Birch Hackberry

Codename: Bark, the Human Tree
Nickname(s): Plant-Guy, Hacky, Hackleberry,
Age: 20
Race: Human
Alignment: Villain (HIVE... Or what's left of it.)
Is this a canon?: No



Hair Color: Green-tinted black
Eye Color: Red
Gender: Male
Height: 6'3''
Weight: 130 lbs
Other Traits:  Under his heavy clothes, his skin is cracked and jagged like rough, tree-bark.



Main Power Origins: Mutation

Powers
Power Binds/Whips:
Bark can shoot vines out from his hands up to 20 meters to act as whips or binds with at most up to 3 tons of force and can withstand as much as well! he can shoot out one vine per finger at once, giving him a maximum of 10 vines in play at any one time. These vines can be used for transportation and movement, grappling onto surfaces in order to get to higher or lower places.

Redwood Bark-Armor Suit:
A layer of armor covers Bark, giving him a near-indestructible defense! This armor completely covers both clothes and armor while still retaining some level of flexibility and can withstand up to 20 tons of force! In addition, it grants a high resistance to conventional earthly fire attacks given it's utter thickness and grants a great boost in strength as well, allowing Bark to lift and strike with a force of 5 tons! However, he cannot use his Power-Binds/Whips while this armor is active given how his skin is completely covered, reducing him to a mere brawler.

Tree-Limbs: Bark's arms can extend outward as LONG, sharp tree-limbs, the branches able to pierce and cut like razor-blades! They can extend up to 12-meters and are as thick and hard as iron-wood trees, requring a force of 4 tons to snap! The branches of these limbs can be manipulated like fingers to hold and contain foes. When used in conjunction with his Red-Wood Bark Armor, the Tree-limbs can withstand up to 20 tons of force!

Deep-Roots

So long as Bark is connected to the ground (or another surface that as deep, running roots), this move can be activated. Bark can control the roots of trees to use as weapons! RIPPING them up to the surface from deep beneath the ground! At about 10 meters thick and about 50 meters wide, Bark can control at most two of these roots which can come DOWN on someone at 50 miles per hour and impact with a force of at least 15 tons. (This can be used only once per battle and typically leaves Bark exhausted).

Earthly Healing:
Upon calling into a state of unconsciousness, a soft moss begins to grow over whatever wounds Bark has sustained in battle. This moss will then act as a sort of healing agent, stopping bleeding, connecting severed tissue and regenerating damage at a vastly accelerated rate! If knocked unconscious in battle, Bark can regain consciousness minutes later! This move can only be used once per battle. This move can only be used to heal himself and not others.

Skills
Natural Medicine/Poisons: Using the plant-life at his disposal and around him, Bark can create healing salves that reduce pain and encourage healing. Similarly, he can use them to create poisons of both a gaseous and applied variety which lead to tingling, loss of motor-control and eventual paralysis.

Cook: Bark is a natural cook, capable of whipping up 4-star meals with ease. Most of these meals tend to be carnivorous in nature, however, as Bark finds the consumption of plants... oddly unappetizing. While he's not beyond cooking something vegan or vegetarian, he wouldn't eat it himself.

Munitions Expert: Bark went out of his way to learn how to craft his own weapons in order to keep with his earthy theme. Knowing that a day will come when he doesn't have the support of the HIVE, Bark had done all he can to learn how to develop and find the resources for explosives.

Abilities
Physical Strength: Athletic, (Able to lift about 200 pounds naturally)
Speed: Athletic (able to run a mile in 5 minutes)
Acrobatics: Athletic (Had to develop skills in parkore in order too pass the HIVE's obstacle courses.)
Durability: Athletic. Hand-to-hand was a required course in HIVE. He had taken his lumps and came back for more.
Enhanced Healing: Is able to heal slightly faster than the average person, recovering from long-term damage faster and easier.
Hand-to-Hand Combat: Higher-than-Average. Bark was never the best at this skill but by far wasn't the worst. His punches will hurt and send the average person recoiling but he prefers to fight at a distance with his powers whenever possible.




Physical Weaknesses

-Fire (Burns him worse than the average person)
-Anti-Fungal Agents (Aren't good for plants, destroys his abilities)
-Pollutants in HIGH Concentration (Factories, Nuclear Plants... these drain Bark's abilities more than any other)

Mental Weaknesses

Betrayal: Bark cannot stand the thought of being betrayed. If he's left to his fate by people he considers "friends", he'll lose all perspective and focus solely on getting revenge. This leaves him in a state of tunnel-vision, a threat to himself and those around him. In this vein he's also easily manipulated towards one side or another, a few words suggesting such infecting him with insecurity and second-thoughts though he would have to have some previously established justification for this to come about.

Equipment

Bullet-Proof Vest: Never know when someone plans to take you out permanently. Worn under his Jacket.

Wooden Staff: Carved personally, Length 7 feet. Made of Iron-Wood. Main weapon of choice. Each end has a steel tip, adding additional striking power

HIVE-Mask: An armored mask that protects his face that bears the appearance of the typical HIVE soldier. A communicator rests on each "ear" of the mask, allowing him to contact other HIVE Communicators or any frequency he has access to. It comes with a scanner as well, one that tracks both movement and heat-signatures as separate scanning functions in order to keep a visual on super-human or invisible targets.

HIVE H.U.D. and Objective Unit: An add-on to the HIVE-mask that Bark had customized, the H.U.D. resembles the bug-like eye-pieces of the mask, displaying a map of the local area and the objective he needs to acquire (according to previously inputted information) in the left corner and a display of his vitals on the right.

Seed-Bomb Model 1: A throwable explosive in the shape (and size) of a small Walnut. Upon connecting with a target, the explosive would detonate with an explosive force of 1 Killogram of TNT (or enough to obliterate a car).

Seed-Bomb Model 2: A throwable explosive in the shape and size of a Cashew nut. Typically thrown by the handful, these are flash-bombs that explode seconds after tossing, creating a close-range disorienting flash of light (a single handful equivalent to a flash-bang grenade) used to disrupt oncoming foes. The average person will be left blind for several seconds.

Seed-Bomb Model 3: His largest bomb by weight, it is the size and general shape of a Coconut. Having only two of these on him at a time, Bark keeps them strapped across his chest over his jacket to be hurled at opponents. A proximity bomb that activates it's sensor seconds after it leaves the grip of it's thrower. Upon connecting with it's target or if someone wanders too close to it, the bomb will split in two, expelling a MASSIVE cloud (Up to 30 feet) of poisonous neurotoxin that gradually wears down the the person afflicted before eventually succumbing and the individual is paralyzed for several minutes unless they have a way to counteract the poison. The poison will work it's way out in time... but it is a long and painful process.

Seed-Bomb Model Venus: Fly-Trap

Spoiler:

Bark carries only one of these at a time and for good reason... A small green ball suspended in a vial of slimy green liquid, Bark has to manually plant this seed into the ground for it to grow into the MASSIVE man-eating fly-trap seen above! Towering at a massive 2 stories tall, the creature is tough enough to withstand 15 tons in force with a bite-strength of 4 tons. Stationary and all-consuming, the beast will lash out at anything that gets within it's range, even the man who planted it! Upon it's defeat, the beast will EXPLODE, spraying an acidic compound up to 30 feet in all directions, searing all organic matter it comes into contact with.



Personality
Despite his status as a villain, Birch is quite laid-back and warm with his team-mates, considering them friends as they have bailed him out of conflicts more than once. He's not the sort of man to leave anyone behind, even for the sake of his mission, and will go out of his way to make sure anyone he's allied with either leaves with him... or leaves without him. Hardly a leader, however, Birch prefers to follow the orders of someone else, believing that he doesn't have the appropriate qualities to be considered a leader. Birch is most at home in the greenest places on the planet, the smell of fresh oxygen and the bitterness of freshly grown plant-life filling him with contentment. On the other side of that coin, however, the scent of smoke and smog RUINS his day more than anything else, giving him deep, PIERCING headaches.

Anger isn't an emotion that comes easily to Birch but when it does, he becomes sarcastic, cold, and passive-aggressive, targeting what he believes to be his tormentor's weak-points in an effort to stab at them emotionally. He has a sort of cruelty about him in this way, that he enjoys the sight of seeing them struggle. It's only right, after all... If they would go out of their way to enrage him... it's only fair to make sure they have an emotional scar to remember their achievement by.

Birch doesn't have a resentment towards heroes (or villains) that would move in to stop whatever he's doing, recognizing that it's just part of the job. It's almost a game, in a sense, the a sort of professional playfulness that comes with the song-and-dance that always played out between hero and villain. Relaxed, playful, Birch tries to take down his foes one at a time or even turn them against one another, directing their attacks into each other in an attempt to scuttle their teamwork.

One thing Birch enjoys most is video-games, typically carrying around a hand-held with him everywhere he goes. Birch also enjoys breeding his carnivorous plants, eager to have them grow larger, hungrier, more aggressive with each new generation simply for his own amusement. He'll even use them to prank his friends, scare them as one goes in for a bite.

While most things roll off Birch's back like water off a duck's, the one thing Birch cannot stand... is betrayal. Being turned on by people he considered his friends and allies, Birch will grow single-minded and hostile, allying himself with virtually anyone just to get back at those that would attempt to toss him aside. He will not listen to their justifications, not notice their attempts to make it right. He demands VENGEANCE for their tampering with his heart at ANY cost.

Birch is extremely loyal to the HIVE (Or at least, its remnants) as it was the only place he's ever known, eager to complete whatever task he's been given without question just for the approval it might bring. He seeks not power, but the contentment of his superiors, his training as an agent being merely a means to an end in order to achieve the praise he desires.

...Or at least, that's what he'd tell anyone if HIVE were still around. Now, Bark has plans in order to bring back the Organization (once he finds Brother Blood), doing his best to scout out potential "students" and resources to be obtained in the future. Birch has a substantial softspot for former HIVE students (except for Jinx, that Traitor) and wishes them the best on their independent schemes.


Family Members: Mother (Status Unknown) Father (Status Unknown)
Place of Origin: HIVE BASE

History
Birch's first memories were on the streets of some nowhere-city filled to the brim with crime. No parents to support or protect him from the cruelty of the world and with no name to call his own, Birch was forced to rely on his wits and street-smarts in order to obtain food and shelter each night... at least, until his powers awakened. His plant-summoning powers made him QUITE the threat among average thugs, the young child strangling, smashing and tossing away men who would have once beaten him to paste... Still, food was scarce on the streets and gradually, his strength would begin to fade, the boy lacking the strength to fight off the scavengers...

...And then, the Hive found him...

For the next few years until today, HIVE had been the only true and stable home Birch had come to know... and he grew to care about it deeply. The students here became his friends, the soldiers, protectors he got to know personally. His performances on the obstacle courses became a thing of pride for the child as he grew, climbing the ranks until he obtained a semi-respectable position among his peers! Eager to please and even more eager to prove himself to the highest echelons of the organization, Birch (now known as Bark) set out to the world in order to bring about HIVE's goals.

...Once the HIVE had been destroyed, however, everything changed. Birch was suddenly left without a home or master, his friends scattering to the wind desperately as the fortress collapsed all around him! Barely able to survive the destruction of HIVE headquarters, Bark spent the next few weeks recovering... then the next SEVERAL digging through the debris, saving who he could... and finding that Brother Blood was nowhere to be found! Holding a quiet, contained grudge against the Titans now for having taken his home and family away, Bark sets out on his quest to find Brother Blood and rebuild the HIVE into a school that would NOT be destroyed by the Titans! Then and only then... when his new family was safe and secure... would he pluck each of the Titans... like pedals off a flower.


Bark retreated quickly as his opponent charged towards him, Wildabeest with his massive frame and curved horns leveled at his chest! He knew he couldn't outrun the monstrous creature, it's movements too swift (if bullish) for his mere human physicality to out-preform... but there was only so much the hero's superior strength and speed could do for him! Reaching into his front jacket-pocket, Bark would withdraw a single Seed-Bomb Model 1 and HURL it at Wildabeest, the bomb cracking against the creature's forehead  one moment... and exploding in a BLINDING FLASH the next! The creature should thank his lucky stars for how durable he truly was, a car-destroying BLAST merely sending the creature FLYING backwards into a nearby wall, the mortar crumbling under his weight the instant he collided with hit! Crawling out of the brick, disoriented and hurt, Wildabeest attempted to rise to his hoofed feet... only to feel a tug upon his horns! Glancing up, he would notice green rope-like vines wrapped around them, several in fact that lead all the way back back to one of Bark's extended fingertips! The HIVE agent charged ahead towards the behemoth, Wildabeest SWINGING an arm around in a backhand to strike at Bark's masked face... only to strike nothing but air! Bark had ducked beneath the massive, hairy arm of the hero, the vines around the creature's horns snapping off the villain's fingers as a thick plating began to manifest over his jacket and body! With a roar, Bark would bring his fist up, SLAMMING into Wildabeest's jaw, sending the creature FLYING into the air, through all 5 stories of the building he stood within, the creature landing HARSHLY several blocks away, cracking the concrete roads beneath him! The wooden armor falling off Bark, the agent would raise a hand to touch the side of his mask, activating the communicator within.

"Bark to base. Wildabeest has been eliminated."

"....Excellent... Proceed to your next objective"

Glancing down at the map his H.U.D. provided, Bark spotted his updated objective, to aid his team in defeating the remaining titans in the area. Letting out a soft sigh, somewhat surprised that they haven't been defeated already, Bark would casually jog off towards the nearest objective marker... all the while limply shaking his aching wrist... that crazy creature's jaw was practically made of IRON!

The Loraxe speaks for the trees! I still don't have a stamper!

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