[b]Create a Hero RPG Application[/b]

[b]Character you have created:[/b] [color=1a7b30]Sean Abbott[/color]
[b]Alias:[/b] [color=1a7b30]Mantis[/color]

[b]Character Alignment:[/b] Hero

[b]Identity:[/b] Secret

[b]Character Personality:[/b] Sean is an ordinary 18/19 year-old kid thrown into an extraordinary situation. As Sean, he's kind and loyal. He's not an exceptional student, but he takes his education seriously. He has little trouble making friends, although he prefers to maintain close relationships with a small handful of people rather than being the life of the party. Sean, like most people his age, is unsure of himself at times, unsure of what he wants in life, and unsure of the future. He always strives to do what's right. As Mantis, Sean is witty and boisterous. The anonymity of his secret identity coupled with the sense of power gives Sean a cocky confidence that he never had. He wants to do right by other people by using his powers for the benefit of as many people in need as he can.

[b]Uniform/Costume:[/b]

[img]http://i166.photobucket.com/albums/u118/EBJ05/MicroHeroes/Mantis.png[/img]

[b]Origin Info/Details:[/b] Sean's life was, by all accounts, normal and uneventful. He had just started his first year of college. He was dealing with unresolved feelings after breaking up with his high school sweetheart. He was starting a new romance with a friend of a friend, all the while trying to juggle college coursework and a part-time job at Tons of Buns. Then, one fateful day, Sean crossed paths with a desperate scientist in the middle of Central Station on his way back to Lost Haven University.

The scientist worked for a shady corporation called Gene.Co, where he had been part of a team developing a strain of DNA Recombinant serums designed to create new metahumans. The scientist realized how Gene.Co intended to use the completed serums, and thus he stole it. Seeing an opportunity, the scientist dumped the serum vial into Sean's half-opened backpack to keep it out of Gene.Co's hands. When Sean got back to his room, he cut his hand on a shard of broken glass, and some of the serum got into his blood.

The serum altered Sean's DNA, giving him an array of bug-like superpowers. Scared and confused, Sean sought out a metahuman specialist named Dr. Milton Reed. Dr. Reed explained to Sean that the changes were permanent, although he believed that he might be able to generate an antiserum. Dr. Reed urged Sean to think on his decision, explaining that Sean's newfound powers need not be seen as a curse. Sean didn't want to hear it until a classmate and friend was mugged and hospitalized. Sean realized that his powers gave him an obligation to protect innocent people. Later that week, when a dormitory fire broke out on campus, Sean leaped into action (literally) to save the firefighter and students who were trapped inside.

From that point on, Sean realized what he must do with his powers. He would use them for the benefit of others, and he would become a superhero...

[b]Hero Type:[/b] Acrobat

[b]Power Level:[/b] City Level (Ex. Spider-Man, Cyclops)

[b]Powers:[/b] Sean's strength and speed are dramatically increased from the normal baseline. He also possesses accelerated healing and greater resistance to injury. Sean can leap incredible heights and distances, and he can adhere to almost any surface thanks to millions of microscopic hairs on the palms of his hands and soles of his feet. Sean possesses a retractable exoskeleton which he can form in various shapes around his body. The exoskeleton also possesses a color-changing pigment which grants Sean moderate camouflage. Sean can also generate blasts of bio-electricity from his hands, giving him a "sting" that he can use at range.

[b]Attributes

Strength Level:[/b] 20 tons

[b]Speed/Reaction Timing Level:[/b] 40 MPH

[b]Endurance at MAXIMUM Effort:[/b] 2 hours

[b]Agility:[/b] 15X Human level

[b]Intelligence:[/b] Average

[b]Fighting Skill:[/b] Untrained

[b]Resources:[/b] Minimal

[b]Weaknesses:[/b] While Sean does possess limited resistance to injury, he is by no means invulnerable. He must rely on his quickness and agility to avoid taking big hits. His exoskeletal armor protects him from most damage, but it also weighs him down significantly. On a personal level, Sean is fiercely protective of his friends and family and would be emotionally distraught if they ever fell into harm's way. On a less personal level, Sean feels obligated to protect innocents, a fact that villains can use to get at him or simply distract him for an easy getaway.

[b]Supporting Characters[/b]

Chris Alovili: Sean's roommate. Chris seems to know everybody, and he's extremely well-liked across Lost Haven University. Chris is a very active person, often working out or playing sports, and he pushes Sean to be active both physically and socially.

Mary Robinson: Sean's new girlfriend. Mary is the first girl Sean has dated since breaking up with his high school sweetheart, Brooke [see below].

Brooke McFadden: Sean's high school sweetheart and ex-girlfriend. Brooke goes to Bristol College on the other side of Lost Haven. She and Sean broke up after high school so that they wouldn't be a distraction to one another in their first year at college. There are unresolved feelings between the two, but they remain close friends.

Dr. Milton Reed: A biologist and metahuman expert. Dr. Reed knows Sean's secret and helps him come to terms with his new life as a metahuman.

Vince Daniels: Sean's close friend from high school. Vince was actively involved in various extracurricular activities in high school, and he rarely had downtime for his friends. Vince's father is a politician and has high expectations for his son. Now that he's in college, Vince has time to hang out again. Vince is dating Abby [see below].

Abby Smith: One of Sean's oldest friends. Abby moved away when she and Sean were preteens, and she moved back for the last year of high school. Sean's friends and family often joke that Abby was Sean's first girlfriend due to their closeness. The two both deny ever having those feelings. Abby is dating Vince and attending community college in Carver.

Victoria Abbott: Sean's older sister. Victoria attends Bristol College as a senior. She and Sean are very close.

Sergeant Nicholas Hampton: Mantis' inside man in the Lost Haven Police Department. Sergeant Hampton is a good cop.

[b]Do you know how to post pictures on RPG boards?:[/b] Yes.

[b]Sample Post[/b]

After spending the majority of the afternoon in an empty construction site north of LHU, I'm beginning to learn the extent of these strange new "abilities" of mine. First of all, I'm way faster and stronger than I've ever been. My new-found agility is almost instinctual, allowing me to perform acrobatic maneuvers without any real training. I can leap incredibly high, by my count about a five story vertical jump. Somehow, I'm able to adhere to surfaces, allowing me to literally climb straight up a wall. Those weird segmented plates can cover my entire body or select parts, and I spent most of the afternoon learning how to control that. Also, I seem to able to generate some kind of yellowish energy blast from the palm of my hand. I accidentally clipped myself with one of them. It feels like licking a battery and getting a static shock put together, magnified ten or so times.

As you can imagine, I spent a lot of time asking myself how the Hell this could happen. Invariably, there was only one obvious answer. The mysterious man in the lab coat and his broken vial of green goop. Ever since I cut myself on the glass and got some of that stuff in the wound, I haven't been myself. At first, I thought I was just infected and running a fever. I would've gone to the hospital, except that my fever broke and my wound healed. Certainly strange, but I could have shrugged it off. If not for this. Whatever was in that vial, it's something big. I should've known from the second I saw the look on that scientist's face. He understood the gravity of it as well. If I want answers, I need to figure out what entered my body.

And for that, I turn to Google.

I enter the search terms "metahuman expert," and I'm greeted by page after page dedicated to one man: Doctor Milton Reed. He's a biologist who became fascinated with the rise of metahumans. I suppose it was only a matter of time before someone realized they could make a career out of studying these kinds of people. My kind of people, I guess. I click on a YouTube link of Dr. Reed giving a speech at Columbia University.

He's an older man, mid-to-late fifties, with graying hair, a full beard, and glasses. In short, he looks like a scientist. He pulls a series of index cards from his breast pocket as he adjusts the microphone. After clearing his throat, he begins, "Sic Parvis Magna. These are the words inscribed on Sir Francis Drake's coat of arms. Sic Parvis Magna. It means, 'Greatness from small beginnings.' In a way, I feel that phrase adequately captures the reality of most metahumans." He pauses for a moment, making eye contact with the crowd. "You'll note I call them metahumans. I shy away from using phrases like, 'superhuman,' as I feel that - in certain contexts - it invokes a sense of superiority. It is my opinion that the existence of these individuals enriches humankind, rather than diminishes it. In all respects but one, these individuals are just like you and me. They could be your neighbor, or your best friend, or the store owner down the street. They have jobs and hobbies and favorite restaurants. You could look at them and never know the truth."

At this point, I stop the video. As fascinating as I'm sure it is, I don't have thirty minutes to spend listening to the rest of it. It looks like this is my guy, and a little more Googling brings good news. He's living in Lost Haven, just south of Sherman Square. I think it's high time I paid the good doctor a visit. Grabbing my backpack, I dig out the broken vial from under my bed. All the pieces are still here, albeit broken as they are. Maybe Dr. Reed can identify what this stuff was.