Overview
Faction: Shogunate of Venezuela, Strigidae Cult
Super Name: Strigidae 23, Shogun
Real Name: Ivana
Base of Operations: Shogunate of Venezuela
Gender: Female
Hair Color: Black
Weight: 165lbs
Age: 35
Eye Color: Blue
Height: 5'10
Super Power Origin: Mutation
Equipment: Vibranium suit and daggers, glider cape, carbon fiber bow and vibranium arrows and utility belt.
Identity: Public
Place of Birth: Gothic City
Allies: Orochi Clan, Asherah, Rafael Romerio, Alpha Dog, Envy, Vinnie Tahoe.
Description
Ivana shaves both sides of her head in an undercut. Her jet black hair is usually tied into a ponytail that falls to the middle of her back. Tattoos run across the shaved portions of her scalp. Her face is inhumanly ageless, wearing the weight of years in her eyes yet without any outward sign of deterioration. Her eyes are blue.
At five foot ten she is extremely tall and athletically and powerfully muscled. Both of her muscular arms are covered in tattoos that extend from her shoulder to right above her fingernails. Each tattoo is in black ink and is an ancient ritual design, sacred to the Strigidae cult. Every tattoo has symbolic importance and those who are initiated into the Strigidae order can read Ivana's saga from them.
Armor:
Matte black vibranium armor cover her from the neck down. It was a mixture of segmented sections for mobility, cloth-like vibranium weave for unrestricted movement and thick plates for maximum protection.
A collapsible bow is attached to hardpoints at the small of her back and a rectangular quiver vertically up and down her spine. Maglocks kept custom shafts crafted by Venezuela's finest armories snug with the quiver's vibranium case.
Her belt is gold colored, armor plated and loaded with pouches of stimulants, foam and smoke pellets, and mission specific payloads.
Black gripped daggers are sheathed on the outside of each boot. Quantum harmonized vibranium blades glowed a deep violet, unseen, trapped in the darkness of the sheathes.
Her glider cape is crimson, and falls from her shoulders to her ankles. Thousands of strands of memory fabric ran through its red vibranium weave.
War Machine
Khuenaten
Extensive study of the ancient and preternatural style known to the Strigidae as Khuenaten has allowed Ivana to slowly craft her body into that of an Olympian, then a peak human and now into an organism whose body is built for war from the cellular level up. Her entire body has been rebuilt by the changes wrought by the occult secrets of Khuenaten until even the placement of her tendons and muscles has been optimized for combat. Unlike many 'superhumans' her body cannot exceed the limits of biology or violate the laws of physics. She is not above the laws of nature, simply optimized for performance. These limits have caused her body to emulate the performance of animals in many ways, making her biology more beast than human.
Her bones have heavy iron deposits inside them, concentrated at the striking surfaces; knuckles, heel and ball of the foot, elbows and knees. In addition her bones have lengthened and thickened, giving her more room for muscles and allowing her to grow longer tendons. Calcium deposits run through her bones and provide them with incredible density and strength, making them roughly as strong as stone.
The muscular architecture that layers her bones is redesigned to create dense layers of muscle to maximize force production in some areas and maximize acceleration in other areas. The idea is to create muscle groups that explode into maximum acceleration in striking muscle groups and maximum force in grappling muscle groups.
She has thicker, longer tendons with improved elasticity. Ivana has modified her style to stretch her tendons with the thick, cross sections of 'pulling' muscles then explode using her fast twitch 'line' muscles to propel and guide her strikes. This works just like a bow; the limbs store energy and then it is released all at once. She can use this to create variations in her timing and in her strike acceleration. For example she might 'drive' a strike with muscle while delaying the 'snap' release of the energy stored in her tendons. Alternately she might release them both at once, reaching maximum acceleration and power. To save energy she might rely only on the 'snap' of energy stored in her tendons to power her movement and strikes.
When grappling she uses the 'pull' muscles. These are layered in 'X' shapes, which allow her to apply huge amounts of force but they don't accelerate as quickly. She has truly frightening strength while grappling. However this drains her of energy faster than any other type of exertion.
The circulatory system to her muscles is vastly enhanced. This allows her to endure much longer and to recover from fatigue much quicker. ATP production has accelerated beyond anything a human could muster thanks to many improvements in the basic efficiency of the human body.
She has a vast number of motor units. These little bundles of nerves give her far more control over her muscles than any human can boast. In addition she can consciously choose to activate slow or fast twitch fibers. When grappling she will switch between these two types of fibers fluidly, using her effcient, slow twitch, fibers to wear down her foe or endure a bad position and her powerful, 'X' layered 'pulling' muscles to drive a takedown or lock in a submission.
However the demands of her new body are extreme. Her diet is exacting and large. In addition she runs the danger of fatiguing much quicker with her new superhuman strength and explosiveness. If she concentrates on using her slow twitch, endurance fibers she will last much longer than her old body would. She can be a tireless machine or an explosion of superhuman strength but not both.
Na-au
There is a myth that humans only use ten percent of their brains. In reality a human uses virtually all of the brain over a twenty four hour period, but only a small portion of the brain may be in use at a time. Na-au changes this through unspeakable means, allowing brains so altered to use significant percentages of the total brain at the same time. Should a person with Na-au be brain scanned while utilizing this ability it would appear they were undergoing a seizure as the majority of their brain would be lit up.
The human brain has three primary functions: Autonomic, Somatic and Cognitive. Autonomic functions regulate and control involuntary processes such as the heartbeat, respiration, digestion, sexual arousal, and reflex actions. The Somatic functions which controls the skeletal muscle system, usually under the conscious control of a human being. Lastly there is the cognitive system which is the minds use of conscious and unconscious thoughts to solve problems, communicate, and perform all the other mental functions of life.
In a normal human each of these systems can operate simultaneously but each draws such a significant degree of mental resources that none can be optimized simultaneously. For example even hyper intelligent individuals cannot solve experimental physics equations while simultaneously performing an olympic level acrobatic routine. Na-au restructures the mind so that all three systems work together at peak efficiency, in perfect harmony, and under the control of the cognitive system.
This allows Ivana to exhibit precise control over her heart rate and digestive system to optimize her body while flipping through a complex acrobatic evasion, controlling her eyes level of dilation to display near perfect night vision while her unconscious mind stratagizes at a high level and her conscious mind exacts perfect tactical decisions in an enormously complex battle.
Mutant Tachyon Control
Tachyon Infusion: Ivana is capable of infusing an object with the negative mass particles known as 'tachyons'. Because tachyons do not interact with electromagnetic, strong, or weak forces they usually have no effect on regular matter, making tachyon manipulation a meaningless power the majority of the time. However Ivana has mastered her ability to such a degree she is capable of creating a tachyon singularity; a black hole of negative mass. Because tachyons due interact with gravitational force this creates a localized event horizon along any point where two flat surfaces connect at a steep angle. This has the effect of creating a gravitational event horizon along the edge of any blade, giving Ivana a weapon that will cut through anything not of infinite hardness/durability. True adamantium is the only material which will block a blade infused with Tachyons.
Somatic Mapping: Tachyons generally do not interact with massed particles. However due to Ivana's tachyon control she can form a tachyon link between her mind and the somatic system of another being. This causes the tachyons to interact with the electrons in the other persons body, then return to Ivana and interact with the electrons in her brain, forming a 'map' of their somatic system. As the somatic system is what controls the bodies skeletal muscles, and tachyons move backwards in time, this grants Ivana the ability to know exactly what moves her foe will make before they attempt them.
Tachon Involuntary Reflex: In the dorsal horn of the spinal column there is a bundle of nerves that handle involuntary reactions to pain. For example if you burn your hand you will jerk your hand back before the pain signal has time to reach your brain. This is both involuntary, and faster than the signal can reach the brain. In Ivana's case the dorsal nerve bundle genome has interacted with her tachyon mutation in such as way that causes her dorsal nerve to receive her own nociceptors in the future. For example if a bullet were flying toward the back of her skull her nocicepters would fire when the bullet impacted her skull. The tachyon link between future and past versions of herself would carry that information to the past version's dorsal horn and Ivana would jerk out of the way involuntarily.
Vision
- Cone Density: Her fovea has a much thicker layer of cone cells than a human's, roughly one million per square millimeter.
- Tetrachromatic Vision: There are four types of cone in her eyes; red, blue, green and ultraviolet. As a result Ivana does not see color the same as a human. A human sees in red, blue and green and the mind organizes those three data-points. While Ivana has four points of 'color data', meaning she might look at an object that a human would say is green, but due to seeing the ultraviolet light reflected off the object she would perceive an entirely different color. This is known as Tetrachromatic vision
- Pecten Oculi: A structure that holds the circulatory system of the eye. This prevents the blurring of image due to blood vessels running in front of the eye, which occurs in human eyes.
- Wavelength Filter: Microscopic drops of oil within her color sensitive cones contain a ospin-like protein that filters out any wavelength other than the wavelength the cone is receptive to. This gives her sharper perception of colors, allowing her to see more colors and see colors more clearly in darkened or obscured conditions. It also provides a level of glare and flash protection as much of the offending wavelengths are filtered out before reaching her cones.
- Retinal Ganglion: Small neuron's that translate cone and rod input into neural information for the brain make up a layer of cells behind the fovea. In a human each ganglion handles roughly a hundred cones or rods. In Ivana there is a one-to-one ratio between ganglion's and cones or rods. Each ganglion handles only one cone or rod, meaning her brain receives much more percise visual data rather than crude abstractions.
- Double Fovea: Two layers of fovea, rather than one, capture more light and create a stronger image of range, direction and speed. This alters her perception of movement, allowing her to detect movement as slow as fifteen degrees per hour or flicker speed as fast as 100Hz.
- Magnetoception: As light enters the eye it excites a molecule known as a cytochrome. In this state it is highly sensitive to magnetic fields. It creates a slight visual distortion causing Ivana to see magnetic north and other powerful sources of magnetism as slightly brighter or darker than their surroundings. Because this relies on light entering the eyes it is more pronounced in bright light and less in dim conditions. In absolute darkness it does not function at all.
- Tapetum Lucidum: A retroreflective layer of tissue in which the lens and cornea of the eye combined with the tapetum lucidum layer to form a brighter and sharper image on the retina. This lowers the minimum threshhold of light for vision by roughly six hundred percent. As a result her eyes shine in the dark like a feline or wolf.
Grandmaster
KHUENATEN: Glory of the Solar Disk
Rank: Master
Ivana has devoted roughly three decades of her life to study of Khuenaten. Among the Strigidae this is rare; Khuenaten is considered an outdated style. The majority of Strigidae focus their efforts elsewhere, viewing Khuenaten to be a waste of time in a world with cybernetic enhancement and powerful firearms. Time that is used mastering Khuenaten for greater physical performance could be used attaining greater mastery of the martial arts and one could simply enhance their body with nanotechnology or acquire a suit of power armor were it necessary to do so.
The twenty third Strigidae, however, disagreed. She felt she could only accomplish her goals by becoming a total weapon, body and mind. There was no room in her heart to rely on anything outside of herself, she intended to go into combat with nothing but what she had earned and attain victory through the fruits of her labors and her own mutant powers.
In her early years this seemed to be, and perhaps was, foolishly prideful and needlessly stubborn. However as the years marched on and she grew stronger, faster and tougher she also grew in confidence because she knew that every victory was the result of nothing but her inborn gifts and her hard work. Each victory was earned. Each accolade was deserved.
Eventually Ivana had crafted her body into the apex of perfection in every area. She was a true peak human, capable of doing anything a human was capable of doing. It was, however, not enough. Seeking out forbidden knowledge and secret rituals she traveled to the seclusion of the Black Lotus Temple where she isolated herself in meditation for seven days and seven nights. The final stages of Khuenaten transformation were as preternatural as they lethal. Most who attempt them die, their bodies and minds destroyed by the stress the metamorphosis places on their bodies. Only a towering strength of will allowed her to survive the feverish transformation but when it was over she had reforged her body into a warmachine from the cell up. Bones had hardened, muscles had thickened and relocated, tendons had lengthened and organs had optimized for combat.
ABUSKHAU: Hurricane of Glass
Rank: Adept
The bodies kinesthetic sense is the sense that tells you where your arms, legs and hands are at in relation to one another. For example you can scratch your back without looking to see where your hand is. Without a kinesthetic sense you would need a mirror. It is because of this sense that humans are incredibly accurate with their hands and fingers, but terribly inaccurate when using a projectile. The kisetestic sense no longer functions when one is firing a bullet a hundred yards. Thus the need for stabilizing devices, scopes, and more to attain the accuracy one has with one's hand.
Devised by Amaranth and taught to mutants with enhanced perceptive capabilities it allows them to merge their mutant perceptions and kinesthetic sense. This allows them to use projectiles with the same control and accuracy they use their hands. To an adept of Abuskhau there is no difference in touching ones nose and striking a target a hundred yards away. The two actions are one and the same.
+Throwing: An Abuskhau adept can throw projectiles with exceptional accuracy at up to sixty feet. Capable of throwing specific 'twists' or imparting various spins to their projectiles causing them to climb, dive or jink at the last moment they are exceptionally difficult to predict or evade.
+Archery: Adepts are even more accurate with the bow, capable of hitting a torso sized target at six hundred and sixty feet. At a tenth of that distance it is trivial for them to fire arrow after arrow into the same location, splitting their previous arrows. They are also capable of making accurate distance shots using mirrors and even banking arrows off hard surfaces and into a target.
+Firearms: With the firearm the Abuskhau adept is more accurate than with any other tool. They routinely fire rifle rounds with deadly accuracy at ranges up to two thousand and seven hundred yards. Pistol accuracy is not as impressive due to the shorter barrel and weaker cartridges but most adepts are capable of putting rounds on target at six hundred yards.
VESPA: Wasp
Blinded in the Battle of the Bridge, in which Ivana seized the Throne of Venezuela and forged the Shogunate, Ivana never saw the fruits of her labors for she dwelled in a world of absolute darkness.
However this isolation within herself gave her increased focus and awareness of her own body. Absent the constant distractions of the outside world the Strigidae grandmaster begin to attain a higher level of connection with her own body almost immediately.
This increased awareness of her own body gave her fine appreciation of the bodies weak points. Her attention captured Ivana sought out the ancient texts and esoteric scrolls of long dead Strigidae masters.
Diligent study paid dividends, as did her mastery of NA-AU, which gave her complete awareness of, and control over, her autonomic, somatic and cognitive systems. She was able to delve into her own procedural memory and accelerate the rate at which she learned, removing minor errors in technique and transferring knowledge she had read in a book to practical skills she could execute in combat.
The first level of Vespa knowledge is general knowledge of the bodies weak points and where to strike them. For example the precise angle to strike the jaw to cause a knockout or the exact position to finish a choke hold. Many warriors find this level to be sufficient, for with it bones can be shattered, enemies rendered unconscious with ease and even killed with a single elegant strike.
However trust mastery brings a plethora of abilities that is far beyond that of the realitively simple knowledge the adept possesses. A master of Vespa can inflict paralysis on a limb, organ, or even the entire body with the correct series of nerve strikes.
In addition a master of Vespa can target esoteric abilities. For example chakra can be targeted, cutting the victim off from their Chi and removing their access to their Chi based abilities. During the era of the Imperos and their devastating elemental bending power this was a technique desperately sought after by the enemies of the Impero and his or her clan.
Magical power can also be targeted in much the same way. These techniques are not as wide spread, yet still known to the Strigidae. By targeting vital points a magician can be cut off from the source of their power, just as a Chi user can be cut off their Chi.
KHABA: Shade
Rank: Master
The art of stealth.
There are as many kinds of stealth as there are means of detection. Typically they all revolve around a simple principle of evading the detectors lines of sight, but there are more advanced techniques.
A master can become next to invisible in any terrain. The slightest distraction and they simply vanish. In darkness or smoke they are next to invisible. The footsteps of a master are nearly soundless and they can walk on pressure sensors without activating them.
It is this skill that defines many of the Strigidae; their ability to materialize as if flowing from the shadows themselves, strike and then vanish into the darkness.
BLOODBENDING: {Master}
Ivana learned her bloodbending skills at the feet of Ishin himself. Of all the supernatural skills she has studied it is perhaps bloodbending where she demonstrated the most talent. Some bloodbenders have incredable control, they can mainipulate the smallest of objects at will and create complex shapes with ease. Others have tremendous power, they can rip a man to shreds or smash a beast into a pile of gore.
Ivana can do both simultaneously.
+Blood Awareness: With the loss of her primary sense, her eyesight, Ivana was forced to improvise. As the Shogun of a nation under constant siege she knew she would face battle again, and did before her wounds had the time to heal.
Ivana turned to her greatest talent: bloodbending. Taught by the Impero (Ishin) himself the Strigidae discovered she had a vast talent for the forbidden art. After being blinded this talent served her well in the development of a new ability.
Using her bloodbending prowess she reaches out and connects with the blood that runs through another's body. Rather than making an active attack she taps into an automatic routine written into her subconscious mind by her NA-AU technique. This routine automatically 'senses' blood as it moves through the body, feeding the information to the spatial portion of her brain that interprets the data, creating a 3D picture of the individual's vascular system in her mind.
The Shogun can even use this information to discover the attributes and sometimes the powers of her enemies. For example great strength often includes a heart of equal power. Nanotech in the bloodstream dilutes the blood. Superspeed can require blood to flow at a rapid pace to fuel muscles which use tremendous energy. Combined with her mutant ability to read Somatic systems this can give her a vast amount of information on her foes, even while blind.
Equipment
Carbon Nano-Tube Compound Bow
- Three hundred and fifty pounds of draw weight.
- Sound dampening string coating results in an ultra-quiet shot.
- Range finder and smartlink system for long shots.
- Ninety nine percent let off thanks to its cam system.
- Accurate at two hundred yards.
- Collapsable. It folds up into a small package that is stored at the small of Ivana's back.
Arrows
- Spear-tip toxic Arrow: Titanium foam blade with carbon ceramic shaft. The rear edges of the blade snap open after penetration, creating two barbs hooked in the flesh of the target. Inside the shaft is a variety of toxin substances which inject the victim after impact. These toxins can overpower nearly every immune system in the known universe as well as disabling healing factors.
- Explosive Arrow: A miniature thermobaric warhead. Individuals at the point of impact are often incinerated instantly and those inside the blast radius experience collapsed lungs, ruptured eardrums, sever brain trauma and third degree burns.
- Fragmentation Arrow: High carbon steel case containing composition C explosive; when the explosive detonates the case is shattered and becomes shrapnel with a 45ft blast radius.
- Electrical Arrow: Inside the shaft of a spear-tip arrow lies an electro magnetic pulse generating coil. It can be triggered on impact, at any point in flight, by a timer or a motion detector. The EMP itself is powerful enough to effect shielded electronics and should the arrow penetrate into its target it is all but guaranteed to fry the most hardened of circuits. Its second mode is a tazer mode; it slices into the victom, the barbs deploy, and then the arrow shocks them with hundreds of thousands of volts.. over and over.
- Thermite Arrow: A shaped charge filled with thermite. Hot enough to burn through most tank armor it detonates on impact and melts a whole through virtually any armor in the world within nano-seconds.
- Grappling Arrow: This arrow has a micro-cable spool inside the shaft and a expanding hook as the head. The micro-cable attaches to the bow and nano-carbons contract, realing the spool inside the arrow and drawing the bow and its wielder to the arrow.
Vibranium Arrows
For many years Ivana lived hand to mouth. She had only the money she could steal and her equipment reflected this. It was designed to be effective, but inexpensive to produce and cheap to replace when it inevitably broke down. When she seized the throne of Venezuela that all changed. Now she has access to vibranium and the economy of one of the wealthiest countries on earth. Her friend and ally, Arrachtach, the mutant scientist who builds most of her weapons has used these resources to build Ivana a number of unique arrows that use rely on vibranium to deliver otherwise impossible levels of performance.
Vibranium EMP (EMP Arrow): The most unique property of vibranium is its energy absorption. This makes vibranium incredibly useful as energy storage. Simply charge it with energy and leave it until it is needed. That property has been harnessed for the vibranium EMP arrows.
A slender coil of vibranium runs up the interior of the arrows hollow carbon fiber shaft. It is charged with immense amounts of electricity, drawn from one of Venezuela's nuclear power plants. The head is a simple loop antenna made from superconducting nanocarbons. When the arrow is trigger the vibranium coils dump their absorbed energy into the nanocarbon loop antenna. This creates a massive electromagnetic pulse, powerful enough to literally melt electronic circuitry. The EMP pulse is easily powerful enough to overwhelm heavy shielding, thanks to the tremendous power provided by the vibranium coil.
Vibranium EMI (Tazer Arrow): EMI stands for Electro-Muscular Incapacitation. An electrical waveform passes through the body at the correct frequency and overwhelms the bodies natural bioelectrical communication. This induces tetany, where every skeletal muscle in the body constricts at one time and remains constricted until the waveform ends.
The construction of the EMI arrow is extremely simple, much like that of the EMP arrow. A hollow carbon fiber shaft has a vibranium coil running up its interior wall. The head of the arrow is twin superconducting nanocarbon prongs. Roughly five hundred times harder than steel and sharpened to a tip several molacules thick they have extreme penetrative capabilities. Upon impact they arc, electrocuting the target with the correct waveform to induce tetany.
On their standard setting the maintain the waveform current until the vibranium coil is drained, which takes roughly seven and a half minutes. However their secondary setting causes them to dump the entire charge upon impact, the same as the EMP arrow. This charge passes through the body in the same manner as the electric chair, literally cooking the tissues of the cardiovascular system, brain and nervous system. Damage is catastrophic, the charge often causing the eyes and hair to melt and the interior of the lungs to ignite.
Vibranium BEC (Cyro Arrow): Bose-Einstein condensate is a gas that is typically considered the coldest type of matter. In fact it is so cold it is sometimes considered its own unique type of matter. Bosons are cooled to mere fractions above absolute zero, reducing them to the lowest possible quantum state and a type of mater that greatly resembles a gas.
Bose-Einstein is usually only found in labs. Even background radiation is enough to raise its temperature and quantum state. However by storing compressed BEC inside a vibranium container it can be isolated from background radiation and all external heat, thanks to vibranium's energy absorbing properties. This allows BEC to be preserved indefinitely and carried into the field, protected by its nearly indestructible containment shell.
A simple design makes the arrow robust and durable. A vibranium canister contains compressed Bose-Einstein gas. The head of the arrow contains a rangefinder and a motion detector. A small disk of adhesive runs around the rim of the arrows tubular head, activated by a specific electrical frequency Ivana can use this to stick the arrow to an object. Between this and the motion detector this allows the arrow to be deployed as a 'freezing mine'. However a far more typical use is for the motion detector to be set to only activate the arrow after a certain time in flight, to avoid catching Ivana in the blast, and to detonate on impact.
When the arrow is detonated the shell separates. Under extreme compression the BEC expands explosively. Occupying the lowest possible quantum state and the lowest possible temperature it flash freezes virtually any matter instantly. Even otherwise invulnerable metals such as adamantium have no defense against being frozen solid. When released from their containment they are capable of 'freezing' even vibranium by instantly transforming the humidity in the air around the vibranium into solid ice. The quantum nature of BEC allows it to completely disable nanotechnology and they can even disrupt quantum effects, by violently reducing the quantum state.
Vibranium OKA (Kiloton Arrow): Vibranium is a metal which absorbs energy. However there is a limit to how much energy can be absorbed. When a piece of vibranium exceeds this limit it experiences violent atomic disintegration. By knowing the exact mass of a quantity of vibranium and then charging it with a carefully calculated quantity of energy a chunk of unstable vibranium can be created. Glowing with an inner golden light unstable vibranium teeters on the brink of absorbing too much energy and detonating with catastrophic results. Normally this is extremely dangerous. A flash of light, electric current or small shock may send the unstable vibranium over the brink. However by sealing unstable vibranium within a stable vibranium shell it can be protected from all outside energies, as the stable vibranium absorbs all incoming energies that would overload the unstable vibranium.
Arrachtach has weaponized this technology in the form of an arrow. A small rod of vibranium is carefully charged to instability inside an underground robotic manufacturing facility. Then it is sealed inside a molded vibranium tube and capped at both ends with vibranium disks. This completely protects it from incoming energy, rendering it safe to carry in the madness of battle. It is then loaded into a high tech arrow, designed with range finders to prevent early detonation or trigger detonation in flight, additional enhancements to maximize accuracy and range, and a multitude of safeguards against early detonation.
When the arrow strikes its target or activates its detonation protocols the protective shell separates and the unstable vibranium is overloaded by a powerful electric charge. It instantly disintegrates on the atomic level. Detonation force is equal to that of one kiloton of TNT, leading to the arrow being designated the OKA, or One Kiloton Arrow. This is essentially a tactical nuclear device. It is also extremely expensive, even by the standards of the Shogunate, and as such Ivana carries only a tiny number and uses them extremely sparingly.
Katana
- Ivana's blade is made from modern materials and construction techniques rather than traditional Japaneses craftsmanship. That is not to say it is mass produced; it was crafted by a master of metallurgy to meet Ivana's exacting demands.
- The blade is a tool steel and tungsten alloy. It was chosen for its wear resistance and durability to impact stresses. Though Ivana's tachyon infusion power allows the blade to cut through anything aside from true adamantium that does not make her weapons immune to the laws of physics. It can bend or break just like any other blade.
- It is a Maru pattern blade, known as monohardened in modern terminology. That means the blade retains the same hardness from edge to back. Some blades use harder steel for the edge, which will hold a sharper edge, and softer, more flexible steel for the core. Those blades are sharper but Ivana prioritizes the endurance to impact stress that the Maru pattern offers.
- All the fittings (the tsuba, fuchi, menuki, kashira and mekugi) are titanium. Titanium is light weight and trauma resistant but will not hold a sharp edge like steel.
- Because titanium can be machined Ivana can replace damaged parts without great expense or the assistance of an expert. She often carries a few of the lightweight replacements upon her utility belt in case she needs to repair her blade in the field.
- The braid (ito) that wraps around the handle (tsuka) is made from teflon reinforced vulcanized rubber. It provides an excellent grip and is cut resistant, heat resistant and does not become slick when wet with water or other fluids.
- A teflon coated fiberglass is used for the scabbard (saya). Fiberglass is stronger than steel for its weight, resistant to heat, cold and corrosive chemicals including acids. It is a non-conductor and acts as an insulator against electric fields as well as many times of electromagnetic radiation.
Vibranium Suit
- The suit is composed of a flexible cloth woven from vibranium fibers over parts of the body that need mobility and segmented plates of vibranium over parts of the body that do not need to be mobile.
- Like all vibranium the flexible portions are vulnerable to blades that attack at the right angle. It is possible for them to slice or penetrate through the vibranium cloth, though this requires considerable force and a perfect angle of attack.
- The vibranium plates have no such vulnerability. To penetrate them requires anti-metal, tachyon singularity infusion, adamantium or such a large degree of energy as to overload their ability to absorb energy.
- Although it is extremely high tech the suit does weigh more than Ivana's old nanocarbon suit. This isn't due to any method of construction, the vibranium suit is visually almost identical with her nanocarbon suit, but its simply because nanocarbons are extremely light compared to vibranium. Even vibranium and the advanced technology of mutant Venezuela cannot defy the laws of physics.
Cuirass
- The cuirass is made from several plates of molded vibranium bolted to a vest of vibranium fiber-mesh.
- Each plate is hand crafted by one of Venezuela's finest vibranium artisans under the direction of Arrachtach, who is familiar with Ivana's body type and the needs of her combat style.
- The impact absorbing gel that was used in the nanocarbon armor has been removed to reduce weight. Because vibranium already absorbs kinetic energy a secondary source of impact reduction isn't judged as being worth its weight.
- Much like the original armor it is easy to repair. A damaged plate can be unbolted in the field and replaced with nothing more than a socket wrench and a couple of minutes peace.
- Unlike the original nanocarbon suit the vibranium version is extremely expensive to repair, as not only is vibranium very costly but vibranium armored plates must be crafted by a skilled artisan.
- Luckily it is very durable because it absorbs the energies that would damage other materials and it contains zero moving parts.
Gauntlet and Vambrace
- Her vambraces are made from solid plates of vibranium. This makes them extremely durable, perhaps the most durable pieces of her suit.
- However it requires a craftsmen of extreme skill to work a piece of vibranium into armor that is molded to fit the contours of her body. This makes them extremely expensive.
- The gauntlets are made of dozens of articulating plates attached to a vibranium mesh glove, in the same manner as medieval gauntlets. This gives them great strength while also allowing Ivana a full range of motion.
- Three blades protrude from the edge of her forearm. She often infuses these blades with tachyon singularities, using her mutant power, and hacks or saws through enemies armor, bodies or weapons.
- On the interior of her gloves is a pad of specially crafted vibranium mesh that is quantum responsive. Extremely rare and valuable it responds to a mental command that travels through the re-routed nerves that once controlled her pinky fingers. On command it alters its intermolecular forces by altering to the same covlant bonds as the object it is touching, allowing her to stick to whatever she is touching.
- Damaged plates on her gauntlets can be replaced the same as damaged plates on her cuirass however damage to the vambraces would require replacing the entire vambrace, which is extremely expensive.
Bracelet Zip-Gun
- Although they appear to be sleek and high tech weapons they are actually robust and so simple the lack moving parts.
- This allows them to survive combat with Ivana's superhuman foes, a difficult proposition considering they are located on the wrists of a martial artist.
- Although the previous versions were made from nanocarbons and copper wire the current versions are made from vibranium and vibranium magnetic coils.
- The use of vibranium to store power means the zip-bracelet can store a tremendous degree of power.
- Nerves that controlled her pinkie finger were rerouted to wrap around her wrist in a circle. Her pinkie is now controlled by the same nerves that control her ring finger, meaning they always move in unison.
- The tubes are loaded with a projectile made from a copper-tungsten alloy. This makes it realitively inexpensive, tough enough to endure extremely high velocities without deforming or melting.
- When the bracelet is activated by her rerouted nerve the vibranium coils activate, launching the projectile at rail-gun velocities: mach five.
- The low mass of the copper-tungsten penetrators means the recoil is low and plenty of ammunition can be stored inside the vambrace.
- In addition a vibranium circuit runs to twin nodes at the knuckles of her gauntlet. A command of her rerouted pinkie nerve dumps a tremendous amount of electrical energy into the nodes, creating a taser powerful enough to drop most superhumans in their tracks.
- The electrical current can also be directed into the palms of her guantlets. Ivana herself is protected from the high voltage by the interior insulation however whatever object she is holding at the time will be electrified with a massive charge.
Boots and Greaves
- Her boots and greaves are made from vibranium, just as the rest of her armor is.
- The interior of her boots are not vibranium but are designed by Arrachtach using x-rays of Ivana's feet to provide maximum support. This helps protect Ivana from broken bones or strained muscles when she is pushing herself and fatigued because the shape of the boot ensures her feet almost always pronate correctly.
- The sole of her boots is made from vulcanized rubber and a dense quantum-responsive vibranium mesh. Not only does this help protect the underside of her feet from sharp objects but it means she can jump or fall from great distances and the vibranium mesh will absorb much of the impact.
- Claw-lugs provide the tread for the front of the boots which give her traction in nearly all types of terrain.
- Breaking-lugs provide the tread for her heels. These allow her to change direction or break with great ease.
- The quantum responsive vibranium mesh that runs through the soles in her boots also allows her to bond at a molecular level with whatever material her feet are on, the same as she can with her gloves. This gives her an even greater degree of mobility in addition to allowing her to run on walls or stand on ceilings.
- Solid plates of vibranium layer the tops and sides of her boots, armoring her feet against impact and attack.
- Molded greaves of solid vibranium protect her shins and calves. These, like her vambraces, must be crafted by a skilled artisan and are thus difficult to replace.
- Because of the advanced construction of the interior of her boots and the soles they cannot be replaced or repaired in the field.
Cape / Glider
- Her cape is made from multi-walled carbon nanotubes alloyed with several other materials and treated to have exceptional interracial bonding between the polymers and the conductors.
- This creates a memory fabric, a fabric which returns to its original position when it is exposed to a specific electric current.
- Normally it is an ebony cape, due to the carbon black used in its construction. However when the current is applied it snaps into its glider configuration.
- The glider configuration offers arm and leg grips to control the glider under extreme weather conditions or perform demanding aerobatic maneuvers.
- Despite its advanced design Ivana herself is a drawback. Her body is packed with calcium dense bones and ape-like bundles of muscle fiber. However these things give her exceptional agility while airborne, and the ability to survive bad landings.
- Her recent acquisition of vibranium has allowed her to add an interior and exterior layer of vibranium weave to the cape. Although this does not aid in flight it does provide the crimson cape with an additional layer of durability, allowing Ivana to wrap herself or another in the cape to protect themselves from damage.
Utility Belt
After the capture of the vibranium rich Venezuela the mutant genius Arrachtach modified Ivana's Strigidae utility belt.
- The metal cases of the pouches was replaced with golden vibranium armor plates.
- The strap of the belt was replaced with an nanocarbon weave that was flexible and next to unbreakable.
- Its gold coloring contrasts strongly with the black of the vibranium armor, giving the Strigidae's costume its signature 'black and gold' look.
- Each pouch is sealed by a micro-magnetic clamp which only releases on contact with Ivana's DNA or the material of her armor's glove.
Contents
Among other things her utility belt contains the following:
Foam Pellets: On impact these pellets explode, covering everything in the area with a fire suppressing foam. The foam is both a chemical suppressant for chemical fires and also serves to deprive the fires of oxygen to put out normal flames.
Anti-Venom Patch: After being repeatedly struck by poisoned weapons Ivana asked Arrachtach to supply her with a counter measure. These patches deliver a custom anti-venom directly into her bloodstream. Because they come in patch form Ivana can return to combat after applying one, it will continously add an anti-venom into her blood.
Tracer: Tiny disks covered in a powerful adhesive that activates on contact with oxygen. They can be programmed to activate after a delay, in response to a stimulus or simply on contact. They broadcast an extremely weak encrypted GPS signal, generally detectable and decryptable only by the vibranium circuitry of the Shogunate's satellites.
Coagulant Spray: The mutant warrior has been wounded many times and carries a small canister of instant coagulator mixed with a sealant. She can spray this on her wounds to coagulate the blood and seal the wound to project herself from infection. This is also useful when her allies are injured.
Nutrient/Stimulant Jet Injector: Her enhanced body requires far more nutrients than even the largest, fittest human. At times she is forced to operate without time to rest and eat. Alternately continuous explosions of superhuman performance can rapidly fatigue her. A jet injection of pure nutrients mixed with a number of stimulants can return her to peak form quickly and even allow her to remain active in the field without rest for days at a time.
Belt-mounted Teleportation Device
- Built from a complex arraignment of vibranium circuits the teleportation device rests inside one of the golden boxes on her utility belt.
- It contains no moving parts and is constructed from vibranium mounted to titanium, and inside a vibranium armored case making it very difficult to damage.
- The device is powered by Ivana's tachyon powers. Without Ivana providing tachyons it will not function. In addition it draws more from her than any of the other uses of her powers. She can easily 'burn out' her powers by over use, weather by teleporting too many times in rapid succession or teleporting over too much distance.
- Even moderate use will 'fatigue' her mutant powers over time, making it more difficult for Ivana to use her powers for other things.
- Designed and built solely by Arrachtach no one else is privy to how the device functions, its mechanism of action or its fundamental principles.
Psy-scan Grenade
- After the death of Albert, a alpha level clairvoyant, some of his genetic material was harvested. From the sample and stem cells Arrachtach was able to grow the brain cells in which Alberts mutant genes were expressed in clairvoyant powers. The process was similar to growing muscle fibers from a mutant with super strength.
- By stabilizing the growth, suspending them in a nutrient mix, connecting them to a source of electricity and a neural mapping chip he created a device that could take full three hundred and sixty degree 'film' of a section of space time roughly thirty meters in radius and about thirty seconds before the neural mass burned out.
- This creates an extremely accurate record of what is observed by the activation of the clairvoyant mutant braincells. It observes and records down to the quantum level. This allows the grenade to be used on a super human or high tech foe and then recovered. When the data is analyzed by Arrachtach he can study its targets DNA, the exact structure of their equipment and even discover physical vulnerabilities.
Wrist Mounted Laser
- The laser simply replaces one of the 'barrels' in her wrist mounted zip gun.
- It is brutally simple; rear mirror, solid state crystal, transmissive cap, energy source.
- There are no moving parts and no hollow areas making it resistant to damage and resilient when it does take damage.
- Wavelength is 532 nanometers, making the beam green visible light.
- Powered by the vibranium circuitry it has roughly as much power as an industrial welding laser, roughly fifty kilowatts.
- This allows it to burn through steel at several yards range and blind or ignite fires at a significantly farther range.
Vibranium Daggers
Arrachtach and the Shogunate's finest scientific minds combined their efforts to craft the Shogun the finest blades science could muster.
The grip is carbon-black which is a type of nanocarbon mixed with graphite. It is a superconductor, allowing Ivana to channel the electrical charge inside her gauntlets through the conductive palms of her gloves and into the blade of the knife.
All of the fittings are made from high grade titanium for durability.
Quantum harmonized vibranium makes up the blade. Master craftsmen forged the blades themselves and the science division took over. Lead by Arrachtach they modified the blades quantum state until it was harmonized with the quantum state of Ivana's tachyon singularities. When infused by tachyons this gives the blades a distinctive violet glow.
It also links the negative mass singularity created by Ivana's tachyonic infusion with the energy absorbing properties of vibranium. Normally vibranium absorbs energy passively however when linked with the 'negative mass black hole' the space-time curvature causes the vibranium to actively drain energies from its environment.
This means if the blade comes in contact with an energy field or effect it will drain the entire field. For example if the blade penetrates the skin of a superhuman it will 'drain' the energies that power the metahuman. This is most effective against pure energy, such as force fields and magical barriers- the blade can penetrate and drain a magical barrier almost instantly, regardless of the fields level of power.
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