Fade

"I stopped you. I killed you. I threw your body into the heart of the exploding Supercharger, and I let it scatter your atoms across every corner of the cosmos. That is how it's supposed to happen. Cross me, Jen, and maybe you'll get to see it firsthand."

Fade
SuperHero
Real Name	Bryan Steele
Power	Phasing. Can phase himself and objects he touches, but cannot touch objects while phased. His abilities range from passing through objects to becoming completely out of phase, but cannot do that for extended period without being weakened afterwards.
Age	25
Appearance	Has brown hair and blue eyes. Wears black kevlar-based armor with retractable wristblades, grappling hook, and small supply of smoke bombs. Also wears a grey cloak and hood, as well as a black cowl to protect his identity.
Equipment	Grappling Hook, Smoke Grenades
Lives In	New York City, New York
Relations	Doctor Steele (father), Frigid (former girlfriend), Invisobel (sister)
Status	Active
Owner	BZPower - Chronicler of Ko-Koro (Inactive)

Fade is a SuperHero with the ability to phase through solid matter. While he refuses to become a member of the League of Salvation, he often works with them regardless and assists them frequently. Despite being an independent hero and not bound by the League's rules, Fade prefers to avoid killing, largely due to having problems with death due to witnessing the murder of his entire family.

History

When Bryan was nine, his family went to visit his father in his lab at Logan Industries' headquarters. Unfortunately, a group of armed gunman stormed the building, out to kill Dr. Steele after he refused to hand the Omega Supercharger over to a supervillain. The men killed the rest of his family, and Bryan fled into his father's lab. As he attempted to hide, Bryan accidentally activated the Supercharger, which gave him his phasing powers. He used his newfound powers to escape the gunmen, phasing through their bullets and escaping through a wall.

After the incident Bryan tried to avoid getting close to others, both due to his family's death and because he wanted to hide his powers. However, when Bryan was a teenager, a girl named Jen Bernard discovered his power, and revealed to him that she was a cyrokinetic. Several years later, the two of them entered into a relationship. On their way home from a movie one night, they were attacked by several robbers. After using their powers to defeat a few of the criminals, they were rescued by a superhero named Slash. Having seen them use their powers, Slash asked if they had ever considered becoming superheroes.

After that incident, Bryan adopted the identity of Fade, and got a job with Logan Industries so he could gain access to some of his father's equipment. He took a suit of armor the company had been keeping in storage, and used it to aid his crimefighting. He joined up with Slash and Jen, who had assumed the identity of Frigid, and they became a superhero trio. During his time with the team, Fade helped stop an outbreak of a zombie plague created by a faulty batch of the Solanum Corporation's healing drug, Novum. After this incident, Fade kept close tabs on Solanum in case the incident repeated itself.

When Fade was twenty-two, his team was involved in a battle with Zap. He was easily subdued by Frigid was electrocuted in the process. She said she was fine after the battle, but began to act strangely. Several months later, after getting an offer to join the League, Fade went to Frigid's apartment, where he found Slash seriously wounded. He was attacked by Frigid, who explained that her father, a supervillain named Perception, had placed mental blocks on her true personality, which Zap's electrocution had undone. Fade and Slash concluded that Perception must have brainwashed her, and tried to get her to to the League. However, in the ensuing fight, a stray smoke bomb set the apartment on fire, and Fade was only able to choose one person to save. He rescued the wounded Slash, and Frigid was presumed killed in the fire.

Stricken with grief, Fade rejected the League's offer, and vanished from the superhero world for roughly a year. Then, he reappeared in New York City, his armor painted black. After Frigid's death, he'd reverted back to his loner persona, and avoided working with others as much as he could.

Genesis

A year later, Bryan, now a researcher for Logan Industries, was attending a science conference where he listened to a speech by Thomas Craydon. Upon hearing his plans to announce a secret project MediCo had been developing, Bryan became suspicious and began trying to investigate the company. Two weeks later, Fade was heading to watch as MediCo unveiled their new project. After a brief encounter with Zap on his way there, Fade learned that Craydon had been supposedly kidnapped.

Sensing something was up, Fade broke into MediCo and began searching their files for information. After some searching, he found several references to a “Basement Level Six” which only Craydon had accessed. His phasing powers allowed him to easily bypass the security measures, where he discovered a secret lab inside. After a search of the lab, which revealed some strange genetic research, Fade found a flying machine with a countdown about to go off. When the countdown hit zero, the craft took off and flew out a shaft, with Fade clinging onto the underside by his grappling hook.

As the craft flew up, Fade encountered Omega in the middle of fighting Catastrophe and Thompson over New York. He explained the situation to Fade: The Twister was attempting to set off an Omega-radiation emitting bomb on a League Jet in an attempt to give people superpowers, and that it would kill thousands in the process. Fade connected this information to some of the research he'd found in Craydon's lab. As Omega held off the Coalition members, Fade investigated what purpose the craft served. Before he could examine it further, it flew up towards the waiting jet, and Fade was forced to phase it to avoid a collision. In the process, the flying craft attached itself to the bottom of the jet.

Landing inside the jet, Fade saw The Twister and X-Calibur fighting, and and identified Twister as Thomas Craydon. After a brief fight, The Twister explained that the Omega bomb had been brought by the flying craft, and was now poised to detonate. However, X-Calibur revealed that he'd switched the jet's coordinates, and instead of dropping the bomb over New York it would detonate harmlessly over the Pacific Ocean. The Twister appeared to have been killed trying to stop the bomb, and Omega was able to contain the blast to prevent it from killing everyone in the jet. After they returned to New York, Fade told the League what he'd seen in Craydon's lab before leaving.

To Save The World!

One year later, Fade investigated a group of robbers who stole a remote control unit stolen from Logan Industries. He discovered they had outfitted a car with the remote device, and were using it as a decoy getaway vehicle in bank robberies. Fade waited for them to attempt another robbery, then attacked them as they tried to flee. He took down the group of robbers, then left them for the police to arrest. Later, Fade went to stop Zap from attempting a bank robbery. After a fight Zap attempted to flee in a stolen cop car, with Fade clinging on in an attempt to stop him. Zap lost control of the car, and drove it into the harbor. Fade was forced to save him from drowning, then turned him over to the authorities.

Forcefield

Upon returning home, he got a call from Slash, who was now living in Edinburgh, Scotland and confined to a wheelchair after Frigid's attack. He told him a villain named Forcefield had been wreaking havoc and the three League members sent to investigate had disappeared. Slash had hoped that Fade's phasing abilities could combat Forcefield's abilities. Fade went after Forcefield, but was unable to beat him and was defeated. He woke up in Forcefield's lair, along with the defeated League members. Forcefield, assuming he was also with the League, planned to hold the superheroes for ransom. Fade managed to escape the cell, and waited to surprise Forcefield. However, he realized that he'd escaped, and attacked Fade. After Fade gained the upper hand, Forcefield fled, but not before setting his bases self destruct. Fade got the superheroes out of the cell, and dragged them out of the base just before it blew up.

Fade learned that Forcefield had headed to the airport in an attempt to escape. When he arrived he met XeVolver, who had been sent by the League to capture Forcefield. As Forcefield attempted to flee in a stolen airplane, Fade and Xevolver phased aboard, and battled him. After a fight they defeated Forcefield, but he revealed the plane had been too damaged. Fade told Xevolver to get out of plane with Forcefield, then phased the plane just as it was about to hit the ground. He jumped out and landed in a building, suffering some injuries in the process.

After he left XeVolver behind, Fade learned that Professor Pyro and Captain Pulverizer were wreaking havoc in Ottawa. He immediately drove up to Canada to investigate the situation. He attacked Pulverizer's ship, only to get into a fight with Spark, who was attempting to make a deal with Pulverizer. After deciding they were evenly matched, Spark attempted to make a deal with Fade as well. At that moment, the ship was attacked by Ms. Amandine's hit crew, sent to stop Pulverizer from interfering in her plans. The ship was damaged by Steve, and Fade was flung off by the impact.

Battling several of Pulverizer's henchmen on the way there, Fade reached Steve and attempted to ask what side they were on. After failing to get a direct answer, Fade found himself in combat with more of the pirates, and managed to get back onto the pirate ship. Onboard, he ran into Spark once again, who made an offer to let him defeat the pirates in exchange for a wristband that would alert Spark of the next villain Fade thought, so that he could come and collect him if he thought the villain was good enough. Since Fade was injured and had few allies, he agreed after some consideration.

Spark detonated the ship's generator, and Fade was flung into a nearby building by the blast. He was briefly knocked unconscious, his mask was blown off in the explosion. Upon waking up, Fade changed back into his civilian identity to blend in with the civilians injured by the fight, but not before Spark was able to identify him.

After getting out of the hospital, Bryan drove back to New York. He returned to work at Logan Industries, only to have the building come under attack by the supervillain Dread. After encountering several police officers under the influence of Dread's madness-inducing powers, Fade attempted to fight the villain as he tried to steal technology from his lab. During the fight, Dread managed to Zap Fade with one of his fear beams, leaving Fade suffering from nightmarish hallucinations. After he confronted a hallucination of Frigid, Fade was able to overcome Dread's powers. He managed to stop Dread before he could steal information of Logan Industries computers, but in the process his lab was destroyed by an explosion.

Once he got home, Bryan received a call from his boss, telling him that the labs had been closed temporarily due to the damage. After learning he would have several months off of work, he saw a report that a werewolf named Zevon was setting fire to buildings in Soho, England. Fade flew down to London, where Zevon explained that he was out to destroy the headquarters of the Werewolves of London. After explaining their history, Zevon attempted to catch Fade off guard and attacked him. He escaped and transformed into his human form to blend in. Unable to find Zevon, Fade waited outside the Werewolves of London's headquarters to see if he would show up. However, Zevon used a decoy werewolf to distract Fade long enough to blow up the headquarters.

Fade attacked Zevon again, but he left him to deal with his werewolf henchmen and left. They chased him across the city, until he fell through one of the burning buildings and was knocked out. The werewolves attempted to dispose of Fade in the Thames River, but he woke up and escaped after they tried to dispose of his body. After recovering from his injuries, he answered a call from Zaxon for any superbeings to challenge him, and they met again at the sight of their first battle. After a brief fight, Zevon and Fade wound up in a train tunnel, where Zevon was joined by two of his werewolves, Floyd and Ericson. Fade managed to convince Ericson to switch sides, and he helped take out the werewolves. They attempted to get them to the nearest League base, but the werewolves managed to escape again. After some fighting, Ericson was badly wounded, and Fade went to the League Court of Great Britain to get help.

Battle in the League Court

Unknown to him, the League Court had been taken over by Spark, who sent Toxic and Genie to try and keep Fade distracted. Toxic went to fight the werewolves, and Genie helped heal Ericson. While Toxic was occupied, she told Fade of the situation at the League Court, and that she was a member of the League who had only escaped by pretending to be a villain. She used Fade's phone to call Mentor, who sent in Lionheart and Stella to help stop Spark.

Fade and Genie phased in to help, but Fade was separated when Forcefield, now working for Spark, spotted him and attacked, eager for revenge. When he proved unable to beat Fade, Spark himself joined in the fight. Unable to fight both of them, Fade fled, with Forcefield in pursuit. Fade eventually defeated Forcefield by phasing him down into a sublevel, knocking him out as he hit the floor. Once down there, Fade got into a battle with Meltdown, who forced him to abandon his wristblades after nearly melting them. When Midnight and the Coalition entered the fight, Fade was forced to fight Apparition using a lead pipe as an improvised weapon.

After Apparition teleported away, Fade recovered his wristblades and attempted to find the bomb Midnight claimed to have planted in the building. In his searching, he came upon Midnight just in time to see him killing Spark. Fade tried to hide, but the psychic sensed his presence, and told him he wasn't going to find the bomb. Fade immediately phased through several walls, managing to escape Midnight. Knowing he wouldn't be able to disable the bomb, Fade focused on getting as many people out of the building as possible. Just as the bomb was about to go off, he remembered Forcefield was still unconscious in the base. Unfortunately, Forcefield awoke and, after a brief fight, managed to escape. Fade barely escaped the Court before it exploded, and his cape was set on fire and destroyed in the process.

When Fade returned home, he set to work designing a new cape. He had gotten his hands on some nanofibers that Logan Industries had rejected, and used them to make a tougher, more durable cape that could also function as a glider. As he was testing it out, Fade found Zap holding a man hostage: he had been cellmates with Dread in prison, and had learned from him that Fade must have been an employee of Logan Industries. Unfortunately, he realized he had the wrong employee when Fade burst into the apartment.

Before Fade could defeat Zap, Mr. Mystery showed up at the scene. In addition to telling Fade he'd become an enemy of the Coalition after the incident at the League Court, he said that the Coalition was looking to recruit Zap. Seeing Zap as a pathetic excuse for a supervillain, Fade found this ridiculous. He and Zoo tried to stop Mystery, but he escaped with Zap. Later that day, Fade fought a deranged supervillain called The Ice Cream Man. After he was stopped, Fade found himself attacked by Havoc, who had mistaken him a superhero who betrayed him. Having had a very strange day, Fade started to head home.

However, on his way he encountered Invisobel, who explained that she had come from the future to prevent a superpowered war. A superbeing who could determine how to change the timeline had figured out that Fade and All-American were needed to do this, but didn't know why. Invisobel and Fade met up with Harmony and Elektrik, and with the help of Zoo and Amestis, headed to Canada, where a superweapon that would spark the war was being unearthed by Ms. Amandine. They got over the border with assistance from Steve, really a League member named Mr. Motion working as a spy.

The group broke into the quarry where Amandine was supposed to unearth the weapon. They arrived just as the workers uncovered a large crystal that gave off energy which killed anyone close to it. Invisobel guessed that this was why Fade and All-American were chosen: All-American's invulnerability allowed him to survive the energy field, and Fade could simply phase through it. They entered the crystal, and discovered it was an extra-dimensional prison containing Cavalier.

The group proceeded to attack the mine, and despite the appearance and interference of Havoc, were able to escape with the crystal by opening a portal to Invisobel's time. Shortly after arriving, they came under fire by a squad of bombers, and Elektrik's sister opened up a portal for Fade and the others to return back to their time. Before Fade stepped through the portal, Invisobel revealed that she knew his real identity, but he was taken back to his own time before he could learn why.

The group returned to their own time, arriving just outside the Tampa Bureau. The prison was placed in storage and, after helping with a brief supervillain attack, Fade returned home. On his way home, Fade learned of the reason why Mr. Mystery wanted Zap, when he saw an ISNN broadcast stating that Zap had been sent to prison, only to escape with one of the Coalition's operatives.

Frigid Returns

Upon returning to New York, Fade encountered Thrasher and Stretch attacking a laboratory belonging to the Solanum Corporation. With the help of Loadstone and Omega, they were able to subdue Stretch, but Thrasher managed to escape with several samples of the Novum serum. Before fleeing, he revealed to Fade that Frigid was still alive. Fade then got a call from Frigid, who tried use him to get the Omega Supercharger.

Fade, Omega, and Loadstone went to Logan Industries to stop Frigid from taking the Supercharger herself. They arrived first, but Frigid attacked with Thrasher and two other supervillains. As the fought, Frigid revealed that Fade's father had built weapons for supervillains, and both the Supercharger and Fade's armor had been among them. The building was damaged in the fight, but they stopped Frigid from getting the Supercharger. Fade discovered the Supercharger was locked by a biometric sensor, and only someone in his family could unlock it.

After taking the Supercharger to Mentor's Mansion for safekeeping, Fade attempted to locate Perception so he could question him on how to help Frigid. He discovered he had been kept in a League Penitentiary in London, but escaped during Spark's attack. He managed to determine his location in Chatham, England, and after getting confirmation from Mentor, Loadstone, Omega, and Sugar Rush went to capture him.

Meanwhile, Fade went to his family's old home in Newburgh, New York. He found a hidden elevator in the basement, which lead down to his father's secret lab. Inside, Fade found a variety of weapons, a prototype for the Supercharger, and a stasis pod. Upon opening it up, Fade discovered an imperfect clone his father had made for his experiments with the Supercharger, who called herself Isobel. Fade eventually figured out that she was the same girl as Invisobel, explaining how she knew his identity.

At that moment, Thrasher tracked him down and attacked the lab. Not having worn his armor, Fade attempted to fight back, but was beaten badly by Thrasher. The villain learned that Isobel shared the DNA needed to activate the Supercharger, and kidnapped her. Despite being beaten nearly to death, Fade managed to drive back to Mentor's mansion, where he got medical help from the League. At the same time, the others returned with Perception, and they told him what he had said about Frigid: the personality Fade had originally known was a fake, designed to get her to infiltrate the League. The villainous Frigid that was after the Supercharger was the real personality, trained by Perception since she was a little girl.

Fade took the news poorly, but knew he had to keep going to save Isobel. Having placed a tracker on Thrasher in the fight, he determined the location of Frigid's hideout and went there. In an abandoned car factory, Frigid had assembled a larger version of the Supercharger, using Recall's superpower to get the design. The Novum had begun to take it's effects, but it's improved formula was still trying to heal her. The end result was that Frigid had become a zombie, but an intelligent, regenerating one.

Frigid attempted to tempt Fade over to her side by offering to let him kill Zap. He appeared to take the offer, but used it as an opportunity to attack Frigid. As she tried to go towards the Supercharger as it powered up, Recall told him that the Novum was affecting her brain: if she got to the Supercharger, she would not only be completely mad, but completely unstopable. Seeing no way to stop the zombified Frigid, Fade was forced to kill her by phasing her then shoving her into the Supercharger as it went off, scattering her atoms permanently. Unstable due to the larger core, the Supercharge exploded soon after, and it appeared that Fade had been killed.

Fade had in fact been knocked unconscious by the blast while still phase, causing him to loose control of his powers. He woke up, without his armor, in the middle of the Himalayas during a snowstorm. He took shelter in an old temple, which he was surprised to discover was inhabited by superheroes. After giving him a change of clothes, the leader of the temple, Tornado, explained that he created the temple, known as The Refuge to help train superhumans looking for guidance. While trapped in The Refuge, Fade trained with the temple's other inhabitants. During this time, Fade found that he was unable to use his powers, and also found himself haunted by a hallucination of Frigid.

In the night, Fade found himself attacked by Bound, and quickly discovered that The Refuge was actually a Coalition training center, built before Doctor Danger died. The villains there assumed Fade was a League spy, and immediately tried to kill him. Despite being unable to access his powers, Fade was able to best four of the villains in hand to hand combat. He then fought Tornado, who tried to kill him with bolts of lightning. He defeated the villain, but not before The Refuge caught ablaze. Fade found a Coalition Tiltrotor in a hidden hanger, loaded the villains into it, and took off as The Refuge burnt to the ground behind him.

Ikusen Sakeme

Fade flew the tiltrotor to Japan, where he stumbled upon a group of heroes attempting to stop Ikusen Sakeme's – currently possessing the body of the superheroine Sluice – plans to use the Omega Radiation Collecting Machine to increase his powers. Fade helped to join the battle as best he could, using the tiltrotor's weapons to try and damage the machine. Despite the efforts of Fade and the others, they were unable to stop the machine, and Sakeme swept the entire group within a giant orb of water.

As Sakeme hurled ice daggers at the group, Fade swam back to the tiltrotor, which was floating among the wreckage swept up by the orb. He was briefly attacked by Bound, who had broken free of his restraints, but quickly defeated him. Fade powered up the tiltrotor, and began using its propellers to slice up the ice daggers.

Sakeme created psychic projections of the heroes inner darkness, and Fade found himself fighting a version of himself with bloodstained wristblades. Dark Fade mocked Fade's various troubles; killing Frigid, suppressing his feelings about the deaths of both her and her family, the revelation of his father's shady dealings, and the possibility that his hallucinations of Frigid mean he could be going insane. Fade, attacked him, and Dark Fade accused him of hiding behind his superhero career to avoid getting close to people.

Fade gained the upper hand, but found himself unable to finish off his duplicate. However, at that moment Omega flew in, using his powers to absorb Dark Fade. After Omega left, Fade got to work trying to repair the tiltrotor's missile pods, hoping to use them against Sakeme. In the process, he noticed X-Calibur being drowned by Sakeme. He swam over and was able to save him, briefly summoning his superpowers to phase the excess water out of him. The other heroes managed to defeat Sakeme's spirit, freeing Sluice.

In the aftermath of the battle, Fade helped fish the tiltrotor out of the newly formed lake created by the battle, and turned the villains over to the League. After that, he spoke to Omega, asking if the League could help make false birth certificates, so that she could live her life without being known as a clone from a failed experiment. He also asked to be put down as Isobel's godfather, and that she was living with him after the death of her “parents.” Omega helped get the paperwork sorted out, then Fade told him that he planned on retiring from crimefighting, due to loosing both his powers and his abilities.

Bryan headed home with Isobel, first making a stop in Edinburgh to tell Slash what had happened with Frigid. Bryan tried to convince Slash that to stop using his injury as an excuse to avoid returning to superheroics, and that the League had people who could help him recover, Slash. He then headed back to New York, and caught a news report about the explosion of Frigid's hideout, which stated that Fade had been presumed killed in the blast. Content to let things stay that way, Bryan dismantled the prototype Supercharger and disposed of the parts in the New York harbor.

Despite his attempts to avoid superhero work, Bryan still found himself trying to stop crime. On his way home with Isobel, the area came under attack by a supervillain named Blast, who Bryan knocked unconscious by hitting him with a car door. Then, while he was grocery shopping with Isobel, a man attempted to rob the store. Bryan attempted to talk him down, then proceeded to beat him up when he panicked and started shooting. It was only after he'd stopped the criminal that Bryan realized he'd been shot. At the hospital, doctors rushed to stabilize him, and Bryan hallucinated himself outside his old home. He saw his past self telling him that he could be a civilian or a hero, but he had to choose one. After Bryan woke up in the hospital, he discovered he could use his powers again. The hallucination of Frigid returned, telling him that he had been subconsciously suppressing his powers so he had an excuse to avoid returning to being Fade.

Fade's Return

Once he got out of the hospital, Fade returned to crimefighting, using a prototype armor he found in his father's lab. He had just finished foiling a bank heist when he spotted aliens trying to kidnap humans. Upon fighting the aliens, he learned it was a ruse to lure superpowered being to them, so they could use their Omega radiation to fill up a beacon that would call in the rest of their armada. Once they left, Fade encountered a blue-suited superhero who called himself Proxy, and claimed to also be fighting the aliens. However, he soon learned that it was a trap, and Proxy was actually a shapeshifting alien, who revealed the beacon was almost full. Fade pursued him across the city, but failed to stop the beacon from filling up, and while struggling with Proxy, was teleported to the alien's ship. There, one of the aliens generated a containment field around Fade, which vibrated at an intense frequency Fade's phasing powers couldn't pass through. However, Fade managed to escape after being left in a cell, and helped Loadstone, Sugar, and Plasmafire in stopping the aliens. With their Beacon and ship destroyed, Fade returned to New York.

After getting back to New York, Fade found himself in battle with a supervillain named Pane. However, he was interupted by the appearance of Paladin, who revealed himself to be Bryan's boss at Logan Industries. He said that he'd reclaimed the Supercharger from the League, but it had been stolen by Forcefield, who wanted to sell it on the black market. After threatening to reveal that Fade had stolen equipment from Logan to fight crime, Fade reluctantly agreed to help. With the aid of Paladin's parner, Wingman, they went after Forcefield as he attempted to sell the device to a crimelord named Sludge, and battled Forcefield's new minions Shock and Awe. Fade destroyed the Supercharger, enraging Paladin.

Later, Fade was in the middle of foiling another heist, when police charged in to try and arrest him. Fade learned that someone dressed up as him was running around Paris, and had killed three supervillains, in addition to hospitalizing another. Assuming it was the escaped Proxy, Fade traveled to Paris with Isobel. He investigated the restaurant where Network was attacked, only to find himself attacked by Longshot, who had been ordered by the League to bring him in. After a fight, Longshot was knocked out when Isobel tripped her. Fade was upset that she'd gotten involved in the fight, but decided it was best to leave before she woke up.

Fade determined that the imposter was attacking supervillains who visited certain restaurants, all owned by a man named Bart Irving. He determined which restaurant would be attacked next, and confronted the impostor. After a fight, he tore off the impostor's mask, revealing a woman named Alice Greene, who had found Fade's armor after he lost in the explosion of Frigid's Supercharger. She revealed that Irving was a villain named Arsenal, who was selling weapons to Paris's underworld.

Suddenly, Longshot attacked the restaurant, accidentally activating Alice's trap and blowing up the restaurant. Alice attempted to flee, but was attacked by Arsenal and his henchmen. Realizing she had been mistaken, Longshot helped them fight off Arsenal's minions. The villain attempted to flee, but was tripped by an invisible Isobel. Arsenal was arrested, and Fade got his original armor back.

Longshot told Fade she had to leave, because Professor Pyro had attacked the UN building. Fade offered to help, and flew back to New York with her. They airdropped off the jet and landed outside the building, where they assisted the heroes present in attacking Pyro. Fade helped by phasing out the UN representatives, who Pyro had been holding hostage.

When Pyro escaped, Fade was prepared to go after him, but then Isobel started to fall sick. Bryan visited his doctor, who told him that she hadn't had an opportunity to build up immunity to illness, due to spending her entire life inside a lab. Bryan was trying to watch Isobel until she got better, but had to leave when Dread returned and started attacking civilians. He got hit with another one of Dread's fear beam, and started hallucinating an undead Isobel taunting Fade, claiming he wouldn't be able to save her. The hallucination of Frigid attempted to help Fade break out, but was mortally wounded by a nightmarish version of Perception. Fade killed the hallucination, then found himself attacked by undead versions of every villain he'd ever fought. He killed them as well, only to have them turn into superheroes as they died. As Fade was consumed with grief, the wounded Frigid told him it wasn't his fault that she died, which allowed Fade to break out of Dread's control. With help from Omega and Sightline, Dread was defeated and handed over to the police.

Fade rushed back home to Isobel, when Havoc crashed through his window. Havoc nearly killed Isobel, which enraged Fade enough that he tried to kill Havoc. After a fight in the street below, Havoc decided there was no point to fighting, and told Fade that he wanted to join the League. Fade was still enraged with Havoc for trying to kill Isobel, but agreed to take him to the League. After dropping him off, Bryan made reservations at a hotel until his apartment could get repaired.

Perception

On his way back from taking Isobel to the doctors, Bryan was pulled over by a policeman. He revealed himself to be controlled by Perception, who'd escaped from League custody shortly after Fade went after Frigid. He explained that, after seeing how much pain he'd caused Fade unintentionally, he was going to see how much he could do when he was actually trying. He further elaborated that he had kidnapped Slash, and would kill him in one hour, and several mind-controlled heroes and villains were out to stop him if he tried to get to him. Bryan told Isobel to get to the League mansion, and then headed off to rescue Slash.

Fade hurried across the city, finding himself being attacked by Wingman, Bound, Freebird, and Carver. He also came across Paladin, who while not controlled, mistook Fade as having become a villain. He eventually convinced Paladin he hadn't betrayed anybody, and that he needed to rescue Slash. Paladin got him to the warehouse where Slash was, and Fade was able to get the badly-injured Slash out just before it exploded.

Fade headed to Mentor's mansion, where he discovered it was under attack by Apocalypse and several others of his species. He found Silver, who had protected Isobel when she arrived at the mansion in the middle of the fight. Fade managed to protect Isobel from the aliens, which were defeated by the rest of the League present. Once the fight was over, Fade asked if Isobel could remain at the League base for the time being, since Perception would probably go after her next.

On his way to begin the search for Perception, Fade encountered a hero named Captain Quantum. He offered to join the fight against Perception, for reasons he preferred to keep secret. They headed down to the mansion's med center, where the heroes Perception had mind-controlled had been taken. As Quantum questioned them, Fade discovered that the League medics, not aware of Slash's previous injuries, had cured them as well. Fade told Slash to consider becoming a hero again, then went off after Perception.

Assuming Perception wanted to lure them into a trap, Quantum proposed that they let him think that, so they can get close enough to him to take him down. Soon enough, Hertz and Carver attacked them. After Hertz was knocked out, Carver fled, and Fade and Quantum followed her to a warehouse. Fade found who he thought was Perception, and nearly killed him. However, he was talked down by the hallucination of Frigid, and dropped Perception off with the League. Unknown to him, the Perception had swapped places with Paladin earlier, and the real Perception was still loose, disguised as Martin Logan.

With his apartment repaired, Bryan returned home, and found a school that was willing to accept Isobel immediately. When he was going to pick her up from school, he found himself attacked by a gigantic robot centipede that was consuming a building for metal. He discovered it was controlled by Technician Jr., the son of a well-known mad scientist named The Technician (VIII). He didn't want to become a mad scientist, but his father wanted him to. With help from Zoo, he had almost convinced him not to follow his family's ways, when The Technician showed up in a war mecha. Fade convinced Technician Jr. to become a hero, and he helped destroy the Technician's mecha.

After picking up Isobel, Fade went back out on patrol. He came across Shock and Awe, who were attempting to steal technology from one of The Technician's labs after he was arrested. They nearly beat him, but by separating the pair Fade was able to defeat them, then left them for the League to arrest.

Bryan got a call from Martin, telling him that he needed to attend a conference for Logan Industries. On the plane he learned that Recall, now a member of the League, had gotten a job working for Logan, and had been sent on the conference as well. When they arrived the conference they were attacked by armed men, along with a woman claiming to be Frigid, having come back from the dead. She tortured Fade, but he managed to escape through air duct, where he met up with a heroine named Magneta. Having learned that “Frigid” claimed to be there to get the supercharger plans in Recall's head, Fade and Magneta rushed off to save her. They rescued Recall from Frigid and fought her, but she managed to escape despite both their efforts and those of the recently arrived XeVolver.

Recall revealed that using her powers, she determined the woman wasn't Frigid at all, but a hero named Downpour who had been brainwashed by Perception and had her appearance altered by a woman named Marie Harris. Fade considered the possibility that Perception had used Marie to alter his own appearance, but Recall considered it more likely that he'd planned it before getting thrown in jail. During the cleanup, Fade encountered a villain named Zaxon, who claimed to be trying to be seeking revenge on someone who destroyed his home planet. Fade tried to talk him out of revenge, saying he could get the League to help. He let Zaxon escape and tried to tell the others, but the the interference of a recently-arrive Paladin cast doubt upon whether what Zaxon said was true.

Fade met up with Mystic, who had been sent to deal with the mind-controlled henchmen that had accompanied “Frigid.” She helped undo Perception's commands, then got a message saying an army of Sharkmen were attacking Rio de Janeiro. Fade offered to help, and they boarded a League jet headed for Brazil.

When Sluice and Silver reached the Extinction Cannon Esp explained to the group that a number of shields would need to be deactivated from Technax's throne. Throwing a modified smoke bomb to distract Technax, Fade made for the throne. As he followed Esp's instructions Technax blasted a hole in the wall, creating a sudden suction as all of the throne room's air was sucked into space. Guardian X began to head toward the throne but Fade and Shard managed to slow it; Shard eventually pulled himself and it out into space just before an automatic system re-sealed the room.

At this point Silver was able to advance towards the crystal powering the Extinction Cannon, where he explained to the rest of the heroes via communicator that the crystal would only be vulnerable in the moment before firing, but that the backlash of power in its destruction would kill them if they remained close by. He told Sluice to leave and gave everyone one last speech of reassurance. Fade told him to be sure that this was a sacrifice he wanted to make. He then enacted an escape with the rest of the heroes as the destruction of the Extinction Cannon triggered a massive explosion. They fought their way through the dozens of Rollers that had been activated to impede their progress, reaching Esp in the nick of time. However, thousands of airborne units were activated and gave chase. The heroes did their best to slow the advancing fleet. With great effort Fade phased Esp to avoid a barrage of attacks from a Siege Tower that had been sent to block their escape. A lance of energy from the expanding explosion crippled the Siege Tower, also sending countless shards of metal debris towards the unshielded Esp. With Isis' help Esp avoided these and exited the mothership, moments before it completely detonated. Before the blast could reach them the Royal Crystal glowed, and the entirely of the explosion vanished.

Esp returned to Earth, crash-landing in a desert in Egypt. The biomonitor readings on her viewscreens revealed that everyone save Silver had survived the experience. Isis congratulated the group, explaining that she couldn't have told them any more in order to ensure that this, the best possible outcome, could have occurred. Fade and Loadstone reacted angrily to her apparent callousness, but Scorchmark shared Isis' views. Isis eventually teleported away, leaving the group with one more prophecy: "The past will return in the future, where the light will become the dark. The choice to bring back the light rests with you all." Shortly afterwards a number of League Jets arrived, and the heroes were taken home to rest and recover after their ordeals.

One month after the invasion, Fade had settled back into his usual routine. He came into battle with Carver and Hertz, and demanded to know what exactly their goal was - from the way they and their allies had been causing trouble all over the city, Fade guessed that they were looking for something. Hertz took a hostage but was taken out by Wingman, who had been looking for Fade. Though Carver had escaped, Hertz was unconscious and could be taken into League custody. As they prepared to do so the hostage recognised Fade, excitedly taking a photograph. Fade was surprised to learn that in the wake of the invasion he had gained fans.

Once Fade and Wingman had traveled to the League HQ Wingman explained why he had been looking for Fade - someone was needed to catalog the equipment in The Technician's old hideout, as the chaos of the invasion had prevented anyone from investigating it yet. Plasmafire and Magneta ran into them at that point, as well as Saosin, all of whom offered their help. However at that point Magneta noticed Kaname Crescent standing outside; after going over to him she found out that he wanted to see Fade. Kaname inquired as to whether Fade had met any of the three missing men. Fade explained that he had only met Zaxon, but didn't know where he was. Kaname accepted this, then offered his help if Fade needed it. Fade agreed and the two of them traveled with Plasmafire to the old hideout.

Relationship with Other Characters

After the death of both his family and Frigid, Fade tried to avoid forming close friendships, in the event that they might die as well. Nonetheless, there are still a few people that he remains close to. Fade is fiercely protective of Isobel, as she is the last remaining family member he has left, and has gone to extremes to keep her safe. He is also on good terms with most League members, and frequently assists them in fighting villains. In particular he trusts Omega, and often relies on him when he needs help from the League.

However, he does have a rivalry with Paladin, brought on by the fact that Fade destroyed the supercharger, which Paladin wanted for research. In addition, he often earns the anger of many of the more incompetent supervillains he's defeated, who chose to blame him for their defeats rather than their own problems. Th most notable of these is Zap, who thinks of Fade as his nemesis, despite being thought of by Fade as little more than a nuisance.

Fade has a severe hatred of Perception, due to him putting in motion the events that lead to Frigid's death. On the occasions where he has met him face to face, he has had to restrain himself from nearly killing him.

Abilities and Skills

Fade possesses the power to bring himself out of phase with reality, allowing him to pass harmlessly through solid matter. At it's highest power level, Fade can become both invisible and intangible to all around him. He is capable of phasing both himself and anything he has physical contact with, which has allowed him to phase allies, cars, and in one extreme case, a plane. However, Fade's power has its limits; he can only stay intangible for so long before he starts to wear down from continuous concentration. If he tries to phase a large object, it will also wear him down further. Fade is also still affected by temperature in his phased state, so superhumans whose powers generate intense heat or cold can still affect him. Finally, he is unable to affect anything while phased, so he must become tangible before trying to harm an enemy.

In addition to his powers, Fade possesses an array of gadgets that help him fight crime. He wears a suit of lightweight armor, a prototype design developed by his father. The suit is equipped with a pair of wristblades, both used for defending himself and for fighting tougher foes. It also has a grappling hook, which Fade uses both to swing between buildings and to trip his foes. Fade also carries a supply of smoke grenades, which he uses both to distract foes and temporarily blind them with clouds of smoke.

Due to his purely defensive powers, Fade's fighting style relies largely upon hand to hand combat, while using his powers and agility to avoid the attacks of more powerful foes. However, another large part of his fighting style is that he has trained himself to fight despite suffering serious injury, drawing upon willpower to keep himself going. When fighting in in a large group, Fade frequently uses his agility to keep his enemy occupied, leaving him open to attack from other superheroes.

In addition to his combat skills, Fade also makes use of an analytical mind. He often takes not of his opponent's methods, to ensure that he isn't caught off guard or lead into a trap. He also sometimes utilizes detective skills, studying a crime to try and determine what the villain's next move will be.