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.

PROTEUS

 

PROTEUS

Real Name: Kevin MacTaggert

First Appearance: The Uncanny X-Men (Vol. 1) #125, September 1979

Powers: Proteus is an omega-level mutant able to manipulate and alter reality in any way he can imagine via psionic influence exerted over fundamental forces and principles. His power was limited by line-of-sight and could only affect matter within his visual range. He most commonly used his ability to ripple space and matter around him, like objects seen through swirling water. This can be extremely disorienting and even maddening to living beings. He can dramatically restructure matter and energy, such as turning a rifle into a snake or Cyclops's optic blast into a harmless spray of flowers. This effect could also animate non-living matter, turning buildings into anthropomorphic constructs or making objects seemingly come to life and attack people. He could make solid structures crumble to the ground or explode violently. Proteus could also manipulate gravity in order to levitate and fly or increase the weight of other people and objects.

Proteus also possesses telepathic abilities that enable him to read minds and attack at psychic levels. He could use his telepathy to communicate telepathically or erect mental shields to block other telepaths. Proteus could also absorb information from people or computer systems by touching them, and cross dimensional barriers at will.

In his natural form, he existed in a vulnerable, but dangerous state of pure psionic energy. Originally, he could take possession of human bodies to contain his vast energies and could possess anyone within a few feet of his position. Possession gave Proteus access to all his victim's memories and emotions. His energies would eventually “burn out” his host bodies (as he did with his own natural body), killing them in the process. His energies quickly ate away at their physical frame, causing them to shrivel like a used up husk until the body could sustain him no more and he needed to find another.

His energy form had a natural aversion to metal, making it the only thing that could block his powers or possession, and disperse his energy state. Upon his first resurrection, Proteus had bonded with the energy-absorbing mutant known as Piecemeal, effectively removing his weakness to metal and need for host bodies, until he committed suicide and returned to discorporation. He was resurrected again under the House of M reality with all his classic weaknesses, but later escaped Wanda's reordering of the universe by traveling to another dimension. During the Exiles' hunt for Proteus, he possessed Angel of House of M, Mimic of the Exiles, Justice of the New Universe, and Hulk of 2099 in turn, assimilating portions of their psyches in the process. The Exiles ultimately caged him when he found a non-degrading host body in the Exile known as Morph, and the Exiles used the Behavior Modification machine from Earth-S to reprogram him to believe himself to actually be Morph. His return to the 616 Universe during the events of Necrosha left him with the ability possess multiple host bodies at once.