HeroMachine Character Portrait Creator

[This character is where I REALLY started getting better with my poses]

Lydia Chastain/Black Maratia: It's no secret that superheroes battles tend to destroy their surroundings, and a harsher reality? They can't save everyone. Sometimes they end up worsening the issues that were already there, and socialite Lydia Chastain is a victim of all three circumstances; the end result is a sadistic control freak who truly believes there aren't any good people left.

Between growing up surrounded by horrible people, having to rebuild her family's influence from scratch, and her deep-seated fear of feeling helpless, the only comforts she had was her family and fiancé; losing them and everything she had rebuilt in the Nightlighters' first battle was just the final straw, and Lydia dedicated her life to getting her revenge; her chance finally came in the form of Project: G.E.M, and they turned her into what she hated, granting her immense power but sterilizing her. Now with her sadistic misanthropy out in full force, Lydia uses charisma, sex, and her beauty to seduce, charm, and bring her victims under her thrall. As more lovestruck men flock to her, she keeps finding new ways to guarantee herself victory; she has used her newfound mind control abilities to force a vampire to bite her, transforming her into a vampire herself; in weaponizing the violent rampages brought on by overdosing on bloodsucking, Lydia Chastain just might end up being one of the most dangerous threats Atlas has ever seen.

Lydia Chastain/Black Maratia is partially inspired by the Jorōgumo, and her original Toolkit abilities give her the physiology of a black widow spider; her senses and strength have been greatly enhanced, she can crawl across walls and ceilings, produce and manipulate copious amounts of silk, and is armed with retractable claws filled with venom. However, her greatest power is her mind control; by maintaining eye contact with a victim for 7 seconds, Maratia will be able to control them with both verbal and nonverbal commands; the power only works on men. She can also telepathically communicate with spiders, using them both as servants and as attack dogs.

Black Maratia later gains vampiric abilities by brainwashing a vampire into biting her; she is thus also incredibly durable and capable of extraordinary feats of strength, agility, speed, and stamina far exceeding what a human is capable of. As a Turned Vampire, Maratia can turn her body into mist and reform at will. As with all vampires, Maratia's bloodsucking ability is a multi-tool based on her own emotions; she can use it for nourishment, to heal any wounds she sustains, and to sexually gratify herself. The fangs themselves also serve as an effective weapon, as she possesses a bite force equivalent to that of a saltwater crocodile. However, sucking too much blood will reduce her mind to a feral animal state and send her into a mindless berserker rage... something she deliberately weaponizes as a last resort.

Black Maratia's price for her powers was her fertility; the Teardrop compound rendered her permanently unable to have kids.

Ted Breckenridge/Oil Slick: Driven by the thrill of the hunt, Ted Breckenridge is a bounty hunter to the core; he has no real loyalty to G.E.M, but between the chip in his head and the fact they pay well, he sticks around. Ruthless, determined, and focused on the prize like a hawk, he'll complete whatever objective is given to him with brutal efficiency, and sometimes he'll go after more than just his target, all for just a bit more payment. Still, despite his ruthlessness, he's not completely heartless; there remain lines he refuses to cross, and genuinely likes many of his fellow villains; he's exceptionally fond of Fire Glider, sympathizing with her horrid past and letting her tinker with his bike.

Ted Breckenridge/Oil Slick has a Toolkit that grants him the ability to control raw oil. Though he mainly uses it for his bike and as a deterrent for pursuers, he can also turn it into a solid form to create walls and traps, and can shoot it from his mouth as well. He is also capable of turning his body into liquid oil as well, which he often uses as a means of escape. Oil Slick's bike is also heavily modified with G.E.M tech that he and Fire Glider added; it is equipped with small railguns, a flamethrower, a larger gas tank, and various other offensive and defensive capabilities.

Oil Slick did not lose an aspect of himself when injected with Teardrop.

Preston Harper/Plaguewing: 13-year old Preston Harper is a testament to the depravity Project: G.E.M has sunk too. Once an average middle school student trying to make friends and impress the girl he liked, the thing that made Preston stand out above all else was his relentless desire to see the world; there had to be SOMETHING that made the planet awesome. Project: G.E.M granted him his wish... just not in the way he wanted.

Now, Preston is a frail and sickly husk kept alive by pills and life support, isolated from his fellow villains to keep the diseases ravaging his body from infecting everyone else. The only time he's ever released is at night, and what comes stumbling out of his cell... isn't him; all that remains is a screeching, stinking horror of flesh and teeth and wings, that only exists to main and infect everyone it can with diseases they don't have cures for. Preston can't remember anything that happens in those nights. But he DOES remember the days where he wakes up. Every day, he's crushed under the realization that the people dying from maggots and sickness are all suffering because of him. 

Preston Harper/Plaguewing's Toolkit is activated by the light of the full moon; when exposed to moonlight, he will transform into a massive, bat-like creature while his mind regresses to a feral animal state; in this form, his senses, agility, and balance are amplified, gains echolocation abilities, and fly. His most dangerous power, however, is his ability to control disease; he constantly generates a cloud of pathogens around him and has enough brainpower to use them offensively; he can decide how potent his diseases are and has control over all maladies, even ones from other worlds.

In a twisted bit of irony, Preston Harper's price for becoming a Paradigm was the weakening of his own immune system; he is more susceptible to getting sick and must constantly take medication to keep himself alive.

[BEGIN PRADIGM EXPERIMENT: PHASE NO.2]
[Improvements of Teardrop have been noticeable. There is now less chance that a subject loses a part of themselves, but the subject is at higher risk for permanent, noticeable physical change.]

Salvatore Barrows/Don Bulletproof: There's a reason why many heroes are grateful Dante Brosshollow left his father's drug empire; had he stayed, he almost certainly would've turned out like crime lord Salvatore Barrows. Sadistic, violent, vicious, and completely, utterly paranoid, Barrows spends his days overseeing the criminal underworld's massive drug, weapon, and human trafficking network... and violently beating his underlings to death at the slightest provocation and with the ease of flicking a switch, and ever since becoming a Paradigm, he's only gotten worse. He's dreaded across the criminal world for his violent temper and mood swings, and the one person who doesn't have to walk on eggshells around him is his childhood best friend and former crime lord, Ernesto Etienne, and even then, he's only there to reel in Barrows. Since becoming a Paradigm, Barrows has been using his trafficking network to supply the organization that turned him with a steady supply of people; guinea pigs for their experiments.

Salvatore Blandford/Don Bulletproof's Toolkit is rather simple; he has the ability to change his flesh into organic steel at will, granting him immense durability and strength.

Don Bulletproof did not lose part of himself when injected with Teardrop; he is the first sign that the compound was beginning to improve.

I used just the top spike from the flag's pole on the collar/ strap top thing.

@AMS- Cheers dude.

I am actually baffled. Where IS the American flag? You might win this by default anyway, but, yeah--I can't find it.