[hider=Tamba Shariati][u][b]Basic Information[/b][/u]

[b]Name:[/b] Tamba Shariati 
[b]Nickname/Alias/Etc:[/b] Generally referred to as The Boxer. 
[b]Gender:[/b] male 
[b]Age:[/b] 22
[b]Height:[/b] 6’4” 
[b]Weight:[/b] 230 lbs 
[b]Home District:[/b] Dead End 

[b][u]Appearance[/u][/b]

[b]Hair Color:[/b] bald 
[b]Eye Color:[/b] Dark brown 
[b]Ethnicity:[/b] Ugandan 
[b]Physical Appearance:[/b] Large and imposing, Tamba doesn’t look like he’s someone you want to fuck with. He is massive firstly, standing at an imposing 6’4”, and looks incredibly strong, as he is practically all muscle. He has very long arms and legs, his legs comprising most of his height, and large hands. If fighting doesn’t work out, he could probably become a fairly good basketball player. Being Ugandan, Tamba’s skin is very dark. Tamba always stands with an athletic-type gait and he seems somewhat paranoid, always looking over his shoulder to see if someone’s coming. There is a jagged scar in his back from a knife wound, so maybe it’s warranted. 
Tamba has a long neck leading to a large oval-shaped head. He shaves his head, keeping it bald 24-7. He has large fleshy ears which have small scars from where they used to be pierced -from before he had to afford a child. Tamba’s face always has a hard, angry look to it; it is obvious that life has not been kind to him. He has thin eyebrows that are held in snugly to his eyes. He has somewhat small, almond-shaped eyes which generally look focused on something that isn’t you until you get in a fight. His nose is crooked from being broken too many times. Tamba has a small mouth and white, somewhat tarnished teeth (because sometimes buying food is more important than buying toothpaste). There is a very small scar in the right corner of his mouth. Tamba’s voice has a thick African accent, and he talks very slowly. This is not because he is lacking in intelligence, but because he does not know English very well. 

[b]Attire:[/b] Generally ragged. Tamba doesn’t spend a lot of money on his clothing, often frequenting pawn shops and thrift shops (is there a difference?). He will generally wear some sort of plain tee shirt with a pair of track pants and a leather jacket. When he fights, Tamba wears a pair of black boxing shoes and shorts with the pattern of the Ugandan flag on them. 

[b][u]Personality[/u][/b]

[b]Personality:[/b] Tamba’s mind is hard-wired for work. He is what many people would call a stick-in-the-mud, the type of guy who works so hard he never has any fun. He is working almost constantly, scratching and clawing for every cent he can earn to support himself and his little brother, Tete (I’ll explain this later). If he’s not working, Tamba is probably training. Tamba is known for his incredible, unflappable determination. It is said that he once walked through a hurricane to get to a match that was cancelled because no one else showed up. Tamba is also known for his great stoicness. People often make fun of him for being unemotional, which isn’t true. Tamba doesn’t lack emotion; he’s simply learned to control it with an excellent poker face. Few times in his life has Tamba truly broken down, and when he does it’s usually because of something terrible. He broke down when his father died, and also after his first fight in Black Fall, where a fighter named Titus beat him to a pulp (this was before he completely understood his power or knew how to fight. He rematched Titus a year later and kicked his ass). While Tamba’s obviously slightly paranoid and isn’t exactly one to donate for charity, he has a soft spot for children. Occasionally, one can see him giving a hungry child some of his meal. 

[b]Hobbies/Interests:[/b] Fun? Tamba operates off of a philosophy that he can have fun when he gets enough money for his brother to make it through school without dropping out. He trains constantly while a neighbor watches Tete, only returning for lunch and dinner. As I referenced before, Tamba is a fighter in the underground illegal Metahuman fighting circuit that runs in Black Fall. 

[b]Skills/Talents:[/b] Fighting. Over the past four years, Tamba has trained to become a boxing machine. He is incredibly strong and agile, and his long arms give him an advantage against foes. In addition to this, since illegal fights aren’t always clean, Tamba has learned Jiu Jitsu from his trainer, who was once a martial artist (and will probably be a character if COG is truly dead). He has considered joining the MMA circuit at some point, as you make more money from that one, however he needs to hone his fighting skills more if he is to do that. 

[b]Prized Possession:[/b] His little brother Tete. 
[b]Quote(s):[/b] “You keep talking. All of you keep talking! One day I’m going to be the greatest fighter in the Godforsaken city, and when I am you’ll all know my name!”

“You want me to stop working? Back in Uganda, my father used to say ‘One day, Tambo, there will come a day when all of us will stop working and will join hands as brothers in the eyes of our God.’ That day has not come yet.” 

[b]History/Bio:[/b] Tamba Shariati was born in a small town north of Gulu, Uganda. His father was a farmer there, and his mother unemployed. Tamba was the first of three children, the second of which of which disappeared at age two. Tamba grew up in terrible poverty, often going hungry because there wasn’t enough for anyone to eat. During the time he was growing up, a plague was sweeping across Uganda known as the LRA, a privatized army created and owned by Joseph Kony (Kony 2012). The army abducted citizens and children, turning boys into child soldiers and girls into sex slaves. The LRA raided Tamba’s village several times, and he believes that his youngest brother was most likely abducted by them. When Tamba was thirteen, his mother died in childbirth. With her last breath she gave birth to Siafa Shariati, called Tete because he was very clumsy and would constantly fall and scrape himself (tete is the Swahili word for fragile). Tamba discovered his metahuman abilities that same year when a man known as “Umeme” came to the town to “protect” it. Umeme was a self-proclaimed vigilante with electrokinesis, but instead of coming to protect the town from the LRA, he decided to simply take whatever he felt like taking and mow down anyone who tried to stop him. One day he broke into Tamba’s house, a one-room shack, while Tamba’s father was out working and attempted to raid his family’s pantry (which either way contained very little food). Tamba was going to stand down, but after Umeme kicked his little brother, he decided that the tyrant would have to be brought down one way or another. He attacked Umeme, the latter defending himself by blasting Tamba with electricity. Tamba reciprocated by rushing across the room at superhuman speed and breaking Umeme’s neck like he was a chicken at a slaughterhouse. The village hailed him as a hero. 
	About three years later, tragedy struck once more. The LRA came to Tamba’s village and decided that they wanted to stay. They set up an encampment in the village and took over, driving many people into slavery and soldierhood. Tamba and his brother were kept safe in the house, barely seeing the light of day for weeks. After a time, Ugandan freedom fighters came to the village once more to “liberate” the people and, in the process, burned the village of wooden shacks to the ground. Tamba and Tete were able to escape, but their father did not. 
	For weeks Tamba roamed the savannah with his orphaned little brother on his back, searching for food to try and stay alive. Tamba found soon that his abilities did not extend to normal creatures when he failed to kill a zebra with his bare hands. Eventually, exhausted and dying of dehydration, the two brothers were found by a wealthy philanthropist, Jonathan Corvo, Sr., who, moved with pity, offered both of them a one-way ticket to America, where they would have a “better life”. After arriving in America, Tamba and Tete found themselves in Black Fall, Pennsylvania, the City of Freaks. They had only what Corvo gave them, twenty-thousand dollars to “get them started”, seven letters to the CEOs of businesses in Black Fall, and a phone number if they ever needed anything. These things were contained in a messenger bag given to Tamba from Corvo. On their third day in Black Fall, the bag was stolen, never to be found again. 
	Hungry and homeless, Tamba and Tete found themselves in the Dead End. There they were taken in by an elderly woman by the name of Mary King, who helped Tamba find a job at a pawn shop. He worked there for a few months until one evening when, while taking the day’s profits to the bank, he was jumped by a metahuman mugger. In a rather long and drawn-out fight, Tamba was able to defeat the meta using his abilities and punched him through a brick wall. The fight caught attention of a nearby recruiter for the metahuman fighting circuit, who offered Tamba a chance to come and train (especially since the meta he incapacitated was one of the better fighters). While Tamba wasn’t exactly fond of the idea of fighting metahumans vastly more powerful than himself, he needed the money desperately, so he accepted the offer. He spent about six months training until one day while at the gym he was challenged to his fight fight by a musclebound goon known as Titus MacArthur, the East Circuit champion. Titus (if anyone from COG knows) was a superhuman with insane strength and regeneration, and even with his training, Tamba was no match. He put up a fair fight, but even with his abilities Tamba was knocked out in the third round. Angered and disrespected, Tamba spent another year training almost every day to be a fighter, often leaving early in the morning for work and not coming back home until nighttime. After another year of training and honing his skills, eighteen-year-old Tamba Shariati returned to the East Circuit (in nightlife aisle) and fought his first official boxing match, which he won by judges’ vote. He continued on with a twenty-match win streak, recording eight knockouts and ten hospitalizations, defeating some of the best meta fighters around. He made it to the boxing circuit championship as the champion of the east. The champion of the west was -you guessed it- Titus MacArthur. 
	The fight was a standstill for eleven rounds, with both of them taking plenty of big hits to rile the crowd up. But in the middle of round twelve, Tamba took a killed blow to the kidney, an illegal move in boxing, which sent him airborne. The referees didn’t call it; the crowd wanted a show. So, sufficiently energized, Tamba gave them one. He released a barrage of punches upon Titus and finally, in an act of pure luck, hit him under the chin and knocked him out, breaking his jaw and half his teeth with it. Titus went down, knocked unconscious, and Tamba won the fighting circuit. Titus, disgraced by the blow, left the circuit and never returned. 
	Ever since, Tamba has been a fighter. After short-term regeneration abilities were illegalized in the Western Circuit (but not in the east) Tamba has moved to the West (which is held in Dead End). He is a three-time champion of the fighting circuit, well-known throughout Black Fall’s underground, and has thus far won three matches in this boxing season. He has won fifty matches out of sixty in the last three years, scoring twenty-three knockouts and sending seventeen opponents to the ER. He still lives with Mary King, who watches Tete (who is ten) while Tamba trains and works. This season, Tamba looks better than ever, which is good for him considering that gambler and criminal patron Jack Corvo has decided to start funding the matches and charging admission, meaning that matches will have a bigger payout and the championship pot has thus far been estimated to be approximately five hundred-thousand dollars, easily enough for Tamba to get himself and Tete out of the ghetto. 

[b]Family:[/b] 
Mustafa Shariati: Father, deceased 
Kiara Shariati: Mother, deceased 
Siafa “Tete” Shariati: Brother - 8
Mary King: Foster mother - 49

[u][b]Relationships[/b][/u]

[b][u]Abilities[/u][/b]

[b]Power Class & Rating:[/b] Power: 3 , Super-System: 8
[b]Power:[/b] Tamba has the ability to absorb metahuman attacks. It works like this: Whenever a metahuman uses their abilities, they release metahuman energy from their cells, which fuels their abilities. When Tamba comes in contact with metahuman energy released from another person, he can absorb some of it, increasing his own strength, speed, and healing factor. The ability comes with a built-in resistance to most offensive metahuman attacks. Your average metahuman attack does about half as much damage to Tamba as it would to anyone else. In addition to this, hitting Tamba with a metahuman attack actually makes him stronger. When hit multiple times by attacks containing metahuman energy, Tamba’s body begins a process in which his brain releases pain-killing hormones, dampening the pain so that it doesn’t affect him as much and allowing him to keep fighting. At his strongest (at the end of the Titus fight, where he sustained the most damage), Tamba’s punches hit with a force of about 3,000 lbs, strong enough to shatter bones and bend metal. Tamba has no form of an adaptive healing factor, but the more he is hit by metahuman attacks, the more durable he becomes. A punch that would have broken bones when it strikes Tamba the first time will not do as much damage the second time. At peak durability, Tamba can slug it out with the strongest superhumans and receive relatively minimal damage. This makes Tamba an incredible fighter because he gets stronger the later into the rounds he progresses, whereas most enemies get weaker. In addition to this, Tamba is immune to some telepathic abilities, as he can absorb the waves of energy sent out by the telepaths. This prevents them from being able to read his mind but also throws up a red flag to most telepaths, making him easier to track. 

[b]Weaknesses/Drawbacks:[/b] Firstly, Tamba’s abilities to jack squat to normal attacks. If a normal person or a person with no ability aiding their punch hits Tamba, his power will do nothing to protect him. The power only works for attacks which are made by a metahuman. So while superhuman punches and electrokinetic energy blasts do not damage him as much as they would damage a normal person, a normal punch or a lightning strike would do just as much damage to Tamba as it would for your average joe. If a metahuman attacks Tamba with a weapon, his ability will do nothing to stop it (unless, of course, his durability increases enough to stop the attack, but it never gets strong enough to stop bullets and he has to be at peak absorption to stop a knife due to its structure). Secondly, Tamba has no actually immunity to any power, with the exception of direct telepathy. An attack that deals 1,600 pound of force to a normal person may only deal 800 pounds of force to Tamba, but 800 pounds of force can still damage you. The best way to defeat Tamba is to hit him with a full-power blast at the beginning of a fight to do as much damage as possible before his durability kicks in. If one is able to bumrush Tamba with a flurry of powerful attacks before he absorbs enough energy to deal with them, he can be defeated without his power even kicking in. Finally, Tamba does not work well against animal metas. For some reason, be it that they release energy differently or what, attacks from animal metas do more damage to Tamba than other types of attacks do. If Tamba would absorb 800 pounds of force from a 1600 pound attack from a normal meta, then he would only absorb about 400 pounds of force from that same attack if the user was an animal meta. 

[b][u]Other:[/u][/b] [youtube]ioE_O7Lm0I4[/youtube] 

[b][u]Sample Post:[/u][/b] “IN THIS CORNER, WEIGHING IN AT A WHOPPING TWO-HUNDRED-AND-FORTY FIVE POUNDS, THE MENDEL MONSTER, EMILIO MONEY MARTINEZ!” 

The crowd above cheered and jeered like competing blasts of thunder as the challenger entered the ring. He was a short, stocky character, hispanic in heritage with dark hair and skin. He flexed his muscles to the crowd and the cheers rose louder. He looked to his right, and hissed like a snake as he saw people booing and giving him the finger. Up above, a glass bottle shattered and there was a scream as a drunken fight broke out. The heavy grating above protected the fighters from attacks, but it also made the arena appear as if it were a dark pit of Hell.
	All of a sudden, the cheering stopped as a loud gong resonated through the building. An African drumbeat drowned out the audience as the announcer took his podium once more and screamed into the mic. 

“AND IN THIS CORNER, WEIGHING IN AT TWO-HUNDRED-AND-THIRTY POUNDS, THE AFRICAN ANIMAL, THE UGANDAN USURPER, THE THREE-TIME REIGNING CHAMPION OF THE MENDEL FIGHTING CIRCUIT, TAMBAAAAA SHAAAARIIIIIAAAAATTIIIIIIIIIIIII!” The crowd went nuclear as the tall African man entered the ring wearing the gold-colored gloves of the Metahuman Circuit Boxing champion. He pounded his chest like a gorilla and yelled something incoherent to the audience over their roar. The referee, a very large man with skin the color of stone, walked to the middle of the ring, and both fighters approached. Emilio jumped around a bit, showing off and winking at women in the crowd with his viper-like eyes, but Tamba just stared straight ahead, as if into the soul of his opponent. The referee grabbed their boxing gloves and stated the rules. 

“Alright fellas,” he began in a deep, gravely voice “I want a clean fight! No rabbit punches, no cheap shots, no spitting, no swearing, no-” the voice trailed off in Tamba’s mind as the two fighters locked eyes. It was time to bring home the bacon once more. He envisioned himself as a massive lion bearing down on its prey, tearing into flesh and crushing bone. The referee finished with “no regeneration or use of poison! Now let’s fight!”. The two fighters touched gloves and returned to their corners. Tamba’s trainer awaited him, a small Hispanic man with a strong mustache. 

“Alright champ, this guy should be easy.” the trainer said “He’s strong and fast, but so are you. Just let him get a few hits in and then attack. He’ll be out cold by round five!” He clapped his hands heavily on Tamba’s shoulders and put in his mouth piece. Tamba rose his gloves up to his chest as a scantily-clad woman walked across the boxing ring with a sign reading “Round One”. The referee sat at a kiosk on one side of the square ring with the bell in his hand. [/i]This is is, Tamba. It’s all you now Let’s kick some ass.[/i] 

“Fighters ready!” the referee roared. Showtime. Tamba cracked his neck to the side and rose his golden gloves up to fighting height. 

“Fight!” The ring echoed through the pit, and the fighters were off. 

“Let’s go!” the trainer yelled. Tamba took off across the ring, practically running at Emilio, who almost effortlessly let off a flurry of jabs towards Tamba’s stomach. Tamba blocked the two highest ones, but allowed the others to collide with his stomach. If one listened close enough, they could almost hear a tiny electric “zap!” Tamba swung a left hook at Emilio’s head, who blocked and struck back, nailing Tamba in the shoulder with a right jab. The crowd roared louder and louder as the two exchanged punches and weaved out of the way of attacks. The more punches they threw, the harder Tamba’s punches hit. Emilio swung a left hook and nailed Tamba in the side of the head. Tamba stumbled across the ring and landed on his side, his ears ringing. As the pain melted away, he rose back up to his feet with ease. The first round ended and he walked back to his corner. 

Three rounds later, it was a much different fight. Tamba took off like a rocket, just like he had in the first round, and unleashed a blizzard of jabs onto his opponent. The first one hit Emilio’s glove and sent him sliding back six inches. The others weren’t nearly as kind. Tamba pinned Emilio against one of the four posts and unleashed his full fury. Emilio tried to fight back, but not even a jab to the face slightly bothered Tamba. It was as if his skin had become stone. As Emilio tried to escape, Tamba swung a right hook and mashed the serpent man in the left eye so hard that he flew out of the ring and crashed into the padded concrete outside. He wouldn’t be getting up anytime soon. 

“AND THE WINNER IS, TAAAAMBAAAA SHAAAAAARRRIIIIIIIIAAAAAATIIIIIIIIII” Tamba looked up at the crowd as the referee hoisted his gloved hand in the air and picked out an elderly woman with a small African boy standing in front of her, looking down and cheering! He nodded to Tete, and smiled. They would eat well tonight. 

[/hider]