Post by Vapovile on May 4, 2016 10:11:09 GMT
Based in the Seattle, Washington, the Hidden World Intelligence and Containment organization is a privately owned company that lives by one simple mission: keep the peaceful balance between the general public and the Hidden World. To do this, the organization is split into three divisions: Intelligence, Research and Development, and Enforcement. Unlike government agencies such as the JHWAB, HWIC is an entirely government-independent organization, and thus aren't limited by a geographical jurisdiction. Without these restraints, the HWIC is free to solve Hidden World issues all around the globe.
The organization has it's roots throughout history, cataloging each known Hidden World member into a massive database that has greatly expanded in scope with the advent of digital storage. Even though all the documents from the pre-digital age have been scanned and filed away into their database, the HWIC Intelligence division still keeps every scroll and piece of parchment in a preservation library for future reference. The items in this library range from first-hand accounts of historical events, to magical tombs that were confiscated from dark wizards.
One of the most notable aspects of the HWIC is that the upper management is almost entirely run by a single family; the Miyatas. Though not always this way, currently the Miyatas hold three out of the four senior positions on the organization's board.
Below is a partial list of employees of the HWIC, and which division they belong to. Each employee is paid an hourly wage, and has the potential to earn extra money if they successfully complete their mission in a timely manner, though that mostly applies to the Enforcement division.
Miyatas
Born from the pairing of a human woman and the company's founder Cyrus Miyata, the children produced each inherit the unique ability to channel their inherited magical energy into a special object called a Focus. A Focus is an item that is chosen by the Miyata child at the age of 12 that is supposed to reflect what type of power they wish to channel their magic energy into, though there are practical limitations on the object the child can choose. Once the object is chosen, they must be rigorously trained by another Focus user until they can muster up enough magical energy to inject into the object to awaken it's power. Depending on the object chosen, the Miyata would in turn gain abilities relating to the object they chose. A Focus can then be summoned to the user instantly, and is completely indestructible. Once awakened, the Miyata is unable to awaken another Focus until they master their initial one...a task that only a select few Miyata in history have been able to do.
It should be noted that even if a Miyata doesn't awaken a Focus in their teens, they are still able to when they are older...though the training required might be greater to compensate for lost time.
Aria Miyata
Age: 32
Focus: Light Flower
Division: President of the HWIC
Aria Miyata is the oldest of this generation of Miyata children, and is the most outspoken of them all. Forward-thinking and calculative, Aria has a tendency to appear bossy whenever she is leading an operation, though anyone who has worked with her knows that her leadership is extremely effective. Even though at times it appears as if she will run into a situation blindly, in reality she analyses almost everything relevant about the situation, then clear out the targets with pinpoint accuracy.
Being the eldest, Aria was the only one besides Alex to be trained under their father and Focus master, Cyrus Miyata. Though when asked about her father, she will simply state that she never wants to see his face again and drops the topic.
Awakening her Focus first at the age of 14, she chose a pair of large flowers that became her Focus, Light Flower. Light Flower gives her the ability to rapidly control plant growth and even plant cell manipulation to create her own vicious creations, like a plant that releases thousands of spores filled with arsenic that she would be immune to. In addition to summoning plants, Aria also has an extremely fast rapid regeneration that lets her regenerate entire limbs in seconds, though at the cost of more of her magic energy. During combat, she turns these flowers into two stylized handguns with cartridge slots that fit many kinds of specialized ammo that ranges from a fireball, to stun rounds for catching criminals. As a passive ability, Aria's Focus absorbs light from any source available(sun, torch, lamp.) and stores it inside her body as light magic. Afterwards, she can use this light energy to light passageways, cast light spells, and even fuel her rapid regeneration if she is out of normal magic energy.
Alex Miyata
Age: 30
Focus: Chains of Justice
Division: Enforcement division captain
Second oldest of the group, Alexander Miyata is a cold and driven individual with a strong sense of justice. He prefers to work alone than in a group, though he chooses to stay at the HWIC only because he can directly go and stop problematic Hidden World people himself. As leader of the Enforcement division, he tells specific people under his command to go on missions that the Intelligence division outlined for them.
His Focus, the Chains of Justice, is a simple 3 link chain that he keeps in his jacket pocket. Using his Focus, he can open up portals to anywhere he can imagine(he has to be able to remember the exact setting), and summon metal chains with optional spearheads that will entangle and/or spear the enemy. Using these two powers together, Alexander is able to capture targets with his chains, then pull them into a portal where he can then question them without any chance of enemy reinforcements.
Like Aria, he can transform his Focus into a weapon as well. In his case, he can transform his chain into a set of metal tonfas that he can infuse with concentrated magic energy that inflicts different status effects on the target when hit. His most effective ability is called Hellfire Chains, where he infuses all of his chains on the battlefield with a brilliant purple flame that will severely burn objects on contact, used primarily for killing a target rather than capture.
Skyler "Seto" Miyata
Focus: Unknown
Division: Leader of the Intelligence division.
While his name is Skyler Miyata, he keeps his first name a carefully guarded secret, only telling people his real name if he thinks they need to know it. Otherwise, he tells them the first name of one of his favorite childhood characters, Seto (Kaiba).
Unlike his other siblings with Focuses, Seto finds traditional fighting to be incredibly mundane. He would much rather destroy the target psychologically, bringing up their profile that he memorized from the HWIC's database and making his own scarily accurate deductions about them. If the other party is willing, his favorite method of solving a dispute is through a simple game of intelligence. Chess, battleship, scrabble, whatever game he feels like that day.
Seto's personality is normally calm, always subtly observing those around him and thinking 4 steps ahead of the situation. What he lacks in combat abilities, he more than makes up for in intelligence. Being the leader of the Intelligence division, he keeps track of all known Hidden World denizens, and what their strengths and weaknesses are. When interacting with other people, he can sometimes act energetic and playful to lighten up the mood. Life is too short to always be so serious, as he'd say.
Even though it may not appear it, Seto DOES in fact have a Focus. What that is exactly is one of his closest held secrets, with only three people in the world who know what it is; Aria, his father, and of course himself.
Elyssa Miyata
Age: 15
Focus: Coin of Captain Redbeard
Division: Research and Development
Being the youngest of this generation's Miyata children, Elyssa's life was completely mundane until she stumbled upon the first Indiana Jones movie. After marathoning the two that came after it, Elyssa had decided that she wanted to be a treasure hunter. So one day after school at the age of 10, the blond adventurer took her friend Rachel Shizuma along with her to a cave that, according to the HWIC's database, had the treasure of the infamous Captain Redbeard in it. After winding through the cave littered with the undead bodies of his crew, the two discover a chest on a small platform in the middle of a moat filled with undead crewmembers...and the undead body of Captain Redbeard himself. While Rachel used her powers to keep the crew away, Elyssa had taken a sword and dueled Redbeard to a standstill, with neither side giving an inch. However...being 10 at the time, Elyssa was losing stamina fast. So she did the one sure-fire thing to end the fight; kick his kneecaps out from under his rotting flesh and send him into the moat. Upon opening the chest though, there only lay one coin at the bottom. Once she grabbed the coin however, the room was sealed up by boulders and Captain Redbeard was back for round two.
Things were looking to be impossible for the two girls...until a mysterious figure dressed in a black cape, white mask and maroon hat came down from the ceiling and killed Redbeard with one stab to the brain from their daggers. With blinding speed, the figure grabbed the two girls and ran them out the last open door as it was closing. Once they were outside, the figure said that he/she was the famous treasure hunter [name withheld], and that they were impressed with Elyssa and Rachel's skills. Before he/she left, the hunter gave Elyssa his/her signature hat, which is now one of Elyssa's prized possessions.
Her Focus is the coin that she looted from Captain Redbeard's chest on her first adventure. Once activated, she can transform the coin into a wide array of treasure hunting equipment; grappling hooks, pickaxes, whips, etc. Another ability she gained was short range teleportation of objects she touches, able to instantly move them short distances.
Elyssa is a confident, often times arrogant girl who considers herself a genius. She thinks very highly of herself and her detective skills, though tries not to put people down if they didn't annoy her first. Her arrogance sometimes turns away people, but people who get to know her generally think she is a pretty cool person.
Erin Miyata
Age: 21
Focus: Manbonzakura (pronounced Ma-n-bo-n-za-ku-ra)
Division: Enforcement
Erin is, by all accounts, the failure of the Miyatas. She frequently fails to do simple tasks like using a toaster, trips over her own feet, runs into doors, and in general have some of the worst luck imaginable. Due to being the 2nd youngest Miyata, Erin has a minor issue with self confidence, seeing as how all her other siblings are leading an international HW organization, making a great living as a seamstress, or going on grand adventures...while she does some minor missions for the Enforcement division to get paid.
Despite her personal flaws, Erin's Focus is one of the most powerful of them all. Manbonzakura is a small red flower that can divide into hundreds of tiny petals that seem pleasant on the surface...but the touch of one will result in the equivilant to a slash from a steel blade. Hundreds of these killer petals can overpower large creatures...but her control is imprecise, and isn't effective in close quarters, resulting in Erin taking a backseat in most operations against individual targets. But past her klutzy behavior and Focus, Erin is an approachable, if awkward at times, girl who loves anime and making cosplays at conventions. Her closest sibling is Haruko, the two of them hanging out regularly when neither of them are busy with work.
Other Agents
There are numerous agents working for the HWIC in all divisions, rumored to be in the thousands, but they keep their member roster a closely guarded secret. Here are some of the more prominent agents.
Research and Development
Iris Kuromi - Head of Research and Development
Being the only non-Miyata division leader, Iris Kuromi has a reputation among her division as being the whimsical researcher who just happens to be a complete genius when it comes to retaining information. She normally walks around with a slight smile on her face, always wanting to know how each of her researchers are doing in their own projects. While she appears to be around 11 years old, in reality she is a witch who after graduating from one of the top magic academies at the age of 11, cast a spell on herself to grant immortality at the cost of stopping her from aging. Iris is rumored to be around 2,000 years old, but whenever she is asked about her age, she politely tells them "It's not polite to ask a lady for her age."
Oddly enough, Iris shows her displeasure for situations in a pleasant way as well. Even if she is completely livid, she will attack an opponent with some of the most horrific spells imaginable with a smile on her face. But if pushed too far, Iris will drop her kind demeanor and show her opponent the true meaning of the word pain. Iris can cast a wide array of spells, ranging from traditional elemental manipulation to necromancy. Her favorite branch of spells would be corruption, where instead of doing outward damage, her spells will inflict painful status ailments to her target, stacking upon one another. Sleep, paralysis, petrification, induced heart attacks, blindness, all some of her favorites to use on both enemies.
Marvel Smith
Marvel Smith was born into a family of magicians that held a lot of prestige and wealth, but value their magical prowess to be above all else. When he was little as 4 years old he was able to think on a higher level than most people, so his parents decide to give him an IQ test, which showed that the young genius had an IQ that was over 200. His parents were very excited and praise their son with the hopes of him being one of the greatest magicians to ever live and their hopes were only increase even more once he started to be able to channel his magic, which his family's scientists inform his parents that his magic levels would be far above their own. After Marvel turn 5, he was put under private teachers that were going to teach him everything that he was going to need in order to be successful in life. In each of his private sessions and classes he did beyond well, except for his magic lessons. Through the years he started to gain fame in so many fields, but he still lacked any talent to use magic. His father was disappointed that his son couldn't use magic and was ashamed of his son. Even though his son was the best at everything minus magic, it didn't really matter to his father, who held everything below magic. When he was 16. Marvel Smith's father had enough of what he would consider to be a failure of a son and he disowned his own son.
At 16, Marvel Smith was kicked out of his own home and was told to never come back. Marvel Smith felt betrayed by his father, but did not let that betrayal stop him. Marvel Smith started to use his brains in the business world, where he would make his riches and before he was even 21, he already became a multi-billionaire. While making his wealth, he also discover along the way that he takes great joy in making new technologies. Soon Marvel Smith put a lot of of his time into his true calling as a scientist, where he discover that he can use create tools with his mind and magic, which gives him the more joy than anything else. Marvel Smith eventually was asked by HWIC to join their ranks as a member of the R&D team, which Marvel saw as a great opportunity for him to get access to key factors to his own ideas and help the world at the same time doing what he loves to do.
Rachel Shizuma
Rachel Shizuma is a quiet girl who has a love for technology. She never knew her father and used to live with her mother…but her job constantly sent her on business trips that Rachel couldn't go on. Thus, Rachel spent most of her time at her best friend Elyssa Miyata's workplace, the HWIC. The two girls met in the same preschool class, and have been best friends ever since Elyssa scared off a bunch of kids that were bullying Rachel. After much convincing from Elyssa, Rachel agreed to go with her to attend the same Hidden World high school, located on an island in the middle of the ocean. Both of them live together in an apartment together, splitting the rent from their earnings from treasure hunting and HWIC work.
Unlike Elyssa's straightforward approach to other people, Rachel tends to be nervous and quiet around others, which one could call social anxiety. Though, when she's around Elyssa or other friends, Rachel opens up greatly and could talk about the latest tech news for hours. Despite her timid nature, she will be the first one to reel Elyssa in if she begins to fly off the handle.
Strangely, whenever Rachel gets too frightened, her voice and movements become more robotic. If the fear is pushed too far, a shiny black and purple armor erupts out of her skin and turns the timid girl into a ruthless machine that will remove whatever is causing her the fear.
Enforcement
Sarah Albane - Stealth Force Captain
Age: 28
It was after hours of inching along the forest to avoid detection that she was eventually stumbled upon a city, where she caught the first bus out of there. For the next few years, Sarah lived a relatively destructive life as a bounty hunter; killing all the targets assigned to her instead of capturing them, claiming that they didn't deserve her mercy. It wasn't until the young ninja stumbled upon Alex Miyata while on a hunt, and after a fight that raged on for hours, agreed to sign up for the HWIC after a stalemate was accepted. Today she works with Alex as his second in command, delivering out missions to the other agents and doing some of the more dangerous ones herself. Alex and Sarah also see each other almost every day, trading insults with each other that may seem hostile to outside observers, but it's just their form of flirting.
Sarah's powers are focused around her stealth ability and swordsmanship technique. She carries around a traditional Japanese katana on her back, which is made out of a secret metal only known to her clan that is excellent at keeping itself sharp and durable. While she would prefer to take a target by stealth, her swordsmanship is more than good enough to match even the most trained blade users, her skills being constantly improved by daily training and practice with new techniques. Due to her royal blood, she is able to turn her eyes a shade of blood red to greatly enhance her vision, even in complete darkness. This vision highlights the location of heat signatures, and more importantly, drastically increases the speed at which Sarah processes information, making it seem like time itself has slowed down to her eyes. This power can only last a few seconds at a time, however, as overusing the technique could put too much strain on the eyeballs and cause them to start bleeding. If spotted, she can use a short range teleport to get out of the situation, leaving only a small pile of leaves behind.
Mia Slate
Usually seen working at a desk at the HWIC headquarters, Mia serves as the tester for new recruits to demonstrate their full range of abilities to in order to see if they pass the fitness exam to join the HWIC. Her personality is normally laid back, yet cynical about things she finds annoying about people, not really caring if she offends them. Anyone who has taken the fitness test with her can clearly see that Mia is an immensely skilled fighter, stronger than even Alex or Aria in terms of combat technique and parrying attacks that would greatly injure even hardened Hidden World fighters. But despite her ability, Mia elects to stay behind and allow other agents to deal with the Hidden World problems of the world while she deals with...paperwork.
Stephan Walters
Age: 38 years old
A man of justice, Stephan is the inheritor of a power that has made his family into beacons of good for millennia. Using the Nucleus, he can adapt to any circumstance, physically at least. Personally, he's a little more by the book, an overall good man and stick in the mud.
Allan Walters
Age: 16 years old
The adopted son of Stephan, Allan is an antisocial child, but just as devoted to justice as his father. When not in a hoodie that makes his features impossibly unmemorable, it is strikingly apparent that he is not human, with green scales, a hood, and a long tail with a stinger. Although is stinger is capped, Allan's venomous fangs and control of the weather make him effective for his age.
Swallower of Worlds
Age: 30 Trillion Years Old
A being from beyond our concept of time and space, the Swallower of Worlds has gone from a being who sought to devour our world for the sake of his own to a warrior for the HWIC, the force that closest aligned to his desire for justice. From a king to a warrior of no rank, he has been humbled, even if he is still arrogant.
Mizuki Saionji
Age: 22
A recent addition to the HWIC Enforcement division, Mizuki is one of the youngest Enforcement agents, yet is quickly rising the ranks to try and join the Stealth Force. Her attire consists of a black button-up shirt with sleeves that cover her entire arms, a black skirt, and long black pants underneath that go down to her ankles, all fit to make her harder to spot in the dark. She wields two silver daggers that allow for quick strikes at close range. She sometimes summons a white mask during a fight, the form ranging from a fox, tiger, owl, bear, or any other assorted animals. However, her face is completely obscured, and Mizuki's reaction time greatly improves while the mask is on. Another ability that she has is to cast an illusion to mimic the shape, body heat, voice, and sometimes even the ki signature of people she has come into contact with, though this ability costs a continuous amount of mana to keep active.
Hammond Rosenberger
Age: 23
Department: Intelligence
A recent Gateway graduate, Hammond Rosenberger is the field half of a duo with his husband Terry. Driven by an early obsession with noir films and old detective novels, Hammond sees himself as a premier private eye sort of guy, backing it up with top-notch deductive and observational skills. He can be a touch arrogant, but he is fiercely devoted to justice at every opportunity. In battle, he uses a short sword and various poisons he can summon.
Department: Intelligence
A recent Gateway graduate, Hammond Rosenberger is the field half of a duo with his husband Terry. Driven by an early obsession with noir films and old detective novels, Hammond sees himself as a premier private eye sort of guy, backing it up with top-notch deductive and observational skills. He can be a touch arrogant, but he is fiercely devoted to justice at every opportunity. In battle, he uses a short sword and various poisons he can summon.
Terrance Rosenberger
Age: 24
Department: Intelligence
The desk half of a duo with his husband Hammond, Terry is a reserved genius, a search engine wizard who can find relevant information for any case in seconds. He can always be found with a book in hand, usually one he wasn’t reading the day before. He normally doesn’t leave the HWIC, but if forced into a fight, he uses wind magic to throw around razor-sharp shuriken. With Hammond, he can summon a powerful summon named Duo, a much more powerful fighter than either of them alone.
Last Resort
To deal with threats that that are too great for normal Enforcement agents to handle, the HWIC has set up a program to offer a deal to their most dangerous prisoners. If they agree to help out when the threat is dire enough, their cells would receive nicer accommodation, they would be allow supervised time outside, and other perks. There are six members of the squad, all managed by Mia, who stays with them on these missions. Each member has had their spirit bound to a detonation console, so if they show the slightest hint of going rogue, they will be ripped apart by command.
Laila
Born an angel, Laila served the heavenly god until she grew tired of the mundane existence, and went down to Earth to see what this mankind they were supposed to love was worth. She became a fallen angel when the heavens cast her out for attacking humanity and using angelic machinery to create her own temple in the sky, staffed by winged soldiers she created from animals. The HWIC was able to capture her and put an end to her reign.
Strangely, her cell is by far the nicest of any of the squad, being given a large space and expertly prepared meals, even access to the Internet. She shrugs off any questions as to why, only alluding to having a friendly relationship with management. She helps out, but likes to flex her own privilege when outside and tease humanity enough to where she won't get in trouble.
Ji-Hun
Born as an Esper in a small Korean village, Ji was able to control his powers until he reached adulthood, when suddenly it grew to the point he couldn't control and the slightest thought would affect the world around him. Anyone's nearby thoughts would be read by him, quickly overwhelming his mental state. He unintentionally attacked numerous people before the HWIC was able to bring him down and suppress his powers with a combination of power-cancelling cuffs and a bandage that would inhibit his own powers from working through an intricate array of runes and spells infused in the fabric.
Ji is now more relaxed, and enjoys having casual conversations with whomever he can. He agreed to help the HWIC as penance for his actions, but also to try and rebuild his life after being overwhelmed by his own powers. Ji wears the bandage when on missions, but is allowed to take it off in stages to slowly unlock more of his power when the situation is dire enough.
Sofia Mitrea
Sofia was born in Romania, and was thought to be a mute. But as she grew older, she began to delve into necromancy and discovered she had an abnormal talent for it. Her talent soon turned into a liability when she learned that her voice could attack the spirits of anyone nearby, destroying entire villages if she began to sing. Sofia doesn't understand why she was arrested though, as she brought back to life everyone whom she killed in that manner.
Despite this, she is willing to help to get some time outside. She is mostly timid, and communicates entirely through her cell phone or a pad of paper. Her days are mostly spent reading books or surfing the Internet, not comfortable being with the other Squad members.
Khaleriel
Khaleriel is a Nephilim, a being born from an unholy pairing of an angel and human. Abandonment as a child by his parents led to Khaleriel learning to fight to survive, something he grew fond of, and improved his skills. His extraordinary strength let him wield his massive hammer: Damnation.
He was kicked out of the HWBC for going too far in fights, and began to scour the world for the strongest to battle, if they wanted to fight or not. His quest halted when he met the Mirror Knight, Mia, and forced her into a battle that nearly killed him. He has agreed to help the HWIC only for the possibility of fighting someone even stronger than the Mirror Knight.
Maxine
Despite Maxine's appearance, she is not a human at all, but a collection of nanobots that are kept together by a central processor. In theory, she could take any form she desires. On the outside, Maxine would hire out her sword to the highest bidder, using the vibrating blade to cleave through the toughest of targets. The HWIC was finally able to catch her after using a proxy to hire and lure her into a trap, where her nanobots were disabled.
Maxine is a fun-loving girl who enjoys playing her electric guitar and riding her motorcycle on the outside. The reason she assists the HWIC is purely to alleviate boredom, and an opportunity to use her blade once once more.
Virgil
Virgil's past is hazy, but HWIC records have found that he was the subject of experimentations that attempted to fuse his body with a the essence of a being beyond this realm, driving him insane and out of control of the researchers. Tests from HWIC scientists after his capture showed that his internal organs have been replaced by a black substance that appeared to be alive. Virgil had lost all memory of his life before experimentation, so he chose this new name for himself.
Now in control of himself, Virgil wants to try and help the people who saved him and keep the other being inside his body in check. He is an accomplished swordsman, but should the situation be dire enough, he is able to remove the inhibitors and allow the being to take more control, turning his body into an abomination that few could imagine.
Department: Intelligence
The desk half of a duo with his husband Hammond, Terry is a reserved genius, a search engine wizard who can find relevant information for any case in seconds. He can always be found with a book in hand, usually one he wasn’t reading the day before. He normally doesn’t leave the HWIC, but if forced into a fight, he uses wind magic to throw around razor-sharp shuriken. With Hammond, he can summon a powerful summon named Duo, a much more powerful fighter than either of them alone.
Last Resort
To deal with threats that that are too great for normal Enforcement agents to handle, the HWIC has set up a program to offer a deal to their most dangerous prisoners. If they agree to help out when the threat is dire enough, their cells would receive nicer accommodation, they would be allow supervised time outside, and other perks. There are six members of the squad, all managed by Mia, who stays with them on these missions. Each member has had their spirit bound to a detonation console, so if they show the slightest hint of going rogue, they will be ripped apart by command.
Laila
Born an angel, Laila served the heavenly god until she grew tired of the mundane existence, and went down to Earth to see what this mankind they were supposed to love was worth. She became a fallen angel when the heavens cast her out for attacking humanity and using angelic machinery to create her own temple in the sky, staffed by winged soldiers she created from animals. The HWIC was able to capture her and put an end to her reign.
Strangely, her cell is by far the nicest of any of the squad, being given a large space and expertly prepared meals, even access to the Internet. She shrugs off any questions as to why, only alluding to having a friendly relationship with management. She helps out, but likes to flex her own privilege when outside and tease humanity enough to where she won't get in trouble.
Ji-Hun
Born as an Esper in a small Korean village, Ji was able to control his powers until he reached adulthood, when suddenly it grew to the point he couldn't control and the slightest thought would affect the world around him. Anyone's nearby thoughts would be read by him, quickly overwhelming his mental state. He unintentionally attacked numerous people before the HWIC was able to bring him down and suppress his powers with a combination of power-cancelling cuffs and a bandage that would inhibit his own powers from working through an intricate array of runes and spells infused in the fabric.
Ji is now more relaxed, and enjoys having casual conversations with whomever he can. He agreed to help the HWIC as penance for his actions, but also to try and rebuild his life after being overwhelmed by his own powers. Ji wears the bandage when on missions, but is allowed to take it off in stages to slowly unlock more of his power when the situation is dire enough.
Sofia Mitrea
Sofia was born in Romania, and was thought to be a mute. But as she grew older, she began to delve into necromancy and discovered she had an abnormal talent for it. Her talent soon turned into a liability when she learned that her voice could attack the spirits of anyone nearby, destroying entire villages if she began to sing. Sofia doesn't understand why she was arrested though, as she brought back to life everyone whom she killed in that manner.
Despite this, she is willing to help to get some time outside. She is mostly timid, and communicates entirely through her cell phone or a pad of paper. Her days are mostly spent reading books or surfing the Internet, not comfortable being with the other Squad members.
Khaleriel
Khaleriel is a Nephilim, a being born from an unholy pairing of an angel and human. Abandonment as a child by his parents led to Khaleriel learning to fight to survive, something he grew fond of, and improved his skills. His extraordinary strength let him wield his massive hammer: Damnation.
He was kicked out of the HWBC for going too far in fights, and began to scour the world for the strongest to battle, if they wanted to fight or not. His quest halted when he met the Mirror Knight, Mia, and forced her into a battle that nearly killed him. He has agreed to help the HWIC only for the possibility of fighting someone even stronger than the Mirror Knight.
Maxine
Despite Maxine's appearance, she is not a human at all, but a collection of nanobots that are kept together by a central processor. In theory, she could take any form she desires. On the outside, Maxine would hire out her sword to the highest bidder, using the vibrating blade to cleave through the toughest of targets. The HWIC was finally able to catch her after using a proxy to hire and lure her into a trap, where her nanobots were disabled.
Maxine is a fun-loving girl who enjoys playing her electric guitar and riding her motorcycle on the outside. The reason she assists the HWIC is purely to alleviate boredom, and an opportunity to use her blade once once more.
Virgil
Virgil's past is hazy, but HWIC records have found that he was the subject of experimentations that attempted to fuse his body with a the essence of a being beyond this realm, driving him insane and out of control of the researchers. Tests from HWIC scientists after his capture showed that his internal organs have been replaced by a black substance that appeared to be alive. Virgil had lost all memory of his life before experimentation, so he chose this new name for himself.
Now in control of himself, Virgil wants to try and help the people who saved him and keep the other being inside his body in check. He is an accomplished swordsman, but should the situation be dire enough, he is able to remove the inhibitors and allow the being to take more control, turning his body into an abomination that few could imagine.