Blowout

<!--Weaver thinking about Blowout: 29.6 said: That wasn’t the big issue. Blowout was. He wasn’t as stylish or attractive as the others, with a featureless mask that had a single ‘eye’ at the brow, his head shaved. His armor panels had lights that slowly rotated from one color to another, like a chintzy car stereo. Unassuming, when he wasn’t engaged in a fight. When he was, the lights would be flaring, muscles would be standing out, and there would be noise, shock and awe involved.

Blowout wasn’t a tinker; he had telekinetically assisted strength, which meant that when he was hoisting a car over his head, he was doing it with his mind more than with his arms. The strength and durability increased with the size of the audience and the reaction he got from them. His secondary power was the effect he had on his enemies, feeding on the same reactions that fueled his strength to new heights and leaving his targets stunned, reacting slower, taking longer to pick themselves up off the ground. On paper, he was the case-in-point of what Leonid had been talking about, the hand that distracts while the other hand sets up the trick.

But, as Floret suggested, it was something of a thing for Vegas capes to have ‘secondary’ powers that were actually the real power, in practice. Or maybe it was that Satyr tended to encourage a focus in the secondary powers, or a development of those same abilities. There was nothing on record about a long-term use of Blowout’s power, like Satyr had described. It would be a card he’d kept up his sleeve when he wasn’t doing something behind the scenes with the Vegas capes.

I was put in mind of a few of the records and events that hadn’t quite fit. They’d checked, retroactively, for drugs, and found none. They’d checked for any remainder of Floret’s creations, and again, they’d found nothing. But if it was Blowout… if he was the reason people had been left with amnesia, brain damage and even brain death, then that gave me a bunch of new reasons to worry about the Protectorate heroes we’d left behind.

Blowout fighting Weaver's group with the other Las Vegas capes: 29.6 said: “And I wish I couldn’t,” he said. “Funny how that works.”

I sensed Blowout pacing a bit to our left. Floret had her hand cupped, like she was ready to throw one of her things. I gathered the swarm, sensed her tilt her head a fraction.

...

Shadow Stalker and Lung engaged two of the remaining Vegas capes. Blowout stepped in the way, protecting Floret.

And through some unseen signal, some practiced maneuver, he knew to duck as she flung buds at the pair.

One unfolded in the air, tagging Shadow Stalker in her shadow state, and she crumpled.

The other hit Lung. Foot-long tendrils extended from his right pectoral to his right arm, binding to each.

Blowout hit the tethered Lung. Maybe he wouldn’t have been strong enough to affect Lung normally, but the audacity of it and our reactions to that went a long way in giving him a little extra kick.

There is a string of people in Las Vegas with varying amounts of brain damage that Blowout's power might have inflicted: 29.9 said: “I care about Revel too,” I said. I raised my head to look at him. “But I care about the world more.”

I could see Golem’s eyes through the eyeholes in his helmet. A frown. “I’ll stay,” he said. “In case anyone comes through, and so I can search for them.”

“Good idea,” I said. I thought about it. “What Satyr was saying… Blowout might have done something to their heads.”

“I remember Satyrical saying something along those lines. Stunning presence.”

“It’s not a power in the records, not something long-term like this. But it fits. There was a string of people found in Vegas with varying amounts of brain damage. Some permanent,” I said.

I could see his eyes widen. “He did? We were interacting with them all that time, and you knew he could have done something like this to Revel? We let them go?” --> Blowout was a member of the Las Vegas Protectorate until he abandoned it along with the rest of his team.

Appearance
Blowout wears a featureless mask with a single 'eye' on the brow, armor with panels that slowly rotated from one color to another.

Abilities and Powers
Blowout has telekinetically assisted strength. His strength and durability increased with the size of his audience and the reaction he got from them. His secondary power fed the same reactions that fueled his strength to leave his targets stunned, reacting slower, or making them take longer to pick themselves off the ground.

This effect is believed to be able to cause more permanent brain damage.

Background
Was in the habit of using a power that could cause permanent brain damage.

Post-Echidna
Tried to prevent the capture of Pretender.

Gold Morning
Was sent to infiltrate the Cauldron Compound.