Purity

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{{#if:Max Anders to KaydenInterlude 3.5 (Bonus)|

“	It’s amusing to hear you try and justify your perspective, but you’re ignoring the elephant in the room. Cut the B.S. and tell me you don’t feel something different when you look at a black face, compared to when you look at a white one.	”
{{#if:Max Anders to Kayden| —Max Anders to Kayden{{#if:Interlude 3.5 (Bonus)|, Interlude 3.5 (Bonus)}} }} }}

<infobox> <title source="name"><default>Purity</default></title>

<image source="Image"></image> <image source="image"></image> <group><header>Basic Information</header> <label>Civilian Name</label> <label>Aliases</label> <label>Gender</label><default>Unknown</default> <label>Death</label> <label>Age</label><default>Unknown</default> <label>Post-timeskip</label> <label>Ward start</label> <label>Relations</label> <label>Family</label></group> <group><header>Professional Status</header> <label>Occupation</label> <label>Classification</label> <label>Unique Features</label> <label>Alignment</label>

<label>Status</label><format>

Unknown

</format>

<label>Location</label> <label>Teams</label> <label>Previous Team(s)</label> <label>Base of Operations</label></group> <group><header>First Appearance</header> <label>Worm Debut</label> <label>Ward Debut</label></group> </infobox>Kayden Anders (née Russel), known publicly as Purity, is an enforcer of Empire Eighty-Eight and Kaiser's right-hand woman as well as his ex-wife.

Personality

Kayden temporarily left the Empire Eighty-Eight in 2009 because of Kaiser being too controlling and manipulative:<ref>This was the situation, usually, where Kayden would go to informants for information, resurrect old alliances and get help in squashing the ABB before they could get their footing again. She had hunted down old buddies, contacts and teammates three days ago, and had been frustrated by the lack of response, the lack of enthusiasm. Max, Theo’s father, was to blame for that. Just as she’d left his team a more broken person than she’d been when she joined, others had gone through the same experience. With charisma and a keen sense of people, Max had convinced people from across the country to join his team. Just as easily, he’d tore them apart without them realizing he was doing it. Confidence broken, wracked by doubts, paranoid regarding everyone except the one man that had caused the paranoia in the first place, they’d splintered off from the team. Not that Max minded. There was always a fresh supply of bright eyed recruits ready to replace anyone he broke. - Excerpt from Interlude 3.5 (Bonus)</ref> she tried to dissociate her name from Kaiser's specifically (i.e., not for ideological reasons).<ref>Other than that, she thought. As if it was inconsequential, to be checking in with him on every move she made. “I don’t agree with the way you do things. I don’t want to be associated with you.”

He laughed, throaty, deep, rich, while she stood there in stony silence.

“Kayden,” he said, when he’d stopped, “You’re already associated with me. People say our names in the same breath, even when we haven’t worked together in two years. When my name appears in the newspapers, yours is never far behind.”

“I’m working to change that.”

“And you’ll be working against that impression for decades, to no effect, I guarantee you.”

Kayden turned and looked out the window, unwilling to look Max in his brilliantly blue eyes for any longer.

He continued, and she knew he was smiling smugly at her even without looking at him, “Regardless of our different methods, we always shared the same goals. To clean up this filthy world of ours.” - Excerpt from Interlude 3.5 (Bonus)</ref> While on her own, she unsuccessfully reached out to other ex-Empire members (i.e., those who similarly left because of Kaiser in particular) in an attempt to build a new team.<ref>“I’ve talked to the others, but nobody that’s worked for you is willing to be the first to join me. Some say they’re worried they’ll offend you. Others are just spooked, or they’ve already given up. They ask me why would a group of your rejects do any better than they’d managed as part of your team? I’m not getting anywhere, and time’s running out. All it would take would be one word from you, and I’d have a team of four or five people. With that, I could root out and squash the ABB.” - Excerpt from Interlude 3.5 (Bonus)</ref>

Although she disagreed with Kaiser's methods of stealing, extortion, and drug trafficking, Kayden was perfectly fine with targeting minorities.<ref name="3.5 eMethodGoals">“You do it by putting drugs on the street, stealing, extorting. I can’t agree with that. I never did. It doesn’t make any sense, to improve things by making them worse.”

Max smiled, “It’s ugly on the surface, but it’s more money, more power, and it gives me the leverage to really affect things. The only people I hurt are the same people who cause the problems in the first place.”

It was a refrain she had heard often enough before. She folded her arms.

He changed tactics, “Let me ask you – would you rather be doing things your way, failing to change things or would you rather work under me and make a difference?”

“I am making a difference,” Kayden answered, “I’m working to make this world a better place.”

“Of course,” he replied, and she didn’t miss the hint of condescension in his voice, “You left my team to go do good work, it’s just pure coincidence that it’s black, brown, or yellow criminals you target.”

Kayden frowned, “Hard to avoid, when the only notable gang of whites is yours. Some old friends and allies of mine still work for you… I can’t go around attacking them, can I? I’m working to improve our city, but I’m not going to beat up people I’ve been out to drinks with.” - Excerpt from Interlude 3.5 (Bonus)</ref> Even after she temporarily left the Empire Eighty-Eight, Kayden was still a white supremacist and very racist.<ref>“And in the process, you’re doing little to shake the notion that you’re a part of Empire Eighty-Eight,” Max smiled, “It’s amusing to hear you try and justify your perspective, but you’re ignoring the elephant in the room. Cut the B.S. and tell me you don’t feel something different when you look at a black face, compared to when you look at a white one.”

Kayden didn’t have an answer to that. It was his fault, really. The high school baseball player she’d had a crush on when she’d been in middle school had wound up being the same person that first approached her when she started going out in costume. Blinded by his good looks and his way with words, she’d been swayed, convinced of his way of thinking. She’d tried to change her outlook since the divorce, but she had seen a great deal in her ten years as a member of his team. It was impossible to look at the city now and ignore the fact that too much of what made it an uglier place to live and raise a child in could be traced back to the same kinds of people. Sure, the whites had criminals too, but at least they were fucking civilized about it. - Excerpt from Interlude 3.5 (Bonus)</ref> For example, she immediately assumed two Korean girls and an older woman at the Docks were prostitutes and a pimp.<ref>Breaking her usual patrol route, she headed straight to the northern part of the city and investigated the Docks. It was empty of ABB members, aside from two Korean girls were taking a break from turning tricks near the ferry, talking to their aged, fat, matronly pimp. Kayden resisted the urge to take action and run them off, resisted grilling them for information. She had done that last night with a group of dealers, and accomplished little to nothing.

The ABB was still active. Even with their boss gone, they were more organized than they had been under Lung’s influence. But her interrogations had failed to get any details on why. Even broken arms and legs hadn’t hurt or scared the thugs enough to get them talking about what was going on. - Excerpt from Interlude 3.5 (Bonus)</ref> Kayden also did not attack white criminals as an independent because she assumed they were members of the Empire.<ref name="3.5 eMethodGoals" />

Kayden is not a good person: she has her own twisted view of morals and went out of her way to enact them. When her daughter was "stolen" by the authorities, she went on a rampage and leveled entire buildings in an act of terrorism.<ref>The beams of light that blasted from her palm weren’t straight. There was a bit of a spiral to them, as they formed a rough double helix. The end result was wider than Purity was tall, tearing into the building to topple the crane against one wall. She turned the light on the other walls, obliterating them.

It took her less than a minute to level the building and pulverize any part of the structure that stood higher than the sidewalk.

She paused, and hovered there in the midst of the dust and the motes of light that had followed in the wake of her power. She turned and shot the next-closest building, directing a smaller, tighter beam at one corner where the structure met the ground. She hit the next corner, then swept the oscillating shaft of light through the ground floor to obliterate any supports that stood within. The building toppled messily with brick walls sloughing off and cresting plumes of dust.

The building hadn’t even finished falling down before she started work on the next two, devoting one beam to each.

“Were there people in there?” I asked, horrified both at the idea and at what this woman was capable of doing. “What about those other buildings?

Brian was behind his couch, watching, “There might have been, and there might be.” - Buzz 7.7</ref> She was willing to kill anyone who obstructed her from retrieving her daughter.<ref>“Undersiders,” A female voice cut into the conversation. “Protectorate. Take note.”

Our heads turned back to the television screen. The camera showed a brilliant glare that could only vaguely be made out as a face. The view shifted, and I heard her command, “Hold it.”

The camera steadied and focused on Purity’s face, from ground level looking up. I suspected the cameraman was on the ground.

“You took the most important thing in the world from me,” her voice was without affect, flat. “Until she is returned, this doesn’t stop. I will take this city apart until I find you or you come to stop me. My subordinates will murder anyone, everyone, until the matter is settled. I don’t care if they are genetically pure or not. If they haven’t allied with us already, they missed their chance.” - Buzz 7.7</ref> For example, she ordered her subordinates Night and Fog to slaughter bystanders on live television just to make her point.<ref>She bent down to take the camera. While the image swayed wildly, Purity spoke, “Night, Fog. Demonstrate.”

The camera steadied, fixed on a man and a woman in gray and black costumes, respectively, featuring cowls and cloaks. Behind and to the side of them was an unnaturally pale and white haired young man.

The man in gray evaporated into a rolling cloud of white-gray fog, moving toward the camera. Purity took flight, moving up and above the scene, keeping the camera focused on the cameraman. As the camera rose and the view of the scene expanded, I could see Crusader off to one side, leaning against a wall with his arms folded.

As the mist enveloped the cameraman, Night strode forward, disappearing into it. The timing of what happened was wrong, too soon after she entered the fog. There was a ragged scream, and then blood sprayed out of the mist to paint the surrounding road in dozens upon dozens of long splashes of crimson.

The fog moved as though it had a mind of its own, congealing into the man once more. When he had fully pulled himself together again, there were only a few spatters of blood six or so paces from where the body had fallen, and Night, standing in the middle of the road. No body, no clothes, no blood remained where the fog had passed.

“We are not the ABB,” Purity spoke, not bothering to turn the camera back to herself, “We are stronger, both in powers and in numbers. We have discipline, and thanks to you, we have nothing left to lose. I will have my daughter back, and we will have our restitution.”

Purity dropped the camera, and the view spun lazily as the camera hurtled to the ground. There was the briefest of glimpses of the trail of light that marked her departure, before the camera hit the ground and the television went black. After a moment, the ‘BB4 News’ logo appeared on the screen against a blue background. - Buzz 7.7</ref><ref name="R2"/> These may have been some of the reasons why Cherish nicknamed her "the Crusader".<ref name="12.1 c1">Remember eight people were nicknamed (not all necessarily prospective recruits), and Cherish counted Regent as a ninth (but not nicknamed)? The Crusader was Purity, who Jack Slash wanted to find (after the thing with Oni Lee fell through) before he could play his little game with her (going after Aster). - Comment by Wildbow on Plague 12.1</ref>

Possibly thinking that despite her outright acts of terrorism she still thought she could cooperate with the authorities. It is unknown how she reacted to their silence.

She was an interior decorator in her civilian identity.<ref name=":0">There were other images as well, showing Max Anders with a gorgeous twenty-something blonde, and Max Anders with an older brunette woman at a coffee shop, their table strewn with what looked like paperwork.  I scrolled down to confirm my suspicions, the blonde appeared in another picture with her twin sister.  Fenja and Menja.

The brunette woman was Purity, according to the email.  Far mousier than I might have thought, given the sheer presence she had in costume.  Real name, Kayden Anders.  Interior decorator.  Single mother of one Aster Anders.  Purity was promoted to Kaiser's second in command in the same week that Kayden Russel took Max's hand in marriage to become Kayden Anders.  Their separation occurred within the same time period as Purity leaving Empire Eighty Eight to apparently strike out on her own. - Excerpt from Buzz 7.4</ref>

Relationships

Max Anders

A major effect on her growing up and was eventually her husband, even when they split up she couldn't shake his influence.

Aster Anders

Cared deeply about her and much of her cognition was based around making the world a safe place for her.

Despite almost losing her daughter Kayden continued to be a cape.<ref name="R2">You're whitewashing Kayden a lot there. She was a bad person. She stood by while a cameraman was murdered. She leveled buildings in an act of terrorism. She cooperated with an asshole like Kaiser, helping him to secure power by acting as his enforcer and right-hand woman. These things took much more precedence in-story over her saying she loved her child.

Heck, they took precedence in-character - at one point she leaves her child in the custody of a babysitter so she can attend to her business as a cape. She doesn't quit being a cape to focus on her child- she founds the Pure after the fiasco in Buzz. She's still keeping the company of the Pure when Gray Boy gets her.

She had ulterior motives and hopes to do more good in the long run... and it's worth saying that 'good' can be as loaded and mixed a thing as 'bad' - would she have done good? Look at what she called her team and allowed to pass after taking half of E88 under her wing, and infer what she might have done if Kaiser had stepped down. She supported and sheltered absolute monsters even within her contingent of 'the pure'. Crusader, Night, Fog. And beyond that, that long run never came to pass.

She might (I'd like to think) be a person with a good portrayal, but that doesn't make her a good person. - reddit comment by Wildbow.</ref>

Theo Anders

Looked after him but was mostly distant. Still, she was the closest he got to a maternal figure.

Jack Slash

Researched her and targeted her and her family in an attempt to challenge himself.<ref name="R1">She was the most vulnerable, most dangerous, most desperate person in play, and as he assessed who was active in Brockton Bay he reasoned out the drawback to her power, and decided to test his theory.

Kill her family, knowing just what had happened when she nearly had it taken from her before, just when she thought she could live a semblance of a normal life after being outed, challenge himself and challenge her, seeing how she reacted and acted - either a moment of poignant loss as she hit something far below rock bottom, or chaos and destruction, which he's all for. - reddit comment by Wildbow.</ref>

Appearance

Kayden had brown hair and eyes.<ref name="I3.5" /> She was mousy and shorter than average.<ref name="I18"> - Excerpt from Interlude 18.y</ref> She was visibly older than Fenja and Menja.<ref name=":0" />

As Purity, Kayden didn’t wear a mask, as it wasn’t necessary. With her powers active, her hair and eyes became a radiant white, emanating a light so brilliant it was impossible to look straight at her<ref name="I3.5" /> without getting spots in your eyes.<ref name="5.1">Hive 5.1</ref> The fabric of her plain white costume radiated a soft,<ref name="I3.5" /><ref name="5.1">Hive 5.1</ref> rippling glow. Her costume also included "pristine" white gloves. She left a white trail behind her as she flew.<ref name="I3.5" />

Abilities and Powers

Kayden falls into the category of 'flying artillery' capes. She has the ability to create kinetically charged light, to move through the air at high speeds while generating powerful blasts.<ref name="5.1">Hive 5.1</ref> She moved too fast for anyone among the Brockton Bay heroes but Dauntless or Velocity to catch, and she hit harder than both of them combined.<ref name="7.7" /> Her power left firefly-like motes of light behind it when used.<ref name=":1">Buzz 7.10</ref><ref name="7.7" />

She could create two curved beams emanating from one hand, creating an expanding double-helix shape that was wider than she was and capable of leveling buildings. She could also create smaller beams, or fire multiple beams at once.<ref name="7.7" /> Her beams were almost as powerful as Legend's, although not as versatile.<ref>Legend was at the head of the pack when it came to being flying artillery.  His firepower was on par with Purity's, if not outright surpassing her, and he was far, far more versatile. - Excerpt from Extermination 8.1</ref> It took her a moment to "charge" her beams, energy visibly welling up in her hands.<ref name=":1" />

She had an internal supply of energy,<ref name=SB1/> which recharged when she basked under special halogen lights in Kaiser's office.<ref name="I3.5e8">He half-turned to type on his computer, and the lights in the office adjusted to a halogen glare. She shut her eyes briefly and basked in the glow, feeling her internal supply of energy recharge.

“Max. Thank you for the light.” - Excerpt from Interlude 3.5 (Bonus)</ref> Jack Slash noticed that, after periods where there was more sunlight, her powers were stronger, which may suggest that sunlight gives her more power than regular light.<ref name="I11b">Interlude 11b</ref>

History

Background

Kayden went out driving for the first time when she was sixteen years old. She got into an accident on a side road and her car rolled off the road and out of sight of anyone passing by. She was trapped inside the vehicle until she began to starve, and then triggered, gaining powers that fed off of and required light.<ref name="I18" /><ref>Interlude 8.y</ref> Her delirium influenced the trigger event.<ref name=SB1>Lexicon: Is Purity's light a breaker state? I thought it was just a aesthetic effect, given the rest of her doesn't seem to change.
Wildbow: Breaker state.
Wildbow: She's basically the subtype of breaker that goes 'Turn breaker, gain access to a powerset while in breaker state', but with contingent costs/benefits with holding the form (personal battery, in her case)
Wildbow: Her trigger doesn't really work with her powerset, if she's not breaker.
Lexicon: The starvation from being trapped, right?
Teruzi: she eats liiight
FossilLord: As crusader says second hand
Lexicon: You keep blowing my mind, man
Teruzi: That's, like, no calories. Very jelly.
Wildbow: Sun exposure + delirium + starvation + other factors that probably played into phantom enemies for her blaster aspect
Wildbow: Plus wanting to escape/go home, of course - Wildbow on IRC, archived on SpaceBattles</ref>

Kaiser would approach Purity sometime later, after she started going out in costume. With his good looks and his way with words, he convinced her of his way of thinking. At some point, she joined the Empire Eighty-Eight.

After working ten years alongside Max, Kayden married him,<ref name=":0" /> becoming second-in-command of Empire Eighty-Eight.<ref name=":0" /> Eleven months into their marriage, Kayden woke up to who Max really was. She divorced Max and left the Empire, taking their daughter, Aster, with her. <ref name="I3.5" /> Night and Fog left at the same time she did.<ref name=":1" />

Kayden became an independent cape<ref name=":0" /> who made the ABB a priority target.<ref name="I3.5" /> Three to five times a week, she carried out surgical strikes against the gang's low-level operations; interrupting shipments, beating up dealers and thugs, attacking their places of business and gathering information. She clashed with Lung on four occasions and Oni Lee on two and had forced them to retreat on all but one of those encounters. At one point, Lung set a trap for her, and succeeded in returning the favor; it took her two months to recuperate from all of her injuries.<ref name="I3.5" />

Story Start

When Kayden had read about Lung's arrest, she cleared her schedule and went out to clean up the Azn Bad Boys. She failed to get any information as to the recent changes the ABB had gone through and, out of options, sought out Kaiser. She eventually agreed to rejoin the Empire as his second in command on the stipulation that, if a year passed and she wasn't satisfied with his methods, she would own the Empire and he would be her second in command.<ref name="I3.5">Interlude 3.5 (Bonus)</ref>

As a member of Empire Eighty-Eight, Purity led a "sub-group" comprised of Fog, Night, Alabaster and Crusader.<ref name="7.7" />

Her identity was revealed to the public alongside the rest of Empire-Eighty-Eight,<ref name="7.6">Buzz 7.6</ref> and her daughter, Aster was taken by child protective services.<ref name="7.7">Buzz 7.7</ref> She fought the Undersiders alongside this group.<ref name="7.9">Buzz 7.9</ref><ref name="7.10">Buzz 7.10</ref>

When Leviathan came to Brockton Bay, Purity participated in the defense of the City. At one point she blasted the beast and was able to momentarily pin him down.<ref>Leviathan slapped the teenage hero down, swiped at one of my swarm-people, then was forced down onto all fours as Purity struck him square between the shoulderblades with a column of light. - Excerpt from Extermination 8.5</ref>

Post-Leviathan

Following Kaiser's death, Kayden formed a splinter group out of her friends in the Empire, called The Pure. She also started making overtures to the Protectorate trying to forge an alliance to secure the wrecked city but was rebuffed.<ref name="9.1">Sentinel 9.1</ref> She took custody of Theo Anders with the death of his father.

She encountered Jack Slash in her apartment.<ref>Interlude 11b</ref> She helped Hookwolf co-ordinate a Meeting at Crater Lake between all the hero and villain teams to oppose the Nine, using flashes of her light as signals.<ref>Plague 12.2</ref>

She was among a group led by Hookwolf that attacked the Slaughterhouse Nine while they held Grue hostage in Dolltown. Regent and Genesis led them into attacking another group of the Nine in a different building, in order to save him.<ref>Snare 13.8</ref>

Post-Slaughterhouse Nine

Kayden and the Pure fled Brockton Bay. They trained Theo to defeat Jack Slash, but he didn't trigger. Eventually, Crusader abandoned him, convincing Kayden that it was the only way he would grow strong enough to save the world.<ref>Excerpt from Interlude 18.y</ref>

Post-Timeskip

At some point, she reached a temporary accommodation with the PRT that led to her living in an apartment with Aster under constant observation and guard. Two "plain-looking" members of her group, presumably Night and Fog, were there as well.<ref>Secondary focuses.  Not the kind of targets that Dragon checked on with any regularity. [...] A temporary measure had been taken with Purity and her three year old daughter, with observation being provided for her by the PRT, and the feed showed her sitting on the couch in an apartment or hotel room, two very normal, plain looking people standing in the corner of the room with some PRT officers keeping their distance.
[...]
The three year old that Purity held was crying, throwing a tantrum, and the woman looked concerned.  Insignificant.  The officers had their guns drawn, but that could easily be because the two plain-looking members of Purity's circle had crossed the room to her side, to help handle the shrieking child. - Interlude 26.x</ref> Regardless, she and her team were still captured by Gray Boy and trapped in an endless loop.<ref name="26.6">Excerpt from Sting 26.6</ref> Unlike other such victims, Kayden was not continually tortured.

Early-Ward

The Protectorate successor organization, The Wardens, have been committing resources to freeing people like her from imprisonment.<ref>“The Wardens didn’t ask us before they signed off on this, yet they have people devoted to idiotic things like rescuing people from time bubbles and loops. - Excerpt from Interlude 5x II</ref>

References

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Site Navigation

Empire Eighty-Eight
Leader	Allfather {{#switch: deceased	deceased=†	noncanon=≠	former=‡	unknown=*	#DEFAULT= }} • Kaiser {{#switch: deceased	deceased=†	noncanon=≠	former=‡	unknown=*	#DEFAULT= }}
Leiutenants	Hookwolf {{#switch: former	deceased=†	noncanon=≠	former=‡	unknown=*	#DEFAULT= }} • Krieg {{#switch: former	deceased=†	noncanon=≠	former=‡	unknown=*	#DEFAULT= }} • Purity {{#switch: former	deceased=†	noncanon=≠	former=‡	unknown=*	#DEFAULT= }}
Members	Alabaster {{#switch: deceased	deceased=†	noncanon=≠	former=‡	unknown=*	#DEFAULT= }} • Cricket {{#switch: former	deceased=†	noncanon=≠	former=‡	unknown=*	#DEFAULT= }} • Crusader {{#switch: former	deceased=†	noncanon=≠	former=‡	unknown=*	#DEFAULT= }} • Fenja {{#switch: deceased	deceased=†	noncanon=≠	former=‡	unknown=*	#DEFAULT= }} • Fog {{#switch: former	deceased=†	noncanon=≠	former=‡	unknown=*	#DEFAULT= }} • Heith Anders {{#switch: deceased	deceased=†	noncanon=≠	former=‡	unknown=*	#DEFAULT= }} • Iron Rain {{#switch: deceased	deceased=†	noncanon=≠	former=‡	unknown=*	#DEFAULT= }} • Menja {{#switch: former	deceased=†	noncanon=≠	former=‡	unknown=*	#DEFAULT= }} • Night {{#switch: former	deceased=†	noncanon=≠	former=‡	unknown=*	#DEFAULT= }} • Othala {{#switch: former	deceased=†	noncanon=≠	former=‡	unknown=*	#DEFAULT= }} • Rune {{#switch: former	deceased=†	noncanon=≠	former=‡	unknown=*	#DEFAULT= }} • Stormtiger {{#switch: former	deceased=†	noncanon=≠	former=‡	unknown=*	#DEFAULT= }} • Victor {{#switch: former	deceased=†	noncanon=≠	former=‡	unknown=*	#DEFAULT= }}
Associates	Aster Anders {{#switch: deceased	deceased=†	noncanon=≠	former=‡	unknown=*	#DEFAULT= }} • Theo Anders {{#switch: former	deceased=†	noncanon=≠	former=‡	unknown=*	#DEFAULT= }}

The Pure
Leader	Purity
Members	Theo Anders {{#switch: former	deceased=†	noncanon=≠	former=‡	unknown=*	#DEFAULT= }} • Crusader • Fog • Night
Associates	Aster Anders {{#switch: deceased	deceased=†	noncanon=≠	former=‡	unknown=*	#DEFAULT= }} • Krieg