Player Information
User Name: Yarol2075
IM: yarol2075 (YIM) strscrm2075 (AIM)
Email Address:strscrm2075@aol.com
Player's Age: 28
Character Information
Name: Nikolas Andreyivitch Kamarov
Code Name: Winter
Gender: M
Age: 57
Race/Ethnicity: Caucasian, Russian
General Appearance: 6' 2" Appearing to be a man of thirty years old, Nikolas has silvery-white hair falling to just below his shoulder-blades (and into his eyes if he doesn't tie it back), very pale blue eyes, and fair complexion. Nikolas is ruggedly and almost arrogantly handsome, and can appear to be very cold and suspicious in regarding people. Nikolas was once a member of the Soviet Olympic Gymnastic team, then spent most of his adult life as a soldier; he is in superb physical condition. Nikolas prefers to wear comfortable, "lived-in" clothing, usually jeans and a seasonally appropriate shirt (note: having been born and raised in Siberia, Nikolas' idea of seasonally appropriate clothing can appear a bit skewed to other people)
Distinguishing Characteristics: N/A
Uniformed Appearance: Nikolas wears the standard black X-Men uniform, when he has to. He carries a medic's pack and a gun in addition to the three day assualt pack. Nikolas detests this uniform, it reminds him too much of the bad old days.
Affiliation: X-Men
Desired Hellfire Club status: Non-member
Family: Andrei Ilyavitch Kamarov (father, deceased), Alyona Kamarov (mother, deceased) Tatiana (maternal grandmother, deceased) Aleksandr (Son, Nikolas believes he died at birth or was stillborn)
Personality: The impression most people have of Nikolas, is that he is a cold, aloof, confident, and frightening man. In reality, Nikolas has deep doubts about his self-worth due his past actions. He is shy, socially inept, and astonishingly enough somewhat naive. Nikolas is slowly revealing a childlike exuberance for Xavier's Dream as explained to him by Jenny Sparks. Nikolas is rediscovering his strong sense of right and wrong. He can be stubborn, reckless, fearless, and damn sneaky.
Powers: In terms of being a mutant Nikolas is a late and slow bloomer, his powers manifesting slowly since his late teens and only fully manifesting after he turned thirty. Nikolas can absorb, store, amplify, then redirect all forms of energy. But, while Nikolas can absorb and store psychic and telekinetic energies, he must convert those energies into another form of energy if he wants to use it. He cannot absorb a telepathic or telekinetic attack, and then "bounce" it back on the attacker. He passively absorbs energy all the time; unless he make a conscious effort not to, he leeches heat energy from the air around him causing the temperature to drop a couple of degrees (one of the reasons his code name is Winter). Nikolas can use absorbed energy to temporarily enhance his strength, although he has to have a large amount of energy stored or recently absorbed. He can distinguish between types of energy, and can track individuals with strong unique energy signatures. Nikolas has an ersatz "healing factor" -- his body uses stored energy to heal itself; this may be why Nikolas retains his youthful appearance: the first time his body had to heal itself from massive trauma, he had just turned thirty, so that is the condition his body gets "reset" to. He can and does grow older if he doesn't have to do any major healing -- if he does have to, it's back to thirty he goes. When his powers are in deliberate use his eyes glow blue. His energy blasts also are blue. Nikolas cannot be burnt by a fire, nor can he suffer adverse effects from radiation.
Weaknesses: Nikolas is frequently depressed and tends to regard himself as a monster. Nikolas suffers from vivid nightmares, and consequently self-induced insomnia. When in that state he inadvertently will absorb energy leading to small localized power-blackouts, never a good thing if one wants to conceal one's nature. Despite his so-called "healing factor" and his ability, Nikolas requires time and energy to recover from severe physical injuries; if he badly injured and has no energy stored, and no source to absorb it from, then he will die from his wounds if he doesn't received conventional medical attention. Nikolas is known for holding on to grudges, and carrying on vendettas, and he can lose sight of what he should be doing if he's allowed to get caught up by them. Nikolas has, in the past, been an associate of Victor Creed. It's possible that Victor will not like the new direction Nikolas' life has taken, if they ever meet again. Nikolas passionately loves his homeland (if not its governments) and threats or insults against it will send him through the roof. Nikolas does not know the limit of his "storage" capacity for energy; if he's absorbed a large amount energy and does not expend or use it, he feels a sense of pressure throughout his body until he does. He fears if he ever absorbs too much energy at one time he will be torn apart by it.
Other Abilities: Speaks Russian, English, German, Spanish, and can curse and swear in many more. Nikolas was a member of Spetznaz (Soviet Special Forces), and has been described as being a scary bastard in a fight; he was one of the finest soldiers they ever produced. Nikolas has a working knowledge of most conventional weapons and a few unconventional ones as well. He has a good knowledge of emergency field medicine. Nikolas has an eidetic memory, which he considers more of curse than a blessing.
Detailed History:Andrei Ilyavitch Kamarov was a Soviet Era test pilot known for being absolutely fearless. He would joke he could fly anything with wings. Which is why when he balked at flying an experimental jet, saying it was completely and utterly flawed, his superiors got angry. Andrei dug in his heels and kept refusing, despite threats of exile, or worse. Further more he shared his views with other test pilots cause them to have doubts. Finally one of his fellow pilots did fly the jet, and what was left of him could have been buried in bread-box. Andrei was tragically vindicated, and since he had embarrassed a number of important people, he was exiled to a miserable mining village, known solely as Mine 38, in northern Siberia.
Andrei hated it, but he soon found a reason not regret his disgrace: his Alyona. Alyona was the daughter of an aristocratic woman most of the village considered a harmless eccentric. Alyona had grown up with half-told stories of how soon she and her mother would be rescued and restored to their rightful place, but never why they had to be rescued or what their rightful place was. Alyona became thoroughly sick of her mother's grand secret. She never knew her father. Needing a stable influence in her life, Alyona made herself indispensable to the village's sole doctor and the village midwife, learning enough that people began to come to her when they needed medical attention. Andrei and Alyona were immediately taken with one another.
Nikolas was born shortly after their wedding, indeed he was the carefully plotted reason for the wedding; Alyona's mother Tatiana had been refusing to give Andrei permission to marry her daughter. And then Tatiana only relented when they promise to name the child for her father if the child was a boy. Alyona did insist that the child's name be Nikolas, rather than Nikolai.
Despite their circumstances, Nikolas was relatively happy during early childhood, even if his grandmother went into a frenzied panic at every bruise, scratch or scrape. Inheriting his father's fearlessness, young Nikolas would perform heart-stopping daredevil feats, which later led to his love of gymnastics. His only real source of unhappiness was a longing to be some place where the sun actually warmed the land it shone on.
When Nikolas was four, his grandmother died, telling Alyona on her deathbed her grand secret. Alyona only shook her head when Andrei gently inquired, and told her husband that it was something that was best left to die with her mother. For two more years Nikolas really didn't have much to be concerned about, then his mother died in childbirth, his sister stillborn. Andrei became very solemn, his son the only thing that made him smile. Nikolas made it his purpose in life to make his father smile as often as possible.
Andrei was eventually involved in a mining accident, and his vaunted fearlessness momentarily fled when he realized that if he died, Nikolas would be left to be raised by the state, and would mostly likely spend his entire life in Mine 38. Andrei was determined to get his son out of Siberia. He took stock of Nikolas' habits and decided to push Nikolas in gymnastics. Nikolas didn't complained, he enjoyed every minute of it, and participating in the Olympic Games was dream he had always harbored. Andrei called upon whatever old friends and what influence he had left, and Nikolas was soon being groomed to be a potential Olympic athlete. They were physically separated by this, but through copious amounts of letters Andrei and Nikolas remained as close as ever.
Andrei lived long enough to know his son had achieved his dream of being part of the Olympic team. But he died of an ailment that was related to his work in the mine. Nikolas took his Papa's death hard, and finally woke up to the world he lived in. Resentment of restrictions of the Soviet government, combined with his longing to live some place warm, led to his attempt to defect during an exhibition in Florida. Unfortunately, Nikolas was caught, and taken back to Moscow. He was far too well known to be made to disappear, so the authorities threw Nikolas into the army. If he survived, he would serve the state, if he didn't, well...
Nikolas not only survived, but he began to thrive, his anger propelling him to succeed. He began to mouth the party-line, but only so he eventually could get what he really wanted: revenge on the people who had taken his dreams away. Eventually he manipulated himself into being placed in Spetznaz, where he went far beyond what was expected of him. Nikolas the sweet-tempered gymnast had given way to a stone-hearted killer.
During all this turmoil, Nikolas' mutant powers began to slowly manifest themselves. New batteries would sometimes mysteriously go dead, once he touched them. The air around him seemed chillier than elsewhere, something that was attributed to his now infamous cold glare. Just little things that made Nikolas' now fearsome reputation grow faster. Due to his past Nikolas was never allowed to lead missions, but all the missions he took part in were successes. He became one of their most effiecent killers, and the irony was not lost on Nikolas when he was designated his squad's field medic.
Until one mission shortly after his thirtieth birthday. It had been running smoothly, until the vehicle Nikolas was in blew up unexpectedly -- sabotage. Nikolas should have been killed, but even as it tore his flesh apart, Nikolas was absorbing the energy of the explosion, the subsequent explosions of his squad's ammunition and explosives. The rest of his squad was dead, but Nikolas found himself alive and whole. Out of respect for his comrades, Nikolas completed the mission by himself, then hunted down the saboteur. The man had a long hard time in dying. Nikolas kept his newly discovered strangeness to himself, not willing to become a guinea pig.
Nikolas' superiors became very uneasy, but they couldn't find a fault with the lone survivor and Nikolas was reassigned to another squad. There Nikolas made an unexpected friend, Constantin Yevgraf. Initially it was expected they would be at each other's throats since Yevgraf had been the best of that squad before Nikolas arrived. They had next to nothing in common; Yevgraf was a devoted Soviet patriot, Nikolas was just biding his time until he could strike out at the system. Yevgraf was a praise-showered golden-boy who had deliberately chosen to serve the state, and Nikolas was an ungrateful wretch had been forced to serve. Yet they seemed to get on well, to the point that Yevgraf was heard stating he would want no other man to guard his back; a statement he would not a have made lightly. In fact, Yevgraf was the only one to ever get Nikolas to do something other then hide somewhere and read when they were granted leave. Through the years they became almost inseperable.
Eventually, just prior to the collapse of the Soviet Union, Yevgraf was rewarded for his sterling service, and was selected to be the first of a new type of soldier: somewhat crude genetic and cybernetic alteration. He was gone for little over a year, and Nikolas, much to his surprise, felt extremely lonely.
During this time, Nikolas met Irina Brizova and fell in love with the intelligent and vivacious young woman. Much to Nikolas' and Irina's disappointment, his questionable background prevented them from marrying. It didn't stop them from conceiving a child together. However Nikolas was unable to remain by Irina's side, as duty called in him away in the form of his old friend.
When Yevgraf returned, however, he had changed much more than anyone had anticipated. Yevgraf acted very much like a barely tamed wild animal, just waiting to turn on its masters. He still seemed devoted to the state, yet...
In the end Nikolas had to destroy him. After the first mission with the new improved Yevgraf, Yevgraf turned on his own squad, killing a number of them, and forcing Nikolas, for the first time, to channel the energy he absorbed from Yevgraf's blasts back at him. The resultent explosion wipe out the remainder their squad. Nikolas was left in a state of shock, wandering off before any support troops arrived to investigate what happened. He was presumed dead with the rest.
Nikolas took the opportunity to slip back into the crumbling Soviet Union to try and escape with Irina and the child that surely had to have born by then. He was devastated to learned both mother and son, named Aleksandr as they had discussed, died in childbirth. This left Nikolas alone to come to terms with everything he had learned in such a short time.
What shocked Nikolas the most wasn't that he had shot energy out of his hands, or that he now seemed to have to returned to what he looked like when he was thirty. Not even that he had killed his best friend. He wished he could believe he had done it to try and save his squad, or to put his friend out of his misery. He hadn't even tried to talk to Yevgraf, find out what had cause him to go berserk. He had killed Yevgraf simply because that was what he did, he was a killer.
If that was what he was, Nikolas decided, that would be what he do. Left to his own devices, he managed to become a mercenary, first working grunt jobs, then as his reputation grew taking on more specialized jobs for people who could afford someone who had his skills. At some point Nikolas met up with another mutant mercenary: Victor Creed, alias Sabretooth. They got along famously. Nikolas may have disliked the way Victor played with his victims, but he admired the relentlessness and ruthlessness of the man. Victor seemed to like Nikolas, at the very least, he respected the thoroughness Nikolas invested in his jobs. It was a relief to Nikolas not to have to hide what he could do with energy all the time, since Victor never bothered to hide what he could do at all. They worked together until they each took separate jobs.
Then something strange happened. Towards the end of one job Nikolas was working with a team of other mercenaries, he just stopped. For a good three minutes he stood stock still (a long time under dangerous circumstances), then he resumed what he was doing. But afterwards, before the group could collect the rest of their pay, Nikolas shot each of the other, set his gun down carefully, and went to collect the pay for all of them from their current employers. Shortly there after, those former employers died in a mysterious explosion.
Using that money, and other money he had saved, Nikolas crossed the globe on a year and a half long pub crawl, and would have continued until he drank himself to death somehow, except that eight months ago he encountered Jenny Sparks in a bar.
Nikolas was never one for one-night stands, but he found himself drawn to the English woman, craving whatever she seemed to be offering. Jenny wasn't offering anything in reality, and found his attentions amusing, but it was her electrical power that was really attracting Nikolas. Still Nikolas began spouting Russian poetry, relying on his eidetic memory to supply words he had read long ago. Then some uncultured lout made a crude comment about Russia. Nikolas turned on him, but not before Jenny saw Nikolas' eyes begin to glow. So she jumped on Nikolas, rapidly putting the moves on him, telling him she would take a strong, erudite Russian over an American idiot any day, virtually dragging him out of the bar, glad as hell the man was drunk enough that he didn't have the coordination left to stop her.
The next morning Nikolas woke up with a pounding hangover, in a guest room at Xavier's mansion, Jenny Sparks sitting in a chair by the bed, glaring balefully at him. The moment she saw he was awake, she launched into a blistering lecture. It was a terrifying sight. Once she saw she had him thoroughly cowed, she had breakfast brought up for him, and began to gently prod him to tell her about himself. She discovered if she "leaked" electricity, Nikolas began to feel better, the hangover rapidly diminishing.
Nikolas was silent at first, then the words came tumbling out, fast and garbled, unconsciously mixing Russian and English. Mostly Jenny understood that Nikolas had done terrible things, and he couldn't stand himself any more. Finally, Nikolas reached a breaking point, and he began to cry. Jenny cursed and swore, but she sat down on the bed and comforted Nikolas the best she could, and told him about Xavier's dream, her version of Xavier's dream at least.
With much coaxing, she convinced him that the best course of action was to remain there, finally learn how to properly use his mutant powers, and use this as an opportunity to atone for his actions in the past. After some hesitancy, Nikolas agreed to stay.
Extraneous Information: Some of this information has been gleamed from, and extrapolated upon, the Stormwatch Sourcebook and various issues of Stormwatch Vol. I & II
Writing Sample:
Is in the journal's section, imaginatively under the title Nikolas' journal
With the permission of the mods, I edited Winter's powers to put a limitation in.
28/06/2005 Edited Aleksandr/Blight into Nikolas' Bio
User Name: Yarol2075
IM: yarol2075 (YIM) strscrm2075 (AIM)
Email Address:strscrm2075@aol.com
Player's Age: 28
Character Information
Name: Nikolas Andreyivitch Kamarov
Code Name: Winter
Gender: M
Age: 57
Race/Ethnicity: Caucasian, Russian
General Appearance: 6' 2" Appearing to be a man of thirty years old, Nikolas has silvery-white hair falling to just below his shoulder-blades (and into his eyes if he doesn't tie it back), very pale blue eyes, and fair complexion. Nikolas is ruggedly and almost arrogantly handsome, and can appear to be very cold and suspicious in regarding people. Nikolas was once a member of the Soviet Olympic Gymnastic team, then spent most of his adult life as a soldier; he is in superb physical condition. Nikolas prefers to wear comfortable, "lived-in" clothing, usually jeans and a seasonally appropriate shirt (note: having been born and raised in Siberia, Nikolas' idea of seasonally appropriate clothing can appear a bit skewed to other people)
Distinguishing Characteristics: N/A
Uniformed Appearance: Nikolas wears the standard black X-Men uniform, when he has to. He carries a medic's pack and a gun in addition to the three day assualt pack. Nikolas detests this uniform, it reminds him too much of the bad old days.
Affiliation: X-Men
Desired Hellfire Club status: Non-member
Family: Andrei Ilyavitch Kamarov (father, deceased), Alyona Kamarov (mother, deceased) Tatiana (maternal grandmother, deceased) Aleksandr (Son, Nikolas believes he died at birth or was stillborn)
Personality: The impression most people have of Nikolas, is that he is a cold, aloof, confident, and frightening man. In reality, Nikolas has deep doubts about his self-worth due his past actions. He is shy, socially inept, and astonishingly enough somewhat naive. Nikolas is slowly revealing a childlike exuberance for Xavier's Dream as explained to him by Jenny Sparks. Nikolas is rediscovering his strong sense of right and wrong. He can be stubborn, reckless, fearless, and damn sneaky.
Powers: In terms of being a mutant Nikolas is a late and slow bloomer, his powers manifesting slowly since his late teens and only fully manifesting after he turned thirty. Nikolas can absorb, store, amplify, then redirect all forms of energy. But, while Nikolas can absorb and store psychic and telekinetic energies, he must convert those energies into another form of energy if he wants to use it. He cannot absorb a telepathic or telekinetic attack, and then "bounce" it back on the attacker. He passively absorbs energy all the time; unless he make a conscious effort not to, he leeches heat energy from the air around him causing the temperature to drop a couple of degrees (one of the reasons his code name is Winter). Nikolas can use absorbed energy to temporarily enhance his strength, although he has to have a large amount of energy stored or recently absorbed. He can distinguish between types of energy, and can track individuals with strong unique energy signatures. Nikolas has an ersatz "healing factor" -- his body uses stored energy to heal itself; this may be why Nikolas retains his youthful appearance: the first time his body had to heal itself from massive trauma, he had just turned thirty, so that is the condition his body gets "reset" to. He can and does grow older if he doesn't have to do any major healing -- if he does have to, it's back to thirty he goes. When his powers are in deliberate use his eyes glow blue. His energy blasts also are blue. Nikolas cannot be burnt by a fire, nor can he suffer adverse effects from radiation.
Weaknesses: Nikolas is frequently depressed and tends to regard himself as a monster. Nikolas suffers from vivid nightmares, and consequently self-induced insomnia. When in that state he inadvertently will absorb energy leading to small localized power-blackouts, never a good thing if one wants to conceal one's nature. Despite his so-called "healing factor" and his ability, Nikolas requires time and energy to recover from severe physical injuries; if he badly injured and has no energy stored, and no source to absorb it from, then he will die from his wounds if he doesn't received conventional medical attention. Nikolas is known for holding on to grudges, and carrying on vendettas, and he can lose sight of what he should be doing if he's allowed to get caught up by them. Nikolas has, in the past, been an associate of Victor Creed. It's possible that Victor will not like the new direction Nikolas' life has taken, if they ever meet again. Nikolas passionately loves his homeland (if not its governments) and threats or insults against it will send him through the roof. Nikolas does not know the limit of his "storage" capacity for energy; if he's absorbed a large amount energy and does not expend or use it, he feels a sense of pressure throughout his body until he does. He fears if he ever absorbs too much energy at one time he will be torn apart by it.
Other Abilities: Speaks Russian, English, German, Spanish, and can curse and swear in many more. Nikolas was a member of Spetznaz (Soviet Special Forces), and has been described as being a scary bastard in a fight; he was one of the finest soldiers they ever produced. Nikolas has a working knowledge of most conventional weapons and a few unconventional ones as well. He has a good knowledge of emergency field medicine. Nikolas has an eidetic memory, which he considers more of curse than a blessing.
Detailed History:Andrei Ilyavitch Kamarov was a Soviet Era test pilot known for being absolutely fearless. He would joke he could fly anything with wings. Which is why when he balked at flying an experimental jet, saying it was completely and utterly flawed, his superiors got angry. Andrei dug in his heels and kept refusing, despite threats of exile, or worse. Further more he shared his views with other test pilots cause them to have doubts. Finally one of his fellow pilots did fly the jet, and what was left of him could have been buried in bread-box. Andrei was tragically vindicated, and since he had embarrassed a number of important people, he was exiled to a miserable mining village, known solely as Mine 38, in northern Siberia.
Andrei hated it, but he soon found a reason not regret his disgrace: his Alyona. Alyona was the daughter of an aristocratic woman most of the village considered a harmless eccentric. Alyona had grown up with half-told stories of how soon she and her mother would be rescued and restored to their rightful place, but never why they had to be rescued or what their rightful place was. Alyona became thoroughly sick of her mother's grand secret. She never knew her father. Needing a stable influence in her life, Alyona made herself indispensable to the village's sole doctor and the village midwife, learning enough that people began to come to her when they needed medical attention. Andrei and Alyona were immediately taken with one another.
Nikolas was born shortly after their wedding, indeed he was the carefully plotted reason for the wedding; Alyona's mother Tatiana had been refusing to give Andrei permission to marry her daughter. And then Tatiana only relented when they promise to name the child for her father if the child was a boy. Alyona did insist that the child's name be Nikolas, rather than Nikolai.
Despite their circumstances, Nikolas was relatively happy during early childhood, even if his grandmother went into a frenzied panic at every bruise, scratch or scrape. Inheriting his father's fearlessness, young Nikolas would perform heart-stopping daredevil feats, which later led to his love of gymnastics. His only real source of unhappiness was a longing to be some place where the sun actually warmed the land it shone on.
When Nikolas was four, his grandmother died, telling Alyona on her deathbed her grand secret. Alyona only shook her head when Andrei gently inquired, and told her husband that it was something that was best left to die with her mother. For two more years Nikolas really didn't have much to be concerned about, then his mother died in childbirth, his sister stillborn. Andrei became very solemn, his son the only thing that made him smile. Nikolas made it his purpose in life to make his father smile as often as possible.
Andrei was eventually involved in a mining accident, and his vaunted fearlessness momentarily fled when he realized that if he died, Nikolas would be left to be raised by the state, and would mostly likely spend his entire life in Mine 38. Andrei was determined to get his son out of Siberia. He took stock of Nikolas' habits and decided to push Nikolas in gymnastics. Nikolas didn't complained, he enjoyed every minute of it, and participating in the Olympic Games was dream he had always harbored. Andrei called upon whatever old friends and what influence he had left, and Nikolas was soon being groomed to be a potential Olympic athlete. They were physically separated by this, but through copious amounts of letters Andrei and Nikolas remained as close as ever.
Andrei lived long enough to know his son had achieved his dream of being part of the Olympic team. But he died of an ailment that was related to his work in the mine. Nikolas took his Papa's death hard, and finally woke up to the world he lived in. Resentment of restrictions of the Soviet government, combined with his longing to live some place warm, led to his attempt to defect during an exhibition in Florida. Unfortunately, Nikolas was caught, and taken back to Moscow. He was far too well known to be made to disappear, so the authorities threw Nikolas into the army. If he survived, he would serve the state, if he didn't, well...
Nikolas not only survived, but he began to thrive, his anger propelling him to succeed. He began to mouth the party-line, but only so he eventually could get what he really wanted: revenge on the people who had taken his dreams away. Eventually he manipulated himself into being placed in Spetznaz, where he went far beyond what was expected of him. Nikolas the sweet-tempered gymnast had given way to a stone-hearted killer.
During all this turmoil, Nikolas' mutant powers began to slowly manifest themselves. New batteries would sometimes mysteriously go dead, once he touched them. The air around him seemed chillier than elsewhere, something that was attributed to his now infamous cold glare. Just little things that made Nikolas' now fearsome reputation grow faster. Due to his past Nikolas was never allowed to lead missions, but all the missions he took part in were successes. He became one of their most effiecent killers, and the irony was not lost on Nikolas when he was designated his squad's field medic.
Until one mission shortly after his thirtieth birthday. It had been running smoothly, until the vehicle Nikolas was in blew up unexpectedly -- sabotage. Nikolas should have been killed, but even as it tore his flesh apart, Nikolas was absorbing the energy of the explosion, the subsequent explosions of his squad's ammunition and explosives. The rest of his squad was dead, but Nikolas found himself alive and whole. Out of respect for his comrades, Nikolas completed the mission by himself, then hunted down the saboteur. The man had a long hard time in dying. Nikolas kept his newly discovered strangeness to himself, not willing to become a guinea pig.
Nikolas' superiors became very uneasy, but they couldn't find a fault with the lone survivor and Nikolas was reassigned to another squad. There Nikolas made an unexpected friend, Constantin Yevgraf. Initially it was expected they would be at each other's throats since Yevgraf had been the best of that squad before Nikolas arrived. They had next to nothing in common; Yevgraf was a devoted Soviet patriot, Nikolas was just biding his time until he could strike out at the system. Yevgraf was a praise-showered golden-boy who had deliberately chosen to serve the state, and Nikolas was an ungrateful wretch had been forced to serve. Yet they seemed to get on well, to the point that Yevgraf was heard stating he would want no other man to guard his back; a statement he would not a have made lightly. In fact, Yevgraf was the only one to ever get Nikolas to do something other then hide somewhere and read when they were granted leave. Through the years they became almost inseperable.
Eventually, just prior to the collapse of the Soviet Union, Yevgraf was rewarded for his sterling service, and was selected to be the first of a new type of soldier: somewhat crude genetic and cybernetic alteration. He was gone for little over a year, and Nikolas, much to his surprise, felt extremely lonely.
During this time, Nikolas met Irina Brizova and fell in love with the intelligent and vivacious young woman. Much to Nikolas' and Irina's disappointment, his questionable background prevented them from marrying. It didn't stop them from conceiving a child together. However Nikolas was unable to remain by Irina's side, as duty called in him away in the form of his old friend.
When Yevgraf returned, however, he had changed much more than anyone had anticipated. Yevgraf acted very much like a barely tamed wild animal, just waiting to turn on its masters. He still seemed devoted to the state, yet...
In the end Nikolas had to destroy him. After the first mission with the new improved Yevgraf, Yevgraf turned on his own squad, killing a number of them, and forcing Nikolas, for the first time, to channel the energy he absorbed from Yevgraf's blasts back at him. The resultent explosion wipe out the remainder their squad. Nikolas was left in a state of shock, wandering off before any support troops arrived to investigate what happened. He was presumed dead with the rest.
Nikolas took the opportunity to slip back into the crumbling Soviet Union to try and escape with Irina and the child that surely had to have born by then. He was devastated to learned both mother and son, named Aleksandr as they had discussed, died in childbirth. This left Nikolas alone to come to terms with everything he had learned in such a short time.
What shocked Nikolas the most wasn't that he had shot energy out of his hands, or that he now seemed to have to returned to what he looked like when he was thirty. Not even that he had killed his best friend. He wished he could believe he had done it to try and save his squad, or to put his friend out of his misery. He hadn't even tried to talk to Yevgraf, find out what had cause him to go berserk. He had killed Yevgraf simply because that was what he did, he was a killer.
If that was what he was, Nikolas decided, that would be what he do. Left to his own devices, he managed to become a mercenary, first working grunt jobs, then as his reputation grew taking on more specialized jobs for people who could afford someone who had his skills. At some point Nikolas met up with another mutant mercenary: Victor Creed, alias Sabretooth. They got along famously. Nikolas may have disliked the way Victor played with his victims, but he admired the relentlessness and ruthlessness of the man. Victor seemed to like Nikolas, at the very least, he respected the thoroughness Nikolas invested in his jobs. It was a relief to Nikolas not to have to hide what he could do with energy all the time, since Victor never bothered to hide what he could do at all. They worked together until they each took separate jobs.
Then something strange happened. Towards the end of one job Nikolas was working with a team of other mercenaries, he just stopped. For a good three minutes he stood stock still (a long time under dangerous circumstances), then he resumed what he was doing. But afterwards, before the group could collect the rest of their pay, Nikolas shot each of the other, set his gun down carefully, and went to collect the pay for all of them from their current employers. Shortly there after, those former employers died in a mysterious explosion.
Using that money, and other money he had saved, Nikolas crossed the globe on a year and a half long pub crawl, and would have continued until he drank himself to death somehow, except that eight months ago he encountered Jenny Sparks in a bar.
Nikolas was never one for one-night stands, but he found himself drawn to the English woman, craving whatever she seemed to be offering. Jenny wasn't offering anything in reality, and found his attentions amusing, but it was her electrical power that was really attracting Nikolas. Still Nikolas began spouting Russian poetry, relying on his eidetic memory to supply words he had read long ago. Then some uncultured lout made a crude comment about Russia. Nikolas turned on him, but not before Jenny saw Nikolas' eyes begin to glow. So she jumped on Nikolas, rapidly putting the moves on him, telling him she would take a strong, erudite Russian over an American idiot any day, virtually dragging him out of the bar, glad as hell the man was drunk enough that he didn't have the coordination left to stop her.
The next morning Nikolas woke up with a pounding hangover, in a guest room at Xavier's mansion, Jenny Sparks sitting in a chair by the bed, glaring balefully at him. The moment she saw he was awake, she launched into a blistering lecture. It was a terrifying sight. Once she saw she had him thoroughly cowed, she had breakfast brought up for him, and began to gently prod him to tell her about himself. She discovered if she "leaked" electricity, Nikolas began to feel better, the hangover rapidly diminishing.
Nikolas was silent at first, then the words came tumbling out, fast and garbled, unconsciously mixing Russian and English. Mostly Jenny understood that Nikolas had done terrible things, and he couldn't stand himself any more. Finally, Nikolas reached a breaking point, and he began to cry. Jenny cursed and swore, but she sat down on the bed and comforted Nikolas the best she could, and told him about Xavier's dream, her version of Xavier's dream at least.
With much coaxing, she convinced him that the best course of action was to remain there, finally learn how to properly use his mutant powers, and use this as an opportunity to atone for his actions in the past. After some hesitancy, Nikolas agreed to stay.
Extraneous Information: Some of this information has been gleamed from, and extrapolated upon, the Stormwatch Sourcebook and various issues of Stormwatch Vol. I & II
Writing Sample:
Is in the journal's section, imaginatively under the title Nikolas' journal
With the permission of the mods, I edited Winter's powers to put a limitation in.
28/06/2005 Edited Aleksandr/Blight into Nikolas' Bio
