Alias: Demon
Civilian Name: Joshua Christophe
Origin City: Hub City
Hometown: Hub City
Sex: Male
Race: Metahuman.
Height: 8’10 without the horns, 10’ with them
Weight: 950 lbs
Age: 17 [23]
Birth Date: February 15, 2002
Appearance: Joshua, for all intents and purposes, looks like a demon. His skin is a dark navy color with a few bright red markings – a line over each eyebrows that then turns up to just slightly over his horns, just under his eyes, two stripes along his jaw, and a few along his shoulders, back, and thighs. His horns point up from his forehead with the slightest of curves, the same dark blue as his skin, with long pointed ears and eyes a pure glowing white with no pupils or iris. All of Demon’s teeth are pointed and slightly elongated, but his bottom canines are so long that they can’t fit in his mouth, having a slight curve to them so they can rest easily outside. His hair is black, and a little wild, having a thick layer of scruff along his jaw and his haircut is short but messy – he cuts it himself after all. His nails are black and sharp, not to mention hard as rock, and his feet are warped to being almost gargoyle-esque in nature – he stands on the balls of his feet and his toes have grown to basically be talons with a rather impressive grip. Lastly, Demon is very impressively built, with arms like tree trunks and thick muscle all over his body.
Civilian Personality: Josh tries really, really hard. In the end, it just makes him come out kind of awkward. For a teenage boy he’s really sincere naturally, trying to cover it up with a tough front and posturing. To be honest it doesn’t work out well, considering he’s also prone to crying a lot. Josh is also really more of a follower than any sort of leader, naturally following orders and trusting the judgment of others over his own due to a lack of self confidence.
Abilities
Skills: Knows a few things about defending himself and using his bulk to his advantage, but is barely above someone just learning their first martial art in terms of skill.
PowersDemon Form: Josh changed to Demon months ago, and if there’s a way to change back he hasn’t found it.
Enhanced Strength: As Demon, Josh has an amazing amount of strength. Metal crushes easily under his hands, and he can shoulder his way through brick walls. He’s capable of lifting hundreds of tons.
Thick Skin: While not completely invulnerable Demon’s skin is more durable than most, especially against elements such as cold or fire. He has more stopping power when it comes to physical attacks as well, but isn’t nearly as invincible – an animal’s teeth would barely scrape, and most bullets would pierce but not even fully enter his body.
Accelerated Healing: Demon can heal from an injury that would normally comatose or kill a normal person within a few days, smaller injuries healing much faster. A typical cut would be completely gone within an hour, and infections or sickness typically burn themselves out before it even starts.
Acid Fluids: Both his saliva and his blood are acidic, capable of burning through metal in minutes.
Enhanced Reflexes: Demon’s reflexes are much higher than an average human’s.
Nightvision: Even in pitch darkness Demon can see perfectly, as though it were broad daylight. His vision is slightly better than an average human’s as well.
Gadgets: None
Weapons: None
Civilian Occupation: [Former] High Schooler
Character History/Origin
Honestly, Josh was pretty much a normal guy before he transformed. His family was lower middle class, christian, had an alright house for Hub City, two kids and a dog. Josh was the younger of the two, in his junior year of high school and on the football team – sure, he wasn’t the
best on the team, but he was part of it! And, okay, so some of the other guys made fun of him for being a bit of a cry baby, but as one of the bigger guys on the team it was mostly light teasing. He was even pretty sure one of the girls in his homeroom class was into him!
Then things started changing.
At first it was actually kind of cool. It seemed like he was hitting a second growth spurt, he bulked up easier, he even
felt stronger! Sure, it came with some sickness, and for some reason his body was reacting in other weird ways like the strange bumps on his forehead but that was fine. The next football game he was practically the star player, no one able to stand up to him. It was exhilarating. It was amazing!
That night his tooth brush melted in his mouth. Literally.
Everything began falling apart. Josh tried to hide it as long as he could, to figure out what was wrong with him. Those little bumps on his forehead kept getting bigger, he outgrew all his classmates, outgrew
everyone in the school and could barely fit in his desk! He was getting sicker, his teeth were growing weird points, even his skin was taking on an odd, sickly hue. Though he didn’t know it, the return of magic – and more importantly, the influx of its presence around Hub City – was activating his own metagene in a slow, steady fashion. The more it seeped into his very body, the more he changed. It would’ve continued along that route too, if it hadn’t been for Iron Eagle.
On December 1st when the terrorist attack had struck the fires in the Wedge had burned fierce and long, spreading to nearby homes and neighbourhoods. The Christophe home was one of those caught in the wild blazes. As sick as he was from his body’s constant change Josh was passed out when the fire started. With their parents out for the night his older sister, Hannah, attempted desperately to wake him, their dog wildly barking at her side. By the time Josh was finally roused from his sleep, disorientated and feeling like he was on fire, the room literally
was on fire. Flames licked at the ceiling, burning away at the wood as Josh staggered to his feet. His sister urged him to the hallway but he had taken too long to rouse. The ceiling collapsed on all three of them, and the floor gave out.
Josh really couldn’t describe what happened then. Heat had filled his body, different from the flames,
powerful. The fire that once burned him no longer seemed more than a bother, the weight of the debris above them trifling at best. He had instinctively grabbed onto Hannah and his dog during the fall, protecting them from being harmed. It was almost pathetically easy then to stand up, the weight above him nearly shrugged off before he merely shouldered his way out of the nearest wall and to fresh air. He could see his parents pulling up as the fire seemed to illuminate everything as bright as day. His dog was barking in his arms, his sister shifting – everything would be fine.
... Then his mother started screaming.
Josh had nearly dropped the two in his arms out of pure surprise at being startled by the noise. Yeah the house was on fire, but the scream was absolutely blood curdling, and she was pointing at them. At him? In the next moment he
did drop Hannah, as his dog’s teeth dug into his arms deeply, tearing the blue skin before the dog yelped and let go.
Blue skin? Josh stared at his bleeding arm, red mixing along the deep navy blue, his nails long and black as onyx. When his mouth dropped open in shock he could feel something weird moving against his upper lip, and reaching up to feel there were teeth, jutting out from his bottom jaw longer than any normal human’s.
There was so much yelling. Josh could only look down at his sister, unconscious at his feet, then up at his parents, scrambling to the car. He took a step towards them but before he could get another, a shot rang out. The windshield of his parents car was broken, pain bloomed in the side of his head, and heat ran down his face as he staggered. Another shot, this one ruffling the hair on his head. A primal fear bloomed in him, and with strength he didn’t think he’d have Josh took off.
Screams followed him as he bolted through the neighborhood. People ran. When he stumbled into a car trying to brace himself as his head pounded the roof crushed under his grip. Then the sirens, police shouting and lights – another gunshot. Disorientated and panicked, Josh fled once more. Wanting to get away from the screams, the yelling, he ripped a manhole cover up. He was too big to climb in normally, but the pavement crumbled under his hands and shouldering the rest of the way in he managed to climb down and flee into Hub City’s expansive sewer system.
And… that’s where he stayed. For more than half a year.
Venturing back into the surface had people screaming, running from him. The hobos down in the sewers did the same. Even when he tried to talk to them, all Josh got was yelled at.
“Demon!”
“
Demon!”
“
Demon!”
Eventually Demon just sort of … accepted that was who he was. Trying to talk did nothing. He could only survive by stealing from the hobos, eating rats, doing what he could. It was a miserable existence. Yet he couldn’t leave. He didn’t know what to do. He was strange, different. A wound that should’ve killed him, that destroyed his eye, was healed within a month – even his eye grew back. Glowing white. The bullet was probably still lodged somewhere in his head.
Then Demon saw it, one day while looking for supplies in the local hobo camp down in the sewers. They ran from him, as always, and he took only what he needed. Yet one of the shitty little TVs was playing a news story, riots in New York. Lady Arcana – he had seen her on other news stories. And… someone else. A monster. Like him, but different. Helping.
When he eventually found Harris, thanks to Lady Arcana’s intervention, it was both everything Josh wanted and not what he was expecting at all. He lived in a forest for nearly a year, but he learned about helping others from Mr. Harris as well as a bit more on how to control himself. His confidence began growing, and with it his capabilities as he became more confident in his own skin.
It still wasn’t enough against a Titan.
During the One Week War, Josh separated from Harris to combat the second Titan ravaging the US. All it took was one misstep, one stupid moment of trying to save someone else, and Demon was not only crushed but literally split in two.
Had it been anyone else, they would’ve died. As it was, Demon’s healing managed to keep the upper half of his body just barely hanging onto life, though if it wasn’t for the quick intervention of Lady Arcana he still would’ve perished. Locked away in the Rock of Eternity for five years, the stasis abilities of a certain room allowed Josh’s self-healing to focus on the slow process of repairing his body, rather than having to keep him clinging to life.
Now, five years later, Demon has once more emerged into a very different world.
Optional informationNemesis:
Allies: Mr. Harris!
Team:
Midna-Phobia
