Withdrawal

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

Withdrawal is a young man trying to be a hero with his friends, The Major Malfunctions.

Personality

He was protective of his teammates, particularly Finale.<ref>“If you’re confused about any of it, I’ll explain after,” Withdrawal said, again, his voice muffled slightly by his mask.

“I think I got it,” Finale said, with a smile. She gave Caryatid another hug before hopping down. Behind her, her teammate resumed a more mortal form, everything about her relaxing and transitioning to its regular variant. - Excerpt from Beacon 8.8</ref> He was determined to be a hero, and was eager to work with other teams.<ref>“We’ll figure it out,” Withdrawal told her. To me, he said, “We’ll do it. You can count on us.”

The conviction and determination caught me off guard. “This isn’t paid work, I want to make sure you know.” - Excerpt from Beacon 8.8</ref><ref>“Because there are some things that you can only see face to face, like how genuine someone is or if they’re interested in the mission.”

“We’re interested,” he said, with barely a breath’s span between my statement ending and his starting.- Excerpt from Beacon 8.8</ref>

He intentionally attempts to make his equipment appear nonthreatening.<ref name="pilotsuit">He kicked up a plume of snow as he skidded to a stop, a pink and red bodysuit with gleaming silver apparatus extending from the limbs. He’d chosen a friendly pink for the round lenses that covered his eyes, the face plates that settled over parts of his face assembled so the seam offered something in the way of a disarming smile. - Excerpt from Sundown 17.x</ref>

Relationships

Withdrawal has a strong, familial relationship with teammates. At one point, he confessed to Finale that he could never hate her.<ref>“I thought you’d hate me.”

“Can’t. No room for hating anyone,” he said. “Not good for me. And you’re the person I’m least able to hate.” - Excerpt from Interlude 17.x II</ref> He cared about Caryatid to the point that he agreed to become completely sober for her, despite being an addict from a young age.

Appearance

Withdrawal was in between Caryatid and Finale in height, but wore an exoskeleton that Antares described as an "agility frame"; the frame consisted of spray-painted metal bars which seemed to buckle under its own weight, which offered little actual defense but possessed mechanical feet and arms that extended his limbs by two feet. Withdrawal also wore a simple mask comprised of a plate of metal with glowing pink eyes, attached to a rubbery hood.<ref name=8.8e1>The guy was the tinker of the group, it looked like- and it was good they had one, given the ‘malfunction’ part of the group’s name. He would have been between the two girls in height, except for his suit. I hesitated to call it power armor, exactly. Power armor implied armor that was heavy enough that it needed machine power to move- remove that power and the tinker was stuck. The stuck part probably held true, but this guy had no armor.

No, if I had to come up with a term for this guy, I would have called it an agility frame. It didn’t thicken his body, but stretched it out, with an mechanical extension adding two feet to his legs, long mechanical gloves that started at his wrists extending the arms much the same way, and a lightweight set of bars and discs providing the bare minimum of strength to hoist what looked like a syringe filled with maybe ten gallons of pink fluid. The syringe’s needle wasn’t the only mount at the front of the fluid’s case, and various other tools or attachments surrounded the front end of the cylinder, all in metal of varying shades, glosses, and textures.

The frame was made on a budget, given how the spray paint had settled on different pieces in different ways, and it was almost buckling between the guy’s lean weight and the weight of the cylinder, to the point that the line of mechanical foot to calf to thigh formed a curve, not a straight line. His mask was a simple one, a circular plate of metal with eyeholes cut out, worn over a hood of something rubbery that clung to his head. The eyes glowed pink. - Excerpt from Beacon 8.8</ref>

His suit is usually red-pink, with silvery elements that connect it to the exoskeleton.<ref name="pilotsuit"/> On a different occasion, Withdrawal's costume glowed teal or yellow-orange rather than pink.<ref>I glanced at Withdrawal, who was standing off to one side, glowing teal tonight, not pink. - Excerpt from Polarize 10.3</ref> It is, presumably, saturated with his nanomachines and has a built-in delivery system.<ref>The chemical in his syringe turned yellow. Veins crawled across his costume, yellow, and the fabric turned yellow where it had been pink. The lenses shifted color too, to orange. - Excerpt from Last 20.7</ref>

Abilities and Powers

Withdrawal is a tinker, who specializes in creation of physics-breaking nanofluids.

His powerset originates from the mobile habitats and nanofluid of an alien Molluscoid species that were used to explore a low-gravity moon and facilitate adaptation with the species living on said moon. Stasis-inducing nano-goop was initially used for maintenance purposes and later modified and deployed in attempt to protect the core of planet and break that cycle.<ref>Heavens 12.all</ref>

Equipment

Besides his pseudo-armor, Withdrawal carried a large syringe connected to a heavy vat of odd pink liquid.<ref name=8.8e1/> He can seemingly change the brightness of his nanofluids on a whim.<ref>Across the street, in the copse of old trees that were bounded in on four sides by the suburb-like neighborhood, a slice of nature that had been preserved as everything else was cleared away and a pre-fab neighborhood was dropped down, bubblegum pink lenses appeared out of the darkness. I saw the syringe appear in a similar way, the fluid going from dark to pink, bubbling visibly, until it was as neon pink as anything else. He moved it like a baton, waving us over.

[...]

Withdrawal had gone completely dark. I saw him set his syringe down and lean against a tree. With his elongated limbs, the stilt-like legs, he looked very tall as he peered down at us, his head difficult to see in the branches of a mature tree. - Excerpt from Gleaming 9.4</ref>

Tinker Creations

Agility Frame - hydraulically powered exoskeleton which served to extend his limbs; though the oiled frame<ref name=9.4e1>Two pink circles gave away Withdrawal’s location. The lenses of his mask glowed neon in the gloom, as did some of the oils of his costume. I raised a hand, and he raised his. He was quick and silent as he approached, moving on three limbs while holding his giant syringe with the fourth. The syringe attachment looked more like a nozzle, today. - Excerpt from Gleaming 9.4</ref> appears unstable, very fragile and precarious, it is able to provide great mobility.<ref>And the frame- it was last to start moving my way, but first to arrive, by only a second or two. It lurched, lunging a few steps, putting one leg out forward, letting the leg telescope somewhat with springs clearly at work as suspension absorbed the frame’s full weight, wobbling like it might give way. The entire body swayed and shifted to compensate as pink liquid sloshed in the oversized syringe while it proceeded to lurch into motion again. - Excerpt from Beacon 8.8</ref>. It is also very light, but quite challenging to control and regulate.<ref>He set his foot down, and the boot-prong stabbed through snow, found ice, and got some traction there. The frame ran up his spine, down his limbs, and extended out past his hands and feet, each extension something between a disabled runner’s prosthetic foot and a pogo stick. He sank down as the full weight of his body and combined gear came down, metal straining, mechanism sinking into mechanism. The fluid cell at his chest powered the suit’s movements so he could bring his limbs around in time, with a thrust that made him feel like he had little rockets attached to elbow, knee, ankle, and wrist, pushing his hands in the same directions he moved them, pushing the metal that he’d shaved down in weight by the gram. That same fluid cell pulled him into the ground, driving titanium compression springs he’d lubricated with his ‘red juice’ folded into themselves in a way that defied conventional physics, storing up potential energy. Every step was a tiny lurching feeling as everything gave more than his gut felt like it should, even as his tinker brain told him it was fine. The finer adjustments were made by way of Nitinol-strand muscles; a shift in posture, position, and weight using memory metal as fine as spiderwebs, safely ensconced within metal shells. The sensation of rising and falling with each bounding step was made more dreamlike by the unintentional illusion he’d crafted for himself. The fluid cell generated heat through chemical reaction. That heat ran through the frame, drawing in cold outside air and pushing it out through his suit. Warmed air flowed between fabric and skin, a sensation of wind at all times, out of sync with his movements. [...] His frame touched the ground with one limb at a time. The point of contact as wide across as three fingers pressed together, and the total weight of him, his frame, and his current fluid dispenser, the pill popper, amounted to two hundred and sixty six point one-three-four pounds. Even the weight of the snow that had settled on his helmet and in the seams of his frame mattered. In a car, one had to check the mirrors every couple of seconds, be aware of the environment. In the frame, moving like this, he had to be aware of everything - Excerpt from Sundown 17.x</ref> Fluid Vat - This multi gallon vat is first seen with a syringe. However in addition to a needle it has a variety of other attachments mounted at the front of the liquid's case.<ref name=8.8e1/> The Pink Fluid - has numerous non-Newtonian properties. He can use it as a beacon, and as a kind of specialized traction surface and trampoline.<ref name=9.4e2>I saw the syringe appear in a similar way, the fluid going from dark to pink, bubbling visibly, until it was as neon pink as anything else. He moved it like a baton, waving us over. [...] The Malfunctions seemed to hear my thoughts, because I saw Withdrawal enter the fray. He moved at high speeds, skidding on wet and icy road, and hefted his syringe that wasn’t a syringe anymore. The contents of the syringe sprayed over a wall. He skated to it, then skated up the slick of spray. He bounded off of it, then landed smack-dab in the middle of a large group. - Excerpt from Gleaming 9.4</ref> The Neon Yellow Fluid<ref name=15.2>Dying 15.2</ref> - Gunk that becomes paint-like when applied to something. Appears to have a mechanic where it can be directed to latch onto something, and it will move onto it even while dislodged.<ref>Withdrawal had enough jump in that agility frame of his to tackle the winged ship. With his syringe, he applied the yellow gunk to face, then to upper chest. It looked like paint. I had no clue what it did. [...] The winged angel, meanwhile, guarded the door. It was struggling, a hand raised to its upper chest, trying to use some superheated steam or a chemical to get rid of the gunk. In the end, it unscrewed a section of its chest to lose that section entirely. As it did, the yellow gunk extended out clinging only by scattered edges and droplets, took on a texture like needles caught by a magnet, then splatted back down onto the area that had been beneath the collarbone segment, as if it had remembered its momentum and forward energy from before, and reapplied itself on removal. The winged angel fought to scrape that away with metal fingertips, then gave up. - Excerpt from Dying 15.5</ref> The same, or similarly shaded, liquid is used to deny telekinesis hold on the objects.<ref name="II20.7">Last 20.7</ref> The Red Compression Fluid - A red fluid that was used to fit objects into places that they should not physically be able to fit into. The Pill Popper - A massive, hundred pound launcher, inspired by Fume Hood's power, which is used to deliver Withdrawal's fluids with remotely detonated football-sized projectiles.<ref>The pill popper was a one-hundred pound column topped with a construction that resembled his helmet, a reading on the sleek black bar-display running along the side told him he had 8/9 shots remaining. - Excerpt from Sundown 17.x</ref><ref>The head at the top of the pill popper opened its mouth, and it had a punch of an impact as it spat out its shot. A ‘pill’ the size of a football. Modeled after Fume Hood’s power. He pulled the second trigger. The pill detonated with enough force to knock the kid over, so he landed on his hands, gun below him. - Excerpt from Sundown 17.x</ref>

History

Background

Withdrawal grew up with a neglectful and abusive mother. As a result of the abuse, Withdrawal fell into a cycle of alcohol and drugs at a very young age. This ultimately resulted in his trigger one day, as he was suffering hallucinations caused by alcohol withdrawal and came to the realization that he would die before he could escape this cycle. His trigger seems to be somewhat abnormal and prolonged due to delirium's influence, leading to him having visions not only of an Entity, but molluscoid ghosts talking to him.<ref>Dark shadows danced across his vision. Glimpses of shadow-people, built like snails, or clams, but with limbs so long there were clouds around their legs. They turned and they looked at him. They communicated in whispers that should have been incomprehensible. They spoke to him in those same whispers. - Excerpt from Interlude 17.x II</ref>

Withdrawal triggered at 12, the same year as his teammate Caryatid. He met his teammates online, and dropped out of school to form a team with them.<ref>“We got in touch online. All of us got our powers young- it was Caryatid and me at first. Finale a year later. We had different names then, obviously,” Withdrawal said. - Excerpt from Beacon 8.7</ref> Though they faced limited success as a hero team, they did manage to stay together over the course of six years.<ref name="8.8 2">A painfully slow search online brought up some images of kid heroes with terrible costumes. They’d been small timers before Gold Morning, small town ‘heroes’ who’d rotated between three middle-of-nowhere towns in North Dakota looking for villains or criminals. Four years of activity and they hadn’t found any.

It would have been easy to dismiss them, or to disparage them. They had dropped out of school to be heroes and had no wins. The lack of education was clear in the spelling errors. It worried me a bit that their referral had come from ‘Super Magic Dream Parade’, the loopy team from Boston, who had apparently heard about what we were doing and passed on word.

The Major Malfunctions were teenagers now and they’d been kids when they’d triggered. They’d stayed heroes across six years, and they’d stayed together. - Excerpt from Beacon 8.7</ref>

Gold Morning

He survived Gold Morning, but was presumably forcibly recruited like everyone else.

Post-Fallen fall

The Major Malfunctions were stationed near a tent city when Breakthrough contacted the team and offered them to work within their growing network of hero teams.<ref>My destination was a tent city. Most in the tent cities had already departed for more secure accommodations, but new people were coming in regularly, and there was a stubborn holdout. As I flew over, I could see the efforts that were being made to patch the problem. Rigid black sheets of insulation were being laid against the sides of tents with yellow fabric, tents were being moved together and connected, and equipment was being brought in- truckloads of what might have been heaters or furnaces. - Excerpt from Beacon 8.8</ref><ref name="8.8 2" /> Withdrawal was present at their subsequent meeting with Victoria.

Stumbled on Teacher's plot.<ref>Gleaming 9.3</ref>

Post-Goddess' Takeover

Withdrawal was present during The Wardens attempt to stop March from reaching Brockton Bay time-bubbles. He tried to intercept March alongside Tempera, but was mauled and left seriously wounded.<ref>Heavens 12.all</ref><ref>Heavens 12.x</ref>

Post-Time Bubble Pop

Fought alongside Breakthrough during the second Wardens' assault on Teacher's Compound.<ref>Dying 15.1</ref>

Withdrawal was able to apply his concoction to one of the Saint's mecha-angels, taking it out of commission.<ref>Dying 15.5</ref>

Post-Attack on Teacher

Withdrawal alongside his teammates, held the line against civilians rioting near the Earth Cheit potal,<ref name="II17.x">Sundown 17.x</ref> and accidentally was caught in the wake of Contessa.<ref name="II17.y">Sundown 17.y</ref>

The Ice Breaks

Withdrawal was alongside the Undersiders and Breakthrough during the oversight duty of Titan Oberon and Eve. Once the battle started, he took on the role of chaperoning Lookout, who had insisted on making her scans during the battle, and then evacuated with her.<ref name="II18.4">Radiation 18.4</ref>

Withdrawal participated in the battles with The Simurgh together with his teammates.<ref name="II20.2">Last 20.2</ref> He had his leg crushed by The Simurgh's ambush inside the Wardens' Complex.<ref name="II20.3">Last 20.3</ref> During the third encounter he disarmed compromised tinker-cannon and used his liquids to counter the Endbringer's telekinesis.<ref>I could see as he did more, spraying more things, hitting the tinkertech the Simurgh was using, and causing it to fall. Everything he sprayed came free of her telekinetic grip, and none of it was getting picked up again. - Excerpt from Last 20.7</ref>

References

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The Major Malfunctions
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