Characters / Risk It All

Song Family

Ren Song / Koi

Ren Song

The Hero of the story. Once a down-on-his-luck high schooler with a knack for gambling, he sits down at the wrong table while trying to strike it rich and is shot in the head by Black Mask. He then wakes up from a six-month coma to find that he has superpowers based around a video game-like interface that are tied to his fame. Determined to prevent others from suffering the same fate he did, Ren begins using his burgeoning abilities to become a superhero.

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• Afraid of Their Own Strength: After seeing how easily Soul-Crushing Strike can break a man's arm, Ren is terrified of doing anything worse to someone. That's what he keeps Thou Shalt Not Kill, lest he accidentally kill someone by mistake.
• Bad Powers, Good People: Soul-Crushing Strike is guaranteed to smash bone is such a way that it will never heal properly. It can't be blocked properly through martial arts and is delivered with a simple punch. Ren only ever uses it to incapacitate mobsters who don't think twice about murdering others. Even then, he purposefully avoids hitting the legs, chest, and head to avoid turning them into vegetables or preventing them from walking.
• Batter Up!: After learning Reinforcement before heading out to take on Black Mask, Ren arms himself with his old Little League baseball bat for some extra reach, using his powers to prevent it from denting as well as making it hit harder.
• Book Dumb: Although his grades are middle-of-the-pack at best, Ren demonstrates a keen understanding of probability and statistics, quickly crunching the numbers to weigh the risk vs. reward in casino games as well as the randomness of the skills and powers he gains. He's also knowledgeable of common gambling games and machines, not bothering to make a bet on a crane game because of how badly they're rigged.
• Boring, but Practical:
  • Driving and Multilingual are this. Ren notes that they're basically useless in a straight fight, but they're both helpful life skills that he might need down the line.
  • Ren invests 7,000 points into Teaching and Coding, two Tier 1 skills. There's no real application for them in combat, but they're both helpful for setting up a MeTube channel to start racking up Prestige over time rather than relying on big incidents and going viral for large, infrequent Prestige boosts.
• Born Unlucky: Ren has always had poor luck. Between growing up in Gotham, getting shot by Black Mask, his repeated humiliating bouts of Not What It Looks Like tarnishing his reputation, it's hard to argue with him. As if to emphasize the point, his base Luck stat is a piddling 2. But at the same time, he's thankful for having "all the luck in the world" for surviving two gunshot wounds to the head, and he starts investing his prestige points in Luck to do away with this trope. Even after giving himself double the luck of the average person, Ren still runs into Batman after giving Black Mask a Fate Worse than Death.
  Ren: I always had rotten luck. If anything could go wrong around me, then it would. That was just a fact of life — water was wet, fire was hot, and I had shit luck.
• Broken Pedestal: Ren joins The Team with a rosy-eyed view of the Justice League and its sidekicks. His faith in them is shaken after they purposefully trap him an illusion world solely as a Secret Test of Character as they deemed him a potential threat to be taken out if he failed it. Not only that, but half The Team is aloof to him at best as an outsider.
• …But He Sounds Handsome: After his super identity becomes known as "the Breaker" on the internet, Ren feels the need to defend himself to his dad, who had referred to him as a "dangerous metahuman". Try as he might, Ren can't really say anything good about leaving several men with crippling injuries.
• But Not Too Foreign: Ren is a Chinese-American who admits to being only half-Chinese, which has him worried when he runs into members of the Triad who may not appreciate his "impure blood". He also has blue eyes because of this, so he wears colored contacts to make them look more like a typical dark brown to hide his identity while acting as a vigilante.
• Cast from Stamina: Ren's powers seem to be taken from his own energy reserves. Using Flash Step and Soul-Crushing Strike in rapid succession over the course of a 40-second firefight leaves him winded and gasping for air despite not taking any hits. To offset this, he starts investing a good number of points in Endurance, making it his highest stat when he confronts both the mafia and the Triads at a 24-hour diner.
• Caught with Your Pants Down: Implied. When Batman asks for the evidence Ren gathered on Black Mask, Ren panics and rushes to delete his browser history before handing over his laptop, only for Batman to ask why he didn't transfer the data onto a thumb drive. Ren sheepishly says he didn't think of that because he only had five minutes.
• Clark Kenting: Inverted. Ren is by his own admission a nobody, but he goes the extra mile to disguise himself as a vigilante, hiding his hair In the Hood, wearing a face mask, and putting on contacts to change the color of his eyes. He also wears baggy clothes to avoid drawing attention to his rapid recovery from his six-month coma. Despite all this, his uncle, a man he's never met, deduces his identity fairly easily.
• Clark Kent Outfit: Ren mentions that he's going to need baggier clothes after gaining 20 pounds of muscle overnight from raising his Strength stat from 20 to 50 in one go.
• Classical Anti-Hero: Ren starts the story as a nebbish guy with no friends and no money. He's not particularly confident in himself and agonizes over his own mistakes. He isn't especially brave even with his powers, but his desire to help overcomes his fear of being hurt.
• Civvie Spandex: Ren wears a skintight bodysuit with armor plating beneath a hooded vest and cargo shorts while going out to investigate Black Mask. This is largely out of necessity, as wearing body armor under his clothes would be suspicious and wearing pants and a jacket over it would be hot and cumbersome. Meanwhile, going out in just the spandex body armor would make him conspicuous to the mobsters he's trying to stop.
• Combat Pragmatist: Ren takes a page from Batman's book in his approach to superhero work, ending fights quickly and abruptly to minimize potential collateral damage and loss of life. This means Speed Blitzing people with his Flash Step and taking them out of the fight instantly with Soul-Crushing Strike. When it comes time to take on Black Mask himself, Ren doesn't barge in the front door, instead dropping flashbang grenades from the ceiling and taking out as many people as he can while they're half-blind.
• Combo Platter Powers: The powers that Ren gets from his gamer power are random, resulting in him getting a strange hodgepodge of skills like Supernatural Martial Arts, becoming a Badass Driver, a Double Jump, or the abilty to Flash Step. To add to the randomness, his powers are largely derived from other series like One-Punch Man and Bleach.
• Convenient Coma: Rather than dying from getting two bullets to the head, Ren merely falls into a coma and wakes up with his gamer superpowers six months later, albeit, not before having to undergo physical therapy to regain his lost muscle tone.
• Cowardly Lion: While Ren has been in his fair share of scuffles before, he's initially terrified of entering real firefights, to the point that the sight of a gun is enough to stop him in his tracks. Superpowers or not, he's no Superman and he certainly isn't Immune to Bullets. Despite this, his desire to change his own life and protect others wins out, and he soon throws himself into the thick of it to disrupt Black Mask's plans. He then proves himself surprisingly capable and crafty with his new powers and does surprisingly well against armed mobsters despite his own fear of getting shot again.
• Didn't Think This Through:
  • Ren's desire to stop Black Mask and dismantle his operations to protect himself, his family, and others is noble, but it's blatantly clear that he doesn't think through everything. He freezes up when he sees a gun again, becomes a Hero with Bad Publicity due to lacking awareness of his surroundings during his fights, and gets mistaken for a Triad, reigniting the Mob War in the process.
  • In a more humorous example, Batman asks for Ren's compiled evidence of Black Mask's activities. Ren walks carefully to avoid having his parents learn about his actions and hands Batman the laptop. Batman then asks why he didn't just put it on a thumb drive. Ren quickly realizes his error and groans that he's making an ass of himself in front of Batman.
  • After joining The Team, Ren is initially under the impression that they'd be working the way the Justice League would, dumping a ton of points in to stand any kind of chance against Kaldur. He's shocked and dismayed to learn that not only is The Team essentially a black-ops division, but he's barred from creating any videos about his exploits, leaving him dry on points.
• Dump Stat: Due to the raw power of Soul-Crushing Strike, Strength becomes Ren's dump stat as he prioritizes his other stats to make up for his shortcomings, though he still invests enough to reach the peak of athleticism for someone his age.
• Face of a Thug: Ren is a Perpetual Frowner whose face makes him look old enough to pass for an adult despite being only sixteen. Despite this, he's a well-meaning kid who loves his parents and tries to stop Black Mask to prevent him from hurting others rather than any sense of revenge.
• Fame Through Infamy: Ren's power does not care if his publicity is good or bad, only that he's famous. As a result, good press will give him as much Prestige as bad press. In fact, his first big boost of Prestige is when he's caught on video apparently mugging a man who had held him at gunpoint earlier. He then gets a huge Prestige boost when he posts a video of him fighting a mobster, only to look like a murderer when a Triad offscreen shoots the man.
• First-Person Smartass: Ren is quite polite when speaking to others. His narration to the reader is much more charged, cussing up a storm when things go wrong, snarking at a crook for making his phone password "boob", and comparing the processing power of a library's computer to a potato.
• Flash Step: Ren rolls Flash Step following his first video, giving him the ability to quickly cross short distances, but only forward or backwards. This means he can't turn or go up or down stairs with this power. He also doesn't have the required reaction speed to make this outright Super-Speed, meaning that he has to slow down before throwing a punch.
• Foil: Ren is in many ways Batman's opposite. Both of them are inspired to become superheroes who practice Thou Shalt Not Kill after an encounter with a thug holding a gun. But while Batman is stoic, composed, and incredibly well-trained, Ren is comparatively emotional, impulsive, and inexperienced. Batman has no superpowers but makes due with a vast array of gadgets and skills he's acquired through his family's wealth, while Ren is an Unlucky Everydude who gained his powers out of the blue and gets his skills and equipment through it. Even the circumstances that changed their lives are opposites, with Batman's parents being shot to death before his eyes while Ren is the one who got shot and survived.
• Fragile Speedster: Following his first big video, Ren ups his stats to the point that he's near the peak of normal human athleticism. Combined with the Supernatural Martial Arts and Flash Step, he's soon Speed Blitzing common crooks and taking them down in one or two hits with Soul-Crushing Strike or just his raw strength. But at this point, he's still lacking in any kind of Super-Toughness and is careful not to put himself in someone's firing line.
• The Gambling Addict: Ren falls on the more minor end of this trope. He became hooked on gambling after winning a hundred dollars from a poker game with his co-workers, joining games at back alley gambling dens before moving up to casinos in hopes of earning money for himself and his parents. Luckily, he's good enough to make a tidy profit, but all of it goes down the drain when he gets shot and put in a coma. He initially swears to give up gambling after seeing how his habit nearly killed him, but soon finds that his new superpowers revolve around it.
  Ren: I should just take my money and leave. I’ve made enough. I tried to convince myself. Twenty thousand with a five thousand bet, thanks to winning the split. It wasn’t enough. Nowhere near enough. Not even close.
• Genre Savvy: Due to growing up in a world where Batman and the Justice League exist, Ren is well-acquainted with superhero tropes and goes the extra mile to preserve his Secret Identity. He's also aware of the Phone-Trace Race and is wary of using his own computer to upload his videos, wiping the prints off a phone he took from a mobster before tossing it in the trash to avoid being traced.
• Good Is Not Soft: Ren is a fundamentally nice person and squeamish at the thought of leaving someone with crippling injuries. But his Soul-Crushing Strike is the best attack in his arsenal in his early days as a vigilante, and he's more than willing to use it if it means people won't end up dead. When Black Mask points out that he'll be free within hours of being arrested, Ren decides to cripple Black Mask to render him incapable of harming anyone again. But turning Black Mask's insides into soup troubles Ren enough to make him fight the urge to vomit afterward.
• Good with Numbers: Downplayed. According to Ren, his grades are nothing to be impressed by. But he's clearly studied up on probability and statistics to the point of calculating the likelihood of what the next card is in a game of Blackjack. Due to his own streak of bad luck, he relies much more on math than good fortune when gambling.
• Harmful to Minors: As if getting shot in the head wasn't bad enough, he witnesses Alice getting shot to death by an assassin sent by Black Mask and later watches another man die to a gunshot after trying to defeat him non-lethally. He's also mugged at gunpoint, triggering his lingering PTSD from his first two encounters with guns, and later enters multiple firefights while trying to stop the gang war he unintentionally helped cause.
• Heroic RRoD: Using Flash Step in rapid succession makes Ren's ankles ache. In addition, using his skills in rapid succession wears him out. A 40-second firefight where he uses Flash Step and Soul-Crushing Strike repeatedly leaves him winded and gulping for air.
• Heroic Self-Deprecation: Ren is hard on himself for his mistakes, particularly when he feels that some deaths are on his hands for not being a better superhero. This sentiment is only worsened by the wave of bad press his actions have gotten him, but instead of cracking under the pressure he resolves to do better.
• Hero with Bad Publicity:
  • Ren's debut as a vigilante involves him mugging the guy who mugged him, breaking the man's arm in the process. The video taken by onlookers quickly gets 10,000 views. He groans at all the comments telling him what a loser he is.
  • After a Triad shoots a mob crook he'd been fighting dead, Ren's super identity quickly garners infamy as a killer. The effects of Soul-Crushing Strike only worsen his reputation as "the Breaker" who leaves his opponents with crippling injuries, much to Ren's dismay. He wonders how Batman deals with bad press like this. At the least, his new viral presence on the internet gives him a lot of prestige points to work with.
• I'm Not a Hero, I'm...: When Batman confronts Ren about his actions, he's surprised when Ren doesn't resist or try to defend himself. Ren goes onto say that he doesn't think what he did was particularly just or heroic, but simply something he could live with. He later tells Batman that he'd like to become a hero for real, even while admitting to the reader that his reasons aren't exactly pure.
• In-Series Nickname: Due to his tendency to leave his opponents with broken bones that won't ever heal correctly, Ren's super identity becomes known as "the Breaker" on the internet.
• In the Hood: As part of his super identity, Ren wears a hooded vest and a headband to keep the hood in place.
• Instant Expert: Several of Ren's skills let him quickly master things he's never done before. Multilingual and Driving make it easier for him to learn languages and operate cars respectively. Meanwhile, combat techniques like Water Stream Rock Smashing Fist lets him instinctively take combat stances, perform Combat Parkour, and axe kick someone hard enough to take them out of a fight.
• It's All My Fault: Ren blames himself for Alice's death, as she was caught in the middle of an attempt on his life. He also blames himself for the renewed gang war between Black Mask's mafia and the Snake-Flower Triads, motivating him to dive into the fray to stop Black Mask from shooting up a diner filled with innocent people.
• Jumped at the Call: When Batman implicitly asks Ren if he wants to continue being a superhero despite the risks to himself and his loved ones, Ren says he'll be continuing without hesitation. He's excited when Batman finally invites him to Happy Harbor and is awed by everything he sees.
• Kid Hero: Ren is only sixteen and has the maturity of someone his age. As a result, he's not mentally prepared to face danger on a regular basis, freezing up when faced with yet another gun after the first two attempts on his life. Even after he works up the courage to fight back, his attempts to take down Black Mask make things worse before they get better.
• The Knights Who Say "Squee!":
  • Ren garners a reputation for himself as "the Breaker", but he draws a large part of his methodology from Batman, Gotham City's hero. He's excited, if nervous, to meet Batman in person, even if it's not under the best of circumstances. As soon as Batman leaves, Ren can't help but squee about how cool it is to have spoken to him.
  • He's equally starstruck when meeting the rest of The Team for the first time, accidentally broadcasting how excited he is over M'gann's telepathy.
• Level Grinding: Subverted. Although Ren's power works like a video game, his power progression is tied to his notoriety rather than how many bad guys he beats up. While beating up bad guys may reward him with additional points, the bulk of his rank ups come from how well-known he is. Then it's Double Subverted when Ren starts making MeTube channels to create a slow and steady supply of Prestige for himself.
• Literal Surveillance Bug: Some of the smaller and more expensive Surveillance Drone In Ren's prestige point shop are shaped like common insects like cockroaches and flies. He invests in some of these while trying to track down Black Mask.
• Magikarp Power:
  • Due to the way his power works, Ren wonders if he could make himself as strong as Superman one day as he keeps acquiring new abilities and upping his stats. But by the time of his first patrol, he's only about as strong as a teenager who barely works out and is very much lacking Nigh-Invulnerability. In addition, several of his powers are useless in direct combat, such as Multilingual and Driving.
    Ren: Currently, I was below average in every physical stat, but how high could I raise them? Did I top out at ten times stronger than a normal human? A hundred? A thousand? Did I have a limit at all? Could I be as strong as Superman? I didn't know, and I couldn't know until I hit some kind of stat cap, if I ever did. All of which was fantastic, but it didn't help me with my current situation. It didn't matter if I could be as strong as Superman in the future if I died today for being a weakling. Potential didn't matter unless it was realized.
  • This also inspires his hero name, Koi, due to the legend of a humble carp that leaps over the dragon gate at the top of a waterfall to become a fearsome dragon.
  • After watching Ren in action, Batman concludes that Ren could be as powerful as the entire League combined within a year if his growth remains steady. Wonder Woman estimates that it will only take Ren six months.
• Metaphorically True: He doesn't hide his abilities from the rest of The Team, but only explains them as well as he can without mentioning the gamer aspect, just describing it as a sort of "creative process" he needs to gain skills. He doesn't even bother trying to explain how he pulls objects out of thin air, as his guess is as good as anyone's.
• Milking the Giant Cow: Ren is the only one able to see his pop up screens and casino games while trying to earn some abilities. To everyone else, it looks like he's miming at open air to his embarrassment.
• Muscles Are Meaningful: Ren's muscles grow in accordance with his strength stat. His six-month coma caused his strength to dwindle to a mere 2, but putting points in strength helped him stand again in a few days rather than months. Getting his strength to 20 gives him freedom of mobility and a below-average physique, while dumping 30 more points into it causes him to gain twenty pounds of muscle overnight, leaving him looking and feeling better than he had before he was shot. With the help of his powers, he's soon performing complex acrobatics and knocking common crooks to the floor with a single hit.
• Muscles Are Meaningless: Soul-Crushing Strike is able to put out bone-crushing force no matter how strong Ren is. Even when he's Nothing but Skin and Bones, it's able to knock the teeth out of the man who tried to kill him.
• Must Make Amends: On his first day of superheroics, Ren can't bring himself to accost a young girl stealing to survive, to the displeasure of the food stall owner she just stole from. Rather than walk away, he goes to the shopkeeper and pays for everything she stole with interest to keep everyone out of trouble.
• Naïve Newcomer: Despite living in Gotham, Ren has a certain idealistic streak that hopes everything will turn out alright. This idealism is what got him tangled up in the Mob War in the first place, as his dream of winning big and taking his earnings home brings him face-to-face with Black Mask. After getting superpowers, he starts his crusade with the hope that he'll be able to stop Black Mask despite being woefully inexperienced and largely outgunned. This part of him is quickly challenged by the realities of superhero work. He lets himself get mugged after seeing a gun again triggers his PTSD, watches a man he tries to subdue non-lethally get shot by another gangster he wasn't paying attention to, and accidentally escalates said war through his actions. Then internet brands him a villain due to multiple cases of Not What It Looks Like. He chastises himself multiple times for his naivete and lack of forethought, but continues to stubbornly stick to Thou Shalt Not Kill and minimizes collateral damage whenever he can.
• Names to Run Away from Really Fast: Ren becomes known as "the Breaker" on the internet for leaving his opponents with broken bones that will never heal properly. The threatening label along with accusations of him being a villain stings when he's risking his life trying to stop an evil mobster and his gang.
• Nice Job Breaking It, Hero: In his attempts to wage a one-man war against Black Mask, Ren is mistaken for a member of the Triads and accidentally reignites a gang war between them and the mafia.
• Nice Guy: Ren is a nice, well-meaning kid who is in over his head between his gambling habit, superpowers, and getting shot by Black Mask. He can't bring himself to stop a child in Koreatown who stole food out of necessity for herself, instead paying off the shopowner with interest. His crusade to stop Black Mask is motivated largely out of a desire to prevent anyone else from getting hurt rather than revenge (though making Black Mask regret not killing him is a bonus), and he cringes at Soul-Crushing Strike's bone-breaking power even while punching mobsters out to kill him.
• Noiseless Walker: Ren has practice keeping quiet thanks to sneaking out of an apartment with creaky floorboards to gamble late at night.
• Nothing but Skin and Bones: A six-month coma leaves Ren so emaciated and weak that he has to relearn how to walk and stand. Luckily, his ability helps him build muscle quickly by dumping his prestige points into strength, letting him recover and return home within a month of waking up.
• Oh, Crap!: Just as Ren crushes Black Mask's internal organs into chunky salsa and is about to call the cops on him, Ren turns around and bumps right into Batman of all people. Ren's reaction to this after bumping up his luck stat specifically to end his Born Unlucky streak is palpable.
  Ren: Double the luck of an average person my fucking ass.
• Omniglot: Following his debut video, one of the skills Ren rolls is Multilingual, making it easier for him to learn any language, especially those that are related to each other or exist in the same region.
• Original Character: Ren is an original protagonist living in Gotham's Chinatown at the start of the story.
• Painful Transformation: Ren's powers, particularly when boosting physical stats like Strength, tend to modify his body in relation to the points he accrued. When learning skills, this leads to a pinching feeling in his brain as he becomes an Instant Expert of whatever he just learned. But after going viral and dumping a lot of points into his stats overall, the sudden change makes him feel like he's dying and every muscle goes taut as he gasps for air. The sensation is so excruciating that he blacks out afterward, waking up the following morning.
• Perpetual Frowner: As an Unlucky Everydude, Ren has a permanent scowl on his face by default. It makes him look older than he actually is, allowing him to enter casinos despite being underage at sixteen.
• Personality Powers: Ren's affinity for gambling matches with the gambling-based mechanics of his superpowers, namely how he has to earn his powers through mental casino games. In addition, he's always lamented how he wasn't popular, but the only way to strengthen his superpowers is to go viral and make a name for himself.
• Popularity Power: Ren's abilities run off how well-known he is. The more fame (or infamy) he gains, the more "prestige points" he has to spend to gain new skills, buy equipment, and improve his stats. Because of this, he has to make a name for himself to improve his powers, whether it's filming himself with some remote drones and uploading those videos to the internet or getting famous passively from whatever news people make about him.
• The Power of Creation: Due to the way his power works, Ren's ability somehow turns his fame into real objects out of thin air.
• Professional Gambler: Ren styles himself as this, crunching the numbers on the probability of certain things happening in casino games to make the right judgment calls and cash in. This talent of his catches the eye of Lei, a Triad member who sponsors his entry into a Gotham casino's VIP room in hopes of winning big. He tries to give it up after being shot, but finds that the time he spent learning these games is helpful when it comes to gambling his prestige points on getting new powers.
• Required Secondary Powers:
  • Discussed. While mulling over the weirdness of his gamer powers, Ren notes that abilities like Thou Shalt Not Kill aren't too hard to wrap his head around, given that Superman must clearly have some kind of tactile telekinesis to avoid ripping every plane he catches in half.
  • Subverted with Ren's Flash Step. While it gives him a burst of speed that lets him cross short distances nigh-instantly, he doesn't have the reaction speed to respond during this time and has to wait until he slows down to properly throw a punch. His inability to turn means that he can't use this if someone is in the way, lest he crash into them.
• Scars Are Forever: Ren gains two distinctive scars on his forehead where Black Mask shoots him, one near his ear and another that drags along his hairline. He covers this with a hood while out as a vigilante because they're unique enough to give away his Secret Identity.
• Simple, yet Awesome: Soul-Crushing Strike is a simple punch that strikes with bone-breaking force and Ren's most-used combat skill. It's a no-frills attack powerful enough to incapacitate any non-superpowered mobster by crushing their bones and can't be blocked through martial arts. The only noticeable downsides are the loud bang it makes upon use and Ren's own squeamishness over crippling someone for life.
• Supernatural Martial Arts: Several of Ren's skills amount to this. Soul-Crushing Strike is a powerful punch that is guaranteed to penetrate attempts to guard with martial arts and smash bones. Water Stream Rock Smashing Fist also has him performing Combat Parkour, which he combines with Flash Step to instantly close the distance on some mobsters to beat them down in hand-to-hand. Ren's latent ability to manipulate qi apparently saved his life, and his near-death experience awakened them, though it's unclear why they manifested with his gambling interface, nor does it explain his ability to turn fame into power.
• This Is Gonna Suck:
  • Ren recites this verbatim as he uploads his first video, knowing full well that he's going to get a ton of bad press from crippling the mobsters and Triad along with the one mobster who was shot to death.
  • He has this reaction again along with Oh, Crap! when he runs headfirst into Batman after seemingly killing Black Mask.
• Thou Shalt Not Kill:
  • Enforced by the skill of the same name. Thou Shalt Not Kill prevents Ren from ever killing his opponents so long as their brains are intact. This means that attacks that would otherwise lead to massive internal bleeding and death will "merely" cripple his opponent. He initially considers selling this, but after seeing the results of Soul-Crushing Strike firsthand, he opts not to, as he simply isn't mentally or emotionally prepared to end someone's life.
  • He also discusses the trope while mulling over his reasons for becoming a superhero in the first place. To him, all life has intrinsic value and it doesn't feel right for him to play judge, jury, and executioner. But at the same time, not all life is sacred, and he believes that some people do deserve whatever horrible fate is coming to them. When he realizes that Black Mask is just going to be sprung from prison within hours of being apprehended, Ren decides to end the threat the mobster poses permanently by crushing his rib cage, lungs, and spine, leaving Black Mask in unspeakable agony, but alive thanks to Thou Shalt Not Kill. The sight of this still leaves Ren nauseous, but he doesn't see any other way of keeping Black Mask down.
• Tired of Running: Between lingering PTSD from staring down the barrel of a gun twice and being a sixteen-year-old over his head in superheroing, Ren freezes up when he's mugged in an alleyway by a guy with a gun despite having superpowers. He learns to get over it through his desire to change his circumstances and anger at himself for being so helpless, breaking the man's arm and taking his money back. From then on he's able to jump into firefights with much less hesitation, though he's still careful to not get shot.
• Too Desperate to Be Picky: Ren knows that entering the shady VIP room in an illegal casino is a bad idea, especially when he knows he's Born Unlucky. But the hope of coming home with a sack of cash large enough to solve all of his family's money problems is too much for him to pass up, so he agrees to go in in violation of his own common sense.
  Ren: I knew, deep down, that I was making a mistake as stepped through the doors, but it was a mistake I couldn’t afford to pass up. If there was even the slightest possibility that it was real… In one afternoon, I could make every penny that I needed. I just needed the chance and this could be it.
• Unexplained Recovery: Due to his refusal to tell his parents about his new powers, Ren's rapid recovery from Nothing but Skin and Bones to healthy and even fit over the span of a month comes across as weird at best and concerning at worst. Never mind how he somehow left the hospital with no lingering effects from brain damage despite being shot in the head at point blank range twice. His parents notice this, but seem to be happy to just have in home rather than confronting him about it. Though it turns out they already have an inkling of the truth, as Ren's father comes from a line of Qi cultivators.
• Unlucky Everydude: Ren is friendless, has middling grades, and lives in Gotham of all places while his parents struggle to make ends meet. To try and ease their burden, he uses his gambling talent to make money as a "part-time job", but it ends up biting him in the rear when Black Mask shoots him, leaving him in a six-month coma that forces his dad to reach out to Ren's estranged uncle for financial support.
• Unskilled, but Strong: Zigzagged. Ren's abilities make him an Instant Expert with most of them, but he's still naïve and inexperienced at crimefighting. He largely relies on his overwhelming speed and brute force advantage to take down crooks one-by-one, lacking the gadgetry, expertise, and long-term planning used by veteran superheroes like Batman.
• Weak-Willed: He's surprisingly determined to make the most of his new superpowers and become a real superhero, but his psychic defenses are pretty poor at the outset due to being shot in the head twice. He shores them up by buying a Mental Defense skill when M'gann points this out to him. But this isn't enough to keep Martian Manhunter from trapping him an illusion at the behest of the League.
• What Kind of Lame Power Is Heart, Anyway?: Some of Ren's less combat-ready skills are at least useful life skills like speaking multiple languages or driving. He struggles to come up with uses for some of the more esoteric skills like Barista, which just makes him an impeccable coffee brewer. The only thing he can come up with is starting a MeTube channel about brewing coffee for some Prestige.
• Why Did It Have to Be Snakes?: After being nearly shot dead by Black Mask and seeing Alice get shot to death by an assassin aiming for him, Ren has an understandable fear of guns. The mere sight of one makes him freeze up and meekly fork over cash to a mugger despite having superpowers, and it's only his frustration at being helpless before one that gets him over this fear. Even then, his fear isn't completely gone, he's just not completely paralyzed by the sight of them anymore.
  Ren: I just… really, really, really wish that it was harder for people to get their hands on guns.
• With Great Power Comes Great Hotness: Ren notices that he gets noticeably more muscular while increasing his Strength stat. This is most noticeable after he decides to dump 30 points in Strength all at once, resulting in him packing on twenty pounds of muscle all at once overnight. Upping his Charisma also makes him look better in general, removing pimples, giving him a more pronounced jawline, and making his hair shinier following his six-month coma. By that point, he's confident enough in his physique to consider going shirtless for an internet video to get more Prestige.
• With Great Power Comes Great Responsibility: Following the second attempt on his life, Ren resolves to use his powers to defend his parents from Black Mask rather than any kind of self-benefit. His sense of morality soon motivates him to go on patrol in Gotham's Chinatown and Koreatown, knowing that he would hate himself if he let something happen when he could do something about it.
  Ren: If there was a rape or a murder? If it happened nearby? Right when I decided to shrug my shoulders and go home? I would hate myself.
• Wooden Katanas Are Just Better: He winds up rolling a bokken, a Japanese wooden sword designed for sparring, while prepping himself for a spar with Kaldur. He has to take Katana Basics to get any use out of it, while also utilizing Breathing: Moon Style to keep up with the superhumanly strong and tough Atlantean.
• Wrong Context Magic: The source of Ren's powers is a mystery. He's never had any kind of empowering accidents except for being shot in the head and tests negative for the metagene. He also has no knowledge or relationship with magic or the supernatural prior to obtaining his powers. It turns out that Ren's father is a defector from a line of Qi cultivators. Ren's latent abilities from his Superpowerful Genetics kept him alive long enough to receive medical attention, and his uncle's intervention helped him awake from his coma. Though it still doesn't explain why his abilities manifested with a gamer interface, nor his ability to instantly learn techniques or create things out of thin air.
• Younger Than They Look: Ren's "Resting-Bitch-Face" allows him to enter an adults-only casino with the help of a fake ID despite being only sixteen.

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Ren's Parents

Ren's Parents

Ren's parents, a loving couple struggling to make ends meet in Gotham. Although they appear to be a normal couple, Ren finds that they may have been hiding more from him than he thought.

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• Decoy Backstory: Ren only knows his father as an accountant working in a place like Gotham City. According to his parents, they met while Ren's mom was studying abroad in China before moving back to the U.S. together. But the fact that Ren's father isn't all that concerned about Ren's rapid recovery from his coma and nonchalance to the threat of Black Mask makes Ren realize that his father is hiding something from him. Ren's uncle reveals that Ren descends from a line of powerful qi cultivators. His father left them to marry Ren's mother, burning bridges so badly that he'd be killed if he ever returned to China.
• Defector from Decadence: Ren's father burned bridges when he decided to abandon his clan to leave for the U.S. with Ren's mother. So much so that Ren's uncle says that Ren's father would be killed if he ever returned to China. Simply making contact with him is a huge risk for Ren's uncle.
• Happily Married: Although they argue at times, Ren's father was willing to cut himself off from the rest of his family to be with Ren's mother. Despite their money troubles and living in a place as wretched as Gotham, both of them manage to raise Ren into a compassionate young man.
• I Have No Son!: Ren's father claimed to not have any siblings, leading to Ren's confusion when his father says that Ren's uncle helped pay for his hospital stay. Even the mere mention of him gets nothing but cold silence from Ren's parents. This is because his parents have been trying to keep him away from the cabal of Qi cultivators that Ren's father once belonged to. Ren ends up sharing the sentiment, not considering anyone willing to kill their own son for the sake of politics family.
• Inadequate Inheritor: Despite being the eldest son and heir to his clan, Ren's father was inept at using his clan's techniques, only reaching the level of an initiate. This led Ren's grandparents to plot the death of Ren's father so they could install Ren's uncle as the head of the clan, only for Ren's father to out-gambit them by planting explosives on the day he's supposed to be killed before making a break for it.
• No Name Given: Ren only ever calls them "Dad" and "Mom", and Ren's uncle doesn't use their names either.
• Open-Minded Parent: Once they find out about Ren's activities, they're proud of Ren's decision to risk his life for the sake of others, simply asking him to stay safe.
• Parental Obliviousness: Subverted. It's heavily implied that Ren's parents have an inkling of what he's been up to and is suspicious of Ren's rapid recovery and sudden growth spurt, but doesn't press Ren on it. He's also strangely nonchalant about the threat of Black Mask. That's because he knows Ren's near-death experience awakened his supernatural powers, and that it was Ren's uncle who brought him out of the coma.
• You Can't Go Home Again: Ren's father's side of the family wasn't happy when he left China to be with Ren's mom. In fact, his family was so angry that they threaten to kill him should he ever set foot in China again, and merely contacting him is a huge risk to Ren's uncle.

Ren's Uncle

Ren's Uncle

Ren's mysterious uncle who was never mentioned by Ren's parents until after his six-month coma. He's apparently wealthy enough to pay for Ren's hospital stay.

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• Antiquated Linguistics: To reflect how Ren's uncle is a member of a cabal of Qi cultivators, he speaks with a level of flowery formality in contrast to the plain speech of Ren and his father, who left the clan even under threat of death.
• The Gift: Ren's uncle is a once-in-a-generation prodigy who was favored as the clan's heir over the eldest son. Seeing that Ren's own Qi is growing abnormally fast, he asks Ren to come to China to cultivate his powers, only for Ren to flatly refuse.
• Super-Speed: He's apparently fast enough to keep up with Ren's Flash Step and seemingly teleport them to another rooftop.
• Supernatural Martial Arts: Ren's family come from a line of powerful Qi cultivators who honed their control over their internal energies to accomplish astonishing feats of strength and speed. Ren's uncle is able to avoid all of Ren's Surveillance Drones, keep up with his Flash Step, and appear out of thin air. He then seemingly teleports Ren to an empty rooftop and then knocks him out with a tap to the forehead.

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The Team

Robin

Robin

Batman's protege, the Boy Wonder, and one half of the Dynamic Duo. He and Batman are Gotham City's premier crimefighters. Although quippy and perky, Robin can be just as calculating as his mentor.

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• Badass Normal: Like his mentor, Robin has no superpowers, only the skills he's trained over years of being a superhero.
• Cool Shades: He hides his eyes behind a pair of sunglasses. Even with them on, Ren gets the feeling that Robin is glaring at him over the hit he caused to Batman's reputation.
• Sugary Malice: Robin casually lays out Ren's vigilante history in the most unflattering way possible as a not-so-subtle indication of how annoyed he is by Batman Taking the Heat for Ren's actions.

Kid Flash

Kid Flash

The nephew and protege of the Flash, the fastest man alive. A friendly and casual flirt, he's quick to show off and has a habit of collecting souvenirs from his adventures.

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• Chivalrous Pervert: He's quick to flirt with M'gann but is a friendly and outgoing person and a superhero to boot.
• Super-Speed: Having replicated the accident that turned his uncle into the Flash, Kid Flash is almost as fast. Ren estimates that Kid Flash easily outpaces Ren's own Flash Step and can run while turning and doing other things.

Aqualad

Kaldur'ahm - Aqualad

Aquaman's pupil, a teenage Atlantean warrior. Calm and disciplined, he's nevertheless warm and outgoing enough to welcome Ren to The Team.

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• In-Series Nickname: He mentions that his friends just call him Kaldur rather than his full name.
• Required Secondary Powers: Although his most visible power is his ability to manipulate water with his Waterbearers, Ren notes that Kaldur must have Super-Strength and Super-Toughness due to living freely under the crushing water pressure at the bottom of the ocean.
• Strong and Skilled: In addition to being superhumanly strong and tough, Kaldur has been trained in Atlantean forms of martial arts. Even while Kaldur is unarmed, Ren has to pull out all the stops to get a clean hit on him, and Ren is completely winded 10 minutes later while Kaldur only looks like he got a warm up.
• Super-Strength: While it is not as pronounced as Superboy's, Kaldur is naturally superhumanly strong to survive at the bottom of the ocean. Getting him by him, even lightly as part of a spar, is not pleasant.
• Super-Toughness: Due to living in Atlantis at the bottom of the ocean, Kaldur is naturally superhumanly tough. Ren believes he could probably use a Soul-Crushing Strike on Kaldur without causing serious injury in a spar, but decides against it due to Batman's ban on the move.

Superboy

Superboy

A newcomer with many of the powers of Superman. He's cold and aloof, but wears the Superman "S" proudly on his chest.

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• Civvie Spandex: He doesn't wear a superhero costume, just a black T-shirt with the Superman shield and dark jeans.
• Perpetual Frowner: Ren notes that Superboy has the same "Resting-Bitch-Face" that he does.

Miss Martian

M'gann M'orzz - Miss Martian

A martian and the niece of Martian Manhunter. She's a perky and eager-to-please telepath who is as new to the superhero gig as Ren and Superboy.

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• Flight: Like her uncle, M'gann is able to fly on her own.
• Telepathy: Like her uncle, she's able to speak directly into other people's minds and probe their thoughts.

Justice League

Batman

Batman

The Dark Knight. The Caped Crusader. One of the founding members of the Justice League. The hero of Gotham City. Batman battles criminals with his years of training and experience along with a vast array of gadgets. Of all the members of the Justice League, Ren looks to him for inspiration.

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• Badass Driver: He has no problems speeding through Gotham at 90 mph and swerve through traffic without hitting anyone, doing so with practiced ease and calm.
• Badass Normal: Batman has no superpowers, only a lifetime of skills and disciplines and a vast arsenal of gadgets.
• Being Good Sucks: Discussed by Batman, who warns Ren that the life of a superhero is arduous, full of regrets, and likely to kill him. Despite all this, Ren reaffirms his desire to become a hero to prevent others from experiencing the same hardships he did.
• Cool Car: The Batmobile, of course. It's described as having cloaking tech that can make it appear to be any other kind of vehicle, from a blue truck to a silver minivan.
• Dark Is Not Evil: He's known as "the Dark Knight" among other accolades and cultivates a terrifying reputation to strike fear into the hearts of criminals. But he has respect for all life and stubbornly adheres to Thou Shalt Not Kill and is a genuinely kind and thoughtful man who tries to talk Ren out of the vigilante life.
• Foil: Batman is in many ways Ren's opposite. Both of them are inspired to become superheroes who practice Thou Shalt Not Kill after an encounter with a thug holding a gun. But while Batman is stoic, composed, and incredibly well-trained, Ren is comparatively emotional, impulsive, and inexperienced. Batman has no superpowers but makes due with a vast array of gadgets and skills he's acquired through his family's wealth, while Ren is an Unlucky Everydude who gained his powers out of the blue and gets his skills and equipment through it. Even the circumstances that changed their lives are opposites, with Batman's parents being shot to death before his eyes while Ren is the one who got shot and survived.
• Great Detective: He didn't get the title of "World's Greatest Detective" for nothing. It takes just a few scant details for Batman to deduce Ren's identity.
• Hero with Bad Publicity: Zigzagged. Batman is respected as Gotham City's greatest protector, but his methods, namely his tendency to leave people battered and bruised, give him as many critics as supporters. When he takes the fall for Ren's actions, protests break out over Batman's supposed brutality.
• Hypocrisy Nod: Although he doesn't approve of Ren's actions, Batman admits that he doesn't have much of a leg to stand on given how he prowls the night to pummel the criminals of Gotham City.
• Reasonable Authority Figure: Ren is understandably afraid that Batman would be cross with him for his reckless vigilantism, but Batman doesn't try to take Ren in after Ren comes clean to him and explains his actions. Batman explains that he'd be a hypocrite to complain about Ren's actions even if he disagrees with the severity of them. He then attempts to dissuade Ren from staying a superhero, but when he sees that Ren is insistent on continuing, recruits him to The Team so he won't be doing it alone and untrained.
• Stealth Hi/Bye: In classic Batman fashion, the Dark Knight appears out of nowhere in time for Ren to bump into him right after Ren deals with Black Mask by giving him a Fate Worse than Death.
• The Stoic: His face never betrays his thoughts and his voice remains even-toned.
• Taking the Heat: He takes the fall for Ren's crusade against Black Mask and all of the bad PR that comes with leaving several men crippled for life. Ren is thankful, but also mildly miffed, as it denies him a lot of the Prestige his actions would have given him for defeating Black Mask.
• Thou Shalt Not Kill: Batman will not kill anyone, even if he's willing to leave them bruised and battered. Despite the sorry state Black Mask is in, Batman is willing to hear Ren out because Black Mask isn't dead.

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Villains

Black Mask

Black Mask

A major crime boss in Gotham and a recurring foe of Batman. He tries to move into Gotham's Chinatown and shoots Ren while mistaking him for a member of the Triads. Ren then devotes his efforts to stopping Black Mask once and for all.

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• An Arm and a Leg: Black Mask lost his hand and had it replaced with a robotic pincher some time between the time he shoots Ren and their next confrontation. Black Mask accuses the Triads of sending the man who ripped off his hand, which the Triad leader Mao denies. Though given the reveals dropped by Ren's uncle, it's possible that Ren's father or uncle ripped off Black Mask's hand as retribution for nearly killing Ren, explaining their nonchalance to Black Mask's activities.
• Arch-Enemy: After Black Mask's two attempts on Ren's life, Ren makes it his mission to stop Black Mask to prevent him from hurting his parents or anyone else in the process of getting to him.
• Create Your Own Hero: Black Mask inadvertently awakens Ren's powers by shooting him in the head, leading to Black Mask's downfall as Ren makes it his mission to dismantle his operations.
• The Don: Black Mask is the leader of a major organized crime syndicate in Gotham and is moving into Chinatown while trying to displace the Triads. But aside from the expanse and power of his empire, he doesn't display any of the typical traits of this trope, namely the faux sense of honor and morality designed to elevate him above your average thug.
• Fate Worse than Death: Ren nails him with two Soul-Crushing Strikes to the chest to pulverize Black Mask's chest, ribs, lungs, and spine leaving him vomiting blood and crippled but also unable to die. According to Batman, Black Mask will never be able to move anything but his eyes again and will need an artificial heart and lungs to live.
• Laser-Guided Karma: Black Mask shoots Ren in the first chapter, leaving Ren in a coma for six months and later getting an innocent woman killed while trying to tie up loose ends. Ren returns the favor by leaving Black Mask a vegetable unable to move or breathe, but still alive thanks to Thou Shalt Not Kill.
• Punched Across the Room: Ren nails Black Mask twice in the chest with Soul-Crushing Strike, turning his internal organs into a chunky soup of ruptured lungs and shards of bone and throwing him across the room.
• Smug Snake: After realizing that Ren adheres to Thou Shalt Not Kill, Black Mask smugly asks Ren to slap the cuffs on him already since Blackgate is a Cardboard Prison to him. So he's completely blindsided when Ren decides to maim him with two Soul-Crushing Strikes to the chest.
• Starter Villain: At the end of it all, Black Mask is just Ren's first villain and not an especially powerful one beyond his mob connections. Ren demolishes him in two hits, crippling Black Mask for the rest of his life. Ren even discusses this, saying that he traded Black Mask for a much grander enemy in his own family, as his grandparents were willing to attempt to murder his dad for the sake of politics.

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