The Bat aka: Marcous Wayne (secret)
Age: 28
Height: 6′-2?
Association: Independant
Intelligence – mythical
Sanity – near theoretical human maximum
Character – practical human maximum
Maturity – exceptional
Sophistication – exceptional
Wisdom – exceptional
Strength – practical human maximum
Speed – practical human maximum
Endurance – practical human maximum
Dexterity – practical human maximum
Durability – practical human maximum
Recovery – practical human maximum
Power/Skill Set: Acrobatics, Analysis, Combat awareness, Cultivated fear (in others), Deception, Detective, Equipment Operation, Physical discipline, Mental discipline, Martial Arts, Security/Breaching, Heightened senses, Stealth, Strategic planning, Tactical planning, Technology, Wealth
Marcous Wayne is the adult son of Bruce and Barbara Wayne who built a financial empire on the wealth left by Dr. Thomas and Martha Wayne. He and his family, along with several dozen guests at Thomas and Martha’s 60th anniversary party, were the victims of “The Poisoning” a terrorist incident which killed nearly a million people worldwide. During Marcous’ 3-week struggle to survive the mutagenic poison, he had moments of lucidity during which he realized some things; he was orphaned, terrorists were responsible, and his body’s interaction with the mutagen could yield valuable abilities – if he survived. Seizing the opportunity, he willed the mutagenic process to give him immunity to any future poison attacks (which he thought probable) and heightened perception (difficult at best in the delirium).
When he regained consciousness, he found he had extremely high tolerance for toxins of all sorts. Though greatly weakened from the ordeal, his physical and mental recovery were remarkable and through exercise he was able to develop speed, strength, and endurance each of which eventually surpassed all but the most prodigious previous human achievements. He also is acutely aware of his senses; he can differentiate between odors and tastes and identify source substances, his sense of touch is sharp enough to notice things the size of small dust particles, his vision is 20-6, and his hearing perception is good enough that he can passively echo-locate objects using ambient sound in total darkness. He didn’t become the strongest man ever to live, or the fastest or the most durable, but his combination is one of the best. He still has to eat and breathe, but he is highly resistant to poisons and disease. He is still mortal; bullets, knives and fists can injure him, but if he can perceive them coming, he can do something about it.
He knew what he wanted to do with these attributes; get justice for all the deaths caused by the poisoning. He realized that he could add some learned skills and become a formidable force to be reckoned with. His mind was already razor sharp before the incident due to a lifetime of mentorship by Thomas, Bruce and Alfred – years of exposure to high-powered and high risk finances along with powerful society intrigue and drama taught him to be keenly aware of even the smallest clues and to use those to solve large puzzles. He had analyst covered. He needed to become an operative too, but not one anyone would ever be able to identify. He studied every sort of security, stealth, concealment, infiltration, deception, and related fields he could find. To this he realized he would need to add combat expertise; if he were going to be an operative, discovery would be a constant risk and then his only source of help or rescue would be himself.
With these skills learned, he realized that he could be more than just an agent to exact justice for one crime, he could mount a crusade. He adapted the identity of the most recognizable secret operative in existence, the comic hero Batman, and went to work. He is a loner and an intentional hunter. He employs a cycle of general strategic intelligence gathering, pattern analysis, targeted tactical intelligence gathering, and tactical planning before performing meticulous operations characterized by stealthy approach, avoidance of unnecessary contact, penetration to a predetermined objective, and an ambush-like mission execution once the target is acquired. Being a loner does not translate into being deluded; he harbors no misunderstandings about his limited physical ability to stand toe to toe against other supers. He relies on information security – meaning he doesn’t let anyone gather useful information about his abilities – and a deliberately farmed culture of fear in his potential opponents to gives him the opportunity to create unrealistic expectations about his abilities which he reinvests in his fear-culture and the cycle repeats.
NOTE: In popular entertainment today, everyone who is anyone knows who he is and how limited his capabilities are; his mystique is in surprising his friends and foes alike by what he can manage anyway. In my world it’s much more like the 1970’s Batman or even earlier. No one knows who he is, no one knows his true powers (limitations), and guesses/I mean estimations vary wildly as to what he can and can’t do – and he intentionally farms this confusion along with the fear; far be it from him to straighten out anyone on even the simplest bit of (mis)information.
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