Name: James O'Brien AKA Manifold
Age: 30
Alignment: Chaotic Evil. Loyal only to the highest bidder. Muscle for hire.
Abilities: James is a black belt in Taekwondo and a mean brawler, having participated in many street fights for money. He can use handguns and semi-automatic weapons but prefers hand to hand combat.
Power: At will, James O'Brien can copy himself - he can cause multiple versions of himself to appear. Each copy will wear the same clothing as the original, but they would not carry the same equipment. James has managed to have 50 copies of himself at the same time. Anymore than this, and copies begin to spontaniously disappear. Time is also a factor. Sooner or later, James must recall his copies, or they will begin to disappear. Each copy can think and behave as an individual, but they have an impression of the will of the original as well as each other in their minds. This shared impression acts like a psychic link, allowing them to move effectively towards the same goal and not get into each others way. With practice, James and his copies have mastered how to chain attacks together, allowing for devastating group attacks.
He believes that with even more practice, that he can improve upon the limitations of his power.
Appearance: 6'0, short black hair, well toned, somewhat physically intimidating even without all of his copies. Tends to wear dramatic leather black trench coats.
Background: James has lied and stolen almost his entire life, and from a young age he has moved through various gangs, never sticking around in one place. For the past 10 years he has operated as an independent bandit - a man that will work for anyone or any gang, and do any job. He has been in the employ of Cedric Royal on several occasions without ever knowing it.
A year ago, James volunteered himself as a guinea pig for a mafia organization seeking to create super villains. James is the only survivor of those experiments, and the leaders of that organization have since perished.
When he stepped into a machine called a Tesla-Replicator, a machine that had killed every other tester, he agreed to do so for $100, 000. The large bubble like machine surged with electrical power, and when it ended, James found himself staring at an exact double. What was even more strange was that he could hear the thoughts of the other. The scientists applauded themselves, considering the experiment a great success. But then another James copy appeared, and then another, and another. The mafia rushed into the room in a panic but were overcome by what was now a swarm of James clones, all of them grinning and laughing, like a pack of dogs they tore everything in their path apart. That night there was over one hundred of them, and they burnt the place down in their mad glee. James has not managed to create as many copies since.
For a brief time, he enjoyed playing the role of superhero. It was simply something to do, a way to pass the time with his new found power. He could walk into almost any drug den, whorehouse, or scum infested bar, and take the entire place out. When he was offered a contract for $2 million a year to keep doing what he had done his whole life, which was any criminal act asked of him, he said yes immediately.
The man that pays this contract is one Cedric Royal.
