The Big Villains Thread

Games Sentinel Comics RPG
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Villain of the Day:   June 24  (Malachite)

Anne-Marie de Boers grew up like a veritable princess, complete with glistening tiara.

One of the heiresses to the famed de Boers gemstone mining company, Anne-Marie was raised in the lap of luxury, with servants to wait on her hand and foot, an ever-expanding wardrobe featuring all the greatest names in fashion, and more wealth than some small countries.  She didn't particularly care how the money was made--that was for her father and his number-crunching cronies--but as long as she got to spend as much of it as she wanted.  One of her favorite pieces was a diamond-studded silver tiara, inlaid with emerald and malachite.

That was, however, until Ernst de Boers came into the practice of mining and smuggling conflict diamonds.  Accused by a UN war crimes tribunal of funding insurgency (and with it, potential genocide) within several central African nations, the de Boers mining syndicate came crashing down, with most of its assets seized.  This included, naturally, the de Boers' numerous homes, much of their material wealth, and their diverse portfolio and hedge funds.  Anne-Marie was incensed.  How dare they take her things?  How dare they disrupt her livelihood?  How dare they!

While the UN International Courts began the lengthy bureaucratic process of subsuming the de Boers' holdings, Anne-Marie made her escape with a briefcase full of conflict diamonds, intending to sell to the highest bidder.  What she didn't bank on, however, was an approach from an old acquaintance of her father's:  an international financier named Cecil Kimberley.  What she further didn't realize was that Cecil Kimberley was, in fact, a member of a certain elite group known as The Annihilationists.

Seeing a potential tool for his use, Kimberley manipulated Anne-Marie into exacting her vengeance upon the international community.  Still obsessing over her lost gems, Anne-Marie provided the perfect semi-unwitting tool through which The Annihilationists could work.  Kimberley's contacts provided Anne-Marie with an armored costumes, weaponry based upon sophisticated mining lasers, and numerous hand weapons sharpened with a (industrial) diamond coating.  Anne-Marie herself provided the final touch:  the tiara she had worn since she was a teenager.  Donning that headpiece, Malachite was born.

To date, Malachite has been found in a number of high-society locales, exacting her vengeance upon both the international legal community (for destroying her life in the first place) and the idle rich of Europe and Africa (for abandoning her family in their hour of need).  While Malachite's identity was swiftly discerned, she proved quite the able combatant and was able to elude law enforcement.  Because of her actions, though, the UN International Courts have recommended transferring Ernst de Boer from his minimum security prison in The Hague to a more secure facility in France.  Some have conjectured that this might draw out Malachite, potentially leading to her arrest, though others believe that doing so might only be inviting disaster as Malachite carves off another piece for herself.

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Villain of the Day:  June 25 (The Firebird, 1948 Suite)

The music was burned, the libretto purged, the very theater in which it was performed was razed to the ground.  The Vatincan swore retribution against Stravinsky, who in turn swore he would never create another copy of the blasphemous twist on his magnum opus.  However, the 1948 Firebird Suite still emerges on occasion, leaving only broken bodies and madness in its wake.

Historically, Igor Stravinsky's The Firebird had only three notable suites:  1911, 1919, and 1945.  However, in 1947, a mysterious elderly woman approached Stravinsky with a patronage and a desire for a new rendition of his masterwork.  Stravinsky was hesitant at first, but soon found himself possessed of a new creativity.  For four days and nights, he sat at his writing desk, taking only the barest breaks to relieve himself and to brew a new pot of coffee.  At the end of the fourth day, the new version was finished, with an extended epilogue focusing on the strange, surreal world of Koschei the Deathless and the Infernal Dance.

To even the most learned of musicians, the 1948 Firebird has few variations from the 1945 version, outside of the extended Second Tableau and the return to Koschei's infernal realm.  However, to those trained in both the mystic arts and educated in musical theory, a strange trend emerges:  seemingly dissonant notes, out of place within the greater musical refrains, seem to echo throughout the theater.  Each note seems to almost warp and wend reality, with the performers subtly accelerating their tempo and whirling one another into a frenzy.  By the start of the Second Tableau, all within the theater find themselves in a cult-like reverie, utterly enthralled with the music and artistry.  However, as passage 15 begins and the dancers open their gate to the realm of the Deathless One, no living witness remains.  Stravinsky himself fled the composer's stand, screaming into the night.

The massacre at the first performance of the 1948 suite left 19 dancers, 48 musicians, and over 200 attendees dead, their bodies contorted in the throes of musical ecstacy.  Stravinsky himself was questioned, but released, as investigators attempted to focus their efforts on the strange woman who commissioned the piece in the first place.  No evidence was ever found as to her identity; the name she had given corresponded only to a woman who had died in 1878.

Publicly, Stravinsky decried the work, destroying it as above.  However, his closest confidants knew that he entrusted the original sheet music from that night--snatched from his music stand as he fled--to his protoge:  Warren Zevon.  With Zevon's death at the hands of a spectral machine-gunner in 2003, some believe that Stravinsky's accursed music may well be in the hands of some nefarious forces...

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Sounds like On Mount Golgotha meets the Hanged King's Tragedy. :B

...Okay, but Warren Zevon? O.o

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Go take a look at Warren Zevon’s wikipedia page, if you don’t believe me. When that tidbit crossed my Pandora feed, I had to go verify it myself!

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Wait, do you really have a die of shame? That's pretty cool.

Anyway, ftr I came up with this character months before reading about Shelob. It's just a coincidence, I swear!

Arachne

Sewing, knitting, crochet, just about anything that uses a thread or string, all considered dying arts, and all arts that retired Mary-Anne Stitch took a lot of pride in. So much that when the retirement home held an embriodery competition, she was certain she'd win no matter what she made. And in fact she probably would have won if she hadn't chosen to embroider a rather unflattering depiction of the adminstrator which exaggerated certain features, and if said adminitrator wasn't also the judge of the competition.

When she lost, she was so furious that, later that night, she snuck into the hall where the winning entry was being displayed and set it on fire. Of course this set off the fire alarm, but she intented to be back in her room before anyone knew what happened. However, she wasn't fast enough to avoid the sprinkling system, and got drenched in what, she couldn't have known at the time, was isophlex-alpha. Just as planned, by the time the fire department arrived, Mary-Anne was nowhere to be found, but some neighbors claimed they saw some sort of black, furred creature crawl out the window and scuttle into the night.

Some people might get humbled from turing into a horrifying spider beast, but Arachne loved her new form, especially her ability to produce threads much stronger than anything she's used before, and which she could do so much more with than mere art. Even better, she was soon after approached with the prospect of joining a team, a team whose goal was to prove its superiority over humanity. She couldn't possibly say no.

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I did, immediately after reading that. Wild.

I assume the 'spectral gunner' mentioned in the bio had no head?

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The Die of Shame is a hunter-orange oversized d10, with black pips instead of numbers.  It's hideous, and it's the mark of one who's either a) done something profundly dumb, or b) made a terrible joke, capable of making the table cringe.  In either case, it stays in front of you until someone does something worse...

And, strange, that spectral gunner *was* headless!  So weird...

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Villain of the Day:  June 26 (Grand Master Ulrich von Jungingen)

The first place Ulrich von Jungingen, Grand Master of the Teutonic Knights, went upon waaking up, was to the National Museum in Warsaw.

He knew who he was.  He knew how he died, fighting the Lizard Union at the Battle of Grunwald.  He even knew what had transpired since his death, for whatever reason.  His consciousness knew of Jan Matejko's accursed painting and its lies.  His first task, of course, was to consume the entire museum in flames.  

Even Ulrich himself does not know how he has managed to thwart death and cross the ages, but his mysterious return has only enflamed his zeal for the sacred mission of the (long-defunct) Teutonic Knights.  However, since arising, he has found this new era to be one of utter sacrilage and madness.  The common folk showed no decency, horrifying monsters roamed the world, lauded as heroes, and devastation rained from the sky.  Ulrich simply could not brook such blasphemies; the Teutonic Knights must be reborn.

Since that day, Grand Master Ulrich has crossed Europe and the new "America" on foot, dressed in the simple robes of a mendicant, recruiting all those of righteous indignation and able to swing a sword unto his new Teutonic Knights.  The group has established a base of operations in southern Minnesota, which resembles nothing so much as a medieval fortress, equipped and outfitted with the most modern in defense technology.

Ulrich's new Teutonic Knights have emerged to a mixed reactions.  While they have been known to help certain heroes--they have a particular affinity for Legacy and Fanatic--though their outright xenophobia has led them to attack those such as Omnitron-X, Tempest, and Sky-Scraper.  Ulrich most recently came into conflict with The Harpy, after she approached Ulrich with tales of a vision of him harboring the madman known as Apollyon.  While Ulrich has outright denied these claims, his methods have only become harsher and more sadistic as his time in this brave new world has gone on.  Whether he rises as a hero or descends into depravity remains to be seen...

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Also, behold!  The Die of Shame!

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Villain of the Day: June 27 (The Seven Sleepers)

The practice of meteorology has always been a tricky one, often the butt of jokes related to being "wrong 50% of time".  However, as far back as the Dark Age, man has tried to harness the elements.  None have been so successful as the beings known as The Seven Sleepers.

The only mystic chronicle of The Seven Sleepers comes from Jacob of Serugh in the Sixth Century, whose work was transcribed into a 1260 hagiography by Jacobus de Varagine.  Jacob told of seven powerful sorcerers who sought dominion over the very elements themselves.  In doing so, they renounced their faith, instead pledging their allegiance to the Islamic sorcerer and wanderer known as Am-Dhaegar (he of the eponymous Execration Texts).  Under Am-Dhaegar's tutelage, the group traveled to an unihabited island in the Baltic Sea known within the sorcerous community as a great convergence of ley-lines.

There, upon the summer solstice, Am-Dhaegar enacted the fell ritual.  Natural magic streamed into the Seven, the very elements and weather changing with each blink of the eye.  As Am-Dhagar's chant concluded, the Seven arose, brimming with arcane power.

Each of the Seven had been gifted with dominion over a natural weather effect.  Maximilian crackled with lightning, while Julius could call upon a torrential, beating hailstorm.  Antonius became as the fog, while Adonijah's breath became as powerful as a hurricane wind.  Mattius could summon a baking, searing heat, while Decius could call upon a mighty blizzard and freeze with but a touch.  The final of the Seven, known as Sodinanius, however, was most frightening of all:  he could surround himself with the veritable eye of the hurricane, creating an eerie calm which slowed time to a crawl while Sodinanius himself remained at a normal speed.  

Immediately, Am-Dhaegar knew his folly.  The sorcerer moved to flee, though the Seven surrounded him and began a relentless assault.  And, of course, while Am-Dhaegar was a gifted mage, he knew he could not stand against such chaos.  With a gasp, he levied a curse against the Seven, sealing them away within the island itself, whereupon they could only visit their wrath upon the Earth once per year:  on the summer solstice.  All other days, they slumbered away, held in place by the very ley lines from which they pull their powers.  Am-Dhaegar beat a hasty escape, leaving few mentions of his mistake.

To this day, the Seven Sleepers continue to ravage the world each summer solstice, with the Baltic regions suffering the brunt of the Seven Sleepers' wrath.  However, since the Deadline event (and the subsequential weakening of the world's ley lines), several arcanists have wondered whether Am-Dhaegar's curse could weaken to the point of breaking.  And, if that were the case, could the Seven Sleepers awaken permanently?

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Villain of the Day:  June 28 (The Sunset Man)

There is a dimension as wide as space itself, as eternal as everlasting time.  It is the the zone between daylight and nightfall, between mans' greatest technologies and the oldest forgotten lore.  It calls upon the depths of ones' terror and tests the limits of his knowledge.  It is a place of dread imagination.  It is the home of The Sunset Man.

None ever truly know when they enter the realm of The Sunset Man.  The world seems normal at first, with kids on bikes riding past and all the trappings of small-town Americana on full display.  The only tell that an individual might have crossed into the realm of The Sunset Man might be some degree of anachronism.  Men and women wear clothing straight out of the 1950s.  Children play jacks and hopscotch rather than video games.  And, of course, nary a screen is to be seen. 

Within one of The Sunset Man's realms, the uncanny rules.  Everything seems just too normal, people seem too friendly.  The Sunset Man himself roams about, blending into the crowd, dressed in a black suit and pork-pie hat.  Most times, The Sunset Man seems to be content to simply observe and test those who enter his realm, though other times, he seems to incite the populace against any interlopers, quickly turning homely housewives into the literal monsters on Maple Street.  If his identity is revealed, The Sunset Man's face disappears, leaving only smooth, pale skin in its place.

The actual nature of The Sunset Man, however, remains to be seen.  Those familiar with sorcery detect no degree of arcane power or magic emanating from The Sunset Man or any of his creations.  Science reveals all to be normal within such a realm, with no evidence of any anomaly.  Some have conjectured that The Sunset Man may be an extradimensional entity, though little evidence remains to corroborate such a theory.  Rather, it remains a guess, at best.  Within his realms, he rarely shows any overt power, though any sort of mundane item or person simply seems to "appear" at his whim.  

The only known encounter between known superhumans and The Sunset Man came when Dark Watch came to investigate the disappearance of James Quincannon, the child of a Rook City socialite.  Entering what seemed to be a Rook City slum, the heroes found themselves in a quaint, 50s-era neighborhood, replete with white picket fences and soda fountains.  Therein, Setback was quick to find James, only to find that James didn't want to leave--rather, he wanted to stay, waited on hand and foot by the terrified townsfolk, as if he were some malevolent god who must be appeased.  After a lengthy investigation, The Harpy managed to break through to James telepathically, causing him to mentally dismiss the scenario and leaving the whole group dazed within an abandoned Rook City tenement.  The Sunset Man, though, was nowhere to be found.  

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Fascinating! :D

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Villain of the Day:  June 29  (Nimue)

Her story has been told throughout Arthurian legend, echoing down from the earliest of chronicles.  Geoffrey of Monmouth spoke of her as a fairy queen and ruler of the paradisiacal isle of Avalon.  The earliest Welsh historians referred to her as a chwyfleian, a "wanderer of pale countenance", who lured those bold enough to approach her to their deaths.

Most, however, know Nimue as the seductress and murderess of Merlin.  In truth, she was only was able to slay one Merlin:  the magus known as Myrddin Wyllt, who aided Arthur in raising the castle at Camelot and establishing the Knights of the Round Table.  However, Merlin is no person, but rather a title, passed from sorcerer to sorcerer, denoting the most gifted in the ways of the mystic arts.  She ensorcelled that Merlin, sealing him away to die within a cave near the English/Welsh border.  Nimue went on to aid those who fought against Arthur's court, eventually leading to both Arthur's and Mordred's death at Camlann.  The title of Merlin lay dormant for decades, until claimed by George Monck, the Duke of Albemarle, in 1661.

Nimue has continued to live for centuries, siphoning bits of the life essence away from Myrddin Wyllt and other occultists she has captured and entombed over the decades and centuries.  She simultaneously holds a great lust for, and a great hatred of magicians in any form, seeing them as nothing more than tools to sate her immortality.  However, when she became aware that she was not the only creature of her time to live until this strange new era, she quickly reached out to the vagabond known as Vortigern of Kent.  The pair have become fast acquaintances (and occasionally more...), as Vortigern uses his destructive antics to lure out arcanely-gifted heroes, whom Nimue can trap and feed upon.

However, for those willing to risk their very souls, Nimue can serve as a repository of occult and mystic lore.  She knows many long-hidden secrets, such as the forge upon which Excalibur was hammered, the location of the Sangraal, and the three entrances to Nilbog.  However, few who ever consult with Nimue emerge from her island as they entered...

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Villain of the Day:  June 30  (The Pagemistress)

Agatha DeCarlo loved being a librarian.  Sort of.

She loved being around books.  She loved the smell of pages and bound leather.  She loved reading in the big comfy chairs in the east reading room.  She loved roaming the stacks in the archives, surrounded by stack after stack of bound books.  She loved the simple joy of sitting down with a glass of cold-brewed coffee and engrossing herself in some other world.

What she didn't love was the people.  The constant chattering.  The children running back and forth within the stacks with their grubby fingers.  The pudgy housewives asking where they could find the newest bodice-ripper.  The whinging teenagers, complaining about the research papers they had procrastinated on.  The utterly useless volunteers, who couldn't be trusted to find anything in the stacks if their lives depended on it.

Let there be no mistake.  Agatha was a misanthrope, through and through.  Her coworkers detested working with her, but even after her shifts would end, Agatha would stay on, drinking her coffee and reading from the stacks.  But when one of those 'inept' volunteers stumbled upon Agatha's greatest shame--the fact that she had stolen tens of thousands of the library's books, hoarding them for herself in her house.  While the library did not press charges against Agatha, they did confiscate their lost books and fire the angry woman, who cursed the whole group the entire time.

However, little did that library staff know, but Agatha's daily cold-brewed coffee served to be something more.  In this age of miracles and madness, a particle of that mysterious Isoflux Alpha made its way into her drink, leaving the old woman...changed.  

When The Pagemistress first arrived on the scene, her old place of employment was totally unprepared for what was happening.  The three-story library was first besieged by flying monkeys, straight out of that Oz book.  As the Miriam, the head librarian, went to call animal control, she found her office all but gone, replaced with a fiery furnace room which belched toxic smoke and searing flame.  The library entire had turned into a funhouse of literary allusions, each room reflecting one of Agatha's favorite books.  Agatha had been gifted with the power to summon constructs, lifted directly from the pages of any novel within her proximity.

When heroes arrived on the scene, believing themselves to be in the midst of another Dreamer event, they were stunned to find a 60-year-old woman, lounging in the midst of the chaos, sipping on a coffee, totally unaware of their prescence.  When confronted, Agatha played the fool, allowing the heroes to escort her "to safety" even as she maintained her hold on the constructs, battling the heroes (and her former co-workers all the while).  Only after Agatha had fled into the bustle of Megalopolis did anyone piece together that she might have been behind anything.

However, Agatha recently received a most wonderful birthday present from her great-niece/god-daughter:  a brand new e-reader, loaded with all of her favorite open-domain books...

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And, with that, we come to the end of Homage June! 

You know what?  It's hot out.  Damned hot.  It's over 85 degrees outside as I'm writing this, well after sunset.  It's high time we did something about this heat!  Tomorrow, we start Elemental July:  a month of characters who control, manipulate, summon, or become the forces of nature itself!

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Welcome to Elemental July, wherein we feature characters capable of controlling the very elements around them!

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Villain of the Day:  July 1 (Heatsink)

Alberto Silva hated his job.

A line cook at a counter-service noodle joint, he spent every day of his working life in front of either an infrared burner, boiling noodles or sauteeing sausage, or in front of a heat lamp, dropping off food for the counter clerks to dish up into the hapless masses after a cheap meal and sub-standard italian food.

However, a seemingly normal night behind the line triggered a permanent change for Alberto.  While working one of the infrared burners, a short in the electrical line caused the burner to flare.  Instinctively, Arturo reached to pull the pan from the heat, which surged with heat and electricity.  Something in that shock triggered a change in Arturo's bioelectrical system; he could use his bioelectrical system as a conduit to change ambient electrical energy into pure infrared radiation.  At first, Arturo could hardly notice, though the other line cooks often complained of the heat within the kitchen while Arturo was working.  

All that changed, though, came on a single fateful night while Arturo was working the late shift.  While he cleaned up the line, three thugs in ski masks burst through the door, demanding the register.  One of them held Christine, the register girl, at gunpoint while the others cleaned out the register and the restaurant safe.  Flying into a rage, heat seared from Arturo's hands and eyes, slamming into the crooks in tangible beams.  Within seconds, he had not only incapacitated the crooks, but had also increased the ambient temperature of the store itself to over 140 degrees.  Both Christine and their manager, Rudolf, were slumped over, passed out from heat exhaustion.

In that very instant, Arturo made a decision that has shaped the rest of his life.  Glancing around nervously, he grabbed the bag of cash that the robbers had so hastily compiled, and he dashed into the night.

Since that fateful evening, Arturo has made his mark, knocking off liquor stores, mini-marts, and other convenience stores under the street name of Heatsink.  When confronted by police, he has managed to escape each and every time, with officers often suffering from severe burns and heat stroke.  Ironically, the only time Heatsink has ever been approached by a hero, it was maybe the worst possible hero suited to apprehending a heat-based hero:  Absolute Zero.  As quickly as Ryan could sling ice and frost, Arturo dispersed it with naught but a gesture and a wave of heat.  Taking cover, Absolute Zero called in for backup, but by that time, Arturo was well and truly gone.

That chance encounter, however, has only emboldened Heatsink in his efforts, and he has actively begun seeking out other profit-motivated villains with which can ally.  The world has truly yet to see the true capacity of what Heatsink is capable of...

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Villain of the Day:  June 2 (The Sculptor)

The first art student to go missing was Deanna Kahl.  A biochemistry student at Megalopolis State University, Deanna always had a nose for a 'side-hustle'.  She filled out surveys for the psychology department at $5 a pop, she had a 5-star rating as an Ultra driver across campus, and she worked in two separate campus offices.   When the art department called for models at the rate of $50/hour, Deanna jumped at the chance.

Now, Deanna had no major issues with her body and wasn't afraid to go nude, so when an additional opportunity came up, written in plain Times New Roman font and tacked to the art department corkboard, she immediately called the number.

Deanna's body was not found for sixteen days, until a life-size limestone statue of Deanna appeared on the quad, with her corpse draped across the statue's lifeless arms.  Crime scene investigators and foresnsic analysts determined that Deanna was suffocated slowly, with a residue of sand covering her entire body.  Not a hand was laid on her; Deanna's body showed no signs of trauma beyond that of her suffocation.  However, something was particularly notable about the statue of her:  the stone Deanna was entirely bereft of sculptor's markings.  No chisel, no mason's tools had touched the stone.  Even the lone inscription at the base of the statue--"Beauty forever immortalized"--seemed to have been pressed into the limestone as if someone had written in wet concrete with their finger.  But even then, the limestone was structually solid--a masterpiece, assembled if someone had shaped the very stone like clay.

Since that first incident, The Sculptor has struck on at least four occasions.  In each case, a model disappears; within two weeks, a masterpiece-sculpture made of solid, uncut stone appears alongside the corpse of the missing model.  Each sculpture bears that same dread appellation, "Beauty forever immortalized".  

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>tfw Ultra drivers :D

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Villain of the Day:  July 3 (The Wet Bandit)

Rook City police, as per usual, were baffled.

However, this crime seemed to actually have a mystery behind it, as opposed to the RCPD's usual "shrug and walk away" strategy, typically on the take from the Chairman and his flunkies.  

The stage?  The Overbrook Museum of Natural History.  The objects in question?  A series of rare geodes, harboring a notable hexahedral quartz crystal formation seen only in some of the deepest parts of the earth.  The twist?  The the floor surrounding the entire geology wing was soaked in water, as if a pipe had burst above the wing, drenching the whole area.  However, no such leak existed.

Rather, as a private investigator later found out, the robbery came at the hands of--as the RCPD called her, named after that terrible Macauley Culkin movie--The Wet Bandit.  However, when The Night Hunter first encountered her, breaking into an industrial diamond-making firm, he was hardly prepared for what he found. 

The so-called Wet Bandit appeared to be a nude or near-nude woman, with long flowing hair...though her body, hair, and every part of her was made of free flowing water.  Shouting a 'stop!' from the neighboring rooftop, Ansel watched as her liquid form slithered across the rooftop and bodily slammed into him, nearly knocking him from the roof entirely.  Then, just as quickly, she flowed off into some crevice, disappearing from sight.  By the time Ansel had pulled himself back atop the roof, she was gone.

However, the case had been cracked and a lure was set.  Working with Dark Watch, Ansel set up another rare gem exhibit at a similar museum and waited.  Sure enough, the Wet Bandit appeared, literally flowing into the museum through the museum's water main.  As she made her move, The Night Hunter, Expatriette, and The Harpy made their move.  However, after the first salvo of liquid nitrogen rounds, something strange happened.  The Wet Bandit turned, peered quizzically at Expatriette and asked, "Amanda?!"  But as Expatriette made to reply, the Wet Bandit disappeared.

Since that day, Expatriette has pored over her voluminous files on the Citizens of the Sun, trying to figure out who might have become the Wet Bandit, though she's reached no true conclusion.  The mystery of the Wet Bandit's true identity remains just that:  a mystery.

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I guess she's not Calypso, then. :B

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Villain of the Day:  July 4 (Sparkler)

Gwendolyn Fineman loved fireworks.  The bright colors, the smell of charcoal and ozone on a warm summer night.  But most of all, she loved that sound.  The whistle of a Roman candle as it streaked across the sky; the quick pop and crackle of a bottle rocket; and the thunderous *CHOOM* of a mortar shell as it exploded across the sky.  Above all others, she loved the grand finale:  that momentous cacophony when the midnight sky became as daylight and the darkness itself gave way to an apocalypse of light.

In hindsight, that should have been the first tip-off that Gwen wasn't quite right.

By sixteen, Gwen had been in juvenile hall no less than four times on fire-related charges, includin an arson charge surrounding a neighbors' garage, which swiftly spread to their house.  Gwen's parents had no idea of what could be done; therapy hadn't helped her, incarceration did nothing.  Worse, Gwen seemed to revel in the chaos and carnage her fires had caused.  But worst of all?  Gwen had a secret that she had managed to keep from everyone the entire time.  Gwen was a metahuman.

As far back as age 8, Gwen had the ability to charge items with pyrokinetic energy, causing them to overload in a phenomenal burst of red-purple flame.  She had become her very own fireworks show, a living Sparkler.  The larger the object--or, alternatively, the longer she manipulated the object--the larger and more damaging the burst would become.  The Sanders' garage was the first time she'd ignited anything larger than a breadbox--this time, she'd snuck in and detonated Mr. Sanders' prized '68 Masterati.

Upon reaching 18, Gwen's records have been expunged, but more than a few villainous organizations have managed to piece together exactly how Gwen had managed to start all of these fires as well as what the true nature of the the fires entailed.  To date, Gwen has taken jobs for CRETIN, TALOS, and the Slaughterhouse Six, accruing a small fortune in mercenary jobs.  One of her favorite tricks is to use a ball-launcher--the long, flexible piece of plastic typically used to throw balls for dogs in the park--to launch incindiary projectiles much farther than she can typically throw.  Sparkler is still at large, bombastic costume and all, though her bombastic nature surely won't keep her out of the spotlight for long.

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Villain of the Day:  July 5 (Blowhard)

Reginald "Reggie" Milligan made his living on the airwaves.  For years, he'd been a right-wing commentator on a Megalopolis-area AM radio station, though he had finally signed a contract on ZM's "National Liberator" station, giving him his first real big break.

Now, Reggie had always made his bones with the most outlandish of political theories.  These ranged from liberal anarchists raiding a chain of sandwich shops to steal provolone cheese to the embezzlement of funds from Megalopolis infrastructure in order to fund a series of low-freqency broadcast antennas meant to manipulate the brain waves of citizens in preparation for a Maenarian invasion.  Needless to say, Reggie was the laughing stock of any outside of the most feverish of right-wing patriots.

With the opening of a new GLOBAL station in northern Megalopolis, Reggie was more than prepared to stage a protest outside the new location.  What he didn't bank on was a freak rainstorm, much less one that just so happened to contain a particle of Isoflux Alpha.

Standing in the rain, ranting and raving about left-wing conspiracies, Reggie was astounded as his mouth burst forth in a massive torrent of wind.  The louder and faster he ranted, the stronger the force of the wind.  Within moments, Reggie's tirade burst forth in hurricane-force winds, capable of shearing off trees and shattering windows.  As dignitaries and well-wishers fled the scene, Reggie continued his onslaught, hurling insults and wind in equal measure.

Since that day, Reggie has made his powers available to all manner of right-wing forces, including a number of known villains, including White Noise and The Survivalist.  While not subtle by any stretch of the imagination, that Blowhard always has a great deal to say.