MOD - ACT 2

Absolutely power-drunk after the events that brought him at the head of the power plant. He still can fake calm and charm and most of the time he's pretty good at it when things go his way. Otherwise he's quite foul-mouthed and sometimes behaves as very much is owed to him.

With time he grows increasingly sickly as staying is armor 24/7 is a constant strain on his body. He can hide most of it most of the time, but pretty early an inflamed nerve back from the fight with Vitali slowly causes half of his face to become temporarily paralyzed.

Understimulated from his almost permanent stay inside the Arena's quarters and thus extremely experimental in his interests, his main occupation is trading favours to people in need in exchange of some entertainment.

He firmly believes he's in the right by doing so, as the previous role of the Power Plant was basically the same - helping the local pyromancer community and keeping an eye on them - but now with his own twist.

Biography (continued)

THE POWER PLANT

After his clash with Vitality Corp nobody cares what Mod does, on the condition of not influencing either the government or the corporation's business. Unable to integrate with the local community as he never experienced what could be called a normal life, Mod quickly grows bored of the usual life and decides to spice things up.

Thanks to the strategic position of the facility and the fact that the pyromancer community was already aware of it, Mod starts setting up a clandestine fighting arena to ease the spirits of whoever wanted to feel destructive wih their powers, with no harm done to the outside world.

The idea quickly grows popular as there was already a running issue with fire powers not yet being accepted and well-managed in the city - and Mod could understand it well. I mean, who could be happy when society told them they were undeniably dangerous if they were totally themselves? or at least this was the ideal that Mod promoted and made him feel in the right.

With time, the Arena evolves to truly be a helping hub for the local community, with Mod offering actual help to it while basically doing whatever he wants, including hosting a whole radio channel about the fights since he CAN'T skip the feeling of being an announcer.

Zima, in the meantime, manages the "serious" matters from the shadows, stuff like like keeping up funding from Vitality and avoiding any kind of major clash that would set up chaos in the city. (All in all, the Power Plant becomes a project which gets borderline tolerable by the outside world, but it solves more that a problem in the city while keeping the whole pyromancer matter localized so it doesn't get shut down.)

MAXY AND MOD

Maxy learns about the existence of the Arena by chance, while desperately searching for a quick way to make a living with his newly-awakened powers. After seeing Maxy fight with a certain gusto Mod asks him to join his ranks in exchange of something he might need and, after Maxy's answer of wanting a job to support himself without the risk of hurting anyone "by accident" , Mod sees in him a great potential to add to his team at the Arena.

During this time, Maxy serves to Mod as a prized fighter (although he might not always win), an actual right hand man to support him through difficult decisions, and a figure to use to scare whoever got in Mod's way. Maxy especially enjoyed the last one, as he felt that letting go of his most raw power was particularly freeing.

With this deal in place the two, after some time, enable each other in being the worst versions of themselves. Maxy absolutely adores the fact that Mod's giving him an excuse to let his anger and destructive tendencies out, Mod on the other hand slowly gets a bit too obsessed with him as the more time passes, as the more Maxy gets better at his "job" the more he fits Mod's "type". Their relationship evolves from a professional dynamic to something more blurred towards sick codepencency, and for a while they become inseparable.

FALL OF THE ARENA

As much as Mod liked playing the part of the boss, the strain from his unhealthy lifestyle and the constant use of his armor eventually take a toll on him.

Mod falls sicker and sicker from strain until he can't be the face of the Arena anymore. Zima has no interest in keeping the fighting portion of it up himself so he uses the Power Plant as a control point to manage the support to the pyromancer community.

Meanwhile Mod requires Maxy's full assistance in keeping him alive and cared for, as at this point he's a proper wreck of a human being physically and mentally, and soon their already on edge bond breaks.

Maxy, tired of having his freedom denied, confronts Mod just to have Mod justify and push on their exclusive bond. In the heat of the argument Mod pleads Maxy to kill him as "it would be the only right thing to do, by the hand of the right person", but Maxy decides to just lock him in the power plant's safe room in an act of humanity and leaving him to die by himself, as on top of everything he didn't want to satisfy Mod's wishes anymore.

After a couple weeks of not seeing Maxy around (Mod was already almost always locked in his quarters at this point) Zima goes to check on Mod. Mod, mistaking him for Maxy in a bout of sickly delusion, asks Zima to sustain him with his powers, a thing to which Zima complies to the point of sacrificing himself since Mod had no control on it at that moment.

Shaken awake by the realization of just having killed probably the only close person he had left, Mod is filled with grief for the loss of effectively everyone around him, and carries this heavy regret for now on.

Relationships

Mod and Maxy:

Mod and Maxy's relationship is that of textbook codependency: Mod gives Maxy the chance of expressing his negative feelings in a physical way, while Mod gets basically one whole Maxy (as in, someone who is eager to take in every input from him to become whoever Mod wants), and his eager commitment to the job.

During their decade of working together Mod develops quite the obsessive preference for Maxy, which Maxy initially accepts with the enthusiasm of being the boss's favorite. Their relationship ends up being unconventional, not properly the one of a henchman with his boss nor partners in life. However, as Mod's health deteriorates to the point where he can no longer be in the public eye, he begins to restrict Maxy's freedom, compelling him to care for him exclusively, and this is what ultimately determines their fall-off.

Mod and Zima (continued):

Zima acts as a shadow during the events of the Power Plant, increasingly disheartened with the course of events and willingly getting himself involved the least possible with Mod's whims. He limits himself to managing backdoor matters and patching people up once in a while. He doesn't even question why Mod disappears into a recluse zone in the facility during his his last weeks.

Some days after Mod and Maxy's final confrontation Zima finally goes to check on Mod, finding him alone and delirious. The latter mistakes him for Maxy and begs to use his powers to sustain him, blinded from his obsessive delusions.

Zima, tired and moved by pity, accepts the offer, discovering too late that what he could offer was not enough to keep both of them alive. One of them had to die, and Zima chose to be the one.

See Also:

• A short playlist for da vibz: