An obsessive martial arts weapon master out to prove his skills against worthy foes - whether they like it or not.
White Steel
The man known as White Steel is a mystery to all but a few. A martial artist and weapon master almost without peer, his only motivation seems to be testing his skills against those he deems worthy challenges. This doesn't equate to him being an honorable duelist, merely an egotistical one. He has no qualms about crippling or killing even the most unwilling of opponents, he won't take "no" for an answer, and other concerns (like an ongoing disaster or battle with a different villain) are no excuse to delay a contest of skill.
Worse, he's got a ace in the hole he holds in reserve at first. While he proudly displays his teleportation and related weapon-summoning tricks at once, he'll let a fight go on long enough to give his foe some hope before revealing his trump. He can conjure up a wave of what he calls essential energy (and what other practitioners might call chi) in an eyeblink to not only totally block a physical strike, it can then be congealed into a perfect duplicate of its creator. These copies are capable of fighting on their own, and depending on how the fight has gone he may either have them stand clear and finish an interesting foe himself, or he may step back and let them deal with anyone he regards as a disappointment. Many melee fighters will struggle to deal any damage against this ultimate defense, but it matters little to White Steel. If they're too weak to challenge him properly, so be it.
Heroes that rely on their teammates for aid will earn White Steel's contempt, but they may suffice to drive him off temporarily. He'll return again eventually to "chastise the cowards" by arranging to force his kind of fight by ambush, taking hostages, and/or recruiting villainous allies to occupy attention while he carves up his chosen prey. Getting him to back off for good requires either defeating him and arranging for his imprisonment despite his teleportation abilities, or making the darker choice and killing him outright.
His powers let him teleport both himself and his collection of attuned melee weapons almost instantly, although each individual jump is limited to somewhere around 3-4 miles range. He can travel farther, but it takes much longer to focus for a long jump to one of a few similarly-attuned locations across the globe. He can also use his "essence" to empower his strikes and throw up defensive shields that he can then form into independently-acting copies of himself.
Description: A lithely muscular man of uncertain ethnicity with pronounced albinism, barefoot and wearing only dark red hakama (the flowing pants favored for kendo practice, for the uninitiated). He may appear unarmed, but his powers let him draw any of hundreds of attuned melee weapons from thin air in the blink of an eye, and banish them back to their arsenal just as easily. He speaks proudly in precise, unaccented English, boasting of his fighting prowess and deriding foes who fail to impress him with their own - which is usually the case.
Gender: Male Age: 31 Height: 5'10" Eyes: Very Pale Blue
Hair: White, Worn In A Short Queue Skin: Very Pale Build: Lean & Athletic
Approach: Specialized Archetype: Legion
Health: 15 + (5 x H)
Powers: Attuned Arsenal d10, Teleportation d8
Qualities: Close Combat d12, Acrobatics d8, Out To Prove Himself d8
Status: (# of Legion Minions) 0 - d12 / 1-2 - d10 / 3-4 - d8 / 5-8 - d6 / 9+ - d4
Abilities:
Divided Essence (I) Whenever multiple legion minions all take the same action against the same target, you must roll all their dice at once and use the lowest rolling die amongst them for each minion's result on that action.
Essential Defense (R) When you would take physical damage, prevent that damage and create a legion minion with a die size equal to your status die (after creating that minion). You may use this reaction more than once per round, but each use after the first deals 1 irreducible damage to you.
Inescapable Edge Style (A) Attack one target using Close Combat. Use your Max + Min dice. The target cannot use reactions or Defend against this Attack.
Merciless Cut Style (A) Hinder one target using Close Combat. Use your Max die. Attack that target using your Mid die.
Reunited Essence (R) When one of your minions is destroyed, roll its die. Recover that much Health.
Whirlwind Style (A) Attack up to three targets using Acrobatics. Use your Max die against the first target, your Mid die against the second, and your Min die against the third.
Upgrades & Masteries (optional):
Hardier Minions + 5 Health. Gain Channel Essence (A) Upgrade a number of your minions equal to the number of heroes in the scene by increasing their die size by one (max d12).
Master of Conquest (I) As long as you are in command of your own forces, automatically succeed at an Overcome to seize an area or capture civilians.
Tactics
White Steel is obsessed with defeating other talented close-combat fighters, preferably one-on-one but he's confident enough to tackle a whole group at once. He actively avoids confronting "dishonorable" foes who rely on long-ranged shooting, mental powers, and exotic distance attacks, none of whom represent worthy opponents. In a proper melee he'll test his prey's defenses with Whirlwind Style, then assault anyone with strong defenses using Inescapable Edge Style. Hard-hitting foes will be hampered with Merciless Cut Style. Any physical damage will be entirely prevented with Essential Defense, blinking out of harm's way while spawning a legion minion as well. While his minions are limited by Divided Essence they also grant him healing through Reunited Essence.
If badly hurt or facing multiple enemies with energy and exotic attacks he may play cagey and vanish to safety, then damage himself to spawn a minions that he can feed into a fight and heal off of when destroyed, repeating this until he's restored enough to resume taking a firsthand role in things. Note that his spawn reaction triggers on physical damage, not Attacks. He could create multiple minions over a round in response to environmental damage, deliberately moving through dangerous terrain (eg diving through a plate glass window or falling five stories) as well as just cutting himself. Given preparation time he'll also use this trick before combat, creating a starting supply of minions as support (which are "bought" as scene elements of their own, but should still be treated as legion minions for White Steel's abilities). Note that his legion minions don't share his powers and are "just" very dangerous martial artists with pale imitations of his personal arsenal. He can only maintain them for a short period, perhaps an hour at a stretch, but they'll certainly last long enough for any normal action scene.
His upgrade lets him Channel Essence to make a his minions more potent, while his mastery lets him use them more effectively to kidnap hostages and dominate an area so he can get fights on his terms.
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