Destitution

Destitution
Chaos Personified
Creator:	David 2/BattlerockX
First Appearance:	Furia and the Guardians #1
Game:	City of Heroes
Personal Data
Real Name:	unknown
Known Aliases:	unknown
Species:	unknown
Age:	'
Height:	7ft
Weight:	'
Eye Color:	'
Hair Color:	unknown
Biographical Data
Nationality:	unknown
Occupation:	unknown
Place of Birth:	unknown
Base of Operations:	Rogue Isles
Marital Status:	unknown
Known Relatives:	unknown
Appearances
Furia and the Guardians
Known Powers
energy-based melee, enhanced regeneration
Known Abilities
fear, terror, energy-based assaults, leaping
Equipment
cybernetic implants
'

Destitution is the name of a villain in the world of the City of Heroes MMO.

Character History

Destitution made his first appearance in the most dramatic of fashions; by destroying an orbiting LexieTech Satellite and riding down to Earth on the debris.

Once in the atmosphere, he landed atop a private aircraft, destroying it completely, and using it to break his fall as he bounced towards Paragon City.

He landed just inside the destroyed War Walls of Siren's Call. Swimming to shore, he dispatched the Longbow troopers that were already in the area following a skirmish between Arachnos and the Vindicators. (See "The Crucible" #12 for details.) Soon after, he began making his way towards the Steel Canyon gate, destroying everything in his path.

His arrival went virtually unnoticed because the heroes of Paragon City at the time were busy with a sudden deluge of unknown robots.

When he crossed over into Paragon City, all of the city's network services - except those connected to the teleportation systems - were suddenly jammed. This included all communications and even the local media networks. This allowed him to broadcast a special message to the city, announcing his arrival and also his intention to destroy Paragon City and leave its people destitute.

When he arrived at the PNN Building, he was confronted by Qualina, but she posed no real threat to him, and he was able to quickly overwhelm and defeat her. Minutes later, he was confronted by Galatea Powers, and even though she posed a much stronger challenge, she mysteriously disappeared.

That left Furia Powers to face him. Even though she was physically weaker than Galatea, she proved to me much harder to defeat. Even after using some of his most powerful attacks, one of which hurled Furia into a nearby building and causing it to spontaneously combust, she was still able to pick herself up and continue to attack him.

During a break in the battle, he was later attacked by a combined effort from Elite Ice Queen, TashaTiger, and a recovered Qualina, but was able to brush the three of them off before being confronted again by Furia.

Furia revealed her suspicions about his abilities, that he was able to hijack the city's networks and broadcast his conquests through nanite drones, and also able to hinder the actions of his adversaries through weaponized adrenaline gas. Destitution neither admitted or denied using praetorian technology; merely that he would not stop hitting her until he could feel her brains squishing between his fingers.

The final battle between the two of them lasted only for a few minutes. During that time, Furia continued to press her attacks, battering down his defenses until she could finally knock him down. Infuriated by this, Destitution powered up his strongest attack, hoping to end Furia in the same way he "ended" Galatea. Furia waited until the very last moment before she counterattacked with her own devastating telekinetic melee power.

The two energy attacks resulted in a blinding explosion. When the smoke cleared, a clearly injured Furia was left standing. Destitution, on the other hand, was defeated, and his whole head was charred and burned.

LexieTech

What is not known to the heroes is that Destitution's actions were being carefully monitored by LexieTech. He was part of Lexie Lothora's mission to "test" the heroes of Paragon City. LexieTech also appeared to have played a part in the near-fatal injuries that he sustained in the final battle.

Human Origins

After the battle, Destitution's body was taken to Vanguard. It was believed that they would be conducting an autopsy, but they discovered that his body was still alive, even without a function brain, and was still in a process of regeneration. The doctors there also determined that, despite his alien appearance, Destitution was in fact very much human, and, judging from the food particles in his mouth, they were able to determine that he is from the Rogue Isles.

He was eventually taken to the secure facility in Vanguard Atlantis, where it was believed he would be kept in stasis.

Final Battle

At some point, Destitution's body was fully regenerated, including his brain. Once he regained consciousness, he escaped Vanguard custody and headed straight to Paragon City. The Vanguard managed to contain him in the Rikti War Zone, but that created all new troubles. In a virtual "no man's land", every organization was eager to get the secret of Destitution's rapid regeneration. And then there was the presence of the Rikti in the area, and every group feared that they would gain this power and become unstoppable.

On top of it all, Destitution's memories were restored through Blood Memory, so he was hungry for revenge against Furia Powers for beating him in their first encounter. And, while many of his cybernetic devices for controlling technology were destroyed in the previous battle, he still had his fear-inducing Praetorian gas nanites and a few other devices still active in the rest of his body.

Furia faced off one last time against Destitution in the War Zone. As a Praetorian, she believed that was still the only one who could face him and not be paralyzed by the fear-inducing gas. It was a prolonged and brutal battle that lasted for hours.

Eventually her will and the overall brutality of their battle overcame his regenerative powers. But, when he was seemingly helpless, she refused to kill him. Even when he tried to goad her to do it, she refused to kill, declaring herself a hero in the Primal Universe.

When he was refused the death he asked for, Destitution manually triggered the neutron core device in his body into overload and was seemingly obliterated in the explosion, while Furia was teleported out at the very last moment.

It is believed that he did not survive the explosion, although given his regenerative abilities that may be premature.

Powers and Abilities

Destitution's primary ability appears to be energy melee. He can focus tremendous strength into his fists, giving a very explosive punch. He can also channel this power to jump really long distances.

His secondary ability appears to be regeneration, being able to recover quickly from any damage inflicted upon him. Even after sustaining fatal injuries, including the obliteration of his brain, his body regenerated to full health, including a new and functioning head and brain.

He also appears to have some sort of cybernetic control over technology, especially in the use of Assembler Code. His cybernetic device also can deliver specialized nanites that invoked fear as well as provide external visuals, which he then re-transmitted to the world as a way to show his dominance. It was later revealed that these nanites were from the Praetorian Universe, although how they were provided remained a mystery.

A medical exam also revealed artificial glands in his body which allow him to secrete Adrenaline Gas, invoking the fight-or-flight response in his victims. This could account for why anyone who faced him felt tremendous fear as well as confused and disoriented.

Related Information

Destitution first appeared in "Furia and the Guardians" #1.

According to creator David 2, Destitution was patterned after several characters in mainstream comics, including (but not limited to) DC's Mongul.