Firebrand

Firebrand is an Austrian psychic mutant superhero and member of Watchtower.

## Biography

As a teenager Elina Haas played half a dozen sports until she found her true passion when she took a beginner's karate class. She was hooked instantly, and she dropped all her other extracurriculars in order to spend as much time training to fight as possible. At eighteen she started her career in mixed martial arts, easily besting her local competition to join the pro MMA circuit. In one fateful and particularly bloody bout, her dormant mutant gene activated. Before Elina knew what was happening, her opponent, the judges, and much of the crowd had collapsed into blubbering, weeping hysterics all around her.

After the fight, a standard mutant screening test confirmed that she was now blossoming into a powerful empath. She was heartbroken to be barred from the sport she loved, but her disappointment faded when she was contacted by the Austrian superhero Gehirnmeister, a psychic who had done a great deal of work for the Austrian State Security Department. Gehirnmeister saw Elina as a potential protégé and a useful tool, so he offered to train her psychic talents. She agreed once he sweetened the deal with martial arts training provided by the state police's expert fighters.

This arrangement continued for some time, but unfortunately for the Austrian government, Elina had no interest in serving the state. The young mutant was of a much more radical inclination, and between training sessions she started attending rallies and protests. The individual cause didn't matter; so long as there was a crowd to rile up, Elina could be found in the mob. These rallies always had enormous participation, with passersby and even riot police joining the protests she inevitably led. Eventually she crossed a line when an environmental protest outside the headquarters of the country's largest oil conglomerate, held during a full meeting of the company's board, resulted in the shuttering of the company as all the executives joined the growing riot and assisted the mob in gutting the building. Elina was given a choice: leave the country, or have a conservative judge wearing the best mental defense helmet money could buy throw the book at her. She chose a third option: she went underground and donned a mask, calling herself *Brandstifter--* "Firebrand."

Although technically a vigilante, Firebrand didn't fight supervillains or small-time crooks. Instead she continued focusing her efforts on confronting white-collar criminals and made international news when she 'convinced' a group of corrupt politicians to admit their crimes and resign from the Austrian government. When the Lustrian invasion began, she rallied the people against the aliens, and led mass riots that forced alien preachers to abandon their efforts on Austrian soil. Impressed with her efforts, Citadel reached out at the war's conclusion with an offer to join his team. Feeling that she had done all she could in her own country, Firebrand eagerly joined Watchtower and now fights in the hope of effecting change on a global scale.

## Personality

At heart Firebrand is a thrill-seeker in love with the superhero life. There's nothing she likes more than pushing herself to the extreme in a life-or-death situation, and it doesn't matter if she's responding to a natural disaster or just brawling with supervillains, she's always ready for more excitement! She is also an idealist who seeks radical change and will champion almost any progressive movement in the world.

Out of costume, however, Firebrand is a surprisingly laid-back individual. She is totally at ease with herself and willing to let others do as they please with their lives. She doesn't believe in putting on a front of any kind and her close friends and allies have gotten used to her blunt manners. She tends to laze about when not occupied with her training regimen or helping to organize a rally somewhere.

## Powers

Firebrand is a potent Esper with the ability to manipulate the emotions of all those around her. Her abilities are more instinctual than most psychics' and she doesn't have to spare much attention on their use. These powers allow her to go about battle however she wishes, and all the while her enemies slowly become more confused, panicky, and undisciplined. She can turn a normal crowd into a frenzied mob or vice versa in just a few seconds, all while focusing on other tasks. With intense effort, Firebrand can also perform some normal telepathic scanning or send psychic messages, though these abilities aren't nearly as powerful as her innate empathy.

In combat Firebrand doesn't rely on her psychic talents alone. She is a disciplined and skilled martial artist and has access to a variety of technological gadgets developed by Citadel. She uses grapple lines and a gliding membrane on her cloak to swing around a battle, deploys tear gas and bolos to disorient and bind her targets, and then pummels her enemies into submission with her fists. In addition, each of her gauntlets has a small flame-thrower with a few charges located on the back of her wrists. These flames are effective against resilient foes but she prefers using them to create a terrifying display to cow her already confused and weak-willed enemies.

Firebrand uses her agility training and her costume's lightweight armor plating for defense. Foes under the sway of her empathic abilities tend to lose some amount of equilibrium along with their fighting spirit and this affords her some defense as well.

## Weaknesses

Firebrand cannot suppress her powers; they are an innate part of her brain's normal function. This causes her to make a loud mental 'noise' that is easily detectable to any creature with mental senses or even the smallest telepathic ability.