Schwarzpunkt (Guardian)
Background
Jakob Mueller was no brilliant inventor, he was no super-powered alien, nor was he gifted with abilities by some twist of genetic fate or horrific scientific accident. He was a man. Nothing more, and not one thing less. However, what he did have was a head for finance. Jakob spent many years in his native Austria working in the banking industry. And, he was quite good at it, from lowly teller to bank manager to head of an entire chain, Jakob really thought he was going places. Until, of course, it was found that he had been stealing money from the banks at which he worked for years! The scandal that errupted even made those who had followed his successful career in gymnastics years ago look at him sternly. He had lost, pretty much everything... except, of course, for the money (which he had carefully stashed away in nearly untraceable accounts overseas).
Not only had Jakob been pilfering money for quite some time, but he had also acquired some contacts in the Rogue Isles outside of the United States. Contacts who were more than willing to toss some legal muscle his way. And when the skilled attorneys were done, Jakob had been all but acquitted. He served some token time behind bars, but was released sooner than he would have thought possible.
Once his sentence was served, he left his native Austria and moved full-time to living in the Rogue Isles with a brand new identity: Joseph Herzmann. He didn't waste much time once he had moved, and immeadiately saw to the project of getting his money out of hiding. As Herzmann, he put his money to use in pursuit of establishing a "legitimate" business. Mueller Inc. opened its doors for business one year to the day after his release from the hoosgow. Mueller Inc. was meant to be a corporation whose chief aim was in the acquisition and development of knowledge and scientific progress. To that end, a large number of prominent scientists (some madder than others), inventors, doctors, and thinkers were put on the payroll. Jakob used his monetary holdings and the name of his now somewhat famous company to acquire other properties in the Isles that Crey hadn't already bought up. Thus making him the holder of several multi-million dollar companies.
It wasn't until he found a few choice gadgets within his own company that he moved from white-collar criminal to full on villain, though.
The Gear
The Sciences Division is a rather uncreative name for the division in which all of the thinking and postulating of other arms of Mueller Inc. get tested and put into practice, but it was a very important entity. And it is from this division that Jakob acquired the gear that would make him able to move from daytime CEO and businessman to nighttime assassin and thief for hire.
- Black-Point Gloves: These "gauntlets" absorb ambient light energy and use it to increase the density of the gloves themselves. This turns a rather ordinary punch from an ex-banker into a devistating blow. Not only that, but it does so with a great deal of presence as well... for you see when the B-P Gloves are in action, the area immeadiately around the user's fists become jet black and emit tendrils that seem to steal light itself from the area. It can be quite intimadating.
- Displacement Mask: This device allows the wearer to become practically invisible by bending light from behind the user to appear as though it is being emited from the front of the user... rendering the man in between virtually transparent. The problem is, that because this item also relies on light, it is disrupted if the practitioner also switches on the B-P Gloves at the same time.
The Name
Jakob had operated as a nameless villain for some time within the Isles using the technology he "acquired." Finally, it became clear that in order to make a name for oneself, you first had to have a name! And Jakob Mueller was just not intimidating enough to do the job... nor did he want everyone and his uncle to be able to associate these new more viscious crimes with those back in Austria he had committed. And though it wouldn't have made much difference in the Isles that he had a sortid past, he felt sentimental that only one black mark should be worn upon his Mueller identity.
And so it was that he simply translated the codename of the gloves he had been using in his crimes that had become his one and only signature into German. Schwarzpunkt was born!
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