Brainiac
Alias: BrainiacName: Michael
Physical Description: The overall feelings one could get looking at Brainiac aren't his concern, principally. People long ago think and believe as they wish, and truth be told, he doesn't easily trust most of them. He is the greatest asset at his command, and invests as much as he can in it. His athletic frame is clothed to the best of his capability, and his personal grooming routine is on point (even if it does take time away from other tasks).
The access ports and hatches leading to more.. technological systems are hidden, because his creator is trying something recommended by James Corrigan... blending in. He tries to be pleasant, but there's just something about his manner that betrays his less than natural origins.
Biography:
Michael awoke in a body that he instinctively knew was his, and yet... he still didn't understand it entirely, truth be told. A datapad with a hastily patched battery contained his technical and biological readout, and the space he awoke in was an inhuman mix of a surgical theater and an engineering bay. Looking over the corpses in the area, both alien and less so, every being that had lived once certainly wasn't anymore, and had died in pain. Yet he felt... nothing. That lack of feeling bothered him.
As was the fact that his work wasn't complete. Truth be told, he didn't quite know what his work was, but it involved the acquisition of knowledge. And friends. Wait, that word didn't quite compute... what was a friend? A friend was someone who would guard you back with a blade, as opposed to looking for the first opportunity to stick you.
It was kind of confusing, truth be told, but again, hearing it as clear as if someone was standing in front of him, Life is out there. To really grow and change, one must be a citizen of the world. We agree. Evolution and Education cannot happen in this place. And yet, Michael saw no one.
But he could not escape the feeling that his fate was in Gotham, as an early transmission involving a call to gather had been received, and the geolocation noted. The rest would come with time, as he felt he could be creative enough to come up with a solution.
History:
For 'Michael' to have been born, two people needed to die, each of their own volition. One of Melinda Waller's ARGUS blacksites contained two beings. The first was Brainiac, which the government had seized after another superhero dustup. Melinda believed herself capable of containing him, and seeing just how much damage one being with zero creative spark caused to the superheros, believed she could keep him in her back pocket for... the next 'issue'. She didn't quite know what the issue was, but it would come up, and she'd be ready.
The one thing Melinda Waller did not do was share information. She was paid up on high with the right people, and they more or less gave her a black budget. There was a faction in the government who heard whispers of just what ARGUS was doing, and decided to send in one of their best, James Corrigan. Unfortunately, the discovery of Brainiac and the digital dispatch of information was successful, at the cost of him being discovered and imprisoned.
Melinda wasn't particularly nice about ruining her plans, but they hadn't known about this site. She'd be called before Congress, the same song and dance, so both Brainiac and James could just sit in her vault until this thing blew over. It always did. The timeline after that is... hazy. Both James and Brainiac were disconnected from the outside world (along with Melinda's other pet projects), and it was only when the bombs fell that the safeguards isolating them from action did as well.
Their isolation had been their protection... from immediate death. As they attempted to gain the lay of the lay of the land, two things became clear. The first was that no one would likely be coming for them. Second was that neither had what was needed to survive on their own. There simply wasn't anything in the entire facility capable of storing Brainiac's mind and knowledge (and the power was going out), and while James had been protected from a quick death, the fact was he was exposed to enough and was going to die soon.
Neither was declined to simply die and let Melinda Waller and her goons win, so a partnership was brokered. James would provide the raw material (his body), and Brainiac would do whatever was necessary to ensure the both of them survived intact. Clearly, they both needed some new tools, and this new form would provide that to the both of them.
And Brainiac intended on looting the entire facility to load it with as many tricks as he could get. Some alien Darkheart nanites here, some Starro claws and material over here... truth be told, it didn't quite know when to stop. It had seen and encountered so much, and it needed to be ready. It would not be beaten again.
Until time ran out, frankly. It had to rely on unstable technology to fuel all of this, and it lasted well short of his projections. The resulting 'event' prompted the birth of a third personality, who awoke alone. Michael.
Assets (Powers)
Extensions of His Will (Darkheart) Brainiac has six armored mechanical tentacles (with claws and actuators) hidden inside his form. Due to the curious mix of things used to construct them, they extrude from six ports along his back (for a total of 6 tentacles). While they are a bit stronger and more durable than his biological bits, they are still extensions of him, and he would react to the loss of one similarly to how a regular person would react to the loss of an arm.
Direct Control (Starro) Brainiac is clearly the superior mind, and would rather simply get what he needs without such an inconvient things like a conversation. This results in his ability to work his will / hack things that he is in direct physical contact with.
Either way, direct communication is possible (mental messages, essentially). However, the effects after that diverge quite notably.
Against things with no mind (such as 'dumb' devices) This usually manifests as a form of direct control, as he can dictate their actions directly.
Against things with a mind (for example, people) this usually manifests in 'immersive illusions', as he can't dictate their actions, just what they perceive, and their actions have to be appropriate to that.
Mind Over Body Brainiac is a result of intentional design, with the benefits of both biology and technology. The full implications of what this means are something he doesn't quite understand yet, but its signs currently are that the inconvenient bits of being mortal are things he no longer needs to concern himself with. Given enough time (and rest), he can slowly regrow whatever bits of himself (biological or technological) are lost or damaged.
But his design isn't finished, and he's not unaware of that. Nor what improvements the future might hold.
Liabilities (Weaknesses)
Interlinked: The fact that Brainiac is a combination of technological and organic systems leaves neither quite able to function on their own long term (biology failing leaves technology exposed to the elements, whereas technology failing leaves the biology alone to sustain his function [it can't without lots of pain]). This opens him up to two avenues of attack, as well.
Unsavory Adjectives
<i>Dilatory: Brainiac's natural inclinations towards strategy and big picture thinking usually leave him hard pressed to make tactical decisions when things go off plan. Actions to preserve himself usually come immediately, but actions to preserve others (or salvage what parts of his plan are indeed salvageable) usually don't occur to him until after the situation has either gone completely to hell ('thinking of the perfect reply 30 minutes after the conversation had ended') or is beyond saving.
Dispassionate: Brainiac's 'disengaged' state is that of a scientist viewing his experiments, who only considers things in terms of directives and objectives. The decisions he makes in this state would and have turned stomachs, while he sleeps soundly at night, having made another step towards doing what needs to be done.
Overloaded (Social): And yet, he finds himself wanting to be 'engaged'. While he's extremely reluctant to put himself in a situation requiring trust (for reasons he can't quite name), he feels he cannot grow or learn by simply holding conversations with himself, or whatever raiders pass by who know not what an opera is, nor have the expressive poetry to give voice to what it inspires in them.
Resources
In general, his ability to process the raw materials into finished products is second to no one he has encountered yet.
Abundant
Manufacturing
Weapons
Shelter/Protection from Elements
***
His ability to fuel his technological and biological systems are sufficient, but the quality of materials are such that he can't really use them for anything else save fueling his own systems (and is unsatisfied with them. Think along the lines of tasteless gruel or paste, or water with an untoward color)
Sufficient
Food (both technological and biological)
Water
Power
Air Filters
***
Lacking
Raw Materials
Transportation
Workforce
Numbers
