Johnny Mosca
From Unofficial Handbook of the Virtue Universe
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| Johnny Mosca | |
| Player: @Pulcinella | |
| Origin: | Science |
|---|---|
| Archetype: | Mastermind |
| Threat Level: | 26 |
| Personal Data | |
| Real Name: | Johnny Moschiatti |
| Known Aliases: | Johnny the Fly |
| Species: | Genetically altered human |
| Age: | 27 |
| Height: | 5'10 |
| Weight: | 137 lbs |
| Eye Color: | Red |
| Hair Color: | None |
| Biographical Data | |
| Nationality: | American citizen |
| Occupation: | Criminal gang leader |
| Place of Birth: | Independance Port, Paragon City, USA |
| Base of Operations: | Confidential |
| Marital Status: | Confidential |
| Known Relatives: | Santino Moschiatti (father, deceased), Helen Thompson Moschiatti (mother, deceased), Patricia Spencer Moschiatti (sister), Sylvia Moschiatti (sister), Alicia Moschiatti (sister) |
| Known Powers | |
| Diptera genetic alteration, criminal underworld contacts | |
| Known Abilities | |
| Confidential | |
| Equipment | |
| Johnny has access to a large cache of weapons with which to supply the crew under his command. | |
| ' | |
Contents |
History
Growing Up on the Docks
Little Johnny Moschiatti was born in a modest household in Paragon City's Independance Port. He was the eldest child of an Italian immigrant dockworker and of a stay-at-home seamstress of Irish origin. He grew up with his three sisters on the rough streets surrounding the small bay with no other thought for the future than to follow in his father's footsteps.
His story would have unfolded that way if not for his father getting crushed by a three-ton metal container when a forklift tilted over. As his bereft mother sank into a deep depression, it was up to 16-year-old Johnny to care for her and his three sisters. Even though Johnny was an able-bodied and dedicated worker, the loss of his father left him emotionally scarred and that deep sorrow would burst out at times in violent outbursts. When Johnny lost his temper, it usually resulted in a coworker with a bloody nose and another round of job-hunting for Johnny. Luck seemed to smile upon him when he finally landed a job at one of the biggest warehouses of the port, one belonging to Bacci Imports. The pay was good enough for the Moschiatti family to finally expect more than simply surviving.
Things were going smoothly up to the point that Johnny took exception to a remark his foreman made regarding his mother. Four men were needed to drag him away from the bruised and bloodied foreman. They were about to throw him out when the owner, Mr. Bacci himself, intervened. He had witnessed the whole incident and had been impressed not only by Johnny's ferocity but also by his willingness to stand up to anyone for what he believed in.
And Don Bacci needed people who were willing to believe in him.
High Life with the Low Life
Johnny was 19 years old when he became the youngest mob enforcer in Paragon City. He was ruthless, he was fearless, he was remorseless - he was the best they had seen in quite a while. When Johnny Moschiatti showed up at your place, you had better have the money ready or your life insurance settled. He was doing such a great job that Don Bacci was able to cut into some of the other minor mob bosses' territories. As for the Moschiatti family, they moved from their old Independance Port flat to a nice cottage in the Talos Island suburbs. Gone were the days of rags and bare necessities; Johnny could even affford private school for his three sisters.
At the age of 21, Johnny was promoted as one of Don Bacci's personal aides. It was also at this moment that his job description shifted from enforcer to hitman. He quickly picked up this new vocation, proving himself as crafty as he was cruel in his murders. So convinced was he that the police could never pin anything on him that he picked up the dangerous habit of hanging around the crime scene with the rest of the onlooking crowds whenever his handywork was discovered. It was this quirk that led the underworld to nickname him "Johnny the Fly", for wherever there was death, the Fly could be found buzzing around.
His story could have ended as most mobsters' do: either death in an alley somewhere as the valuable victim of a gang war or the slow comfortable decrepitude of a high-ranking crime boss. Such would have undoubtedly been the fate of Johnny Moschiatti if not for Veronica, Don Bacci's daughter.
Fly Fodder
Theirs was a story out of a romance novel. She never saw any evil in what he did and he could never see the danger in loving her. They were young and brash and grew as amorous as imprudent by the day. It wasn't long before the swelling of Veronica's belly could no longer go unnoticed and it was decided that they had to flee. However, the Don's jealous entourage had watched and waited for such an opportunity to topple the young upstart. Word of the lovers' plans somehow got to Don Bacci's ear.
With a heart equally heavy with anger and disappointment, the Don had Johnny dragged before him and beaten to an inch of his life. As a fittingly ironic end, he ordered his enforcers to dump his battered form in a landfill "to see what the flies would make of him". So they dragged him out to a disused dump just outside the war walls in Siren's Call and left him there.
Had they taken any care of their surroundings, they would have seen the various ripped open bags and platic barrels strewn about, all bearing the ever-threatening biohazard symbol.
As Johnny lay unconscious atop a pile of biological and pharmaceutical waste, his many opened bleeding wounds attracted the hundreds of flies that called the landfill home. Soon, his body was teaming with thousands of hungry grubs, burrowing for fresh sustenance inside the various gashes across his skin. But those were not ordinary maggots: for a few hundred generations, these flies had fed off the dangerous biochemical waste in that area, effectively turning their larvae into fast-acting mutagenic agents. And as they ate his flesh, it started to grow back in new and horrific ways, the flies remaking their feast in their image.
A couple of weeks passed before Johnny regained consciousness. When he brought his hands before his compound eyes and the image of blackened claws hit him a hundredfold, his anguished cry echoed out across the broken wasteland...
Current Events
Following these events, Johnny has emigrated to the Rogue Isles by securing passage with Arachnos. Upon his arrival, he took the name of Johnny Mosca and started calling back old associates to aid him with a steady flow of enforcer jobs. His intentions for now are to rebuild a power base here in the Isles and acquire enough power to eventually go back and have his revenge on Don Bacci.
Personality
Outwardly, Johnny seems to completely forget what he looks like. He is filled with confidence, cool in the face of danger, warm in the face of the opposite sex. Commanding, suave and in control - that is the Johnny Mosca that most people would describe. When he does appear to remember his disfigurements - and those moments are far between - he seems to take pleasure in using them to intimidate people into doing what he wants. Then he truly becomes the monster that his body has turned into.
Inside him however, it's another story. Johnny is genuinely worried about his sisters' and Veronica's wellfare. He is often kept awake at night, wondering if his child has been born at all and how he or she is faring. Deep in his heart, Johnny is still the 16 year old boy who used to earn one dollar at a time to feed his family. That would explain why, in the heat of the worst battle, he'll never leave anyone behind, unlike many who dwell in the City of Villains.
He needs to take care of people in some way or another - just don't say it to his face. If someone manages to reach under that chitinous exterior and touch his twisted heart, Johnny Mosca will take that person in as family.
Appearance
Johnny's body has been heavily modified by the reconstruction process initiated by the mutagen-laced grubs that fed upon his flesh. Thus, he has taken on many characteristics of the Diptera order of insects. His skin has hardened into plates of a subtance halfway between leather and chitin - stiffer than normal skin but not as tough as true chitin. Growths of rough black hairs have started to sprout at certain places around his torso, arms and legs. Likewise, his hands are twisted into spindly clawed things with sphincter-like orifices in the middle of each palm. His head however has suffered the most gruesome alterations: his red multifaceted eyes are bulging out of his skull while short antenna-like stalks adorn his forehead. Moreover, his mouth has been split into a set of mandibles hiding a semi-prehensible and retractable proboscis lodged deep inside his throat.
Despite his monstrous appearance, Johnny has retained his flawless sense of style. He still dresses in the finest suits his money can buy and never hesitates to change shirts if acidic drool happens to drop down onto his chest. While on "business", Johnny likes to stay practical with an elegant shirt and tie under a black leather trenchcoat. For pleasure however, he likes to dress the part of a successful crime boss: a white three-piece suit with a black shirt or a formal black-tie tuxedo.
Powers and Abilities
Underworld Associates
During his life spent as a mob soldier, Johnny has made numerous acquaintances well-versed in the arts of breaking the law. Of those, there are a precious few whom he trusts entirely and those are his old Independance Port crew, the ones with whom he started out at the bottom of the underworld ladder. In order not to arouse suspicions in the Paragon City mobsters, Johnny is calling these thugs over one at a time over a period of a few weeks. Thus far, six have joined him: Harry Housefly, Fernie Fruitfly, Freddie Firefly, Vinnie Vulture, Ronnie Raven and Hank the Hyena.
Since recently, thanks to his growing notoriety in the Rogue Isles, Johnny has extended his contact network to the point of being able to summon a vast number of low-level thugs to temporarily assist him.
Hazardous Excretions
Johnny's body is capable of secreting a variety of mucous subtances that have different effects: pain-dulling drugs, corrosive saliva and a sense-dampening gel are the compounds he is able to produce for the moment. He can either expel this from deep in his throat or from holes in the palm of his hands. Either way, he has proven himself capable of covering distances of up to 60 feet with these excretions.
Augmented Leaping Capability
The mutation has somewhat made Johnny's body very much lighter. Coupled with increased power in his limbs, this has made possible jumping over remarkable distances.
Weaknesses and Limitations
Johnny is still adapting to his new body. He still lacks enough dexterity and hand-eye coordination to properly use firearms like he used to. This makes him completely dependant on his crew for taking out threats before they reach him. This limitation also makes the use of any equipment requiring precise manipulations (computers, cellphones, kitchen utensils, musical instruments...) at best an exercise in patience, at worst a futile endeavour.
Equipment
Before his transformation, Johnny used to pack twin chromed semi-automatic pistols but he just couldn't used them at the moment. For now, he makes sure to keep a secret stash well-stocked with top-of-the-line weapons and ammo for his six-men crew.
Trivia
Johnny is a big fan of jazz and crooner-era music. Before his transformation, he had a pretty good singing voice and was sometimes seen entertaining crowds at the piano in some jazz club. Now that his anatomy has been thoroughly screwed up however, Johnny has been a bit depressive. His freaky clawed hands make playing the piano rather difficult and he finds his voice breaking intermitently into weird clucks and gurgles. He still listens to his old favorites however and dreams of someday overcoming his disabilities and climbing back onstage.
