Shockblast
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Once a serious researcher, Sam Shooter turned to a life of crime to support his projects. Calling himself Shockblast, he uses his technological advancements for his criminal ambitions.
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History
Tidal Wave
Originally an engineer and researcher, Sam spent his spare time working on a suit of powered amour, with lofty ambitions of selling the design for large quantities of money. Unfortunately for him, his suit suffered one severe design flaw in its extremely demanding power requirements. While he had worked hard on developing an efficient battery supply, this would only give it an operational life of a few minutes at best. His few efforts to build an integral generator were scrapped for being too bulky and impractical, and ended up hurting the suit more then it helped it.
Frustrated, he looked to other sources for his suit’s power systems. In one journal, he read about a young researcher, Andrew Starkings, who was developing his own advanced generator design. Looking over the figures, he realised that this was just what he needed. He also figured that any agreement to share the technology would result in him having to also split the profits.
Taking a rather radical approach, Sam decided to simply kill Starkings and steal his research; furthermore, he decided that he would discredit Starkings by sabotaging his prototype generator, giving the impression that his design was one that was completely different and killing off the only person who could know otherwise. Unfortunately, unbeknownst to him, Starkings survived and, furthermore, gained super-powers from the explosions.
In the meantime, Sam completed the design of his suit and built a fully functional prototype. However, he was not able to sell the suit; it was seen as too bulky and expensive and, ironically, the generator too expensive to mass-produce. Frustrated, and considerably out of pocket, Sam decided that if he couldn’t legitimately sell the suit, he’d profit off it in other ways. Further modifying it to make its appearance completely different to the prototype he’d presented, he embarked on a career of high-powered crime to recoup his losses.
Mirage
In addition to serving his own needs, began acting as a mercenary of sorts, selling his services to the highest bidder by using the powers and abilities of his suit as a reason to employ him. His demonstrated ability to go toe-to-toe with many superheroes saw him achieve somewhat lucrative returns, allowing him to fund the construction of several further prototype suits. From these, (He has been able to sell at least one of these to an anonymous buyer; the individual asked to purchase it, no questions asked, and he was more then willing to supply). he formed a super-powered mercenary group, the Six Shooters.
With their power and teamwork, Shockblast and the Six Shooters enjoyed a string of successful high-tech heists, using their abilities to steal the unstealable and strike targets that would be beyond the means of normal men. Furthermore, because of his use of technological means rather than super-powered, he was able to hire himself out to groups that normally avoided superhumans.
Riding high on his successes, he was rather rudely bought down during one attemped theft from Zenith Technologies, a high-tech research firm. His attack was interrupted by Knight Watch, a power-armour clad superhero. The two fought, Shockblast finding that their suits were nearly evenly matched. While he found it frustrating, he found it even more annoying that Knight Watch wouldn't shut up throughout the fight, constantly mocking and taunting him. To make matters worse, he was forced to retreat due to a malfunction in his power system, handing his first real defeat.
A second blow came when he encountered fellow power-armoured villain, Serious Business. Impressed with his technology, Sam decided to steal it - only to find that Serious Business had the same idea. Having caught several of Serious' minions trying to break into his command van, he confronted him about the theft. The result was a fight between the two that sprawled out across Millennium City, which resulted in them both being nearly captured by Superheroes. Retreating, he swore that he'd get even with Serious Business for trying to double-cross him and steal from him.
Wide Scope
Despite this, it was his rivalry with Knight Watch that was proving to be the most frustrating to him. So he jumped at what seemed like a golden opportunity when it was presented to him by the powerful villain Supremeus. Responding to a call for "loyal followers of vision and integrity", Shockblast signed onto his so-called "Supremacy" for the money and power. Soon he was committing a number of high-tech heists across the world, netting himself a good deal of wealth and infamy in the process.
However, he also found that he had a rival within the group, another armoured villain known as Battlemaster. Finding his suit somewhat familiar, Shockblast was very wary of the man, suspecting him of being a spy. Following him, he became convinced that Battlemaster was actually Knight Watch, who was trying to bring down the Supremacy from within. To confirm his suspicions, he allowed one of the Six Shooters, disguised as Shockblast himself, to be captured. After seeing his suspicions confirmed, Shockblast confronted Battlemaster, unmasking him.
Unfortnately, what should have been his monent of triumph turned aginst him. Knight Watch managed to cause an explosion that temporarily disabled Shockblast's suit before escaping. Angered, Shockblast set off after him, only to be confronted by the superhero group known as the Lolcat Brgud along with Knight Watch himself. Outnumbered, Shockblast was forced to fall back; even with the aid of other members of the Supremacy, he found that he wasn't able to stand up to the Lolcat attack. Seeing a lost cause, he chose to abandon the Supremacy - but not before vowing to get revenge for this humiliation.
Powers/Abilities
Sam himself has no inherent abilities or powers. He is, however, a very skilled engineer and mechanic, as well as an expert in energy weaponry. His battlesuit reflects this expertise. While rather bulky, it is one of the more powerful examples of the type. Its armour is immune to small-arms fire and resistant to most things heavier, while its fully sealed environment is safe for virtually anywhere from the depths of the ocean to outer space.
However, it is in its weaponry that the suit truly shines. Its main weapon is the massive cannon that makes up most of its left arm. Incredibly powerful, the cannon can be modulated to fire different types and frequencies of energy beam, giving it a radically diverse array of abilities, and allowing Sam to customise it for various needs. In addition, the suit is loaded down with advanced sensory systems and is able to fly.
The suit has one major weakness that Shockblast is not aware of at this time, which may prove to be fatal. The prototype generator design that he stole from Starkings was far from fully tested and had a number of flaws that were yet to be ironed out. It is rather poorly shielded, and can be easily disabled through electromagnetic weapons, or overloaded by high-energy bursts.
Personality
Sam is a greedy and ambitious man who is rather completely lacking in morals and scruples. He has dedicated himself to the only cause that he believes in, which is his own personal wealth and comfort. He has no loyalty to any cause or any goal beyond his own; while he may form alliances and work with others from time to time, he will only do so for as long as it is convenient to him. if things turn bad, he will cut and run rather then stay and fight for what he sees as a losing cause.
Die to his egotistical nature, he is still convinced that he can make a fortune off selling his suit. To this end, when he commits his crimes, he makes sure that everybody knows who did it (unless his employer explicitly orders otherwise). This way, he can show off his capabilities and help sell both himself and his suits. So far, he has acheived some success, selling several of the "Six Shooter" downgraded suits to various buyers.
While he is more then a bit self-important, Sam also knows the limitations of his suit; improving it is one of the main motivations for his criminal activities. He is also not afraid to blatantly steal technology to improve his suit and its systems. He keeps his eyes open for new technologies and ideas, and is not above salvaging what he can from his defeated foes.
Sam has two principal enemies. The first is the power-armoured hero, Knight Watch. The pair of them have clashed on several occasions, each time, Knight Watch's suit proving to be the equal of his, if not its superior. He would very much like to aquire the suit and steal its technology, but thus far has been unable to do such. Being consistently defeated by a single hero has been galling enough, but Knight Watch's constant barbs at his expense have made it even worse. The second is fellow armoured mercenary, Serious Business. The two have an intense rivalry, and have tried to steal each other's technology on several occasions.
Appearance
Sam Shooter is an astonishingly unremarkable man in his early 30s with short-cropped black hair and brown eyes. He prefers to wear sharp business suits and cut a professional image, especially when trying to sell his suits. He doesn’t really maintain a normal life or cover identity as such, preferring to devote all his time to his research and profiting from it.
His battlesuit is a rather bulky affair with prominent thrusters and a large cannon covering much of the left arm. The suit is primarily purple, with a silver trim; its most distinctive feature, however, is the single bright green lens that serves as its “eye”.
