Cole Ashburn

"You cannot escape the responsibility of tomorrow by evading it today."

Cole Ashburn is an original character created by WeissSchnee. He is the leader of Team C.B.L.T and alludes to Prometheus.

Appearance
Cole is a tall, handsome young man. His unusual hair, light grey on top and black on the bottom, often catches people's attention and he has grey eyes. His skin is lightly tanned and he has an athletic build.

His regular/ combat outfit consists of a grey vest with black detailing and gold zips and a black belt around the waist, a grey belt with a large round gold buckle, black and grey pants with light grey higlights, and black and grey combat boots with gold fastenings.

Cole appears young for his age, and most people have trouble believing he is a third year student at Beacon and not a first year.

He has only one scar which is located on his stomach and it wasn't recieved during combat. He got it years before attending Beacon when he had liver surgery.

Personality
Cole is a natural born leader. He's smart and brave and clever, and he cares deeply about his team mates. However, he knows never to let that caring get in the way of them accomplishing their missions. Cole will choose the best way to achieve whatever their end goal is, not the easiest or safest. He trusts his team mates and knows their skills well enough that he never doubts them or second guesses them. He doesn't treat them like children. They're warriors and on the battle field he treats them as such.

Off of the battlefield, Cole loves to goof around with his friends and is known to be very generous. He's usually the first to lend a hand when someone is in need. However, this generosity can be taken advantage of and Cole has a tendancy to always put the needs of others ahead of his own.

Cole is a good student and does well in all of his classes. He tends to enjoy the more practical side of learning and does better with hands on activities but doesn't let this affect his grades in the more theoretical subjects.

Biography/ History
Cole was born in Vacuo but moved to Vale with his parents when he was four. His father is an engineer and his mother is a doctor. For as long as he could remember, Cole had wanted to be a Huntsman. Raised on nightly stories of his grandfather's adventures (he was a Huntsman) and hearing tales of his bravery from his father, Cole aspired to be as valiant and dedicated as the man he'd grown up hearing about.

Though his parents tried to disuade him from such a dangerous career, Cole would not be swayed and eventually, respecting their sons wish, they allowed him to enrole at Signal Academy. During his first year, Cole was diagnosed with a hereditary liver disease and was forced to take time off and have surgery to treat it. He returned to Signal as soon as his doctors and parents would allow him to and worked hard to catch up on what he'd missed.

Cole graduated Signal with good marks and after performing well in the entrance exam, was admitted to Beacon Academy.

Cole and his team were out in the field on a mission when the Fall of Beacon occured. They returned to Vale once they learned what had happened to assist with clearing out Grimm and helping to secure the city.

In Combat
Abilities:

Cole describes his combat style as 'Slash and Burn'. In combat, Cole wields a pair of triple form weapons called Regenbrand. The default form appears to be a glove with a retractable blade. The second form sees the retractable blades become shootable and the weapon becomes more like a hookshot. The third form, and the most destructive, of the weapon sees the glove become a hand mounted flame thrower with a round device forming over the palm of the glove. This is where the flame is expelled from. These round devices are filled with Burn Dust which is what fuels the flamethrowers.

Cole relies on speed over strength in combat. He may not do as much damage with a single attack as his team mates, but he can attack more often. This means that over the same perios of time, he can do the same amount if not more damage.

He often uses the hookshot form of his weapon to move around the battlefield. He also uses it to latch onto enemies, particularly aerial ones, and inflict damage.

Aura:

Cole's Aura is a light grey in colour.

Semblance

Enflame. Cole's Semblance enables him to change a regular flame into a blue flame, increasing it's heat and in turn the damage it can cause. He uses this not just with his own weapon, but also to aid his team mates when they use fire based Dust.

Trivia
- Cole is based on Prometheus.

- His hatred for birds, and to a lesser extent his liver disease, are allusions to Prometheus.

- His name, Cole, makes you think of coal, which is black.

- His surname, Ashburn, is Old English in origin and means a stream where the ash trees grow.