Torment

*"In reality. Through it all. Even if you don't want to admit it, everyone is just as insane as me and you all know that it's true."*
—Torment to the Arcadian Rebels
**Torment** was a criminal mastermind with an unknown agenda in Neo Arcadia. After successfully wreaking havoc across the city while simultaneously outsmarting the Arcadian Rebels, he scarred their reputations and their minds.

## Biography

### Early Life

Torment was born in what many believe was Neo Arcadia at an unknown date to his unknown Father and Mother. Not much else is known about his childhood life due to him keeping his past mostly a mystery.

#### New Identity

At an unknown period in time, Torment would encounter a man by the name of Claudius Ramirez Mayhew and he would soon kill, and take his identity as the new Claudius Mayhew.

### Terror Upon Neo Arcadia

#### Meeting Lexa Caverly and Jess Connors

Torment, now known as Claudius, would resurface with a new goal and first encountered Lexa Caverly and Jess Connors in a club in 2018, years after he fled Neo Arcadia. He would talk to them after witnessing their powers. They would deny it all and began questioning Claudius. He would quickly make his way out of the conversation and walk downstairs.

After about an hour, Lexa Caverly would confront him and would ask him what he was doing after feeling suspicious. Claudius explained that he was doing nothing and asked if she really had powers. She would deny it at first, though after a few minutes she told him that it was true. After this, he would ask if he could test bracers he made on her which would cancel out her powers for a period of time. She was suspicious but after much talk, Claudius manipulated her into doing so.

When he strapped the bracers onto her, she felt a small pain in her wrists which he said was normal and would only last for a while. Once this occurred, he explained to her that her powers were deactivated as long as she had the bracers on which he could only take them off. After this, he put on a skull mask and pressed a button on his phone which activated a gas to quickly fill the room. Claudius pulled out a knife and stabbed Lexa's hand onto the table. He would then quickly run out of the building before the gas made its way through the mask.

#### Breaking News...

Lexa would confront Claudius once more and ask him why he tried to kill her. He explained to her that it was only for the city to know about his presence. He would continue talking to her while she began secretly filming him via an unknown device. Claudius was able to soon pick up on this and would command one of his men named, "Ahmose" to get Lexa to delete the video.

A small fight broke while Claudius was filming on his wrist computer. Ahmose emerged victoriously and attempted to get Lexa to delete the video. She declined and with that, Jess Connors arrived to help which she succeeded in, though Lexa realized the security cameras were on. The two of them destroyed the cameras with Claudius still filming them. After this, Lexa had a chance to escape, which she took and ran out of the building as Claudius was distracted.

On the news, it'd be revealed that Lexa Caverly and Jess Connors were the vigilantes Cold Flame and Anima Libera, as well as the police, have now gone out to question Mayhew.

After this, Claudius would be sent to the police station to be questioned after his suspicious comments. He would lie saying that someone behind the camera was threatening him and everyone he cares for because of some mistakes in his past. After much talking, Claudius would be freed, though the police would call him in when needed.

#### Knocked Out

Claudius would find Lexa Caverly (who was in a disguise hiding her identity with a blonde wig) once more in a cave. They would question each other and ask why they were both there. Lexa didn't care to answer and shot bursts of fire around Claudius' body burning a bit of his body. She would then quickly knock him out.

Later that day, Claudius was found by the police and asked what had happened. He told them he knew nothing, though some witnesses who were exploring the cave, took a few pictures of Lexa. After further investigation, the police found out that the blonde girl was Lexa.

#### Contacting John Caverly

Claudius would end up contacting John Caverly, Leah Caverly's father who's been inactive for years. He would find John and tell him that his daughter is currently living in Neo Arcadia. Claudius would tell him to go to Neo Arcadia and trick her into coming with him. He agreed, though John had something else planned and Claudius knowing that its odd John agreed, began planning something out.

#### Kidnapping Leah and John

Claudius would walk with John to the fair, where Leah tends to stay during her free time and/or when she's in stress. Claudius would wait by the entrance until John could convince Leah to show up near the entrance.

Once they arrived near the entrance, John began talking to Leah about what she's been up to. As they were talking, Claudius appeared. After much questioning, Claudius and one of his men knocked both of them out and take them to a truck.

#### Mad Man

Claudius would throw Leah in a small room in a building filled with TV screens. He would put her in a jacket that would cover her entire torso to the point where she could barely move her arms.

Once she awoke, Claudius began talking to her. Leah ignored this and asked for her father. Claudius walked out of the room and turned on the TV screens revealing disturbing images of her father in pain. Claudius would enter the room again and would talk to her for a few more minutes until she left her.

Claudius decided to plan everything out for the near future. He knew that he soon wanted to reveal to the city who he was and wanted to send the Rebels, specifically Jason Kade and Vince Clayton on a wild goose chase, knowing that they'd want to search for Leah and John after hearing the news. He filmed a video knowing that by the time Jason and Vince search for Leah and John, that he'd give to one of his men to hack into Kade's phone at a certain point in time.

#### Smoke House

Claudius would break into Lexa's house wearing a white skull mask. When she arrived, she didn't realize he was there because of the fact that the house was completely dark.

When she turned on the light, she instantly noticed him. She asked him why he was in her house and how he got in. He ignored both of those questions and began talking to her. Lexa, knowing that he probably planted some sort of bomb, began searching the house for anything suspicious.

Out of nowhere, her oven began shaking and making an odd noise. Claudius told her to check it out. Lexa slowly checked to see what was there and when she opened the oven and sitting there was an odd black round ball. The ball began unleashing a gray smoke quickly filling her house. Claudius would be able to quickly escape. While difficult, Lexa was able to make it out shortly after as she watched her house from the outside fill with an unusual toxic smoke.

#### Who Am I?

Shortly after this, Claudius would break into the police station and would stand in the middle of the room staring at the other prisoners waiting for the police officers.

Not too long later, an officer walked in with Lexa. He did nothing but stand in place looking at them. Lexa would then tell the officer everything that Claudius has done. The officer was confused at first until Claudius was able to confirm everything. The officer quickly arrested him and took him to a cell.

#### Goose Chase

Jason and Vince would end up going to the police station to see what they could do in finding Leah and John. Claudius would watch them from his cell and appeared to be helping them by distracting the police officer. Once they left, one of Claudius' men sent the video Claudius filmed a few days prior to Jason's phone telling him John's location.

After about thirty minutes, Vince would arrive at the police station and Claudius realized that everything was going according to plan. He wanted Jason to go after John and Leah, while Claudius' men helped him break out of his cell and fight the officers and Vince.

Once all of this happened, Claudius would leave the police station and would go to the building Leah was in. He realized Leah nor John were killed except Leah was severely injured which was good enough. Once he arrived at the building, one of his men announced to him that Kade had arrived and saved Leah. After hearing this, Claudius filmed a live video to Jason and Leah, announcing that he sent Jason on a goose chase and while he was doing this, Claudius had a chance to break out of his cell, which he did successfully.

#### Hatred

After this, Claudius would be contacted by one of his men that John was hiding in the boiler room. Claudius figured that Leah would most likely prevent him from killing John, though he decided to go to him anyway.

Claudius would find John and would quickly knock him out and tie him up with chains. A few minutes later, he'd wake up and tell John that everything would be alright and seconds later, Leah, Lexa, and Vince arrived. Leah told Claudius to leave John alone. He denied, so Leah and Lexa began attacking him. Not too long after this, one of Claudius' men showed up and shot John in the back. Leah then began brutally attacking Claudius. Claudius was able to get Leah off of him and quickly made his escape.

About an hour later, Claudius received a message that the man who shot John was killed by Leah, though in the process, he sent a video showing Leah killing him.

Claudius would follow this up by going to Saint Kenway's Hospital and would go to the rooftop and would end up being confronted by Leah Caverly and after a short talk, he would blow up the cars parked in the parking lot outside of the building via a remote. This would anger Leah Caverly and would run to the parking lot giving Claudius a chance to escape.

#### Destruction of the Caverly Residence

Claudius would break into Lexa Caverly's new residence and as he suspected, John was living with Lexa for a certain period of time. After a quick talk, Claudius would command helicopters above Lexa's house to fire down at the building. Claudius successfully made it out leaving Lexa, John, and Vince helpless.

#### The Death of John Caverly

Claudius would be confronted by Leah and Lexa in the boiler room after he would kidnap John once more. Not too long later, Claudius was able to distract the two of them and shot John through the chest. The police, who were searching through the boiler room after a recent incident would come across Leah, Lexa, and Claudius. After they entered the room, Claudius would climb out of the boiler room and make his escape.

#### Plan Concluded

Following several more months of his reign and terror, Torment's plan came to an end. He led the Rebels to his small wooden residence. On the rooftop of the building, a large television sat in the middle of the roof. A video recording began playing of Torment in some sort of cave where he began explaining how far his plan has come. The Rebels attempted to prove him he was wrong, though they were unsuccessful as Torment detonated explosives in Maxside Prison, claiming he was a man of his word.

Before the explosion, Joaquin, by viewing the background of Torment, was able to piece together where he was. When he went to the hidden lake, he found Torment on his knees, saying that they had "won."

#### Death

On one dreary night in his isolated cell in prison, Claudius awoke to the sounds of the locations security guards being attacked. After a few moments of silence once the guards were beaten to a pulp, a figure entered his view from the hall. It was feminine, and entirely masked to contain its identity, but Mayhew recognized her voice immediately.

The meeting between Claudius and the woman was quick, but not painless. The angered woman managed to enter his cell, giving him a harsh beating as she yelled at him. Mayhew did nothing but laugh, repeatedly telling her that he had "won." Claudius claimed that he got exactly what he had wanted: to unleash her inner Torment.

After the storm that was their encounter, the woman unveiled a CZ-75, pointing it at Mayhew. He reminded her that he was not afraid of death, and even pushed her to unleash her monsters inside and kill him.

Without much hesitation, she pulled the trigger and watched his final moments. Feeling a surprising lack of closure, the woman ran off into the night, leaving Torments corpse on the floor of his cell.

#### Underworld

*"I am eternal..."*
—Torment to Leah Caverly
Torment was sent to the Underworld where he spent several years to rot alone.

Several months later, he found the Rebels enter the gloomy realm. Torment was eager to approach them, so he calmly walked over to Leah Caverly. Immediately, Caverly was shocked and appalled. They spoke for a few minutes until he hinted at a "revolution" that will soon arise.

Jason found him and the two spoke for a short amount of time, and also hinted at a similar "revolution." With that, the Rebels and Torment parted ways, as Torment exclaimed that this would not be their final encounter.

## Personality

Before Torment revealed who he truly was to Neo Arcadia, the public would see him as a kind, friendly, and respecting human being. Torment tends to switch from kind and friendly to being a complete psychopath, which led many to believe that he has some sort of Multiple Personality Disorder, mainly the vigilante Almanac.

Torment's main traits are cunning and manipulative, which was shown when he tricked Lexa Caverly to reveal her powers. Sadistic, shown by when he was laughing after shooting and killing Josiah Kleban. Barbarous, shown by when he tormented Leah Caverly by showing disturbing images of her wounded father.

The main reason for choosing his codename to be "Torment" was because of his other personality. He subtly implied to Leah Caverly in their latest confrontation that he has another side that is slowly eating away at him, implying his rumored Multiple Personality Disorder. He always dubbed his other personality as Torment while the city saw him as Claudius Mayhew until the Rebels learned that he wasn't the real Claudius Mayhew.

His grandiose plans and master tactician skills are what lead many, such as Officer Joaquin Dallas, to believe that Torment could possibly be one of the most dangerous men alive.

## Physical Appearance

Torment is a Caucasian man with brown eyes, long black hair stopping at his neck. He also stands at a height of 6'1". He also mainly wears his glasses and only on certain occasions takes them off.

His default outfit is a long purple trench coat with black dress shoes. Under his trench coat, he wears a green sweatshirt with a pink collared shirt underneath with a black tie as well as green khaki pants. Even though his true self is now known to the public, he tends to wear a skull mask.

## Abilities

*"He had me believing something entirely different, but also equally possible."*
—Jason Kade
Torment was a highly resourceful psychopath with a sadistic intelligence. He was skilled with explosives and firearms, and his capacity for causing chaos and destruction made him a threat to all of Neo Arcadia and one of the Arcadian Rebels' toughest opponents.

"*Sometimes I wonder, is he unstoppable?*"
—Jason Kade to Vince Clayton
* **Genius-Level Intelligence:** Nothing is ever simple with Torment. He possessed an extraordinary IQ and a twisted, mesmeric, strange, nefarious intelligence with a large capacity for cunning scheming and thorough, complicated plans. He could plan, manipulate, intimidate, and surprise with great effect. He was highly formidable even without powers or significant fighting ability. He repeatedly outsmarted the Arcadian Rebels with his conniving wit and anticipating their behavior for each confrontation beforehand, and often boasted to being one, two, three, five, and even ten steps ahead of them. He is also a superb expert in information retention, as thorough investigations into his mysterious past are still left unanswered and unsolved.
	+ **Master Tactician:** Torment is an astronomically skilled and master of planning and orchestrating elaborate events to work out in his favor. He tested the Rebels like never before, intricately and methodically manipulating them into thinking they had a winning chance numerous times, only for him to stand victorious in the end, ultimately with Almanac realizing his efforts were futile. He masterminded his broad plan and produced utter bedlam throughout Neo Arcadia, leading to intense bloodshed and the deaths of multiple innocent lives, partly due to his unpredictability and redundancies built into his ingeniously malevolent schemes. His attacks against Reverie reached the mental, psychological level and often stunned her into doubt, greatly undermining her will to fight. His lack of rules pit against the Rebels' rules gave him an advantage, which he aptly exploited. He may be insane, but he is totally in control of his actions and calculated at all times, which was evident when he executed his plans with little to no trouble. Furthermore, he is a charismatic and confident leader of his goons. While even after being assassinated, he managed to keep his identity a secret, and continued to haunt the lives of numerous citizens. His methods of executing plans were truly something the Rebels had never faced, throwing them into a pit of uncertainty and worriment if he was actually unstoppable. Such people like Officer Joaquin Dallas believed that Torment could be one of the most dangerous and cunning men to ever live. Torment's reign, and the chaos he caused left a frightening legacy that Neo Arcadia cannot ignore.
* **Skilled Combatant:** Because he had nothing to lose, Torment would risk his life in hand-to-hand combat without holding back, demonstrated when he stabbed Almanac because he knew the latter wouldn't bring himself to kill him.
	+ **Knife Skills:** Torment seemed to favor knives over conventional firearms, possessing basic skill in wielding them in a fight.
* **Skilled Marksman:** Torment is skilled in the use of firearms, particular handguns, submachine guns, and shotguns, and has decent aim, managing to kill Josiah Kleban with his submachine gun, despite his lack of trigger discipline.
* **Intimidation:** Torment successfully inspired fear into the hearts of Neo Arcadia's citizens, keeping them on edge. With his threatening aesthetic coupled with his evil, maniacal laughter, he proved to be a man to be feared. His bone-chilling performances made people terrified of him, even the Neo Arcadia police due to his jittery, unhinged evil while he induced havoc and mass chaos. While he instilled fear into his henchmen, he also created a sense of anxious loyalty among them.
* **High Pain Tolerance:** Torment has a high tolerance for withstanding physical pain. He also seems to not fear death.

## Weaknesses

* **Human Vulnerabilities:** Torment's greatest weakness is that he is only human. While he has no extreme skill in hand-to-hand combat, his brains, smarts, and the fact that he keeps his past mainly a mystery, is what makes him difficult for the Arcadian Rebels to defeat.

## Equipment

### Weaponry

Torment utilized a wide variety of firearms during his campaign to torture the Arcadian Rebels.

* **Glock 17:** Torment's two-tone sidearm converted to full-auto matched his bizarre personality: rare, destructive, and stylish. It also occasionally had a suppressor.
* **Smith & Wesson Model 19 Snub Nose:**
* **Smith & Wesson Model 64:**
* **M1 Garand:**
* **Smith & Wesson M76:** Torment used this machine gun to kill Josiah Kleban.
* **Remington 870 (Short Barreled):**
* **Norinco Type 69 RPG:**
* **Toe-Blade:**

## Relationships

* Unknown Mother

Allies* Torment's Gang
	+ Jared Byrne
* John Caverly † - Victim
* Joaquin Dallas
* Kace Hayden
* Abigail Kleban †
* Josiah Kleban † - Victim
* Arcadian Rebels
	+ Leah Caverly/Reverie - Nemesis / Victim
	+ Jason Kade/Almanac
	+ Clark Flag/Flat
	+ Vince Clayton/Vigorous
	+ Sam Aran/Elpis - Victim

## Trivia

* Torment's theme song is *Blood // Water* by Grandson.