Haunt
From PRIMUS Database
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Contents |
The Haunt
Beginings
During the summer of 2009 rumour began to flow around Millennium Cities West Side district that members of the Maniacs gang were being hunted. Some of the members were turning up victims of brutal attacks and sometimes even dead. Survivors would talk of the whispers in the shadows, or of the shadows coming alive to attack them. Due to the already fractured sanity of most members of the gang little credibility was given to these accounts. Towards the end of the summer the attacks began to spread, members of the Black Aces and Red Dragons began to turn up victims to similar attacks and all the survivors told the same story. They would hear voices from the shadows followed by the shadows themselves attacking them. The West Side rumour mill went into overdrive. The residents claimed that Old Detroit itself was reaching out and cleaning itself of the stain the gangs left on its corpse, the gangs claimed that something was haunting the streets. Before long everyone knew what you meant if you talked about The Haunt.
Current activity
The Haunt drew attention, the string of brutal attacks and murders eventually prompted a hunt. Even though it was hunting gang members many Heroes insisted that it must be stopped. Soon West Side was crawling with Heroes, all hoping to be the one who could claim to have caught The Haunt. Since the Hero community turned its attention upon it The Haunt seems to have withdrawn. Occasional victims do show up, but rarely and without apparent pattern, and all of them alive. It is possible that the creature has fled and that the victims are simply gang members that have run afoul of Haunt, a local Super Hero who has taken the creature on as a mascot and inspiration of sorts, and subsequently been forgotten and gone unreported by the fledgling heroine.
Haunt
When the Heroes came to West Side to find The Haunt they found an unexpected ally. Newly registered Heroine Haunt was in fact a local girl, Sally Hawthorne. Sally had discovered abilities that allowed her to mimic the creatures activities letting her take advantage of the aura of fear permeating the gangs.
Affiliations
Organization/Super Group
- PRIMUS registered and occasionally "requested" to perform jobs on their behalf.
- Haunt has recently joined The Prometheus Union, a grouping of mutants and other "not normal" people. She keeps her membership as quiet as possible and it seems to be somewhat reluctant.
Friends and Family
- Family: Sally's mother is her only close reletive, she lives with her in an apartment in West Side
- Friends: Sally has a number of friends from the neighbourhood, although of late she has grown a little distant from some.
Enemies and Opposition
- None known.
Physical
Appearance
Haunt always strikes from the shadows, her ability to manipulate them means that she is able to ensure that details of appearance are hard if not impossible to gain. To add to the effect she tends to wear baggy flowing clothes and a long coat to further mask her shape. She stays away from photographers and has yet to make any public appearances. Indeed the only reason the public know she exists at all is the trail of gang members she has brought to justice.
Sally is a tall woman in her mid 20's she favours dark and baggy clothing.
Personality & Mentality
Haunt is a rather businesslike heroine. She isn't the most talkative while working although most heroes who have worked alongside her attribute this to the fact she is still new on the scene. Indeed, compared to other heroes who use fear tactics to the extent she does, she is positively bouncy, then again, that might just be because she is known to smile on occasion.
Sally is a rather curt person to new faces, she rarely ever uses a persons name, generally referring to them by some nickname. Normally vaguely derogatory in nature. She is very cynical and for the most part tends to keep to herself, whether this is because she is a loner or just because she likes to keep fellow heroes at a distance is anyones guess.
Powers & Abilities
Haunt is able to manipulate the shadows around her, she can darken or lighten them, even cause them to move, her favourite party trick is to make a persons shadow wave at them. Even more bizarrely she is able to actually give substance to the shadows she manipulates, allowing her to throw seemingly solid darts or form razor sharp blades that disappear as quickly as they form. While she operates she keeps to the shadows artificially darkening them and causing them to shift making it incredibly hard to even know if she is actually there, let alone what she looks like, as an extra precaution the shadows over her face are always as dark as she can possibly get them.
Travel Methods
Haunt appears to travel from shadow to shadow without actually covering the ground between them, when asked she simply explains that she "Steps" between the shadows. Similar to teleportation but seemingly limited to areas with shadow. Of course, when someone can cause a shadow to shrink or grow it is hard to eliminate them.
Weaknesses and Limitations
Haunt is very hard to trace and even when you know what shadow she is in, it is hard to be sure what part of it she is in, or if she is stood, sat, leaning, laying etc. All that said, if you do know where she is to hit her, she is a very soft target. Although she is able to summon up a shield of solid shadows, she has to consciously do so. Furthermore she has no defences against mental attacks beyond the rather dark state of her psyche.
History
((OOC Note)) Strictly OOC information unless learned IC.
Sallys mother struggled to bring her daughter up even before Dr Destroyer levelled Detroit. The shock of seeing her home destroyed instilled a bitter hatred towards the heroes who were too soft to do what had to be done. This however was tempered by her gratitude in being saved by a Hero who rescued her from the roof of a tower block and flew her to safety. As a result Sally was brought up with a deep-seated respect for heroes, especially those who died saving the city, but it is mixed with a buried mistrust of capture and rehabilitation of villains.
Sally doesn't know who her father was, her mother claims not to know. She was brought up in West Side surrounded by the gangs, she avoided them as best she could but when a friend was gunned down in a armed robbery she decided she could stay neutral no more. For years she had been hiding her abilities, keeping them to herself. She knew she would use them to be a hero, but she knew also that to act without understanding her powers could be fatally dangerous. Having come to some measure of understanding, and unable to wait any longer, she took to the alleys.
The Union
((More OOC info))
Sally woke up one afternoon to find a letter resting beside her bed that hadn't been there when she had gone to sleep. The letter expressed intimate knowledge about her capabilities and identity and requested she attend a gathering in a local park. As much as it smelt like trap, she couldn't ignore the fact that she needed to know who this person was that knew so much and could breach her apartment without leaving a sign of themselves.
The meeting proved to give her little information, the sender of the letters did not show, and those who gathered were left to talk amongst themselves. The group decided to form a coalition to work together and in order to find out more Sally reluctantly joined them. Her intent is to find out who is behind the letters and what they want with her.
Thoughts and Opinions from Outside Sources
((Here is section for IC thoughts and opinions on Haunt. Add away!))
