character & halo-verse factsheet

[blackfour]

http://halo.wikia.com/wiki/SPARTAN-II_Program
http://halo.wikia.com/wiki/SPARTAN-II_Augmentation_Procedures
http://halo.wikia.com/wiki/Team_Black

• VICTOR-101/BLACK-FOUR BORN AROUND 2511; APPX. AGE 41
• has a major issue with his memory in regards to a certain event that took place in his past. at an unspecified time during black team's training, black-one and black-three engaged in an unauthorized relationship. jealous of the both of them, black-four relayed their NAUGHTY DOINGS to officer mendez. black-one was thrown in the brig, and red team sought her out as black team leader, beating her and blinding her in one eye. black-four has repressed that memory to the best of his ability, switching it around so that he was the one who engaged in the unauthorized relationship with black-one, that he was the one who got thrown in the brig for it, that he was the one that lost his eye, and that black-three was the one who ratted them out.
• he tricks himself so well that he's also able to fool the artificial intelligence unit IONA, who was bonded to his armor and able to explore his memory of past events, as well as ebullient prism.
• after this incident, black team never again discusses black-four's betrayal, and black-four is unable to accept the shame for what he's done until black-one tells him that she forgives him while they're stranded on unnamed planet after an unfortunate crash-landing.
• "quiet and reflective"
• four is GENERALLY able to keep his cool and remain collected and focused even in situations where his judgment is being called into question. he doesn't raise his voice or flip his shit when his authority is challenged, but he will do what he wants to do, regardless. stubborn!!
• he doesn't say much. ever. he usually responds to orders as directed (almost exclusively when they're coming from one, as she's team leader), except when he's curious about something or when he's convinced that he's right.
• extremely dry sense of humor; he's not beyond looking at situations in a less heavy light, but his breed of comedy is pretty goddamn subtle, and it typically takes the form of a wry, disbelieving comment when something doesn't go as planned.
• TORRENTIAL PIT OF REPRESSED GUILTTTTTTTTT
• doesn't particularly give a shit about protocol, or about the ~RULES OF ENGAGEMENT~ see: him ordering a temporary cease fire between him, black-three, and the covvies
• it's suggested quite a few times in the comic that he does whatever the hell he wants to do, when he wants to do it, most likely because he believes WITHOUT A SHADOW OF A DOUBT that he is correct.



• IONA
• ISSUE ONE - ON TEAM BLACK
• "They didn't say much. They simply acted with preternatural quickness. As soon as they encountered a problem, they enacted its solution without a single word of discussion or debate. When they did speak, it was in a staccato cant of incomprehensible in-jokes and half-sentences to be finished by one of the others."
• "What little I could glean about them in my preexisting databanks indicated that they had been taken away from their mothers at an early age, replaced with clones. They lived together and trained together in a top secret program with little contact with anyone other than drill instructors and tutor AI's. They were given numerous cybernetic and pharma-hormonal enhancements that made them all but one with that MJOLNIR armor they wore.
  
  Look, I know I'm an artificial intelligence. My "me-ness" is a little more than a complex string of algorithms. But they still seemed so much less human than me."
• "Now I was connected to Black-Four. Accessing the circuitry of his MJOLNIR armor, and through its cybernetic connectors . . . into him. And I understood, then.
  
  These four had bunked together -- drilled together -- fought together -- since they were six-years-old.
  
  It's an old military cliche that a soldier doesn't really fight for country or honor. He fights for the buddies standing on the right and left of him. The SPARTAN-II program took that ethos one step further. These were more than "buddies."
  
  And that's why, in the end, this really isn't a story about war. Or survival. This is a story about a family. And how they tried to find their way home."
• ISSUE TWO - ON TEAM BLACK
• "We proceeded towards the installation until we were interrupted -- by an attack from the Covenant who appeared to be shipwrecked here as well. The attack was actually not that big a deal -- the SPARTANS are trained to take the Covvies on. What they aren't trained to do is to deal with the giant, flying, tentacled robotic monsters that showed up and started abducting everyone they could grab."
• "SPARTAN Team Black had been training and fighting with each other practically since before they could remember. Even in a chaotic, desperate situation like this one I could feel them pivoting instantly into their preferred roles. Like the disparate parts of one efficient machine all snapping simultaneously, effortlessly, into place.
  
  Heavy weapons and artillery (Three). Tactics and leadership (One). Recon and sniper (Four).
  
  This was just another game to them. But that's not to say they took it lightly. Not when you live to win. And loss is felt as keenly as death."
• "I was connected to Black-Four's suit. While I watched him listen to the song, I got the distinct impression . . . he was thinking of something else."
• "Again, through Four, I'm flooded with images . . . and I realize . . . we're really talking about something else. That's the problem with turning a military unit into a family. All families have secrets. Things you wordlessly accept you're not supposed to talk about. Except you're always talking about them. By other means."
• ISSUE FOUR - ON TEAM BLACK
• "All families have secrets. Most secrets families keep from outsiders. Some they keep from each other. But the most important . . . they keep from themselves."
• ISSUE FIVE - ON TEAM BLACK
• "I've only spent a short time with SPARTAN-BLACK, but in that time, I've been amazed at the tight-knit group they've become. So it wasn't much of a surprise when, being connected directly to BLACK-IV, I found that their closeness wasn't entirely platonic. [...] Now, Ebullient Prism has taken over the HUDs on BLACK-IV's and BLACK-II's helmets, forcing them to see whatever it wants them to see. It managed to get BLACK-IV to fire on BLACK-II, thinking she was an Elite. After realizing he had shot his teammate instead, BLACK-IV really went off the deep end, and is now trying to kill BLACK-III."
• "Ebullient Prism didn't need to actively manipulate Black-Four anymore. The monitor had broken through a deeply submerged wellspring of pain. It was gushing free now. Filling him up. And the only way for him to get it out . . . was to share it."
• "That's all he says. All he needs to. The betrayal. The beating. The berating. It all comes back to her, instantly. Because it never left. And it occurs to her, for the first time; she's never said it. Out loud.
  
  He stops struggling. Just long enough for me to send a signal to Three. For him to return me to Black-Four . . . to show him what I've learned. File after file, mission report after mission report . . . of how they've stuck together. Fought together. And always will. What choice do they have?
  
  They're family."



• TEAM BLACK
• ISSUE ONE
• Four: "All these ships -- their interiors are covered in blast marks. They were destroyed from within before they were shot down."
  One: "That's fascinating. And irrelevant."
  Four: "What do you think it means?"
  One: "That you can't keep your mind on the mission, as usual. Now, Black-Four."
  Four: "..."
  One: "Victor. Get back in this jeep before I have to drag you back -- "
• Three: "Black Team, rock and roll!"
  Four: (to One) "You spike Three's breakfast again?"
  One: "No . . . "
  Four & One: " . . . That's just him."
• ISSUE TWO
• Four: "Iona . . . what is this place?"
  Iona: "Virtual and physical architecture match no known Covenant or human templates. Congratulations, boys. You've discovered a heretofore unknown alien species."
  Four: "Oh. Yay for us."
• Four: "Iona. Have you finished deciphering the door code?"
  Iona: "Yes."
  Four: "Translate and transmit a short-term truce agreement over any channel the Elite is using."
  Three: "What?"
  Four: "Assuming he accepts, pop the door open and let him and his men inside."
  Three: "What? Those aren't "men" out there -- that's the enemy!"
  Four: "Three -- "
  Three: "Don't "Three" me! We have one priority right now, and that's rescuing our team leader from whatever the hell those things were!"
  Four: "What do you think I'm trying to do? Do you see the size of this place?"
• Three: "Fraternizing with the enemy is a military crime punishable by court-martial and execution! You just don't listen do you, Four? Not to One. Not to me. Not to anybody. Ever since we were kids."
  Four: "You want sole glory in rescuing her, Three, that it? Be her knight in jet-black armor?"
  Three: "I'm not even going to dignify that with a response."
• ISSUE THREE
• Four: "You okay to go on, Thon?"
  Thon: "What do you mean?"
  Four: "Your wound. It's not serious?"
  Thon: "What do you mean?"
  Four: "Yeah, okay. Suit yourself."
• Four: "Thon, we have to split into two groups to explore each corridor junction. I propose we divide the grunts equally, I go with the Hunter, you go with Black-Three."
  Thon: "Absolutely not. Our laws do not allow for Covenant forces to be commanded by infidels."
  Four: "Oh, for . . . This is a temporary arrangement. As soon as one group finds the right junction, it doubles back, finds the other, and -- "
  Thon: "Yes . . . This is why you humans will lose this war. You compromise your principles for a moment's convenience. You have no conception of true honor."
  Four: "Funny, way I see it . . . the Covenant's inability to think beyond its rigid racist dogma guarantees you a Terran-sized ass-whupping in the end."
• Thon: "Each second wasted brings my brother one step closer ignominious death."
  Four: "Your brother . . . you really care for him, don't you, Thon?"
  Thon: "You find that difficult to fathom?"
  Four: "I don't know what to fathom. They don't tell us much about your kind. I suppose it makes you easier to kill that way."
  Thon: "Yes. We the same."
• Thon: "Do you understand this bond, SPARTAN? A comrade who is more akin . . . to a limb?"
  Four: "I . . . do."
• Four: "Our upbringings are not all that different, Thon. We too were trained for this, nearly from birth. We SPARTANS aren't just comrades, but brothers, sisters . . . and . . . Well. We appreciate you helping us get our sister back."
• Three: "Hey, Four. Can you pop your helmet off real quick?"
  Four: "What? No. Why?"
  Three: "Sounds like you're talking with a lisp, brother. Just wanna check . . . make sure you're not growing a squid-lip! Hah!"
  Four: "Stow it, Three."
  Three: "I mean, seriously, I thought you were gonna start kissing that thing! And you shook his slimy claw? Damn! You know what your problem is, Four?"
  Four: "I have this eerie premonition I'm about to find out."
  Three: "I know you're a trained sniper and all, and you need a certain degree of, whatever, grace under fire . . . but you're too calm and collected -- borderline comatose! You're wound so tight . . . your MJOLNIR's gonna blow off like a teakettle, you know what I'm saying?"
• Three: "Get that backstabbing split chin piece of shit, Four . . . Kill him twice for me."
  Four: "Copy that."
• ISSUE FOUR
• 686: "Your masters are most fragile creatures, construct-Iona. Their protocol logic structure is riddled with half-truths and contradictions. And their combat skins? My word. Your "Black-Four" is completely unaware I have taken over his helmet display. He sees only what I wish him to see."
  
• Four: "I knew it. I knew there was an explanation. It was Three. It was always you, Three. You were jealous . . . got us thrown in the brig. You've pushed me too far this time. I am so sick of putting up with your -- "
  
• Iona: "I think Four still blames you for betraying his and One's relationship . . . "
  Three: "Whoa whoa whoa!! What has he been telling you?"
  Iona: "Nothing -- I have access to the personal data stored in his armor -- it's where I've been trying to hide from Prism . . ."
  Three: "Data -- you don't know what you're talking about! I didn't rat out Four and One -- Four ratted out One and me!"
  Iona: "What?"
  Three: "We had the relationship!"
  686: "The creature persists and thrives not in spite of the fact his mind is riddled with lies and self-deceptions . . . but because of it. What remarkably bizarre entities!"
  Three: "Four was jealous of me! He ratted us out to Chief Mendez! Both One and I got sent to the brig. Red Team tracked her down as Black Team leader! They claimed we were jeopardizing our training by not taking exercises seriously enough . . . that if we were going to be SPARTANS there wasn't any place for childish things anymore. Yeah, right . . . I think they were just pissed we'd kicked their collective asses. One gave as good as she got . . . but still, they put her eye out! You know that, Iona? After it happened . . . we fixed Red Team, but good . . . And none of us ever spoke of Four squealing on us again."
  686: "Black-Four wanted something to be true so fiercely . . . that he forced impressions of it actually occurring so strongly on his memory that he fooled even I!"
  
• Iona: "Gimme a chance to think for just a . . . Four ratted you out? I find that so hard to believe . . . He's so quiet and reflective!"
  Three: "Really? You're taking sides with the crazy?"
  
• Three: "SPARTAN Black-Four . . . He's being manipulated by whatever alien intelligence is in this complex. He's our shooter."
  Thon: "Then we must eliminate him immediately! I have already lost far too many men -- "
  Three: "No. Wait. Let me try to stop him first. Without killing him."
  Thon: "And why would I permit you to do that?!"
  Three: "Because. He's my brother."
  
• ISSUE FIVE
• Three: "Four! Victor! C'mon -- we're friends here. Nobody's trying to hurt you. You know me. I'm Three."
  Four: "I know. I know who you are!!"
  Iona: "And I know you, Victor! You're a good man! This isn't like you! You've got to -- "
  
• One: "SPARTAN Black, we have to regroup ASAP. What is your status?"
  Three: "My status? What's my status?"
  One: "Three . . . ?"
  Three: "I got my own damned problems right now!! That's my status!!"
  One: "Have you two lost your minds?! I order you to stop fighting at once -- "
  Three: "Tell it to Four! He's -- he's -- it's about -- on Reach -- your -- losing your eye --"
  One: "Victor. My brother. I forgive you."
• Four: "Three?"
  Three: "Yeah?"
  Four: "The way we took it back to Red Team for putting One's eye out . . . Petty Officer Mendez threw us all in the brig for ten days. But I don't remember feeling better in my whole life."
  Three: "Damn straight."