Artemis

Gender: Male

Species: Underworlder Human

Height: Unknown, never specified

Weight: Unknown, never specified

Age: 20

Faction Ties: Leader of the Intimidators, at least for a time. Later he abandons them in favour of the invading human army.

Role in Game:

Supporting character, later turned villain. Gives Psi (and consequently, Synn) paid work in the form of bounty targets, as well as the early training and equipment to do so. He is secretly a recon officer for the invading humans however, and abandons the Intimidators after he fails to convince Psi to join him in his true motives. A lengthy disappearance and a Cycle initiation later, Psi finally defeats him outright in a climactic duel spanning from the skies to the battlefields below.

Abilities

Master of Gun-Fu styles of fighting, and an expert in most of the common weapons associated with the art. His acrobatic capability and flexibility is astounding, and in many cases literally defy gravity and all sense of common logic - he uses this talent to great effect in combination with his gunslinging prowess, never standing still in a duel and leaping all around the place whilst engaging his foes without even costing on his accuracy or being hindered by the sheer amount of weapons he conceals at all times. Much of this is possible because of the Gem of Chaos he possesses, imbuing him with Chaos Control abilities that he unknowingly uses to cheat basic logic that would otherwise prevent such impossible feats of agility as double jumping, extended wall running and even fundemental laws of conservation of momentum at times. Like all Chaos Control users, he can potentially do much more, depending on application of passion and realization of his powers.

Personality

Artemis is possessed by the Avatar of Vengeance, and almost always acts ultimately to avenge the wrongdoings commited towards his race during the previous cycle - even beneath that, however, he is a cold, heartless individual who holds a large number of grudges no matter how petty, and directing nearly everything he does towards the completion of his current goal. He possesses all the common traits and mindsets of a modern assassin - cunning, unforgiving and not easily distracted. He also decieves like a silver-tounged devil, twisting the truth, sweet-talking people to his cause and disorienting anyone who won't - but failing that, he still holds a strong belief in the phrase "no amount of words will communicate a message stronger than a single, well-placed bullet".

Summarization of Fighting Style

Artemis posseses both amazing acrobatic and evasive capabilities and a range-attack based fighting style - he uses both in tandem to attack from out of reach, then dodging attacks and regaining distance if danger comes too close. He is easily defeated in a close range brawl, so avoiding close encounters whilst defeating enemies from a distance is always Artemis' #1 priority. Most of his comboing ability consists of anti-air juggling, so a common strategy is to repeatedly shoot at a grounded enemy to wear them out, and encourage them to jump to avoid projectiles, then hold them in the air as long as possible with projectile knockback.

Primary Attack

Gun-fu. Naturally being a gun-based fighting discipline, Artemis always has the advantage of range on his side and by far has the longest attack range of any basic attack. This doesn't mean all of his attacks hit everything in a straight line - nearly all of his attacks either curve over longer distance or attack at somewhat strange angles, preventing him from infinite-distance attacks outside of his Special 1. Additionally, his weapons only cause flinching after repeated attacks, allowing most enemies to advance straight through attacks even if it costs them decent portions of health at a time. Gun-fu is best used in tandem with movement-based contexts so as to continue attacking whilst moving, though the knockback it causes against airborne enemies also makes it a fantastic anti-air method. However, it is poor overall in close range encounters, mostly consisting of slow, awkward grab attacks that immobilize the victim whilst Artemis lines them up for a point blank shot.

Secondary Attack

Acrobatics. Mostly a means of getting around and avoiding enemies, and as such, doesn't deal any damage. The most common form of acrobatics is diving, which hurls Artemis in the gestured direction when triggered on the ground - this gives Artemis a brief period of attack immunity essential to avoiding melee attacks, and can even be used on the vertical axis to send Artemis into a high flip rather than a lateral dive. Using acrobatics in the air causes an air-jump, which is similar to the dive in that it instantly hurls Artemis in any direction, but does not come with the complimentary invulnerability to help dodge attacks. When used whilst pushing towards a wall, Artemis will run up it for as long as the Secondary button is held down - he can even run upside down on cielings, but only for a brief time. If the player times the Secondary button to roughly the same moment they impact a surface whilst suffering from stun or knockback, or when they hit the ground after falling from a great height, Artemis will perform a recovery roll that returns him back to ready stance very quickly and allows him to continue fighting or running with little interruption.

Special 1

Scorpion sidearm. Relatively basic semi-auto projectile with near-identical stat traits to the Gun-fu discipline - the main difference being that you can't control your movement whilst firing (though Artemis will still move with his previous momentum if he has any), but Artemis will aim directly for the cursor instead of firing in predetermined projectile arcs depending on the context. If the cursor is still moving during and after the Scorpion is fired, the projectile will curve in the direction of the cursor's movement proportional to its speed - with practice, this can lead to insane, awe-inspiring trick shots that, while not always particularly practical, can definently hit a target in very unexpected ways.

Special 2

Grapple gun. Fires a suction projectile that sticks to virtually any object, then retracts the connecting cable to pull him towards surfaces and heavy objects/enemies, or pull lighter ones towards him (or a little of both, depending on the target's weight). The grapple will only continue to fly whilst the Special button is held down, and if it is released any time in mid-flight or whilst attached to something, it will disengage and return to Artemis. Also, holding up or down on the movement stick will lengthen and retract the cable accordingly, allowing him to control his cable length to several effects. He can still fire one of his Scorpions via Special 1 and maintain a grapple simultaneously, though the suction doesn't last forever and eventually the grapple will disengage on its own. The Grapple gun can be used to take out enemies when used cleverly, such as dragging them off an edge from below, pulling an object onto them or simply whipping them about to disrupt their movement whilst Artemis' Scorpions whittle their health down.

Climax Mode

Guns Akimbo. Artemis equips a second Scorpion and dual-wields it with his existing one, effectively doubling his rate of fire and adding additional projectiles to his Gun-Fu attacks. There are some small exceptions to the rule, such as while grappling, where he needs the spare hand to operate the Grapple Gun.

Climax Attack 1

The Behemoth. Artemis equips a folding minigun and immediately winds it up to fire a massive storm of bullets in the general direction of the cursor. The Behemoth is extremely inaccurate, but it makes up for it with sheer number of projectiles covering a wide area to make it difficult to dodge nonetheless. The bullets fired possess a large amount of knockback for a full-automatic weapon, requiring the player to continually track the target as the Behemoth knocks them around - however, if the player is ever fortunate enough to pin a victim against a wall at close range, the minigun can deal an absolutely obscene amount of damage. For extra effect, the bullets can be curved similarly to Scorpions with a little effort, further enhancing the effect of supressing fire.

Climax Attack 2

Hellfire Grenade. Artemis primes and throws a white phosphorus grenade in the direction of the cursor, releasing flammable powder along its flight trajectory. When its timer reaches zero, the grenade sparks and sets the trail alight as well as spreading flames around a small-moderate area around the detonation point. These flames can't be passed, as they knock victims back when touched - this makes the Hellfire a great area denial weapon to trap a victim and earn some free shots with ranged weapons (or be a complete dick and drag them into the flames with the Grapple Gun), and can even juggle opponents by throwing a low-arc grenade aross the floor and setting it alight. The main disadvantage of the Hellfire is its timer, which can allow an enemy to escape if given the opportunity, and the fact that the Hellfire can backfire and hurt Artemis if he's not careful where he throws.

Climax Finisher

Lead Typhoon. Artemis throws a combination smoke-flashbang grenade towards the cursor - the Finisher only initiates if the victim is caught in the blast radius when it detonates, otherwise it simply obscures the field in smoke temporarily, leaving only bright special effects and the silhouttes of onscreen characters visible. If it succeeds, the victim is shown immobilized and disoriented in aformentioned smoke cloud with Artemis nowhere in sight, until a Grapple Gun projectile hits the victim from above and drags them offscreen into the sky. Artemis then reappears onscreen in its place, unfolds the Behemoth and starts spinning in place whilst firing in upward diagonal angles, blasting the smoke away in the process. The bullets fly upward in intricate curving patterns until they reach the victim, penetrating them several times each from a large number of different angles and suspending them in the air until the bullets eventually lose momentum. Cut back to Artemis, who is performing tricks with one of his Scorpions. Right as the victim falls onscreen, he regains proper hold of his gun and fires a single shot directly upwards into the air without even looking, nailing the victim one last time and ending the Finisher.