Author Archive: Alex Blinkoff
Young writer, aspiring novelist. Rather persistent about not growing up.
I've been crafting characters in my head for a while now, and so it's about time to get these cowboys, superheroes, and aliens onto paper.
#11: The Red Lion
(I’m finished with super heroes. Time to move on to fantasy.)
Hailing from the Garden of Reegus, a beautiful forest known for its scouts and the locals general bellicose attitude, the Red Lion earned his name in combat. Â In Reegus, names are shed and replaced as marks of honor or disgrace, and the Red Lion changed his to this after his heroism in the battle of Kithli Forest.
Lions are not native to Reegus, but they do roam Avalia, Reegus’ neighbor and long-time foe. Tau of Overseem  was commended for his strategy of unleashing a group of Avalian lions, under the command of Reegusian priests, on the back flank of the Avalian force. This caused chaos to overtake the Avalian archers, allowing Reegus to surround and rout their foes.
For this strategy, the warrior known as Tau of Overseam was given the name The Red Lion to forever immortalize his actions.
When The Red Lion grew tired of his service, he returned to his home and raising a family while serving as the head of his village’s defensive force. As Reegus’ tensions with their ally Whitesky mount, The Red Lion was personally asked by Reegus’ chief diplomat to Whitesky, Xolani, to accompany him as a bodyguard.
Personality: The Red Lion is, as his name suggests, fearless and ruthless. Age has slowed his reflexes but not his mind, and he is a master strategist with decades of experience backing his attacks. He is a true patriot, willing to kill, torture, or maim anyone in Whitesky if it means the advancement of The Garden’s causes.
Despite his advancing age, he is a hothead when angered. His temper is legendary, and one of Xolani’s main duties is to keep him from challenging the offensive party to single combat.
#10: Omega
Name: Unknown
Aliases: Omega, That son of a bitch
Hair: Brown
Eyes: White
Height: 6’2
Weight: 178 lb
Bio: Omega is a cross-dimensional immigrant. Next to nothing is known about his universe, save that they have a control of energy far beyond anything we as a society are capable of. Omega refuses to say anything about the dimension he came from.
He came to this dimension in early 2003, and in four years time, he was democratically elected by the United Federation of Super-powered Individuals as Chairman and Commander of all operations.
Powers: Â Complete energy manipulation. Omega can generate a functionally limitless amount of energy from his body, both of a highly volatile and explosive “black matter” and a clean-burning ball of light called “white matter”.
It is believed Omega’s body is, in fact, composed of pure energy, for ordinary projectiles go through him and even metaphysical abilities, such as those demonstrated by Carson White AKA Mister Heart Attack, have no effect.
The only figure known to be able to do any sort of damage to Omega is Entropy, who, as an embodiment of decay, can turn the energy into vapor before it reaches him.
#9: Master of Coins
Name: Unknown
Aliases: The Master of Coins
Hair: None
Eyes: Black
Height: 5’2
Weight: Unknown
Bio: There is no confirmed information about The Master of Coins. We only know he has spent much of his recent life in Peking, China, before emigrating to the United States in 2004. All information on his passport has been rendered irrelevant by massive plastic surgery.
Powers: Utterly unpredictable. The Master can transform any coin he is holding into the Omni-Coin, and each time he flips it, he manifests a new power.
Depending on the flip, the Master can either be a match for altered humans like Hedgehog or for physical gods like Entropy.
The Master is physically in his 80’s, though we suspect him to be much, much older. As such, he is rather frail in combat without a flip.
#8: Spare Change
Name: Jason Freeman
Aliases: Spare Change, Treasurer, Meter Master
Hair: Black
Eyes: Black
Height: 5’7
Weight: 155 lb
Bio: Jason was born in Norfolk, Northern Virginia in 1986. Coming from a lower middle-class family, Jason graduated high school and found work as a parking enforcement officer. Â In 2009, he attempted to ticket super-criminal Black Hat, and was kidnapped and held by the Union of Superior Individuals for eleven days before their Norfolk base was raided and Jason was set free.
Having now been given a frontline view of the Bureau’s combat strategy and technologies, Jason was conscripted into Operation: At the Gates.
Powers: Jason has powers tied to coins. They are as follows:
Pennies: Jason can accelerate these to Mach 2 when he throws them, making them an excellent anti personnel weapon.
Nickels: Jason can expand the nickel into a shield roughly a meter in diameter. The shield is estimated to have twice the strength of a kevlar vest.
Dimes: Jason can force these to detonate after a set amount of time. The explosion is equivalent to that of a fragmentation grenade.
Quarters: Jason can transform these into knuckles, allowing him over ten times his natural strength in his hands.
Half-dollars: Jason can transform these into swords, stronger than steel and attached to his hands.
Dollar coins: Similar to dimes, Jason can activate a large explosion with these. Â He refused to test the coin, claiming the testing facility was too small to contain it.
#7: Paul Mutuus
Name: Paul Mutuus
Aliases: N/A
Height: 5’3
Weight: 121 lb
Hair: Black
Eyes: Brown
Bio: Paul is the younger brother by 14 minutes to Avery Mutuus. He was born with a physical birth defect, believed to have been onset by his sister crushing him against the wall of the uterus. His left leg is malformed, and Paul has walked with either a brace or a crutch his entire life.
Despite his handicap and naturally small size, Paul excelled at academics, and attended the University of Florence with his sister, whom he is inseparable form. Following the death of their parents in 2010, Paul and Avery joined Operation: At the Gates.
Powers: Paul is a telepath of mild ability. At his most powerful, he can knock his foes unconscious, but his primary ability is to confuse his opponent’s mind or senses. Like his sister, Paul’s powers intensify the closer he is to his sibling. As the two fight as a duo, they are a formidable team when together.
#6: Avery Mutuus
Name: Avery Mutuus
Aliases: N/A
Height: 6’2
Weight: 161 lb
Hair: Black
Eyes: Brown
Bio: Avery was born in 1992 to an upper middle class family residing in Florence. She is the older of two twins, the other being Paul Mutuus.
Avery graduated high school and was accepted to the University of Florence on athletic scholarships. The tall and muscular
Avery had been a star forward for her school’s soccer team, leading them to several regional championships.
In 2010, Avery and her brother’s parents were killed during a home invasion. With no way to pay their tuitions, both dropped out of college and sought employment.
They were approached later in the year with an offer to join Operation: At the Gates. The stated goal of the tests was to see the effects on twins and other closely tied individuals. Avery had served as the caretaker for her sickly brother for their entire lives, and the two were noted to be inseparable.
Powers: Avery possesses impressive strength and agility. Her bench press is estimated to be 1700 lb. Â She can also run at speeds of 30 mph for a brief period of time. However, these superhuman traits are only in effect when she is close to her brother, Paul. The further the two are from one another, the weaker Avery’s powers are. As such, she usually carries Paul on her back in combat situations.
#5: Mister Heart Attack
Name: Carson White
Aliases: Mister Heart Attack, Bringer of Light, Public Enemy Number One
Height: 4’2 (in wheelchair) 6’1 (while standing)
Weight: 121 lb
Hair: White
Eyes: Red (contacts, real eye color unknown)
Bio: Little is known about Carson, other than the fact he was born in the year 1943. Exact place is unknown, though we suspect him to be from the upper west coast.
When he was 22, Carson manifested his abilities. In a decade’s time, he had formed the Union of Superior Individuals as the chairman and first member.
In 1988, Carson was crippled in a battle with Third Day. He has been confined to a wheelchair since
Before the appearance of Entropy in 2004, Carson was the most wanted man in the world. There is a standing 25 million dollar bounty on information that leads to his capture or death.
Powers: Â Carson can induce cardiac arrest in anyone who he is pointing at. Although materials like lead or concrete can prevent the unseeable beam from touching his target, those who are closer to him may experience an “explosion” of his powers that will induce cardiac arrest in everyone within a certain distance (estimated to be 13-15 meters.)
He is also considered to be an excellent planner, with an IQ estimated at near-genius levels. Before the loss of his legs, Carson was also a proficient hand-to-hand combatant.
#4: Quantum Lass
Name: Janice Dalton
Aliases: Quantum Lass, Johnnie, Cloud
Height: 5’6
Weight: 133 lb
Hair: Black
Eyes: Brown
Bio: Janice was born 1975 in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. She was a straight-A student throughout high school, with an average GPA of 3.9 and several college credits to her name. She attended Duke University, where she got her degree in sub-atomic chemistry. She earned her PhD in 2001.
In 2004, she was offered to join Operation: At the Gates. While working at the think tank, Janice volunteered to test a molecular destabilizer.
The weapon short-circuited when it was attempted to fire, and the resulting explosion killed two security personnel and wounded four others. Janice was among the wounded.
Three months later, she had fully recovered from her injuries, and her powers had manifested. She has served as a member of the Task Force since.
Powers: Can transform all or part of her body into a cloud of barely connected molecules. The cloud is utterly impervious to harm by anything besides weaponry that operates on an atomic level.
The cloud of molecules can also pass through solid surfaces and move at speeds significantly higher than Janice’s running speed.
#3: Entropy
Name: Charles Feron
Aliases: Charlie, Angel, Safety Net, Entropy
Height: 5’11
Weight: 137 lb
Hair: Brown
Eyes: Blue
Biography Charles was born in the Bronx to a lower middle class family of Italian descent in1981. When he was 23, he graduated from Berkeley as an engineering major. Shortly after his graduation, the rift opened in 2004.
Charles was extremely close to the rift when it opened. Unverified reports claim he was, in fact, the closest person to escape being sucked to the other side.
Three months later, Charles’ powers manifested.
Powers: None, in his normal state. Charles is an unaltered human with the capability to switch himself with a parallel version of himself, a being calling itself Entropy.
Entropy’s Powers: Decay: Entropy can rapidly age anything he touches. Organic life quickly shrivels and dies, metals rust, woods splinter, and paper disintegrates at his touch.
More resilient materials, such as plastics or glass, can resist these powers for a length of time.
Enhanced strength, speed, and reflexes as well.
[The following was written by Agent Thomas from the Bureau of Extradimensional Affairs.]
“Entropy is a high level criminal on the other side. Â He’s not like Carson Douglas over here, the entire country is in an out-and-out war, with Entropy fighting the government themselves. There’s 70 million dollars on his head, but good luck claiming it.
Anyways, our intel suggests Charlie doesn’t so much become Entropy as switch places with him temporarily. The world’s worst criminal and some kid from the Bronx switch places in their respective dimensions, and we’ve been trying to coordinate some sort of trap, so we can switch out Entropy for Charlie at a critical moment.
Of course, if that happens, then it’s our universe that’s stuck with the nigh-invincible supercriminal…”
#2: Polarity
“Everything in the world has static electricity on it, or at least the potential to carry molecules of static. Static’s up there with gravity in omnipresent forces, it’s just so weak we usually discount it. I change that.
I can project a field around me, I think it’s about a 50 yard circle. Everything in it gets a dose of static electricity, and the closer to me you are, the more of it you get. I turn into, basically, a really big rug that rubs on everything around it. But what’s the big deal, so everyone gets a little shock when they touch stuff, what does that mean?
Quite a lot, when you combine it with my other power. I can attract and repel static particles, and I make them a lot stronger in the process. I can pull light objects, like an apple, in from fifty feet, but if it’s right next to me, I can rip through sheet metal like it was sheet cake.
Yeah, you ever seen Star Wars? Picture someone who can use Force pull really well, and none of those other nifty Jedi powers. That’s me.”
-From the journal of Damian Grey
#1: Hedgehog
(Sorry, don’t draw. Enjoy this instead.)
Name: Hector Espino
Known Aliases: Hedgehog, Thorn
Hair: Black
Eyes: Brown
Height: 5’10
Weight: 173 pounds (unaltered,) 211 pounds (with powers in full use)
Bio: Born January 8th, 1983 to a pair of El Salvadorean immigrants. The third of four children, Hector grew up in a disadvantaged home in southern California. His grades remained above average throughout his education, although disciplinary action was taken against him for fighting in ten of the twelve years of his schooling.
Once he graduated, Hector joined the United States armed forces and was deployed for a tour of duty in Afghanistan. He won both several citations for insubordination and two Purple Hearts, as well as a Silver Star for saving two injured comrades who were caught in the line of fire.
In 2002, an electrical fire burned down his childhood home, killing both of his parents. Hector was not able to attend their funeral. Once his tour ended, in 2003, Hector returned to California and got work with his eldest brother Manuel.
It was at this point Hector was deemed a suitable candidate for Operation: At the Gates. He was approached with an offer on May 2nd, 2004. He accepted with little argument.
Hector was taken to the San Antonio base, where he was subjected to a battery of tests. The test was a success, and Hector was codenamed “Hedgehog Patient 1”, Â for no patient had ever manifested abilities quite like his before.
Hector has remained in the service of the Task Force since the test succeeded in 2004. List of his missions and achievements are as follows:
[The next several pages of the file have been torn out.]
…citations for insubordination, including arguments with officers of the task force.
Powers: Hector can manifest organic spikes anywhere on his body. He may do so through serious concentration, and the more time he has to prepare, the more spikes he can generate. Â The spikes are almost as hard as diamonds and razor sharp, allowing Hector to puncture holes in nearly anything he touches.
The spikes also have energy absorbing principles. Test show that, with the spikes deployed, Hector can withstand concussive forces that would cripple or kill an unaltered human. As he becomes more versed in their use, Hector has become progressively better at deploying the spikes. One of his preferred techniques is sticking his palm on an opponent’s forehead, then deploying as many spikes as he can on his palm.
2011 Challenger: Alex Blinkoff
Let me see if I’ve got this right.
My name is Alexander David Blinkoff. I am 16 going on 17, and I live in a neighborhood in Baltimore where there are three synagogues within walking distance of my houses. By day, I am a boisterous clown known for his moments of pensiveness in the middle of silly situations.
But by night, I transform into my alter ego, Punch Rockgroin, MST3K reference and Silver Age supervillain. Except not really. Despite the elaborate time-traveling backstory I conceived for him,  Punch Rockgroin remains far away from my writing . He’s simply too ridiculous to exist, even in that form.
A brief history of my writing career. In January of 2010, I was assigned a one page story that retold the classic fairy tale of Cinderella from another perspective. Â Being the sort of person who overdoes things, I penned a (actually rather awful, but that’s beside the point) tale about a half demon who sacrificed his mother to Satan so he could become one of the Four Horsemen.
A wise man may or may not have said something like “Don’t let something like a lack of talent stop you from doing what you love.” Taking that to heart, I set to work on a novel. The humorous fantasy, while relatively funny, lacked intricacies like an interesting plot or good characters. While I had several novel ideas (and I still do, more than I can count,) only one has ever begun to materialize.
I had long since toyed with the idea of a war going on between two poorly armed but zealous factions in an enclosed space. The idea started as two schools, before evolving into a valley social experiment. That evolved into two micro-nations made up of refugees from some cataclysmic event. I picked and chose from all the favorite characters I had come up with (the obsessive-compulsive genius who hates nothing more than losing, the noble but reckless boy with serious anger issues, the strong-willed but naive tomboy who mistrusts everyone she meets, and the outwardly angelic but inwardly fiery and vicious girl,) plopped them into a valley, gave them a good reason to fight, and let them have at it.
When I’m not working on the novel, which is going quite well, thank you for asking, I’m dreaming up new and exciting scenarios. Some common themes in my writing:
- Cold War analogues
- History jokes no one but me finds funny
- Unnamed characters (because I suck huge elephant dick at naming characters)
- Doing my best not to rip off things I like
- Grey morality (oh god this though)
- Trying not to write fantasy
- Fight scenes, I still haven’t got the memo fights don’t really work in a printed medium
- Superheroes
- Deserts
- Â Hating everything I write three months after I write it.
Not that anyone is going to read this, but if by some strange and wonderful miracle you are, hello! I hope you enjoy whatever characters I come up with, even if I run out of ideas and quit by day 10!
#30Characters Chatter…