Maxwell Riley

=== "Y-you know w-what I am? I-I'm a product of this government. Y-you bastards made me. And the worst part is? You'll never get rid of us." - Maxwell Riley To Beta in Chapter 2: A Fateful Encounter ===

===Maxwell Riley is the main protagonist of the God of Thieves metaseries. He is an active member of Squad Four, led under Takeshi Tanaka. Baring the unique power to steal just about anything without any sort of physical contact, Maxwell has gained reputation as the infamous criminal "Phantom Thief" and is later recognized as "The God of Thieves" upon achieving the infamy of a Public Enemy. He is the heir to the Spectre guild and later becomes it's leader under the reborn title Phantom. He is the husband to Akemi Sato and the father of several children, being responsible for the revival of the Sato clan. ===

Biography
Maxwell Kaito Riley was born in Liverpool in 1883 to Himiko and Arlin Riley. He is the eldest of his siblings, two twins that would be born 3 years after Maxwell was.

The family lived in Liverpool but often worked elsewhere, as Himiko often searched for work in mills out on the country side, and Arlin in factories in more industrial cities such as Tokyo and London.

Arlin would eventually find work as a traveling merchant, selling goods across the country in places that needed them. This would earn the family enough money to live comfortably in Liverpool, attaining a nice apartment to themselves.

Maxwell grew up like all boys in his city, but stuck out like a sore thumb due to his one odd feature--his left hand was a dark purple. This trait often made him the subject of much teasing from other children, which caused him to be somewhat of an outcast. From his early days onward, Maxwell would wear a single glove on his left hand in public, a decision he would remain firm on until eventually becoming a member of the Spectre guild.

When he was about 15, Maxwell had realized his hand could be used to earn more money for his family, as it had the abnormal ability to steal things without contact. He would then use this hand and it's odd ability to steal items to make ends meet as a thief as his father would send money less and less frequently from his far out merchant trips.

This would eventually lead him to the moment that changed his life--a botched robbery that resulted in Maxwell being cornered by two powerful Bloodhounds, Alpha and Beta. Before Maxwell could be successfully captured, Squad Four of the Spectre Guild came to save and recruit him.

From this moment forward, Maxwell was inducted into the Spectre Guild and would go on to become its second most prominent member (behind Riker Maddox). When the guild is reborn in Act 2, Maxwell steps up to the plate of leader, renaming the guild to Phantom and taking charge of it's operations.

Personality
Maxwell is a generally kind and caring boy deep down, as we see his direct admiration for justice and the wellbeing of others shine through in many moments. This, however, is not the side most commonly seen. In most cases, Maxwell could be described as being childish, immature, over energetic, witty, obnoxious, stubborn, and quite the smart ass. He listens to authority well, but is known to go off on his own and govern himself when he wants to.

As the series progresses, Maxwell becomes more mature and level headed, abandoning his constant jokes and wit in favor of a more mellow persona, one without a sharp tongue he had as a younger teenager. He also gains a bit of selfishness during the events of the series, as direct side effects of his power. In some points, he also gains a bit of weariness and distrust of those around him, even his own romantic partner, due to many plotlines that occur.

While using excess amounts of Ether energy (particularly in Kurokami transformation) Maxwell loses a bit of his sanity, causing his mental state to be warped and his mind to be easily swayed in either direction. In almost all cases of this abuse of power, Maxwell has been shown to exhibit evil qualities, from wanting to steal everything in sight to outright ignoring and disrespecting allies and enemies. He is also known to be incredibly cocky in this form, even while being beat or matched in power. In Act 2, Maxwell has been shown to control his behaviors while using the power to avoid this. In his Kurokami form, or while using lots of Ether energy, he will usually remain silent and not speak at all, communicating primarily through psycho-link.

Other forms seem to have impact on his personality and behaviors as well, such as his Shiroikami form. While in this form, Maxwell has been known to show more kind and generous behaviors than normal. He almost never refers to enemies in a negative light, and always offers some sort of ultimatum or peace to them upon defeat. If any sort of hostility by Maxwell is made in this mode, his form will directly switch into Kurokami instantly, as Shiroikami cannot attack targets physically.

While in Tenseikami, Maxwell behaves more like a godly, divine figure. He uses the most proper words and dictation in his vocabulary, speaks cleanly and strongly, and above all with a menacing tone. All of this leads to a more intimidating figure, further enhanced by his godly appearance. He is known to give his opponents a chance to change or apologize, of which they fail to do so, will quickly respond with godly wrath that could only be described as even more terrifying than his presence while in Kurokami.

Appearance
Maxwell's physical appearance is quite standard for a teenager of the time. He is of average height for a boy his age, coming at around 5'9/5'10 in most of Act 1. His height drastically increases in Act 2, along with his physical build to 6'0. Upon first appearance, he is not muscular, but is toned enough in build to look as such. As he grows older, his body is much more defined and his build is impressive, bearing a similarly built body to other muscular characters such as Spaz and Takeshi. He retains his slim figure throughout the entire series. As for hair and eyes, they are matching in a light/dark brown color. In some interpretations, he is said to have dark brown hair that could be mistaken for black. His hair is initially a large spiky mound, which Maxwell controls through wearing his hood to flatten and manage it. This creates a head full of spiky bangs that sometime hang above and on his face.

The most notable part of Maxwell's design is his Dark Hand, which can manipulate Space and Matter itself through Etherous energy. This gives his hand a purple starry glow to it that tends to brighten whenever his abilities are used. In the beginning of the story, Maxwell mostly covers this hand up in public to avoid attention. As the series progresses, Maxwell uses his dark hand as an intimidation factor, paired with his hood to truly bring the "Phantom Thief" persona to life. After his hand is severed, Maxwell creates a new one out of Ether energy, which also takes a new shape. Bony and jagged in appearance, this hand resembles that of a devil or demon's hand. This was also intentionally designed this way by Maxwell to intimidate. Unlike a regular hand, this limb is made entirely of raw Etherous energy, allowing it to shift and take form of just about anything Maxwell desires.

Maxwell, in Act 1, looks relatively the same across the entire board. His common getup consists of brown or black trousers, brown boots, white undershirt, brown jacket, and a brown or black hood. While in the streets, especially at night, Maxwell will always wear his hood. He is also known to wear it on missions and even during casual affairs, but will never fully cover his face unless he is working.

Later on in the series, Maxwell ditches this outfit for something a bit more fitting of a powerful thief, choosing to wear a black cape fitted with a hood, a black jacket, white undershirt, slim black pants and black boots, keeping a strict color code. In Osaka Deadzone, Maxwell wears an arc-unique outfit--a brown kimono. In Mad Tea Party, Maxwell wears a formal black vest and white dress shirt. In Q's Love Mindscape, he wears a wedding tuxedo.

Each form Maxwell transforms into also has some sort of modification to his appearance. While pushing his abilities in base, Riley's arm begins to swell with purple energy, which climbs its way up all the way to the shoulder and sometimes into the chest area. When his power has been fully pushed to it's limit, Maxwell's entire body is engulfed with dark purple energy, and his eyes are replaced with large pupil-less white orbs. His body also becomes extremely muscular and toned, more so than in his base. Whatever clothing Maxwell was wearing before the transformation remains on him regardless.

The same applies to Shiroikami, except the dark purple Etherous energy is replaced with white Aetherous energy. Instead of large white orbs for eyes, Shiroikami's are black. Tenseikami combines both colors and elements of Kurokami and Shiroikami to complete a divine, almost godlike look. Both colors are reflected in his hair, eyes, limbs, so on and so fourth.

Powers and Abilities
The Dark Hand  (ダークハンド) is Maxwell's core ability and the source of almost all of his power. Born with an abnormal concentration of Etherous energy in his left hand, Maxwell has learned to create small voids to draw items in and hold them together in a pocket dimension. This ability is not limited to just stealing items among endless other things without contact, but also can perform all the same techniques and uses Etherous energy provides.

The Dark Hand's Signature Ability (Only useable by Maxwell) is Steal, which allows him to steal anything in existence. There is no known objectors to this ability, thus making it limitless. Such a powerful ability requires great comprehension of one's power, and the will to use it in devastating ways. Due to Maxwell's good hearted nature, he has tended to be more merciful with this ability.

Techniques

 * Dark Mirror ( ダークミラー/ Daku no Kagami) is Maxwell's first techinque and the most basic of all his abilities. By opening a void through his hand, Maxwell can absorb anything coming at him rather than stealing it, immediately ejecting it back out of the void and towards an intended target. By not claiming an item/attack/thing as his, the void will automatically reject what is sucked into it, allowing great force to be exerted when returning things. If an attack is absorbed, it will usually be fired back at then times the strength it was initially cast.
 * Dark Cylinder (ダークシリンダー / Dāku no shirindā) is a variant of Dark Mirror. By strictly absorbing attacks from one hand and firing them out from the other, Maxwell can reflect rapid fire attacks, or attacks that would be coming at overwhelming speeds. Dark Cylinder is also effective against Consecutive attacks with multiple points of lethality.