Real Name: Frederick Hastings
Nature: Critic
Alleigance: Independant
Concept: Chicago Cop
Background:
Fred had a hard job as a detective in the Chicago PD. Back in 1999 there wasn't any municipal defender and the police were expected to take care of delinquent novas. But Chicago is home to the offices of the Aeon Society and pretty soon he had a problem of a different sort. With the Living Wreck as the local hometown hero and Utopian novas coming and going with disturbing regularity, Chicago became a place where nova terrorists and fringe groups would gravitate to air their grievances. Which in turn brought the Church of Michael Archangel which led to further unrest and more nova groups taking an interest in Chi-town. Fred's job quickly became a constant monitoring of novas and radicals coming into Chicago. Many of them without bothering to use the airports or highways.
In 2008 he met Basara while trying to keep track of the novas in his city. Basara had come in unnanounced and had made a name for himself by getting into a few fights with the local street gangs. He took it upon himself to take Basara under his wing since the poor nova was struggling just to eat. Basara lived in the sewers and ate whatever he could find in garbage cans and from what he could take from the criminals he would randomly beat up. So Fred took Basara to Denny's, fed him and gave him the lowdown on organized crime in Chicago. He set it up so that a local mall prvided furnishings for Basara's 'Cave'. A local grocery also got into the act providing Basara with fresh food every day. Pretty soon Basara was the unnofficial (and unpaid) municipal defender of Chicago.
The Living Wreck must have been on vacation for a couple of years because Basara never met him.
When Basara began to start seriously considering money and what he could do with it, Fred was there to set up his accounts and broker his deals with everyone from Capcom to Bandai. This is where poblems started for Fred. Basara really didn't need any money for himself so he told Fred to keep whatever he didn't use or sink into charities. That amounted to considerably more than 15%. More like 60%. Well since it was an agreement between friends Fred never had any reason to hide the amount of money he was making off Basara. Which really pissed off a group of Australian Terats when the Basara movie came out. The way they saw it this was the most blatant case of a baseline taking advantage of a nova. They had no beef with Basara but they certainly wanted to make their point very clear to Fred. The problem was that Basara just happened to be there when they showed up. They decided to take it easy and leave it alone for the time being.
But, when they came back to work Fred over Basara needed to talk some things over with Fred. Basara had decided that to protect Fred and his family he would have to turn over his assets to a nova agent. Of course the Terats didn't know that but when Basara showed up and started attacking they were certainly willing to respond in kind. However they shouldn't have discounted Fred so easily. One of the novas was dodging blows from Basara and in bad shape from one that had landed when Fred pulled out a gun from his ankle holster and shot him repeatedly at point blank range in the face. The other Terats wanted to kill Fred but Basara managed to get him safely out of the fight. However the two remaining Terats were considerably more difficult to deal with and Basara was having little luck with them. Suddenly out of nowhere Fred returned with a strange energy pistol which he used to shoot at the Terat whose body was stone. The Terat laughed at the beam that didn't even appear to singe his stone hide. His laughter turned to screams of terror though when his body began to dissolve. In less than five seconds the nova who was tough enough to ignore Basara's blows became a puddle of unidentifiable brown liquid.
The other Terat decided that flight was a good option and got the hell out of there. Officially the two deaths are credited to Basara, but the Terat who fled knows the truth.
After that Fred decided to stick close by Basara and other novas who had no love of the Teragen. You never know who might be gunning for you or where they might appear especially when they have access to nova powers. At an XWF show where Battousai was attending the Primacy decided to take Fred out to send a message to other baselines who might think they could harm novas in self defense. Of course Battousai wasn't about to let them. When Shrapnel let loose with her barrage of razor sharp metal fragments Battousai put himself in their path. The barrage barely registered on Battousai. When the Confederate and Shrapnel attacked Battousai at the same time he robbed them of all their heat saving the stadium full of spectators from a fiery death. Shrapnel and the Confederate were left immobile statues of rock and metal. Their backup managed to get them out of there quick but the humilliation was not soon forgotten.
Fred started taking drugs to defend himself against nova mind control powers and moved to Addis Ababa to be closer to Battousai and the other members of Team Tommorrow. He lost his wife and went through a rather painful divorce. Somewhere along the way he got a cybernetic replacement for his left eye. He had damaged it in Chicago long ago when a pimp attacked him with a knife. But only now did he have the money and the technology available to do something about it.
To this day nobody knows where Fred got that nova killing gun or what it really does that makes it so lethal. The inventor of the gun is Dr. Michael Redford, better known as Dr. Destruction. The gun produces a Quantum sympathy effect that bypasses all barriers. There's no real defense against it and it's equally capable of killing low powered nova as it is of killing a Quantum 10 ubernova. A nova could duplicate the effects if he is willing to die. The disruption effect is sympathetic so that each time the gun is used it creates the same disruption effect in the gun itself. This has no visible effect but if a nova were to attune the gun he would suffer the same amount of damage as the target. The only way to avoid the effect is to dodge the beam that fires off an electron burst to establish particle symmetry. After the beam hits, the nova's own Quantum Matrix turns against his body using all its formidable Quantum power to destroy itself. The effect is similar to an uncontrolled eruption. Except that the Node reshapes the body into nothing, instead of into an approximation of his ideal form. If the symmetry were under better control the gun could be used to induce eruptions in baselines and to increase the powers of a nova. Sadly it is much easier to destroy than it is to create and while making a beam that could increase the powers of every man, woman and child on the planet to the point where the very universe cannot contain them is possible, it's much easier to create one that simply disrupts that which is already there. The gun has absolutely no effect on baselines, other than a nasty burn, and does only bashing damage to novas who are Dormed down.
Roleplaying Notes:
Fred's a real sweetheart. He'll take one look at a nova like Caestus Pax or Alejandra and say something most innapropriate designed to land him in trouble or just tick off the nova in question. He's not stupid but he is a bit insane. He takes mood altering drugs that make it harder for novas using mega social skills to affect him. His paranoia runs deep and he keeps that experimental nova killing gun with him at all times. Fred also has a habit of chainsmoking and laughing at the most innapropriate of moments.
Cybernetics:
Cybernetic Eye: Enhanced Perception: 1 (+1 die for Perception tests), Targeting Eye (+2 dice to Firearms tests.)
Equipment:
Armored Vest (2/2)
X-P4 Pistol (Experimental anti-nova gun. Microburst of Quantum feedback creates an uncertaintity parallel that forces the body to reject the Node of the nova, or vice versa. On a successful hit, roll the Stamina of the Nova. Each success equals one level of Lethal damage. If the nova posesses Mega Stamina the damage is Aggravated. If the nova possesses Regeneration the damage is doubled. For each additional Mega Stamina Enhancement add one level to the damage. If the nova survives the first hit all subsequent hits are at +1 difficulty. The pistol only has four shots before it must be recharged. On a botch the gun explodes causing 4d10L damage to its user.)
Mood altering pills (+3 to difficulties to influence or control him while taking them.)
Advantages:
Willpower: 8, Initiative: 11
Health levels:
Bruised, Hurt, Injured, Wounded, Maimed, Crippled, Incapacitated, Dead
