Nonce
| Strength 6c |
Agility 4d |
Intellect 8d |
Willpower 11c |
| Hand Size: Edge: |
5 (15) * 3 |
* Nominally, Clark would have 30 Health, but since he has divided his mind in two, each half shares this score. As such, each of the man's two minds have 15 Health, and if one is knocked out, the other can pick up the slack (though this may come as a surprise).
Origin:
Clark Hung is an otherwise normal human who has trained his mind extensively, having mastered one discipline of psionic power while working on a second. The curious thing about Clark is that he has permanently split his mind into two separate selves, to better act as a double agent!
Powers:
Trained Psionics (Superpsi Powers, Traditional Master):
Power Boost (a) (w): core of the superpsi discipline of power, this ability allows Clark to enhance the operating intensity of any other ascendant ability for an aura duration. Abilities so enhanced are raised to intensity 15, or by +1 - whichever is higher.
Mental Invisibility (t) (i): this talent makes Clark's mind invisible to psionic abilities with intensity 16 skill; while standard senses can perceive his consciousness just fine, psionics must pass an average difficulty action against this intensity to perceive it at all.
Psi Sense (s) (w): this skill allows Clark to sense the use of psionics in his vicinity. This intensity 13 power works on any psi power or effect within far missile distance of his person, and any difficulties usually just come from attempts to detect abilities masked from it.
Variable Psionics (a) (i): Clark can copy and imprint upon any one psi power within near missile distance of his person with this intensity 13 ability - and retain it until this power is used again. He tries to retain the healing / others power whenever possible.
Antipsion Generation (t) (i): to better combat rogue psis, Clark has mastered the ability to generate antipsions, doing so with intensity 10 power. While doing so, the only other psionics he can wield are those he has polarized to run on antipsions, as well.
Polarization (s) (i): one power Clark can wield to confront other psis is his skill of polarization. When in use, this ability can force another psionic in operation to function using antipsions, and can remain active in the face of psion exposure with intensity 10 ability.
Empowerment (a) (i): one of his most valuable psionics, this art allows Clark to build psi-active items. He has mastered this power at intensity 15, which lets him install any power he possesses (or has access to via a link) at up to that power intensity.
Link (t) (i): Clark has the ability to combine his powers into a pool with others! He may do this with intensity 7 ability, and each additional individual in a link provides a +1 to the intensity at which he wields the group's combined powers (four folks give +3, etc...).
Clone Projection (s) (i): when he needs to be in many places simultaneously, Clark may generate a clone of himself from psychoplasm. This clone can wander anywhere within artillery distance of his person, and can stay active for up to a week (functions at intensity 7).
Macro Sense (a) (w): this potent superpsionic allows Clark to expand his mind, making connections between different subjects that may or may not be readily apparent. The difficulty of wielding this intensity 13 power depends on just how obscure the knowledge he seeks is.
Mental Doubles (t) (w): Clark may wield this power to create duplicates of his mind within his own brain. Its intensity of 7 allows him to do this that many times, maintaining up to eight thought processes and actions (if physically and mentally able).
However, Clark does not use mental doubles in this fashion. Wielding his intimate knowledge of the human mind and psionics in general, he's developed a power stunt that allowed him to create a singular, permanent mental double - at the cost of one maintainable power.
This secondary, secretive mind was the same as Clark's - until the point of its divergence. It then subsequently erased Clark's memory of its existence, not to mention the fact that Clark can even perform this trick in the first place (to aid its covert work).
Trained Psionics (Psipathic Powers, Traditional Student):
Telepathy (a) (w): core of the psipathic discipline of power, this art allows Clark to achieve two-way mental communications with others at intensity 8. Every doubling of people contacted in this fashion reduces its operating intensity by 2.
Linguistics (t) (i): wielding this power at intensity 20, Clark has mastered a massive variety of languages. He speaks all major languages spoken on earth, not to mention a few used on other planets - and in other dimensions! He can easily drop older languages for new ones, as well.
Sending (s) (w): a complement to his telepathy power, this psipathic skill allows Clark to broadcast thoughts over vast distances. Functioning at intensity 10, this power can send Clark's thoughts to anyone he wishes, no matter how distant.
Mind Wipe (a) (w): with this art, Clark can remove memories from others, doing so with intensity 10 power. If he passes an average difficulty Mind Wipe (willpower) against his target, Clark can delete the memories of others, as he sees fit, in a permanent fashion.
Hindrances / Augmentations:
(none)
Equipment:
Psi Blade (w): Clark's personal creation, this sword is a potent psionic artifact. Taking a considerable amount of time to produce, this item was originally forged from mundane materials, but was enhanced to m.s. 25 with a healthy addition of psionic support woven in.
This sword is an oversized, two-handed weapon. The blade and handle are made from polished chrome, and its hilt is gold with a large sapphire on each side. This glittering prize isn't noted for just being nigh-unbreakable, though. It is sentient, and has these mental abilities:
| Strength 0x |
Agility 0x |
Intellect 4x |
Willpower 8x |
| Hand Size: Edge: |
2 (10) 0 |
* Linguistics (t) (i): Clark's psi blade has this ability so it may converse with others (despite its lack of vocal apparatus) regardless of their language. It can know up to fifteen languages at a time (intensity 15), and may drop one for another when necessary.
* Mental Invisibility (t) (i): to surprise his foes, Clark built this ability into his blade. Functioning at intensity 15, this ability makes the blade all but invisible to most psionic senses, though conventional sensory abilities can perceive it just fine.
* Variable Psionics (a) (i): the psi blade can duplicate the use of any one psionic active within near missile distance of itself, doing so with intensity 10 ability. The blade will retain the duplicated power indefinitely, until this ability is invoked again.
* Personality: Clark's psi blade is thoughtful and introspective. It has the desire and means to do good, though it is largely redundant in the face of Clark's greater power. As such, it talks Clark into lending it out for a time, to be of greater use to other psis.
Skills:
Animal Handling (w): during his time in a particularly oddball timeline, Clark learned how to train super-powered animals of approximately human intelligence. With time, he can befriend and train almost any such creature into an effective combatant and competitor.
Boxing (s): while locked away in a Chinese prison, Clark mastered several unarmed fighting forms. Mainly, he has the ability to divide his pre-card play action score between two weaponless melee strikes, the last of which he may attempt as a contingent action.
Languages / Chinese and English (i): Clark grew up in an international home, his father being American and his mother being Chinese. Naturally, he learned to read, write and speak in both languages, so his parents could discipline him in either when necessary...!
Martial Arts (a): Clark has the ability to use either Strength or Agility to resolve unarmed attacks, whichever may be convenient at a given moment. He may also reduce the difficulty of actions meant to lower falling damage or to catch weapons thrown at his person.
Skill / Swords (s): after he learned how to use swords in battle, Clark made his very own, a heavy blade which he then imbued with potent psi powers. Whether using his personal blade or any other sword, Clark may do so at one difficulty level lower than is normally necessary.
Trance (w): Clark can enter a deep, death-like trance, one in which his respiratory and circulatory rates almost cease. He can experience intense mental breakthroughs in such trances, and can fool others into believing he's dead with an average difficulty Willpower (intellect) action.
Contacts:
Nonce is a long-standing member of Mindwatch with exceptional power, and has served the group well over the years (more than it knows). Of course, his secret mind has contacts all over the world in various circles, and he has several friends in another timeline somewhat nearby...!
Calling:
Idealist: having grown up in China, Clark has grown to despise tyranny in all its forms, and strives to free others from its evil yoke. As such, he holds loyalty to no particular organization, ensuring a detached viewpoint that allows him to spot the flaws in any group he belongs to.
Costume:
Nonce is an adventurous fellow, and his uniform reflects this. He wears black leather trousers, black leather boots, a black stretch fabric tank top under a black leather jacket with his Mindwatch badge pinned on, black leather fingerless gloves, a billowy red cape, and a white belt.
Personality:
Clark is a driven man. Having lost his loved ones to the forces of tyranny, he goes out of his way to fight them at every turn, even permanently mutilating his own mind for his cause. He's not so zealous that he'll act irrationally, though; no, Clark is also a master planner.
This because his secret mind has plenty of time to work out contingencies for most threats it may encounter, and often has at least two handy no matter how suddenly they may manifest. Since he's unaware of the 'stranger' in his own head, Clark sometimes amazes even himself.
Real Name: Clark Hung
Occupation: professional vigilante
Legal Status: citizen of China with an appreciable criminal record there
Marital Status: widower
Alias(es), if any: many throwaway aliases
Group Affiliation: Mindwatch, the Bureau of Ascendant Humans
Height: 5' 7"
Hair: black, with white streaks on his temples
Eyes: brown
Weight: 140 lbs
Other Distinguishing Characteristics: inspired by his friend Mágico, Clark usually mousses his hair up in a large, anime-style bush of pointy black trouble.
Story:
Clark is the only son of an American businessman who married a local after his job sent him to China indefinitely. When dad was 'vanished' by the government for supposedly engaging in subversive activity, Clark was enraged... and was also stuck living in a land he'd grown to hate.
He nonetheless got on with his life, eventually marrying as well. Sadly, Clark's wife was slain by government operatives, though her death was incidental; she died after being caught by a stray shot fired at a fleeing religious activist. Crestfallen, Clark fell into deep despair.
Saying too much afterwards in a drunken stupor, Clark wound up being imprison like his father. While there, he met a mysterious old man who had been jailed for 'activities contrary to communist doctrine'. It turned out that this fellow was a psi - a powerful one, at that!
Possessing a veritable grab-bag of psionics, this fellow sensed Clark's utter despondency, and offered to help him escape. The only catch was that Clark's escape from prison would take a considerable amount of time - time enough for him to master powers of his very own.
When Clark asked why this fellow didn't escape himself, since he surely could, the old man grinned. That wasn't much of an answer, but having seen the old fellow's powers in action, Clark wasn't about to argue or look a gift horse in the mouth, and agreed to follow his tutelage.
The only difficulty was that the two had to work in secrecy, as they were under near constant observation by their communist captors. However, Clark's resolve never wavered in the face of his study's difficulties, and within a few years he'd made great strides.
Having manifested several psionics, Clark was well on his way to mastering the superpsi discipline of power before he finally decided that he'd learned enough. Before his jailers knew what hit them, Clark was a free man, but he wasn't done with them just yet. Oh no.
Though a highly wanted man, Clark remained within his home land for several years, wreaking untold havoc upon the communist regime with his abilities. Little they did managed to slow Clark down, even when the government threw a few of their own, loyalist psis against him!
In time, Clark was approached by members of Mindwatch, who eventually sensed his attack on the Chinese government. They implored him to stop lest he cause the Chinese government to terminally crack down on anybody wielding psi powers, and after deep thought, Clark relented.
This because Mindwatch offered to direct him against those who use psionics against ordinary mankind - or those who oppress folks with abilities like his own. They also offered to teach him in ways his old mentor never could, so Clark went along with them for the time being.
Besides, under their own mandate, Mindwatch would have to destroy China's nascent psi operation. After he pointed this out, his Mindwatch superiors had to relent and do Clark's bidding, though Clark himself couldn't participate in this action, for he was to resume his studies.
After a few more years, Clark had mastered his superpsionics and was beginning work on another discipline when he began to grow discontent. He'd witnessed multiple occasions of Mindwatch's operatives going far too far on its operations, often causing lethal collateral damage.
Having experienced the iron grip of tyranny firsthand, Clark wasn't about to let Mindwatch turn into another such group, especially since it had the power to take over the world - and could do so if only it wished to. This is why Clark was especially receptive to the ideas of Jake Russell.
This man was the leader of the Bureau of Ascendant Humans. He was responsible for keeping all ascendant humans in America - and the world, after a fashion - in check. He wished to use Clark as an informant on Mindwatch, should it exceed its mandate and menace the world.
At the same time, Jake wanted to create in Clark a ringer, a surprise in the event that the BAH itself turned against mankind for some reason. Jake was doing this with a few individuals, and sensing Jake's genuine wish to help the world against tyranny, Clark agreed to help the man.
The problem was that Mindwatch is by definition a group of psis. In order to maintain his cover, Clark would have to engage in some deep-cover psionic activity - he would hide his covert activities from everyone... even himself! This is why he mastered his mental doubles power.
Wielding a unique variant of this ability, Clark has divided his mind in two, one being 'himself', and the other being a deep-cover operative for the Bureau - one which subsequently removed Clark's memories of Russell and his new allegiances.
Not to mention Jake's. You see, should someone co-opt Jake's mind, Clark would be one of the world's last defenses against Jake's organization in the event that something went catastrophically wrong - but if Jake knew of Clark's status, his ringer wouldn't be much of a surprise, would it?
As time progressed, Clark continued on as a member of Mindwatch, his growing power making him more valuable than ever to the group. This allowed him ever-more authority on several Mindwatch missions, which let him better control the excesses of some operatives.
And, when a Mindwatch operative got a bit too out of control, Clark could just send a random telepathic shout-out to Jake, and the problem would eventually be taken care of. Even if Jake didn't know exactly who his well-placed informant was...!
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