[General Information]
Name: Marko Balkic
Nicknames: Any nicknames your character possesses
Titles: Gigavolt
Age: 22
Birthday: March 18th, 1994
Star sign: Who cares?
Gender: Definitely male.
Race: Metahuman
Alliance: Villain.
Personality: Marko is motivated by the simple things in life. First and foremost, survival. There is nothing he will not do to ensure his own survival, and if you're lucky enough to get him to care about you, that extends to you as well... to a point. He won't go risking is own skin unless the pay is REALLY worth it. Which brings us to his second great motivator... profit. Before he makes any decision, he asks himself, "what's in it for me?" And if the risks outweigh the benefits, or if the benefits are paltry enough, he won't even consider it an option. He might classify as "villain," but only insofar as that he is entirely selfish and uses his powers for personal gain. If the benefits of fighting with the heroes - say in a situation where the world itself is at stake - outweighs the risks - in aforementioned situation, the stakes being death - he will obviously fight on the side of "good," though reluctantly and he'll deny the existence of such concepts. The third and final thing Marko is motivated by is pleasure. His life has been so far deprived of the finer things, but now he has the power to get them, he knows how bitterly short life can be, and he won't deny himself life's niceties any longer. Fast cars, beautiful women, shiny gadgets, etc, are all on his list of things to get.
[Personal Information]
Height: 6'4"
Weight: 220-ish
Occupation: He pulls odd jobs for crime bosses, generally as hired muscle, though he has done his fair share of hits.
Sexuality: Straight.
Likes: Fast cars, beautiful women, shiny gadgets, MONEY, a good fight, and winning.
Dreams: Eventually he wants to retire and live a typical "rich guy" life, preferably mostly on a yacht or in a resort, surrounded by beautiful women, maybe having a few kids by a couple of them. Y'know, same thing everyone else wants, right?
Dislikes: Being poor. He's been poor before, and has no desire to return to that life. The "bad" kind of rich people, who actively work to keep the poor people the way they are. The concepts of "good" and "evil," thinking them foolish - in Marko's eyes, there is no good or evil. Only power, and what you do with it.
Fears: Death. He'll do anything in his power to stay alive.
Darkest Secret: Marko's darkest secret is his childhood. You'll read about it in the bio. It's a doozy.
Favourite Food: The fancy s**t you can barely pronounce. The prime cuts of meat that cost enough to pay a month's rent for one dinner. The rare delicacies that the average person might question if they're even edible.
Favourite Drink: Alcohol. Anything alcohol.
Least Favourite Food: Asparagus. Can't stand the stuff.
Least Favourite Drink: Grapefruit juice. He likes grapes, and he likes fruit, and he likes juice. It seems like a natural fit. He can't wrap his head around not liking the stuff.
Loyalties: Himself above all others.
Intelligence Level: Marko's IQ has never been officially tested, but Interpol and FBI profilers estimate it to be somewhere between 170 and 195. He's incredibly intelligent, and though he was mainly deprived of a typical education, the wealth of knowledge available to those who have basic internet access, as well as public libraries and other tools of self-teaching, are more than sufficient to make someone an intellectual force to be reckoned with.
Dominant Hand: Ambidextrous with a preference for his right hand.
Strengths: Willpower. God help us all if he ever gets his hands on a green lantern ring. He's clever, imaginative, and can be incredibly charming. He has more tools than just his powers to get what he wants, and he feels no shame in doing whatever is in his power to get what he wants.
Weaknesses: He's headstrong, prone to making rash decisions, and often holds himself in such a high regard that he comes off as arrogant. While he very rarely actually underestimates opponents, it has been known to happen. His biggest weakness, however, is PTSD. Due to severe trauma in his early childhood, certain acts of violence such as beheading and rape can send him into a blind rage, disregarding even his own safety in his lust for blood, while somehow making him feel powerless can leave him catatonic.
Cherished Items:
Marko's single most cherished item is an American silver half dollar, print date 1944, given to him by his grandfather, who received it from a WWII soldier he met on his way home from the war. While it holds no true significance outside of sentimental value, it is the only tie Marko has to his own past, and one he is so far not yet willing to let go of.
Philosophical/social viewpoint:
Marko's philosophy is a complicated one. As previously stated, he believes there is no such thing as good or evil, only power and what you do with it. Power that serves the self, and power that serves others. Choices and consequences. His is a "might makes right" sort of viewpoint, though not so naive to follow it to its logical conclusion; he has the power to serve himself, so why should he not? He doesn't seek to actively hurt others, though he certainly has no qualms with it if they get between him and his goal. He believes the biggest failings of society stem from the belief that human life has some inherent value, that all people are worth something. Marko disagrees. We each decide what we are going to value, and something is not necessarily worth anything just because most people agree it is. He decides for himself what in this life has value, and he acts accordingly, using anything in his power to obtain it.
Religious viewpoint:
Marko believes there is a God. He just believes that God is a jerkass sadist with a bad sense of humor. He might have created everything, but he only did it so that he could watch it all go to s**t and have a good laugh. The only thing that's gonna save you in this life is yourself.
Romantic viewpoint:
Love is like life. Hard, fast, thorough, and constantly switching between utterly beautiful and utterly miserable. Though he certainly would prefer completely superficial relationships - they are much easier to manipulate - he isn't opposed to finding real love. Though preferably when he's living it up on a yacht or in a resort, not throwing himself in the line of fire for a few thousand bucks.
Biography
Marko Balkic's life began in Bosnia in the March of 1994, towards the end of the war that was raging across the countryside. While the war technically ended the next year, the conflict did not. Marko's early life took place with his impoverished farming family, barely making due. His grandfather was killed in a mugging by Serbian nationalists when he was six, and a mere two years later, three weeks after his eighth birthday, yet more Serbian nationals broke into his house during dinner, murdered his father, then forced him, his older brother and sister, and mother, to do simply unspeakable things to each other and the assailants. When his brother finally tried refusing, he was shot. Eventually the soldiers grew bored, and murdered his mother, then carried him and his sister off to their camp in the mountains. He never saw his sister again.
He spent a long year in that camp, working as slave labor, before his powers began manifesting. It was another year before they were powerful enough to allow him to escape, and by that I mean killing every single soldier in the camp (as well as more than a few prisoners). He never did find his sister, seeing as she'd died by her own hand early on that first year. He escaped into the countryside, wandering Eastern Europe until eventually making it as far as Italy. It was there that he began his life of crime in earnest, using his gift to steal, eventually getting the attention of the Italian Mafia. They hired him on several occasions as a hitman, and even more as hired muscle. He had a few tussles with other metahumans in that time, but it was well worth it whenever he got his paychecks. For the first time in his life, he could enjoy it.
Til he pissed off one of the mafioso's sons who put a price on his head so high that every bounty hunter from the Alps to the Himalayas was on his trail. So he fled further west, after killing the mafioso's son, making his way across the Channel and into England. It was there that he began taking more of an interest in his education. While he never actually went to any school, he learned more than enough in his near-daily trips to the library and browsing the internet. While he never had a true affinity for the more complicated cyber-crimes, he was able to support his newfound lavish lifestyle well enough between his leftover mafia money and the money he made occasionally hacking.
That is, until Interpol came knocking on his door. His assets seized, his accounts frozen, basically everything was taken from him once again and he was forced to flee yet again, this time to the good Ol' USA. He was 20 at the time. He's been living in North America two years now, often going between Canada and Mexico for jobs and to evade law enforcement, though he has a deep appreciation for the city lifestyle. By far his favorite American city is Gotham, followed very closely my Metropolis. He has safehouses in both cities, caches hidden all over the country, fake passports and ID's for every occasion, and of course a myriad of vehicles, weapons, and fun gadgets and gizmos to get around.
[Relationship information]
Friends:
○ Character name as URL link | Alliance | Relationship type
Relationship explanation
Enemies:
○ Character name as URL link | Alliance | Relationship type
Relationship explanation
Family:
○ Character name as URL link | Alliance | Relationship type
Relationship explanation
Romantic Relationships:
○ Character name as URL link | Alliance | Relationship type
Relationship explanation
[Weapon information]
○ Colt AR-15: Standard assault rifle, and Marko's favorite. With an effective range of 550 meters, 30 round magazines, and replacement parts and ammo available at your neighborhood WalMart, it's pretty much the all-american gun now.
○ 1911 .9mm semi-auto Handgun: A classic if there ever was one. Rivaled in renown only by the AK-47, and with good reason; this handgun is reliable to a fault, has more than enough stopping power to put a man down, and its lightweight size and frame means that going akimbo isn't all that difficult. Besides, it looks cool as f**k, and Marko does like to look cool. With an effective range of about 100 meters and a 10 round magazine, it's the all-around best handgun available.
○ modified Crosman BABPNBX Pioneer Airbow: It's a pneumatic crossbow. Each shot is fired by 3000 psi, with an effective range of up to 60 meters. The modification is a revolver-style chamber loading mechanism, allowing up to 8 arrows to be loaded and fired in rapid succession. After that both the loading mechanism and the air tank need to be refilled.
○ Ka-Bar 8" tactical knife: Typical tactical knife. 8" of quick, bloody death, this particular knife has ended quite a few lives. There's nothing particularly special about it- Marko got it off the corpse of one of the soldiers he killed escaping the camp. It's good for intimidation, mostly, though it has plenty of usefulness in a close quarters fight or in... advanced interrogation techniques, as well as being a solid all-around tool for survival.
○ Pocketfull of modified loose change: Loose change, a handfull of nickels, dimes, quarters, and pennies. The modification is, technically they're counterfeit, iron cores gilded in other metals to make them look like the real deal. In anyone's hands but Marko's, they're relatively worthless... but he can launch them individually at speeds of up to Mach 3 (1020.87 m/s), or all together at the speed of sound (340.29 m/s). He is basically a living railgun.
○ Charga-bombs: A unique invention by Marko, these typically inert packages vary in size from 2x2x4" all the way up to 8x8x36", contain rather ordinary electronic components, and under scrutiny by all but the most advanced scanners will reveal mostly useless chunks of machine that could be just about anything. Unfortunately for just about everyone, that is not the case. Even the smallest size Charga-bombs rival frag grenades in raw explosive power, with the largest ones basically being a brick and a half of C-4. Activated only via intense overcharging, and with time-release capacitors that range anywhere from 5 seconds to three minutes, these explosive devices are one of his favorite toys.
[Other item information]
○ modified smoke grenades: While technically not a weapon, given the right circumstances it might be used as such. These are typical smoke grenades with one very slight modification - the thick smoke contains millions of particles of graphene, which makes the already semi-conducive smoke all the more dangerous to be in contact with. It's a very effective screen for breaching procedures, and with the added graphene particles it becomes incredibly hazardous to any unable to withstand a LOT of electricity.
○ GHG (grappling hook gun): Marko's own little invention, a pneumatic airgun that shoots a grappling hook and wire up to 300 meters, the other end attaching to a harness, becoming a mechanized zipline. While this too could feasibly be used as a weapon, it'd be far too much of a hassle to clean afterwards.
[Ability information]
○ Electrokinesis: The ability to generate, manipulate, absorb and nullify electromagnetic forces. Marko's body is constantly generating electricity, much like everyone else's. However, his body generates roughly ten million times the electricity an average person's does, nearly one billion watts of power. This energy can be released at will, which leads to a variety of interesting effects, listed below.
- Lightning bolts: by far the most simple application of Marko's ability, he harnesses the electrical current to superheat the air between him and the target, releasing a bolt of lightning to strike it.
- ECM jamming: He can release his stored energy in a large radial wave, disrupting, damaging, and even destroying technology in a radius of up to 100 meters. This functions as a passive ability too - sensory technology either fails to pick him up completely, or he shows up on camera as a blurred grayish mess of static.
- Electromagnetic field generator: Marko's entire body functions as one incredibly powerful electromagnet. But on top of that, he can manipulate his own and other magnetic fields at will, allowing him to bend and control metal, become a human railgun, and rudimentary levitation if he has a proper platform. As a passive ability, his electromagnetic field repels metal projectiles; slower projectiles such as thrown knives and the like are repelled completely, while faster projectiles such as bullets are redirected up to 8 inches from their original path. While not quite rendering him bulletproof, it makes him pretty damn close.
- Heat resistance: while nothing to brag about, Marko can comfortably withstand temperatures of up to 900 degrees Fahrenheit for a few minutes, and nearly double that for a full minute. For reference, a campfire can reach temperatures of over 1570 degrees Fahrenheit. So while not entirely fireproof, he is able to withstand quite a lot of heat much better than the average person.
- Enhanced physiology: due to the excess electricity coursing through his body, it has taken on quite a few changes. His raw physical strength has increased to where he can physically lift just over a ton, he's been clocked running at nearly 100 mph, his reaction time is incredibly enhanced, and his metabolism is increased to the point where minor injuries take only hours to heal. More serious injuries such as broken bones, major lacerations and severe trauma can still take weeks or even up to a month, and other injuries such as severed limbs can't heal at all. He still scars normally, though, and the healing process requires excess nutrients; he can't heal on electricity alone, and the more healing he has to do, the more the body takes from other available sources; fat, muscle, even bone tissue all deteriorate during healing if he isn't able to eat.
[Weakness information]
○ Basic Human Weaknesses: Despite all his useful powers, he's still technically as vulnerable as a human. Shooting him (at point blank) will kill him as dead as anyone else, and though he might be a little tougher to kill because of his metabolism, depriving him of food and continually injuring him will basically cause him to wither away to nothing.
○ Being Grounded: Encasing him completely in a non-conducive material would theoretically be a good way to get rid of him. Or being around a huge lightning rod, though that wouldn't save you from his other weapons.
○ Water: While he can drink it without harm, in almost all other cases contact with water is physically painful. In the rain he'll look like he just got out of a very one-sided paintball fight, the drops leaving welts all over him, and if he's completely submerged it forces an involuntary discharge, though this can and has killed anyone submerged around him. As far as a constant stream of water, say for example a hose, well. It's about the same as being submerged, the source of the water is suddenly connected to a LOT of electric power.
