Grifter

Grifter (Scenesys ID: 1311)
Quote
"Con artists and Special Ops guys alike rely on intuition. Sometimes it's a light chill on your spine. Sometimes it's an icepick in your head. Sometimes you're flat-out terrified. The difference between the mark and the grifter... between a soldier and a civilian... is how you react to it."
Profile
Full Name:	Cole Cash
Gender:	Male
Species:	Metahuman
Theme:	DC (FC)
Occupation:	Halo Corp
Citizenship:	USA
Residence:	Mobile
Education:	High school dropout, military training
Status:	Dropped
Groups:	Gen 13, Street Level-OOC
Other Information
Apparent Age:	44	Actual Age:	44
Date of Birth	24 September 1983	Actor:	Scott Speedman
Height:	191 cm (6'3")	Weight:	88 kg (194 lb)
Hair Color:	Blond	Eye Color:	Blue
Theme Song:

Profile

Cole Cash is a mercenary who plies his trade to any number of sources, legal and otherwise. Those with high security clearances or know how to get around them could learn that he is a former operative of the intelligence agency International Operations and was a member with their paramilitary unit Team 7. Cash was also involved with a group of metahumans called the WildCATs, a covert action team that dealt with infiltration of humanity by the Daemonite species, but quit the team when they allied with a Daemonite that killed a close friend of his. Cash was closely tied to the Kherubim warrior Zealot, both professionally and personally.

Sheet

Description

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Description:

The Grifter is a six-foot-three male of athletic build, Caucasian from what little of his skin is visible considering his present attire. A messy mop of dirty blond hair tops his scalp, but his eye color isn't readily clear as his face is covered in a red fabric mask that ties at the back of his head and the bottom of which hangs loosely below his chin. The only features on the mask are the mirrored lenses through which he sees, which are framed by symmetrical, angular black markings.

The most notable feature of his attire is a beaten-up hunter green trenchcoat that descends to calf length. Beneath the coat is a black t-shirt over which are strapped a pair of brown leather bandolier-style straps that form an "X" over his chest. The bandoliers connect to a utility belt clasped around his waist with a heavy metal buckle. His pants are fatigue-style brown cargo pants that are tucked into well-worn brown leather cleated combat boots. A pair of crimson leather gauntlet-style gloves are worn on his hands and cover the cuffs of his trenchcoat's sleeves.

History

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History:

Cole Cash's early upbringing is largely unrecorded and what accounts exist are contradictory. What is certain is that he has one younger brother, Max, and that Cole began a life of crime in his teens, which led to his arrest and recruitment into International Operations' paramilitary unit, Team 7. Assigned the callsign "Deadeye," Cole proved himself an able soldier and developed a keen sense for the use of firearms.

Cole and his Team 7 compatriots were deliberately exposed to the Gen-Factor chemical compound, which bestowed powerful psionic abilities on the entire team at the cost of their diminishing mental health, with some of Cole's teammates descending into madness or driven to suicide. Though the team continued to operate and even used their powers in the field, the effects their powers had on their sanity perpetuated, at one point forcing Cole to kill maddened teammate Andrew Johnson after he expressed joy at making people kill themselves.

Eventually IO director Miles Craven determined that Team 7 was too dangerous to keep in operation and ordered a low-yield nuclear strike on the team, which they survived due to their powers. Cole and the team split up and briefly went into hiding but, years later, with their powers waning, IO brought them all back into service, though Cole, distrustful of Team 7 due to his experiences with the team, chose to work for IO as a solo operative rather than rejoin his teammates, but he eventually grew uncomfortable with IO and left to work as a freelance mercenary.

During his work as a mercenary, Cole, who had come to be known by the alias "Grifter" due to his gift for gab, encountered the former Coda majestrix Zealot, who agreed to a professional partnership. She trained Cole in the Coda martial arts, an act considered anathema due to Cole being a male, and taught him meditative techniques that suppressed what remained of his psi-powers. The partnership with Zealot eventually became a romance, and though it eventually ended, the pair remained on friendly terms as Cole remained grateful to her for helping him suppress his powers.

Zealot and Cole eventually both joined the WildCATs, a privately funded covert action team tasked for hunting Daemonites, an alien species capable of physically possessing humans that shared a millennia-long enmity with the Kherubim, the alien species to which both Zealot and WildCATs benefactor Jacob Marlowe belonged. The lone solely human member of the WildCATs, Cole stayed with the team solely out of his devotion to Zealot and her vendetta with the Daemonites, but even that wasn't enough to keep him on the team when Marlowe allied the team with Hightower, a Daemonite that murdered a close friend of his. After backhanding Marlowe for daring to suggest he work with Hightower, Cole quit the WildCATs and returned to his career as a freelance mercenary.

Personality

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Personality:

Cole is the epitome of the scrupulous criminal. He has no problem committing crimes, up to and including killing people, but he always does so with an altruistic cause at the center of the act and never callously takes a life. Those he considers worthy of a bullet in the skull are those that have caused harm to those he cares about, but he does not consider those that attack him personally worthy of killing, probably because he values his friendships more than he does himself. He also has little patience for betrayal by those he considered trustworthy and is quick to make his displeasure known by word or deed.

Cole is reluctant to form lasting bonds with people. He is a silver-tongued charmer and has little difficulty making conversation and meeting people but his life experiences have taught him to not treat social connections as anything he can count on for anything beyond the present moment. This is especially true in his dealings with women; the only lasting romance he has ever had is with Zealot, and while he will always care for her, he knows in his heart rekindling that relationship is impossible.

Cole is very comfortable in less than savory surroundings; he stays in cheap hotels, he eats at greasy diners, and he drinks in the dingiest dive bars. While he is capable of cleaning up and looking the picture of the professional, Cole is usually a dyed-in-the-wool t-shirt and jeans, beer and pizza guy.

Abilities

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Enhanced Physique:
Cole's exposure to the Gen-Factor strengthened his tissues and immune system, enabling him to survive potentially lethal injuries and heal at a more rapid rate than the average human, though full recovery still requires some degree of medical attention and rest, though less than the average human would need. Cole's physical enhancements also slow his rate of physical aging to roughly half the human norm.

Psionic Powers:

Cole at one point had high-level telepathic and telekinetic abilities, but these abilities have been severely lessened with the passage of time, to the point that his telepathy has been reduced to the level that he has merely a sense of what someone is thinking or feeling but cannot directly interpret or affect that person's thoughts as he once could. His telekinetic abilities are still usable, which allows him to levitate and manipulate small multiple objects and erect force fields, but he has forsaken use of these powers due to their detrimental effects.

Skills

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Combat Skills:
Cole has the benefit of learning the art of fighting from multiple teachers, first the school of hard knocks as an adolescent, then the combat instructors at IO, and finally and most importantly, Zealot, a former Coda majestrix with centuries of experience in armed and unarmed combat. While Cole is an above-average fighter who could mop the floor with multiple unskilled opponents, he will more than likely be outclassed if faced with an experienced martial artist.

Covert Ops:
Cole received extensive training in the arts of espionage and covert operations during his time as an IO operative and has years of experience in both. He is skilled in stealthy infiltration, covert surveillance, and planning and executing paramilitary missions.

Marksman:
Cole is a master marksman and is an expert with nearly all conventional firearms. He rarely ever misses and is skilled in the practice of firing two handguns at the same time.

Smooth Talker:

Cole is a practiced fast-talker capable of making people at ease with him via the right choice of words and sizing up a person to gauge their potential reactions. His latent telepathy helps with this skill to a limited extent.

Resources

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Bullet Bike:
Cole's main mode of transport is a Halo Corporation Bullet Bike, an advanced form of motorcycle with a hybrid petro-electric engine and computer-aided suspension that allows him to achieve speeds just upwards of that of the fastest racing bike. Given the environments he favors to live in, he usually rents a storage locker to keep the bike in when he isn't using it.

Handguns:

Cole's primary weapons are a pair of Vulcan Arms Division PP30 particle pulse handguns. The PP30s are capable of firing energy bursts of varying force, ranging from nonlethal stun blasts to destructive armor-piercing attacks.

Weaknesses

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Ill Effects From Powers:
Cole's Gen-Active psi-powers carry a variety of detrimental side effects. First there's what Team 7 referred to as "the Rush," a feeling of drug-like euphoria that comes with use of the powers that entices Cole to continue using the power. Then there's the damage to Cole's psyche that the powers cause, a level of mental disease that drove many of his teammates to madness and even suicide. While his latent telepathy doesn't trigger these effects due to its weakened strength, use of his telekinetic powers most certainly does, which is why Cole is hellbent against using them.

Principles:

Cole is virtually incapable of seeing an injustice without immediately taking steps to right it. That action may be simply the formulating of a plan but, it wouldn't be outside the realm of possibility to immediate take a reckless action in response should the injustice be especially heinous.

Logs

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Title	Date	Scene Summary
Trapping an Octopus	May 17th, 2020	Otto gets caught up in an explosion at one of his apartment hideouts, and just barely manages to survive with the help of the Phantasm. Meanwhile, Grifter watches, debating the cause of the explosion... and what Phantasm is.
A time of Goodwill	May 16th, 2020	Cole and Nick run into each other at the Goodwill
That's not a parking spot!	May 16th, 2020	Cole tracks down a demonite (with help) and doesn't make a good first impression on Thomas
Family Obligations	May 3rd, 2020	Nick heads home from his aunt's place. A man attacks Grifter. It ends badly.
And it just keeps getting worse	May 3rd, 2020	Nick and Grifter prevent Creed from abducting another guy... For now.
Time for a Break	May 2nd, 2020	Grifter learns patience by ordering the quickest to serve drink

Cutscenes

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Title	Date	Scene Summary
No logs submitted yet.

Gallery

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