Marcus Mitternacht

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Marcus Mitternacht is a soldier-turned mercenary working for the Fallen Angels hailing from Atlas Academy, and is the leader of Team MDNT.

Appearance
Marcus appears to be a tall young man with spiky midnight blue duck-tailed hair, along with fair skin and purple eyes. That being said, he wears a black and blue coat, over a futuristic dark jacket with bright blue and white light strips running all over the design. He also wears multiple magnetic belts over his dark pants, which allow him to store his gear. He also possesses an armored exoskeleton, complete with helmet, and a thruster pack, as described below.

Personality
Marcus comes off as a serious, no-nonsense individual. He doesn't really speak much, let alone open up about himself, and when he does, he prefers if everyone would take missions and life as seriously just as he did, exuding an air of professionalism around him. Some may find him rude, or unpleasant as a result of this.

In truth, he sincerely cares for the people around him, and his "rudeness" stems from the fact that he has to worry about their safety, and considers their attitudes to be too carefree, especially when compared to his experiences, which results in his traumatic PTSD - and survivor's guilt.

In combat, he practices pragmatism and professionalism in the field. He makes sure that no mistakes are made, that all possible outcomes are considered, and will exploit every strategy to achieve all his objectives. He even promotes triple-checking on the status of his targets and surrounding variables to ensure that the missions are not jeopardized.

His current state has instilled in him a quasi-cynical worldview; while war is inevitable, it should not be taken lightly. This has put him at odds with adrenaline junkies, jingoistic patriots, and warmongers of all stripes.

Background
Marcus, from a young age, believed in the dream of being a Huntsman, and in the patriotic duty as a soldier. After he graduated Atlas Academy in the upper tiers of his graduating year, he briefly served the special operative branch of the Atlesian Armed Forces (AAF), before deciding that simply protecting the people of Atlas was better than serving in Atlas' political agenda, and transferring to a slightly lowly-special forces detachment of the AAF, serving alongside his fellow soldiers, especially his team. He was living the dream, and he lived it with pride.

Tragedy struck when said team had a nasty encounter with the Grimm, where the strain of fighting low-ranking fodder and more intelligent and stronger creatures had reached a breaking point - leaving Marcus as the sole survivor to witness it all. Needless to say, it broke him.

Feeling shame, guilt, and remorse, he tried to carry on his duty once more to avenge his fallen comrades. But the psychological issues made sure that he would not serve the military again for the forseeable future.

Unable to adapt to civilian society, Marcus felt that he wanted to redeem himself - and find a way to overcome his inner demons. He also needed a way to make sure that he was able to support himself.

A relative introduced him to mercenary work, and with it, he joined The Outsiders. He managed to form a new team, and began to get results for clients and his employers. All that's left for him is to make peace with himself, ensure the survival of his teammates, and to keep doing his job, even if it means having to reform his team should the current members be incapacitated...

Abilities
Marcus is a fit and experienced individual, having graduated from Atlas Academy. He also is trained in a variety of situations, though he can be outclassed by their masters. He has keen intellect and intuition, making him a formidable opponent, especially as a strategist that intends to make no mistake in combat.

His primary weapon, upgraded over the years, is a pair of advanced modular sword-rifles called Mitternacht Regen. At first glance, it is an odd weapon, being a mix of a sword, heavy cannon and a futuristic assault rifle. The butt of the weapon is a large sword hilt, with a pommel and a saber-styled guard. A secondary guard on the bottom of the weapon also serves as a trigger mechanism to allow the rifle mode to be used. Finally, the front of the weapon possesses two rails that open and collapse to reveal a fabricated Impact Dust barrel. The rails can then be attached with detachable blades, that function as additional rail extensions. The primary rifle chassis is small enough, roughly the size of a compact SMG. And the blades themselves can be fired off, though the heavier ones won't fly far.

The weapon fires 60 projectiles, each the size of a 5.7x28 mm round, that is then accelerated with the Impact Dust Barrel, which then increases its velocity to that of a conventional 7.63x51mm assault rifle. If a faster velocity is required, then the internal rails, along with the rail extensions can be charged with an electromagnetic field generator powered by a Crystal-based powerplant within the handguard. Thanks to the use of Impact Dust inside the weapon's frame, the recoil associated with railguns is mitigated to a moderate level, though it is still there. The longer the rails are charged, the longer the delay between consecutive shots. The minimum charge takes only a few milliseconds, granting

It is able to fire ballistic projectiles or alternatively, Dust particles in several states. When firing Dust, the magazine is instead loaded with concentrated Dust particles inside "drilled" slots of the magazine itself. This allows it to utilize a variety of Dust elements without sacrificing the ergonomics of modern firearms, thanks to the magazine designs of Queenston Arms. A dial underneath the trigger guards changes the state of the Dust particles, while a second dial changes the element used at the time.

The following is a list of the possible elements of Dust, when utilized in several states:

Particle sprays & Solid-State Projectiles/ Particle Beam / Laser / Particle Blade
Fire: Shoots out firebolts & flamethrower sprays/Generates a raw beam of fire/Generates a focused, red cutting beam/Generates a blade

Ice: Shoots out ice shards & ice sprays/

Water: Shoots out massive sprays of water/Pressurized water beam/Generates a sharp blade of pressurized water

Earth: Shoots out projectiles of dirt/NA/

Plasma: Shoots out raw sprays of superheated plasma/Shoots out a plasma beam/NA/Generates a

Impact: Fires a massive hyper-accelerated bolt of energy/

Lightning: Shoots out raw bolts of lightining/

In combat, he can use the weapon in three ways: first, as a rifle by using the secondary handguard, second, as a hip-fired cannon using the trigger mechanism near the pommel of the weapon, and as a traditional sword using the hilt. The cannon mode requires two hands to be used properly, while the sword and rifle forms can be used one-handed; under the provision that the smaller blades are used and that the rail charge is not utilized, in order to not break his arms.

His secondary weapon are a pair of smaller gunblades that are downsized versions of Mitternacht Regen. Unlike their larger counterparts, they possess no transformation features. However, they do possess fixed rails, and all but the heaviest of Mitternacht Regen's detachable blades are compatible with the secondaries.

And additionally, his armored exoskeleton features a thruster-pack for high-speed mobility and long range movement. This thruster pack possesses rail extensions that when attached to Mitternacht Regen, forms two Dust-powered cannons, enabling high-speed mobile fire. It is important to note that Mitternacht Regen has to be attached in order for the thruster cannons to fire.

His strategy concerning the use of these weapons is a straightforward, if not predictable one. Given the lack of unique gimmicks with his swords, he relies on superior mobility and positioning, along with a knowledge of tactics and the surrounding environment.

Semblance
His Semblance is called Midnight Warp. While it is, in effect, a teleportation Semblance, what, with the common weakness of being intercepted and whatnot, it is still a dangerous one, due to Marcus' skills, strategy, and careful analysis of the situation, enemy, and the environment. What makes this teleportation Semblance different is that Marcus is intangible during the teleportation process, meaning he cannot be hit while he is teleporting, as he can also simultaneously appear from another direction as his body begins to disappear from the first. Additionally, he can also attack immediately once his body reappears. As a whole, Marcus seldom does the back-and-forth teleport charge; sometimes he picks a completely different location to attack from, sometimes he fires a long-range projectile straight-out of the teleportation, sometimes he'll even teleport away and retreat to a vantage point in order to snipe the enemy, and he'll even perform a feint where he charges in only to teleport again at the last second and do another one of his moves. Combined with his aerial mobility, this makes him a fearsome foe as he can perform these maneuvers from the air and attack from every angle. He'll even spam the teleportation just to keep people guessing, as part of his irregular asymmetrical attack pattern repertoire.

His Semblance has evolved to the point where he can plan out what the teleportation looks like to his opponents. Not only

Trivia

 * Marcus comes from a Roman given name possibly derived from Mars, the name of the Red Planet.


 * Mitternacht is German for Midnight, and is the origin of his color motif of Midnight Blue.


 * Two notable inspirations for his weapon's design come from Alexsandra "Zarya" Zaryanova's Particle Cannon from Overwatch, and Ayato Amagiri's Ser-Veresta sword from The Asterisk War (Yes, I'm aware it's more of a mass of clichés than a show in its own right, I was only aware of this through Digibro's reviews on the subject). Interestingly, I never had any real attachment to the characters, and only referenced the designs because they were workable with what I wanted.
 * His design takes inspiration from the first photo of Mercury Black from the RWBY canon in the episode Black and White, from the spiky hair, to the pattern from his jacket. The armor references the Arkham Knight from Batman: Arkham Knight. The thruster pack takes inspiration from the ZGMF-X09A Justice Gundam's Fatum-00 from Mobile Suit Gundam SEED and the Liger Zero's Jaeger Pack from ZOIDS.