HOME | DD

Description

Invictus Files 001 “Serene” September 23rd 2000

                In order to address the unique medical needs of my fellow teammates I’ve taken the liberty of making sure that THOUGHOUGH physical and psychological exams are conducted before and after each mission. Given the nature of what we do and almost everyone having a unique physiology I have compiled a detailed dossier of everyone’s medical files. It’ll give me a base line to work with just in case there are medical complications which given our line of work is inevitable, or if one of us gets mentally dominated, possessed, or otherwise compromised we won’t all get killed in our sleep. We’re gonna start with Niran Klahan aka Serene, he was….eager for the physical to say the least. One of the perks of my cybernetic implants is that I get to erase my own memories at will. Let’s just say the awkward procedure got a lot more awkward with all the flirting he did during the scanning, almost made me glad that I’m mostly machine.

Basic Physiology

                Niran’s physiology is broadly similar to standard human physiology except that it has been significantly tweaked most likely due to his demonic and draconic heritage. He was born in October 28th 1960, he is the child of Asmodeaus the former cardinal virtue of love and current deadly sin of lust, and Bo Pok a thai prostitute. Turns out the lil Bo Pok had draconic heritage, a fact Niran wasn’t aware of for most of his life until we took a field trip to his stomping grounds in Pattya Thailand. Every now and then during periods of heightened stress like combat Niran’s eyes turn from their normal gold color to red. He is stronger than humanly possible, much faster and agile than humanly possible, a bit tougher than humanly possible, and much more perceptive than humanly possible. He heals at an enhanced rate, doesn’t age past his current physiological age (14-16 despite being close to forty years old) and typically doesn’t have to worry about standard diseases or permanent injury. Enviable to say the least but it’s not like he can walk into hails of bullets without having to sweat. Let’s start with his looks, he is about five foot two inches tall, weighs in at one hundred twenty pounds, has shoulder length black hair, gold colored eyes, a dark caramel complexion indicative of an ethnic Chinese/thai heritage (which makes up most of Thailand’s population before you ask), and a heavily androgynous appearance. Niran is often mistaken for a girl and can easily pass for one if he dresses right. Niran’s voice normally sounds light and gender neutral adding to the whole androgyny thing, his voice doesn’t give away where he’s from due to the fact that he can speak several languages with true native fluency.

Skeletal Structure

                Niran’s skeletal structure is somewhat similar to humans however similarities are only skin (or rather bone) deep. Niran’s skeleton has far more cartilage in it than a normal humans allowing for unprecedented flexibility and range of motion, deep scans have revealed a skeletal composition of calcium and something that did not correspond to anything on the periodic table. After seeing some of the bumps he’s taken I have ascertained that it is surprisingly resilient, flexible, light, and responds with varying amounts of rigidity to neural impulses. Niran’s joints and spine are omni directional allowing for near limitless contortion capabilities which makes him a nightmare for grapplers (more on that later). All of Niran’s bones started off porous but time and training saw them filled in and replaced with the mystery material. There is room for compression and his skeleton’s composition and construction lends itself well to the acrobatic maneuvers he tends to use. I’ve seen him drop from miles in the air without sustaining injury or making a sound, useful for any entry requiring subtlety. In addition Niran can pop his joints out of socket and reinsert them at will allowing him to wriggle free of just about anything. I’ve seen him rotate his head a full seven hundred and twenty degrease with no ill effect at all, hyperextend his limbs, dislocate his jaw (which was incredibly disturbing to watch), and that’s just beginner’s stuff. It makes restraining him a damn tricky proposal to say the least.

Nervous System

                Niran’s nervous system is best described as hyper conductive, essentially his nervous system conducts signals far faster than any human being’s and conducts far more of them. Both his central nervous system and peripheral nervous system share this trait allowing him to react at lightning speed. The last time I inspected Niran’s reflexes he clocked in at nanosecond reaction time. In the field I’ve seen him dodge automatic fire, energy blasts, hypervelocity rounds, and more exotic things all in close quarters. Normally a nerve takes a long damn time to heal because of its complexity, however Niran’s nerves will heal quicker than the rest of him and his nerves are incredibly complicated. I’m not sure why this is and I currently don’t have any theories on it.

Muscular System

                Niran’s muscular system has far more tensile strength and flexibility than a normal person’s as are his tendons and ligaments. Combined with his skeletal structure Niran can (with great effort) lift five tons over his head. His muscles produce next to no fatigue toxins allowing him to maintain activity for an extended period of time roughly five days straight before he starts to show noticeable signs of fatigue. Niran has demonstrated complete control of his both his internal and external muscular system allowing him to accomplish a variety of feats, he can imitate any vocal range, immediately stop bleeding, slow speed up or stop his heart, and so forth. I’ve observed Niran stretching every morning and though I can’t verify if he needs to do it or not it is a practice he continues to this day. The unique structure of his muscles allow all of them to be utilized for any action allowing him to put a surprising amount of power in the most miniscule of movements. He can move far faster than even superhuman eyes can track, I’ve tracked him moving at around hypersonic speeds for one hundred thousandth of a second. After that his speed drops considerably eventually stabilizing at three hundred miles an hour, a pace he can maintain for a few days. Stealth and precision movement can be maintained at around sixty miles an hour.

Immune functions

                Niran’s immune functions are nothing short of extraordinary, he can catch mundane diseases but they never last very long in his system. The same nervous system that gives Niran his extreme sensory perception aids his immune functions in identifying anything that doesn’t belong in his body. Even rapidly mutating terrestrial diseases don’t last very long against his very swiftly reacting, and extremely aggressive immune system. A cold or flu for example typically lasts five minutes, malaria lasts about three hours, Niran once caught AIDS but it only lasted a week in his system. Like normal people as soon as he contracts and recovers from a disease he is immune to it. His recovery capacity is fairly impressive as well. Minor cuts and bruises heal in seconds, deep cuts and hairline fractures minutes, broken bones hours, more severe injuries require a few days at most. It should be noted that this healing requires rest in all instances; he can’t heal at an accelerated rate during stressful activity like a fight. His immune functions don’t work as well against narcotics however, in fact though it takes a higher volume narcotics and alcohol to affect him the effects last a very long time. If he gets drunk it’ll last for a few days, the hangover will last a week, a high will last just as long as a hang over. In addition poison gas has really put a hurt on him in the past, an encounter with sarin nerve gas once had him out of commission for a week. Narcotics have proven to be one of the most effective means of neutralizing Niran, I theorize that the incubus side of him wants to experience a high for as long as possible. Despite the nature of his body standard medical care can aid immensely in his recovery.

Circulatory System

                Niran’s red blood cells carry the same amount of oxygen as anyone else, however his body makes infinitely more efficient use of it. On average a human being’s brain takes twenty percent of the oxygen and glucose takes in, Niran’s brain takes about five percent leaving a great deal more resources for his body to work with. I’ve observed Niran exercising conscious control over his circulatory system too cutting off blood flow to certain areas of the body to sustain the rest of his body, in one instance Niran held his breath for four hours straight. Even when Niran folds himself in a knot (which happens alot) his veins, arteries, and capillaries manage to get blood to his body allowing him to maintain his positions for days. His robust circulatory system allows him to endure extreme temperatures with no need for special clothing. Other environmental extremes such as radiation can affect him normally and requires protection; in such environments Niran prefers mystic solutions as most enviro suits severely inhibit his agility and senses.

Integumentary System

                Niran’s skin is a marvel in and of itself, when on duty as it were Niran typically goes around barefoot, and I’ve seen him haul ass at over two hundred miles an hour without making his feet in a bloody mess. Niran is vulnerable to conventional injury, however it just takes a lot more of it to endanger him. Niran can survive getting shot, stabbed, beat up by a mob, but getting his head ripped off, shredded with automatic fire, or getting a bomb strapped to him is pretty much an effective way to kill him. On average Niran’s tissue density is about four times that of a normal human being and despite that the tissue is a great deal lighter and more flexible than it should be. Not only does it aid immensely in protection Niran’s skin is flooded with the same hyper sensitive nervous system that’s below his skin. It allows him to detect even the most minute changes in his environment with ease and has saved our asses more than once. Despite all the violence of his life Niran’s skin bears no scars whatsoever, it’s also an interesting note that despite having a head of hair Niran has no body hair whatsoever.

Brain

                Niran’s brain is a unique thing in and of itself, all areas of his brain are highly developed particularly his limbic system. Observing his neuronal activity I can ascertain that he feels emotion at a much higher octave than a regular human being. Niran has a hell of a poker face but real time scans of his brain wave patterns leads me to one conclusion. What is slight annoyance to us equals frothing rage to Niran, years of monastic training probably taught him to not mangle someone for jostling him on the street and to generally function like a well behaved human being. Niran’s brain is expertly wired to process sensory input, I’ve seen him stare unblinking into a deployed flash bang and not be stunned or blinded, get hit with sonic weaponry without scrambling for cover, and get hit with irritants and not blink. As far as I’ve observed it is impossible to overload his senses. As I’ve stated earlier Niran’s brain is wired for processing information, he can actually multi task or perhaps a better term is ultra task. Niran can keep track of hundreds of things all at once a useful thing to be able to do when your profession requires you to dodge bullets. It is likely because his brain is constantly in the Theta state, a state that allows a normal person to become more receptive to information and instinct. Given Niran’s training this makes him capable of astounding feats. Niran’s brain allows for complete and total recall, in fact the only thing that can keep him from recalling his past are his own subconscious desires. Niran’s brain isn’t all wine and roses though, in fact when you mix the stress of injury and combat Niran’s brain begins a unique survival protocol. His brain begins a neural feedback loop that sees parts of his brain for lack of a better term misfire particularly the pain and pleasure centers. The more injured he gets the more he begins to associate pain, anger, and fear with pleasure. This causes him to become more and more uninhibited in the field which causes him to hack people to pieces when he normally wouldn’t. However fifteen minutes in this state will result in him falling unconscious due to strain. On a side note Niran’s no dummy, even without finishing high school he scored a 118 on my patented I.Q. test.

Senses

                As most everyone knows Niran’s senses are several magnitudes more sensitive than an animals, he has keener vision than an eagle’s, a better sense of smell than a bear, sharper hearing than an owl, can use distant touch more accurately than a shark, ect. As mentioned earlier overloading his senses is impossible from what I’ve observed and his sensory perception seems to have extended into other mediums. I’ve observed him listening in on radio transmissions, seeing into the infrared spectrum, ect. He says it’s exhausting to do so but it is pretty damn impressive to see nonetheless. He can even perceive someone’s paranormal abilities, which provides an added edge in a fight. To give you an idea of how keen Niran’s senses are, in some cases his senses outperform my own cybernetics which can make micro expressions plainly visible. I’ve made sure to expose Niran to a variety of scents and sounds to make sure he can make full use of his senses in regards to tactical situations. It’s allowed us to stay one step ahead of a lot of nasty people. As you may have guessed each of his senses can compensate for the other, which is handier than you would think since some things can kill you just by making eye contact. Even if he doesn’t have to worry about burst eardrums or blindness even Niran has to worry about his flesh splitting from high grade sonic weaponry. Even when he’s unconscious Niran maintains complete awareness of his surroundings.

Digestive System

                Niran because of his senses has a real fondness for food, good thing too considering how quickly his metabolic and digestive system work. Near as I can tell his digestive tract is a model of efficiency it can take apart and use just about anything it comes across. That biomass is quickly converted into energy at an astonishing rate with very little stored as fat and the vast majority put directly into his musculature for maintenance. In times of hunger, Niran’s body utilizes fat cells first before consuming muscle. Niran can make do on a very sparse diet, I estimate that while he needs five hundred calories a day to be functional he typically eats around twenty five hundred calories a day to stay healthy. Thanks to his monastic training he can go for extended periods without food and water if necessary, up to one month without food and two weeks without water during a particularly rough operation. Of course he was ravenously hungry at that point and promptly devoured enough food to feed a small army. Other than (normally) needing a lot less of it Niran has standard dietary needs and suffers the same as anyone else from malnutrition including a marked decrease in operational capacity and decision making.

Extraneous physiology

                Niran has a few bits and pieces most people don’t have, most notably his hands and feet morphing into talons. I’ve analyzed the talons and they are made of a completely different material then the unknown sections of his skeletal structures. It is one of the hardest things I’ve ever analyzed despite their diminutive stature they wreak absolute havoc on whatever they hit. I’ve seen grown armored men getting sheared in half, tanks getting split apart, bullets getting cut in half in mid flight, and even more crazy things for little six inch claws. It took several multispectral analysis, and reviews of some rather grisly real time footage, but I finally found out what makes them so effective. Niran’s claws somehow act as a kinetic energy storage device, when swung a wave of hydrostatic shock forms just in front of them splitting the air in front and shredding objects before the claws make contact and expanding rapidly when the claws actually make contact. The claws themselves do a significant amount of damage themselves but the hydrostatic shock amplifies that damage making it truly impressive. Add in to the standard factors such as Niran striking fast enough that even a superhuman eye can’t track it and you’ve got doom in a tidy little package. Things always get messy when Niran whips out the claws, given that they can carve through a bank vault it is no great surprise. Niran also has the ability to stick the walls via quantum entanglement; he can maintain his equilibrium and balance in relation to what he sticks to which is rather bizarre to watch but it makes for an effective tactical solution against well trained opponents. Niran can walk on water for a few hours at a time via the same trick but he says it’s kind of tiring. I’ve also seen him use a similar principle to walk on mist and leaves pretty handy in dense foliage if you ask me.

Tactical Considerations

    It ain’t just his powers that make Niran a valuable member of the Templar the kid has a skill set that aids immeasurably in irregular ops. First and foremost the kid has lived most of his life on the wrong side of the law, first as a hood rat kid in Bangkok then as an escort. He’s street smart, savvy, and knows the ins and outs of civilization’s underbelly. I’ve never seen anyone live in a Mexican barrio or in the badlands of the Ukraine without getting mugged but he pulls it off. Combined with his social skills he can turn a city’s underclass into an information network in about six weeks quicker if he has cash to spread around. Socially I’ve never seen anyone work a room like Niran, years as an escort has given him a keen eye into people needs, wants, and desires. He can social engineer a crowd of people by makng sure the right people get the wrong information. He can break down a person’s personality just from a few seconds of observation a skill that has aided us immensely in helping a country get out from the thumb of a dictator. He’s incredibly skilled in reading micro expressions and combined with his hyper perception his skill in empathy is better than telepathy in some instances. In short Niran’s understanding of people is equal to my understanding of science and technology. Niran can also function well in high society as well his time as an escort teaching him how to behave in a variety of social settings outside of the street. Given his considerable charm, charisma, and universally attractive physical appearance he can social engineer a target towards an objective with astounding skill. Niran has a considerable amount of inner strength, given all he’s been through he was either going to wind up a broken shell of himself or come back stronger. His mother and every friend he ever had was killed or driven off leaving him alone, he withstood brutal torture, rape, dehumanization, and gladiatorial pit fights for years in one of the worst prisons China had to offer. This was all in thanks to the training he received at the six roads twelve paths monastery. Niran has the discipline to banish all thoughts from his mind rendering him near invisible to telepathic inquiry, to channel his emotions into hyper focus, or to soothe them to prevent him from turning someone into shark bait (most of the time). He has self healed from PTSD, night terrors, bi polarism, multiple personalities, and more thanks to advanced meditation techniques. Our work tends to lead us to deal with some of the worst scum human kind has to offer. Almost every time we go on mission we see human slavery, mass murders, and so on the full spectrum of man’s inhumanity to man. Me and Lilly have seen all of that before, Ed has no emotions, and Verrick just sees wasted food but Niran thanks to his inner calm is able to deal with the worst of what he sees. Niran is skilled in moving stealthily and gracefully, he tends to parkour to get around a city which is incredibly effective since he can move with almost no sound at considerable speed roughly sixty miles per hour. Niran’s athletic prowess lets him navigate any obstacle with bewildering speed and grace. His hand eye coordination along with years of practice give him damn near preternatural aim and skill with thrown instruments. I’ve seen him throw a steel rod down the barrel of a rifle at two hundred meters in a high cross wind, I’ve seen him whip throwing knives around corners, ect. Niran is a gifted performer, part of his training as an escort included a strong performing arts background. Song, dance, acting he can do it all with the skill of an academy grade actor, it aids immeasurably when trying to sell an identity. Another little skill/power he has is the ability to speak the language of anyone he touches with the faculty of a native speaker. He even speaks intuitive languages like body language, in fact me and Niran have developed means of communicating with body language while using spoken words to throw someone off. He has a great deal of languages at his disposal, he’s been getting cross training from Lily in the art of bypassing security/larceny, and from me in the area of combat tactics and survival. He’s helped me improve my heads up display software immeasurably as well. Long story short, his skills and abilities make him an astounding spy…

Combat

    Niran is an incredibly skilled martial artist having ten years of training, and over fifteen years of application. In that time he’s fought master level martial artists, speedsters, pre cognitive opponents, opponents with superior strength or speed, brick type supers, teleporters, folks with poisonous physiologies, size shifters, telepaths, telekinetics, energy projectors, and so forth. The six external arts that comprise his form crane, snake, tan tui, wing chun, kenpo, and a unique form of ying jow eagle claw all take advantage of his speed and agility. I’ve watched Niran drop a platoons worth of armed men with nothing more than pressure point strikes in less than two seconds. His knowledge of pressure points allow him to harm, heal, and even use a person’s superpowers against them in some instances. He can’t substitute his acupressure for full medical facilities but he can stabilize, in regards to harming he can blind, paralyze, mute someone, induce pain or nausea, or render a grown man unconscious in less than a second. Niran’s mastery of pressure points can affect superpowers as well causing them to malfunction, a super strong person’s muscles contract too hard causing bone breaks, a regenerator heals horribly wrong ect. According to him he’s only half trained in his monastery’s tradition which is a scary thought considering how effective he already is. Furthermore thanks to ki manipulation Niran can use a great deal of near legendary martial arts maneuvers. I’ve seen him use the one inch punch, the repelling touch, sticky hands, quivering palm, the dim mak, the no shadow kick, and so forth. All of which are master level and potent tools in his arsenal. I’ve even observed him using his ki along with his muscular control to shift his organs around to avoid damage. It’s not the most reliable way to mitigate damage, but it has saved his life more than once. Further uses of ki can drastically increase Niran’s physical capabilities and drastically injure him in the process for months at a time. I surmise that it is due to three different types of chi existing in Niran due to his lineages and I’m told that chi that drastically different from each other can’t play well together. Niran’s martial skill is at such a level that I’ve observed him snatch bullets out of the air and hurl them back at the person that fired the shot. Against armored opponents or superhumans he doesn’t want to kill he uses closed hand strikes. To give you an idea of what he’s capable of Mike Tyson had a measured punch of about 1800 psi enough to crack a skull or dislodge vertebrae. Niran on the other hand can land a punch at over 15,000 psi equivalent to a car hitting someone at over fifty miles an hour. Kicks are even more lethal landing on average with twice the force of a punch, all in all it necessitates he not punch an unprotected human unless he really feels like ruining someone’s life. Niran can generate such tremendous blows thanks to the mechanics of fighting, three things determine how effective a strike is, the speed at which it is thrown, the angle at which it lands, and the mass behind it. Niran barely weighing more than a buck and change has little mass to put behind his strikes, but he makes up for it in spades in speed and angle. The speed at which Niran throws a punch exceeds mach speed it should turn the air around it into heat and light but it doesn’t instead it’s all concentrated into striking power that is released upon impact. Outside of being in his patrol gear Serene normally takes special care to hide his combat ability, he deals with threats to his person via what he jokingly calls “tao of fag fu” or rather “seriously crippling a stupid motherfucker while acting as stereotypically gay as possible.” He utilizes his senses and reflexes to let his opponents beat themselves up via the surroundings or a well placed slap that’s actually a ridgehand to a soft spot on the human body. This is all done while making an incredible spectacle as he “miraculously” fends off his attackers. Only the master level martial artists can actually see what’s going on when Niran uses this style and the few who question him, Niran can normally bluff his way past them. Those who ask him for a formal duel however are often obliged.

Psychology

                Niran despite his demonic heritage is more scrupulous than one would expect, of all of us only Andrew has more reservations about offing someone. Outside of being on a mission Niran almost always seeks to talk his way out of something before throwing hands, given the damage he can do folks ought to be grateful. He has an uncommon outlook on the law given his time on the wrong side of it. He recognizes that the criminal element can harm good people and that the cops can do the same. Niran will never rat out any of his true informants, scum he gets to know out of necessity though are fair game. Furthermore he’s loath to turn on any but the worst of the gangs and mobsters that he knows often citing that “when cops are serious about getting crooks off of the force I’ll help them get crooks off of the streets.” A rule of thumb seems to be the more violent the gang, the more Niran interferes with him. Niran is best described as “poly amorous omnisexual” he’s pretty much open to anything, given the Templar’s work he really can’t have a relationship and from what I pieced together from his past he doesn’t really do long term monogamy. It’s not to say he doesn’t care about who he bangs (which is quite a few people to be honest) but given that he or anyone he cares about could be killed by any number of people that we’ve pissed off…well you can do the math on that. Shame isn’t something that’s in Niran’s vocabulary he doesn’t normally go to any particular lengths to make a scene but given his background he is far from bashful. Speaking of being a people person Niran along with Andrew are the only ones of us who are any good with kids of any age. He is the only one of us to make friends of any real note which helps immeasurably when establishing networks inside of a hostile area. Niran maintains a pretty cool and laid back demeanor around folks he doesn’t know, probably why he keeps the codename Serene. When he gets to know people though he lightens up considerably and becomes for lack of a better term one of those “physically friendly” types, he has a knack for knowing people’s boundaries and when he’s bored he tends to push them little by little. If he’s not teasing folks and making all the men question their sexuality he’s a mama hen making sure everyone’s okay and being a kind ear for someone’s woes. He has a silly and irreverent side that comes out every now and again sometimes to ease the tension, other times to call people on their bullshit. As mentioned earlier Niran is often mistaken for a girl, something he doesn’t mind. In fact he often states that “I have yet to figure out what’s so offensive about being a lady or a man.” Philosophically Serene seems to be a hodgepodge of sorts, but generally leans towards humanism, middle bhuddism, and therevada bhuddism. Like any of us though morality is a difficult thing to gauge, there is a line Niran won’t cross but anything up until that point is fair game.

Field Analysis

    Niran is typically a great all around operative, a cunning team player and a level head even when bullets are flying. The only exception is when we run afoul of human traffickers, especially those that buy and sell kids. Nothing brings Niran closer to the edge than having to play nice for any amount of time with a bunch of modern day slave peddlers. On more than one occasion our cover was just about blown by Niran’s slipping composure but he’s always managed to bite himself back. Though when the time comes to go hot, none of the Templar (save for Andrew) are as thorough or effective in hunting those sons of bitches down and ending them as he is. Niran is slightly less harsh towards serial killers, murderers, and mafioso he deems dangerous enough to deal with, he may leave them alive more often than not but…let’s just say hospitals have more than a few folks occupying the coma ward thanks to Niran. Rapists tend to get the same treatment as the serial killer crowd as do spouse abusers. The mugger and burglar crowd tent to get off with a bruising or a broken bone or two assuming they don’t get jail time. Personally I see a mad dog of any sort I put it down plain and simple but hey to each their own. Even in a fight Niran is typically one to talk first, ask questions and spend a few seconds dodging while he figures out an opponent’s fighting style. Given his experience he can pick apart the way someone fights and counter it in less than a few exchanges. Of course he doesn’t do this while we’re on a mission as the tactics I favor tend to result in someone getting ambushed. Andrew is pretty insistent that we take leave from our mission stating that “if we can’t relate to the people we fight for than we have already lost.” Most of us have difficulties decompressing, Ed is an emotionless killing machine, Lily and I are lifelong soldiers with years of bad memories waiting for us whenever we close our eyes, and I shudder to think about what Verrick does during leave. Niran on the other hand can be seen at the hottest spots burning up dance floors, networking, and getting all kinds of crazy. He is normally quite careful to avoid too many narcotic substances since they tend to have rather adverse effects on him. Nonetheless he and Andrew are about the only one of us to “decompress” with any real ease. Of course it’s not to say Niran doesn’t protect folk when he’s on leave, just like the rest of us it just means we have to deal with a….less influential form of asshole which is preferable.

Equipment

                We Templar abide by the idea of cross training, drills, and equipment to supplement our abilities. Niran despite all the goods he has normally is no exception, Verrick is (and it nauseates me to write this) gracious enough (yeah threw up in my mouth a little) to provide his estate in an easily accessible extra dimensional space via mystic tattoos we all got from him. This isn’t an “escape something that’s about to kill you” card as it takes ten minutes to activate and requires you to stand perfectly still. Regardless in that manse Niran’s room is stocked full of goods from both me and Verrick. I took the liberty of making a number of traditional Chinese weapons for Niran with various twists, high frequency dual broadsowrds, an electrified tai chi ghim, a kwan do with a kinetic storage and discharge device, an incredibly tough silk sash that can extend up to fifty feet in an instant and adhere to objects, and even khali sticks with sonic disruptors to name a few. The most prominent item in the arsenal however is the staff we forged from the mountains of the monastery where he trained. Turns out the entirety of that mountain is permeated with Yu Ying Jade, reputed to be the very stuff of heaven, I’ve analyzed it and come to the conclusion that it does not originate from three dimensional earth space. I made its physical shape ensuring that it was weighted, balanced, and shaped precisely for someone like Niran. Andrew awakened it with his divine mojo, Verrick enruned it with all sorts of anti-tech and anti magic stuff culminating in one heck of a mystic stick. Niran used to wear his original robes on patrol but those lasted one firefight before being utterly ruined. Instead he commission Verrick’s clothiers to make something for him. Verrick’s keep has a number of…..”spiders” (yeah we’ll call them spiders) around most of which don’t correspond to anything on earth. Verrick had his little pets spin Niran his current patrol gear out of that silk, it’s of course incredibly light, strong, hypoallergenic, and as an added bonus almost completely obscures his scent and thermal signature, and repairs itself. The face paint is of my own design, it is actually a nano fibro bundle that can alter itself to the users taste and as an added bonus scrambles retinal, facial, and vocal recognition software. It even scrambles the DNA, epithelial, finger and footprints he would leave behind since he normally runs around barefoot and bare handed. In addition Verrick saw fit to give him a number of psychoactive skins, I’m not sure what they’re made of and frankly I don’t want to know. What I do know is that one of the skins when worn provides Niran with rad protection, a filtered pressurized air supply, even a measure of protection against most environmental extremes. They’re skin tight so they don’t compromise Niran’s agility at all sort of like Nova Helix Live armor but mystic and arguably more advanced. Another is meant to be a spell guard essentially working against magic like ablative armor, another is skin that aids in resistance to telepathy and mind control and can take the form of clothing, another provides nourishment to the user from photosynthesis; however the most notorious skin is something I call the “instasober”, the way Verrick explained it to me is that it is essentially a parasite that seeks out foreign substances in a host body and devours them. The process however is excruciatingly painful and invasive so that particular skin is only used if absolutely necessary. Niran and the others of course have my custom nanite telecom package allowing us to communicate telepathically, and basically have a smart phone in our heads. His room also holds all of his clothes and personal effects, which are a lot as he tends to splurge whenever he has cash which is often taken from the assholes we deal with. On his person Niran normally carries the aforementioned sash and his staff, along with his patrol gear those are attuned to personal runes that allow them to be teleported directly on to Niran in a moment’s notice.

Update as of 2005

                Niran has managed to complete his training after visiting the remains of the monastery he trained in as well as his old stomping grounds. A further more detailed analysis of his fighting styles will be included below.

City rat Kenpo

                A modern martial art made by poor folk living in shanghai that blends parkour with kenpo it focuses on quick precise strikes to disable an opponent and then use of a city’s surroundings to evade or finish them off. Most of the martial arts snobs out there don’t really consider it a martial art but they don’t deny its effectiveness. Athleticism and maintaining constant awareness is as much a part of the training as are its traditional martial forms which emphasize fast precise punches, and improvised weapons.

Sirrocco style tan tui

                A collaboration between arab and Chinese traders moving along the silk road the sirocco style of tan tui blends fluid blocks with the hands followed by powerful kicks to the joints and vulnerable areas of the human body. The result is a balanced offensive and defensive style that while not optimal for extreme close quarters is a devastating mid to long range style. The grapple counters in the style are effective but require perfect timing to pull off. Given the precise nature of this styles strikes it tends to eschew long combinations for “one clear blow, one clear truth”.

Sticking hands wing chun

                Sticking hands wing chun, also known as “leash boxing” places particular emphasis on the traditional practice of sticking hands (big surprise). It is an aggressive style that has the practitioner strike quickly and by maintaining contact with any part of the body follow their opponent around like a bad memory while pummeling them with lightning fast combination strikes. Practitioners claim to read their opponents energy predicting where they’re going to both hit and evade. Niran has gotten to the point where just being within five feet of his opponent is enough to read the energy.

Hooded cobra

                Also known as “dirty snake” or “that was my goddamned eye you asshole” hooded cobra relies on misdirection and strikes that most organized fighting leagues would disqualify someone for even thinking about using. Like its forbear it makes extensive use of precision strikes but has a bit of ninjutsu mixed in, specifically kuji kiri to keep foes guessing as to where the next hit is going to come from. The form doesn’t focus on speed so much as misdirection, allowing the practitioner to potentially turn a physically superior opponent’s strength or speed against him.

Frozen river crane

                A particularly nasty variation of traditional white crane kung fu this style of crane focuses on striking specific nerves, veins, arteries, and capillaries to freeze the river of chi inside of an opponent. Results of proper use of this style have seen opponents get nauseated, hemmorage from their eyes and ears, lose their voice, become paralyzed, and even killed with little more than a few hits. Masters of the form can even turn post human abilities against the person who has them in a number of horrific ways. The style is devastatingly effective, but the only reason it wasn’t adopted by militaries the world over was due to the amount of time it normally takes to gain proficiency (measured in years) in the style never mind mastery which can take decades.

Falling light eagle claw

                A curious mix of traditional ying jow eagle claw with the basics of judo a practitioner of this style uses an opponent’s own momentum against him in a number of grisly ways. Judo style throws are utilized to set an opponent up for broken limbs and devastating chokes. The style seems passive but is anything but as a momentum throw leaves some hapless fool with two broken legs and arms. The roots in Ying Jow pai are apparent as the first move in almost any form involves breaking the wing or rather arm of an attacking opponent.

Brahma Style Kalaripayattu

                An Indian martial art as old as the hills kalaripayattu is arguably the forefather of kung fu. Niran’s style of kalari focuses on enhancing his already superhuman flexibility making his whole body like a whip and enabling him to strike with power way above his weight class. Southern style is a soft and defensive style of kalari The healing arts intrinsic to the art allowed him to focus his chi to heal himself in the middle of a fight but this isn’t fool proof, nor will it allow him to walk through a hail of bullets either. Instead it’s more about keeping him in the fight and allowing him to naturally purge foreign toxins and diseases far faster than he used to. The art itself focuses using serene’s agility and reflexes to further close the gap on a physically stronger opponent. Even when a foe manages to land a hit it rarely lands cleanly thanks to the ingenious use of yielding and flexibility that is the core of this style.

Chen style tai chi

                Forget what you think you know about tai chi, it’s not gentle, it’s not mystic, it’s about ripping someone’s goddamned balls off and feeding them to him as he’s bleeding out. Central to tai chi chuan is absorb and redirect, given what serene is capable of he can absorb and redirect quite a bit. Much like the style of eagle claw he practices tai chi chuan only re emphasizes and further hones serene’s prowess in a grapple or when countering an opponent’s strikes or grapples. The meditative focus he picked up when remembering this style made him much more resistant to mental control and attack. Using ki no longer injures him but any injuries he picks up after using said ki have to be dealt with however.

Pencek silat

                A Malaysian martial art that saw a lot (and I mean a lot) of use against the british back in the day silat is a complex but absolutely deadly internal form that has many aspects. It would appear serene was educated in the arts pressure point strikes further sharpening what he can do with his already considerable pressure point attacks. I’ve seen him split concrete with a light touch, dent metal with bump, and so on. Used against living things serene can affect superhumans up to B+ class durability as if they were regular people. C+ supers and regular people on the other hand can be killed outright if he so desires. He’s even learned how to heal even the most serious wounds with his acupressure, but sadly curing diseases is out of his purview. His claws have gotten even sharper capable of critically injuring supers with A- class resilience with a few swipes. The scars they leave on people extend far beyond the physical and according to Andrew “can rend a person’s very soul should Brother Niran strike with enough intent.”

Xing yi quan

                A style that emphasizes the idea of “though your opponent’s move happens first you strike before he does”. An aggressive internal art serene is particularly suited to the rooster variation of the style. Its jerky unpredictable steps combined with his speed and skill allow him to confound even the most well trained opponent, and even precognitive opponents have a hard time dealing with him. All of niran’s styles benefited from his remembering of xing yi quan, all of them became less predictable and formulaic and now even I have trouble predicting what he’ll do next in a fight.

Yin style baguazhang

                Also known as circle stepping this defensive art is what I like to call a GIANT pain in the ass. By constantly circling around their opponents the practitioner can easily avoid and counter basically letting a foe beat himself up. Though an expert in all its forms, Serene is a master in the unicorn system of the style pulling power from his joints to generate frighteningly powerful hip strikes. The defensive nature of this style has made serene even better at anticipating and dodging attacks than he already was and the way he dodges has a habit of foiling even the most well written targeting algorithms. Even area ordinance like grenades don’t do as much as they should against him.

Three Mountains Akijutsu

                A completely defensive subset of the art art that truly lets a foe beat himself up, it’s emphases is to end a fight without killing someone and does so pretty well. It’s all counters and throws and it’s yielding techniques work well with what serene has already learned to allow him to pull off some ridiculous stunts. He was already capable of snatching bullets out of the air, but I’ve seen him catch and return plasma bolts as now. The style of akijutsu he learned apparently focuses on turning a group of opponents against themselves making all but the most synchronous teams trip all over each other, something that truly evens the odds when we’re outnumbered which we normally are.

Serene belongs to
art by

Description

Invictus Files 001 “Serene” September 23rd 2000

                In order to address the unique medical needs of my fellow teammates I’ve taken the liberty of making sure that THOUGHOUGH physical and psychological exams are conducted before and after each mission. Given the nature of what we do and almost everyone having a unique physiology I have compiled a detailed dossier of everyone’s medical files. It’ll give me a base line to work with just in case there are medical complications which given our line of work is inevitable, or if one of us gets mentally dominated, possessed, or otherwise compromised we won’t all get killed in our sleep. We’re gonna start with Niran Klahan aka Serene, he was….eager for the physical to say the least. One of the perks of my cybernetic implants is that I get to erase my own memories at will. Let’s just say the awkward procedure got a lot more awkward with all the flirting he did during the scanning, almost made me glad that I’m mostly machine.

Basic Physiology

                Niran’s physiology is broadly similar to standard human physiology except that it has been significantly tweaked most likely due to his demonic and draconic heritage. He was born in October 28th 1960, he is the child of Asmodeaus the former cardinal virtue of love and current deadly sin of lust, and Bo Pok a thai prostitute. Turns out the lil Bo Pok had draconic heritage, a fact Niran wasn’t aware of for most of his life until we took a field trip to his stomping grounds in Pattya Thailand. Every now and then during periods of heightened stress like combat Niran’s eyes turn from their normal gold color to red. He is stronger than humanly possible, much faster and agile than humanly possible, a bit tougher than humanly possible, and much more perceptive than humanly possible. He heals at an enhanced rate, doesn’t age past his current physiological age (14-16 despite being close to forty years old) and typically doesn’t have to worry about standard diseases or permanent injury. Enviable to say the least but it’s not like he can walk into hails of bullets without having to sweat. Let’s start with his looks, he is about five foot two inches tall, weighs in at one hundred twenty pounds, has shoulder length black hair, gold colored eyes, a dark caramel complexion indicative of an ethnic Chinese/thai heritage (which makes up most of Thailand’s population before you ask), and a heavily androgynous appearance. Niran is often mistaken for a girl and can easily pass for one if he dresses right. Niran’s voice normally sounds light and gender neutral adding to the whole androgyny thing, his voice doesn’t give away where he’s from due to the fact that he can speak several languages with true native fluency.

Skeletal Structure

                Niran’s skeletal structure is somewhat similar to humans however similarities are only skin (or rather bone) deep. Niran’s skeleton has far more cartilage in it than a normal humans allowing for unprecedented flexibility and range of motion, deep scans have revealed a skeletal composition of calcium and something that did not correspond to anything on the periodic table. After seeing some of the bumps he’s taken I have ascertained that it is surprisingly resilient, flexible, light, and responds with varying amounts of rigidity to neural impulses. Niran’s joints and spine are omni directional allowing for near limitless contortion capabilities which makes him a nightmare for grapplers (more on that later). All of Niran’s bones started off porous but time and training saw them filled in and replaced with the mystery material. There is room for compression and his skeleton’s composition and construction lends itself well to the acrobatic maneuvers he tends to use. I’ve seen him drop from miles in the air without sustaining injury or making a sound, useful for any entry requiring subtlety. In addition Niran can pop his joints out of socket and reinsert them at will allowing him to wriggle free of just about anything. I’ve seen him rotate his head a full seven hundred and twenty degrease with no ill effect at all, hyperextend his limbs, dislocate his jaw (which was incredibly disturbing to watch), and that’s just beginner’s stuff. It makes restraining him a damn tricky proposal to say the least.

Nervous System

                Niran’s nervous system is best described as hyper conductive, essentially his nervous system conducts signals far faster than any human being’s and conducts far more of them. Both his central nervous system and peripheral nervous system share this trait allowing him to react at lightning speed. The last time I inspected Niran’s reflexes he clocked in at nanosecond reaction time. In the field I’ve seen him dodge automatic fire, energy blasts, hypervelocity rounds, and more exotic things all in close quarters. Normally a nerve takes a long damn time to heal because of its complexity, however Niran’s nerves will heal quicker than the rest of him and his nerves are incredibly complicated. I’m not sure why this is and I currently don’t have any theories on it.

Muscular System

                Niran’s muscular system has far more tensile strength and flexibility than a normal person’s as are his tendons and ligaments. Combined with his skeletal structure Niran can (with great effort) lift five tons over his head. His muscles produce next to no fatigue toxins allowing him to maintain activity for an extended period of time roughly five days straight before he starts to show noticeable signs of fatigue. Niran has demonstrated complete control of his both his internal and external muscular system allowing him to accomplish a variety of feats, he can imitate any vocal range, immediately stop bleeding, slow speed up or stop his heart, and so forth. I’ve observed Niran stretching every morning and though I can’t verify if he needs to do it or not it is a practice he continues to this day. The unique structure of his muscles allow all of them to be utilized for any action allowing him to put a surprising amount of power in the most miniscule of movements. He can move far faster than even superhuman eyes can track, I’ve tracked him moving at around hypersonic speeds for one hundred thousandth of a second. After that his speed drops considerably eventually stabilizing at three hundred miles an hour, a pace he can maintain for a few days. Stealth and precision movement can be maintained at around sixty miles an hour.

Immune functions

                Niran’s immune functions are nothing short of extraordinary, he can catch mundane diseases but they never last very long in his system. The same nervous system that gives Niran his extreme sensory perception aids his immune functions in identifying anything that doesn’t belong in his body. Even rapidly mutating terrestrial diseases don’t last very long against his very swiftly reacting, and extremely aggressive immune system. A cold or flu for example typically lasts five minutes, malaria lasts about three hours, Niran once caught AIDS but it only lasted a week in his system. Like normal people as soon as he contracts and recovers from a disease he is immune to it. His recovery capacity is fairly impressive as well. Minor cuts and bruises heal in seconds, deep cuts and hairline fractures minutes, broken bones hours, more severe injuries require a few days at most. It should be noted that this healing requires rest in all instances; he can’t heal at an accelerated rate during stressful activity like a fight. His immune functions don’t work as well against narcotics however, in fact though it takes a higher volume narcotics and alcohol to affect him the effects last a very long time. If he gets drunk it’ll last for a few days, the hangover will last a week, a high will last just as long as a hang over. In addition poison gas has really put a hurt on him in the past, an encounter with sarin nerve gas once had him out of commission for a week. Narcotics have proven to be one of the most effective means of neutralizing Niran, I theorize that the incubus side of him wants to experience a high for as long as possible. Despite the nature of his body standard medical care can aid immensely in his recovery.

Circulatory System

                Niran’s red blood cells carry the same amount of oxygen as anyone else, however his body makes infinitely more efficient use of it. On average a human being’s brain takes twenty percent of the oxygen and glucose takes in, Niran’s brain takes about five percent leaving a great deal more resources for his body to work with. I’ve observed Niran exercising conscious control over his circulatory system too cutting off blood flow to certain areas of the body to sustain the rest of his body, in one instance Niran held his breath for four hours straight. Even when Niran folds himself in a knot (which happens alot) his veins, arteries, and capillaries manage to get blood to his body allowing him to maintain his positions for days. His robust circulatory system allows him to endure extreme temperatures with no need for special clothing. Other environmental extremes such as radiation can affect him normally and requires protection; in such environments Niran prefers mystic solutions as most enviro suits severely inhibit his agility and senses.

Integumentary System

                Niran’s skin is a marvel in and of itself, when on duty as it were Niran typically goes around barefoot, and I’ve seen him haul ass at over two hundred miles an hour without making his feet in a bloody mess. Niran is vulnerable to conventional injury, however it just takes a lot more of it to endanger him. Niran can survive getting shot, stabbed, beat up by a mob, but getting his head ripped off, shredded with automatic fire, or getting a bomb strapped to him is pretty much an effective way to kill him. On average Niran’s tissue density is about four times that of a normal human being and despite that the tissue is a great deal lighter and more flexible than it should be. Not only does it aid immensely in protection Niran’s skin is flooded with the same hyper sensitive nervous system that’s below his skin. It allows him to detect even the most minute changes in his environment with ease and has saved our asses more than once. Despite all the violence of his life Niran’s skin bears no scars whatsoever, it’s also an interesting note that despite having a head of hair Niran has no body hair whatsoever.

Brain

                Niran’s brain is a unique thing in and of itself, all areas of his brain are highly developed particularly his limbic system. Observing his neuronal activity I can ascertain that he feels emotion at a much higher octave than a regular human being. Niran has a hell of a poker face but real time scans of his brain wave patterns leads me to one conclusion. What is slight annoyance to us equals frothing rage to Niran, years of monastic training probably taught him to not mangle someone for jostling him on the street and to generally function like a well behaved human being. Niran’s brain is expertly wired to process sensory input, I’ve seen him stare unblinking into a deployed flash bang and not be stunned or blinded, get hit with sonic weaponry without scrambling for cover, and get hit with irritants and not blink. As far as I’ve observed it is impossible to overload his senses. As I’ve stated earlier Niran’s brain is wired for processing information, he can actually multi task or perhaps a better term is ultra task. Niran can keep track of hundreds of things all at once a useful thing to be able to do when your profession requires you to dodge bullets. It is likely because his brain is constantly in the Theta state, a state that allows a normal person to become more receptive to information and instinct. Given Niran’s training this makes him capable of astounding feats. Niran’s brain allows for complete and total recall, in fact the only thing that can keep him from recalling his past are his own subconscious desires. Niran’s brain isn’t all wine and roses though, in fact when you mix the stress of injury and combat Niran’s brain begins a unique survival protocol. His brain begins a neural feedback loop that sees parts of his brain for lack of a better term misfire particularly the pain and pleasure centers. The more injured he gets the more he begins to associate pain, anger, and fear with pleasure. This causes him to become more and more uninhibited in the field which causes him to hack people to pieces when he normally wouldn’t. However fifteen minutes in this state will result in him falling unconscious due to strain. On a side note Niran’s no dummy, even without finishing high school he scored a 118 on my patented I.Q. test.

Senses

                As most everyone knows Niran’s senses are several magnitudes more sensitive than an animals, he has keener vision than an eagle’s, a better sense of smell than a bear, sharper hearing than an owl, can use distant touch more accurately than a shark, ect. As mentioned earlier overloading his senses is impossible from what I’ve observed and his sensory perception seems to have extended into other mediums. I’ve observed him listening in on radio transmissions, seeing into the infrared spectrum, ect. He says it’s exhausting to do so but it is pretty damn impressive to see nonetheless. He can even perceive someone’s paranormal abilities, which provides an added edge in a fight. To give you an idea of how keen Niran’s senses are, in some cases his senses outperform my own cybernetics which can make micro expressions plainly visible. I’ve made sure to expose Niran to a variety of scents and sounds to make sure he can make full use of his senses in regards to tactical situations. It’s allowed us to stay one step ahead of a lot of nasty people. As you may have guessed each of his senses can compensate for the other, which is handier than you would think since some things can kill you just by making eye contact. Even if he doesn’t have to worry about burst eardrums or blindness even Niran has to worry about his flesh splitting from high grade sonic weaponry. Even when he’s unconscious Niran maintains complete awareness of his surroundings.

Digestive System

                Niran because of his senses has a real fondness for food, good thing too considering how quickly his metabolic and digestive system work. Near as I can tell his digestive tract is a model of efficiency it can take apart and use just about anything it comes across. That biomass is quickly converted into energy at an astonishing rate with very little stored as fat and the vast majority put directly into his musculature for maintenance. In times of hunger, Niran’s body utilizes fat cells first before consuming muscle. Niran can make do on a very sparse diet, I estimate that while he needs five hundred calories a day to be functional he typically eats around twenty five hundred calories a day to stay healthy. Thanks to his monastic training he can go for extended periods without food and water if necessary, up to one month without food and two weeks without water during a particularly rough operation. Of course he was ravenously hungry at that point and promptly devoured enough food to feed a small army. Other than (normally) needing a lot less of it Niran has standard dietary needs and suffers the same as anyone else from malnutrition including a marked decrease in operational capacity and decision making.

Extraneous physiology

                Niran has a few bits and pieces most people don’t have, most notably his hands and feet morphing into talons. I’ve analyzed the talons and they are made of a completely different material then the unknown sections of his skeletal structures. It is one of the hardest things I’ve ever analyzed despite their diminutive stature they wreak absolute havoc on whatever they hit. I’ve seen grown armored men getting sheared in half, tanks getting split apart, bullets getting cut in half in mid flight, and even more crazy things for little six inch claws. It took several multispectral analysis, and reviews of some rather grisly real time footage, but I finally found out what makes them so effective. Niran’s claws somehow act as a kinetic energy storage device, when swung a wave of hydrostatic shock forms just in front of them splitting the air in front and shredding objects before the claws make contact and expanding rapidly when the claws actually make contact. The claws themselves do a significant amount of damage themselves but the hydrostatic shock amplifies that damage making it truly impressive. Add in to the standard factors such as Niran striking fast enough that even a superhuman eye can’t track it and you’ve got doom in a tidy little package. Things always get messy when Niran whips out the claws, given that they can carve through a bank vault it is no great surprise. Niran also has the ability to stick the walls via quantum entanglement; he can maintain his equilibrium and balance in relation to what he sticks to which is rather bizarre to watch but it makes for an effective tactical solution against well trained opponents. Niran can walk on water for a few hours at a time via the same trick but he says it’s kind of tiring. I’ve also seen him use a similar principle to walk on mist and leaves pretty handy in dense foliage if you ask me.

Tactical Considerations

    It ain’t just his powers that make Niran a valuable member of the Templar the kid has a skill set that aids immeasurably in irregular ops. First and foremost the kid has lived most of his life on the wrong side of the law, first as a hood rat kid in Bangkok then as an escort. He’s street smart, savvy, and knows the ins and outs of civilization’s underbelly. I’ve never seen anyone live in a Mexican barrio or in the badlands of the Ukraine without getting mugged but he pulls it off. Combined with his social skills he can turn a city’s underclass into an information network in about six weeks quicker if he has cash to spread around. Socially I’ve never seen anyone work a room like Niran, years as an escort has given him a keen eye into people needs, wants, and desires. He can social engineer a crowd of people by makng sure the right people get the wrong information. He can break down a person’s personality just from a few seconds of observation a skill that has aided us immensely in helping a country get out from the thumb of a dictator. He’s incredibly skilled in reading micro expressions and combined with his hyper perception his skill in empathy is better than telepathy in some instances. In short Niran’s understanding of people is equal to my understanding of science and technology. Niran can also function well in high society as well his time as an escort teaching him how to behave in a variety of social settings outside of the street. Given his considerable charm, charisma, and universally attractive physical appearance he can social engineer a target towards an objective with astounding skill. Niran has a considerable amount of inner strength, given all he’s been through he was either going to wind up a broken shell of himself or come back stronger. His mother and every friend he ever had was killed or driven off leaving him alone, he withstood brutal torture, rape, dehumanization, and gladiatorial pit fights for years in one of the worst prisons China had to offer. This was all in thanks to the training he received at the six roads twelve paths monastery. Niran has the discipline to banish all thoughts from his mind rendering him near invisible to telepathic inquiry, to channel his emotions into hyper focus, or to soothe them to prevent him from turning someone into shark bait (most of the time). He has self healed from PTSD, night terrors, bi polarism, multiple personalities, and more thanks to advanced meditation techniques. Our work tends to lead us to deal with some of the worst scum human kind has to offer. Almost every time we go on mission we see human slavery, mass murders, and so on the full spectrum of man’s inhumanity to man. Me and Lilly have seen all of that before, Ed has no emotions, and Verrick just sees wasted food but Niran thanks to his inner calm is able to deal with the worst of what he sees. Niran is skilled in moving stealthily and gracefully, he tends to parkour to get around a city which is incredibly effective since he can move with almost no sound at considerable speed roughly sixty miles per hour. Niran’s athletic prowess lets him navigate any obstacle with bewildering speed and grace. His hand eye coordination along with years of practice give him damn near preternatural aim and skill with thrown instruments. I’ve seen him throw a steel rod down the barrel of a rifle at two hundred meters in a high cross wind, I’ve seen him whip throwing knives around corners, ect. Niran is a gifted performer, part of his training as an escort included a strong performing arts background. Song, dance, acting he can do it all with the skill of an academy grade actor, it aids immeasurably when trying to sell an identity. Another little skill/power he has is the ability to speak the language of anyone he touches with the faculty of a native speaker. He even speaks intuitive languages like body language, in fact me and Niran have developed means of communicating with body language while using spoken words to throw someone off. He has a great deal of languages at his disposal, he’s been getting cross training from Lily in the art of bypassing security/larceny, and from me in the area of combat tactics and survival. He’s helped me improve my heads up display software immeasurably as well. Long story short, his skills and abilities make him an astounding spy…

Combat

    Niran is an incredibly skilled martial artist having ten years of training, and over fifteen years of application. In that time he’s fought master level martial artists, speedsters, pre cognitive opponents, opponents with superior strength or speed, brick type supers, teleporters, folks with poisonous physiologies, size shifters, telepaths, telekinetics, energy projectors, and so forth. The six external arts that comprise his form crane, snake, tan tui, wing chun, kenpo, and a unique form of ying jow eagle claw all take advantage of his speed and agility. I’ve watched Niran drop a platoons worth of armed men with nothing more than pressure point strikes in less than two seconds. His knowledge of pressure points allow him to harm, heal, and even use a person’s superpowers against them in some instances. He can’t substitute his acupressure for full medical facilities but he can stabilize, in regards to harming he can blind, paralyze, mute someone, induce pain or nausea, or render a grown man unconscious in less than a second. Niran’s mastery of pressure points can affect superpowers as well causing them to malfunction, a super strong person’s muscles contract too hard causing bone breaks, a regenerator heals horribly wrong ect. According to him he’s only half trained in his monastery’s tradition which is a scary thought considering how effective he already is. Furthermore thanks to ki manipulation Niran can use a great deal of near legendary martial arts maneuvers. I’ve seen him use the one inch punch, the repelling touch, sticky hands, quivering palm, the dim mak, the no shadow kick, and so forth. All of which are master level and potent tools in his arsenal. I’ve even observed him using his ki along with his muscular control to shift his organs around to avoid damage. It’s not the most reliable way to mitigate damage, but it has saved his life more than once. Further uses of ki can drastically increase Niran’s physical capabilities and drastically injure him in the process for months at a time. I surmise that it is due to three different types of chi existing in Niran due to his lineages and I’m told that chi that drastically different from each other can’t play well together. Niran’s martial skill is at such a level that I’ve observed him snatch bullets out of the air and hurl them back at the person that fired the shot. Against armored opponents or superhumans he doesn’t want to kill he uses closed hand strikes. To give you an idea of what he’s capable of Mike Tyson had a measured punch of about 1800 psi enough to crack a skull or dislodge vertebrae. Niran on the other hand can land a punch at over 15,000 psi equivalent to a car hitting someone at over fifty miles an hour. Kicks are even more lethal landing on average with twice the force of a punch, all in all it necessitates he not punch an unprotected human unless he really feels like ruining someone’s life. Niran can generate such tremendous blows thanks to the mechanics of fighting, three things determine how effective a strike is, the speed at which it is thrown, the angle at which it lands, and the mass behind it. Niran barely weighing more than a buck and change has little mass to put behind his strikes, but he makes up for it in spades in speed and angle. The speed at which Niran throws a punch exceeds mach speed it should turn the air around it into heat and light but it doesn’t instead it’s all concentrated into striking power that is released upon impact. Outside of being in his patrol gear Serene normally takes special care to hide his combat ability, he deals with threats to his person via what he jokingly calls “tao of fag fu” or rather “seriously crippling a stupid motherfucker while acting as stereotypically gay as possible.” He utilizes his senses and reflexes to let his opponents beat themselves up via the surroundings or a well placed slap that’s actually a ridgehand to a soft spot on the human body. This is all done while making an incredible spectacle as he “miraculously” fends off his attackers. Only the master level martial artists can actually see what’s going on when Niran uses this style and the few who question him, Niran can normally bluff his way past them. Those who ask him for a formal duel however are often obliged.

Psychology

                Niran despite his demonic heritage is more scrupulous than one would expect, of all of us only Andrew has more reservations about offing someone. Outside of being on a mission Niran almost always seeks to talk his way out of something before throwing hands, given the damage he can do folks ought to be grateful. He has an uncommon outlook on the law given his time on the wrong side of it. He recognizes that the criminal element can harm good people and that the cops can do the same. Niran will never rat out any of his true informants, scum he gets to know out of necessity though are fair game. Furthermore he’s loath to turn on any but the worst of the gangs and mobsters that he knows often citing that “when cops are serious about getting crooks off of the force I’ll help them get crooks off of the streets.” A rule of thumb seems to be the more violent the gang, the more Niran interferes with him. Niran is best described as “poly amorous omnisexual” he’s pretty much open to anything, given the Templar’s work he really can’t have a relationship and from what I pieced together from his past he doesn’t really do long term monogamy. It’s not to say he doesn’t care about who he bangs (which is quite a few people to be honest) but given that he or anyone he cares about could be killed by any number of people that we’ve pissed off…well you can do the math on that. Shame isn’t something that’s in Niran’s vocabulary he doesn’t normally go to any particular lengths to make a scene but given his background he is far from bashful. Speaking of being a people person Niran along with Andrew are the only ones of us who are any good with kids of any age. He is the only one of us to make friends of any real note which helps immeasurably when establishing networks inside of a hostile area. Niran maintains a pretty cool and laid back demeanor around folks he doesn’t know, probably why he keeps the codename Serene. When he gets to know people though he lightens up considerably and becomes for lack of a better term one of those “physically friendly” types, he has a knack for knowing people’s boundaries and when he’s bored he tends to push them little by little. If he’s not teasing folks and making all the men question their sexuality he’s a mama hen making sure everyone’s okay and being a kind ear for someone’s woes. He has a silly and irreverent side that comes out every now and again sometimes to ease the tension, other times to call people on their bullshit. As mentioned earlier Niran is often mistaken for a girl, something he doesn’t mind. In fact he often states that “I have yet to figure out what’s so offensive about being a lady or a man.” Philosophically Serene seems to be a hodgepodge of sorts, but generally leans towards humanism, middle bhuddism, and therevada bhuddism. Like any of us though morality is a difficult thing to gauge, there is a line Niran won’t cross but anything up until that point is fair game.

Field Analysis

    Niran is typically a great all around operative, a cunning team player and a level head even when bullets are flying. The only exception is when we run afoul of human traffickers, especially those that buy and sell kids. Nothing brings Niran closer to the edge than having to play nice for any amount of time with a bunch of modern day slave peddlers. On more than one occasion our cover was just about blown by Niran’s slipping composure but he’s always managed to bite himself back. Though when the time comes to go hot, none of the Templar (save for Andrew) are as thorough or effective in hunting those sons of bitches down and ending them as he is. Niran is slightly less harsh towards serial killers, murderers, and mafioso he deems dangerous enough to deal with, he may leave them alive more often than not but…let’s just say hospitals have more than a few folks occupying the coma ward thanks to Niran. Rapists tend to get the same treatment as the serial killer crowd as do spouse abusers. The mugger and burglar crowd tent to get off with a bruising or a broken bone or two assuming they don’t get jail time. Personally I see a mad dog of any sort I put it down plain and simple but hey to each their own. Even in a fight Niran is typically one to talk first, ask questions and spend a few seconds dodging while he figures out an opponent’s fighting style. Given his experience he can pick apart the way someone fights and counter it in less than a few exchanges. Of course he doesn’t do this while we’re on a mission as the tactics I favor tend to result in someone getting ambushed. Andrew is pretty insistent that we take leave from our mission stating that “if we can’t relate to the people we fight for than we have already lost.” Most of us have difficulties decompressing, Ed is an emotionless killing machine, Lily and I are lifelong soldiers with years of bad memories waiting for us whenever we close our eyes, and I shudder to think about what Verrick does during leave. Niran on the other hand can be seen at the hottest spots burning up dance floors, networking, and getting all kinds of crazy. He is normally quite careful to avoid too many narcotic substances since they tend to have rather adverse effects on him. Nonetheless he and Andrew are about the only one of us to “decompress” with any real ease. Of course it’s not to say Niran doesn’t protect folk when he’s on leave, just like the rest of us it just means we have to deal with a….less influential form of asshole which is preferable.

Equipment

                We Templar abide by the idea of cross training, drills, and equipment to supplement our abilities. Niran despite all the goods he has normally is no exception, Verrick is (and it nauseates me to write this) gracious enough (yeah threw up in my mouth a little) to provide his estate in an easily accessible extra dimensional space via mystic tattoos we all got from him. This isn’t an “escape something that’s about to kill you” card as it takes ten minutes to activate and requires you to stand perfectly still. Regardless in that manse Niran’s room is stocked full of goods from both me and Verrick. I took the liberty of making a number of traditional Chinese weapons for Niran with various twists, high frequency dual broadsowrds, an electrified tai chi ghim, a kwan do with a kinetic storage and discharge device, an incredibly tough silk sash that can extend up to fifty feet in an instant and adhere to objects, and even khali sticks with sonic disruptors to name a few. The most prominent item in the arsenal however is the staff we forged from the mountains of the monastery where he trained. Turns out the entirety of that mountain is permeated with Yu Ying Jade, reputed to be the very stuff of heaven, I’ve analyzed it and come to the conclusion that it does not originate from three dimensional earth space. I made its physical shape ensuring that it was weighted, balanced, and shaped precisely for someone like Niran. Andrew awakened it with his divine mojo, Verrick enruned it with all sorts of anti-tech and anti magic stuff culminating in one heck of a mystic stick. Niran used to wear his original robes on patrol but those lasted one firefight before being utterly ruined. Instead he commission Verrick’s clothiers to make something for him. Verrick’s keep has a number of…..”spiders” (yeah we’ll call them spiders) around most of which don’t correspond to anything on earth. Verrick had his little pets spin Niran his current patrol gear out of that silk, it’s of course incredibly light, strong, hypoallergenic, and as an added bonus almost completely obscures his scent and thermal signature, and repairs itself. The face paint is of my own design, it is actually a nano fibro bundle that can alter itself to the users taste and as an added bonus scrambles retinal, facial, and vocal recognition software. It even scrambles the DNA, epithelial, finger and footprints he would leave behind since he normally runs around barefoot and bare handed. In addition Verrick saw fit to give him a number of psychoactive skins, I’m not sure what they’re made of and frankly I don’t want to know. What I do know is that one of the skins when worn provides Niran with rad protection, a filtered pressurized air supply, even a measure of protection against most environmental extremes. They’re skin tight so they don’t compromise Niran’s agility at all sort of like Nova Helix Live armor but mystic and arguably more advanced. Another is meant to be a spell guard essentially working against magic like ablative armor, another is skin that aids in resistance to telepathy and mind control and can take the form of clothing, another provides nourishment to the user from photosynthesis; however the most notorious skin is something I call the “instasober”, the way Verrick explained it to me is that it is essentially a parasite that seeks out foreign substances in a host body and devours them. The process however is excruciatingly painful and invasive so that particular skin is only used if absolutely necessary. Niran and the others of course have my custom nanite telecom package allowing us to communicate telepathically, and basically have a smart phone in our heads. His room also holds all of his clothes and personal effects, which are a lot as he tends to splurge whenever he has cash which is often taken from the assholes we deal with. On his person Niran normally carries the aforementioned sash and his staff, along with his patrol gear those are attuned to personal runes that allow them to be teleported directly on to Niran in a moment’s notice.

Update as of 2005

                Niran has managed to complete his training after visiting the remains of the monastery he trained in as well as his old stomping grounds. A further more detailed analysis of his fighting styles will be included below.

City rat Kenpo

                A modern martial art made by poor folk living in shanghai that blends parkour with kenpo it focuses on quick precise strikes to disable an opponent and then use of a city’s surroundings to evade or finish them off. Most of the martial arts snobs out there don’t really consider it a martial art but they don’t deny its effectiveness. Athleticism and maintaining constant awareness is as much a part of the training as are its traditional martial forms which emphasize fast precise punches, and improvised weapons.

Sirrocco style tan tui

                A collaboration between arab and Chinese traders moving along the silk road the sirocco style of tan tui blends fluid blocks with the hands followed by powerful kicks to the joints and vulnerable areas of the human body. The result is a balanced offensive and defensive style that while not optimal for extreme close quarters is a devastating mid to long range style. The grapple counters in the style are effective but require perfect timing to pull off. Given the precise nature of this styles strikes it tends to eschew long combinations for “one clear blow, one clear truth”.

Sticking hands wing chun

                Sticking hands wing chun, also known as “leash boxing” places particular emphasis on the traditional practice of sticking hands (big surprise). It is an aggressive style that has the practitioner strike quickly and by maintaining contact with any part of the body follow their opponent around like a bad memory while pummeling them with lightning fast combination strikes. Practitioners claim to read their opponents energy predicting where they’re going to both hit and evade. Niran has gotten to the point where just being within five feet of his opponent is enough to read the energy.

Hooded cobra

                Also known as “dirty snake” or “that was my goddamned eye you asshole” hooded cobra relies on misdirection and strikes that most organized fighting leagues would disqualify someone for even thinking about using. Like its forbear it makes extensive use of precision strikes but has a bit of ninjutsu mixed in, specifically kuji kiri to keep foes guessing as to where the next hit is going to come from. The form doesn’t focus on speed so much as misdirection, allowing the practitioner to potentially turn a physically superior opponent’s strength or speed against him.

Frozen river crane

                A particularly nasty variation of traditional white crane kung fu this style of crane focuses on striking specific nerves, veins, arteries, and capillaries to freeze the river of chi inside of an opponent. Results of proper use of this style have seen opponents get nauseated, hemmorage from their eyes and ears, lose their voice, become paralyzed, and even killed with little more than a few hits. Masters of the form can even turn post human abilities against the person who has them in a number of horrific ways. The style is devastatingly effective, but the only reason it wasn’t adopted by militaries the world over was due to the amount of time it normally takes to gain proficiency (measured in years) in the style never mind mastery which can take decades.

Falling light eagle claw

                A curious mix of traditional ying jow eagle claw with the basics of judo a practitioner of this style uses an opponent’s own momentum against him in a number of grisly ways. Judo style throws are utilized to set an opponent up for broken limbs and devastating chokes. The style seems passive but is anything but as a momentum throw leaves some hapless fool with two broken legs and arms. The roots in Ying Jow pai are apparent as the first move in almost any form involves breaking the wing or rather arm of an attacking opponent.

Brahma Style Kalaripayattu

                An Indian martial art as old as the hills kalaripayattu is arguably the forefather of kung fu. Niran’s style of kalari focuses on enhancing his already superhuman flexibility making his whole body like a whip and enabling him to strike with power way above his weight class. Southern style is a soft and defensive style of kalari The healing arts intrinsic to the art allowed him to focus his chi to heal himself in the middle of a fight but this isn’t fool proof, nor will it allow him to walk through a hail of bullets either. Instead it’s more about keeping him in the fight and allowing him to naturally purge foreign toxins and diseases far faster than he used to. The art itself focuses using serene’s agility and reflexes to further close the gap on a physically stronger opponent. Even when a foe manages to land a hit it rarely lands cleanly thanks to the ingenious use of yielding and flexibility that is the core of this style.

Chen style tai chi

                Forget what you think you know about tai chi, it’s not gentle, it’s not mystic, it’s about ripping someone’s goddamned balls off and feeding them to him as he’s bleeding out. Central to tai chi chuan is absorb and redirect, given what serene is capable of he can absorb and redirect quite a bit. Much like the style of eagle claw he practices tai chi chuan only re emphasizes and further hones serene’s prowess in a grapple or when countering an opponent’s strikes or grapples. The meditative focus he picked up when remembering this style made him much more resistant to mental control and attack. Using ki no longer injures him but any injuries he picks up after using said ki have to be dealt with however.

Pencek silat

                A Malaysian martial art that saw a lot (and I mean a lot) of use against the british back in the day silat is a complex but absolutely deadly internal form that has many aspects. It would appear serene was educated in the arts pressure point strikes further sharpening what he can do with his already considerable pressure point attacks. I’ve seen him split concrete with a light touch, dent metal with bump, and so on. Used against living things serene can affect superhumans up to B+ class durability as if they were regular people. C+ supers and regular people on the other hand can be killed outright if he so desires. He’s even learned how to heal even the most serious wounds with his acupressure, but sadly curing diseases is out of his purview. His claws have gotten even sharper capable of critically injuring supers with A- class resilience with a few swipes. The scars they leave on people extend far beyond the physical and according to Andrew “can rend a person’s very soul should Brother Niran strike with enough intent.”

Xing yi quan

                A style that emphasizes the idea of “though your opponent’s move happens first you strike before he does”. An aggressive internal art serene is particularly suited to the rooster variation of the style. Its jerky unpredictable steps combined with his speed and skill allow him to confound even the most well trained opponent, and even precognitive opponents have a hard time dealing with him. All of niran’s styles benefited from his remembering of xing yi quan, all of them became less predictable and formulaic and now even I have trouble predicting what he’ll do next in a fight.

Yin style baguazhang

                Also known as circle stepping this defensive art is what I like to call a GIANT pain in the ass. By constantly circling around their opponents the practitioner can easily avoid and counter basically letting a foe beat himself up. Though an expert in all its forms, Serene is a master in the unicorn system of the style pulling power from his joints to generate frighteningly powerful hip strikes. The defensive nature of this style has made serene even better at anticipating and dodging attacks than he already was and the way he dodges has a habit of foiling even the most well written targeting algorithms. Even area ordinance like grenades don’t do as much as they should against him.

Three Mountains Akijutsu

                A completely defensive subset of the art art that truly lets a foe beat himself up, it’s emphases is to end a fight without killing someone and does so pretty well. It’s all counters and throws and it’s yielding techniques work well with what serene has already learned to allow him to pull off some ridiculous stunts. He was already capable of snatching bullets out of the air, but I’ve seen him catch and return plasma bolts as now. The style of akijutsu he learned apparently focuses on turning a group of opponents against themselves making all but the most synchronous teams trip all over each other, something that truly evens the odds when we’re outnumbered which we normally are.

Serene belongs to
art by