Blades

Brendan Ballard, known by his alterego Blades was a supernorm who sidekicked Volt during their teenage years, patrolling their hometown of Hastings. He was the fist one to know about Ben's neonic powers and helped him come to terms with these powers, suggesting he should become a 'superhero'.

### **History**

A very close friend of Ben during their secondary school days, Brendan was born in Hastings, England on June 13th 1984, which would in fact make him nearly a month older than Volt, despite him looking a lot younger.

He had a pretty normal childhood, if slightly ignored at his primary school, due to his shortness, and spent most of his time indulging in video-games or rollerblading with friends, his only wish to become a video game designer.

He first met Volt when they were both 12, keeping each other company during lonely break time sessions during their first year at school. By the different colour of their ties they were allocated to different Houses, but none-the-less always met up at breaks and lunch.

At the time Brendan seemed fascinated with Ben's brightly mismatched eyes, but they always seemed to attract unwanted attention and when he began wearing brown contact lenses, the bullying seemed to continue, taunting him relentlessly, perhaps in reaction to Ben's sometimes eccentric behaviour as well, or the fact that every now and then he would actually stand up to them, especially when they began to pick on Brendan.

The two supported and protected each other greatly from the bullying as a result of Ben's eye colours, even with the contacts. In return Ben provided support for Brendan on his lack of height, which was always a bane for him in his primary school, and they became very close within the first few days of their meeting, as if a natural rapport had formed with each other.

Brendan was the first one to know of Ben’s neohuman gifts and one of the first ones to also experience his power, if not for the fact he was barely in the swimming pool water at the time Ben's powers manifested, he would have been killed along with three other kids;
bullies from their school.

He tried to help Ben deal with his powers as best a normal boy could, making him feel like he was not the freak he saw himself as, that he had a friend that would always be there, as well as dealing with the fact that he had actually killed three people, without even touching them.

And just a few of his words would mould Ben's future forever.

It was Brendan himself who suggested that Ben become a superhero in the first place, and that he was letting his powers go to waste.

It was one thing to have powers, but another to have the skill to fight, and Brendan suggested the two learn martial arts. But Ben stalled, his indecision aided by strange feelings he was having, and Brendan also.

It was around this time Brendan became aware of his bisexuality, as did Ben, but both denied it to themselves strongly, hardly talking about their true feelings, perhaps to stay away from even more confusion. Brendan particularly did not want to add more weight to Ben's problems.

These feelings would wax and wane with the years, but for now, they were just good friends, and Brendan was glad to see him enjoying himself through the summer holidays.

The two returned back to school and finally Ben agreed to start martial arts training, particularly Kung fu, Kendo and kickboxing.

By luck, they happened to be taught by a real Chinese martial arts champion who lived in the town, Master Peng, who seemed to be aware of the two's intentions as he watched their skills blossom.

Although Peng never said to them directly his suspicions, he offered the advice that power comes at a price to the ego

and to none more so then the duo themselves, who he saw worked very well as a pair.

Ben and Brendan became good very quickly; Peng taking a keen interest in them, but this attention secretly enraged one of Peng's top students, Ross.

The two seemed to be catching up with Ross at an incredible rate, despite Ross being 7 years older than the two 13-year-olds.

But on the surface Ross remained calm, cool and very friendly, even teaching them a thing or two, out of honour of his master Peng.

They became quite good at what they did and cleaning up the town, but by the time they were 16, Volt had become more and more bitter and rageful at normal humans and this change seemed to drive the two apart.

They split not long after leaving school as Ben went to Hastings College to study graphics.

Some years later whilst Ben ventured of to America with James Greenwood Brendan began working for an international software company called Takashi-Starr Software Solutions where he was transferred to Tokyo and dabbled in his vigilantism in the city, which caught the attention of Supersamurai. Whilst there he began testing new technology for Tenchi Technologies.

### **Personality**

Smart and always positive and upbeat, Brendan was shy growing up because of his short stature, which saw others "look over" him, but eventually grew in confidence to make up for it; by the time he met Ben Brendan was a down-to-earth, highly empathic and had a natural talent for inspiring others; his positivity and his courage was often regarded as infectious.

Ben often described Brendan as a "little elf", being both highly resourceful and quick-witted, he was systematically logical; he was able to accomplish incredible things for a completely normal nonpowered Human, his tremendous courage and never-give-up attitude enabling him to fight against enemies with powers and hold his own pretty well.

### **Powers and Abilities**

#### **Powers**

While Blades is a normal human, through years of specialised martial arts training, balancing exercises and aggressive inline skating, Blades’ agility, stamina, balance and reflexes are considered at the peak of human athleticism, while not considered superhuman, he can perform feats of agility, speed and stamina on par with, or even better than most Olympic-level athletes.

* **Peak Reflexes and Reactions:** His training and exercises have allowed him mind to react swiftly to attacks and counter them with remarkable skill on wheels and on foot.
* **Peak Agility:** He has trained himself intensely to have achieved peak-athlete equilibrium, balance, flexibility, dexterity, and bodily coordination well above than most Olympic-level athletes on both rollerblades and on foot.
* **Peak Endurance:** He has also preformed intense exercise longer than a lot of professional athletes.

#### **Abilities**

***Kickblade Expert*:** Blades’ most talented area is his unique style of kickboxing in which he uses his rollerblades as a primary weapon. Taught by his and Volt’s previous master Chao Peng, who most likely knew of the duo’s want to be superheroes (and certainly knew of Volt’s powers) Blades was taught to use intensive balancing exercises and specialised choreograph techniques called ‘taolu’ by Peng, and first had to be sufficient in regular Chinese kickboxing and French savate as well as karate. Peng, however only taught Brendan the basics as he was not proficient in any kind of skating skill, and over the years Blades developed his own sets of rules and adaptations, eventually calling the art ‘kickblading’. He later incorporated Capoeira into his fighting style. His unique style of fighting combined with his quickness and skill on wheels has made him a difficult opponent to beat, even against some superhumans. Kickblading is an utterly unique martial art currently only Brendan knows and it is difficult to master and perform and he must perform actions with precision and speed to counter the momentum of his body in motion with strikes and impacts.

***Expert Aggressive Inline Skater:*** From a young age Brendan has held his favourite hobby of rollerblading in high esteem, practising every day, and if not for his skills in computers, would most likely be a professional rollerblader. His kickblading skills have also added to his progression of fighting and agility to such a degree that if he keeps practising, he would be unparalleled by any kickboxer on the planet.

***Bojutsu Expert:*** He became highly skilled in the use of a staff thanks to years of practice during he and Volt's training.

***Parkour Expert:*** He is skilled in finding his way across urban landscapes with ease using acrobatic manoeuvres, either on wheels or on foot and has combined elements of this into his kickblading style.

***Quick Thinker:*** Brendan had to train his mind to respond quickly to changes in movement and orientation. Although not superhuman by any degree, his reactions and sense of balance have been honed to a very high degree above that of most normal people.

***Computer Maintenance:*** He is skilled and fixing and maintaining complicated computer systems and hardware.

***Expert Programmer:*** Brendan’s skill with computers enables him to quickly programme or re-programme many forms of software in a verity of different programming languages He is able to grasp many formats of computer system has a high degree of skill for hacking too.

**Rollerblade Repair & Modification:** Though years of using and fixing his own rollerblades, he became better at upgrading his existing blades, and even creating his own bespoke pair.

### **Weapons and Equipment**

**Hockey Stick:** He was skilled at the use of his hockey stick though a combination of practicing hockey and bojutsu skills.

**Collapsible staff:** He later used a telescoping staff made from a strong but flexible composite alloy, which he apparently sourced from an online shop on the darkweb.

***Rollerblades:*** Blades has used multiple inline skates during his time.

* **SFR Adjustable Inlines:** A basic pair of skates he used for practice, fun and transport, he first learned balancing techniques and kicking with these, but their bulk made it difficult to balance and maintain standing with the swing of momentum.
* **No Fear Aggressives:** A pair of black and green blades designed for lightweight, practical movement.
* **Heelies:** Volt brought him some Heelies as a joke, but he actually found them useful in using limited skills whilst wanting to be discreet.
* **Kickrollers:** His kickrollers acted more like traditional four-wheeled rollerskates than inlines, but the wheels could be folded away, enabling him to run and stabilise himself if he had to.
* **Kickblades:** He eventually made his own bespoke pair of rollerblades with wheels that folded backwards over his heel when he tapped buttons together on his ankles. Over the years he made them more streamlined, finding stronger and lighter materials, even integrating electronic and mechanical components to stabilise his movement and enable him to fold away his wheels by buttons on his wrist.

**Impact Suits:** He had various impact-resistant suits made of non-Newtonian material capable of protecting him against medium-level impacts and falls.

**Bladegear: (ブレードギア) (Burēdogia):** The Bladegear was a type of experimental kinetic transfer technology created by Hidaki Tengan for Blades when he began unofficially work for them in helping take down Goro Imai and the Mantis Clan in Tokyo. The Bladegear system consisted of a pair of electronically-enhanced two-wheeled inlines powered by miniaturised batteries and micromotors within each wheel, a visor and a gauntlet wristband integrated into a one-piece suit. The system monitored brainwave activity and stabilised his blades with his orientation and speed. Together the system helped convert the frictional energy of his wheels and impacts into applied momentum and kinetic force, allowing him to accelerate to almost 80 mph. As he became more proficient at the Bladegear, Hidaki unlocked a kinetic-arc weapon that transfused all the potential forces of his blades in motion into arcs of green energy from his wheels with a sweep or kick. Blades, however felt more comfortable with his regular Kickblades, but Hidaki allowed him to keep the system. The wheels could be folded flat with brainwave sensors in his goggles and muscle micromovement detectors in his gear, allowing him to transit between walking and skating instantaneously.

### **Limitations and Weaknesses**

Not actually possessing superpowers of his own, Brendan had to work hard at being a superhero, while he could keep up with some superpowered individuals, could rarely go toe-to-toe with any more than one directly.

Brendan is still in the closet about his own bisexuality and likely may have repressed it altogether.