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Intro

If you're reading this then it means I've gone too far. Ever since coming out of retirement I know I've travelled a rockier path; some would (and have) called my methods extreme, obtrusive and notably 'un-heroic'. Others have called me a one man police-state. At the time of recording this message though I have only ever acted as an extension of the law; never judge, never jury and certainly never executioner. I'm the all-seeing man, but part of me is afraid.

I'm compiling this, a detailed biography and an explanation of my current lifestyle and techniques, in the hopes that should I go over the edge you might be able to use this information to find some psychological flaw or chink in my methods that could be used against me.

Good luck.

Biography

Extract from a letter of resignation by Dr Carl Wright to the national board of medicine:

I realize there is no apology I can give that even begins to encompass the magnitude of my errors and the betrayal of trust that you and my patients had in me, however I can at least give you an explanation.

The guilt from what I had unwittingly done to hundreds of children consumed me and I dedicated all funds I had left in an attempt to reverse the effects of what I'd done. I've worked tirelessly, investing in laser eye surgery, cybernetic implants, anything that might work. And as you will of heard, I've managed to make one boy see.

I let myself and the press believe I'd found a way to reverse the procedure, even cure blindness altogether. I regret to tell you now that it was simply a freak incident, this patient was never fully blinded, in that development stage of the pregnancy his eyes had actually adjusted to the x-ray spectrum. A relatively simple laser eye operation was able widen his visibility to include the regular colour spectrum. Other than some scarring around the eyes the patient is now perfectly healthy, unfortunately he is the exception and all the others are permanently blind.

The Meta-Men

There were a couple of articles written about me, I still have them in a draw somewhere: “Young boy holds the key to curing blindness!” “By the year 2000 will we be able to see through walls?” When these turned out to be false hopes though the initial interest died down, x-ray vision is hardly the most amazing super-power around these days. So I got on with life.

For me sight alone was the real gift, being able to know something was there without touching it changed my world in a way someone who has always been able to see can never truly appreciate. Other than a particularly enjoyable puberty x-ray vision seemed like just a neat add-on, until I was convinced otherwise.

It was mid way through high-school when he contacted me. The Millennium Man, he called himself, I hadn't heard of him, but with a name like that he clearly had aspirations. I know what I was like back then, just a dumb kid I had no real business fighting crime, but curiosity and a bit of my inner child got the better of me so I ended up agreeing to come along. I suppose that marked the beginning of a long career.

The first official Meta-Men meeting took place in a rented church hall. Some of us showed up in cheap home-made costumes that looked like they'd been stashed away in closets dreaming of this day, most of us were just in our casual clothes, and then there was the Millennium Man. Outside of posters and films costumes tend to look quite ridiculous, but not his, his shining starry getup looked like it belonged among the Champions and I'll always remember how his speeches inspired us that night.

The Millennium Man was charismatic, that much was clear, he was a born leader and had the powers to back it up. 'Battle pre-cognition' as he called it let him know actions a moment before they happened, he could move out of the way of a bullet before it was fired and was practically untouchable in hand to hand combat, to us he seemed invincible. Looking back he was a complete idiot.

That isn't fair I suppose, we all bought into his talk as much as he did, the Millennium Man just told us what we wanted to hear. All our lives we'd all been blessed with powers that seemed more like gimmicks, from the guy who could contort himself or the woman who was fire resistant to the kid who could see through walls. But together we would be a force to be reckoned with, pooling our powers we could make a difference, we could be super-heroes.

Smugglers, drug dealers, bank robbers, they never saw us coming - quite literally, thanks to me. We played to each other strengths so I was generally on look out, co-ordinating an operation or sneaking us about somewhere. I also ended up doing a lot of tedious stake-outs but the camaraderie more than made up for it. After every successful operation we'd all go for a meal together and I remember pizza filled evenings held at someone or others basement that would go into the night each eagerly talking about new ideas, Millennium Man always their steady as a rock. Those were simpler times, probably the best years of my life; back then I would never of imagined having to write something like this.

You hear a lot about how those stalwart iconic super-group leaders are actually kind of jerks in person, that wasn't the case with the Millennium Man, perhaps he'd been rejected from more powerful teams in the past I'm not sure, but he did genuinely believe in our cause, he tried to promote us and our activities as best he could, but I never had him pegged as a personal glory hunter. He had a different problem.

For a group of random untrained heroes with questionable super powers we didn't do too badly, the Meta-Men never stopped a nuke or saved the world from an alien invasion but we tackled some of the smaller issues,

Abilities and Equipment

I probably don't seem like much of a threat at first glance, certainly in a world containing bullet-proof individuals who can lift cars and fly past the speed of sound, being able to see through objects doesn't seem like much. Its easy to forget though, knowledge is power and I can see potentially anyone, anywhere, at anytime. If you're going to try and stop me the first step is learning not to underestimate me.

X-ray Vision

I suppose the cornerstone of my crime-fighting and the only power I actually have unaided, take everything away and I can still see through walls.

Stun Blasts

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Optic Visor

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Reinforced Gloves

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Audio Equalizers

An audio equalizer on each ear protects me from sonic attacks by dampening any high decibel sounds before they reach my eardrums; it also has speakers in-built to allow me to communicate with team-mates.

These were added to my arsenal to fight The Auditor who during our first few encounters easily incapacitated me, he still remains a formidable foe but I'm now safe from direct sonic attacks.

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The Observatory

Ever wonder why someone built an observatory right in the middle of a light polluted city? Ever wonder why no-one ever seems to come in or out of the building? Or why the telescope sometimes points down? The Observatory is my base of operations in Millennium city, the computers inside are connected to one of the vastest arrays of surveillance technology in the world spread across the entire city, its the telescope that really makes it though.

With my optic visor I can see across a city, using the telescope I can theoretically see anywhere on the planet. They don't call me all seeing for nothing.

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Rogues Gallery

Mnemonic

Powers:

- Perfect eidetic memory

- Amnesia inducing weaponary

I genuinely have no idea how long I've been trying to stop this man, or how many times we've met. If you think you've ever known someone with an eidetic memory, trust me you haven't, not like him. Mnemonic it seems doesn't just remember an event, he remembers every minute detail about it, he could read a book in an hour, watch a training video and absorb it all in less and it creeps me out. I shouldn't really have to say how dangerous this makes him, in order to stand a chance I'm forced to improvise and use unconventional methods each time we meet, I know he will have memorized our previous encounters perfectly.

Mnemonic makes use of uniquely designed electroshock weapons that induce memory loss in their victims, that's how he gets away from me, I can't follow him with my Exray vision if I've forgotten I'm even chasing him. There's so many times now I've come-to in bizarre places with no idea why I'm meant to be there.

Mnemonic isn't your typical super-criminal exactly, his targets are other criminals, he'll often strike at mental hospitals and prisons. He isn't a killer, nor is he a vigilante, Mnemonic believes that reforming criminals is a lost cause so ops to wipe their minds in the hopes that it might change them. What led him to do this I don't know, nor does he; once he told me his earliest memory was waking up on a hospital bed with one of his electroshock weapons lying next to him.

I'll be honest, part of me respects him. At some point we came to the same realization, that costumed vigilantism, playing cowboys-and-Indians with each other isn't going to work, something else needs to be done. He crossed the line in the sand though, break the law and you're a criminal, there's no two ways about it.

Its important that I write this down as I have a suspicion that Mnemonic is trying to remove himself from my memories, the next time I read this I could have no idea who he is.

The Auditor

Powers

- Enhanced hearing

- Sound manipulation

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The Benefactor

Reading through the biography it might seem a little odd that I've listed the Benefactor here, he is after-all my biggest ally, my funder and the person who convinced me to take all this up again. That doesn't mean I trust him though; I know little to nothing about this man, if indeed he is a man, not a woman, or an it. Whoever they are they've got a large amount of resources at their disposal, know more about me than anyone else and have a potentially unknown motive. If I'm making contingency plans for myself I definitely need one for him.

Conclusion

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OOC

Origins

Exray is a character I've been nursing for a while now, he grew from the idea of a hero trying to make the absolute most of an otherwise pretty crummy super-power. I really wanted to make a character who embodied something more than simply what they appeared to be at face value such as Iron-Man representing the cold-war arms race, Wonderwoman for feminism and many of Alan Moore's characters. Somewhere along the way he picked up a Big-Brother motif and turned into almost an opposite to V for Vendetta which became a lot of fun to play around with. I wanted to theme his rogues gallery around each having their own super sense to counter Exray's vision and tried to make them a little more morally grey than the run of the mill variants.

The concept started life as an attempt to make a radiant archetype without having to use a fantasy origin (silver player) while still making the battle animation's and colors fit. Originally he was a power-armor hero who fired microwave blasts but I decided to change it to x-rays as they were vaguely medical to better fit and the character grew from there.

Roleplay Notes/Hooks

- The power of Exrays hand blasts are left somewhat vague depending their on who he's fighting alongside, at its most basic level his gloves have a bright flash strobe which can dazzle and temporarily blind opponents, when things get a bit more high stakes its something more akin to Wasp of the Avengers stingers and a direct hit can render a normal man unconscious.

- Does your character need someone found or have someone watched? Exray has one of the largest surveillance networks available at his disposal and with his vision can do a stakeout from across the city

- Right now 'Exray is watching you' are dotted all around Millennium City, perhaps your character has something to say about this?

- Exray has a strict policy around fellow heroes and won't compromise their secret identity by looking through their masks/disguises

- You'd be surprised how many buildings in Millennium City were decorated with lead paint, it has a knack of stopping him from seeing plot spoiling details