The Conductor

The Conductor (Issac Damrosch) is a neutral/non-affiliated super of Universe 1. He is a symphonic musical conductor from Stuttgart, Germany, who is in possession of the fabled Damrosch Baton - a gaelic artifact of incredible power.

Powers/Attributes
The Conductor wields the mighty Damrosch Baton - an ancient Gaelic artifact with the power to catch and redirect anything directed at it. It gives the user the ability to essentially "conduct" any offensive strike against them back toward the originator.

He wears a tailcoat designed by Wilfred Pryer - multimillionaire Dutch areospace and defence engineer, and family friend of the Damrosch's. It's a multilayered suit, consisting of several components: an outer layer of traditional materials, a middle layer of heavy weave kevlar, and an inner spandex bodysuit, designed to keep Issac's skin temperature at a comfortable level. It has several features, including a secure communication relay in the bow tie, and a fully integrated stereo system.

Oh, and he has a little mask too. It doesn't actually do anything, but it looks cool. (Well... he thinks it looks cool anyway.)

Backstory
Issac Damrosch was an apprentice symphonic orchestra conductor, born and raised in Stuttgart, Germany. Like his father and his father before him, Issac comes from a very long line of famous musical conductors, which left him and his family rather wealthy.

For six hundred years the Damrosch line has held an estate in northern Stuttgart known as the Tuxedo Manor - a large, sprawling mansion that rivals even the old Austrian palaces in its design, size, and sheer complexity. As well, for six hundred years the entirety of the family has lived there - extended family included. At least until recently; Issac's sister, Gwendalyn, had recently moved out on her own to a small apartment in Munich.

Issac was nearing his twentieth birthday, and was very nearly a Master of Symphonies - an honor bestowed upon only the greatest of conductors, and one absolutely unheard of going to a man so young. He had been away for the weekend in Vienna, as he was invited to perform as guest conductor for the Austrian National Philharmonic. Returning home, however, he found something he was not expecting.

There lay the old Tuxedo Manor, burnt to ash and rubble, its remains still smouldering and belching putrid black smoke into the air. Fire and emergency crews surrounded the estate, attempting to find the bodies of Issac's family. He rushed into the burning wreckage of his home, searching desperately for anyone who might still be alive.

Ten minutes passed, then twenty, and soon Issac's will and hope begin to slowly pour out of him like the many tears that ran down his cheeks. Suddenly he heard a weak cough from his left - he found his grandfather trapped beneath a large chunk of wall. Issac struggled to lift the heavy wood and plaster, but eventually managed to mostly slide it off of his grandfather's chest. Unfortunately, what he found beneath the wall is far worse.

His grandfather had been impaled through the chest with the splintered remains of a floor joist. Bleeding profusely, he didn't have very long for this world. He weakly grabbed Issac by the arm, and sputtered out one last request as he expired: "Go to the room beneath the wine cellar."

Issac didn't understand, but he honored his last request, clambering over the mountain of stone and wood to get to the cellar. Or rather, where the cellar should be - he found that about a fifth of the mansion has been blown wide open, the stone foundation and cellar decimated in the blast's wake. Slowly, Issac climbed down into the schism, all the way to the hidden sub-basement.

Within he found what was at one point a small study, but was now an aggregate of singed books and shattered shelves. However, where one would imagine the desk being is instead a large ornate glass case, which had been obliterated by someone attempting to open it. Inside the remnants of the casing was a mannequin, torn and ripped slightly in places - whomever had ransacked the place had been in a rush.

Disheartened that his grandfather's last request had been made vain by a petty thief, he turned to leave the ruins of his home - he stopped, however, when a glimmer caught his eye from a nearby pile of cinders. What he found was a lightly scorched wooden case with intricate brass inlay of the family crest.

Issac opened the box, and within he found two things - a small folded note, and the most beautiful baton he'd ever seen.

He sat down, and opened the note.


 * "Issac, today you join the hallowed ranks of the Damrosch men - you have finally achieved mastery of your craft, and become a Master of Symphonies. As such, your grandfather and I have decided you're finally ready to recieve your birthright. This suit and baton have been passed down the Damrosch line for hundreds of years, and finally it is your turn to recieve them. You must take care with these items, Issac. Not because they are fragile, oh no - but because they aren't . These are items of great power and terrible responsibilty, forged with magicks long since lost to mankind. They are yours son, it's your responsibility now to care for them, just as it is your choice to use them as you will. I know you will make us proud."

Sobbing heavily, he shakily took the baton in his hand. It was crafted from ivory, and was long and thin - wispy, one might describe it as; it had inlay of a pearlescent material that was foreign and unrecognizable to Issac. It resonated with a power one couldn't quite describe, and softly glowed a bluish white hue.

Suddenly he was taken by a great anger - who could have done this, he thought to himself. He began to search the room for something, anything that could give him a clue to what may have happened.

What he found was something he was completely unprepared for.

There, in the far corner of the room, laying in a mound of decaying foundation, was the singed corpse of Issac's father.

As quickly as he could manage Issac began removing the stone from atop his father's mangled body, trying to free it. He dragged his limp corpse away from the pile and began attempting to recessitate him - a futile effort he continued desperately, pleadingly, for nearly two hours until the rescue crews found them. They had to drag Issac away, still screaming, still trying to save his father from a fate which he refused to accept had befallen him.

After he'd been pulled away from the building and the medical team gave him a bill of clean health, he sat devestated on what was formerly one of the base stones of Tuxedo Manor - the half-ton boulder had been flung nearly four hundred yards away. Suddenly he saw his father's body being taken away on a stretcher, and quickly rushed over to ask if he was still alive, if they had been able to save him. The medical examiner solemnly shook his head, and started to cover the body with a sheet. Issac stopped him, however, because he saw something very odd on his father's neck.

His father had been branded. His neck bore a singed symbol of a twelve-pointed star. As the remaining bodies are pulled from the destroyed superstructure, it was found that they too had this marking on them.

A few days later Issac found himself staying with his older sister, Gwendalyn - her stubborness to stick to tradition and wanting to live on her own saved her life. They both comforted each other after the incident. All he had to his name at that point was a single suitcase, three changes of casual clothing, his performance tailcoat suit, and the family baton.

Stuck in his mind, though, were the horrible markings that were burned into the skin of his family. He began to spend any free time he had scouring the internet for any possible clue as to what that might have meant, and who could have possibly done such a thing.

Eventually, he began to piece together the puzzle. Two months later, it came to light that it was the symbol of an ancient German secret society known as the Stern der Licht. A society that, much like the American Freemasons, permeates the culture, history, and government of Germany for many hundreds of years.

Of course, that much heavy research into a secret organization is bound to draw attention. Indeed, soon they began observing Issac very, very closely. It was only a matter of time before they trained their eyes upon the small Munich flat where Issac and his sister lived. One day they happened to catch a glimpse of Issac's baton, which immediately sent all of the Stern der Licht into a frenzy. Here, right under their noses, sat the fabled Damrosch Baton, the second of the two most powerful artifacts in all of Gaelic history. Needless to say they dispatched a team of their best trained and best armed to take back what they believed was rightfully theirs.

To Issac and Gwen, it was an ordinary Tuesday. She was shopping for a new fold-out couch from an online store, and he was watching some television while idly twirling his baton. He didn't understand why, but just holding the item was oddly soothing.

Suddenly and unexpectedly, someone knocked on the door. She turned on the intercom, and asked who it was. He said package delivery, however one of the men coughed while the other said this, giving away that it was more than just one person. Suspicious, she stuck her head out of the window to look at the stranger, and instead saw four black vans, and twenty very large, very armed men lined around the door. Instinctively she screamed, and they looked up. She pulled herself inside just as they smashed down the door and began charging up the stairs toward their apartment.

She began trying to phone the police as quickly as she could, while Issac looked around for something he could use to defend them with. He picked up a nearby broom, and flipped the coffee table on its side to offer better protection, which sent the baton skirting across the room next to the desk, just out of sight.

The second door in their flat offered little resistance to the men, splintering it and shattering the doorframe in only two hits.

Issac jumped over the table, and attacked the thugs as best he could with his meager weaponry. Unfortunately the best he could wasn't much - he isn't a very well built guy.

The lead man grabbed him by the lapel of his shirt, lifting him several inches off the ground.


 * "Where is the baton."


 * "Please, take our money, take our things, just don't harm us plea- wait, what?"


 * "You heard me you scrawny little fucker. Where. Is. The. Baton."

With each word the brute smashed Issac into the wall of the apartment.


 * "I-it's in my suitcase, over there!"

He points, and the man dropped him unceremoniously to the floor.

He walked over to search the bag, tossing things left and right, until he came across Issac's personal white wooden conducting baton. The man turned around.


 * "Do you think this is funny."


 * "W-what?"

He grabbed Issac and smashed him into the coffee table, shattering it along with several of Issac's bones.


 * "I ASKED YOU FOR THE BATON, NOT A MOTHERFUCKING TOOTHPICK, YOU MISERABLE SHITSTAIN!"

At this point Gwen, who had been found and grabbed by one of the other men, couldn't handle watching this anymore - she found a way to escape his grip, and takes the letter opener off of her desk. She then proceeded to run and stab the larger thug in the back of the throat.

The man went down, spurting blood across the room. The rest of the men raised their weapons and opened fire.

Gwen grabbed the beaten Issac and slid behind the desk on the far side of the room as the armed thugs proceeded to rain hot lead down upon them. Issac spotted his baton, and grabbed hold of it - he knew what he had to do. He leaped out from behind the desk at a break in the fire.


 * "ISSAC! WHAT ARE YOU DOING NO STOP GET BACK BEHIND THE DESK THEY'LL FIND US"


 * "HEY! STOP! I HAVE WHAT YOU WANT RIGHT HERE! THIS IS THE BATON YOU WANT RIGHT? HERE, TAKE IT!"

He thrust it out in front of himself. Unfortunately for him, he surprised the armed men when he jumped out.

Don't surprise someone holding an automatic weapon. They can be prone to firing.

And they do.

Issac shut his eyes as hard as he can, hoping that at least it would be quick.

Suddenly the firing stopped.

Slowly, he opened his eyes. All of the men had been shot dead.

Looking down he didn't see a scratch on him, but his baton was glowing twice as bright as it ever had.


 * "I-Issac... what did you just do?"


 * "I have no idea."


 * Issac you just... deflected the bullets back at them.''"

From this and other tests they performed they discovered that the baton is able to deflect and return virtually anything thrown at it.

Now that they knew who it was that had killed their family, and knowing that they have the ability to strike back at them, they planned what they were going to do to destroy the vile men who orchestrated all of this.

There was still one small problem, though - Issac couldn't fight whatsoever.

They began researching fighting techniques for him to learn, which he failed utterly miserably at. Eventually they stumbled across what's called dance fighting. At first he dismissed it, seeing as it was mostly female oriented and organized around effeminate dance stylings. But it gave them both an idea. In theory the principles of dance fighting could be applied to any form of dance, not only the ones being taught by those programs.

He began training, and eventually became highly adept at using the dances he's learned from years of being in the musical field to evade, dodge, and even strike.

Of course this brought up one very specific and obvious flaw: he needed music to dance.

Conviniently enough, it was around this time (several months after the incident) that the bank allowed them access to the family fortune. With all of the newly acquired money they decided that it would be a good idea to give him something that protected him slightly better than just a tshirt and khakis.

They contacted an old family friend, Wilfred Pryer. He's the owner of Pryer Industries, a Dutch areospace and defence contractor - they hired him to design them a very special tuxedo tailcoat.

A month later they recieved a package in the mail. Contained within was a tailcoat made of a very fine kevlar weave, with a internalized communications system and a small tracking device. There was one other feature as well - a fully integrated stereo system. This, of course, would allow Issac to fight with the music he needed to concentrate.

From that day forward he donned the identity of The Conductor, and swore to avenge his family, to decimate the Stern der Licht, and to recover the second half of his birthright.

Trivia

 * Despite being a symphonic musical conductor, Issac has always had a strong affinity for big band, jazz, and lounge music.
 * On that note, his biggest musical guilty pleasure is Richard Cheese . Seriously he just fucking loves the Cheeseman.
 * He's a massive showboater - he loves being in the spotlight and showing everyone else up.
 * Issac never knows when to shut up. Ever.