reception, and have some of the most complex pheromonal communication systems in nature. Workabee drones are no less. Superior, perhaps. Each is fitted with more than 15 artificial glands and is capable of synthesizing and emitting various kinds of pheromones and other allomones for any number of purposes. By emitting certain kinds, a workabee may blend perfectly with nature, integrating itself in a given hive as if a natural part of a colony, and may communicate with the inhabitants by perfectly mimicking each type produced in nature.

As well, they can produce allomones capable of affecting humans or other animals as well, including some artificially synthesized by Ananke herself. Despite their size, these chemicals may be extremely potent and carry effects even on larger animals; particularly effective in a swarm.

Steel-tipped Stinger: Each drone is equipped with a syringe-like, steel-tipped stinger for offense. Unlike bees, a drone does not lose its stinger nor become disabled or die (shut down) after stinging. Electrochemically based, these biomechanical appendages operate on a variable continuum of agony. Its minimum danger setting is designed equal to that of a sting from the Pepsis grossa species of wasp, otherwise known as the tarantula hawk. As such, in an encounter a normal human (or otherwise one with comparable durability and recovery) attacked in this way would find themselves in excruciating pain, likely unable to do aught but lie down and scream for approximately three minutes; this effect tends to work regardless of mental discipline and, more or less, irrespective of pain tolerance.

The maximum threshold for these attacks, as judged by Ananke herself, is roughly ten times that of Paraponera clavata also known as the bullet ant. Typical effects involve waves of burning, throbbing, all-consuming pain that continues unabated for approximately 24 hours. Many would die long before that time, consumed by pain and related complications from the body's own response overcompensating for the attack.

As well, stingers may release an artificially constructed and enhanced peptide acting as an inhibitory neurotransmitter. Masking itself as the naturally occurring GABA, it disrupts voltage-dependent sodium ion channels in the central nervous system. In attacking these, synaptic transmission is all but completely disabled, rendering targets paralyzed.

Other effects may include muscle damage. By mimicking a neurotransmitter directly responsible for regulation of muscle - but to an extreme degree, the drone's neurotoxin may also cause rapidly occurring muscle atrophy (the wasting away of muscles), drastically reducing a target's strength and/or causing them to become permanently paralyzed/impaired (outside of precisely directed assistance). Through hyper-regulation of neural stem cells as well as neurons and neurites (axons and dendrites extending from neurons) the processes of migration and differentiation, synapse formation, and neurite elongation are inhibited; further neural connections of all kinds are disabled.

In short, a target attacked with this peptidic toxin would be paralyzed, permanently unless he or she received precisely directed assistance for the particular symptoms and attack; would become extremely weak in spite of assistance (and likely need months of rehabilitation); would potentially suffer memory loss; and would be incapable of learning anything, from new information to new movements to forming new memories. Untreated, longer-term effects would likely involve complete mental deterioration til death, such that a subject would be unable to even respond to his or her environment at all.

While used in conjunction, this "toxin" operates totally independently of the venom. Because of this and its false appearance as a naturally innocuous neurotransmitter rather than a foreign substance, heightened durability, healing/regeneration, and pain tolerance are of no use in warding off the effects.