Vitality
"Nearly all men can withstand adversity, but if you want to test a man's character, give him power."
-Abraham Lincoln-
Contents
Summary
David Gadley was born with his abilities but did not fully understand them until he was an adult. After his hometown was attacked by a powerful robot, which was only stopped when David intervened, revealing his true potential, David left for sometime. This time was cut short when the attack of Michigan took place. David embraced his powers and went to help fight the alien invasion.
Early Life
David was always aware that his strength was beyond normal humans but he never knew how much stronger he actually was. The only one who knew of David's true abilities was his best friend Nate.
Not long after David's superhuman potential was clear, a powerful robot attack his hometown, clearly focused on killing David. David was pushed to his limits as the fight destroyed most of downtown. The fight ended as David, seemingly flying for the first time, smashed the robot into a nearby building. Using all his strength, David punched right through the robots head, destroying it and bringing down the building with the force of his punch. Minutes went by, as the dust began to settle, before David dug his way out through the rubble. Shocked, dazed, and confused, David just left.
After watching everything on the news about the attack...David realized his purpose. David realized then that it's not about having power, anyone can aquire power. It's about having the power to do whatever you want and choosing to do good. David knew, for the first time in his life, why, and made his way to Millennium City.
DoD and DELTA
Sometime after the events of the Qularr invasion, David was contacted by the Department of Defense. David began working for the U.S. government as their secret weapon, where he started using the alias, Vitality. They enable him to be where he is most needed.
Ultimate
David's best friend Nathan showed up in his hometown with apparent super strength and durability that he did not have previously. Nathan explained to David that he was behind the robot that attacked him. He agreed to a deal with Teleios, to set up the fight between David and his robot, in attempt to get a sample of David's blood for his experiments. Using David's blood as a catalyst, Teleios was able to create a serum that gave Nathan superhuman strength and durability. Nathan attacked David, but the fight ended quickly as David easily overpowered him. Nathan escaped after the fight and went back to Teleios. Wanting him to increase his power levels, Nathan agreed to become Teleios' Ultimate Being of Power. Teleios' new experiment combined the serum, that used David's blood, with Draysha compound. Nathan's size and muscle mass increased exponentially, dramatically increasing his power. With his strength levels now incalculable, Nathan betrayed Teleios and completely destroyed the facility. Nathan, now going by Ultimate, began to recruit his very own army, somehow giving power to those who are loyal.
Ultimatum
The Department of Defense, requested the aid of Vitality in order to help to set up a few long range sensors out in space for better intelligence gathering on possible extra-terrestrial threats, as well as a few powerful enough to monitor the goings on of shady characters the Department were tracking. Vitality readily accepted, he made his way to the DoD HQ and was shown the five different sensors he was to place as well as the different locations in space and the activation codes. He was to fly the sensors out far beyond normal communication range and active the sensors.
With Vitality out in space, Ultimate decided to make his move. He had been gathering his minions from various gangs around Millennium City, even roping in some of the New Purple Gang on a deal he had made with Kevin Poe over the past few months. Having managed to have secured his deal and uphold his part of the bargain, Hi Pan, Kevin Poe, Zoe Loft amongst others delivered and contributed to his attacking army, all as eager and ruthless as the next person to see Millennium City crushed.
With added numbers in the palm of his hand, Ultimate began his all out assault on Millennium City. The sheer number of Ultimate's followers, alone, was enough to overpower most of the defense the city had to offer including PRIMUS, UNTIL and the available police force. Whilst his minions who were extracted from the mobs around Millennium City took on the police forces and governmental agencies, his more "super powered" followers were strong enough to engage the heroes who had gotten word of the disturbance and came to help. Unfortunately the empowered followers of Ultimate were strong enough to go one on one with the heroes of Millennium City.
Ultimate didn't even have to get involved, as the power and numbers of his followers were more than enough to take over downtown Millennium City. Slowly but surely the police forces and even the heroes were loosing the fight against the opposing forces. Drastic measures were taken and DE:LTA and some of it's associates were called to the scene; Kontrol, Sarge, D.A.W.N., and Crescentwave were the first members to arrive.
Aided by the remaining allies and police force they managed to turn the tide, taking out a large number of Ultimate's minions with ease and sending the mob members from the various groups in Westside running back.
With Crescentwave using her command over sheets of water approaching 25ft high to drive back would be attackers, healing any allies it touched in the process, Sarge and D.A.W.N. were rounding up and fighting back mob members and Ultimate's tough minions using their respective ammunition. Kontrol had her hands full projecting brain-wave controlling signals to any in her wake, forcing them into submission.
"How's everyone holding up?" ~ Crescentwave asked as she dropped the sheets of water as the mob members were either unconscious, drenched and unconscious, forced into submission or on the run.
"Doing just fine, these brutes sure do pack a punch though.." ~ Sarge replied, reloading his weapons then elbowing a Purple Gang member creeping up on him, who was rendered unconscious from the blow to his face.
"Do not stray from the mission objective, our priority is containment, an objective made easier if we weren't the only competent people around here, remind me to have a word with Agent Henderson and Agent Cashton. This situation would have been admittedly easier if they had bothered to show up." ~ Kontrol warned as she forced the last minion within her range into a state of unconsciousness.
Just as the DELTA members were seemingly about to get things under control, another wave of minions rounded the corner making their way rapidly towards the four agents.
"Looks like it's time for round two." ~ D.A.W.N. sighed as she re-focused her weapons on the approaching targets.
Ultimate, who had noticed the recent tide turning DE:LTA had accomplished, made his appearance on the battle field shortly after his second wave of minions had been deployed. Ultimate smashed a foot down into the ground, creating a shockwave that sent Kontrol flying back.
D.A.W.N.'s ballistics and weaponry were immediately re-focused and unleashed in Ultimate's direction. The force of the attacks causing him to relent, accompanied by Sarge's gun fire as Crescentwave broke off to tend to an unconscious Kontrol. It seemed like Ultimate was finally being subdued, when he realized he was being forced into a corner, he unleashed a rage filled shout and charged forward, bullets bouncing off his biceps. He moved with such surprising speed Sarge barely dodged the mighty forearm which just missed him, however the shockwave of the force Ultimate's hand, sent Sarge careering into Crescentwave who thankfully utilized her water manipulation to catch Sarge in a bed of water. Quickly assessing the situation Crescentwave moved Kontrol and Sarge, both still unconscious to a safe zone, healing them as fast as she could, whilst taking out Ultimate's minions in a flurry of aqueous blasts and powerful jets of water.
D.A.W.N. did not let up on the assault dodging pieces of pavement Ultimate tore up sending in her direction in an attempt to stop her from firing. He jumped up unexpectedly and released a mighty thunderclap, the force of the resultant shockwave sent D.A.W.N. into the nearest building face, she fell from the building almost limp, her plummet to the ground was cut short by the arms of Cliff-Side who caught her, arriving on the scene with fellow agent Cavalier. Ultimate turned to face them, ordering his remaining minions to attack the standing DE:LTA agents. Cavalier jumped back to take on the minions whilst Cliff-Side rammed into Ultimate head on at full force. Cavalier made short work of the minions with his superior fighting skills, stopping them from advancing on Crescentwave who was assisting him and allowing Kontrol, Sarge and D.A.W.N to stay safe until they had recuperated sufficiently to fight again, whilst Cliff-Side did what he could to keep Ultimate busy.
Cavalier quickly noticed that Crescentwave was getting further and further away from him, as Ultimate's minions, had been working to move them further apart. Cavalier fought to get back to Crescentwave who looked as if she was having trouble. He was yanked backwards by an unexpected hand and fell to the ground, a minion of Ultimate raised his hands attempting to slam down on Cavalier, only to meet with a wall which pulsed blue when hit, he banged against the shield in confusion, Cavalier looked to his right to see ForceGirl on the scene, with a number of unconscious minions around her projecting the force field in front of him. After winking a thanks in her direction he jumped back into the fight against Ultimate and his seemingly endless number of minions. ForceGirl expanded the shield causing it to explode in the minions face after Cavalier was clear. ForceGirl made her way to a wounded and struggling Crescentwave whom she assisted in taking out the remaining minions attacking.
With Crescentwave too wounded to fight any longer, she focused on full recovery of her teammates, ForceGirl turned her attention to Ultimate who was locked in combat with both slowly tiring Cliff-Side and a slightly wounded Cavalier. Before she could attempt to assist, Ultimate back handed Cavalier who was sent flying towards Crescentwave, but fortunately was cushioned and halted from slamming into his team mate by ForceGirl's force field. Too wounded to go on, Cavalier hung his head low, on the edge of passing out. The situation went from bad to worse as Ultimate managed to get a disorientating punch in and Cliff-Side was momentarily put off by Ultimate, who took the opportunity to land a solid punch and throw him to the side, scrapping along the floor towards Crescentwave, Cavalier and the other DE:LTA Agents. His gaze fell towards a very defiant looking ForceGirl, he charged at her and ran into a very solid force field, the impact of it sending him crashing towards the floor and her back slightly. Noticing Ultimate was quickly recovering and eyeing the fallen DE:LTA Agents, who were being healed by Crescentwave, ForceGirl stood between them projecting a dome shaped force field over herself and her allies. Ultimate chuckled and ran into the shield, half surprised it didn't budge.
"Your going to have to do a lot better than that to get past me. Now back off." - ForceGirl
"I'm just getting started darling..." - Ultimate sneered.
His colossal fists came down on the force field with a tremendous impact, each hit sending shockwaves off the force field from the sheer force of the blows. After countless impacts, ForceGirl was slowly but surely weakening, the psionic feedback was taking it's toll. Realizing she needed assistance, she cried out to Mentella using her psychic link.
Mentella was teleported to the scene seconds later to see Ultimate raising his fists and slamming it down on the shield, with her sister almost on her knees in pain. Enraged Mentella at her sister's plight, she sent a psychic blast directly into Ultimate's skull with enough force to cause him to be physically launched back away from her struggling sister's shield. She quickly contacted Vitality using her telepathic powers, alerting him to the situation. The venom in her telepathic voice was unmistakable:
<Ultimate is here tearing up the place. Finish him off. Before I do it myself.> ~ Mentella
{I'm on my way!} ~ Vitality
Vitality had just finished activating the sensors and flew back to Earth at top speed. Vitality arrived on the scene to see Mentella with her hands outstretched, causing Ultimate to stay paralyzed, his barely twitching muscles showing how much he was attempting to resist. Any of Ultimate's minions still conscious were writhing in pain. Surprised at Mentella's display of power, Vitality had half a mind to let Mentella finish Ultimate off for good.
<Now where would the fun in that be for you?> ~ Mentella asked, looking back and smirking at him.
Vitality grinned, thanked her quickly before flying back a little then slamming into Ultimate at an incredible speed ripping Ultimate from where he stood before slamming Ultimate into the ground, quickly slamming into him again. The shockwaves alone from the impact causing severe structural damage and buildings began to crumble and topple. Mentella forced the remaining minions into a comatose state and stopped exerting her telepathic influence on Ultimate's mind, presuming Vitality would be able to deal with him as she attended to her sister and the DE:LTA Agents.
Vitality was the first to notice the incredible amount of destruction, Ultimate was climbing out of a building wall Vitality had just punched him into, disorientated. Using his quick thinking skills he flew into Ultimate, soaring high above Millennium City and out of the taking the fight to a large open area in nearby Canada. Few words were exchanged as the two powerhouses continued their fight. Eventually, the power of Ultimate proved too much even for Vitality, as he began to take the upper hand. Ultimate continued his relentless assault on Vitality and dominated the fight.
As the fight went on, Ultimate continued to lash out ruthlessly; he grabbed Vitality by the leg before throwing him into a nearby mountainside.
"You know, after I'm finished with you, nothing's going to be able to stop me, the world will be all mine, I'll find a way to deal with that psychic bitch, once I get rid of her, nothing will be able to stop Ultimate! You hear me?! NOTHING!" ~ Ultimate roared before unleashing a devastating punch that sent Vitality across the clearing and deep into another mountain side.
Beaten and broken, Vitality sent out a telepathic message to Mentella, asking her to advise the DoD and DE:LTA to stay away from the area, she complied, cutting off the psychic thread as Vitality gathered his focus. Ultimate walked closer ominously before reaching out to take hold of Vitality, quicker than Ultimate could even form a thought, Vitality had burst from his location creating a stunning shockwave, flying out into the very orbit of the Earth, closed his eyes, and gathered all his strength. Vitality shot straight down to earth, flying faster than he ever had and smashed directly down onto Ultimate, causing an impact so devastating, the shockwave easily uprooted nearby trees and causing almost a tidal wave of snow to erupt around the impact point.
Mentella sensed the lack of conscious thought from Vitality and informed DE:LTA and the DoD, who quickly arrived on the scene. They found both Vitality and Ultimate's bodies in the epicenter of a 950ft crater. They were both alive, though badly injured and unconscious. Vitality was taken to a government medical center, where he stayed in a coma-like state for two days. Ultimate was taken to a secret facility where he was locked in a stasis tube, hopefully never to return again.
His super powered minions were rounded up in Millennium City and sent to Stronghold complete with power suppression gauntlets. Despite the devastation and injuries...the day was won.
Brace for Impact
Downtown Millennium City was undergoing reconstruction after the cataclysmic fight with Ultimate had laid waste to the surrounding area, when a man was found alive under the debris from a destroyed apartment building, after aid workers discovered he was super powered when he was seen attempting to break the debris with some form of energy, they backed up and decided to call in back up. The man once freed, seemed to go on a super powered rampage, blaming Vitality for the death of his family during the fight with Ultimate, and demolishing the rebuilding work that was being done in the neighborhood. PRIMUS was called in and arrived on the scene just in time to stop a man going crazy and destroying anything further, they were able to subdue the man and lock him up in the Westside Prison.
After his arrest and incarceration, it was revealed in the following weeks that this man was Eric McClendon, a mutant with the ability to project concussive energy blasts. His mutant powers had surfaced during the emotional breakdown over the loss of his family. His initially limited control over his newfound powers allowed PRIMUS to stop him. Before he could be questioned further, Westside Prison was attacked by ARGENT forces, in a bid to free a few of their own and get to Eric, whom they had been monitoring for a short while and planned to use him to their own ends. As surprised as he was, Eric did not think twice before accepting ARGENT's offer to free him, and made a swift exit with the Squad leader whilst the ARGENT soldiers and some of the prisoners staged a stand-off with the MCPD and SWAT teams on the scene.
After ARGENT had pulled out and were clear of the Prison, Eric was coerced into working for ARGENT, who promised to support him financially, provide protection and more importantly, to them, assisting him to hone his abilities. Grief-stricken and plagued by a feeling of helplessness and loss, he accepted their offer. Eric began training him to control his powers, enhancing him and pushing against his limits in an attempt to make him more useful to them. ARGENT used their links and resources to clear his name from the system, granting him a "clean slate", allowing him to operate within other organizations without arousing suspicion. ARGENT used Eric for undercover missions, under their instruction and guidance he stole classified intelligence files from both PRIMUS and UNTIL. Eric was loyal to ARGENT, and never wavered from his hatred for Vitality. Getting revenge was his main goal, ARGENT had promised that as long as he helps them, they will provide him with the means and power to take his revenge on Vitality. This promise combined with his hatred caused him to push himself even further to shorten the time it would take to achieve his main goal. Revenge.
Months passed and Eric had been transformed into a new man. The once slightly weak and sad Eric had fully embraced his abilities and transformed himself into a man burning with hatred and power, who had honed his abilities to the point where he could become a significant threat. Pleased with the way Eric had turned out, ARGENT enacted Phase One, a plan to target and draw out superhuman threat, in this case, Vitality.
ARGENT revealed how the intelligence he had stolen had been used, they had created a suit designed especially for him. They equipped him with a neural interface suit which amplified his abilities by allowing him to tap into his own power reserve and manipulate it accordingly, the gauntlets amplified his concussive blasts tenfold. Eric was assured that this suit would allow him to dish out his revenge on Vitality. With this assurance in mind, Eric renamed himself Impact and made his presence known to Millennium City and it's heroes on the 17th of September 2013 when he attacked First National Bank causing severe structural weakening with his much more potent concussive energy blasts.
Later on in the month Impact, following the procedure of ARGENT's Phase One, set his sights on PRIMUS and UNTIL HQ's with the intention of causing enough of a stir to draw Vitality out to fight him. Noticing that one attack wasn't enough, he began to frequently attack the HQ's and associated bases and bunkers resulting in billions of dollars worth of damage and a high number of casualties. This caught Vitality's attention who investigated the scene of each crime. With his attention finally caught, Impact moved onto Phase Two, namely, Confrontation. During his next series of attacks, Impact under ARGENT's guidance left subtle clues as to the location of his next planned attack, where of course, he would be waiting for Vitality.
Vitality got the assistance of Joule and Techna Ology who helped with the analysis of the clues, which when triangulated displayed the next likely target of Impact's fury, the well placed clues had pointed to a warehouse for their next attack. Vitality and Joule arrived on the scene, but it quickly became clear that the warehouse was abandoned. The reason for this was simple, Impact wanted Vitality, nothing else. Vitality and Joule were ambushed by a few dozen ARGENT soldiers, and easily subdued them. The duo made their way further into the warehouse when Vitality spotted Impact, recognizing Impact from a photo from a PRIMUS report, Vitality made the connection to how this man was likely affected by the events with Ultimate and asked Joule not to fight.
Vitality tried to talk Impact down as he attempted to convey his regret at what had happened all those months ago. Impact upon identifying that it was in fact Vitality did not even let him finish his sentence before attacking savagely, releasing a colossal burst of energy at both Vitality and Joule, catching Vitality off guard. Joule, noticing this, used her energy absorption abilities to attempt to contain the kinetic energy which had nearly destroyed the warehouse. The sheer volume of kinetic energy she absorbed to save Vitality, had overloaded her kinetic energy absorption field, causing heavy feedback which resulted in her loosing consciousness.
Knowing that Joule wasn't adept with absorbing kinetic energy in comparison to other energy types, Vitality used the heavy crates in the warehouse to make a makeshift blockade in an attempt to slow Impact down. Vitality then turned his attention to Joule picking her up and flying her away from the scene, placing her with local law enforcement and out of harms way before turning back to confront Impact once more.
When Vitality returned Impact had just blasted through the first crate and lunged at him. They fought, Impact unleashing his concussive blasts and Vitality desperately holding back his strength in a bid to try and get through to Eric. As the fight went on, Impact became increasingly angry, increasing the magnitude of his powers, almost overloading his suit. Realizing that the energy shockwaves Impact was putting out was causing structural instability, Vitality knew things needed to end before any serious destruction could happen. Taking a deep breath, Vitality steeled himself and his fist contacted with Impact's chest, sending the ARGENT trained mutant crashing to the ground. Vitality pleaded with him, apologizing for the loss of his family, confessing the immense guilt he felt for the lives lost that day and admitting that he is responsible for what happened.
Impact got up taking dizzying steps backwards and looked at up at Vitality, his suit near out of commission and his rage burning in his eyes before he fully processed Vitality's words. After a moment the rage seemed to die out, he slumped against a nearby pillar, defeated and plagued with guilt for his actions, Impact, now Eric again then began to breakdown, sobbing uncontrollably whilst discarding the gauntlets of his suit. It was clear that he had given up, Vitality called in UNTIL and Impact showed no resistance as the UNTIL agents came and took him into custody.
The Calm Before The Storm
The Theraxian Vanguard: They Met In The Sky
The Theraxian Vanguard: Salvation Through Destruction
The Theraxian Vanguard
"It's us or them."
Powers and Abilities
Superhuman Strength: The upper limits of David's strength has been theorized to equal a force greater than that recorded on the Richter scale.
Durability: David is nigh-invulnerable to almost all harm. He can survive the vacuum of space, and has shown to be immune to most radiation. However, repeated punches of great force, such as those from Ultimate, can harm him over time. If he is harmed, however, David is able to recover from injuries more efficiently and quickly than someone with a normal human healing rate.
Flight: David has the ability to fly. Like his strength, the upper limits of his flight speed is unknown. He has been able to fly from deep outer space to earth in a matter of seconds.
Lung Capacity: David can hold his breath in space and under water for long periods of time. It is theorized that he can survive nearly 6 days on a single breathe of air.
