Silver Lightning

Context

This character exists in Universe AZ, a super-hero setting designed by writeups.org contributor Azrael for their tabletop role-playing games campaign.

This setting merges various published universes (including DC and Marvel) to build a detailed timeline and continuity.

This character is derived from a character in the GURPS Supers: International Super Teams tabletop role-playing supplement. The original version of this character has its own WORG profile.

The stats in this profile are not based directly on an actual conversion of the character from GURPS to MEGS but rather on an idealized conception based on the use of this character in the original games that Universe AZ is based on.

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More notes

At that time a scarcity of materials available to me for DCH lead me to purchase random, interesting looking books from other superheroic games and plundering them for interesting ideas and characters. I would then take the characters I wanted to work with and construct DCH stats for them using the concepts more than the stats.

In Dimitra’s case I wanted her to be a major player in the heroic world and I stated her roughly around Wonder Woman’s power level, her maternal relationship to Disaster was added to the character at that time.

Since Dimitra is noted for having a large extended family I took the opportunity to add a bit of the “Guthrie Effect” to the family, meaning multiple members of the family possess powers.

In addition to Disaster her other son Warcry II has a mixture of the powers of Dimitra and Warcry I (an original UAZ character), but retains the limitation of having to “armor-up” to use them, but his metal is Promethium, he is a member of the IST in good standing, though he requested not to be placed under his mother’s direct command.

There is also a cousin who developed a similar power-set, though in her case she becomes living marble (and looks like Wonder Woman One Million), she is a member of the Champions alongside her cousin Disaster.

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Background

Powers & Abilities

Silver Lightning is a very tall, very strong woman with enormous combat experience and training ; she is gifted with considerable charisma and leadership ability.

Said abilities and experience have made her the commander of the total superhuman forces of the United Sol System, the International Super Teams, and thus a famous and influential person with heavy responsibilities throughout the world.

As her name indicates, she can turn into a metallic, silvery form. As a woman of metal she can harmlessly withstand assault rifle fire at close range – but she can also move with lightning-like alacrity, fly and shoot lightning bolts.

Her core tactical approach is to hit them hard and fast. With over 20 years of experience, both military and as IST commander, Dimitra has seen it all and then some. In combat she doesn’t mess around; grandstanding is for fools and megalomaniacs, while a successful military op requires coordination and timing.

She will also carefully examine any battle plan for flaws and will instantly remove any part that exposes her team to undue risk.

Home Sweet Home

Dimitra has made the IST her life, even to the point of giving up her life with her children, and as such she has made her residence at IST HQ since she took over as Commander.

The current HQ is an artificial island known as IST Island. This HQ was acquired in 1987 after the Avengers (lead by Nightwing) defeated the plans of Dr. Doom, the island’s builder. Since the island was in international waters and since Doom had UN granted Diplomatic Immunity the IST had to respond.

They transported Doom back to Latveria and informed him that the island had been seized. After examining the island and having it checked out by the absolute best (as in Reed Richards, Tony Stark, Forge, probably others) Dimitra decided to make it the IST’s central base.

The island has roughly 4.7 square miles of surface area and is actually composed of a (formerly) undersea mountaintop that Doom cut free and raised using his technology, built inside the now hollow mountain.

The top side of the island has been cultivated in the areas not built up or paved, mostly for the morale of the personnel, with a small park area, and wide lawns around all residential buildings.

There is more than enough space for all of the IST command facilities and naturally living areas, as well as housing the IST training facility, and numerous other things like labs for civilian scientists in the employ of IST, starcraft hanger, and so on.

Dimitra herself lives in a modest home close to the command center; she keeps her quarters in military fashion, with only three pictures, her sons, and her ex-husband, adorning one wall.

She has another residence, given to her by her ex, with all the expenses paid for from a trust he established in her name, in Athens where she keeps most of her personal belongings (spends her vacations there, when she takes them).

Since acquiring this base the IST has successfully prevented attempts to destroy it by Doom and others and has become far more successful on the world stage.

History

Born in 1945 to a poor Greek farming family living just outside of Athens, Dimitra awoke from a nightmare one night when she was 17 [1962] and found that her body had transformed into a gleaming metal form. Like any rational person in this situation she screamed and fainted.

When she came to she found her family gathered around her, they had seen it too, and seen her transform back.

Declared a metahuman by the town doctor the next morning, she was instantly recruited into the Greek army. There she discovered her powers of flight and lightning under the tutelage of specialized (Metahuman) instructors.

After she completed her training Dimitra took the code-name Argiri Astrapi or Silver Lightning in English, and she soon grew in both power and prestige.

Dimitra was personally responsible for stopping Col. George Papadopoulos’ attempted coup in 1967. She was awarded the Gold Cross of the Order of the Redeemer by King Constantine for her service.

A number of high profile super-heroes from around the world attended the medal ceremony. These included Supreme, and Guardian from the US, Red Guardian [Alexei Shostakov] from the USSR, and a number of heroes from throughout Europe.

Also attending was an officer in the UN’s Superhuman task force (then called The Guard) named Warcry [James Redcross], a Native American from the Oglala Lakota tribe of South Dakota, and the first Native American Metahuman of the 20^th century.

At the age of 25 Dimitra was one of the highest ranking metahuman officers in the Greek army, and commanded the entire metahuman division at the age of 30.

However changing policies and a growing global metahuman “arms race” lead to Dimitra feeling increasingly uneasy working for the military and contributed to her decision to resign from the Greek military in 1974.

Defenders of the Earth

Dimitra, having become friendly with Warcry, decided to accept his offer to join The Guard in 1975 after the UN passed a resolution banning government or military run Metahuman units.

The UN’s ability to enforce this resolution was backed up by a standing Metahuman force three times greater than had been previously seen, and the consequence for non-compliance was expulsion from the UN.

Expulsion from the UN also meant being barred from access to the Reed Richards designed sub-light drive (leased to the UN for 100 years), Cold-Fusion reactor technology (also from Reed), and a few other pieces of technology that are UN controlled.

This UN Metahuman force was called the Guard from its inception (shortly after the foundation of the UN) until 1980 when they were re-named the International Super Teams. At least one team was stationed in every member nation, each installed in a specially constructed embassy, and no team could have more than 2 members who were native to the nation they were stationed in.

In 1976 the Watergate scandal in the US exposed many of the crimes of Project: Rebirth, and the fact that the US was still operating a covert superhuman paramilitary unit, namely Task Force X and Suicide Squad.

Isaiah Bradley’s testimony during the Watergate scandal, along with that of Col. Rick Flagg, and a leak of documents pertaining to Task Force X and Project: Rebirth by Col. Flagg, as well as additional leaked documents from Frank Rock (nobody knew he did it for a long time), lead to the first trials for failure to comply with the UN’s ban on military Metahuman units.

The fallout also caused Task Force X, and all personnel and properties of it to be taken over by the UN, with SHIELD and The Guard (this was in 1976, before The Guard became the IST), taking control of the program, and then expanding it to include a second unit (named X Factor) composed of metahuman criminals serving sentences for lesser crimes, compared to those assigned to “Suicide Squad”, who are often guilty of murder or worse, though not always.

Members of X Factor are only required to serve for 5 years, compared to 10 for Suicide Squad, and live in a dedicated facility on IST Island while Suicide Squad continues operating from Belle Reve. In practice SHIELD controls Suicide Squad while The Guard/IST control X Factor.

A Brave New World

Handing over Task Force X to the UN allowed the United States to narrowly avoid expulsion from the UN, though they faced increased oversight in Metahuman affairs for a decade after, while the hidden masters of Project: Rebirth consolidated the assets they still controlled.

This group also arranged the creation of the Commission on Superhuman Activities in the US in order to exert pressure and maintain a degree of control over super-teams operating in the US. While the UN argued against the formation of the CSA, as did US President-Elect Martin Luther King Jr., it was not technically a violation of the UN Metahuman Edicts to monitor super-teams to ensure they operate legally.

The next year President King vetoed a new attempt at passing a Metahuman Registration Act, which had narrowly cleared the Senate, and was not supported by the people, but by the hidden bosses of the CSA.

When the JLA formed in 1977 they kept their HQ hidden (Happy Harbor) and avoided contact with the CSA, operating outside the law, much like the older X-Men, which formed in 1966. After an attempted assassination of President King was thwarted by his Vice-President Terry Sloane (Mr. Terrific) in 1978, the UN assigned a combined team of SHIELD and Guard operatives to ensure his security.

Meanwhile Dimitra had been serving with distinction for The Guard and was rapidly being moved up through the ranks. In 1978 Dimitra and Warcry were married in a small, extremely private, ceremony.

The couple took an extended leave of absence the next year for Dimitra’s pregnancy. She gave birth to a pair of healthy, fraternal, twin boys. The happy parents named the boys James Jr. and William.

Things rather quickly got weird for them though when James Jr. started talking at a month old. Jr. was also growing extremely fast. Before the end of his first year he looked like a 6 year old, on top of that MRI scans showed he essentially had two complete brains.

William on the other hand was a completely normal child. The demand of raising 2 such different children, and costumed careers, was too much for them and the couple decided to separate. James Sr. had wanted to retire for a while so he took the boys while Dimitra went back to her duties in the last months of 1979 though her divorce would not be official for several more years.

Since her marriage had been fairly high profile, American tabloids began calling her “The Silverbolt” due to the brief duration of her marriage.

Building Alliances

When the UN re-organized the Guard into the IST in 1980 Dimitra was promoted to Commander, soon after Silver Lightning approached the JLA and offered them UN recognition as the American IST team, a new Headquarters (The Hall of Justice, Washington DC), and assistance from the IST in exchange for their help in training recruits and developing the IST training regimen.

The team initially refused, due to the widely known fact that joining the IST meant revealing your real identity to the IST, and several members extremely strong desire not to do so (mostly Clark, Bruce W, Tony S, and J’onn). The others convinced them to at least hear Dimitra out since they all had encountered her before, and respected her.

Dimitra told the League that she would sidestep the issue of their identities by officially listing them as IST Sub-Contractors (which meant they did not have to reveal their identities to the IST, and it is an interesting loophole in the IST regulations that existed in the original GURPS material as well), and Dimitra would pull what strings she could to get a reasonable CSA Liaison for them (she and Nick Fury managed to get Nick’s old friend Frank Rock assigned to the post).

Dimitra however wanted one thing in exchange for these considerations, she wanted to know the identities of the founding members of the team herself, she would not share this information (even with Nick), but she had to know if she was to trust them.

After Dr. Strange confirmed through his magic that she would not reveal their IDs the JLA accepted the offer, Dimitra learned the identities of Bruce Wayne, Clark Kent, Tony Stark, & Eric Masterson, both Isaiah Bradley and Princess Diana’s IDs were already known to Dimitra.

Frank Rock remained CSA liaison to the JLA until 1990 when Frank managed to leverage his connections inside the CSA to become the new head of Project: Rebirth in the final step of his plan to find out what happened to Steve Rodgers.

Thanks to Rock’s actions Steve, and many other victims of the powerful cabal behind both the CSA and Project: Rebirth would bring the entire organization down in 2002 (the trials will last for years with hundreds of convictions, and some even sentenced to the Phantom Zone).

Born to Lead

Working with the League to shape her teams Dimitra showed that she was born to Command. Her experience with the League also left her a bit more charitable, but she is still willing to use lethal force if necessary (but only when necessary).

During the Crisis in 85 Dimitra’s confidence was badly shaken, but a week spent in the company of old friend Jenny Sparks, gave her a new perspective and she returned to IST along with Sparks, who had been retired.

While the IST suffered its share of bad times over the next few years Dimitra kept the organization going through the worst things they faced. IST, and SHIELD, lost a lot of public trust in 1990 when Superman uncovered that former Guard/IST and current SHIELD metahuman expert Dr. Richfield Franck was actually the super-villain Mister Sinister.

Ironically this event would give birth to her son’s best friend, Sinister’s genetic creation, intended to kill Superman, now the hero known as Shatterstar II (in the UAZ X-Force’s Shatterstar is the first), and Disaster’s (James Jr’s) “World’s Finest” counterpart.

As IST struggled to restore its reputation Dimitra decided to once again restructure the organization. While there would still be IST embassies and teams assigned to them, there would also be dedicated backup teams at the IST Island HQ who could be teleported into hot zones as needed.

IST also began an auxiliary power armor service in 1994 when SHIELD’s new Director Ivana Baiul (replacing Nick, who was on the run with Gen13), discontinued the SHIELD Guardsman program (mostly cause Nick Fury, along with the Guardsman’s commander Josiah Bradley, and most of his top officers had just assaulted an illegal metahuman testing facility Ivana was running as part of Project: Rebirth).

Dimitra eventually decided on power armor from Amertek (designed by John Henry Irons), when it was uncovered in 2001 that Amertek had not only stolen the designs for the armor from Irons, but also the story of the BG-60 and BG-80 or “Toastmaster” energy weapons and how Amertek had sold them to terrorists, criminals, and street gangs, Dimitra was the one who arrested the company board, along with the entire IST, and Dr. John Irons, or Steel as he is known professionally.

Meanwhile…

In 1992 her son James Jr., who was already known to be a Metahuman, began developing additional powers. Her other son William, and a cousin who is a similar age to the two boys, also displayed abilities much like her own.

A conversation with the boys’ father lead to all three children becoming enrolled in classes at the Xavier Institute for Higher Learning (for James Jr.) and the Xavier School for Gifted Youngsters (for William and Alexandra). The next year James Jr. left Xavier’s with a Master’s in Particle Physics (his 4^th degree).

Several months later Dimitra and James Sr. were contacted by Batman who informed them that their son James Jr. had decided to become a costumed adventurer himself. Batman told them that he was impressed by the boy’s abilities and wanted to take him on as an apprentice and asked for their permission to begin training the boy.

Dimitra and James Sr. met with Batman and agreed to allow James to work with him, with certain conditions, for James. Firstly, despite the fact that James Jr was now 16 rather than 13 due to time spent in a dimension with a different temporal rate, he was to continue his scholastic education until he turned 18, legally not physically, and get at least a bachelor’s degree in business.

He would also have to undergo IST Boot Camp before beginning training with Batman; he would do so under the assumed name of Colin Macleod. Thirdly, or fourthly if you’re paying attentionJ, James would lease the Wayne Foundation Penthouse (Leasing fees go to the Foundation) and use the Batcave beneath the building as his HQ (built for Dick, used by Jason, today home to Tim).

They did make one concession to James Jr. as he absolutely refused to become Robin, insisting on crafting his own identity. They also signed papers making him an “Emancipated Adult”, and James Sr. rewrote the terms of his trust fund giving him immediate access to the whole thing, and handing over Redcross Industries struggling automotive division as his own company.

Today that company is known as Stardrift Manufacturing, and aside from civilian automotives (including the flying kind), they also produce FTL capable civilian freight craft, that function much like a modern cargo truck (such as those known as “Semis”), with a crew cab and engine section, that couples with modular cargo containers, in a variety of models, from 4 person short haul rigs (35 to 40 light years), to 12 person “Ultra Haulers” that can make the trip to Oa (going through a few wormholes, but hey the Guardians built the wormhole network).

Young Justice

Several months later Dimitra was informed that her son William, his cousin Alexandra Poulis, and 7 other members of his class at Xavier’s (including Princesses from Saturn and Rann, and a Royal Ward from Atlantis) had gone missing while on a training exercise with Kallark of the Shi’ar Imperial Guard.

She was very hesitant to inform James Jr. of this, as she worried about his response. As it turns out she was right to worry, less than 2 days after she told James about his brother and cousin, he had disappeared.

Batman examined Disaster’s HQ, and discovered a video recording of Disaster essentially saying, “Bruce I know you will find out anyway, so I’ll just tell you, I built a starcraft and am going to find my brother, tell my parents I’m fine”.

While Dimitra and James Sr. (not to mention Alexandra’s parents) worried, it would turn out Disaster was correct, as it was he who found his brother’s class, along with injured Imperial Guard Commander Kallark, and brought them safely back to the Shi’ar Throneworld.

James, William, Alexandra, and the rest of the youngsters would soon return to Earth, though they made a few stops along the way. Soon after the young heroes began operating as a team gaining the unofficial team name of Young Justice, from a joke made by Agent Liberty [Ben Lockwood] during his first encounter with the team.

In 1999, in the fallout of the Thunderbolts incident, and Zero Hour (cross between Zero Hour and Heroes Return), Young Justice temporarily disbanded. When that happened Dimitra’s son William decided to join the IST, he soon passed his training, and was stationed to a team in South America for his first year, before being assigned to the IST Delta Squad (one of the dedicated quick response teams at IST Island).

Heroes on the Frontline

In 2002 as the United Sol System launched the first strikes against the Black Zero organization responsible for destroying Coast City the IST was given orders to join the effort.

Two out of three embassies were closed, and many of the ones still open were now staffed by IST “Contractors” like the JLA, JSA, and Avengers (as well as a number of less prominent teams). Sixty percent of the total IST force was eventually deployed, with teams sent to various hot spots as needed.

Delta Squad was expanded to platoon size before being assigned to the Tiamat III conflict, at this point under the command of William Redcross (Warcry).

Superman’s sudden takeover of Earth in July of 2002 took the IST completely by surprise, their numbers on Earth were low, and they couldn’t do much, especially when Superman’s allies Shatterstar [Daniel Campbell, UAZ original], and Valor [Lar Gand] joined him, adding in the Legacy Virus Crisis, the world fell easily, and without fatalities (so far as is known).

The takeover lasted for almost a month, with Valor, Shatterstar, and Superman’s Suprematon robots ensuring “Order”. Two weeks in the Legacy Crisis was averted when Colossus sacrificed himself to enable a cure for Legacy to become airborne, Superboy [Kon El], among others, soon recovers.

Superboy, Marvel Girl [Caitlin Fairchild], Supergirl [Matrix], and Eradicator [David Connors], were eventually able to discover that Superman, Valor and Shatterstar had been taken over mentally by an energy being named Dominus.

These heroes were able to break the three men free of Dominus’s control, while Silver Lightning, Wonder Woman [Diana], Thor, Thunderstrike [Erik Masterson], Captain Marvel [Batson], Ms. Marvel [Mary Bromfeld], Kid Supreme [Daniel Fuller], Icon [Freeman], Power Girl [Karen Starr], Wonder Man [Williams], Iron Man [Tony], War Machine [Rhodes], Steel [Irons], Tomorrow Woman [Julia Hammond], and Cyborg [Vic Stone], engaged the Suprematons.

Superman on Trial

In the aftermath Superman, Valor, and Shatterstar surrendered themselves to the IST, and passively awaited their trial.

The investigation eventually found them to be not responsible for their actions due to mental control, and since the takeover had been almost completely bloodless, and had resulted in some positive changes that the United System could benefit from going forward (as well as the people), the three were eventually cleared of all charges.

They however still felt tainted, and spent months working with their allies to rebuild the public’s trust in them, never reacting with anger when presented with anger, always doing what they could to help.

The three publicly opened the El Foundation, a non-profit organization funded by Superman’s royalties from the marketing of his symbol, and from the sale of “El Diamonds”, diamonds made by Superman by compressing coal, each is micro-laser-etched with the Kryptonian symbol for El by Superman himself, and they are in extremely high demand (he only makes so many a year, say roughly 20,000 Karats worth) for jewelry, especially engagement rings, 100 percent of all proceeds from the sale of El Diamonds goes to the El Foundation.

The El Foundation also receives yearly donations from all three of Shatterstar’s moderately wealthy identities, as well as the Gand Family Trade Corporation of Daxam (indirectly, through Valor, and the company’s accounts in the Shi’ar Empire), and has received a very large donation from the governments of Almerac (Queen Maxima and King Zan El), the Shi’ar Empire, and the Kree Empire. Superman has his accounting done by Fox Financial [as in Lucius] and double checks it with his servitor robots at the fortress.

On Dimitra’s recommendation SHIELD Counter-Earth Director Cecil Steadman approached her son Disaster and Young Justice about coming to Counter-Earth to replace the Guardians of the Globe, who had suffered two recent tragedies which had nearly wiped out two entire line-ups.

The team accepted and, after building a new Headquarters on Counter-Earth, publicly unveiled themselves as The Champions, with most of the surviving Guardians joining them. Not long after Disaster informed Cecil that he had an additional identity which held valid credentials as a SHIELD agent, recruited by Frank Rock (Rock knew who he was and helped him create the identity, long story).

This identity has now been updated for Disaster to use on Counter-Earth [Grant Rodgers, Canadian], as have his other identities (Steven Fury [Private Detective, British], Colin MacLeod [IST Dimitra helped him make this ID, his first extra one, American], & Nick Grey [French, Criminal Identity for Undercover work], and naturally his true identity of James Redcross Jr.

True to form Dimitra has asked for and received permission to recruit new personnel from off planet contacts.

Having discovered a number of promising candidates on several worlds hit by Black Zero’s attacks, she has recruited the entire rebel band known as the Omega Men, who had long been fighting the Citedelians (Off-shoot of the Kundians) in the Vega “System” (more of a star cluster really), who had recently allied with Black Zero.

Dimitra has also contacted Imperial Grand Admiral Christopher Summers of the Shi’ar Empire and asked that he speak to his former Starjammers crewmembers who are currently retired and ask if they would be interested in joining her organization.

Description

Dimitra, in her unpowered form, stands 5’9” and weighs 140 pounds. She is an attractive Greek woman with black hair and eyes, she looks about 30 years old (though she is actually 65 circa 2010). When off-duty she normally wears comfortable, practical clothes, she almost never wears dresses or heels.

When she “armors up” she gains 6 inches in height and 40 pounds in weight, her skin (along with the rest of her body) becomes a polished metal surface, even her hair and eyes turn silver. Her costume is a legless and sleeveless bodystocking in black with silver highlights and symbols, along with gloves to the mid-bicep and thigh-high boots.

Personality

Dimitra is always willing to be there for her friends (and she considers everyone her friend unless events prove otherwise). However, when the need arises, she can be a stern and capable commander, ruthless and efficient.

Her ruthlessness extends only to the opposition, she doesn’t believe in fighting fair and is utterly unperturbed by enemy casualties of any amount. Dimitra never considers her teammates expendable and will rework any mission plan to minimize the threat to those under her command.

Dimitra tries to be emotionless whilst on duty, but she visits her family back in Greece, and her sons, every time she has a leave. She’s always interested in recruiting new talent for the IST, and given her customary ruthlessness is willing to consider practically any source for hires, no matter what their origins, as long as they can be good and upstanding IST operatives.

Dimitra has become very close friends with both Charles Xavier and Nick Fury after decades of association, she has recruited quite a few outstanding IST members from Charles’s students, and she encourages any members of her family who develop superpowers to enroll in his schools.

In the UAZ SHIELD was created by the UN, not the United States, so therefore SHIELD and the IST fall under the same United Sol System (formerly United Nations) command structure, with Nick and Dimitra holding roughly equal rank.

She hates the nickname, “The Silverbolt”, given to her by American tabloid magazines after her divorce. She is incredibly proud of her sons, who have both become heroes like their parents, and proud as well of the 6 other members of her family who have joined the IST and other super-teams, though to a lesser extent.

She remains close to her ex-husband, James Redcross Sr., but does not take advantage of his wealth (or that of her sons for that matter), beyond allowing James to purchase her home in Athens and set up the trust to pay the bills (and taxes) on the property. Since it is a rather large home Dimitra has moved a large portion of her extended family in, on the condition that they stay out of the Master Suite.

The Master suite has a very special security system, namely a quarter-inch thick sheet of Adamantium inside every wall, floor, ceiling, and door from the rest of the house to the suite, backed up with a force field to close off the small holes for plumbing, electrical conduits, and so on, installed by her son Disaster using his powers over metal.

Quotes

“Nobody ever said we had to fight fair.”

“Power is useless without skill, control, and proper application.”

Silver Lightning: “IST, stay right there ! This is a combat zone, civilians shouldn’t be here, stand down and wait for SHIELD evac.”
Disaster: “SHIELD sent me, Mom, here’s my credentials, now step aside and let me do my job !”

By Azrael.

Source of Character: Based on Argurous Astraph from the GURPS Supers RPG IST Setting, redesigned for Universe AZ.

Helper(s): Sébastien Andrivet and Pufnstuff’s Colossus writeup, and all helpers therein. Also Sébastien’s writeup/conversion of the original GURPS character and its helpers. Additionally Dr. Peter Piispanen, Chris Cottingham, Jobe, Sébastien, and TarSpartan for help on the Unstable Molecule Uniform. Darci and TarSpartan also helped with IST Island.

Writeup completed on the 11^th of October, 2013.