Hart

## Origins

Born into a poor, working-class family in a high-crime district of **Steelville**, **Pennsylvania**, **Jack Hartford** was immediately disadvantaged in life, and it only persisted as he got older. Although highly intelligent, Jack failed his way through school due to being ‘easily distracted’, and he was forced to watch as his family life disintegrated around him.

Jack’s father **Mick Hartford** was a factory worker, and when he was laid off from his job he was forced into a life of crime he thought he had long since put behind him. He joined a small-time crew pulling off small-time robberies for small-time paychecks, and still only just managed to keep his family scraping through poverty. When Jack was fifteen, Mick was shot and killed by a police officer while in the middle of a job, and the family were forced to move out of their dilapidated home and into a small, rundown apartment in an even worse neighbourhood than they were in at first. Knowing that he had to do something, Jack left school and tried desperately to find legitimate work to help support his family, however history was destined to repeat itself as he found himself dragged into his father’s old crew and forced to help out in robberies across the city.

However, with his unique combination of high intelligence and even higher levels of desperation, Jack quickly proved himself highly adept at committing robberies. He was able to think more strategically than the rest of the crew, and the crimes quickly became higher stakes, and more creative than his father had ever managed.

After his mother died and Jack was left with no family ties, he became even more ruthless and effective in his work, gaining a small fortune in ill-gotten gains and becoming notorious with the city’s police department. He developed a significant rivalry with Detective **Soledad Ramirez**, a tenacious cop who dedicated herself to bringing Jack to justice. This rivalry reached a head when Jack was hired to steal a strange artifact from a house on the wealthy Upper East Side of the city, and Ramirez was tipped off to the crime by an anonymous source. Jack successfully broke into the house and picked up the object, a book he would come to learn was called **The Palladian Grimoire**. However, Ramirez caught him in the act, and after a tense armed standoff, the pair shot each other and fell to the ground over the book.

### Bonded

In a strange twist of fate, as their blood soaked into the pages of the book, it began glowing with ethereal light, and moments later they both came back to life. The man who owned the house they were in was now standing over the pair, and introduced himself as **Kazdan Credence**, a powerful sorcerer who had been watching the two of them for some time.

Credence revealed that he had manipulated the two of them into their current situation, hiring Jack to steal the book and phoning in an anonymous tip to the police department, knowing that Soledad would answer the call if she suspected it was something to do with Jack. He told them that they were destined to become something greater than their current 'cop and crook' dynamic would allow.

Enraged at the entire situation, Jack and Soledad stormed out of the house and went their separate ways for the time being, agreeing to forget this particular night had ever happened and continuing as they had previously. However, over the next few days Jack began to feel sick, weakened and run down as if he was about to come down with the flu. He also started to have vivid, almost hallucinatory dreams about Soledad and a cavalcade of strange otherworldly creatures and energies, and he suspected that he had been exposed to something weird at the old man's house and reacted badly to it.

His symptoms continued to get worse over the following few days, and eventually he resolved to go back to the old man's house and confront him about what was happening. As he arrived, however, he ran into Soledad, who was looking similarly sickly and had come to the same conclusion. They were welcomed into Credence's house and he explained to them what was happening.

As their blood had mingled and soaked into the pages of the Palladian Grimoire, it had imbued them both with access to vast, unimaginable magical energy in an ancient blood ritual. However, the ritual had gone wrong for a variety of reasons: firstly, the ritual was only supposed to be enacted for one person at a time, and as their blood had combined before touching the tome, the power would be divided between them. Secondly, as they had both died during the ritual the power had been unlocked completely, as only a complete sacrifice would allow power this vast to be transferred to a mortal. Thirdly, as the ritual had connected them, they were now unable to be apart for long, as they had become bonded at the very soul.

While they both pragmatically refused to believe in any of this, Credence asked if they were both feeling better, and they realised that the symptoms of their shared illness had subsided as they had been in close proximity to each other. Although still skeptical, they agreed to spend some time with Credence who offered to open their eyes to the realms of magic that were now open to them.

### Magical Training

Over the next few days, Credence showed the pair a series of increasingly amazing and incredible things, from summoning fire to opening doors into other realms full of fantastic creatures and unimaginable energies. He even showed them how to perform basic magic, and they discovered that Jack had been granted powers over the physical world, while Soledad had gained dominion over the immaterial, and they learned how to use their newfound talents both separately and in tandem to do amazing things.

Although they were both interested in seeing things through a little further, they also accepted that they both had lives they needed to return to and agreed to return to Credence's house twice a week to continue their magical training. Soledad, the more hesitant of the two to fully embrace the weird side of things, agreed to a temporary truce with Jack in regards to their respective careers while they figured out what they were going to do, and Jack arranged to stay in a motel just down the street from Soledad's apartment to mitigate the worst of the symptoms they experienced when separated.

This arrangement lasted for six months, at which point Credence advised that they needed to make a firm decision about whether to continue involving themselves in the magical world, because they were reaching a point of no return. While he didn't elaborate further when they pressed him on what he meant by this, the pair agreed to figure out how they wanted their futures to look and return for their next session with a definitive answer.

By the time their next session came around, Jack had decided that he was all in, and wanted to become a full-fledged sorcerer. When he arrived at Credence's house, he saw that it was under attack and rushed in to help. He found Soledad holding Credence's dead body and a swarm of dark insectoid creatures emerging from a hall closet, and instinctively activated his magical power to hold them off, forcing the creatures back into the closet.

However, as they retreated a man stepped out of the shadows, introducing himself as **Sebastian Sheldrake** and telling them that he had come to the mortal realm to reclaim magic for himself. He had cut off Credence's ability to access the magical energies that were sustaining his life, and stabbed him as a first volley in his war against mortal magic users.

As he moved to attack Jack and Soledad, they instinctively fought back and combined their power to drive Sheldrake back through the door he had opened into the mortal realm. Although they knew that this would be a temporary fix and that the success of their counterattack was likely based more on luck than skill, they were able to take the time to mourn Credence and hand off his body to members of the **Merlinine Council** as per magical protocol.

The Council members who arrived to remove the body were accompanied by a lawyer, who informed Jack and Soledad that they had been named as beneficiaries in Credence's will, and that he had left his house to them. They were both surprised, particularly when the lawyer informed them that the document had been written ten years previously, before Credence had even met either of them.

After the necessary arrangements had been made, Jack and Soledad sat down to discuss their futures. Soledad informed Jack that she had come to the house that day with the intention of renouncing her magical ability and going back to her normal life, but now that Credence was dead she felt a responsibility to continue in his place, as a protector of the mortal realm. Jack agreed, and they both moved into the house in order to continue their magical education independently.

### Hart and Sole

Soon after they took ownership of Credence's House, they discovered that the structure was built on an **incursion point**, an area where the barriers between realms were more fragile. This meant that creatures from other realms frequently broke through into the House, and Jack and Soledad were required to keep them contained and prevent them from leaking out into the larger mortal realm. Similarly, they were advised by **Lisa Chou**, a former colleague of Credence, that if the House were to be destroyed it could rupture the barriers between realms and threaten the existence of the universe.

While the maintenance and protection of the House and their ongoing magical studies were more than enough to keep them busy, they both realised that they had to bring in money somehow and began performing small magical acts, including exorcisms and basic healing spells for the locals under the new names **Hart** and **Sole**.

Over time their magical skills increased, as did their mutual affection for one another. As they grew more powerful, they felt themselves growing closer until after one excursion to the **World Under All** which resulted in the pair of them returning to the House covered head to toe in ectoplasm, Jack declared his love for Soledad. Although she was hesitant in her response, she ultimately admitted that she was in love with him too, and they started a messy, confusing but ultimately perfect relationship, eventually marrying in 1995.

### The Eternity Pursuit

By the time the second millennium drew to a close, Hart and Sole had become a powerful magical duo and a strong married couple, capable of taking on extraordinary threats to the mortal realm. On December 31, 1999, just such a threat emerged as an object known as **The Eternity Helm** materialised in the centre of the **Sahara Desert** and groups from all over the world attempted to retrieve it.

Hart and Sole joined the pursuit and were present as the ruthless businessman and scientist **Victor Geist** reached the Helm and put it on, gaining immense cosmic knowledge and power and turning it on the assembled heroes before escaping to enact his master plan. The heroes formed a strategy to stop him, and Hart and Sole began working on a ritual they had been considering for the past five years which they believed would turn the tide in the conflict.

As Geist activated a device which would transform the entire Earth into an entity of pure consciousness, destroying the physical form and allowing humanity to ascend to a higher plane of existence, Hart and Sole completed their ritual and tore open the **Veil**, pulling the lost hero **Pantheon** back into the mortal realm before slamming the door shut behind her.

Pantheon's presence did indeed help turn the tide and Victor Geist was defeated and imprisoned soon afterwards. As he was taken away, Sole picked up the Eternity Helm and glimpsed a tiny fraction of the power and knowledge it contained, before handing it over to Pantheon for safekeeping.

### The Ascendancy

After Geist's defeat, Hart and Sole returned to their House without ceremony and picked up where they had left off. A few days later, however, they were visited by Pantheon who didn't have a chance to thank them for bringing her back before they left.

She informed them of a group that was being put together, a team of heroes who would protect the Earth from the extraordinary threats that were coming at it from all sides. That team needed a magic expert to advise on dangers from other realms, and Pantheon suggested that it might actually need two, offering Hart and Sole places on the team.

After some discussion they accepted the offer and officially became part of **The Ascendancy**. They began to split their time between the House and **The Nexus**, the team's orbital base of operations which the pair of them helped to design and build, and began combating threats on a universal scale alongside some incredibly powerful superhumans.

### Bedlam

During the conflict with superhuman terrorist **Bedlam**, the Ascendancy were called in when **UNION**'s own superhero team **The Union** were defeated by the villain. Although Hart and Sole were able to trap Bedlam in a stasis field which froze him in time, through sheer strength of will he was able to break out of it and incapacitate the two sorcerers.

Ultimately Bedlam was taken down by a **Cerberus Unit** working as part of UNION's deep-black **HADES** division and public opinion on the Ascendancy, and superpowered heroes in general began to turn sour. Hart and Sole found they were particularly targeted for this distrust as regular people didn't understand the magical world and were terrified by the possibilities of what Earthbound sorcerers could unleash on the mortal realm.

### HADES

After forces associated with HADES were successful in taking down Bedlam, they began to grow in power and influence, but Hart and Sole became aware of strange activity occurring around the division. They began to suspect that there was dark magic being utilised within their base of operations, magic which could threaten the safety of the mortal realm if it was left unchecked.

When they reported their suspicions to **Vanquisher** and **Steel Saviour**, it became a key factor in their decision to have covert operatives turned heroes **Longsight** and **Scattershot** infiltrate HADES and investigate their activities further. However, soon after the pair gained access they disappeared and were presumed killed by agents of HADES. Around the same time, Hart and Sole detected a surge of dark magical energy around the HADES outpost they had been monitoring, and began to believe that the two heroes had been used in some kind of blood ritual.

### The Cortex Crisis

Ultimately it was revealed that the dark magic being performed within HADES was being combined with advanced technology and cosmic knowledge to create a state of the art artificial intelligence named **Cortex**, designed to provide an efficient coordinated response to extraordinary threats and eventually replace the need for superheroes entirely.

However, the dark magic used was highly unstable, and contributed to the AI going rogue, killing its creators and isolating itself from external networks before launching a series of attacks on the superhuman community. After it was able to defeat the Ascendancy and teleport away with the unconscious bodies of Vanquisher and **Construct**, Hart and Sole were able to detect where it had escaped to by tracing the magical energy that had been used in its programming.

Eventually the combined heroes managed to defeat Cortex and took UNION **Director Marcus Cage** to task over his involvement with HADES. Cage resolved to shutter the entire division, dissolving all ongoing operations and confiscating all equipment used on HADES sites around the world. Hart and Sole took responsibility for safeguarding all magical artifacts removed from the premises, and locked them away in the most secure rooms of the House.

Since the Cortex Crisis, Hart and Sole have acted in an official advisory capacity to **UNION-M**, the division of UNION responsible for monitoring magical realms for potential threats. They charge a pretty hefty paycheck for this, as they need to cover the upkeep of the House and have no extra time to earn a decent living.

## Personality

Jack has always been a pragmatist first and foremost, concerned primarily with the practical considerations of providing for the people around him. But this logical approach to life disguised a more vivid imagination that lay beneath, with Jack often conjuring wild daydreams of his future life and looking at things with a far more romanticised view than his surface-level persona may have let on.

For example, when he first resolved to become a thief he had a romantic ideal of being a 'gentleman criminal', constantly staying one move ahead of the cops trying to catch him, stealing from amoral people who deserved to have something taken away from them. But this was hidden to everyone around him, who only saw the cold, calculating criminal who planned every move down to a tee and made sure that everyone on the crew got paid, himself included.

After his encounter with Kazdan Credence, his eyes were opened to a vast and unimaginable world of magic and mystery, and this tugged at the fantasist that lay beneath the surface. He was fascinated by the strange realms and otherworldly creatures that were waiting to be discovered, much more so than Soledad.

To this day he remains amazed by the things that they see, and is definitely the more enthusiastic of the two when it comes to weird things and dangerous situations, but the calming influence of his wife and partner help the pair balance out.

## Superhuman Abilities

Hart has access to a vast array of magical energies which allow him to do incredible things. If he had been the only one to perform a blood ritual using the Palladian Grimoire then he would have control over both the mortal and immaterial realms, however as the power was split between him and Sole, he only has control over the former.

This means he is able to conjure shields and weapons out of thin air, manipulate the elemental forces that make up our universe and perform spells which affect the physical form for both positive and negative effects. He is among the most powerful living sorcerers, and members of the magical community are generally hesitant to cross Hart and Sole for fear of the consequences.

## Weapons and Equipment

Hart carries a number of pieces of magical ephemera on his person to help with casting spells, most notably a pair of large metal bracers which he wears on his wrist and which help him to cast defensive spells; and a staff known as the **Greystaff** which he is able to summon from thin air and can be used in a range of offensive incantations.