Name: Crimson Vendetta, Avatar of Vengeance / Avatar of Pain
Formerly James Chickadee
Race: Human
Gender: Male
Age: 70 (Physically 23)
Appearance: Standard Armor
Unmasked
Avenger Armor
Professional Dress
Personality: Crimson's personality is in a state of flux, shifting between two ends of a spectrum that depend on his mood and stimuli. At the calm end of his spectrum, he wishes to be left alone and to spend his existence in contemplation, avoid hurting others and preforms every act with honor. At the rage end of his spectrum he is unfettered and completely determined, and nothing but Hell itself will stop him. When he is calm, he keeps his words short but respectful. Towards the middle end of his spectrum he'll say whatever he finds either the most appropriate, or the most witty. And at the rage end, he will refuse to speak in anything but screams and speeches of anger.
Background: James Chickadee was a sports writer living in an unknown continent of Booga. Living his days in a day in, day out fashion, his world came to a stopping halt when he was killed by his best friend, a woman named Blake. Acting on fear of a mutual friend turned enemy of their’s trying to ruin her life, Blake smashed James’ head in with a crowbar and left his body in his own home. However, a necromancer named Xan used James as the product of an ultimate experiment. Creating a chemical bath in James’ basement, Xan threw the still warm corpse in. His brief stay of being dead interrupted, James came back to life. Problematically, James as both an atheist and a death seeker. Believing that there was no after-life, and desiring his own death on the assumption of a lack of after-life, compounded on the chemical bath bringing his physical body back to life but severely destabilizing his brain chemistry, his mind broke under the pressure. With a destroyed personality an an erased morality, James went to Blake’s house, and with the crowbar that still had pieces of his brain matter on it, beat her dead without even a shred of hesitation.
After completely destroying Blake, James was jumped by three gang members walking back to his house. With unknown motivation, he demonstrated his Determination Aura for the first time, and killed his attackers. Their leader, the same man Blake had killed James out of fear of, Fosslin, was extremely pissed that not only some of his goons had been killed, but that Blake had “failed” in killing James. Calling in every favor he had, nearly every criminal in the town attacked James’ house. What followed was a long night of bloodshed. Killing every criminal out to get him, James ended it by walking into Fosslin’s home and taking his head off. Before he died, he told James one final remark. “Death means nothing to you. Because James, you’ll always be worthless.” In response, James simply said. “My name isn’t James.”
By the time the police traced the blood to James’ house, James had disappeared into the wind. Several weeks later, on the streets of a new city in Empire State, a member of the Heroes Organization named Owl-Knight on a patrol through the city one night. Recognizing that what seemed to be an unusually violent thug was really a mentally disturbed super villain in the making, Owl-Knight took James home on the promise of a hot meal and clean clothes. Interacting with the formerly dead man, Owl-Knight began to give him psychotherapy to try and help him. At first, simple progress, a new name for a new person, Crimson. Months of days trying to medicate and talk Crimson through his issues, Owl-Knight was partially successful. He reconstructed a new personality for Crimson, and the medication granted him control over his emotions. However, Owl-Knight wasn’t able to get Crimson to be able to control his love of violence against others. More so, Owl-Knight couldn’t convince Crimson to not use his super-human abilities. In a last ditch attempt to prevent the birth of a new super-villain, Owl-Knight took on Crimson as an apprentice. If he couldn’t make Crimson pass as a normal, he would get him to focus his energies as an anti-hero instead of villain. Giving him his first combat suit, martial arts and stealth tactics training, Crimson taught himself the use of firearms.
Years after being taken in by Owl-Knight, Crimson branched on his own, heading to Paradise Region to set up his own base of operations in being an anti-hero. Months into that, Crimson began to hunt down a necromancer to put an end to the abominations he created. When he located the lair, he found Xan, the necromancer who was responsible for his creation. Xan offered an explanation for why Crimson was the way he was. An alien death god called Xod desired a perfect instrument of death, a being molded in such a form that destruction only followed in their wake, in order to bring about a great calamity. Xan, their humble servant, merely obliged, forging James into Crimson in accordance to Xod’s wishes. Putting a bullet into Xan’s face, the revelation would haunt Crimson.
Decades after being taken in by Night-Owl, Crimson had investigated rumors of ways to get off the planet and into space. Most of them worthless dead ends, he did find one worth investigating. The Withered village at Destiny’s Fall in Paradise, the half-aliens there had the capacity to transport a being into space via teleportation. Going there, he managed to convince the Withereds to send him into space, in exchange for him doing a favor firsthand of bringing them an religious artifact that had been stolen from them. There was a wandering clown who found the village, and befriended the children. Learning the of a wooden emblem that was made from an alien tree inside their church, the clown stole it and fled, seeking to sell it as a magical device. It was merely a religious trinket with minor enchantments, but of high sentimental value. Finding the clown in Empire State, Crimson discovered that it had been sold to a rich man on the continent. Leaving the clown, Crimson searched through every estate he could think of, just trying to find the religious device. By the end of the year and with method of elimination, he finally discovered it. Bringing it back to the Withereds, they gratefully granted his desire. A group of them gathered in a circle around Crimson, and using their magical strength together, teleported him to the one place of intergalactic civilization they could sense.
Crimson had been teleported to a neutral hub of intergalactic civilization. Starting off with next to nothing, he proceeded to make a name for his himself as a for hire enforcer with a weakness for helping out others. He met a group of alien mages, who helped him draw out his latent abilities to change the flesh of a planet. He picked up two troubled Solarian youth, Solaris and Memora, and helped them channel their destructive drives in a positive direction. The three developed into an adopted family. He met a blackmarket arms dealer, who sold him upgraded versions of all his former terrestrial gear. However, Crimson wasn’t able to continue to medicate himself in space, and his condition resumed to what it was before, him unable to control his emotions, or his rage. After decades of adventures he finally tracked down the planet that Xod existed on. Slaughtering every last one of their followers, Crimson and his adopted children acted together and destroyed the death god.
His job in space done and his own existence safe guarded, Crimson said goodbye to his family and knew they would be fine without him. He left his children with most of the fortune he had acquired, bought himself an escape pod, and sent himself flying back to Booga. Crash-landing on the planet he called home, and went into retirement, taking on a civilian identify and intending to disappear, until he felt a need to come out again. Occasionally he does.
Powers: Determination Aura - Dying and coming back to life instilled Crimson with a changed soul, able to utilize pure determination and willpower as a source of strength. While channeling this ability, his skin emits a red glow around himself, becoming stronger the more he utilizes it. Foremost, he gains resistance to pain and his body suffers less damage from attacks, and after a certain point knockback or impact will move him less, to the point of becoming completely indomitable to physical force. In addition, his strength also increases, allowing him to hit harder, run faster, and move longer. Being alive for so long he's come to passively always be using this aura, but still able to pull out the higher power. In addition, the aura is empowered when he is at a perfectly calm state, automatically boosting to a level of ignoring knockback. However, it is at its most powerful in his rage state, generating a large red glow and killing instinct in the air, and increasing his strength to a ridiculous level.
Earth Manipulation - Spending time in space among a group of mages, Crimson unlocked a latent ability within himself of manipulating planetary matter. He can change the shape of the landscape around him, molding it to his will. He can telekinetically lift pieces of planetary matter and throw it, and at his utmost concentration create earthquakes.
Superhuman Body - Years of using his Determination Aura and Lazarus Injections have hardened Crimson's body, putting him on an empowered level for a human at a base state, without using his Determination Aura. He can easily flatten cars with his strength, withstand punches and kicks with his durability, outrun cars, and grapple with extreme dexterity.
Unnatural Marksmanship - Years of training has honed Crimson's mind, making his shots accurate and nearly automatic when using his handcannons. Combined with his superhuman abilities he wastes no time in taking his shot, and makes shots normal men would miss.
Stealth - Trained by Owl-Knight in the art of being unseen, at his discretion Crimson can move quietly and avoid detection, keeping himself hidden by most normal senses, and some technological ones. In addition, he was trained in non-lethal take downs using the elements of stealth.
Equipment: Night and Justice - Crimson carries two silver hand cannons, made by military weapons suppliers in Empire State, inspired by the designs of the twin hand cannons he had used while in space. Each one packs a punch and can be fired alongside it’s twin. Their shots are devastating, intended to take down supers.
Executioner - As a melee back up, Crimson kept the combat knife he bought in space. Made of alien materials, it possesses the ability to transmit high intensity sonic vibrations when embedded into a target, shattering their body from within.
Lazarus Injections - Crimson kept a sample of the chemical bath that brought him back to life. Managing to reverse it, he began to continually make more of it, placing it into syringes and carrying them on his person. Able to use them in battle, it undoes all the damage of any wounds, heals any scars, and continues to keep his aging slowed.
Betrayal Marks - Small, high yield explosives about the size of a grenade that resemble Crimson’s helmet, the marks stick upon contact and explode.
Frozen Betrayal Marks - Blue versions of the regular Betrayal Marks, these marks instead spread a quick acting cryogenic agent, producing a thin sheet of ice upon whatever it affects. Still possess the same sticking properties.
Zipline / Grapple - A complex device, combining the properties of both a zipline and a grappling hook that allows him to scale tall surfaces, repel off of them, and create temporary ziplines for wire-walking.
Battlesuit - A suit of black body armor combined with a jacket that serves multiple purposes. Defensively, it provides protection against blunt force trauma and limited protection against bullets or other attacks. Offensively it carries his weapons and betrayal marks, along with ammo. Utility wise it also carries his Lazarus injections and zipline launcher, and the jacket keeps his gear from making noise, and provides him the ability to glide short distances with it.
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