Modern Samurai
From Unofficial Handbook of the Virtue Universe
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| Modern Samurai | |
| Player: @Kant Lavar | |
| Origin: | Natural |
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| Archetype: | Scrapper |
| Security Level: | 50 |
| Personal Data | |
| Real Name: | James (last name unknown) |
| Known Aliases: | None |
| Species: | Human |
| Age: | 25 |
| Height: | 5' 6" |
| Weight: | 165 lbs. |
| Eye Color: | Blue |
| Hair Color: | Brown |
| Biographical Data | |
| Nationality: | United States |
| Occupation: | Superhero |
| Place of Birth: | Detroit, MI, USA |
| Base of Operations: | Paragon City, RI, USA |
| Marital Status: | Single |
| Known Relatives: | Mother (name unknown) and brother (name unknown) in Detriot, MI, USA. Father (name unknown) deceased Nov. 2006. |
| Known Powers | |
| Regeneration, fitness, flight (see equipment). | |
| Known Abilities | |
| Skilled in the use of a katana. | |
| Equipment | |
| Captured Council counter-grav unit (allows flight and enhanced running speed and jump height). Sunglasses interface with belt control computer giving a "heads-up-display" | |
| No additional information available. | |
Modern Samurai is a katana-wielding superhero, affiliated with The Defenders of Paragon. Raised in Detroit, Michigan, before moving to Paragon City, he gained his regeneration abilities during the initial days of the Rikti Invasion and proved to be an able swordsman during that conflict. Since his move to Paragon City he has become a hero of some small note, though he tends not to see it.
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Affiliations
- The Defenders of Paragon
- Vanguard
- Ouroboros
Allies
- Back Yard Boom
- Bayne
- Gera
- Kelly Lamb
- Halley's Comet
- Jarissa
- Knightward
- Kozzma
- Lollipop Candi
- Lucy Jones
- Mark Raynor
- National Star
- Snowdog
- Shining Glory
- Soaring Valor
- Red Switchblade
- Xanatos
Enemies
- Modern Samurai has yet to really encounter a "nemesis" per se. However, among the Paragon City criminal gangs, the Tsoo hold a special place in their hearts for him as, to their way of thinking, he dishonors their traditions by calling himself a "samurai".
- The Rikti also hold a place on this list, as not only are they the first enemy Modern Samurai fought, but they're invading the planet, which, Modern Samurai occasionally points out, is considered a "Bad Thing."
Background
Detroit
Modern Samurai was raised in the town of Detroit, Michigan, and from an early age showed an interest in martial arts. He started out with unarmed styles, but quickly moved at his instructor's urging to try the katana. He agreed, partially because he thought he'd enjoy the training, and partially because ever since the first time he saw Star Wars, the young man was in love with the thought of becoming a real-world Jedi Knight - not unreasonable, given the preponderancy of super-powered beings congregating in cities the world over, such as the United States' own Paragon City.
Rikti Invasion
The opening days of the Rikti Invasion, while they did focus on Paragon City, did not leave other cities untouched. A trio of Rikti warships went to the state to target three United States National Guard military facilites - the Detroit Arsenal, which serves as headquarters for the U.S. Army Tank-Automotive Command, Battle Creek Air National Guard Base and Selfridge Air National Guard Base. A call went out for volunteers ot help defend the bases, and so the young man behind the glasses of the Modern Samurai - 18 and yet to even concieve of his heroic identity - decided to take the full-bladed katana he had been given by his teacher on his birthday and reported to Selfridge.
Selfridge was the closest of the three facilities to the Modern Samurai's house, and it was the first to fall under focused Rikti attack. Selfridge, home to the 171st Airlift Squadron and the 107th Fighter Squadron, had barely gotten a handful of the 107th's F-16s off of the ground before the runway was disabled. The few heroes that called Michigan their home were attempting to hold the line alongside Michigan National Guard units, which included infantry, engineers, MPs, and even an Apache attack helicopter squadron. Eventually, heroes from outside the state arrived to reinforce, as did active duty Marine Corps units and A-10 Warthogs from the 172nd Fighter Sqadron at Battle Creek.
Modern Samurai had been wounded in the battle, and was taken to a combat support hospital unit that had been set up at the airfield. Those heroes whose abilities ran to the healing of their allies than the defeat of their enemies had gone to help, and one such healer, a sorceress by the name of Alenia Morlone, healed him, however, things got a little complicated.
Modern Samurai recovered quickly enough, but something had gone wrong. A portion of the energy that had healed him remained inside of him permanently, and with training, Modern was able to use that energy himself to speed the healing process. At that point, he heard of the desparate need for heroes in Paragon City and began to build his new identity - the Modern Samurai.
Paragon City
Once in Paragon, the newly-minted Modern Samurai began to make the rounds of some of the more popular areas for new heroes to make their names - Atlas Park, King's Row, and others. Within months he had even attracted the notice - albeit somewhat accidentally - of Xanatos, leader of The Defenders of Paragon. Modern had just performed a single-handed raid on Doctor Vahzilok's headquarters to rescue some hostages, and had forced the doctor to retreat. Xanatos, having heard the story, took the young hero aside and recruited him into the Defenders, where the Modern Samurai has prospered and become a valued ally of the group, helping the other members of the Defenders coaliton to deal with multiple threats to the city, from within and without, including handing defeats to almost every single villian group in the city, as well as helping to drive back many of the giant monsters that plague it.
Return to Detroit
Second Rikti Invasion
Ouroboros Organization
Personality
Modern Samurai is a fairly outgoing person. What passes for his sense of humor tends to run more twoards the sarcastic and ridiculous (his favorite comedians include the Three Stooges and Mel Brooks), and he is, to a certian extent, a geek. He loves the Star Wars series of movies, and even tried to adapt some of the lightsaber combat movements seen in the prequel movies to his own repetoire.
Quotes
- "Plan? We need a plan beyond 'rush in and start hitting them'?"
- "I'm sorry, I don't want to interrupt, but did you want to keep arguing, or can we handle these half-dozen bad guys running towards us with guns and pointy objects with the intent to do us bodily harm?"
- Modern Samurai bleeds violently onto the hull of the Rikti mothership as he... uhm... rests.
- "Okay, I know I heal pretty darned quick, but that really hurt. I'm gonna be the Modern Bruise in the morning."
- "Okay, fine. I suppose people would start losing faith in the whole 'superhero' thing if we started letting the world come to an end every couple weeks or so..."
- "((I'm a scrapper, not a tanker. I'm a scrapper, not a tanker...))"
- "wwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwaadwadadwadwadadwaddwd2343214143214213... ((Dammit.))"
- "((KHAAAAAAAAAAAAAN!))"
In-Character Trivia
- Visitors to his apartment will note a collection of Master Replicas Force FX Lightsabers on a home-made polished wood wall mount, to include the lightsabers of Darth Vader, Obi-Wan Kenobi, Luke Skywalker, and Mace Windu. If pressured, he will admit that he and his brother, on the odd occasion they get together, do find somewhere to go and duel with their lightsabers.
- While Modern's original costumes were indeed bought from men's clothing stores, as opposed to Icon, after the wear and tear normal clothing got when subjected to constant fights with street gangs became evident, Modern eventually comissioned Serge's staff to recreate the suit using more durable materials. All of his current "work suits" feature advanced fiber weaving that render them somewhat resistant to the more common ravages of the job.
- Modern Samurai is the leader of the Pocket D Bowling League team Livin' on a Spare. Other known members include Shining Valor and Encharger.
Out-of-Character Influences
- Highlander for the whole idea of a modern swordfighter battling evil, etc.
- Batman for the idea that a superhero doesn't have to have superpowers.
- Matrix for the general theme of his costumes.
- Star Wars for the fight scene descriptions I use in the half-dozen half-started stories I've done.
- Ghost Recon Advanced Warfighter - specifically the game's "Cross-Com" feature - for his glasses' HUD feature.
- David Weber's Honorverse series for the name given to the belt he used to use for his flight abilities. (It had been called a "counter-grav" unit.)
- For his personality, an odd mix of Jack O'Neill from Stargate SG-1 and Dylan Hunt from Andromeda - with touches of Wolverine from Marvel Comics' X-men.
Out-of-Character Trivia & Notes
- One of my original biographies for him had him as being from the future, and his current katana, which had been a gift from his parents, was made of a shard of their ship's armor. This storyline drew additional inspiration from the Honorverse - much more than the current one does.
- Since I was without a computer for a few months, I had been working on an out-of-Paragon story for Samurai. During the 2006 Christmas Party, I ran into Halley's Comet and we did a little off-the-cuff RP, since I was off by myself and Halley and Modern have run into each other on occasion. I kinda made things up on the spot about Modern's father having just passed away and (since I had just watched Spider-Man, this was on my mind) Modern had tracked down the thugs that had killed him back in Detroit. More will come on that, eventually.
- I wrote this on the Virtue boards, and it sums up Modern's thoughts on the subject pretty well.
"...actually, it's kind of an interesting thought for me. I'd always had this conception in my head of Modern as a 'street-level' hero, i.e. Spider-Man, and in this world with hundreds upon hundreds of superpowered beings, one that just kind of faded into the background. And you know what? He was cool with it. In fact, earlier in his career, if someone called him a superhero, he'd object. 'I'm not a superhero, I'm just a crazy guy with a sword. But I'm the happy kind of crazy, so I help people instead of hurting them.' Now, he'd (grudgingly) accept that maybe he is a 'hero,' but famous? Ha! He'd more likely believe that Roswell was real and that we never landed on the Moon back in the sixties. But this kind of brought it up in my head 'Well, what if, unbeknownst to him, he did have a bit of a following? How would he react?' And personally, I think it'd be something like 'OMGWTFBBQ?' but with less coherency. The thought, honestly, would be somewhat intimidating. 'People know who I am? They admire and look up to me? For the love of god, why?' Because, deep down, he just sees what he does as the natural outgrowth of his abilities and training, not because he made a concious decision to become a hero. And I happen to like that in heroes - 'I do what I do because by doing it, I keep people safe, and nobody else is doing it the way I do.'"
Stories
- Modern Samurai: The Rescue of Kelly Lamb
- Deathspider: Hosannas From the Basements of Hell
- Shutterbug: Modern Honor
- Jarissa: The Uncommon Valor Fan Club Auxiliary
