Darkspeed (Omni Books)

Darkspeed is a main fictional character and superhero in Joe Graham's Omni series. He is currently the leader of 1st team at the Alpha Academy. His first appearance is in ‘Omni – History Begins.’ His secret identity is Jacob "Jake" John Ryan and is a United States citizen and was raised in Utah.

Lineage
Darkspeed is the son of Vector and an unnamed supervillain, presumed from Norway. The exact circumstances of this birth and infancy are secrets kept by OMNI, Vector, and Mercy.

Pre-Alpha
Darkspeed was born in May of 1978 and as a baby was kept in an underground community of supervillains. His father was the famous superhero Vector who secretly ran this evil community and his mother was one of Vector's followers. During the Coalition's War Darkspeed was in the care of his mother as his father waged war against the Heroes Union.

When Darkspeed was two, OMNI raided the complex where Darkspeed was kept. In this raid OMNI killed everyone, except for Darkspeed. OMNI brought Darkspeed back to his base and left him in the care of his teammate, Mercy. It wasn't long until Mercy saw Darkspeed move at super speed implying he was a son of Vector. OMNI then placed Darkspeed in suspended animation until a time when the public fear of Vector had blown over and Darkspeed would be safe from retribution.

Darkspeed’s adoption in 1999 was handled by the HU, and OMNI. The family he was placed with is made up of superhumans of various power levels. This stable Mormon family has adopted other children from supers who where casualties of their chosen profession. These adoptions could be considered ‘special needs.’ As a teenager Darkspeed worked in the family business, Ryan’s Import and Distribution in Salt Lake City, Utah.

Alpha
At Alpha, Darkspeed was selected to be the leader for 1st team. Adjusting to life at Alpha was not easy for Darkspeed. Coach Connors seemed to be exceptionally tough on Darkspeed, making him learn things on his own rather than nurture him. The ‘tough love’ seemed to pay off as Darkspeed struggled to find his position on the team as leader.

Darkspeed continues to be tested by his coach and the ever changing demands on him at Alpha. While at Alpha Darkspeed has made several friends outside of his own team, notably Ranger and Saber.

Team
Darkspeed is the Leader of 1st team, the 4th team trained by coach Connors and the 10th class to be trained at Alpha Academy. As is with every team, he has five other teammates, each having their own positions. 1st team is organized as follows.


 * Darkspeed - Leader
 * Bioforce - Healer
 * Olympian - Hitter
 * Shi - Stealth
 * Virtuoso - Brain
 * Midas/Cosmos - Anchor

Appearance
Darkspeed stands 5 feet, 9 inches tall and weights about 150 pounds. He has an athletic build with runner's legs. He has green eyes and blond hair which he generally keeps buzzed or shaved so that his super speed does not mess it up. It has been revealed that Darkspeed’s blood is a dark almost black color.

Costume
Darkspeed's costume is made of tight-fitting reactive nano-mail with hard protective plates of Omnium on his forearms, shins, collarbone, shoulders, spine, and kidneys. His colors are flat black with deep green his on thighs. On his chest is a negative image of a comet colored black and green, also. The forearms appear slightly bulky due to the weapons systems housed in them. Around his waist and on his thighs are pockets that contain his field gear.

He wears a pair of over-sized goggles that protect from debris and contain a heads-up display for the costumes built-in computer. In the back of his costume is also a hood that when pulled over, seals the costume and contains a re-breather able to last a normal human three hours. When in this state he is able to travel to extreme depths in water, survive the vacuum of space, and is temperature, chemical, biohazard, and radiation resistant.

Built into in his right forearm is an N-gun capable of firing at super speed and on his left is a mini-grenade launcher. His costume also comes equipped with high voltage stun gloves, a cutting laser, nano rope, blades, lock picks, throw cameras and sensors, mini flash grenades, silent neck microphone, internal earpiece, flashlights, tracers, darts, and other secret compartments.

See Omni Books Technology

Powers
Darkspeed has the ability to move at more than 300,000 MPH and think at superhuman speeds. Super endurance has kept him from ever tiring while using his powers. His enhanced strength allows him to lift up to 100 tons and his enhanced durability protects him from any harm he could do to himself. He has ten times the agility of any Olympic gymnast. He has super human intelligence and coupled with his speed it allows him to think of strategies and solutions almost instantly. His senses are many times stronger than any human and his night vision allows him to see in pitch-black as if it were day. He is able to heal in a single second what a normal person could in three days.

Darkspeed has a field surrounding him that protects himself or things be being carried by him from friction. He also has full control over his inertia being able to change directions instantly, despite momentum. This enables him to run up or down walls.

Darkspeed has the power to make and control darkness. He can use this in a variety of different ways; including a dark fog, complete darkness, or a darkness that ‘sticks’ to an object or someone’s eyes. It has been revealed that Darkspeed’s blood is a dark almost black color.

Combat Style
Darkspeed has shown two very different combat styles while at Alpha. There have been times he as played the game very smart and waited for his opponent to make mistakes. Other times he has been impatient and rushed in too quickly. Part of his training at Alpha is to learn which is appropriate and which is tactical.

The team Darkspeed is on has taken him to task about being a leader first and a combatant second. When Darkspeed started his training, more than once, he abandoned his post as leader to join combat. Darkspeed finds he must now put leadership above his own desire to get in the game.

A tactic that Darkspeed used from the beginning of Alpha was to throw objects at a super high speed at an opponent. This required him to have enough sturdy objects close at hand. This was fixed when Virtuoso, the brain of his team, constructed an Ngun that could fire at a high enough speed for him.