Nemesis Series / Characters

NOTE: Since some characters are primarily known by their real name, some are primarily known by their secret identity/superhero persona, and several don't have their full names given in the narration, entries here are (roughly) sorted by whatever name they usually go by in the story.

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Team Dreadnought/New Legion Pacifica

Danielle "Danny" Tozer / Dreadnought IV

https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/dreadnought_9.jpg

"My name is Danielle Tozer. I am a girl. No one is strong enough to take that from me anymore."

The protagonist. A closeted transgender girl whose life changes dramatically after the titular Dreadnought passes on his powers to her in the first book.

Achilles' Heel: Dreadnought is highly resistant to physical attacks and extreme temperatures, but vulnerable to electricity. Magic can harm her as well.
Action Girl: As a superhero, this is a given.
Ascended Fangirl: Being a superhero herself has not dampened her enthusiasm about them in any way.
Beauty Is Never Tarnished: Averted. Danny is a brawler and prone to getting her bones broken and her teeth knocked out during major fights. Thanks to her Healing Factor, she tends to recover fairly quickly and usually without any scarring, though.
Bequeathed Power: How Dreadnought's mantle is passed on.
Blood Knight: About halfway through Dreadnought, Danny gets into her first fight with another metahuman, and discovers (somewhat to her surprise) that she really enjoys it.
- By Sovereign, this is starting to creep towards Ax-Crazy, which has her friends seriously worried.
  Can she explain how much better food tastes when she buys it with money earned in blood, her blood? Should she tell them about the feral joy of living at the edge of death? About how battle makes her feel dangerous and savage and complete? Should she let them know that sometimes she's disappointed when a fight ends too quickly?
The Berserker: As Dreadnought, does not ever back down from a fight.
The Big Gal: Her customary role when teaming up with others.
Cast from Hit Points: Her direct lattice manipulation/Reality Warper power works like this. For example, while she's functionally a telekinetic, lifting anything heavy that way causes her bones to explode from the inside, so it's more of a last resort.
Classical Anti-Hero: For most of Dreadnought, being untrained, inexperienced and full of doubts.
Combat Pragmatist: Very much so. Her enemies rarely expect it. Quoting from Sovereign:
Danny: (narrating) The first rule of combat is to get in the first shot. The second rule of combat is that cheap shots are the best shots. I really like the second rule.
Combo Platter Powers: Dreadnought's mantle grants a basic Flying Brick power set, along with a fairly respectable Healing Factor, Super-Senses, and oh, some general-purpose reality warping thrown in for good measure. No wonder the first Dreadnought instantly outclassed all other known metahumans at the time.
Easy Sex Change: After Dreadnought's mantle is passed to her, her body changes in a matter of moments. That said, she still retains her XY chromosomes and her male organs are merely rearranged to produce estrogen, not replaced with female organs entirely.
Good Thing You Can Heal: While most ordinary weapons can't even scratch her, heavy ordnance and other metahumans definitely can, and her direct lattice manipulation powers tend to cause serious internal injuries when used. She frequently ends up with numerous broken bones and other injuries after major fights.
Heroic Build: Gets this as part of her transformation when she is given the mantle.
- She gets squicked out when she realizes she looks that way because the mantle grants her her ideal body image. Doc Impossible shuts it down fast.
  Danny: So my ideal self—
  Doc Impossible: (chuckles) Is a photoshopped underwear model, I see.
  Danny: I guess it sounds a little stupid to be upset over being pretty—
  Doc Impossible: Yes! Yes it does. You think you're immune to advertisements? That'd be a hell of a superpower, but even if Dreadnought were immune to mind control—and he wasn't—you've spent your entire life swimming in the stuff.
Impossibly Cool Clothes: The super-suit Doc Impossible made for her. Self-repairing, color-changing, radar and thermal masking modes, built-in navigation computer, heavy-duty thermal insulation with the cape acting as a heat shield for orbital re-entry, and it's got Bluetooth!
Invincible Hero: Averted from the beginning. Yes, Dreadnought is incredible powerful, but so are many other metahumans, and the three previous bearers of the mantle were all killed in action.
Jumped at the Call: zig-zagged. Danny decides that she wants to pay Dreadnought back for his gift and honor his memory pretty much immediately, but doesn't feel like she's worthy to take over the name.
Law of Inverse Fertility: Is crushed when she learns she can't get pregnant.
Lipstick Lesbian: She wears makeup because she likes it, even after her powers gave her her ideal body.
Rocketless Reentry: The fastest way for her to get back down after a sub-orbital flight, using her cape as a heat shield.
Superheroes Wear Capes: Traditional part of the Dreadnought get-up.
Super Not-Drowning Skills: One of the minor but useful abilities of Dreadnought is the ability to hold her breath for several hours.
Too Hungry to Be Polite: Using superpowers burns a lot of calories, especially if healing injuries are involved. After the big fight in the first novel, Danny is scarfing down pizza and "not bothering to starve myself by eating one slice at a time."
Unskilled, but Strong: An inexperienced teenager without any combat training, Danny tends to rely on sheer brute force.
"Well Done, Daughter!" Gal: Danny is desperate for approval from her emotionally abusive dad. In her superhero identity, initially she constantly feels like she can't live up to the legendary Dreadnought.

Sarah Castillo / Calamity

"Ain't no cavalry coming. We do this now, or we don't do it."

A cowgirl-themed superhero and Danny's best friend and love interest.

Action Girl: Skilled martial artist and a crack shot.
An Arm and a Leg: Loses her left arm facing off against Utopia near the end of Dreadnought.
Artificial Limbs: Gets a hypertech prosthetic for her missing arm between Dreadnought and Sovereign.

Broken Bird: In Sovereign, resulting from the events of the first novel. Losing her arm has shaken her quite badly, and she considers the events leading up to it her greatest failure. She's convinced herself Danny resents her for pushing to keep going after Utopia.
Coat, Hat, Mask: As Calamity, her default getup is a brown duster, wide-brimmed gray cowboy hat, and a red bandana over the lower half of her face.
Dark and Troubled Past: In several ways.
- The effect of the Super Serum Sarah's grandfather was injected with is hereditary, but comes with a 50% chance of dying from leukemia within ten years of exposure. Two of Sarah's brothers didn't make it, and Sarah herself was sick as a child, although the cancer is now in remission.
- Her father is imprisoned for killing a CIA agent involved in a drug smuggling operation.
- Her mother is a reformed supervillain.
Deadpan Snarker: very much so.
Expy: Of a couple different sources:
- Her backstory—being the grandchild of a guy who became a hero after being subjected to a Tuskegee-esque experiment run by the American military to create supersoldiers, and who in fact was the only survivor of said experiment—is identical to that of the Marvel Comics character Eli Bradley.
- Her gun skills and nickname match with the Calamity Mary character from Magical Girl Raising Project. They also both have cowboy-themed appearances.
The Gunslinger: Deadly accurate with her twin .38 revolvers, but mostly uses non-lethal ammunition.
Knight in Sour Armor: Jaded and snarky, but full of energy and willing to fight for what she thinks is right.
Calamity: "I'd love to play by the rules, but the people who make the rules are crooked, so that's not a choice we get to make right now."
Knows a Guy Who Knows a Guy: In Dreadnought, she's been graycaping for a while and has a bunch of connections in the scene, whereas Danny is brand new.
The Leader: Tends to take this role in the field, due to her superior experience and tactical acumen.
Le Parkour: One of the ways she navigates the city; a natural fit for her enhanced agility and strength.
Love at First Sight: After their first meeting, Sarah immediately tries to establish contact with Danny, both in her civilian persona and as Calamity. By the time of the exchange quoted under Overshadowed by Awesome below, their interactions definitely read as more than Just Friends, and as of the diner scene after buying make-up, it's pretty obvious that Sarah is crushing hard on Danny. Danny is a bit slower on the uptake.
My Horse Is a Motorbike: In her Calamity persona.
Overshadowed by Awesome: Feels this way towards Danny, which drives her to overcompensate by egging on Danny to chase Utopia, a way larger threat than either are equipped to face. It doesn't end well.
Calamity: "Danny, promise me, if you ever do join up with [The Legion], full-time, that you won't forget tonight. You won't forget us small fry."
Danny: "It'd be pretty hard to forget you, Calamity."
Calamity: (straightens up, goes quiet for a long moment) "Thanks."
Paper-Thin Disguise: Danny recognizes Calamity as Sarah from her eyes and posture on their third meeting.
The Paralyzer: Her default pick of ammo are "jelly rounds". In her words: "these things have no penetration whatsoever. It'll be like hitting [them] with a baseball bat."
- That said, Sovereign has this rather sobering line after a particularly nasty fight in a remote location:
  Calamity: "I'm not naive. I know with how rough I play... it's different when I can't pretend the ambulance will show up in time."
The Resenter: Toward the Legion Pacifica. For most of Dreadnought, it's clear that she's down on them, but not why. It's because she thinks the CIA framed her dad for murder and the Legion hung him out to dry. Turns out she's half-right. See the notes under Dark and Troubled Past.
Secret Identity Vocal Shift: Affects an old-timey speech pattern while in-character as Calamity.
Super-Soldier: Her powers are the result of a US government experiment from World War 2 the create a super soldier. Her grandfather was the only surviving member, whose powers turned out to be heritable.
Twofer Token Minority: She's both black and bisexual. She'll also kick the crap out of anyone who might suggest that she's a "token" minority.
Weak, but Skilled: While substantially stronger than a normal girl her size, Calamity is nowhere near the weight class of Dreadnought or her serious enemies. She is, however, an extremely accomplished fighter.
Where Does She Get All Those Wonderful Toys? Initially, she buys them from an underground technopath using money she takes from drug dealers. Later, she works closely with Doc Impossible.

Charlie / Codex

"He's a wizard. He's going to do wizardy things."

— Calamity

A teenage wizard and Sarah's ex-boyfriend.

Better as Friends: Charlie and Sarah broke up, but they get along just fine.
Black and Nerdy: Complete with glasses.
Magical Library: The used book store that is his regular hang-out doubles as this.
Squishy Wizard: A scrawny kid, he's probably the physically weakest member of the regular cast.

Doctor Impossible

"You're wearing the mantle of Dreadnought, Danny. You really think a little thing like cesium is going to hurt you? Now hold still for a moment, I want to watch what it does."

The Legion's resident super-scientist and team doctor.

And I Must Scream: Utopia takes over her body in the climax of the first book and uses her to murder most of the League before she's able to disable it and switch her conscious to a new body that lacks the traps that Utopia used to control her. She compares it to being raped, and it's one of the main reasons she becomes an alcoholic by the time the second book starts.
The Alcoholic: In the second book she switches her addiction from nicotine to alchohol. She stops halfway through the book when Danny is in danger.
Antagonistic Offspring: She's a superhero, her mother is a supervillain.
Apology Gift: The next time Danny visits after her fairly disastrous first meeting with the Legion, she uses her machine to fabricate feminine clothes for Danny. Danny accepts these gifts and tears up.
Brain Uploading: She states her neural net was based on her mother, Utopia. Doc Impossible thinks like Utopia, and sometimes her own thoughts scare her.
Brainy Brunette: Dark-haired super-scientist who wears perfectly circular glasses. In terms of appearance, the description sounds like Daria Morgendorffer in a lab coat.
Knight in Sour Armor: Years as a whitecape have left her disillusioned with the superhero life.
The Medic: The League's resident physician.
Me's a Crowd: She operates three identical robot bodies simultaneously in the second half of Sovereign.
Mundane Utility: Sure, she builds hypertech medical scanners, super-suits and robots; but she also has maid bots and a robot built "to test a new colloquial speech interface" that she gets to walk her dog for her.
Must Have Nicotine: In Dreadnought, Doc Impossible is always either smoking or consuming nicotine gum.
Omnidisciplinary Scientist: In her own words, "I've got eight doctorates and two of them are medical".
Parental Substitute: Quickly turns into a mother figure for Danny, while Valkyrja is the Cool Big Sis. She unofficially adopts Danny at the end of the second book.
Ridiculously Human Robots: Doc passed for human with the Legion Pacifica for about 6 years. She even has nicotine and alcohol addictions.
Sir Swearsalot: The Doc has a filthy mouth, compared to the other Legion members anyway. Tries to stick to PG-13 vocabulary in front of Danny in Dreadnought, but slips up regularly. Depending on your outlook, either a lot more or a lot less funny if you consider what Danny's dad sounds like during his screaming bouts.
The Unreveal: Danny asks Doc what is her first name and Doc is about to tell her, but the scene suddenly ends before the reader finds out what it is.
Turned Against Their Masters: Rewrote her code to remove the backdoor Utopia, her creator/mother, used to hijack her body.
Younger Than They Look: She has only had a physical body for 7 years and 8 months as of Sovereign.

Kinetiq

An Iranian-American non-binary superhero. They have been working independently before joining the team.

Almighty Janitor: They are treated more like a small time hero by the public and hero community despite one of the most powerful metahumans we've seen so far.
Capitalism Is Bad: They seem to have this opinion. They paint "EAT THE RICH" on their kevlar armor before battle and isn't comfortable with having a large amount of cash.
Delinquent Hair: They wear their long hair like a horse's mane.
Xtreme Kool Letterz: Kinetiq instead of Kinetic.
Light 'em Up: They have the power to shoot light out of their palms.
Overshadowed by Awesome: In-universe. Kinetiq was a very vocal spokesperson for the LGTB superhero community and more than a little annoyed that Danny immediately stole the spotlight (though through no fault of her own).
Twofer Token Minority: Iranian-American and non-binary. Danny notes that it must be hard for them because of this (as well as not having a steady contract).

Legion Pacifica

In General

"I don't care why they sit up there in their little tower and let bullies like Bosco run around free. I just care that they do."

— Calamity about the Legion

The Legion Pacifica is one of the US's pre-eminent superhero teams, covering the area bounded to the west by the Pacific, to the east by the Rocky Mountains, to the north by Canada, and to the south by California.

Politically Incorrect Hero: Not all the members of the Legion are particularly tolerant. While Doc Impossible, Valkyrja and Magma all accept Danny without hesitation, the rest of the team has a few issues. By far the worst one is Graywytch, who is an openly hostile and antagonistic bully, but Carapace too is visibly uncomfortable with Danny. Chlorophyll is initially positive towards having another queer member of the team, it turns out he's mainly concerned about the revenue and the money a Dreadnought would bring in, trans or no.
Super Team: One of the most famous ones in-universe.
Teeth-Clenched Teamwork: A lot of bickering between the team members, with several internal factions that don't see eye to eye.

Carapace

"A man in silver and green power armor is hovering just outside my window, beckoning me to come outside."

— Danny meeting Carapace in person for the first time

A superhero wearing powered armor.

Ambiguously Gay: Doc Impossible mentions that Dreadnought III was "very important" to him and he's fiercely adamant about Danny not taking Dreadnought's name, despite having his mantle. It's never resolved, as Utopia kills him along with Valkyria at the book's climax.
Lawful Stupid: Comes off as obsessed with rigid adherence to rules.
Secret Identity: His face is hidden inside the helmet of the armor he always wears.
Technopath: Wears a custom powered armor super-suit and collaborates with resident Science Hero Doctor Impossible on some research projects.
Powered Armor: Wears this; appears to be a baseline human inside, or at least his superpowers aren't physical.
Replacement Goldfish: Insistent that Danny cannot replace Dreadnought III. Whether it's due to transphobia or for other reasons isn't clear.
We Hardly Knew Ye: Dies in the climax of Dreadnought after only briefly appearing in a handful of scenes.

Chlorophyll

"Screw him. Screw the Legion. I owe Dreadnought, but his friends? His friends are assholes."

— Danny about Chlorophyll

A superhero with plant-themed powers.

Amazing Technicolor Population: He's got green skin.
Career-Ending Injury: Suffers from serious brain damage after being shot in the head during the climax of Dreadnought. In Sovereign, his injury was so severe that he now has the personality of a little kid and his sister, Aloe, has guardianship over him.
Chameleon Camouflage: Has some way of making his naturally green skin appear differently, although the illusion isn't perfect: "when he moves, it's like the pigment on his skin is a half second behind".
Skewed Priorities: Clearly more concerned with status and money than with doing good.
Chlorophyll: "Danny, this is a huge opportunity for you. You'd be coming in at the top of your field. You want to talk funding? We have expense accounts bigger than most people's yearly pay, and that's on top of our stipends. And it's good work, too. Important work. We save lives."
Only in It for the Money: Wants to get Danny into the Legion ASAP because, in his words, "Dreadnought could justify a budget we won't be able to match without him".
Perception Filter: Can make bystanders not notice their surroundings, just sitting there blankly. He remarks they "might start sneezing a lot later today", so it probably involves spores or pollen.
Plant Person: Described as "half man half plant".

Dreadnought III

"Guess that's it, then. It's on you now, Danny. The world needs Dreadnought. I'm sorrier than you'll ever know."

Danny's predecessor wearing the mantle. We don't know much about him.

Because You Were Nice to Me: The reason why he gives his powers to Danny beyond her just being there is because she tried to help him even though he was already doomed.
Innocently Insensitive: He misgenders Danny the first and last time they meet. Seeing as he was on his death bed and Danny still had a male body at that time, he's excused.
Mortal Wound Reveal: It takes a minute for Danny to realize that he has a golf-ball-sized hole through his chest, courtesy of Utopia's inversion beam.
Reasonable Authority Figure: Was this, as far as we can tell.
Secret Secret-Keeper: Danny speculates that he knew Doc Impossible was a robot all along based on Dreadnought's power to perceive her true nature in the lattice, but he never told the rest of the Legion because it wasn't his secret to tell.
Take Up My Sword: When he realises he's dying, he transfers the mantle of Dreadnought over to Danny.
We Hardly Knew Ye: Dead by the end of the first chapter.

Graywytch

Doc Impossible says something to Graywytch that sounds like it rhymes with sure a ducking bunt

— The narration after Graywytch has just been particularly charming.

A transphobic magic practitioner who has a personal vendetta against Danny.

Bullying a Dragon: Picking on one of the most powerful metahumans in the world doesn't seem like a good long-term plan.
The Bully: Towards Danny.
Dirty Coward: While she's never subtle about her transphobia and dislike of Danny, that's only because she knows her fellow legioners are too hung up on their friendship with her to actually make her face consequences for it. When she truly crosses the line by outing Danny to her Abusive Parents, she makes sure Danny can't tell the Legion by way of magic and quickly retreats when it looks like Danny is about to beat the snot out of her in retaliation. While making death threats from the safety of the shadows. Danny outright calls her a coward when she flees.
Disproportionate Retribution: Because Danny, a transgender girl, refuses to voluntarily relinquish the mantle of Dreadnought (something nobody's even sure if she can do in the first place), Graywytch decides to kill everyone with a Y chromosome on the planet.
Dragon with an Agenda: She nominally works for Sovereign and helps him set up his satellite network to cast global spells, but she hates him and is actually just using him so she can use the satellites to try to kill all men.
Evil All Along: Possibly. It's not obvious when she started working with Sovereign, but given how extensive her involvement with his plot is, it's possible that she'd teamed up with him before Danny ever met her.
Face–Heel Turn: It's hard to say just when it happens, or if she truly was Evil All Along, but Graywytch goes from a respected (if bigoted) hero in the first book to an outright villain in the second, going to far as trying to kill every single man on Earth.
Familiar: When she's around, her raven isn't far. It gets killed when Utopia attacks the Legion Tower in the first book, but she replaces it in the nine month period between the first and second book.
Fate Worse than Death: She gets punished for her attempted genocide by having her soul ripped out of her body and locked in a living death as a slave to the Council of Avalon (the order that governs all magic users) for eternity. Codex tells Danny and Doctor Impossible that this is basically the worst possible fate imaginable.
Gendercide: Near the end of Sovereign, she attempts to use magic to kill everyone with a Y chromosome. Dreadnought stops her, but not before millions of men and tens of thousands of women die.
Goth: Dresses like one, anyway: "almost white skin", "heavy black eyeshadow", a dark hooded robe. It's stated at one point that her appearance is a haphazard blend of different goth subcultures with no apparent pattern, like she grabbed a bunch of stuff off the shelves of Goth-N-Go without checking to see if it matched.
Hate Sink: She's an openly transphobic bully who goes out of her way to strong-arm Danny into giving up the mantle of Dreadnought in any way that she can. Including telling Danny's parents about her superhero identity. That the Legion refuses to kick her out or even punish her for this behavior is one of the things that drives Danny away from them in the first book.
Hoist by Her Own Petard: Her gendercide attempts almost kills her. Danielle theorizes that Graywytch unknowingly possess a Y chromosome.
Insistent Terminology: Insists on referring to Danielle as "Daniel" and with male pronouns.
It's Personal: Has a personal beef with Danny, for no apparent reason other than her being trans.
Karma Houdini: In the first book, sadly. She spends the entire plot bullying, misgendering and otherwise demeaning Danny and at one point goes so far as to out her to her parents without her knowledge or consent. She receives no punishment whatsoever from the Legion and she's the only member to come out of Malice's assault completely unharmed; Carapace and Valkyrja die and Magma and Chlorohyll both suffer a Career-Ending Injury, but Graywytch is fine.
Karma Houdini Warranty: She finally gets some comeuppance for her behavior at the end of Sovereign. After attempting a Gendercide, her soul is ripped out of her body and she is Made a Slave to the Council of Avalon.
Jerkass: In case there were any doubts left: yes, she is very much this.
Malicious Misnaming: She refuses to call Danny "Danielle" and exclusively refers to her by dead name "Daniel".
Never My Fault: She never takes responsibility for any of her actions, instead blaming it all on "Man's abuse of Woman." This includes outing a teenager to an abusive father who embodies everything she supposedly hates about men, committing Cold-Blooded Torture, and Gendercide.
Noble Bigot: Deconstructed to hell and back. She's (supposedly) a superheroine and a very vocal transphobe and misandrist. Danny suffers a lot from her constant bullying. Nobody in the Legion seems willing to actually stand up to Graywytch on this, out of bias brought about by their years-long friendship with her. As a result, she gets more and more extreme in her bigoted views, which ultimately leads to her attempting a Gendercide of everyone she views as male in Sovereign.
Nominal Hero: In-story, we never actually see her perform any heroic acts firsthand (she even fails to respond to an emergency when she's supposed to be on duty just to ruin Danny's vacation), but she's a League member in good standing, so presumably she has done at least some good in the past.
Not-So-Well-Intentioned Extremist: Graywytch presents herself as just looking out for women and women's rights, and insists that she regrettably has to use extreme measures to protect women from oppression and violence... but it quickly becomes apparent that protecting women is far less important to her than her hatred towards men, and especially towards trans people.
Pet the Dog: Her one redeeming, if positive moment, is not being obstructive when Danni arrived with a critically wounded Sarah, and instead calling for Doctor Impossible and the lift.
Politically Incorrect Villain: She hates all men and transwomen, saying they're just men pretending to be women and she ends up trying to kill everyone in the world with a Y-chromosome.
Rummage Sale Reject: Danny notes that her costume consists of only being "goth" but blends multiple subcultures to the effect that it looks like she just chose a bunch of "goth" clothing off a store's shelf without checking to see if any of it matched.
Screw the Rules, I Have Connections!: It's stated in the second book that Graywytch hasn't been performing any of her required duties as a member of the League following the end of the first novel, but she's got enough friends on the city council that she's able to retain her position and the fat salary it provides anyway.
Sugary Malice: On the occasions where she doesn't treat Danny with outright hostility, she switches over to an extremely fake pseudo-politeness where she tries to present herself as just concerned for everyone's well-being. It's even clearer in the audiobook, where narrator Natasha Soudek often reads Graywytch's less openly hostile dialogue in an extremely smug and almost syrupy tone.
Wicked Witch: Somewhere between this and Sociopathic Hero. Goes full supervillain in Sovereign, which would put her firmly in the former camp.
You Are What You Hate: She hatches a plan to kill "men", which she defines as anyone with a Y-chromosome including trans women. It turns out that she is almost killed by her own plan. Danny theorizes that she, like many real-life cisgender women, has a Y-chromosome.

Magma

Huge guy with volcano-related powers.

Beware the Nice Ones: Apart from Valkyrja and Doctor Impossible, Magma's probably the nicest Legion member. He's always polite and friendly to Danny, he cares for his teammates, and he's even willing to give reformed supervillains a second chance. But it's clear that Magma is not one to cross, and he can hold grudges with the best of them.
The Big Guy: Huge, bearded guy with Glowing Eyes.
Career-Ending Injury: Gets badly injured by Utopia in the first book, with it left unclear whether he'll ever recover enough to return to active duty. In Sovereign, he has retired and is using a cane to help himself walk.
Magma Man: Yet to do any superheroing "on-screen", but presumably part of his powerset.
Mean Character, Nice Actor: In his superhero persona, he wears a "circus strongman getup" and "roars like fire and brimstone". In private, he's a well-spoken man in a suit with a "rich, urbane voice".
Reasonable Authority Figure: Polite, patient and considerate.
Super-Strength: One of his powers.

Valkyrja

"Okay, I'm going to be honest: I've had a crush on Valkyrja since about the time I discovered boobs are a thing that exist."

— Danny

A Valkyrie and member of the Legion Pacifica.

Antiquated Linguistics: Her speech patterns come off as overly formal and a bit stilted as a result. She is well aware and will sometimes ham it up for comic effect.
The Atoner: Becomes this after returning in the climax of the second book, feeling guilty for failing Danny by being killed and leaving Danny alone and also for her daughter Karen's role in Danny's capture and subsequent torture by Sovereign and Graywytch.
Big Sister Mentor: Takes Danny under her wing (no pun intended) as soon as they meet.
Even the Girls Want Her: Doc Impossible and Sarah seem to, anyway.
Everyone Loves Blondes: Blonde and considered to be very attractive in-universe.
Legacy Character: Valkyrja has lived for centuries, but her current body (at the time of Dreadnought) was born in 1979. Her powers and memories pass from mother to daughter.
Living Lie Detector: Not a superpower, she's just perceptive and has had plenty of practice.
Mentor Occupational Hazard: Gets killed during the climax of Dreadnought.
- Well, her then-current body gets killed — making her powers pass to her daughter, Karen.
Most Common Superpower: Never stated outright, but certainly implied (see quote).
Non-Idle Rich: In her words, "my fortune is vast". Financed the Legion Tower.
Power Gives You Wings: Has wings as part of her power set, although she doesn't need to flap them to fly.
Really 700 Years Old: She is over 1200 years old, by virtue of possessing her children upon her death.
Valkyries: One of them, as her name suggests.

Baseline humans

David

"He's a frickin' creeper! You never noticed?"

— Sarah

Danny's best friend at the beginning of Dreadnought.

Childhood Friends: Originally, Danny's best friend.
Eating the Eye Candy: Keeps staring at Danny's chest, even after she tells him in no uncertain terms to knock it off.
Entitled to Have You: His basic attitude when it comes to women. He essentially thinks they owe him because he's a "nice guy."
It's All About Me: Can't for the life of him understand "how girls are always so quick to jump up and down" on him and "always sneering at me, it's not fair" - despite him having questionable personal hygiene and casually dismissing girls he doesn't consider hot enough. Quickly turns into...
Jerkass: He grandiosely announces that he's "been lonely for such a long time", he's "ready to settle" for Danny, now that she's a hot girl. When Danny replies that she's a lesbian, and even if she wasn't she wouldn't be interested in anyone who treated her like that, we get...
- Kick the Dog: On being rejected by Danny, he calls her a "tranny" and says that he hopes she gets raped.
Jerkass at Your Discretion: From Danny's point of view, he Took a Level in Jerkass this almost as soon as he found out about her transformation. Their interactions before that are friendly and easy, and David even expresses genuine concern for Danny's health and living situation. Post-transformation, though, while he initially seems supportive, it doesn't take long for him to reveal himself as a total self-entitled creep who Wants a Prize for Basic Decency without even providing the basic decency. Sarah later reveals that he's always been like this towards girls, it's just that he never treated Danny that way because he thought Danny was a guy.
Nice Guy: Subverted. Danny thinks of him as this in the beginning, and he's quick to describe himself as a "nice guy," but it turns out he's anything but.

Janet Tozer (Danny's mother)

Accomplice by Inaction: She never really does anything to protect Danny from her father's abuse, instead focusing on bribing Danny to keep accepting it. When Roger disowns Danny, she immediately takes his side, not even trying to defend her daughter. In Sovereign she goes so far as to claim that Danny is exaggerating her abuse.
Extreme Doormat: Avoids conflict with her husband at all costs, and likewise has a pattern of bribing Danny with gifts to avoid difficult conversations.
Love Martyr: Keeps making excuses for her husband, telling her parents that Danny is exaggerating when she talks about her father, and in general doing everything to prolong their toxic relationship.
Troubled Abuser: She suffers just as much from Roger's toxic personality as Danny does, but she also always takes his side in fights and makes no attempt to protect her daughter when her husband throws her out of the house for being transgender.

Roger Tozer (Danny's father)

"My train of thought briefly segues into a bitter accounting of all the things he has provided for me. Shame. Fear. Hearing loss."

— Danny thinking about her Dad.

Abusive Parents: Verbally and emotionally abusive, he's constantly screaming at his family and belittling Danny, to the point where she suffers from permanent hearing damage from always being screamed at the same side of her face.
Atomic F-Bomb: Frequently has massive and profanity-laced screaming bouts. Danny (pre-mantle) suffered from hearing loss in one ear as a result.
Boisterous Weakling: Obsessed with manliness and "providing for his family", but for all that, he's just a sad loser in a dead-end job who terrorizes his wife and kid because they don't fight back.
Heteronormative Crusader: Wants to "fix" Danny. When she finally works up the courage to tell him she wants to be a girl and is never going back, he completely loses it.
I Have No Daughter!: After Graywytch outs Danny as having Dreadnought's powers (and thus that her transition wasn't induced by a "supervillain"), he throws her out and disowns her.
Distressed Dude: Has to be saved by Danny after catching the attention of a metahuman thug (see Too Dumb to Live below).
Financial Abuse: Files a lawsuit to gain access to the money Danny's earned as a superhero thanks to Greywytch hiring an expensive lawyer for him.
Man Hug: Appears to be into those; Danny is not.
Too Dumb to Live: Thinks that Danny was turned into a girl by a supervillain and decides that the best way to find said supervillain is to visit a greycape/metahuman bar and start asking random strangers.
Wanted a Gender-Conforming Child: Forced Danny to join the football team before her transition as part of his efforts to make Danny conform to masculine stereotypes.
White Collar Worker: Works in retail tax preparation.

Other metahumans

The Artificer

"He's a mite bit eccentric, but he only tried to kill me the one time."

— Calamity

A "grayish sort of hypertech merchant".

First-Name Basis: With Calamity, sort of. They appear to go back a while, and she calls him "Art".
Friend in the Black Market: to Calamity; her ammo supplier.
Impossibly Tacky Clothes: Wears a double-breasted white lab coat and thick purple gloves.
Mad Scientist: His shtick, if the clothes are any indication.
Mad Scientist Laboratory: His workshop. Described as a "lair" and situated in an abandoned factory.
Noodle Incident: See character quote. That's all we know about it.
We Hardly Knew Ye: Introduced like he's going to be a recurring character, then killed off-screen in the very next chapter. That said, they Never Found the Body, so who knows.

Bosco

"He's a thug, for sure, but he's too stupid and lazy to be a blackcape."

— Calamity

A metahuman thug who enjoys beating up baseline humans. Works in construction.

The Bully: Uses his superpowers to beat up baseline humans because he can. The police don't want to confront him and the League considers him too small fry to bother with.
Bullying a Dragon: Gets his ass handed to him when he tries to pick a fight with Dreadnought, who outclasses him substantially.
Chrome Champion: Can turn into "living steel".
Fantastic Racism: A metahuman separatist who looks down on baseline humans.
Super-Strength: And the corresponding Super-Toughness as well.

Darkfist

"His 'superpower' is being rich, okay? Not a single real power to his name. He doesn't even use hypertech."

— Doctor Impossible is not impressed.

A masked vagilante who is actually a completely baseline human with a lot of expensive gadgets.

Expy: Of Batman.
Terror Hero: Criminals are afraid of him. Doc Impossible insists they're exaggerating to "make themselves feel better about getting beat up by a rich boy in fancy cosplay".
Where Does He Get All Those Wonderful Toys?: He buys them - he's a billionaire!

Red Steel

A Russian superhero who used to work for the Soviet Union, but now works as a mercenary.

Dirty Communist: He used to be one (or work for them), but after the fall of Communism he now works for capitalism.
Eye Beams: Has this power, which comes as a complete surprise to Danny because it's not in his file. She guesses that it's either an exceedingly new ability of his or he's kept it a secret by killing everyone he's ever revealed it to.
Friendly Enemy: He has fought every Dreadnought before and even Danielle, but when he's off duty he and the Dreadnoughts are the best of pals.
Husky Russkie: He is six feet and a half tall, and is stronger and faster than Danielle.
Private Military Contractor: Nowadays this is how he gets work.
Red Is Heroic: Downplayed. Though he sometimes works together with Dreadnought to fight the greater evil, he still mostly fights for money.

Utopia

"My long experience with the governments of humanity has left me with no confidence in them."

A Cyborg supervillain. The Big Bad of the first book, Dreadnought.

Abnormal Limb Rotation Range: Turns at her waist by 180 degrees at one point.
Affably Evil: Will kill those in the way of her goals without a second thought (for Utopia Justifies the Means), but does not come off as particularly malicious otherwise (oh the irony). She outright tells Danny that it's Nothing Personal.
- That said, both times she talks, she's caught in a physical confrontation and waiting for her inversion beam to recharge. She might just be playing for time.
Arm Cannon: Sports a submachine gun hidden in her left arm.
Disintegrator Ray: Her "inversion beam", which flat-out unmakes reality. Luckily it takes quite long to recharge, so she only gets a few shots.
Dramatic Unmask: During her first fight with Danny, reveals that she knows her secret identity.
Hero Killer: She's been a known supervillain for a while, but mostly flew under the radar until she killed Dreadnought III, proving that she's a major-league threat.
Of Corsets Sexy: Wears a corset that "rises to meet two thick slabs of flat armor over her chest".
The Reveal: Turns out she's Malice — the "Mistress" was added by the press — who survived the explosion of her fortress in 1961 after all.
Robot Girl: With a body "made of plastic and steel". Appears to have started out organic, with a few biological organs still left, but most of her body replaced with mechanical parts.
Sci-Fi Bob Haircut: Has fiber-optic hair in a "short and dark pageboy cut".

Richard Garrison / Sovereign

Richard Garrison

An insanely wealthy industrialist with massive ambition. The Big Bad initially of the second book, Sovereign.

Even Evil Has Loved Ones: He does genuinely love his daughter. On the other hand, he has absolutely no problem sending her out to fight adult metahumans despite the fact that she's no more durable than any other kid her age.
Evil Reactionary: He believes that society should go back several hundred years and go back to society being run by hereditary monarchies with the common masses having no say.
Fate Worse than Death: All of his criminal dealings are exposed and his entire fortune gets seized, leading to the most humiliating outcome possible for him- being left in prison as just another nobody with no money, no power, and no fame for the rest of his life.
Faux Affably Evil: He puts on a front of being charming when Danny first meets him, but quickly drops it once she makes it clear that she's not going to play ball, saying that he was willing to overlook her "degeneracy" (in other words, being a transgender lesbian) for the sake of her power, but only as long as she agreed to be on his side.
Nice to the Waiter: Danny instantly notes that he refers to her publicist as "the help" instead of by name, indicating he's not nearly as nice a person as he's pretending to be.
Politically Incorrect Villain: He's a massive elitist who believes that because he's rich and metahuman he deserves to have control of the world, or at least a big chunk of it. He's also highly homophobic and transphobic, calling Danny a degenerate freak at one point.
Power Parasite: Graywytch allows him to steal the powers of people he's nullified. He originally intended to steal Dreadnought's powers, but after Danny was rescued he ends up taking those of Thunderbolt, another hero who'd already signed on with him.
Power Nullifier: His ability lets him shut down the powers of any metahuman. His Evil Plan is to extend this to a satellite array he's put into orbit so that he can shut down the powers of all metahumans on the planet except for those who are working with him.
Screw the Rules, I Have Connections!: As it turns out, he's got judges, cops, and district attorneys throughout the country in his pocket. This is how he's able to have Danny arrested for the murder of her parents' lawyer less than six hours after the guy was killed despite there being no evidence tying her to the crime. The murder was actually done by Graywytch under his orders.
Screw the Rules, I Have Money!:
- Believes that because he's rich and a metahuman, he's naturally better than other people and shouldn't have to be bothered by things like laws or morals.
- When he's arrested, he brags that he'll be out within hours and never be convicted thanks to his legal team. However, Danny's lawyer is able to demonstrate that the sheer expense of his plan means that *all* of his assets were involved in his criminal acts and therefore are subject to forfeiture.
Screw the Rules, I Have Supernatural Powers!: Believes that because he's rich and a metahuman, he's naturally better than other people and shouldn't have to be bothered by things like laws or morals.
Strawman Political: He's basically evil because he takes libertarian political beliefs to an extreme.
Übermensch: Believes that because he's wealthy and metahuman, he's better than people who aren't and therefore ought to rule them.

Lilly Garrison / Princess Panzer

Lilly Garrison

Richard Garrison's 12 year old daughter. Has the metahuman ability to create and control hypertech weapon arrays.

Daddy's Little Villain: She's completely devoted to following her dad and assists him any way she can.
Strawman Political: Deliberate- she repeats her father's Randian ideology but because she's twelve she obviously doesn't understand it beyond "Daddy says it's how things ought to be."
Troubling Unchildlike Behavior: She has no problems trying to kill people with her hypertech weapons and thinks that "poor people and losers" need to be put in their place (enslaved by the rich and metahuman).
Walking Armory: Her hypertech weapon arrays are incredibly powerful. When Danny first meets her, her immediate reaction is that Lilly is packing more firepower than all five of the Mini-Mecha units that she'd fought at the climax of the previous book combined.

Historical characters

Dreadnought I

"Nobody had ever flown as fast or as high as he could. Nobody had ever been able to throw a punch like he could. Nobody was able to soak up the kind of punishment he could. So they called him Dreadnought."

The first person to wear the mantle of Dreadnought. Active from 1944 (when he first acquired his powers) until 1961 (when he was killed by Mistress Malice).

Ace Pilot: Was a US Army Air Force pilot before he turned into a superhero.
Not So Invincible After All: His death at the hands of Mistress Malice shocks the whole world.
Secret Identity: His identity was "deliberately lost to history".
Superhero Origin: Encountered an "unidentifiable glowing light" in the middle of battle, attempted to follow it and vanished with his plane for a week, then came back with superpowers.
The Rival: Apparently fairly evenly matched with the Soviet-themed "Red Steel", sparking a decades-long rivalry between Red Steel and whoever wears Dreadnought's mantle at the time.
Troll: Despite being a member of the US Army, picks the traditionally naval colors of white and blue for his costume, annoying his superiors.
World's Strongest Man: Easily the world's most powerful metahuman at the time of his empowerment, though - as it later turns out - only the first of a new wave of stronger metahumans.

Dreadnought II

"The second Dreadnought's appearance sent electric waves of hope across the globe, and that famous picture of him, a lone, tiny figure confronting [Mistress Malice]'s invincible fortress over the White House became the image of the twentieth century."

Picks up the mantle after the first Dreadnought is killed by Mistress Malice in 1961; himself killed in the "Kaiju Crisis of '85".

Hero with Bad Publicity: Catches flak for teaming up with the (Soviet) Red Steel to defeat Mistress Malice in the middle of the Cold War.
Rivals Team Up: Teams up with Red Steel to defeat Mistress Malice once it becomes clear that even the most powerful individual heroes are outmatched by her.

Mistress Malice

"In '61, Mistress Malice made her bid for world domination, and suddenly we had supervillains as well."

The first outright supervillain in the Dreadnought verse.

Hero Killer: Makes her name by killing the first Dreadnought.
No One Could Survive That!: After a long and drawn-out fight, Dreadnought II and Red Steel manage to sink her fortress into the Pacific, blowing its central reactor in the process.
Ominous Floating Castle: Her Supervillain Lair is a floating and well-defended fortress of doom that no team of heroes manages to crack for six months.
Take Over the World: Her goal. She almost succeeds, too.

Characters / Nemesis Series

Danielle "Danny" Tozer / Dreadnought IV

Sarah Castillo / Calamity

Charlie / Codex

Doctor Impossible

In General

Carapace

Chlorophyll

Dreadnought III

Graywytch

Magma

Valkyrja

David

Janet Tozer (Danny's mother)

Roger Tozer (Danny's father)

The Artificer

Bosco

Darkfist

Utopia

Richard Garrison

Lilly Garrison

Dreadnought I

Dreadnought II

Mistress Malice

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Index

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Characters / Nemesis Series

Edit Locked

Danielle "Danny" Tozer / Dreadnought IV

Sarah Castillo / Calamity

Charlie / Codex

Doctor Impossible

In General

Carapace

Chlorophyll

Dreadnought III

Graywytch

Magma

Valkyrja

David

Janet Tozer (Danny's mother)

Roger Tozer (Danny's father)

The Artificer

Bosco

Darkfist

Utopia

Richard Garrison

Lilly Garrison

Dreadnought I

Dreadnought II

Mistress Malice

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Index

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