Still Life With...
Joined: 06 Mar 2006
Posts: 111
Location: Maine
|
OOC Information:
Name: Sam
E-mail: w00tywootpecker@yahoo.com
Preferred Messenger: AIM
Other: Nyet
Character Information:
Name: Piotr Nikolaievitch Rasputin
Alias: Colossus
Occupation: Adventurer, X-Men
Age: 33
Height: 6’7”
Build: Tall and broad-shouldered, with a bodybuilder’s muscles.
Hair color/style: Piotr keeps his black hair in what can best be described as a long crew cut. His hair is not affected by his transformation into Colossus, and retains its look and feel flawlessly in both forms.
Eye color: Piotr’s blue eyes are also unaffected by his transformation.
Detailed personal description: Standing at attention, silent and unmoving, Piotr is damned imposing, and a little creepy to boot. He has been described as statuesque on more than one occasion, and it fits. He rarely shifts position while seated or standing, and you’d have to watch him like a hawk to catch him blinking. His hard and sharply-angled features, combined with his idealized man’s physique, make him look as if he has been carved from stone. Secretly, he revels in how unnerving his size and natural stillness can be, and he deliberately buys clothes that emphasize his stature.
Piotr’s uniform consists of a gold-trimmed black jumpsuit, boots, and gloves, fully reinforced with Kevlar to prevent rips and tears. X-shaped designs and patterns cover the suit, with the ubiquitous red and black logo on the left breast being the most obvious of perhaps hundreds. Many have tried to count them. None have succeeded.
Family: Nikolai Rasputin, father; Alexandra Rasputina, mother; Mikhail Rasputin, brother; Illyana Rasputina, sister.
Ability/Mutation: Piotr’s body produces two compounds in his blood and skin respectively that, when combined, form a metal matrix composite (MMC) of a previously unknown type. The compound in his blood, a kind of super-strong carbon filament, can be released into his skin from various points in his circulatory system located near joints and vulnerable areas. As it works its way to the surface, it comes into contact with the second compound and becomes a liquid metal dubbed Titanium-X1. The new composite metal spreads over his body, covering him completely from head to foot in an incredibly strong, amazingly lightweight second skin that can turn away bullets and shrug off explosions. In addition, it allows him to function in irradiated environments without any detrimental effects, and in temperatures of up to 9,000° F or as low as -390°. Piotr’s only vulnerable points while in his Colossus form are his eyes, which remain unprotected so that he can see.
The liquid “armor” has one other feature; that is making Piotr stronger and faster than he is normally. While they are still his muscles underneath, the composite has some curious performance-enhancing effects that only manifest while he is armored, allowing him to run at 15 miles per hour and lift around 70 tons. Despite extensive research on the part of Dr. Hank McCoy, the mechanics of the enhancements and the reasons for the distinction remain unknown.
Weaknesses: Carbon filament isn’t the greatest thing to be pumping through one’s heart. As part of his mutation, Piotr’s entire circulatory system has adapted to better handle the unusual load, but it isn’t perfect. The filament in his bloodstream wears down everything it touches. His heart suffers the most, and there is no way to repair the damage. Slowly but surely, his own mutation is killing him. His heart will weaken as the years pass. In the end, it will cut nearly a decade off of his life. He is also susceptible to anything that would kill an ordinary human while unarmored.
Personality: Piotr is usually pretty low-key, and he doesn’t volunteer much in conversations, but those who know him realize that underneath his quiet exterior he is very opinionated. Because of his poor treatment at the hands of the Soviet Union, and his being blackmailed by SHIELD, he has developed a deep distrust towards all governments. He has seen mutant policy at its worst, and this has led him to devote himself entirely to Professor Xavier’s cause. Analytically, he understands that he can’t expect his level of zeal from many of the others, simply because they don’t have his background in being screwed over, but flippant attitudes still irk him. He appreciates focus and attention to duty, and is often found in the company of those who project both. Subtle humor is one of the few outlets he allows himself.
Piotr tries to lead a simple life, waiting for the day when national governments and their cold-hearted leaders will disappear and the world can return to a more decentralized, peaceful existence. Once a stubborn communist, Piotr now believes that anything that would attempt to unify people on such a large scale is inherently flawed, one of those flaws being that it creates the kind of people and organizations who victimize mutants, minorities, and anyone who can use a gun or their brain, all for the good of the majority. Silent totalitarianism is what it is, insidious and altogether evil. He realizes that change may not happen during his lifetime, but it doesn’t matter. He is atoning for the sins he has committed as an agent of the state, first in Russia because he was young and stupid, and then in America because he was selfish and afraid. That’s who he is, that’s what he’s about.
History: Piotr was born the second son of Nikolai and Alexandra Rasputin, farmers on the Ust-Ordynski Collective near Lake Baikal in Russia. He and his older brother Mikhail were raised as farm hands, and were educated with their younger sister Illyana at the community school. There, they were taught how to think and act like communists.
Mikhail ended up joining the Air Force, and was eventually selected for cosmonaut training. He left the position of older brother to Piotr, then ten years old. Piotr took his responsibilities to his family very seriously, and worked hard to fill Mikhail’s shoes. He was put to the test at age twelve when Illyana was nearly killed by a runaway tractor. Piotr shoved her aside just in time, but wasn’t quick enough to save himself. Responding to his adrenaline levels, his power activated itself for the first time, and he was able to hold the tractor back with ease.
It wasn’t long before the KGB got wind of this incident. For the good of the Soviet Union, Piotr was taken to a mutant training camp in the Verkhoyansk mountain range and his family was instructed to keep quiet. Young and patriotic, Piotr cooperated without question, and was indoctrinated into the Soviet Union’s mutant secret police force, a completely autonomous agency called “Delta Volk.”
Most of the training was built around how to properly perform covert police work. The purpose of Delta Volk, separate from other shadowy organizations that were interested in the mutant phenomenon, was to make sure that especially dangerous mutants were “neutralized,” which could have meant anything from recruited to turned into a puddle of blood depending on the situation. The point was that future operatives needed to combine the best qualities of a commando and an agent so that they could do either at any given time. But most important of all was the constant reminder that they could not leave any trace. Delta Volk was not officially acknowledged by the Soviet Union. Less than a dozen people outside the organization even knew it existed, and none of them were aware of the full scope of the project. For Delta Volk to function, it needed to maintain that level of secrecy, and for it to do that, its people needed to be ghosts. If someone had to die, no one would ever find a body. It would be as if they had simply vanished into thin air.
By 1990, the U.S.S.R. was well on its way to collapse. The music was about to stop, and a lot of people were going to be stuck without a chair. When tensions get high like that, stupid ideas abound. One particularly stupid idea that was acted upon was the liquidation of Delta Volk. What the government wanted was for all evidence of mutant training camps, illegal experimentation, and state-sanctioned murder to be erased. What they got, in a nutshell, was a bunch of mutant death squads running rampant. Some of the operatives returned to their handlers and were killed. Others kept their heads down, resolving to continue to fight for the cause of communism once the motherland became stable again. There were also those who became completely disillusioned with the Soviet Union as a result of the betrayal, and became mercenaries or wetworks for foreign agencies. Piotr, who was only fifteen at the time, escaped to America with the three other members of his squad, where they requested political asylum.
They were a bunch of mutant kids. That wasn’t lost on the Americans, but they also knew that they had just been handed four covert operations specialists, capable of working alone or as a group, who were scared and desperate for protection. Okay, they didn’t have any field experience, but so what? They had people who could train them. And if, by some miracle, the Russians managed to pull out of their socio-economic nosedive, the little brats probably knew all sorts of juicy secrets they’d be willing to divulge if it meant staying in the U.S. The deal was this: if the Russian trainees went to work for SHIELD, they’d get that immunity they wanted so badly. If they stepped out of line, they’d be handed over to the Soviets, or whoever was in power at that point. Grudgingly, the team accepted.
They had three more years of training under American instructors, and nine years of constant action followed. As the number of mutants in the United States grew, the four Russians were increasingly employed as a glorified beat-down squad for whenever some wannabe supervillain threatened the peace, a far less graceful sort of work than the “problem-solving” they had been trained for in Russia. Codenamed Element Four, they were provided with complete access to NSA, FBI, and CIA records on mutant activity within the U.S. and were allowed to choose targets at their own discretion. The team enjoyed an unparalleled success rate until they were deployed to Manhattan to deal with a freak who called himself Omega Red.
Red, who already had a bone to pick with SHIELD, happily proved that he was more than a match for Element Four, and was in the process of sucking the life out of an unconscious Piotr when the recently-formed X-Men arrived on the scene. Believing him to be dead, Piotr’s comrades withdrew, leaving him where he lay. Red was defeated, and the X-Men returned to the mansion with Piotr, who spent a week in a coma. When he woke up, he was greeted by Charles Xavier.
Xavier explained the purpose of the school, as well as his X-Men. The two of them discussed the mutant situation in America, and talked at length about Piotr’s experiences as a mutant hunter. The Professor offered to get him out of his servitude to SHIELD, and a position among the X-Men if he wanted it. Piotr, impressed but still skeptical, said he would think about.
Piotr stayed at the mansion for several days, acquainting himself with the area and the people. He befriended Ororo Munroe, who had led the team that defeated Omega Red and who was closest to him in age. He considered his options carefully, ultimately deciding to accept the Professor’s offer and try to find a place for the rest of Element Four among the X-Men as well. However, despite extensive searching and the skills and savvy gained from years in covert operations, Piotr could find no trace of Element Four anywhere in the world. Piotr’s hopes of finding them dimmed, and their fate has remained largely a mystery since.
As an X-Man, Piotr has participated in dozens of missions. Being one of the oldest members and a former SHIELD operative, he brings a confident professionalism to the table, and acts as a leader when operations require a certain surgical delicacy. He is perhaps closest to Storm, whose skills and friendship he values greatly.
Recently, Piotr made a clandestine trip to Russia to investigate the apparent death of his brother in while on an exploratory mission to Mercury. While there, he was contacted by Omni, a former member of Element Four who claimed that the accident had been staged and that Mikhail was still alive. Omni also revealed that she had been an agent of the GRU both before and during their time in SHIELD, but the two of them were attacked by members of an agency that seemed to resemble Delta Volk, and Omni was killed before she could say anything more. Piotr barely escaped, and now returns to America frustrated and bitter.
Other: Beast, Storm, and Professor X used with permission.
_________________
Tobias LeGuin | Colossus |
|
