Gavel

{{#if:Male | }} {{#if: | }} {{#if:Villain | }} {{#if: | }} {{#if: | }} {{#if: | }} {{#if:Australia<ref name="29.2"/> | }} {{#if:Brute/Striker (speculative) | }} {{#if: | }}

Gavel
Gender	Male
Age
Professional Status
Alignment	Villain
Occupation
Team
Previous Team
Base of Operations	Australia<ref name="29.2"/>
Power Classification
Classification	Brute/Striker (speculative)
First Appearance
Web Serial

Gavel was a supervillian or vigilante who was sent to the Birdcage.

Personality

Gavel accused Marquis of "taunting" his men by having his daughter stay in the men's wing. Marquis implied that he was "only looking for something to complain about."<ref name="I16"/>

Gavel was described as a "ruthless vigilante", a "monster". He would only instantly pulverize his enemies with his hammer "if he was feeling merciful, or if he didn’t want to give them a chance"; usually, his target would fly through the air, protected by his power - until they hit something at which point they would be pulverized.

During his fight with Scion, Taylor was struck by his "inhuman tenacity", taking Scion's beam in the face and throat when his hammer was damaged.

Taylor thought that his power resembled Excalibur's scabbard from myth, and he "could have done so much more with the concept, but he’d gone with a hammer instead of a sword."<ref name="29.2"/>

Appearance

While in the birdcage, he had facial hair "like that of a homeless man’s" - that is, shaggy<ref name="29.2"/><ref name="27.3"/>. He wore prison sweats with the words ‘Baumann Parahuman Containment Center’ across the shoulders<ref name="27.3"/>. Later, he wore a beard cut to two perfectly straight lines that met at a sharp 90-degree point at the chin. His hair had been buzzed, flat at the top<ref name="29.2"/>.

He was extremely broad-shouldered<ref name="29.2">Venom 29.2</ref><ref name="27.3"/>.

In costume, he wore a mask that covered only his forehead, eyes and nose. He wore a skintight black shirt without sleeves and heavy canvas pants, with boots "that looked like they could be used to crush stone"<ref name="29.2"/>.

Gavel carried a hammer through which he could channel his power<ref name="29.2"/>. His hammer was solid steel, with sharp lines and a pole that seemed too big to wrap one’s hands around. The entire thing was as big as he was, probably three or four times the weight.<ref name="29.2"/>

Abilities and Powers

His power made it so he could only take so much damage at a time, and reduced the severity of any damage to a set amount.

Shooting him with a hail of bullets would be little different from shooting him with one or two bullets, and any given bullet would only gouge out a teaspoon of flesh. A steady stream of them could whittle him down, however.

Generally speaking, he transferred his power from himself to his hammer and from his hammer to his target, conducting invincibility. His target would fly through the air until they hit something, at which point they would be pulverized.

History

Background

Gavel was a vigilante who had gone after families, particularly spouses and children, all so he could "break his enemies before his namesake weapon"<ref name="27.3">Extinction 27.3</ref>. He acted as judge, jury and executioner to criminals in Australia. He’d announce his intentions publicly, swearing vengeance and listing their crimes, and then he’d go after them<ref name="29.2"/>.

He’d been notorious in the days before the three strike rule or even the code. Even with that, people had lost patience with his ‘mission’ when a villain had threatened to detonate a small bomb, and Gavel had called a bluff that wasn’t a bluff. He walked away, but many, many others didn't<ref name="27.3"/>.

After Gavel's arrest and sentence to life imprisonment in the Birdcage, he became a cell block leader<ref name="27.3"/><ref name="I16">Interlude 16 (Marquis)</ref>.

Post-Slaughterhouse Nine

As a cell block leader, Gavel accused Marquis of "taunting" his men by having his daughter stay in the men's wing. Marquis implied that he was "only looking for something to complain about."<ref name="I16"/>

Golden Morning

Later, Gavel came through a portal alongside other Birdcage inmates. Taylor recognized him, having researched the inmates in case they ended up "stuck between these guys and Scion."<ref name="27.3"/>

After Imp called the birdcage inmates "assholes", he "inexplicably" turned to glare at her group, only to look confused<ref name="27.3"/>.

In preparation for fighting Scion, Galvanate touched him, "layering invincibility over invincibility"<ref name="27.4">Extinction 27.4</ref>.

When Scion arrived, Gavel blocked one of his spheres of light by throwing his hammer. The resulting explosion knocked a dozen capes off their feet. The hammer was unaffected by the explosion, and Gavel caught it two-handed. This attracted Scion's attention; he fired another sphere, which Gavel also blocked. He was visibly "scorched", with golden light glowing at the edges of the wounds, but not seriously affected.

While Scion "suffered a continual onslaught of powers and projectiles from every direction", Gavel found his second wind. He advanced, dragging his hammer behind him. Scion used a continuous beam of golden light; Taylor speculated that this was ideal for countering his power, and might be a result of Scion possessing inherent knowledge regarding powers.

Gavel blocked the worst of the beam with his hammer. Scion was briefly distracted by a shot from the Queen of Swords, then resumed the assault. Gavel marched forward, blind in the face of the brilliant light. He moved his damaged hammer out of the way, taking the beam in the face and throat instead. He managed to briefly get close enough to find Scion's eye sockets, but Scion pulled back, maintaining the beam.

He swung his hammer "like an Olympic hammer-thrower might swing theirs", smashing Scion into the ground and plowing a furrow fifteen feet long. He hit Scion twice more before the hammer, damaged earlier by the beam, fell to pieces. For the fourth hit, Gavel used the toe of his boot. Each hit was dramatically less effective than the last.

Scion reached out and jammed a hand in the largest wound the beam had created. A golden light flared, and Gavel disintegrated on the inside. Flakes of burned flesh traced with bits of golden light flew into the air as either half of Gavel’s body hit the ground. The fight had lasted "a good minute. Maybe two."<ref name="29.2"/>

References

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