Nitroburst
“You don’t know what it’s like, to have to stay absolutely, completely in control of my power every second of every day. All this power bottled up inside, with me terrified I’ll let it out. I take raw, random, cosmic energy and cohere it into a focused plasma state: I’m a living solar reactor cast in human form. I do inside my body just what the sun does. And if I ever cut loose—the way I’ve always been terrified I could, the way I always wanted to—a star is what I’ll become!”
—Nitro
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HISTORY
Early Life
Life would take a drastic change for the Attfield family on a hot and beautiful spring day. Bryan's pregnant mother was rushed to a hospital for medical treatment and a caesarean was needed to save her life and that of the child inside her womb, resulting in his being born prematurely of seven weeks and half. The cause of his mother’s ailment was never discovered but was in fact due to Bryan’s mutant gene passively activating for the first time while in utero. Unknowingly, he had started draining his mother’s very life force.
Doctors always stated that Bryan was a special boy... They just had no idea how much. A smart baby, he learned to walk and talk faster than other toddlers and his childhood was a happy and rather mundane one in the Eastgate neighborhood of Paragon City, RI, with nothing to trouble him until an explosive event.
His mutant abilities had the misfortune of triggering for the first time as a teenager during the Hollowing. Terrified beyond belief at the unfolding events, energy burst forth from his body in a nova blast and left him unconscious in a crater where a house once stood. While the Hollowing was eventually revealed to have been caused by the Trolls, he initially believed he had caused the destruction and death in his neighborhood. The realization that he hadn’t been responsible for such a tragedy did ease some fears about his abilities, but knowing what he had done to one building was enough to scar him just as Eastgate was now scarred.
Formative Years
Vowing to repress and suppress his powers to ensure he’d never lash out, Bryan carried this secret shame all his life and sought to hide his abilities—as well as his homosexuality—in order to save face and blend in. Things all began to change at Paragon University when he met like-minded individuals who encouraged him to tap into his full potential, finally embracing who he was.
One such person was Jonathan Hart, a fellow student in the same classes. Jon was one of those guys Bryan instinctively wanted to hate but couldn’t: he was handsome, intelligent, athletic, popular, and worse of all, he was nice… Which obviously meant Bryan began his longstanding tradition of developing crushes on men who could not return his affection.
As their friendship developed, Jon eventually confided in Bryan that he was a mutant gifted with superhuman strength and durability. Calling himself Brickbat, he was officially registered with the FBSA and often patrolled the streets of Paragon City as a masked hero. Bryan reciprocated by sharing the events around his own abilities and Jon eagerly encouraged him to register so they could team up. An ever fearful Bryan balked at the idea but ultimately did a volte face in the face of another personal tragedy.
When the Shivan meteors caused death and destruction in the Paragon Heights neighborhood, Jon eagerly lent a hand to fend off the would-be destroyers but was himself fatally wounded. Losing his best friend and unrequited love was a grievous blow to Bryan but he rallied by finally embracing his true self and registering as a hero as a way to honor Jonathan Hart.
Present Times
Bryan eventually obtained an MBA and graduated magna cum laude. He was eagerly snatched up by Crey Industries’ corporate department and quickly rose in their ranks as a public relations representative. While he started his career relatively oblivious to Crey’s more nefarious reputation, continued exposure to their inner workings and frequent association with fellow superheroes revealed their true nature.
While his moral integrity should have made him quit, he nonetheless decided to stay with Crey to work undercover and surreptitiously expose them from within. It goes without saying that he treads a very fine line in his “day job” since discovery of his true intentions and identity as the masked hero Nitroburst—stalwart member of the Global Defense Force—would surely see him terminated in every sense of the word.
APPEARANCE
PERSONALITY
While Bryan Attfield would describe himself as relatively uncomplicated, he’s slightly more complex than he imagines himself to be. As a typical WASP, he takes pride in good posture, genteel manners, personal hygiene, pointless discipline, and the ability to sit still for long periods of time.
Relatively prudish and old fashioned, he nonetheless possesses a sharp wit and will happily engage in sass and banter. There is a heart beneath his veneer but he finds it difficult to open up, made all the more difficult by his intransigence.
Just like he keeps his power in check, Bryan keeps his emotions bottled up. He’s turned looking the other way into an art form and represses everything to an unhealthy degree that it’s only a matter of time before the dam bursts open.
This compartmentalization has proven to be an asset as he leads a double life with work and as a hero, but can he maintain the façade?
POWERS
Energy Conversion: Nitro absorbs ambient cosmic energy into the cells of his body and processes it into plasma. This results in control over an extremely powerful sort of destructive force. Nitro's body is constantly in the process of absorbing cosmic radiation. When each of his body's power-storage cell enclaves reaches its capacity, excess cosmic energy is thereafter absorbed and immediately re-emitted in negligible quantities. Upon the total expenditure of all his available energy, it takes Nitro's body about 15 hours to recharge to its peak level unless he absorbs a large amount of energy at once. The act of concentration involved in releasing his energy in anything other than an omnidirectional wave is physically exhausting for Nitro if he continues it over an extended period of time. He can absorb cosmic energies from his environment and store them within his body cells, metabolizing the energy in order to generate plasma wave discharges that super-heat and disintegrate objects or create concussion bursts by violently displacing air molecules in his path.
- Energy Absorption: Nitro not only can passively absorb cosmic energy from his environment but has shown he can willingly absorb, store, and re-process various other energies from other sources through conscious force of will.
- Plasma Emanation: Nitro can shoot or emanate plasma in the form of a blast or discharge, with a tell-tale energy signature. These waves will emanate from his body in all directions unless he purposely tries to channel them in a single direction, usually along the length of his arms. This results in control over an extremely powerful sort of destructive force. When Nitro strikes an object with the intense waves of hot plasma, the sudden vast jump in temperature will often cause objects to shatter or explode. At its lowest level, energy directed at a human being will be non-lethal.
- Energy Form: Nitro can transform himself in cosmic energy coalesced into a humanoid form. As a being of pure energy, Nitro is functionally immortal as he no longer needs to eat, breathe, or sleep needing only cosmic energy to sustain himself. He retains the ability to speak by transmitting his voice as pure energy.
- Energy Aura: Nitro is naturally surrounded by a glowing energy aura that acts as a defensive shield and casts light. Tt is only dampened if he consciously suppresses it.
Flight: Nitro can use stored energy for flight by energized propulsion.
Infrared Vision: Nitro can change his vision between the visible spectra and the infrared one, giving him the ability to see heat signatures in his surroundings.<
BASE OF OPERATIONS
The Beacon: The Beacon is the name of the orbiting base of the Global Defense Force. A large number of technicians are employed to manage the regular maintenance necessary to keep the Beacon functional. Due to destruction of the original base by the Doom Society in 2012, security has been heightened greatly on the Beacon; members of the Global Defense Force are given communicators that allow them to access the teleportation network set up by AVI to allow them access to the base from any location. Those allied with the Global Defense Force are also granted clearance to access the base.