Daemon

A devilish vigilante, known info-broker, but also a complete unknown. Every trace of him on the internet is regularly wiped out by seemingly innocent account holders. This nanotech-powered hacker uses his spidery abilities to brandish his own justice & is often in possession of incredibly private or restricted data.

Surveillance, intelligence, deception, subterfuge, manipulation, analysis and some would argue (but be unable to prove) assassination seem to be his core skillset but its clear his specialization is brokering information to those he deems suitable.

Personal Data

 * Birth Name: Cormac Bourne


 * Hero Name: Daemon


 * Unknown Aliases: Allam Fayton


 * Known Aliases: None


 * Identity: Not publicly known


 * Sex: Male


 * Age: 26 (DOB: 09/13/41)


 * Height: 5'5"


 * Weight: 140lbs


 * Skin: Light Brown


 * Hair: Black


 * Eyes: Brown


 * Citizenship: US Citizen


 * Legal status: FBI's Most Wanted


 * Place of Birth: Los Angeles, CA, USA


 * Marital Status: Single


 * Occupation: Network Security Consultant / Computer Programmer


 * Education: BA in Computer Science & additionally downloaded College Equivalency Courses


 * Base Of Operations: Mobile

Appearance
Rumors abound, but in person he is a relatively short super-hero. Daemon has a lean & powerful build- yet comes in at just 5'5. The Nanosuit suit consists of an plated black body suit leading up to a cowl.

On top of that, is his helmet. This helmet seems solid & opaque, giving no hint to who hides beneath it. When his helmet's mouthpeice is opened, it looks as if his cowl covers the upper part of his face leaving his nose, mouth, and chin exposed.

These gauntlets have a number glowing surfaces that seem to have panels above them. These surfaces glow with a green-blue haze. The functions of the gauntlets change depending on the need, and so different panels lift or shift as needed- but move silently. His gauntlets are a bit thicker from the wrist back until his mid-forearm, then wrapping under and rounding out to end at his elbow in a spindly point. Each knuckle has a glowing slit going up it.

The Nanosuit has a webbing like texture to it on the underarms & ribs down to shins and feet, with the exception of the bigtoe. These 'un-webbed' areas are slightly plated- looking almost like a carapace over the shoulders, across the chest & down the spine, with a similar angular pattern like his helmet. To the left and right of the final spinal plate are 2 pouches that seem to be sealed with no obvious way to open them. Though his upper body is most often covered by some cyberpunk jacket, hoodie or shirt usually with the sleeves rolled up.

Everything about his look screams Cyberpunk & carries a sleek yet utilitarian technological feel. The feet of his nanosuit have his toes arranged like tabi shoes commonly attributed to ninja.





Background
Cormac Bourne was a a mutant. If you saw him on the street you'd never know it. In fact looking at him- you'd never imagine anything special about him. Cormac didn't think he was special- in fact he hardly even suspected he was a mutant  himself.

It wasn't until he was 15 in Chinatown for the first time that he noticed that when someone spoke or wrote a language he was not familiar with he understood it perfectly. It came as a surprise, but over the years he found that no language anywhere held any secrets from him. He could read a manuscript in a lost tongue and translate it in under a day even with no basis for translation. He could scan computer programming code like he was flipping through a magazine.

The catch was- he had no idea how he'd come to his (almost always entirely correct) conclusions. Sometimes it was as clear as crystal- and other times how he got his answer was like mud. This prevented him from using his abilities in an academic way. Beyond that- it only seemed one way. He could understand any language he ran across- but he could only speak in languages he knew already.

Instead he turned his skills to technology- he could produce results in that field without too many questions being asked. His abilities worked equally as well on computers as it did on human languages. He became an expert programmer and eventually even turned to white hat hacking to earn a living. By night he considered himself a 'grey-hat' hacker. Outside of work the world was not just black and white- in fact to him it seemed to only be made of grey.

This outlook combined with his natural curiosity set his agenda. He uncovered secrets and conspiracies as part of a small collective of socially responsible hackers. Over the years his skills blossomed and interacting with machines became much easier than interacting with people. He built walls around himself, and delved ever deeper into his work. Shirking the responsibilities that came with a social life. But no matter how good you believe you are- there is always someone better. He learned this the hard way, when he stumbled upon a true conspiracy of epic proportions. He found that some of the most nefarious plots he encountered always traced back to one of twelve families- each with a family crest with one symbol in common. A cocoon. He began digging deeper, and tying his theories together with this overarching theme guiding his hand. When doing this, the world took on an entirely new perspective to him.

What he found is that the twelve families have watched and manipulated from the shadows for generations- possibly longer. They once believed themselves the shepherds of man but that soon took a darker turn when at some point a generation began believing they had the right to rule & that they stood above their fellow man. They call themselves the Cocoon Conclave. Their power and influence grew to such an extent that soon enough nothing  happened politically that they didn't observe or control. Since their collective was so secret, outsiders didn't even suspect the Twelve Families existed. So in fact and in practice, no one could threaten their hold on world politics. Anyone who did find out too much was either eliminated, or if found useful brought into the fold.

Cormac Bourne was found to fall into the latter category until he turned down their offer. They persecuted him and sent their hired guns after him. First it started as hacks done in his name- sloppy and obvious. A warning shot across the bow of his ship. Then that too amped up. He prepared to go to ground as a terrible terrorist attack struck his city. He then became suspect number one as more and more charges began being laid against him.

Personality
'I take orders from 2 people, No One and Not you.' - Daemon (frequently)

Allam is nothing if not curious. Its gotten him into and out of every bad situation he's ever been in. If there is a book he's never read- he will stop whatever he's doing to nose through it. If there is something he doesn't quite understand- he will hold on to it and spend ages researching any available information he can access. He treats the people he meets in much the same manner- something to be investigated, studied, and watched.

Even before being exposed to the alien nanocyte cluster he felt himself apart from everyone around him. He felt that his duty was not to the law but to what was right. After becoming a hacker he considered himself more vigilante than online crusader.

Normally- injustice and corruption is enough to gain his interference but Allam is especially active in various "conspiracy movements" world wide. He's acted as a contact to many agents on all sides of the law in the name of unraveling conspiracies going against the best interests of the general populace.

Allam also values his privacy to an arguably absurd degree, and most information he gives off is filtered through a screen of cover stories. Its almost impossible to take anything he says about himself at face value.

As Daemon, he has formed connections with numerous different superhero teams and individuals (including notably dubious characters like members of Argent, Department 17, and others) often times assisting them when they require information and reference in return for... well that's always the question. "Knowledge begets knowledge" is a phrase often uttered at these meetings by Daemon. He also maintains a large database on various superheroes and villains alike, utilizing the information attained in his investigations & interactions.

Daemon is known as the Whisperer and is a master of sedition and manipulation. The buying, selling and trading of information has been a constant, high stakes and often deadly game that has been played throughout time, and Daemon spends almost all of his time playing this game. He and his agents acquire and sell more information in a week than most people do in their lifetimes. From top government officials, to small time criminals, Daemon's clientele is as varied as it is large.

Despite Daemon's personal motives he acts as a sort of world wide counterbalance to the world stage at large. Even though staggering, government toppling secrets are bought and sold every day, it appears that no one truly ever gets ahead. As a result, everyone is forced to continue playing Daemon's game so as not to fall behind. Truly, the only losing move, is not to play.

Most obviously, he's a trickster - he abhors order and loves all things unpredictable. He tends to laugh at awkward times too, though more in a forlorn way than in genuine mirth.

He's clever and insightful as well, looking beyond the obvious and always trying to find what motivates others, but he also seems to be mostly non-confrontational, preferring not to fight but instead to use his wits and rely on others to gain her ends.

Allam, is everything Daemon is not- on the surface at least. He likes to dress stylishly, but as far as the world is concerned- is a hermit who prefers the company of computers to people.

Daemon espouses a modernized Cypherpunk credo to his close friends and allies, but will happily violate these principles to gain access to restricted or private information.

Powers
Mutation: Allam was born with the ability to psionically understand any language presented to him. This provides a superhuman facility for translating languages, spoken or written, human or alien in origin. His superhuman skill also extended to his great facility in deciphering codes and computer languages. He cannot speak it- but he innately understands the contents and context of language.

His mutant talent for translating differed from the translating ability that a human who is a genius in this field, yet not a mutant, possesses, even though both people might achieve the same results with any given translation problem. Daemon's mutant talent was an intuitive one which worked on a subconscious level, and which may in part be related to telepathy. A non-mutant human, even a genius, would have to work out a translation consciously, step by step. Rather than working the problem out step by step, in his conscious mind, Daemon instead subconsciously solved the problem. Hence, Daemon could reach the correct solution by means that appeared to be leaps of logic, and he himself may not have been consciously aware of the entire process by which he reached the right answer. This is not the result of Nanocyte exposure and is an inherent & subconscious ability.

While a notably weak ability, Cormac has turned this minor ability into a powerful way of acquiring knowledge and leveraging that knowledge to further his goals.

He has regularly shown the ability to read body language; decode hidden messages in intonation and inflection of speech (revealing the inner monologues of individuals); decode combat by viewing a fight as a language to be interpreted, decipher and manipulate data in a manner that rivals hyper-computers. The true limits of how he can apply his new ability are unknown.

After being exposed to the Alien Nanocyte Cluster, Cormac's genetic code was rewritten and enhanced at a base level to accept the nanocytes into his system. This brought his baseline statistics to the peak of human physicality. He heals much faster than unenhanced persons, and will pass age 200 in excellent health in the unlikely case he’s not killed first. Once the nanocytes had fully assimilated into his biology, further enhancements were made- granting him his spider-like abilities & the ability to communicate with a nanosuit which was grown as a layer of his epidermis. Though these rely on specialized nanocyte cells and not Allam's unique (rewritten) biology.

These Specialized Nanocyte Arrays provide the following abilities:

Wall-Crawler: Allam can cling to any surface using just his fingertips and feet. The extent to how much pressure he can stick to is unknown, except that he can handle lifting his own weight. He can stick to surfaces even through layers of clothing and footwear. Daemon is is profoundly maneuverable on solid surfaces, both horizontal and vertical.

Regenerative Healing Factor/Immunity: Allam possesses a healing factor (due to the rapid regenerative power of the nanocytes infused in his tissues), the limits of which is unknown. Itallows him to recover and regenerate from severe injuries. Due to his accelerated metabolism, he can recover from the effects of poisons, bacteria, diseases. etc rapidly.

Superhuman Strength: Allam can lift and press several tons, and can cause harm to super powered individuals with a single punch. However, He has to pull his punches and kicks, otherwise his blows would prove fatal to a normal human. His physical strength also extends into his legs, enabling him to jump several stories in a single bound. The upper limits of his strength are still unknown.

Superhuman Speed: Allam can move at a speeds that surpasses that of the finest human athletes.

Superhuman Durability: Allam's body is physically tougher, and more resistant to some types of injury than the body of a normal human. His body is also more resistant to impact forces than most humans. He can withstand great impacts, such as being thrown through a plate-glass window, something that would severely injure or kill a normal human.

Superhuman Stamina: Allam possess an advanced musculature, that produces less fatigue toxins during physical activity than an ordinary human. This allows him to exert himself physically for much longer periods of time before fatigue begins to impair him.

Superhuman Agility, Flexibility, and Reflexes: Allam's agility, balance, and bodily coordination are all enhanced to levels that are beyond the natural physical limits of a regular human athlete. He's also extraordinarily flexible. He can easily perform the most complicated acrobatic moves as his body is extremely flexible, giving him agility, balance and bodily coordination that surpass those of the finest human athletes; He possesses excellent equilibrium allowing him to balance himself on any object. His reflexes are similarly enhanced and are currently about 20 times greater than those of an ordinary human. Enhanced Vision: Optional acoustic and tactile modes; 60x optical zoom at visible wavelengths (100x digital interpolation).

Nanoscale Trichobothria: In effect, each hair is its own ear that filters out background noise and zeroes in on biologically relevant information, such as an unwary cricket’s hopping, a spider’s sneaking- or a criminal's position and trajectory. Instead of one peak response to a single frequency, these hairs operate at the physical limits of sensitivity across a much broader range of frequencies.

Daemonsight: This effectively works as both Thermal and Night vision. When activated, everything turns greyscale, save for heat sources, which turn the same color they would with standard thermal vision. It also emulates night vision by evening out the visual highs and lows to make everything a uniform brightness.

Early Warning System Daemon is capable of incredibly adaptive responsiveness. His near-death upgrade enhanced Daemon's already impressive reaction time to the extreme, & when combined (subconsciously) with his other abilities gives him a sort of 'intuitive early warning system' allowing him to sidestep most attacks.

Techno-Organic Neurons & Technologically Replaced Tissue As more and more of Daemon's brain becomes techno-organic he is bestowed greater and greater intelligence & mental adaptability. This blend of intellect, biology & technology provides enhanced intuition, pattern solving, information storage and retrieval, as well as logical & psychological/philosophical restructuring to provide the greatest chance of survival. When used actively- he can calculate probable outcomes of tactical and strategic scenarios and thus manipulate events at his leisure to ensure the outcome he desires.

Equipment
Cyberbrain: This device is a nano cerebral sheathe that essentially functions like a tertiary lobe. Acts as a self-contained module containing, protecting, and interfacing an artificially augmented brain. With it Daemon possesses what he calls a holographic memory, allowing him to to replay the memory in his mind with such clarity its as if he were reliving it all over again, but also allows him to freely move about the memory, exploring it from different angles he couldn't see earlier as well as advance and extrapolate 'future probabilities'. With it he can predict possible outcomes and use his above human physical capabilities to exploit gaps as predicted and anticipated. He processes ballistic and tactical data in-combat and post-combat to improve performance. Communications indicate that he crunches telemetry and ballistic data recorded during tactical engagements to suggest new weapons and tactics.

The Cyberbrain allows Daemon to directly interface with technology as well as the following features:
 * On-Board Data Storage: The Nanotech in the suit houses a number of redundant systems- on board memory is one of these. Everything it's user experiences is stored in the suit for later retrieval/review.
 * Built-in Long Range Communications: As a technological device, some basic communication was needed to perform a number of its duties. But basic communication for a space-faring race is far beyond 21st Century Human standards.
 * Psionic Firewall: Allows for data-checking, course-correction & confirmation preventing most attacks that might effect the cyberbrain or its implantee- be that psionic or digital in origin.
 * Enhanced Cognition: The ability to take in and process data at a superhuman rate is prerequisite for such a device. Daemon's mind is greatly enhanced by his cyberbrain.

Nano-Suit: IMG Though the Nanosuit is integrated into his biology, it is in fact separate from his nanocytes. The nanocytes function as middleware between his biological systems and the technological systems of his nanotech. At this scale Nano-circuitry is force-grown using special peptide-matrix viral templates beneath the wearer's skin. Then from there the higher level systems are built. During the initial bonding process- this is found to be most unpleasant as nerve endings are integrated into the biosynthetic system. The Nanosuit is a powerful and extremely versatile set of tactical-combat armor and though 'intelligent', it is not sentient.The non-sentient suit processes environmental data near-instantly & integrates remote telemetry and first-person input from up to 6,000 distinct channels (ranging from full spectrum EM to acoustic, barometric, and pheromonal) presenting clear, concise tactical summaries via an interface integrated directly in the visual cortex. It can also take over the operator's purely autonomic and regulatory functions in the event of somatic damage. Even more impressive,is it's ability to not only monitor the physical and neurological state of the soldier, but to actually optimize them. The Nanosuit continuously regulates dopamine, lactic acid, and corticosteroid levels, anticipates and counteracts debilitating stress and fatigue reactions. The suit also actively augments and maintains the wearer's adrenaline, GABA, and tricyclic levels. It should be noted however that prolonged exposure to antagonistic neuroinhibitors can result in long-term damage to metabolic systems, despite the fact that the suit is capable of repairing it as well. The Nanosuit provides the following functions:


 * Tesselating Therm-Optic Nanoshell - 'Adaptive-Reactive Cloak'​: Specialized nano-scale stealth cloak that changes itself depending on weather conditions and the location of the user. Not unlike a chameleon, Allam, including his clothing, can blend into his surroundings, allowing him to sneak up on his enemies or, in some cases, flee from them. The resulting effect closely resembles that of invisibility. It allows camouflage extending into the visible light and infrared frequencies of the electromagnetic spectrum (this function consumes a good deal of the suit's power, so Daemon minimizes its usage).

NanoGauntlet Utility/Weapons Platform: IMG These specially designed gauntlets provide a number of offensive and defensive abilities. Beyond that there are various 'packages' that can be 'booted' that reconfigure the NanoGauntlets to perform more utilitarian tasks.

The NanoGauntlets provide the following abilities:


 * Web-Spinners: A microfluidics (miniature plumbing) system for spinning strands of artificial spider silk. This non-biological webbing is created from component parts harvested along his travels (the nanosuit actually skims the atomic structure of anything it encounters to replicate and create these webs). These spinners fire synthetic spider-webs which can be used to tangle enemies or create web-lines to swing from. This webbing deteriorates after 1-2hrs depending on the need of the user at the time of creation.
 * Sonic Emitter: A device allowing the amplification of any audio Daemon wishes. He usually uses this as a giant bullhorn to get attention in loud areas.
 * Touch Microphone: Sensitive touch microphone on index and middle fingers that permits eavesdropping through solid surfaces or at a distance. The recording can be played and downloaded into the suits memory & uploaded to the internet from.
 * Digi-Structed Claws: The blade edge is permanently sharp, as it is made out of superheated and superdense plasma held in place by electromagnetic fields. The tips of suit's thumb, first finger & middle fingers are actually nanoscale electromagnetic generators & another nanoscale system generates the superdense plasma from ambient atoms. It cuts through nearly every material like a hot knife through butter, leaving a green-blue trail behind it. This system allows his claws to be completely harmless until the hot, blue edge of the blade is digistructed into place.The plasma is shaped by the electromagnetic field into the shape of talons- one for each finger (3 per hand, 6 total).These function as retractable claws which can be used to fight enemies or cut through objects as needed.
 * High Voltage Stickydisc: Powerful rangedweapon whichupon impact releases a potent electrical blast with a maximum power of around 30,000 volts. Launched via a slot on the backs of his gauntlets.
 * Smoke Pellets: Small capsules that release a large amount of smoke to disorient and blind opponents.
 * Launchable tracers and scanners: Various bugging devices & tracers.
 * Chemical Analyzer: Basically a drug indicator, utilized by dipping his fingers into the substance. Nanoscale shielding prevents the substance from interacting with Daemon's biological processes.
 * MultiTech Emulation: Due to the nanoscale assembly process, Daemon is capable of deploying nanites over a system and then upon retrieval, duplicating the functionality of said device. This has unlocked a number of new abilities, though each limits the ability of other gauntlet functions.

Fighting Style
Daemon used to be a very reactionary fighter- letting his opponent lead the dance, while he dodges and uses quick movements to chain multiple hits together. Despite originally having no formal fighting training, his Spider-like abilities give him a naturally Capoeira-esque style. This style let him deal with multiple threats at once by focusing on an uninterrupted flow of movements (staying mobile) with special emphasis on adaptation and quick thinking.

Lastly, his webbing allows Daemon to focus on not only quick rapid strikes while dodging, but also controlling the field by restraining or incapacitating enemies using a variety of trapping and immobilizing techniques with both his superhuman strength and webbing.

After running afoul of the Modulus Initiative & Portia Daemon was forced to learn some Muay Thai- a martial art referred to as 'The Art of 8 Limbs' because it uses the knees & elbows as if they were different limbs entirely. Additionally, there is a focus on using these '8 limbs' with incredible force and acuity. He uses a mix of this and moves learned fighting alongside Hunter (as Null) & being trained by a sage-like martial artist of some renown (Sunee Palathai - Former Women's Thai Kickboxing World Champion, master of Hapkido, TKD, Zui quan & secretly also a ninpō master).

He's since created his own methodology called 'The Path of the Shadowed Spider' thanks to help from hundreds of relative hours of observation of other martial arts masters in action & his own combat experiences against other fighters. This new style is a partially offensive & partially defensive martial art that initially focuses on overwhelming your opponent with a sudden blitz from an concealed position. Prior observation of his target allows him to take advantage of every opening in their defense but then after the initial barrage focus shifts to remaining mobile enough to dodge any strike aimed at him. This gives the style an almost random cadence as the underlying strategy lies in both shifts in balance & speed more than the application of force and it often relies on the quick thinking and agility of the defender- traits Daemon has in spades.