Captain Cocksure
| F In 40 |
A In 40 |
S Gd 10 |
E Rm 30 |
R Rm 30 |
I Rm 30 |
P Am 50 |
Res Am 50 |
Pop Sh 0 * |
| *off In 40 |
*dex Rm 30 |
*upr Gd 10 |
*res Ex 20 |
*log Ex 20 |
*alt Rm 30 |
*will Am 50 |
*mat Un 100 |
*pub Sh 0 * |
| *def In 40 |
*bal Am 50 |
*lwr Gd 10 |
*sta In 40 |
*mem In 40 |
*awr Rm 30 |
*pre Am 50 |
*$ Rm 30 |
*sec Sh 0 * |
| Health: Karma: |
120 110 |
NH: MH: |
72 162 |
* Before the 'Full Disclosure' adventure path, Captain Cocksure's Popularity should be zero (0). However, afterward it will increase to Excellent (20) rank, though whether you consider it positive or negative will depend on the beholder (the public is sharply divided).
Origin:
As opposed to the vast majority of people he's fought over the years, Jake is but a normal human. While he lacks psionic schooling, magical spells, mutant powers, or even high tech toys, Jake is a highly trained acrobat and weapon specialist, and can hold his own in most fights.
Known Powers:
(none)
Limitations / Enhancements:
(none)
Equipment:
.357 Magnums: Jake carries two of these on his person at all times, for in his line of work, you never know when someone - or something - is going to come after you. He can fire these sidearms to inflict Typical (6) Shooting damage per shot, both simultaneously for +1 CS damage.
Satellite Phone: Jake has a phone which utilizes a reserved frequency band on a low earth orbit satellite matrix, which allows him to call anybody, anywhere, anytime - as long as they're on the earth's surface, at least. This is an effective range of Monstrous (75) - 10,000 miles.
Knives: supplementing his twin sidearms, Jake carries two blades, contained in boot sheathes while not in use. These knives are made from Shift X (150) m.s. metals, and can be used in Jake's hands to inflict his Str rank in Edged Attack damage (or Edged Thrown if, well, thrown).
Quirks:
Benefactor 3: while he's not all that wealthy on his own, Jake has the benefit of intensive, if undocumented, funding in the form of BAH's budget. As long as Jake continues to head up the US government's ultimate answer to super-humans, he'll have access to their goodies.
Talents:
Acrobatics: while he has no powers, Jake was born with remarkable natural agility - which his training has improved considerably. Thanks to this talent, he may attempt maneuvers to dodge, evade, escape, feint or weave attacks as though his Agy (bal) score was +1 CS in rank.
Detective / Espionage: as both the head of an ultra-secret quasi-government agency, as well as a self-trained hero for years, Jake has learned various means of collecting information about a person, place, or thing. He should receive a +1 CS to any FEAT intended to do so.
Guns: after he 'chose' to join the Army for a time, Jake was trained how to use most standard firearms. He can fire any standard, semi-automatic, or fully automatic rifle or pistol at his Agility score +1 CS. Before he gained this talent, he relied on natural ability when using his sidearms.
Knives: as well as his skill with guns, Jake has considerable talent with knives. He can use such weapons as though they were veritable extensions of his own body. As such, he may wield knives as though his Ftg (off) score was +1 CS higher than is listed above.
Leadership: while his time in the Army gave him advanced tactical training, Jake is nonetheless a natural born leader. His time as a hero was an inspiration to both heroes and villains alike. Any group he is leading may add 100 points to its Karma pool, assuming it has one to begin with.
Martial Arts types A, B, C, and E: Jake may inflict Slam or Stun results on a foe regardless of his comparative Str or End scores, receives a +1 CS on any unarmed attack, dodge, escape, grapple, or weave maneuver, and he is allowed a +1 to his initiative in unarmed combat.
Military / United States: after being 'convinced' to head up BAH, Jake was inducted into the Army to give him what the government felt were essential skills. He can thus lead a body of fighting men into battle, and knows military protocols like the back of his hand.
Thrown Weapons: a skill he picked up through self-training as a hero in the 1970s, this talent describes Jake's ability to use several existing weapons with quite a lot of range. Jake can throw knives, axes, clubs, metal spheres, and even boomerangs at his Agy score +1 CS.
Tumbling: well-versed in landing on his feet after a fall (or rather, after being thrown), Jake can land without undue injury to his person. If attempting to recover from any non-damaging fall, Jake can attempt an Agy (bal) FEAT to land feet-first, and thus be ready for action instantly.
Two Guns: while the Army taught him how to use guns properly, he learned how to actually use two guns simultaneously while he was still an amateur, 'unsigned' hero. If wielding two guns in combat, Jake is allowed an extra attack without penalty, assuming both are gun-based attacks.
Contacts:
Though he was a hero for about ten years, Jake cannot really rely upon the multitudes of super heroes he's known in the past - especially since he's either alienated or incarcerated most of them. However, he is in charge of the quasi-government organization known only as BAH
As such, the man can call upon any of the sub-groups under BAH's umbrella, or individual members of said groups, for assistance. Furthermore, he has the credentials to pose as a senior member of most any government agency, and can draw upon their personnel or resources.
Costume:
In his vigilante years, Jake wore an accessorized costume that allowed him the maximum use of his abilities. It consists of a red Spandex ™ shirt, blue Spandex ™ pants, white boots, white gloves, white hip holsters for his firearms, white sheathes for his boot knives, and a silver and blue belt.
This belt is primarily silver, but it has a blue buckle with a silver star in the center. This belt, and the emblem on it, grew in form and function to become the unofficial emblem for BAH, as well as the groups that work under its umbrella. As such, he uses it on his current uniform.
Worn over his old suit, Jake's BAH outfit is a somewhat casual affair. It includes blue denim trousers, a red collared, long-sleeved shirt with the BAH emblem on the left breast, black leather boots with silver toe guards, a black leather belt with his old belt buckle on it, and a white tie.
Of course, if he gets in a fight, he can take this off to reveal his hero costume in a pinch.
Personality:
Jake is the quintessential good guy. He feels that it is his duty to protect the ordinary man from that which he does not - or cannot - understand. Of course, after over thirty years of dealing with ascendant beings and their accompanying mania, he's growing more and more jaded.
Real Name: Jake Russell
Occupation: leader of the mysterious Bureau of Ascendant Humans, former (and occasional) adventurer
Legal Status: citizen of the United States with no criminal record (or a considerable one after BAH goes public)
Marital Status: widower
Alias(es), if any: none
Group Affiliation: the Bureau of Ascendant Humans
Height: 6' 1"
Hair: white, formerly red
Eyes: blue
Weight: 175 lbs
Other Distinguishing Characteristics: while he didn't used to do so, Jake has begun wearing a full, well-trimmed beard of late.
Story:
Way back when, while people were just starting to think about such nebulous concepts as free love, Jake Russell was an aspiring young Olympic hopeful whose life was shattered in an instant, when his similarly youthful wife was slain in a random attack by an apparent super-being.
Lost after this, Jake wandered the earth. Looking for answers to his shattered life, he eventually vowed to protect innocent humans from freaks like the guy who killed his wife. After several encounters with other ascendant humans, both good and bad, Jake decided to become a hero!
Not that he had powers, so much as a remarkable natural agility - and uncommon stubbornness. Soon after he started hunting down super villains, Jake gained a side kick in the form of the Fornicator, a young mutant who was using his pheromone-powers to seduce women.
Until Jake tried to reform him, at least. When this ultimately failed, Jake was abducted by government men who, knowing he was partnered with the lecherous mutant, thought he was in on the act. After extensive interrogation involving various truth serums, these folks relented.
When these mystery men informed Jake just what his partner was up to, he personally beat the snot out of his ersatz side kick and brought him back to said men for justice. That's when their boss, then-President Ford, decided that Jake was the perfect man for a job he had in mind.
You see, before his presidency, the government just eliminated any ascendant humans it discovered - at least, when it couldn't easily, secretly co-opt them into the government. Ford didn't like this, and decided to introduce justice, after a fashion, into the government's super-human affairs.
To this end, Ford charged Jake with the formation of a definitive, if secretive, government agency that would protect ordinary Americans from the threat that ascendant humans posed, and once it did so, deal with them in a fair manner. This had to be done with utmost secrecy, however.
Normal people, you see, tend to react poorly to suddenly learning that there's an alien living down the street. Or that Grandma is a mutant with insect genes. Or that your quirky room-mate learned how to bend reality to his will by selling his soul to any number of willing, demonic buyers.
So, keeping all this in mind, Jake formed the Bureau of Ascendant Humans from scratch. Thanks to Ford, he had all the government's information on meta-humans on hand - all other copies of which he had destroyed as soon as it was given to him, when possible - and he went to work.
The first thing he did was contact six people that he felt would be perfect in the assembly of his new Bureau - some which he knew from personal experience, some he didn't - and offered them the Job. Each of them accepted, of course, as they were given command of a specific strike team.
Each of these teams would deal with a specific form of super-human. One for psis, one for wizards, one for mutants, etc..., all of which would be ultimately responsible for keeping their brand of terror in check. They only answer to their leader, who only answers to Jake.
And, of course, the System.
The System is a vast and thorough super-human legal system put together by various experts at the time. Some of them have been kept on as counsel to keep it working properly, though some have declined - and had their memories of the events wiped out by BAH telepaths.
As did President Ford himself, at his own request. You see, Ford knew that all kinds of bizarre secret societies, terrorist outfits, and even alien influences were worming their way into the government, dividing it up amongst themselves, and fighting secret wars over pieces of the pie.
So, if he or anyone else knew about BAH, the whole thing could be co-opted and turned against those it was designed to protect. This is why not only was Ford's memories of BAH's creation removed, but so was any sort of government funding 'paper trail'.
Though BAH was initially funded with government money, it slowly made a tremendous amount of private investments, and is now self-sufficient... to a point. It still has a budget it must maintain and so forth, but at least the men and women of BAH know they're safe from accountants.
Over the years, Jake has become more cynical about the world, but he still tries to treat those he is charged with capturing and prosecuting with fairness. It gets harder and harder for him though, for while he's done well in keeping ascendant humans in line for years, they're multiplying.
And far too rapidly for BAH to deal with, it seems. He works twenty hours a day, and has even found it necessary to leave some super-types to their own devices now and then. However, the man will rest at nothing to keep every human possible safe from the freaks amongst them.
At the same time though, he finds that some operations demand a more... personal response from BAH. Instead of having his multitudes of minions deal with some issues, Jake handles them himself. Especially since this allows him to don his old costume from back in the Day.
Of course all this changed when former President Ford, co-opted by the possessing demon Overlord Keda, came after him. Intending to turn the frozen criminals BAH was keeping into a vast army to conquer the earth and then his former realm, Keda knew that Russell was the key.
Thanks to a grandiose plan involving the morally ambiguous Disco Head, Keda flushed Jake out and gained control of BAH by posing as him. Things went sour for him when Gerald Ford himself came after Keda though, mystic knowledge from three decades of possession in his head.
After freeing Russell from Keda, Ford tried to enact his plan himself, having become unhinged after so long under the thumb of a demonic presence. Thanks to Russell and various vigilantes he hadn't gotten around to putting through the System, Ford was also defeated - if barely.
The problem was the efforts of both Keda and Ford revealed the presence of not only the BAH to the world, but of their huge cryogenic prison system. The US government, not amused, threw Russell in the pokey as they tried to decipher just what was going on in there.
Of course Russell had the entire agency go 'underground' at this point, and arranged for them to release all of its files, over time, via the internet - that way the government (and the various agencies still trying to divvy it up) couldn't use that knowledge against the general populace.
Not without forewarning, at least...
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