HARNESS & PIECEMEAL

 

HARNESS & PIECEMEAL

Real Names: Erika Benson (Harness); Gilbert Benson (Piecemeal)

First Appearance: The New Mutants Annual (Vol. 1) #7, August 1991

Powers: Harness and Piecemeal are a mother-and-son pair of mutants born with energy-related abilities.

Harness was born with the mutant ability to generate energy in the form of a tether line from her forearm. It assumes a tangible state, can extend to at least 35-40 feet in length, and can be used as a whip or lasso line. The energy can be produced as a single strand or multiple strands, taking on an almost web-like appearance as it entangles and immobilizes an opponent. Her battle armor (developed by the Advanced Idea Mechanics) focuses or enhances the ability to some degree, giving it more cohesion. The armor itself augments her physical strength to a moderate degree and provides considerable resistance to physical injury. It contains various advanced sensory components, allowing her to detect a variety of energy forms, as well as employing computer-guided target acquisition for her weapon systems. Harness could engage multiple concurrently-firing artillery pieces from her wrists, including machine guns, explosive missiles, plasma blasters, and surgical laser beams. She could also extend a two foot blade from her forearm, and project an omni-directional repulsor ray from her armor, forcibly vacating all people or objects from her immediate vicinity. Lastly, she utilized a personal teleportation device for transporting herself and cargo miles of distance at a time.

Piecemeal had the mutant power to harness various forms of energy and store them within his body. He could mentally attune his body's cellular energy storage to any single specific energy wavelength and frequency, making him mentally linked to that energy. After customizing his system in this manner, Piecemeal was able to sense this energy over a distance. In its presence, he could absorb this energy and store it in his body for extended periods of time. He had no known means of discharging the energy he had collected and absorbing it was a painful process that he seemingly had little control over once it was initiated. His body grew greater in size as well as more rotund and obese in proportion to the amount of energy he absorbed. When absorbing the dispersed energy signature of the mutant known as Proteus, there was more energy than his body could contain, and it was manifesting itself as bloating throughout his system as he exceeded his normal limits. Piecemeal’s body was destroyed when he absorbed the full extent of Proteus’ energy and then completely merged with his essence.