Devilfish:Counterfeit

Cedric Watts / Counterfeit Name: Cedric Watts

Alias: Counterfeit

Age: 25

Alignment: Villain

Public Information:

Barely anything is known about this cape. The only thing that is publicly known is that a man in a suit and mask can beat people up with living objects.

Physical Appearance:

Cedric has caucasian skin, black hair and is nearsighted therefore always wearing black rimmed glasses on his head. Full height is 180cm tall, but thanks to countless hours spent leaning over a desk he has a slouch, meaning effective height is around 175cm. Apart from that he has an athletic build thanks to his weekly visits to the gym though not necessarily muscular, somewhere between scrawny and macho. He loves buying t-shirts with funny jokes and slogans on the front as well as a full sleeve denim jacket while outside.

Costume: He wears a full dinner suit as well as a two faced mask that covers his upper face. The suit is modified to allow unrestricted movement that a normal suit would entail as well as several secret compartments to store equipment out of sight.

Mentality:

All his life he's been able to focus on a single goal and work hard until he achieved it. With every new success coming closer to his dream. He likes it when things work the way they should, everything is a part of a system, and nothing makes him feel better or more satisfied when something works exactly the way it’s supposed to. Like when a criminal is put to justice for his crimes, and if not, then when said criminal is punished in alternate ways. He's not afraid to get his hands dirty if he believes what he's doing is right. He'll manipulate and lie as much as he needs to in order to accomplish his goals of equalizing the playing field so that normal people can go about their daily lives in peace, and evil-doers get exactly what they deserve. He always speaks in a polite matter and strives to solve conflicts through negotiation and diplomacy rather than savagery and violence, however, that's not to say he wouldn't if the situation called for it. He hates people who hurt others for a living with a passion, going so far as to hunt down and physically assault escaped convicts using his thinker power. He is a firm believer in human nature, and that some people are just born bad and can't be changed or redeemed, so instead they must be punished. The system betrayed him when it failed to put his sister's murderer to justice, so just because someone was deemed innocent in court doesn't mean that they're innocent in his books. Other than that he likes dogs and the color blue.

Resources:

Job at police department working as a forensic scientist.

Small and humble apartment in the city as well as a motorcycle which he uses to get to work every day.

Wealth Level: 5

Equipment:

Wears a bullet proof vest under his suit for protection and has integrated metal plates sown into the sleeves of his forearms so he can block an attack without breaking any bones. Wields a stylish cane with a taser on one end for close quarters combat as well as pepper spray in their back pocket. Additionally, he has a burner phone and flashlight stored away in separate hidden pockets on the inside of his jacket in case of emergencies.

Skills:

Has a degree in forensic science and criminal psychology from a prestigious university. Also despite his indoor lifestyle he greatly values staying in shape and used to run track in high school. Knows his way around a computer thanks to all his lab work and is very experienced in researching for long periods of time; knows where to find the best information. Very scarce training in hand to hand combat and other fighting styles, took a self defense class in high school but apart from that he has a lot to learn.

Power:

Touch based post-cognitive thinker power that also has the ability to replicate inanimate objects they use their thinker power on into twisted and deadly minions based off of negative, or flawed aspects of their past.

The cape can touch an object that's no larger than around the size of a fridge and immediately know every negative or flawed aspect of said object's past. After coming into contact with an object and using their thinker power, they can activate it once again to recreate the object out of dust that flows from their opposite hand. The dust changes shape and form upon creation to perfectly replicate the original object, with a few twists. Replicating an object takes around 5 seconds and cannot be interrupted. The cape does not share any senses or mental communication with their minions, but the minions always know where to find the cape and how to get there. All replications can speak not matter how they’re built or look. More like producing a noise than talking. However they only speak when spoken to by their master and when they do it’s in one word sentences. All replications sound the same: a deep, guttural voice with an accent that’s impossible to recognize. Only one replication can be made at a time. The replication is an animated version of the original that follows the verbal commands of the cape and also gains warped and twisted physical features based off of the nature of an object's negative past or other imperfections. Any and all replications do not count as living creatures for the purpose of power interaction, and the cape cannot use his replication power on any tinker made item. These twists fall under four different categories and one is chosen by the cape upon replication:

Ranged attack: The replication gains a ranged form attack, the nature of which is determined upon replication. Replication has limited mobility, growing a twist that lets them move at around walking speed. They have the same amount of health and durability of whatever object they were copied from. Additionally they have a ranged attack that's around the same power level as a high-velocity sling-shot. No matter how the ranged attack ends turns out, they always have a maximum velocity of 80m/s, max range of 50 meters and can fire 1 shot every 4 seconds. Example: A mail box with short spider legs on the bottom that lets it move at around walking speed and shoots knife-like letters at high speeds from it's opening in 4 second intervals, still breaks like a normal mail box.

Mobility: Replication has high mobility, developing a twist that let's them move either long distances at high speeds (around 30mph in a straight line) or instead just be really hard to hit (think about the same effort as trying to swat a fly, they're small and annoying and always landing on you where you don't want them, but if you manage to slap it it's fucking dead). If a replication of the mobility category can fly (be it with wings or propellers or some other mechanism) all movement and maneuverability is around 2/3 that of a ground based mobility replication. They also have lower durability than what they've been replicated from, usually about half as durable as whatever they've been replicated from. Example: A kitchen knife that's been curved into a full, bladed circle with jagged edges and can roll around on any surface at high speed (, due to it's small size it has high maneuverability and can turn on a whim. It also has little legs on the sides of the blade to jump up from the ground or the wall while rolling to cut someone. Range: 100 meters.

Tank: Replication has the same overall toughness of its original and then some. A replication could be extremely hard to break, like a steel bar replication that's been twisted to become denser and tougher than the original material. For example: As a general rule, it would take twice as much effort or damage to break a replication than it would to break the original. Additionally, they have more brute strength as well. For example, in the example I showed how a crowbar replication with the tank category and low mobility was strong enough to crush a man's arm all the way down to the bone by squeezing, possibly even severing it completely if Counterfeit had not told it to stop. 100 meters.

Recon/Stealth: Replications of this category have the same movement and mobility options as well as health as the regular mobility category, but they don't have any weapons or offensive power. Instead they have a mid-tier visual concealing ability and relatively silent movement. They can also follow complex instructions or be assigned an objective and act autonomously for awhile until they either return and report to their master or time-out. For example: they could gain a twist that let's them change color like a chameleon or they could look like a completely mundane object with concealable mutations so they can pass themselves off as the original object. Range: 500 meters.

The cape can create up to four replications at a time and each one will have a lifespan of around 30 minutes before it crumbles back into dust. Replications will always defend their master and do nothing else even if the cape is knocked unconscious, however they will still wither away and crumble once their time runs out. They can also speak in a very crude matter, only doing so when spoken to by their master and usually in one word sentences. Replications can be ordered to do simple tasks (with the exception of the recon/stealth type) like attack, or move into certain formations or attempt to grab something etc. Orders can be done through the use of verbal commands from the cape. Upon the death/destruction of a replication (except when they die naturally from the time limit) all the information and history of the object will come rushing back into the mind of the cape causing an immense thinker headache as well as bringing back all the trauma of their trigger event as well. This thinker headache lasts for approximately five seconds and renders the cape immobile as they're wracked with overwhelming mental pain.

Trigger Type:

Natural trigger, first generation. Golem Master x Target Thinker

Example:

Cedric Watts pulls his black and white mask over the top half of his face, becoming the cape who shall soon be known as Counterfeit. He strolls down the dark city streets in full costume. He'd been tailing a man named Peter Dents who'd been suspected of aggravated assault and robbery of a jewelry store. He was arrested but never convicted because apparently if you know the right people, you can get away with anything in this country. But Cedric Watts knew, he was assigned to his case, he was at the scene of the crime and had seen the evidence. He even used his power on the weapon he used, it told him everything he needed to know that the man was guilty, he observed the whole scene play out from the perspective of the knife used to threaten the innocent civilians who were just trying to go about their normal lives.

He bit his lip to suppress his anger as he finally reached his destination, an old run down trailer on the outskirts of the city. A fitting place for a rat. He reached into his pocket and pulled out a torn up teddy bear that he'd found in the trash on his way to his destination. He activated his power and saw the events that lead to the teddy bear's abandonment from a third person perspective, he saw how it's arm fell off so it's owner tossed it away instead of fixing it. Abandonment, torn, his power focused on those aspects as it recreated it in his opposite hand from dust. The new replication was nearly identical to the original, except all the tears had grown in size and stuffing leaked out of them, it jumped out of his hand and onto the ground. The stuffing continued to flow out of the bear, seemingly coming from nowhere, until it's completely covered by it. The stuffing then changes color to that of the ground around it, making it fade into the background. The stuffing also becomes sticky in texture.

"Perfect." He smiles "now, go inside that trailer and see if Mr. Dents is inside. Here, I'll even open the door for you." He reaches for the trailer door handle and tests to see if it's locked, it isn't "Foolish" he says under his breath. He carefully opens the door just enough to fit the teddy bear replication through. The teddy, now a camouflaged puffball, rolls past his feet and through the door and up the wall, sticking to the side as it sneaks around. A few moments later the teddy replication returns and reports back to its master in a deep, guttural voice that really doesn't really suit something so cute looking.

"Inside. Asleep." The words sound strange, in an accent and voice that's hard to describe.

"Thank you for your services." Another smile. "Now, stay here and keep watch, if someone walks by come back to me and give me a nudge, got it?" he didn't need a response, he already knew that by sacrificing any combat abilities that the replication would normally have it in turn would be quieter and capable of more complex instructions compared to his chunkier, more harmful styles of replications. He walked through the door and inside the trailer. It was a dump, not that he was surprised, just somehow still disappointed. He saw the man he was after asleep on a filthy sofa, surrounded by beer bottles and other bits of garbage. Counterfeit picks up a knife from the sink, there's blood on the tip. He didn't need to use his power to know what this was used for, but he used it anyways to make a replication of it. Another knife formed out of dust from his free hand appeared, except this one was bent upwards into a full circle with little insect like legs sprouting out the sides of the blades to stop it from falling over. He grabbed another knife and made another one, albeit the second one was slightly different but the same general theme. "Hurt." the word came out of his mouth without hesitation as the two circular, jagged knives spun in place for a short moment before rolling across the ground at high speeds towards the unconscious man. The blades raced across Dents's body and he erupted with screams of pain as their jagged edges dug into his skin and tore it to shreds. Counterfeit frowns. He forgot that despite what he may want to think, this man was still human, and that humans scream when they're in pain. "Stop, come back." The knives whizz away from the now bloody and traumatized man, still wailing in pain, and stop again at Counterfeit's feet. Counterfeit walks over to the man and presses the end of his can against his bloodied neck and presses the button on the side, activating the taser he had installed at one end. Peter Dents spasmed and then went unconscious as the cane was pulled away. The screaming was bad, it had likely alerted at least a few people in the immediate area.

Without warning, Counterfeit was overwhelmed with intense mental pain and trauma. Collapsing to his knees with his head in his hands, teeth clenched in pain as every single moment of the teddy bear's history rushed back into his mind all at once on top of all the emotions and despair he'd felt from his trigger, too fast for him to process. A tear rolls down his cheek once the despair and pain passes and he realizes why.

Two men wearing wife beaters, wielding a crowbar and piece of wood stand between Counterfeit and the exit. Dust slowly trickles off of the pieces of wood. Meaning that his teddy bear replication had been smashed with it and turned back into dust, which would explain the pain and despair he felt earlier. "Shit." Counterfeit sprung into action before the two men could react to the bloody scene. He kicks the one in front in the chest, knocking him backwards while simultaneously shouting "distract the one in the back!" to the two blades that are now covered in blood. The blades spin just as they did before through the gap in between the front goon's feet cutting at the ankles of the man behind. The narrow spaces of the trailer were working both for and against him in the moment, restricting the movement of his enemies while also denying him his escape route. The goon recovers and swings at Counterfeit with the crowbar. Counterfeit puts his arm up to shield himself and blocks the overhead blow, once again thankful for sowing metal sheets in the sleeves of his jacket. He grabs the crowbar after stopping it with his forearm and uses his power. He briefly sees a repeat of the scenes that had just occurred before him as he replicates the crowbar in his other hand. The replication is like the original except it's longer and curled all the way around into a spiral. He swings at the goon with his new replication. The goon tries to block with his arm in return, bad idea. There's an audible crack as metal meet flesh and the goon stumbles into the wall next to him. Counterfeit shouts to his crowbar replication "hold him there!" and wastes no time watching how it curls around the goon's now broken wrist and around the handle of a kitchen drawer, not letting go.

Counterfeit looks back at the man that was behind before but is now frantically swatting at the two whirling blades dancing around him at high speeds. The blades move into his blind spots before leaping out to deal a shallow cut to serve as a distraction while the other keeps his attention, meaning no meaningful damage had been dealt. The knife replication's high mobility and speed as well as it's ability to deal out the hurt made it a formidable weapon against the right people, however it also meant it was exceedingly fragile and a single well placed hit would destroy it instantly.

He takes the opportunity that the knife replications had offered him to slip past the second goon and towards the door of the trailer, one of the blades leaping out to cut the man's hand as it reached out for him. Just before he could get all the way out the door, something tripped him. He falls down the front steps of the trailer and face first into the dirt. He rubs the now sore parts of his body and glances back. The man that he'd barred to the kitchen drawer had stuck his foot out to trip him and was now pulling himself, as well as the entire drawer, free. Counterfeit regains his composure and gets back to his feet. The goon from before lumbers towards him menacingly with the crowbar replication still holding him to the drawer. Counterfeit scowls, he needed distance. The odds of him winning in a fair fight were low. He couldn't afford to call back the knife replications from before since he needed them to keep distracting the other man, but it was only a matter of time before he got lucky and smashed one of the knife replications, making him defenseless in the process as he writhes immobile in pain against the man with the crowbar curled around his arm.

Counterfeit lets out a shaky breath, he had his game-plan in mind and now all he had to do was act on it. The lumbering man is only inches away from him now and was rearing his unbroken fist back for a big strike, Counterfeit smirks."Crowbar, squeeze." The crowbar lets go of the kitchen drawer and squeezes the goon's already broken arm and the goon becomes overwhelmed with pain. The goon grabs at the crowbar with his free-hand and attempts to pull it loose or to at least ease the pain. Counterfeit uses this as his moment to strike. He grabs his cane with both hands and clocks the man with it right in the jaw "This suit was expensive you know, don't just get it dirty like that and expect nothing in return." He's knocked out cold, the pain from his wound combined with the blow to the head was enough to do him in.

Finally, the only thing left to do was to take the last guy out of commission and get the hell out of there. "Hey crowbar, ease up a little will you? I don't want to disable him for life by severing his hand." The crowbar lets go and slowly slithers towards Counterfeit like a snake and stops by his feet. Again, without warning he is overcome with immense mental pain and despair as flashes of the knife's past and his trigger event zip through his mind, then all over again, doubling his pain. Counterfeit crumbles to the ground writhing in pain as the man with the wooden plank, now covered in dust, stands over him and kicks him in the stomach while he's rolling around, winding him. Unable to talk after being kicked in the stomach he can't issue any specific commands to his replications. Panic washes over him, after regaining his senses he rolls over and watches as the crowbar slowly slithers across the ground towards the man's leg. The man sees it easily and kicks it away. Counterfeit uses the distraction to press the taser end of his cane against the man's leg while he's not looking and turns it on. It works and stuns the man who is now covered in shallow cuts long enough for Counterfeit to get up and do it again, not letting go until he falls over unconscious on the ground.

He limps over to the crowbar replication and picks it up as he walks away from the trailer and into the night.

"Hey there little guy, you did great. Now, how about we go home?"

Backstory:

Cedric's sister was murdered when they were only ten years old by a grown man who used to be a neighbor of his. The killer was caught but was let go due to a lack of evidence. Cedric always knew who had done it, but couldn't prove it. After this traumatizing incident, Cedric knew exactly what he wanted to do with his life. This new purpose of his was to study and become a forensic scientist so he could help put criminals to justice so the world would be fair again. Ten years later he's finally landed a job at the Ashton police department investigating crime scenes and putting criminals behind bars using his sharp mind like he always wanted. Being young and talented meant that Cedric had a bright future to look forward. That all changed when he received a case to investigate, and the suspect was the very same man who had killed his sister back when he was a kid. Turns out he'd been at large all this time, staying low, playing it safe. Until he messed up and got caught. Cedric is overcome with joy and fierce determination to put this man behind bars for the rest of his life. Gathering the evidence wasn't hard, since it was fairly clear the man had done it. However none of this ended up changing the outcome of the trial, the man was found innocent and free of charge thanks to the best lawyer you've ever seen and several under the table deals. After coming to the realization that his sister's murderer is getting away again despite his best efforts, he triggers and gains powers. He later moved to Ashton, Washington despite all the plague because of a rumor he heard that his sister’s murderer was hiding out there.

Starting Reputation:

Morality: -3

Notoriety: E

Wanted Status: ?

Plans on committing very violent crimes in the future towards escaped convicts and is mentally prepared to kill his sister's murderer without hesitation as well as anyone else who he deems unfit to live. Follows his own laws as he deems the laws society has created aren't good enough, but wouldn't attack someone if they haven't done anything wrong yet. Has only appeared in costume to the public once in a news report of an aggravated assault on an ex-convict. News stations and witnesses say they saw a man in a suit and a black and white face mask attack someone with what looked like a living refrigerator.