Zarek Rubicon, Vice President

At long last, here he is!

Zarek Rubicon, the final member of the CARDINAL four, and Vice President of CAPITAL!

He is unique among the other CARDINAL class rulers, in that he is the only one who does not actually hold the rank of CEO within his corporate empire. That position is held by his superior, Casper R Astros, the Renegade CEO.

However, with Casper having departed to track down CAPITAL's escaped genetic test subjects, Zarek Rubicon has been left in charge. And believe us, he MORE than qualifies for the CARDINAL role.

Casper's father was once a renowned scientist, studying the supply of energy to the world. During his experiments, he discovered a substance known as Aether. This substance, possessed an energy yield of over one THOUSAND times any other form of fuel known in the world. It was a breakthrough of colossal proportions.

There was only one flaw.

Aether, despite its miraculous properties, was INCREDIBLY rare.

This fact alone, was what kept the other rival energy production firms at bay. True, Aether DID have the capability to render them all but obsolete if it was ever made available to the general public, but thanks to its extreme rarity, that seemed no more than a passing nuisance.

And then word came back that the good Doctor Astros had uncovered a way to synthesize Aether, in a way that WOULD make it practical for general distribution.

That, unfortunately, was his downfall.

Sabotage by the rival companies caused the prototype Aether production system to go out of control, triggering a full scale meltdown, and resulting in an explosion that made the likes of Hiroshima look pale by comparison.

Every last trace of the doctor's work was destroyed in the blast, neither was the doctor himself, or any of his fellow researchers, ever found. Plus, with the public forever scarred by such a terrible disaster, supposedly caused by Aether, the rival companies ensured that they would maintain a monopoly over the system.

Or so they thought.

Something survived the destruction of the Aether facility.

Rising from the ashes that was once the pride and joy of the Astros Research Group, the being known as Zarek Rubicon arose to take revenge on the world.

He possesses no real body, but is instead simply a pure mass of Aether energy, forced into a cohesive, humanoid form, reminiscent of the body he used to have. His suit works along principles similar to that of the Darkbreaker, allowing him to maintain that humanoid form.

Rubicon's rise to power came not through his own hands, however, but rather through the hands of Doctor Astros' sole surviving heir, the boy who would later become feared as Casper R Astros.

By manipulating the course of events, Rubicon watched from the shadows as Casper rose to power, crushing the men responsible for his father's demise and humiliation, and founding the massive, walled-in city known as the CAPITAL. The Capital itself is both a city, as well as a research facility, one which specializes in, ideally enough, energy production.

With Casper himself out of the way, however, Rubicon stepped in, just as he'd planned. Under his control, however, the CAPITAL has begun pursuing a dangerous, new strategy.

They have been single-mindedly hunting down and capturing any and all reservoirs of Aether material. As it stands now, they hold almost a monopoly on the valuable substance, controlling over 90% of the world's available Aether.

And Rubicon himself, is no mere pushover either.

His power, is that of Energy Conversion.

Thermal Energy.

Light Energy.

Electrical Energy.

Kinetic Energy.

Potential Energy.

Chemical Energy.

Radiant Energy.

Sonic Energy.

Nuclear Energy.

He can freely change any of these forms of energy, into any of the others with a mere touch.

Hit him with a nuke? He'll rip apart the energy of the explosion and turn it into Thermal, Electrical and Radiant Energy, and blast you with all three.

Drop a boulder on him? He'll take its' Kinetic Energy, turn that into Sound Energy, and pulverize it in a single blast.

The ultimate counterattack capability, Rubicon's Conversion power has only two main weaknesses.

1) His conversion power works only through touch, meaning that he has to bring his hands into contact with the object/attack he wants to alter the energy of. Hit him in the back with a fireball, and he WILL take damage.

and 2) Because his body structure IS essentially energy, Rubicon's Conversion is ALWAYS on, which allows him to keep his body relatively stable. And since his conversion works by taking energy into his body and releasing it in a different form, if he is forced to Convert a large enough energy mass (like an ultimate attack, or something) he will overload, losing control and releasing everything at once in a massive blast. He'll only be out of commission for about an hour, however, as it will take that long to stabilize his frame once more.

However, to compensate, he possesses a fairly impressive amount of movement capability as well, allowing him to dodge attacks he judges to be too dangerous.

What this once human man seeks to accomplish by monopolizing Aether, no-one knows. However, just like the plans of the other CARDINAL-class bosses, only time will tell.

Zarek Rubicon belongs to