Codename:         Shadow Mantis

Real Name:        Josh Chord

Known Aliases:    None

Occupation:       Adventurer/College student

Citizenship:      USA

Legal Status:     No criminal record

Identity:         Public

Birthplace:       Chicago, IL

Birthdate:        13 June 1974

Marital Status:   Single

Known Relatives:  Andrew Chord (maternal grandfather)

      Miyami Chord (maternal grandmother, deceased)

      Silhouette Chord (mother)

      Aaron Chord (Midnight’s Fire, uncle)

      Mr & Mrs Daryn Taylor (paternal grandparents, deceased)

      Daryl & Melody Ann Taylor (uncle/aunt, deceased)

      Dwayne Michael Taylor (Night Thrasher, cousin)

      Donyell Taylor (Bandit, father)

Known Confidantes: Jayme Cera

Known Allies:     The Champions

Major Enemies:    Uberfrau and the Sinister Six, etc

Base of Operations: New York, NY

Group Affiliation:  The Champions

Past Group Affiliations: Unrevealed

Extent of Education: HS Grad, College level studies

Race/Type:        Breed Mutant (Mystical)

Power Origin:     Natal

 

Ht:   5’11” Hair: Blue  Build: Athletic/Martial Artist

Wt:   210   Eyes: Blue  Skin: Light café au lait/olive

Apparent Age:  19      True Age: 20

Other: Exotic mixture of Asian and African American, though the Asian is clearly more dominant.

 

Fighting:   Rm          Health: 130       Mental Health: 80

Agility:    In          Karma: 80/2617

Strength:   Ex          Resources:  Ex

Endurance: In          Popularity: 10 artist/6 hero

Reason:     Ex          Looks:      Gd

Intuition:  Rm

Psyche:     Rm

 

Known Powers:

 

Shadow Shaping: Mn

Darksight allows Josh to see in all manner of natural, mystical and power-based darkness as if it were normal daylight.

Stunts @ Mn: Energy Solidification

Stunts @ Am: Darkforce Control, Energy Sheath, Shadow Weapons, Mind-shading (Psi-screen)

Stunts @ In: Dimensional Travel*

Stunts @ Rm: Super-ventriloquism, Teleport Self*

Notes: Dimensional Travel and Teleportation require shadowed areas to enter/exit, Teleport range -2cs [2500 miles] / skill +2cs, crosses through shadow realms.

 

Shadow Casting: In

The darkness blocks Sounds and Magnetism as well as Light, Heat, Hard Radiation, Radiowaves.

Stunts @ Rm: Darkforce Generation

Stunts @ Ex: Penetration Vision (blocked by silver)

Stunts @ Pr: Extra-dimensional Detection*

Notes: (Astral Plane, Darkforce, Shadow Realm, Realm of the Shadow Queen)

 

Body Coating/Cocoon: Mn

Cocoon is immobile. Can create a hard cocoon in which he heals at an accelerated rate. He can regrow limbs on a Red FEAT.

Stunts @ Mn: Self-Revival

Stunts @ In: Animal Mimicry/Mantis*

Stunts @ Ex: Regeneration (within Cocoon, Pr w/o)

 

Hyper Speed/Running: Ex
Just can move at Ex ground speed, and reacts 20x faster than a normal guy of similar fitness/reflexes/training etc. He may also make multiple attacks (3 per round).

 

Talents:

Multi-lingual (English, Japanese, Khmer, Spanish), Artist (Manga, Comics), Acrobatics, Blunt Weapons, MA B/E/F {In-40 skill with unarmed attacks and +1 init; +1cs damage; [Edged]; (Northern Praying Mantis)}, Computers (graphics), Resist Domination, Sports Medicine, Shiatsu Massage/Acupressure,

 

 

Contacts: Parents, Marion Chui (sr. writer for famous manga ‘zine), Steve ‘Gadget’ Ross (a guy with Repair/Tinkering, Electrical/Mechanical Engineering and crazy inventing habits), Jayme Cera

 

Advantages: Popularity (webcomic), Rich Family (Taylors), Rich Friends (Jayme Cera & Jackie Fortuit), Mystical Heritage

 

Drawbacks: Sensitive to cold (see Limitations note), Distinctive Appearance, Public ID, Rivalry (Vivica True), Watched by ?? ;)

 

Limitation: When exposed to cold in excess of his Endurance (In) he begins to lose health at a rate of 1 point per round. This lasts for the extent of the exposure, plus an additional 1-100 round. The damage due to this will not directly kill, but can put him into a comatose state.

 

 

Equipment:

 

Armor Specifications: Shadow Mantis (power-created ‘armor’/costume)

Assumes a semi-insectoid appearance. The following powers are gained at rank:

*Armor Skin (blue chitin with gold stripes)

*Circular Vision (faceted eyes)

*Flight (membranous wings)

 (low altitude: 7 area/turn & 105 mph & 1,75 mpm)

 (normal altitude: 20 area/turn & 300 mph & 5 mpm)

*Hyper-Leaping (50' up/across; 75' down)

*Natural Weaponry: Claws

*Wall Crawling

 

Personal Weaponry: Nunchaku (a deep blue colored nunchaku with golden-colored chain, RM Material Strength)

12 shurikens (Good Edged Throwing damage, six may be folded and carried in a single belt pouch)

 

Special/Unique Weaponry: Unrevealed

 

Other Accessories: Utility belt with the following:

*Conventional Gas Mask

*Rebreather (provides oxygen for 2 hrs)

*A radio receiver/transceiver, capable to trace the mantis-tracer signals, capable to attach itself emergency frequencies (911, police, etc).

*Mantis-tracer device: coin-sized gadget, shaped like a small blue-gold mantis, it emits a special FM frequency signal, which can be traced by the radio receiver from Ex range (6 mile).

*Shadow seal: coin-sized gadget, it emits (Pr intensity) light-rays in certain directions if activated. This is very helpful, because these rays almost always can create some shadow, and that can be used with his Teleport ability.

*High-end home PC (with various graphics software packages, etc, and the best internet access available in 1994).

*Anime comics collection

 

Transportation: Motorcycle (blue-gold colored vehicle, with a dark-blue mantis picture on the tank. Price: Ex; Control: Gd; Speed: Rm; Body: Ty; Protection: 0)

 

Home: (MSH Encyclopedia vol.3. - Buildings and Locations)

4 room house, somewhere in the green border area of the city

http://daelon.uw.hu/ShadowMantis_house/mantis_house.htm

built-in defenses: Fire Protection - Good (Ex); Security - access code and burglar alarm (Ex)

 

Design/Manufacture: Various conventional sources

 

 

Background:

 

Personality: Josh is a quiet guy, who likes living under the radar – at least when the topic changes to superheroes and/or superpowers. He has some, but never used them openly; well, not in his normal life. He dislikes every rich and snob man or woman, didn’t really understanding their lifestyle and behavior. He is caring not only with his friends and classmates, but with the animals as well, though not certainly by deeds did by himself; sometimes only with money, given anonymously.

He isn’t really into the typical college-parties, but sometimes he joins to friends, just to avoid the “strangest guy in the neighborhood” title – and he is surprised when it turns out good. Josh is rather shy with the women, but he can be flirtatious, but his true feelings are easily detectable on his ears. He has a wry sense of humor, often saying something before thinking, but he is practicing to have more control.

He likes living in the green area, as he finds it more suitable to his nature than the concrete jungle of the city.

 

Quirks: Buddhist. Cooking (always finds a way to use what is in the fridge – even if the combination looks strange). Hiking/flying under the new moon. Likes insects.

 

Hobbies: Watching anime and reading manga stories. Drawing his own manga-styled webcomic – which became rather popular during the last few years. Riding his motorcycle, across the country during the school-breaks. Further developing his kung-fu and weapon-master knowledge.

 

 

History: ---Canon [re-edited]

http://marvel.wikia.com/wiki/Silhouette_(Silhouette_Chord)

http://marvel.com/universe/Silhouette

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Silhouette_(comics)

 

In 1944, during the 2nd World War, an American recon patrol in Cambodia stumbled upon an ancient, hidden temple of a cult known as the Dragon's Breath, which had remained hidden for centuries. It had been built upon a well-spring of raw, primal energy called the "Well of All Things". The inhabitants decided to breed a superior race that would one day unite with the ways of the west. They believed that this union would produce children capable of harnessing the power of the Well.  [1944]

 

Ruthless cult leader Tai captured and coerced an American military unit into a pact to marry the cult's specially bred "Daughters of the Dragon" (including Tai's daughter Miyami) and produce powerful children. The already married Daryl Taylor refused, but the other soldiers agreed, including Andrew Chord, who married Miyami and took her to America. Miyami soon bore twins, but faked their deaths and her own so Tai could not exploit them. To replace these children in the pact, Tai mystically forced Chord to kill his friends the Taylors and take custody of their son, Dwayne. Meanwhile, Miyami abandoned her infant twins in New York's Chinatown, where they grew up as the mystical mutant orphans Midnight's Fire and Silhouette.  [1948]

 

They joined the Concrete Dragons street gang, but a rival gang, the Poison Memories killed off most of the Concrete Dragons; Memories leader Kimeiko Ashu offered to spare the Dragons if 14 year-old Silhouette became his concubine, but she refused.  [1962]

 

Silhouette and Midnight's Fire were operating as independent vigilantes in the streets of New York City, when they met Dwayne (before he had become Night Thrasher), and the three began an organized effort to take down various New York City street gangs. She began a romance with Night Thrasher during this time.  [1965]

 

This partnership ended when Silhouette was shot and paralyzed from the legs down in a sting gone bad. Midnight's Fire blamed Dwayne, becoming a cop killer and druglord in order to lure Dwayne into a physical confrontation he could not possibly win. Later the partially paralyzed Silhouette reunited with Dwayne, distancing herself from her brother's evil actions.  [1966]

 

Diego Cassias, one of the other members of the recon patrol, now calling

himself the Left Hand, stole the power of the Well from his own child, then gathered the other children of the pact into a group called the Folding Circle.

 

The Circle attempted to take control of the Well away from Tai. Members of the Circle, together with the New Warriors, managed to defeat Tai, but the Well was sealed, Cassias and Tai were apparently killed (though not before Tai killed Miyami), and the surviving members of the Circle escaped in a stolen Avengers' Quinjet. Having discovered her true parentage, Silhouette sought a relationship with her father Chord.  [1968]

 

The remaining members of the Folding Circle later crashed in Madripoor and attempted to usurp the role of local druglord (Aardwolf, a mutant crimelord). They succeeded, but were later taken down by Night Thrasher and Silhouette. [1969]

For a time, Silhouette and Night Thrasher were lovers; in fact, Dwayne had been in love with her for a very long time, but his anger and single-minded obsession with his "mission" eventually pushed her away. Silhouette later hooked up with Dwayne's half-brother Bandit, and they both left the team.  [1970]

 

Silhouette and Bandit moved to Chicago together, and for a long time, nothing was heard from either of them until Bandit showed up in New Orleans, attempting to con Belladonna into helping him destroy the Thieves Guild. It is during this story that Gambit reveals the fact that Bandit and Silhouette are still together, and that he was only manipulating Belladonna. The Guild was destroyed and Bandit left New Orleans and presumably returned to Chicago.  [1974]

 

 

----Own

 

The reason behind Bandit’s return was the born of their son, Josh. While they weren’t married with Silhouette, the boy received her name. They knew that he may not be normal, right after his birth. His skin was much paler than it should be, measuring that both of his parent had black skin originally. His hair was blue, like the clear sky; while his eyes were deep blue, like the deep ocean. And they were right. He was a quiet baby, and loved to be in the dark.

 

If anything bothered him, he had to be put into some dark place, and he instantly calmed down. Later, as he grew, his parents noticed that they couldn’t hide from him, he always found them; wherever they tried to hide within the house or he was near enough to them. They began to test this ability, and soon found out, that Josh could see through almost anything, up to twenty feet in depth. And this was only the beginning.  [1979]

 

As the kid grew, more and more ability showed up, giving hard times to cover their identity and to live a relatively normal life. Slowly all of his powers came alive, the extra sense which allowed him to see through dimensional barriers, the shadow-based ones, and the last one, the most scariest of all, which gave him bug-like abilities and a strange appearance. This one took the most time to practice, to learn and to master the various skills of the mantis.

 

It was hard for him when he told his parents about the people whom he saw during the day, or even in their house, because for a time they thought that these are only childhood dreams. This lasted until a fortuneteller, who had real power told them that the kid can see other dimensions, and that’s why he talks about people and events which not happened there.

 

He was a very healthy boy, almost all common childhood disease evaded him. While he used to practice his natural born abilities and the martial arts like his parents, he collected a lot of damage, but these injuries never lasted long as he recovered very fast.  [1980-85]

 

Until Josh’s powers stabilized, he was mostly at home, learning from his parents and from friends of them, whom weren’t bothered when the kid accidentally put the room into darkness or suddenly grew a blue-gold carapace around himself. When he reached the age of 14, he was experienced enough to move into normal High School.  [1988]

 

There he lived a normal life, both with friends and bullies around. He was a very talented artist in the field of drawing and painting, but he was also the most athletic kid in the school, so he didn’t have much spare time. He was on training during the school-time and after that, too. However, in spite of these activities he had time for go to some party with his classmates, and he didn’t left out the school-love neither. He found a long-lasting friend in these years, a boy named Steven Ross, who was almost his total opposite as he loved the machines and everything scientific. He invented a lot of small things which made their lives easier, e.g. special inks for cheater-papers, small cameras and microphones for spy-games, not to forget the high-profile skateboard, which the two boys used for transportation within the city.

 

Josh was only 17 years old, when he started his own webcomic, which he drew in manga-style, and was about a group of adventurers in a strange, new world where the darkness ruled the world, and all inhabitant carried a piece of it in his body and soul. He took the inspiration from his imagination, and some characteristic from the other worlds he could spy on, like the Realm of the Shadow Queen, and more.  [1988-1992]

 

After the high school graduation Josh went to New York, to the Empire State University, where he began to work on his Bachelor’s Degree in the field of Drawing and on the Athletics as well. His friend attended at the Applied Physics and the Engineering Mechanics, with the goal to later specialize in nanobots and such technologies.  [1992-]

 

During the first summer-vacation of the college his mother became very ill, and no one could help her. A few days later her body changed, her eyes became dark orbs with white pupils. This was a side effect of the dramatic strengthening of her connection to the Darkforce. This wasn’t touched Josh, because he hasn’t got any connection to the Darkforce, other than viewing, not like his mother, who’s all power came from the source.  [1993]

 

During the second year he began to play with the thought, the he might be able to work a costumed vigilante in the streets of New York, around his home which he received from his parents, but he was careful enough not to show himself directly. Mostly he acted through his shadows, or he just called the 911 and held the criminal in place until they arrived. It was like a Christmas-prize when a famous manga-magazine contacted him, and appreciated his work which he made with the webcomic. After that article in the magazine he became a guest in the editorial office very often and even befriended the head-writer of the magazine. They talked a lot about the various manga stories, and their personal lives, too. The magazine began to publish his comic strips, and when they found it a success, they helped him to bring forth a paper-based annual of the comic from the first 100 strips.

 

This gave him a little wealth on his own. At the end of the school year, before the exam-period he was seek out by a young, attractive woman, who asked him to join a special team, which was only planned to be founded, and Josh could participate in it…  [1994]