The Number Man

<infobox> <title source="name"><default>The Number Man</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>

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<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> The Number Man is a thinker with the power to understand numbers and probabilities.

Reputation

Number Man was known as a "supervillain banker".<ref name=":0">"And before I forget, I arranged individual accounts for each of you with a supervillain banker by the name of The Number Man, as paying for tonight's job in bills, naturally, was unfeasible.  My men will provide you with your account information and the instructions for accessing these accounts as you retrieve your dogs." - Tangle 6.8</ref> Despite his immense influence, he was relatively little-known.<ref name=":1">Interlude 14.5 (Bonus Interlude) </ref> Major villain groups turn to him for help hiding and manipulating their finances, a job he has performed for them adequately for decades.

Personality

In middle age the Number Man is a reserved and logical man, far more rational and calm than any who knew him as "Harbinger" would imagine.

He disliked the endless white of the Cauldron Compound, and went to some lengths to decorate his office.<ref name=":2">Interlude 21 (Donation Bonus #1)</ref> His office had no chairs, because he believed sitting would leave him too vulnerable.<ref>No chairs.  He’d worked out the dangers of sitting against the convenience and decided it wasn’t worth falling into that trap.  When he did enter his office, he walked, paced, tapped his foot while pondering deeper problems, stood and stared out the window at whatever landscape he had outside his window in a given week. - Interlude 21 (Donation Bonus 1)</ref>

He was irritated when his business lost customers.<ref name=":3">Tattletale had been actively separating herself from the Number Man, issuing new accounts to the Undersiders and her organization.  Not so surprising.  Eidolon had outed him, announcing the Number Man as a Cauldron-involved cape to a crowd.

Irritating. - Interlude 21 (Donation Bonus 1) </ref> He was more willing to interfere with organizations that didn't use his banking services.<ref>Gesellschaft hadn’t elected to seek out the Number Man and make use of his services, as so many supervillains around the world did.  He had no compunctions, as a consequence, about interfering with them. - Interlude 21 (Donation Bonus 1)</ref>

His participation in Cauldron's experiments gave him immense knowledge regarding how powers and shards worked.<ref name=":2" />

He saw morality as a useful delusion perpetrated by society.<ref>“Ah,” the Number Man replied.  “Morals.”

Another delusion perpetuated by society.  Useful, valuable, much like commerce, but still a delusion.  It only served its purpose so long as it was more constructive than not adhering to those beliefs, but people often lost sight of the fact, made it out to be something it wasn’t.

He’d suddenly lost a great deal of interest in this conversation. - Interlude 21 (Donation Bonus 1) </ref> Nevertheless, he disliked violence.<ref name=":4">“I was thinking we use you in the field, Number Man.”

The Number Man leaned back in his chair.  “Me.”

“You’d perform.  You have performed in the past.”

“I suppose,” he mused.  He rubbed his chin.  He needed to shave.  “A long time ago.”

“I know you wanted to get away from that business, but-”

He shook his head.  “No.  This is bigger than things I want.  If I can participate in this, I can get my hands dirty.  We’ll be looking for the Slaughterhouse Nine, I take it?” - </ref> He believed that he worked to save lives, and only ever killed out of kindness.<ref name=":5">Jack was his other number, his inverse.  The Number Man was working to save lives, and he killed as a matter of kindness.  Jack considered killing a matter of fact, and any life he spared was only for his own twisted ends.

The Number Man still considered the man a friend, as much as he knew that friendship was one of those ephemeral constructs.  One of the delusions people subjected themselves to, to make the world make sense. - Interlude 21 (Donation Bonus 1) </ref>

Number Man saw friendship as a sort of shared delusion, but nonetheless saw Jack Slash as a friend of sorts, as well as his polar opposite.<ref name=":5" />

He has noted his distaste for the Harbinger clones. Bonesaw based their personalities according to word of mouth and rumors of his ruthlessness under that are attached to his abandoned alias, rather than acting more in line with his actual personality.

Appearance

Number Man purposefully dresses as normal as possible. He wears a button-down shirt and thin-rimmed glasses. He is clean-shaven and keeps his blond hair cut short. He considers himself "bland" and appears to be a bookish, middle-aged man.<ref>He armored himself in normalcy.  He wore only a button-up shirt and thin-rimmed glasses, his blond hair cut into a short style that was easy to maintain.  To anyone on the street, he wouldn’t appear to be anything but a bookish middle-aged man.

He hadn’t always been this bland. - Interlude 21 (Donation Bonus 1) </ref>

Abilities and Powers

Number Man's ability makes him "good with numbers" to a ridiculous degree. He perceived his power as elaborate mathematical notation, as if written in the air.<ref>As though it were penciled in the air, in thread-thin, elaborate notation, he could see the geometry and the numbers unfolding across the world around him, through the air.

He withdrew a pen from his pocket, spun it around one finger.  The notation billowed around it, and through it, he could see the movement of the pen, the plotted trajectory, the velocity and rotation of it.  The numbers clicked into place with a speed that made the rest of him, his very perceptions, seem like slow motion. - Interlude 21 (Donation Bonus 1) </ref>

His power allowed him to understand and manipulate the world economy in immense detail.<ref name=":2" /> He could also use it to predict the likely casualties of various End of the World scenarios.<ref name=":1" />

He could perceive the Custodian's presence and the edges of Doormaker portals.<ref>His power alerted him about the Custodian’s presence as he entered the hallway.  The sum of a million infinitesimal details.

It also informed him of the seam in the hallway, marking the nearly invisible Doormaker portal. - Interlude 21 (Donation Bonus 1) </ref>

Doctor Mother claimed that he was able to calculate the odds of success for a given Cauldron vial, but this was a lie.<ref>"We have no need for human experimentation.  The Number Man can calculate the odds of success for a given formula."

LIE. - Interlude 14.5 (Bonus Interlude) </ref>

He uses this ability to understand the world around him to such an extreme depth that he can shrug off a multiple-story drop, set up a controlled demolition on the fly, horizontally wall-run, and predict how someone will act and react inside or outside of battle.

His power was formidable in combat. He can analyse and predict an opponent during combat, allowing him to dodge their attacks by narrow margins once he's understood them.<ref name=":2" /> He claimed that he could see the stress points of his opponent, allowing him to shatter bones.<ref>“You’ll miss,” the Number Man said.  “And I’ll close in and strike you, using my pen and my hand.  I can see the stress points of your body, clear as day.  I can shatter your skull like a glass, and it would be an exceptionally painful way to die.” - Interlude 21 (Donation Bonus 1)</ref>

His power was better at range than in a melee fight.<ref>My power is better at range.  Better still as I get further away, attack from other angles, in more subtle ways. - Interlude 21 (Donation Bonus 1)</ref>

History

Background

Number Man was a member of the Slaughterhouse Nine under King as Harbinger, where he fought alongside Jacob. King chose the name. In this identity, he wore a costume and carried a knife. <ref name=":2" />

Harbinger and Jacob killed King in 1987, opening the way for Jacob to reshape the King's group to his purposes.<ref name=":2" />

He would join Cauldron at some point prior to May 1, 1988.<ref>Interlude 15 (Donation Bonus #3) </ref> He didn't operate in the field.<ref name=":4" />

Story Start

Coil created accounts with the Number Man for each of the Undersiders.<ref name=":0" /> He managed these accounts so that they grew "in alternating stutters and huge bounds".<ref>The bank account Coil had assigned to me seemed to be growing in alternating stutters and huge bounds.  The benefit of having a bank account that was managed by a guy who called himself ‘the Number Man', I supposed. - Colony 15.6</ref>

Post-Echidna

Number Man lost a number of clients thanks to the revelation that he worked with Cauldron, including Tattletale.<ref name=":3" />

Cauldron sent him back into the field.<ref name=":4" />

Golden Morning

During the Irregulars' attack on Cauldron, Number Man and his clones helped protect Doctor Mother. Following her death, he helped set up the demolition that brought Cauldron's headquarters down on Scion.

He became part of Khepri's swarm and helped calculate the likelihood of attacks hitting Scion.<ref name="30.5">Speck 30.5</ref>

Fanart Gallery

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  Image by YunYunHakusho on Reddit

References

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