Nickel Eisenhardt

Nickel Eisenhardt is an operative of the White Fang and is the leader of Team NCKL.

Appearance
Nickel takes the form of a young deer Faunus, with short, silvery hair, average height, fair complexion, and small antlers, complete with green eyes.

Personality
Nickel comes off as an aloof person and leader. Deep inside, he possesses a tremendous drive of revenge due to being enslaved by the humans and losing every other member of his family. And his drive is only proof of his determination ... and his tragic bigotry.

Despite this, he is not a sociopath. He is willing to make connections with those around him, and he fiercely empathizes and wishes to protect those he deeply cares about. Of course, this makes him easy to manipulate.

If need be, he is ready to sacrifice himself for others, like his father before him.

Background
Nickel's family were Faunus that escaped the Schnee Dust Mines. Not only were they living in squalor mining Dust, but thanks to his family's highly coveted Semblance of metallurgy, they were instead put to work on a much crueller task: forging weapons and equipment for the SDC. This was physically exhausting, as it meant having to memorize thousands of molds, requiring plenty of Aura and stamina per day to construct the required goods. And for every time they didn't meet the requirements, they were whipped and beaten badly. However, they endured the best they could until they could find an opportunity to escape.

That opportunity came in the form of a riot at the Schnee Dust Mines. As usual, their brethren attempted to revolt, and the racist Schnees brought in reinforcements, including some members of the military, to suppress it. Before they could be caught, Nickel and his father were able to find an opening in the gates and successfully sneak out of the mine in the middle of the confusion.

Being alone with no support, the Eisenhardt duo decided to flee Atlas as fast as possible, travelling first to villages, and to other Kingdoms. They made their living selling whatever items they could forge with their Semblance, and by stealing for survival.

Thankfully, their salvation came in the form of the White Fang. The WF helped provide the Eisenhardts with shelter and support, even before their radical and violent change. And when they did become extremists, the two were able to find a more quick, and steady form of income as members of the White Fang.

The two moved from the Vale chapter of the organization, to the Mistral chapter, once it was revealed that the top brass, including Adam Taurus, was working with the obviously human Cinder Fall and her associates, working with Lieutenant Stanford instead.

Together as father and son, the two were able to settle down and enjoy their lives. Instead of living in fear of the human scum, they ruthlessly struck it instead in the hearts of the bastards that tried to harm their brethren.

The elder Eisenhardt believed that Nickel was his pride and joy. And to him, his father was an honorable man that served in the White Fang - and one of the people Nickel cared about the most.

One night, his father signed up to lead a mission on The Borealis. Despite Nickel's constant protests, he still left out of a sense of pride and duty. Despite the fact that Lieutenant Stanford also volunteered at the last minute he still died, with the opposing Hunters reportedly to blame.

Now that his father was deceased, he was now alone - and the last living member of his family. Because of this, it was the straw that broke the camel's back - Nickel now swears genocidal vengeance on the entire demographic of humans, innocents be damned. And helping him along was his superior, Stanford, and the other members of his team of operatives - Team NCKL.

He is on a ruthless quest for vengeance. And woe befall any human or "traitorous" Faunus that gets in his way.

Abilities
Nickel can be described as a man that fits a "jack-of-all trades" motif. He's fast, but not tremendously fast. Strong, but there are people with more muscle mass that can bench press his weight. A decent marksman, but lacks the long range power of a dedicated sniper. The man is trained in many styles, but is overwhelmed by masters of said disciplines in a straight fight.

He has average levels of Aura, and he uses it to great effect in many ways, whether he's blocking, healing, or using his Semblance, as shown below ...

Semblance
Nickel's Semblance is Metallurgy. He can bend and twist the shape of any metal that he comes in contact with. This allows him to create reshape any metal into weapons or armor simply by touching it. This renders conventional bullets and metal projectiles useless, as he can convert them into material for his use. He can even transform these incoming projectiles on contact, provided that his Semblance is activated first. And so long as he can stay in contact with metal on a surface area, he can utilize it to his advantage.

However there are a few fundamental weaknesses to his technique. He will have to exert more power compared to telekinesis and polarity users if they attempt to manipulate and levitate similar material at the same time, just to make sure that his metal objects are not outbent or forcibly removed by telekinesis. And that's assuming he doesn't meet an opponent with a Semblance that can alter the structure of atoms and molecules at will...

Additionally, he is especially vulnerable to Dust rounds when using it as metal armor. When it comes into contact with Fire Dust, the metal acts as a conductor for heat, burning him inside. Since the metal armor is a conductor for electricity and is susceptible to rusting, and freezing at the joints, he is also vulnerable to Lightning and Ice Dust, respectively. While it may take some effort attempting to blow him away with Wind Dust, it is still possible.

Also, he indiscriminately absorbs several other objects while using the Semblance. So he has to be careful about what he absorbs and what metal he uses, lest he absorb poison or bombs that cause his downfall.

Depending on the size, mass and weight of the metal he is using, it may take greater amounts of Aura. Thankfully, his Aura depletes on average, 10 percent slower than the average user when constructing average-sized items (i.e. swords, armor plating, and metallic barriers). Additionally, when using the materials he makes with his Semblance, his movement speeds differ greatly depending on the mass (i.e him wielding only a metal sword will not hinder his movement, while constructing and walking in massive, heavy armor will make him slower). Also, too much mass on the metal, particularly in certain areas, will put his constructs off-balance and destabilize their structure.

Trivia

 * Nickel is named after a silvery metal.


 * Eisenhardt is German for "hard, strong iron". Iron is another grey metal.