Roan Cromwell (Synapse)

I've bitten off more than I can handle... Whatever the case, it won't hurt in the long run. Roan Cromwell (aka Synapse), is one of the main characters in the Vigilante Unit, as well as their front line fighter alongside Bolt, Iome, and sometimes Alastrine. He is the only member of the Vigilante Unit whose powers are of synthetic---rather than natural---origin.

Early Life
Roan was raised by Maya and Mason Cromwell, immigrants from Busan, South Korea. While his parents cared for him and his sister, Tabitha, they faced severe financial stress, eventually selling Roan and Tabitha to an obscure company in exchange for money and improved living conditions for the siblings.

The latter part of the deal turned out to be a lie, as Roan and Tabitha were both used as test subjects in an experimental program. They received the same serum and were subject to brutal conditions during their shared years of captivity. Under this constant pressure and stress, Roan eventually had a falling out with Tabitha over the memory of their parents, leaving both of them mentally insecure; the SEHB took advantage of their vulnerable states, making Tabitha the first successful subject to receive their serum, as well as a brainwashed weapon. Soon afterwards, Tabitha was sent on a scouting mission to extract a rare sample of DNA, only to fail and be recalled to determine if she was truly a superior specimen to her brother, who also received the serum (albeit an incomplete version of it).

After a brief confrontation, Roan ends Tabitha's life at her command when she briefly regained control of her body. Ingesting a drop of his sister's blood completed his version of the formula, granting him full access to the serum's range of abilities. However, his memory was soon suppressed by a false scientist, who removed the unconscious Roan from the lab and left him far away from the SEHB in the southeastern part of West Virginia.

The amnesiac Roan (who remembered almost nothing of his past except his superhuman physiology and his name) lived off of some pay that came from odd body-guarding and bouncer jobs, but had a hard time sleeping due to recurring nightmares that actually came from his sealed memories. Leaving his meager post, Roan wandered around in search of strong opponents (a residual urge to get revenge on the SEHB), and eventually came across a struggling Wilbur Hopkins, who was---unsuccessfully---testing a nanotechnology-based suit of armor against a villain in an attempt to improve his own physical abilities.

Intrigued by the savant mechanic and medic of the Vigilante Unit, Roan stepped in and made short work of the villain with his full power before slumping to the ground in exhaustion. After waking up in Wilbur's lab within the VU base, Roan was offered a place in the team, which he promptly accepted.

Appearance
Roan is slightly above average in terms of height at 5'11". He sports messy black hair and thin, almond shaped eyes; as a result of his powers, his hair turns white and his eyes shift from soft brown to deep green. After gaining his powers, Roan gains a bit of muscle on his lean, athletic body, which is tanned from training. He has attached earlobes and a round-rough jawline. Roan usually wears long, flexible cargo pants and a jacket (or jeans and shirt); in professional settings, he wears a grey suit on a white suit, and switches between khaki and formal pants.

Personality
Roan is generally fidgety and nervous. He tends to keep to himself, but is vulnerable to outbursts of emotion when nobody is around. While Roan is skilled at thinking on the spot, he has trouble handling sudden, stressful situations in the long run and is often prey to a profound lack of confidence, thought he later outgrows some of these struggles. Though he has trouble finding an interesting career to pursue beyond vigilante work, Roan is staunch in his ideals and is reluctant to change them. Thankfully, they are mostly beneficial for those close to him.

He dislikes admitting he is vulnerable to something, but will eventually cave in under stress, prompting him to seek out as many friends as possible. While Roan seeks to keep things peaceful and under control, if the situation is hard to solve with words, he has trouble enforcing his ideals. This is the same reason why he avoids going all out in a physical fight unless he is cornered physically or morally. Unlike some of the other vigilantes, Roan is prone to falling back and avoiding power struggles in the Vigilante Unit, opting to go along with a proposed plan unless it clashes with his sense of morality.

While initially quite curious of his surroundings, Roan becomes hardened to and cautious of his environment due to his time as a test subject.

On his initial encounter with the Vigilante Unit, Roan seems quite ordinary and very sociable, often greeting the other members before they could greet him. Though somewhat awkward with his jokes, Roan managed to elicit a laugh from Mäher, who otherwise shrugged off any attempt at casual interaction from the similarly extroverted Wilbur. Roan was also quite naive at times, as he showed little concern towards being the bouncer for a sketchy bar simply because the owner of the business offered him a place to stay. This may also be a side effect of his powers, as he showed little concern when an entourage of armed gang members failed to get past him into the club. Roan was also very caring, showing visible concern for Louise Faucheux during his first real battle against a group of villains when she was injured and shielded her from a piece of cement that threatened to fall on Wilbur.

Upon his initial [tentative, TBD], Roan regained his memories, which drastically changed his overall personality. He became much warier of the Vigilante Unit, even threatening to snap Arthur's arm in half out of pure instinct when the latter attempted to offer Roan a helping hand. In battles, Roan's approach to villains became far more brutal, dropping some of his refinement from MMA fighting to grapple, constrict, or even batter opponents that even slightly reminded him of the SEHB. Although many of his personality traits from before the return of his memories remained, it took some time for him to adjust to the trauma of his past.

Family
Maya Cromwell - Roan's mother. Although he loves her, Roan has a hard time thinking about her. It is known that Roan enjoyed her beef stew, but not much else due to his refusal to talk about her. Roan takes many of his physical features from Maya, with the exception of the altered eyes and hair.

Mason Cromwell - Roan's father. Roan doesn't care much for him since he wasn't around Roan or Tabitha often. Although Roan realized that Mason was working day and night, he still feels underappreciated due to his father's frequent absence. Even more, Roan holds a grudge against him due to the fact that Mason was the one who decided to hand his children over, even if they would be provided for.

Tabitha Cromwell - Roan's deceased sister. Although she was the same age as him, Roan often makes his admiration for her tenacity and maturity known, and wishes to match it. Roan feels extremely guilty for the death of his sister, but also feels an obligation to keep her dreams alive while making responsible use of his power.

Friends
Wilbur Hopkins - the mechanic and medic of the Vigilante Unit. Roan feels at peace around Wilbur, though he does wish the savant would find less interest in his enhanced physiology.

Arthur Marshall - the presiding barkeeper of the Innscape, a small deli and pub business in Staten Island. Roan first met him after Wilbur introduced himself and took the former lab rat to the Innscape to get some food. Roan offered to be a bouncer, which Arthur rejected, but did end up getting a job as a assistant cook after a display of some cooking skills in the kitchen.

Clementine Faucheux - the leader of the Vigilante Unit, necromancer, and elder daughter of the hero duo Espionage and Todesgriff. While Roan disagrees with some of her positions on killing, he can't deny her tactical prowess---and general amiability.

Louise Faucheux - younger sister of Clementine and the younger daughter of Espionage and Todesgriff. Roan believes her to be a bit too temperamental at times, but empathizes with a part of her past. Louise also watches several of Wilbur's experiments, where she often make small talk with Roan to pass time. Roan is also responsible for helping Bolt improve her skills in close quarter combat.

Pandora Choi - a fellow former test subject under the SEHB and Roan's aunt. While he still has a hard time feeling comfortable around her due to his experience against her clone and the long period of not having an older family figure in his life, Roan greatly appreciates her for indirectly saving him, as well as aiding the Vigilante Unit's efforts of keeping the country safe, even if it means her own absence from New York.

Love Interests
Hana Morrows - an esper who came across Roan while on vacation in Maryland. When she was cornered by a thief in the lobby of the bar Roan was working at, Roan attempted to save her. This turned out to be unnecessary, as she made quick use of her telekinesis to pin her assailant and those within six feet of her to the ground. Impressed by his resistance to her strength, Hana decided to keep in contact with Roan, eventually becoming long-distance friends. Roan doesn't exactly know how to approach her with his feelings, but Hana doesn't seem to mind too much. Roan looks up to her fiery personality and telekinesis, but has learned to fear those things as well.

Neutral
Jonathan Wayne - the illusory expert of the Vigilante Unit and a sociopath. While cautious of him, Roan begrudgingly acknowledges the versatility of Mäher's manipulative ability.

Ludwig Moran - another strong combatant of the Vigilante Unit. Though he is friends with Mäher, Roan can't help but warm up to the elemental manipulator, especially since they both have (or had) siblings.

Perdita Hockstetter - a shape-shifter and close friend of Louise Faucheux/Stiles. Though sometimes perplexed by her bizzare choice of preferred forms, Roan admires her versatile strategies and unique ability, even finding her somewhat eccentric personality lively.

Alwyn Wells - a powerful person with many burdens. Roan is both intimidated and intrigued by her raw strength, but certainly wants to avoid being on her bad side. Simultaneously, he wishes to get closer to Alwyn, who has many struggles of her own, and reminds him of his sister, Tabitha.

Ascension
Ascension (aka Advanced Evolution), is a power granted by the Achilles Serum to those who ingest it (or the blood of a relative who has done so). Ascension greatly enhances the user's natural ability to grow and advance physically and mentally, and is a byproduct of several powers, including that of Amour Casillas.

While the Sanctum for Experimentation of the Human Body (SEHB) had previously conducted research on the possibility of hybrid/synthetic powers, the process of creating the serum itself did not begin until the introduction of Amour Casillas, who possessed incredibly versatile DNA that was host to seven different powers. Using that DNA, as well as other samples previously collected from other individuals with strength enhancing or survival-oriented adaptation powers, the SEHB formed the Achilles Serum, eventually coming across their first compatible candidate in Tabitha Cromwell. The serum itself was rendered null upon Tabitha's death, but the power itself was also granted to Roan, who ingested some of Tabitha's blood.

Current List of Developed Abilities (2019-present):
Enhanced senses and reflexes
 * Resistance to extreme temperatures
 * Absorption of/resistance to blunt trauma
 * Immunity to harmful substances
 * Super efficient organ systems and near-unbreakable bones
 * Electrical resistance
 * Resistance to psychic power
 * Thermal vision
 * Superhuman regeneration
 * Improved mental processing/efficient brain
 * Hastened muscle growth + unique "storage"
 * “De-stressing”/manually loosening stiff joints and muscles (less toxins build up, and at a slower pace)
 * breathing underwater/in vacuums (developed against Legion)

Unique Abilities: Godbreaker (tentative)
During his initial encounter with Alastrine, Roan's takes a blow from Alastrine. Although Alastrine's attacks would not normally have been powerful enough to wound Roan, their being infused with a unique energy prevented him healing the wounds. In a state of desperation, his body went into a hyperactive state similar to an allergic reaction, forcing his regenerative abilities into overdrive and acclimating to the energy used to injure him into his powers. The same incident occurred when Roan faced off against Infierno and received a near-fatal stab wound that triggered the same effect as Alastrine's attack.

The resulting transformation granted Roan the ability to fight on the level of opponents such as Alastrine or Infierno by allowing him to receive their attacks as if he was attacked by non-deity level beings, as well as granting him the same abilities possessed by the opponent he faces. When triggered by Alastrine, it causes Roan's hair to gleam and irises to turn blue; when triggered by Infierno, it cause his hair to appear as a black flame and turns irises crimson. Both share a twisting miasma of silver-white/indigo-black depending on who provoked the transformation.

The most prominent drawback to this subpower is its time limit and subsequent whiplash. As Roan's body isn't normally capable of accommodating the power of higher beings, the power he absorbs burns through his stamina extremely quickly and leaves his body extremely vulnerable after it ends. Additionally, the ability is nearly uncontrollable upon its first appearance, and is still extremely volatile in Roan's second usage of the form.

Equipment/Skills

 * MMA proficiency (learned during his time stuck in the SEHB and from private instruction in NY)
 * Wilbur's tech (TBD)

Trivia

 * Strangely, Roan's hair turns permanently white after taking in the serum, a phenomenon unseen when Tabitha made use of Ascension.
 * It is unknown whether or not this is affected by the stress he faced due to the traumatic familial experiences he has had, but it is related to the powers granted by the serum.
 * Roan dyes his hair black out of embarrassment at first, but does so less frequently as he grows confident about his appearance.
 * Roan has double jointed ankles.
 * Roan has displayed an aptitude for cooking, in particular soups and stews.
 * This is likely learned from his mother, Maya.