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This character is now deceased. A new person wears the mask, named Shade Wield II.

If there's one constant in the multiverse, other than you being an arrogant jackass, it's that you always walk away unscathed.

- Tera Volta, to Shade, long before his death.

Concept

	You'd think an outfit so expensive would look better
	Shade Wield
	Player:
Origin:	Mutant
Archetype:	Scrapper
Security Level:	50
	Personal Data
Real Name:	Wade Shield (Given name: Stephan Wielder)
Known Aliases:	None
Species:	Presumed Human
Age:	23
Height:	5'8/9"
Weight:	85Kg
Eye Color:	Brown
Hair Color:	Brown
	Biographical Data
Nationality:	Australian
Occupation:	CEO of international shipping company
Place of Birth:	Sydney, Australia
Base of Operations:	Confidential
Marital Status:	Confidential
Known Relatives:	Vanessa Wielder (mother, deceased), Martin Mobane (father, missing)
	Known Powers
	Shadow manipulation. Enhanced physical abilities.
	Known Abilities
	Skilled melee combatant, inventor
	Equipment
Attributes
	No additional information available.

Shade was an amalgamation and play on a number of common character cliches. As seen in The Word Wars he is capable of playing The Chess Master, although usually a little more hands-on (and thanks to the wonders of unpredictable characters he is very capable of being outwitted). At the same time he was a bit of a twist on the Anti Hero. He dresses all in black, is a bit of a womanizer, prefers to work alone and does consider himself 'above the law' in some ways, but at the same time he's cheerful, sociable and doesn't let the 'great tragedy of his life' affect him too much. He works with elements of the Fragile Speedster (although less speedster and more 'agile'er) and a greatly toned down Gadgeteer, he can come up with a dues ex machina-machine if needed for a plot, but he's still not at the stage he can make a death ray from food dyes and rubber bands.

Biography

Real Name: Wade Shield (Given name: Stephan Wielder)

Known Aliases: 'Aussie Ninja' (Pocket D Nickname)

Identity: Secret

Occupation: CEO of international shipping company

Citizenship: Dual US/Australian citizen.

Place of Birth: Sydney, Australia

Base of Operations: Paragon City, Rhode Island

Known Relatives: Vanessa Wielder (mother, deceased), Martin Mobane (Father, missing)

Affiliations: Wolfcry

Physical Attributes

Height: 5'8/9"

Weight: 85 Kg.

Eyes: Brown

Hair: Brown

Personality

At times Shade's persona varies so much, it could boarder on split-personality. One minute he could casually discuss charging head-first into a battalion of heavily armed, highly skilled and well disciplined super-soldiers, the next he was cautious over the slightest thing. He had a knack for over-doing and over-thinking things, which means he could be either invaluable in planning, or simply complicate matters unnecessarily.

One thing that does mean was that there were very few scenarios (even completely unlikely ones) where he doesn't have a contingency plan ready for. However, when those unexpected scenarios did arrive, he was liable to panic internally, even while externally he was playing it calmly as can be and trying to bluff his way out.

Despite that, he was without doubt one of the most cheerful people you will meet. He joked about nearly everything, and usually had a dubious witticism or poor pick-up line ready for most situations. This was mostly because he simply never learned how differently to deal with people, or how to let them in and trust them.

Hey! Hey! Any o' you assholes wanna take me home!? This bastard ain't putting out!

- Vertigo Judy, about Shade. Note: She was drunk at the time.

One thing that must be said about Shade was that he was what most people 'affectionately' called a manwhore. It was believed there was a much deeper psychological root to his over affection of the fairer gender (followed by his urge to escape as soon as possible from any relationship). Strangely he did view the women he sleeps with as people in alot of ways, and even had his own rules about it.

1. A woman not in her right state of mind (E.G. Drunk) is out of bounds
2. A woman who is taken/in a relationship is out of bounds
3. Never lead them on to think it's a relationship

While this could be due to some urge not to hurt them, others have pointed out these rules are quite well designed to avoid as much post-sex drama as possible.

Something quite unusual, after his death he has shown he was capable of some quite reasonableIntellectual writing. This was something kept hidden in his life.

Powers

Shade's powers were derived from his unusual birth. His DNA was altered by the mystical energy he was exposed to, which in turn corrupted his development from the earliest of stages. He was literally a living conduit for shadow energy, and gateway into a realm completely full of said-energy. While this may sound very impressive, in reality he could not control a vast majority of this energy. It means that while he could not defend himself with it, should anyone with the right arcane knowledge trap him, they could use him to 'harvest' incalculable amounts of negative energy for their own ends. Thankfully, no one came up with that conclusion before his demise.

Technology

See information on Shade's gadgetry and home base.

Shadow Manipulation

The Primary mutation his birth granted him is the ability to manipulate negative energy native of this realm. He was not particularly strong with this ability and has limited control, but he could use it for several different purposes.

Stealth

By covering himself with pure shadow, Shade could 'fade' from sight somewhat. He was still partially visible, so the use of this talent required some mundane sneaking to be of use. Since learning this ability he refined it to the point where he was practically invisible. Unfortunately this had the side effect of being disrupted if he contacted solid objects in stressful situations. Usually footfalls went unnoticed unless very close to an alert foe, but attempting to type or use manual dexterity (not to mention close combat) would alert anyone watching. This ability also could become tiring after a while, with the longest he had ever held himself invisible being recorded as approximately two hundred minutes.

Transport

By wrapping his back and waist with solid shadow and 'yanking' himself, Shade could leap incredible distances. This was not true flight, as he could not support his body weight for extended perids of time with shadow. The principle is not dissimilar to yanking up a weight. With a sudden jerking motion, a person can lift a weight higher then they can through slow, sustained lifting. However, the yanking motion does not maintain the height of the weight. In addition, by 'seeping' the shadow out of his skin and latching it within the microscopic pores of surfaces, he was capable of holding his body weight up against vertical or upside down surfaces with ease, essentially able to wall-crawl.

Projectile

He was quite adept at using the shadow as a ranged weapon. He could fling it out at enemies with a force equivalent of a thrown rock, although a wave of pure shadow energy does a bit more damage then a rock to the chest, not to mention leaves a numbing chill upon the bodies of enemies that distracts them a little during fights.

Absorption

An unusual technique, and one he mostly refused to discuss around people, is the ability to absorb another's strength. He could 'leech' some of the natural energy from other beings (living or not living, mechanical or organic) to either push his muscles and abilities beyond their norms, use it to help his muscles overcome tiring, or even utilize it to speed up his body's own recovery process.

'Mental blanking'

A late-developed use of his shadow manipulation was the ability to 'force' it into another individual's mind. This 'petrifying gaze' did not work against those with a strong force of will, but other individuals can be frozen in the spot as their minds try to make sense of the sudden surge of negative energy within their synapses. In fact, it had been shown to be effective against any not trained to be prepared for such an impulse within their minds. It had even been shown to be effective against certain robotic foes by confusing their circuitry.

Miscellaneous

There are a number of other little tricks Shade could do with his control over shadow/negative energy. One of which is to replace his physical mask with one made of shadow. The primary differences between the physical mask and the shadow mask is it required a minor amount of concentration to maintain the shadow, it was a little darker and (most importantly) it was completely insubstantial. Why did he do this? It means he can drink and maintain his secret identity.

An additional trick he knew was a kind of minor telekinesis. By wrapping minor amounts of shadow around an object he could lift it up into his hand. However only VERY minor weights can be sustained. He was able to hold about half the weight of a pencil in the air indefinitely. But, like the 'yanking' motion of his leaping, he can quickly pull or push slightly heavier weights.

Negatives

However, it was not all good. As he had little control over the shadow energy linked to his body, it can produce unusual effects. For example, when he used an absorption technique upon the villainous Nosferatu, his body absorbed its own latent negative energy into his own. While this boosted his powers to a certain extent, it also meant he had to undergo weeks of meditation training to bring it all under control. Before that, shadow would - at random times - 'leak' from his body, causing pain to any living being it touched. He came across no other adverse physical effects between then and his death.

Physical augmentation

His mutant physique meant his physical abilities are quite different to that of normal people.

Strength

While not as incredible as the likes of Ascendant or other powerful heroes, Shade's strength was easily considered superhuman. It was on par with, or greater than, an Olympic Athletes. When augmented by negative energy wrapped around his hands, he was capable of punching through metal.

File:VirtueverseShade.jpg

Shade in action

Agility

He often described himself as being as capable as a Ninja, which was not far off the mark. His agility was far beyond the normal abilities of human for many physiological reasons. It was speculated that Shade had a 'sixth sense' in which he can subconsciously detect the movement of negative energy, which is a reaction to physical movement. This meant that he could 'know' all activites that occur around him. However, seeing as he only had these superhuman reflexes when he was in danger, it is likely that this is just a subconscious predictive ability that only kicks in when in serious danger. Nevertheless, this ability alone meant he can easily avoid incoming attacks, something that allows him to outfight enemies many times stronger then he is.

In addition, his agility was further strengthened by four factors. His mind had incredible limb co-ordination, allowing him unequaled control of his arms and legs. Secondly, his improved strength meant he could hold his body weight on any individual limb as well as easily leap numerous times his height. As well as that his muscles seemed to have an extraordinary concentration of 'twitch' muscular development, allowing for rapid controlled movement. Finally, his eye-sight seemed to have incredible peripheral vision, allowing instant analysis of anything within his line of sight, speeding up reactions.

Endurance

It was theorized that Shade was in possession of a far more efficient heart and blood flow system then normal people, since he seemed to very rarely tire. However, when he did tire, it took him quite a while to recover to 'normal' stamina. In addition, a slightly over-active adrenaline gland meant he has trouble sleeping, but rarely got exceptionally tired.

General mutations

Shade's general physique was very different from that of your average human. His digestion system was incredibly advanced, able to break down food on the molecular level and reform it into whatever his body needed. This translated directly into a body that only required a certain amount of 'weight' in food a day, with the rest almost directly excreted as waste.

An unusual aspect of Shade's biology was his blood stream seemed to have approximately 30% of it's cells made up of what the normal human body would reject as toxins. These were somehow used by his body to allow many of his superhuman abilities. They seemed to be being absorbed into his system as quickly as they were produced, which made monitoring them for more detailed information difficult. A side effect of this was that any spells or technological medical systems that purged toxins from the blood that were not specifically tailored to him would weaken him for a period of a day while his body replenished itself.

Again, it was not all good news. His unusual metabolism 'resisted' attempts to outright fix injuries. While he could usually heal from serious injuries without so much as a scar, he required mundane medical attention to do so. More advanced healing techniques often failed for various reasons (magical spells were resisted to some degree by the negative energy in his system, and his non-human physique confused advanced technological healing attempts). However, given simple rest and 'normal' medicinal care, he was usually perfectly healthy quickly enough. Another unusual result of his extensive mutation from the standard genetic human norm was that he was no longer human biologically. This meant that, similarly to most attempts at inter-species reproduction, he was unable to have children. The only chance of him having a successor was through some undiscovered IVF treatment, or if he met a woman with a similar degree of mutation in the same manner. Neither of these occured.

Limitations

Shadow

Shade's ability to control shadows was based a lot upon simply 'manipulating' them, rather then direct control. This meant that while he could make them disobey some rules, they could not act completely out of character. For example, to do any more then 'fling' them at other people, he was required to be wearing dark clothes because it "Bonds better with black then floral green", in his own words. In addition, if someone were to shine spotlights on him while hiding, he would have find it VERY difficult to try and maintain his cover (and even if he did, would probably give himself away by being the black blob in the middle of the spotlights)

Physical

He may be strong, fast and reasonably tough, but he was not immortal by any stretch of the imagination. Cut him and he bleeds. Break his kneecaps, and he won't be fighting for a long time. His mortality was proven in dramatic circumstances.

Fighting Style

His combat style was entirely unique. When he began his heroing career he relied upon natural (or unnatural, as the case may be) agility to defend himself, and enhanced strength to deal the damage, rather then any efficient fighting style. However, this enormous advantage over underpowered, common thugs left him room to develop a reasonably inefficient style. As a result, his manner of fighting was, in fact, quite poor. It is overly flashy, contained enormous amounts of showboating and was generally looked down upon by skilled warriors. If not for his inhuman levels of speed and agility he would be quite useless as a fighter. This did mean that if he met people with similar levels of natural ability to him - but a better combat style - he was in quite a bit of trouble.

Physiological

Shade's physiology was mutated to a great extent. While he may look normal, inside he was different enough to be considered a different species. While this had many benefits (some common poisons don't work properly against him, and his abilities), it also had drawbacks. In his blood was a specific compound that he'd theorized helped control his abilities. Strangely enough it also seemed to cease to function properly if it's balance fell out of sync, but fortunately his body produces and destroys the chemical in his blood at a stable rate, lowering or raising production/destruction as needed. However, theory at the time of his death was that if a large enough concentration of the chemical was injected into him, it would disable his abilities for a short time. Only individuals who had done the experiments specifically (in this case, Shade himself) would know for how long, and what would happen when/if his powers came back. What is unusual is that it was believed Shade kept a stockpile of this chemical on hand inside his inner sanctum. The reasons for this were unknown.

Mental

Shade was, to put it politely, very confident in himself. To put it less politely he was an arrogant bastard. This, coupled with his inability to truly get close to people, meant that should he over-extend himself he would be left to deal with the trouble. He often over-complicated things, plans, plots, friendships and even simple conversations.

Finally, his greatest weakness (cliche though it may be) was that he was a sucker for a pretty face. A common joke is that he would hit on anything in a skirt that lacked male genitalia, to which he angrily responded by saying he refused to discriminate against women who wear trousers. He was 'fondly' described as a manwhore.

Severe danger to all

Something that very few people know (Shade not even among that number) is that Shade's mutations were caused by the formation of a gateway between this dimension and another formed entirely of concentrated negative energy, from conception. It leaked into his body as he was growing and altered him radically from the norm. This however, is a very serious issue. Should a knowledgeable being of questionable morals discover this information, it is not hard to imagine they could conceive of a way to 'open' this gateway within him and harvest (in a very slow and incredibly painful process) the negative energy leaking through, effectively giving them access to practically limitless amounts of the stuff.

Of course, as Shade's luck holds, he himself both didn't know this, and couldn't access the negative energy within himself to any degree worth mentioning. No matter how much of his will was bent to that end, he would be unable to utilize a vast majority of this negative energy.

Recent oddity

A few M.A.G.I. mystics and a small number of assorted psychics are reporting an uncommon energy 'sniffing' around Paragon. Whenever they attempt to identify it, it dissipates. It is unknown why some psychics and mystics can identify it and not others, especially since it doesn't seem that the strength or particular speciality of the individual has any relevance. One psychic identified the energy as something similar to what they had felt when in the presence of Shade Wield.

It is unknown what relevance this has, currently.

Character History

Backstory

The history of Shade Wield begins approximately twelve months before he was born. His mother and father met as mothers and fathers often do, doing something inconsequential. They went out together and fell deeply in love. Unfortunately, what Shade's mother did not know is that his father was a Warlock, with a minor secret society dedicated to monitoring the activities of the Circle of Thorns. Three months after they met, Shade's father was abducted by the Circle and subjected to a punishment they had reserved for the members of this society, exile into an arcane plane. The plane they'd chosen for Shade's father was one composed entirely of pure negative energy, they believed it would slowly eat him alive.

What they didn't realize, is that it didn't. It preserved his life and augmented his innate magical abilities, giving him enough strength to manage an interdimensional 'out of body experience' for one night alone, allowing him to say goodbye to the woman he loved. Nine months later, out of this 'goodbye', came Stephan, somehow born of woman and spirit. The first six years of his life were reasonable. His mother was wealthy and catered to his desires, whilst showering him with love. It wasn't until sometime after his seventh birthday his mother finally gave up hope that her love was going to return, and she grew increasingly bitter. She slowly spent less and less time with her son, and more time developing the shipping company she ran. In turn, Stephan grew lonelier and lonelier. He never told his mother about the strange abilities he was slowly discovering in himself.

He was dragged along to various charity events and gala functions, the life of a high society child. His life became miserable and he hated every minute of it. It wasn't until he was thirteen he finally found what he hoped would make his life better. Rather then hang around on the fringes of one party, he decided to get involved and try to make friends to fill the aching hole in his heart. He would later describe it as "I turned up the charm." After a night of befriending people of all ages, he looked over and saw his mother smiling slightly at him, and so he continued the tactic for years, constantly seeking his mother's approval by charming people. What he didn't know is that the only reason his mother was smiling, was that she was considering how well it could affect the company and it's relation with other companies.

This life continued on for years, until shortly after his 22nd birthday when his mother decided to move the company headquarters to Paragon city. Stephan followed of course, leaving behind his life of being a Celebrity for no reason other then the fact he was rich. In the intervening years, he'd picked up a habit that would later become a bit of a joke among the heroing community, his 'manwhore'-nature. It had begun because, despite his pessimistic 'knowledge' that people who love you will always grow distant (from an empirical study of his mother's love of him), he still craved that emotional attachment with people, and he gained something similar, albeit temporarily, when sharing the bed of others.

Life in Paragon

Upon reaching Paragon, Stephan, who had become somewhat of a publicity whore (his craving for love extending to a desire to be popular and liked) decided he wanted still more publicity. In that vein, he received special permission to enroll for a hero license without revealing his secret identity (in exchange for a generous contribution to the Paragon city administration). He paid a large amount of money for numerous sets of his now recognizable costume, and took to the streets.

When Shade was a publicity whore, there were talks of a possible animated TV series. While it never came to pass, some concept drawings still exist

It didn't take long for him to garner attention, becoming a reasonably well known hero, and loving the publicity. This was in no small part due to the fact camera crews received 'anonymous' tip-offs as to where he would be fighting next. However, over the course of the next few months his perceptions and priorities slowly shifted, the goal of heroing becoming less the popularity, and more the lives saved. Now, the background for his computer screen is a picture of a young girl, no more then three years old, with a woman in her mid-twenties crouched by her and both smiling at the camera. This picture was sent to him after he (along with two other heroes) saved an office building from being wiped out by Malta, and on the back was written a childish thank-you note for rescuing the girl's mother.

The turning point, he would say, was joining an organization known as Wolfcry within the company S.D.I. There, he made allies and friends, as well as was slowly turned to what he jokingly calls the 'Light side'.

His time spent as a Hero was soured somewhat when a Villain (who knew his secret identity) murdered his mother and framed Shade Wield for it. He was cleared of the accusation after some time, however. This is in no small part due to allies and friends who rallied around him, each giving small pieces of evidence as to the real killer. When this was run through the Ravenous database (by his friend Angie, AKA Sunsinger) he was able to find the identity of the real killer (a man called Luke). He confronted him and managed to trick the man into admitting to it, not realizing the meeting was being recorded. With the help of Sunsinger, they were able to drive the real killer off and get the recording to the District Attorney.

This meant that for some time Shade was the majority shareholder of the Wielder Corp shipping company. In addition, now that he is no longer on the run, he found the chance to come to terms with the loss of his mother, as well as the loss of any chance to square things with her.

For a while he was put under immense pressure, as CEO of Wielder Corp, his friend Vanessa Tremaine helped him hire an assistant who now handled a vast majority of the running of the company. This has given him the chance to turn to other interests, such as his love of Gadgets.

Second Rikti Invasion

Everything was turned upside down when the Rikti invaded again. At first he was somewhat safe, simply participating in the war to defend Paragon (and indirectly the Isles) against the invaders. In the second week, however, a stray Rikti bomb hit his office in the Wielder Corp. building, where he was temporarily storing a mind-dead clone of him he'd recovered from Crey Corp. recently. The matching dental records and DNA lead to the public perception that Stephan Wielder was dead.

Instead of trying to explain why 'his' body was found dead, yet he's still alive, Shade ran with the scenario. He allowed the public to believe that Stephan Wielder was dead, creating a new identity for himself. While he's now cut off from a vast amount of his fortune as well as the resources of his family shipping company, he did manage to get a reasonable amount of wealth to a secure location. He has since enrolled in Paragon University for the current semester, under the alias 'Wade Shield', something he mistakenly believes is clever.

After the Invasion

Having killed himself off, Shade found himself in an unusual position of having to start life without burdens. This was quite an unusual feeling for him, but he quickly settled into life as an apartment building superintendent (for a building he incidentally owns). While he lives comfortable now, one of the greatest adjustments he had to make was to living without enormous wealth to back him up. He certainly has a great deal of resources, far more then the average Metahuman, but his wealth is just a shadow of what it once was. Something he is quite pleased with himself though, is the newly discovered abandoned Supergroup base just beneath the building, that he has recently begun converting for personal use.

For a while Shade Wield vanished off the radar. He was last seen reporting to one of his contacts about the status of a Tsoo hide out he'd been tipped off on. While all attempts to locate him via technological or mystical means failed, he eventually resurfaced telling an unbelievable tale. The current most popular belief among the superhero community is that he took some time off to get drunk and take mind altering substances.

In an hour of need he partook in SoulTrain's rescue from the Rikti, showing up at the eleventh hour of the operation and assisting in the direct rescue. While he didn't accomplish any unique task in this battle aside from defeating Rikti (and Nemesis) forces, he did give a quite reasonable account for himself against the twin foes.

Shade... you're fine...

-SoulTrain, recovering from a week's worth of torture, thanking Shade for his part in the rescue.

Fine? I'm fan-funking-tastic.

-Shade's modest reply.

Shade had a very quiet time for a while. This was interrupted by what is now known as The Word Wars. Something that did come out of all this is a renewed respect, admiration and affection for Giga Gal, for saving his life.

It's about this time he picked up the hobby of examining the Alien escape pod he returned to earth in. Although his progress was (and still is) slow, his lack of genuine engineering degrees (earthbound or Xeno) is no disadvantage in this situation, as it is a type of technology completely unfamiliar to any who dwell on Earth (that he knows about, at least). Although he did enlist the aid of Lucretia de Loccia for some insights into it's workings and received a few points that aided him in his research.

The Word Wars

See The Word Wars

Brains over brawn

For reasons unknown Shade has taken to trying to help Arachnos Agent Nicole Dawson. His claim that she was being mentally manipulated by Arachnos is mostly falling on deaf ears, but a recent experiment he undertook seems to have shaken her somewhat. He persuaded her to kiss him on the cheek, which he recorded, then later recorded her saying she was doing it of her own free will, as an experiment to see if Arachnos would erase the memory. They did in fact erase it, and now Shade finds himself the target of multiple Arachnos assassination (and tape retrieval/destruction) attempts.

When he later showed her the recording of the kiss and her saying she was doing it of her own free will, she was quite shaken, but still refusing to abandon her 'family'. It seems at the moment that his attempts to persuade her are falling upon deaf ears, and his hopes of her returning to her normal self are fading rapidly. Seeing how much she knows about him, he does fear what he may or may not have to do to ensure her silence (and the safety of him and the non-powered individuals around him).

He does seem to have made her doubt who she is to a large extent, and is somehow growing closer to the 'fake' 'Nicole' then the woman she was before.

For a time he was caught up in an odd, and in his view reasonably petty, dangerous competition between Enerix, Omega Kisser and Toy Blaster. While he has a quite reasonable head for schemes, plots and backstabbing, he was forced to admit at times he found the cloak and dagger manipulations of this scenario a little trying. It does seem like he may walk out of it with most of the above business-relationships intact, and his bizarre friendship with Enerix standing on quite strong foundations. Although he has had to afix a sensor to his home that detects when her unique energy signature is approaching, so he knows when she's going to break in to prove some point. The recent resolution to the situation leaves him wondering precisely what he's gotten into with Enerix and Omega, and if he has perhaps stepped into something that he shouldn't have.

Unlike many other people at the moment Shade feels no sudden urge to join Arachnos, becoming a Crab Spider, Bane Spider, Night Widow or Fortuna. He attributes this to a diet including many saturated fats, not to mention the possibility of subliminal advertising taking place. He does believe he would look very hot in the Night Widow outfit, however.

End-game

His newly renewed obsession with the pod resulted in an amazing result. He was capable of flying it out of the atmosphere. The limited life support systems he could rig up meant he was limited to short duration flights, but the knowledge he could break planetary boundaries is one he was very excited about.

A pity he didn't know what the result of all that will be.

His first flight through the solar system was actually the result of trying to avoid detection. His initial jaunt attracted some attention by the authorities. In an effort to avoid having to answer awkward questions ("Where did you get this alien technology?" "Were you planning on sharing this incredible technology?" "What the hell were you thinking, tinkering with it yourself? This isn't a toy you know you stupid hero", stuff like that) he flew up out of atmosphere and basked in the blackness of space.

It was while in space that a newly designed AI equiped in the pod, A.I. Suite 2, informed him of some unusual sensor readings eminating from the asteroid belt in the solar system. Shade, curious, began the 8 hour round trip to check it out. He discovered an Alien Armada equipping a large, building sized device to an enormous, continent sized asteroid, and was barely able to escape with his life.

He crashed down into the Pacific Ocean, and after extensive analysis of his readings, finally came to realise the device was a booster. It wouldn't be finished for a number of months, but after some computation he realised the only real target available was Earth. He approached Vanguard with this information, only to be rebuffed by the Dark Watcher, who pointed out the threat was not immediate, like the Rikti. The approached Longbow, who were unable to spare the resources. Finally he approached Arachnos, Recluse saying he'd already seen the reports Shade had sent Longbow and Vanguard, and rejected the plan. Recluse had put his own in place so that the impending destruction would not affect him. The only reason Shade was allowed to leave without a fight was the chaos of Unchainer's assault on Grandville.

Out of options, Shade turned to his last contingency plan. Operation endgame. Shade recorded his final thoughts, activated a few final commands within A.I. Suit 1, and loaded up the pod. He replaced the Auxiliary life support with an explosive device, and fitted the pod with a stealth system and phase system. From Earth he flew to the location of the Alien Armada. He used the phase system to fly the pod into the ships generator room, and detonated the explosive. The explosion was aided by the ship's own unstable generator, and in effect crippled the Alien armada.

Shade did not return.

Associations

((More to come: If your character was friendly with Shade Wield, please feel free to throw their name in here and describe their relationship. Seriously, please do.))

Genuine friends

Genuine friends is something Shade Wield was not at all used to for most of his life

Dragonberry - He owes her a dance.

By Scarf Girl!

Tera Volta - Analogue of Tera Summers (Clobber-Girl), Tera Volta and Shade have, what could be considered, an uneasy friendship. Can often be seen verbally sparring in the D over many issues, sometimes verging on flirtation. Tera considers Shade to be one of her closest friends, although she would never admit this to his face, and has often considered calling on his help several times, deciding against it because she would likely never hear the end of it from him.

Burning bright - He has an almost brotherly affection for this young girl who loudly claims to be his biggest fan. Her flightiness is continually amusing to him, but that's possibly because he doesn't ever really spend extended periods of time around her.

Unchained Melodie - While many would be put off by the psychics eccentricities, Shade finds her quite interesting. As well as their friendship, it's rumored they entered into a bargain of some kind, placing trigger-able mental blocks into his head. What the price was for these blocks, if there was any price at all, is unknown.

Seer Arcana - While their interests lay in very different areas (Seer the intelligent magic user or geek, and Shade the boastful jock), these two found themselves reasonable friends via their joint membership of Wolfcry.

Vandellia - His 'Boss' for quite a while at Wolfcry. Despite their positions he saw her more as an equal. Recently Shade's decision to move into an apartment further from Wolfcry's offices mean he's not in touch with them as often, but maintains friendly ties.

The Crimson Cutlass - These two maintain a friendly rivalry. Shade was recently forced to eat his words when he and C.C. finally went to the Arena to sort out who was the superior combatant. Although a close fought match, C.C. emerged the winner. Shade is still demanding a rematch.

Giga Gal - Giga and Shade share a reasonably strong friendship, with him being one of her first friends, the one who introduced her to Scrubs, and even gave her a job when in need. Though perhaps one of his greatest gifts to her was running an anti-smear campaign when she was being attacked for being an 'out of control meta'. While Shade heavily desires her as he does with any attractive woman, he respects her too much to make a move. That, and he worries if she reacts negatively he could end up a shattered pulp of what used to be a living person. He owes her his life.

Appropriator and Exequy - Shade has always had a good friendship with this pair, despite their stance on opposite sides of the fence. In part their influence is why he's so open to the idea of things not being quite Black or White.

Enerix - See The Word Wars for their opening meeting. Lately though they seem to have a mutual respect for one another, probably due to the fact neither seem to be making any hostile moves towards the other.

Acquaintances

While not having many 'enemies' per-se, there were a number of people Shade isn't on the friendliest terms with.

The Thorn Bandit - Shade sees him as a representation of a larger group of rather coarse individuals (including Chill Yeti, Fist Fight and Garret Prince), all of them more interested in seeming "'ard" then genuine accomplishments. He does try to not become too hostile though, since he knows they have the skill to back up their cockiness. That, and he knows full well if the situation is grave enough, he could probably convince them to watch his back. Or pay them.

Manipulating

Something Shade learnt to do from a VERY early age was to manipulate those around him with his charm.

Irmine - In what was undoubtedly the strangest few weeks of his life, Shade found himself with a megalomaniacal ex-Nazi professing her love for him for a little while. In his mind he quickly tagged Irmine as a future threat, and laid on the charm to get close enough to find her weaknesses. In the process he managed to work on a temporary 'vaccine' to some of Irmine's biological venoms, but it didn't take her long to grow angry with his inability to commit to her (stemming both from his innate fear of it, and how creeped out he was by Irmine's psychological profile).

OOC notes

Inspiration

Shade was mostly inspired by previous characters I'd had in fantasy RPGs, who were predominately agile swashbucklers. All I did with Shade was pull him into modern times. He's evolved a lot since then, and now (in his creators view, at least) is like a mix of Batman, Spiderman, and the Human Torch from the movie, as opposed to the comic. The most difficult part about playing such an over-the-top flirt is playing him in such a way as it comes through, without seeming like I'm playing the game for a singular (non-teen-rated) purpose.

Trivia

Upbeat Tragedy

I struggled with myself if I should write this in, but I decided I might as well. The entire concept of Shade revolves around the phrase 'Upbeat tragedy'. The first part is obvious, Shade is always so upbeat, cheerful, flirty and content.

(Pretentious paragraph ahead) The truth of the matter is that Shade is alone, he will never have a true soulmate because he cannot connect with his lovers. Even his friends, he never TRULY lets any of them in for any more then a brief period. Shade is alone, he will never have children of any kind, or anyone other then the kindness of people who know him to rely upon when his strength fails (if he even survives that long). Shade will die alone, whatever the situation he will not have anyone there to comfort him as he takes his last few breaths. He will die as he lived, cold and wishing for just a moment of warmth in the arms of someone who genuinely cared for him as a person. His wish won't be granted. Shade is alone, and that is the tragedy of his story.

Misc

Links to other Shade VV pages:

Alien Abduction and Space Piracy: Shade's unbelievable story of his time in outer space (and how he came across the Alien Pod he spends so long on).

The Word Wars: Shade Vs Enerix. Pretty Vs Hot. Mortal Vs Demon. Testicles Vs Ovaries. Which will emerge victorious?

Technology and base of operations: A rundown of Shade's base and other technological acquisitions.

Intellectual writing: A minor essay written in a moment of boredom, expressing Shade's views on heroism and villainy.

Shade did not return: Shade's final ever story. The birth of his replacement.

No relationships: Something I decided very early on in Shade's RP life is that he would NOT be involved in relationship RP. I've just been involved in "Oh my god, we're so in love" RP and - in short - I am completely over it. To me it just seems restricting and limiting of the character, either forcing them down a single narrow path or leading to over-the-top-IC-drama and further limiting RP. So I decided that Shade had a psychological difficulty that prevented him from getting into relationships.

Short: Recently Shade has been getting a number of comments about him being short. While not intended to be immensely short, Shade was average/slightly below average in height from the beginning. While part of me wished I could change his height to about six foot for a while, now I think it works best for him to be this height. It reinforces that while being a 'superhero', he's still at least somewhat mortal.

Amusingly, in a recent mission I found out Shade is approximately the same height as Manticore. Even more amusingly, when I worked out his height for VV I realized he's NOT 'quite short', he's average size, and everyone else in the game is a freak. Ha ha! Spacial variety!

Wonderful singing voice: While he doesn't have any professional training in any kind of music, Shade naturally has a very impressive singing voice. This rarely comes into play.

A lovely guy: Throughout every known and recorded alternative universe by Portal Corps, some kind of Shade Wield has existed (albeit not always a copy of Stephan Wielder, sometimes different individuals adopting a similar persona, something even a different species altogether). But in every single incarnation of him found, Shade Wield has been definitively a 'good guy'. This fact unnerves many Portal Corps scientists, since there has been very few other individuals found in some incarnation in every universe, even fewer who all follow a similar moral path to each other, and orders of magnitude less individuals who are both. In fact, some have noted that the Earth Prime's universe of Shade is in fact the closest there exists to a villain. What this means is yet to be determined.

Nearly gay: When initially considering the character concept, I briefly considered making him pretty bisexual. I decided against this because if I did, it would have been more of a gimmick then a genuine aspect of the character, and I'd rather not trivialize sexual preferences.

Near Death: For months I'd had in my mind the recent storyline where Shade fakes his own death, thinking it was time for a change from the 'Millionaire playboy' character style. Three different possible variations of this were possible. The first (what happened) where he faked his death and enjoyed a different OOC (out of costume) life. Second was where he accidentally killed his mother and to escape retribution fled to the Isles (the main retired, recreated as a Stalker). This was adapted somewhat into the death-of-his-mother story line. The final option was where Shade would be genuinely killed (character deleted) and through a bizarre circumstance his powers would be passed on to a completely different person, who took on the mantle once more (starting DM/SR Scrapper from scratch).

Genuine death: For a while Shade had felt like his story was over. In my mind his arc was about a playboy with no sense of responsibility, taking up heroing simply as an extreme sport substitute, learns responsibility and becomes a genuine hero. He had reached that point. There was nowhere left for him to go. So, Shade enacted the ultimate act of heroism, sacrificing his life to save others.

Shade will NEVER return in a PC sense. I'm not ruling out using him as an NPC in some manner, possibly as a ghost or something. But Stephan Wielder AKA Wade Shield, will NEVER return as Shade Wield.

Non-Mature RP: This is less trivia and more a rant by me - Shade is not available for cyber sex. The combination of his manwhorish-ways and times he's seen talking privately to people means that I've heard from more then a couple of people that it's OOCly assumed he's off getting a root. ICly I don't mind people assuming he's off getting lucky, but OOCly I do NOT play this game hoping to get my characters imaginary hands on pixelated boobies.

In addition, one of the most enjoyable sides of playing Shade is his complete lack of shame (which often causes the above problems). This usually has one of two effects. I either A) Am caught laughing at the ridiculous situations my character gets into, or B) find myself cringing at the nonsense coming out of his mouth.

Horribly designed: My lack of knowledge regarding how to play characters in CoH/V led to him being incredibly poorly played first time around. It wasn't until about level 30 he got Stamina, and he was my first character ever above 20. Later when I'd read up a bit and formed my own opinion on how to make effective characters, he became somewhat more effective. He's now nearly completely IOed out, only needing some health IO sets for Siphon Life and Health, and a few more Luck of the Gamblers.

Surprisingly appropriate Zodiac: Shade currently stands as two years older then myself, and in a moment of boredom I looked up his Chinese Zodiac sign, which stated he was a 'Rat'. Unflattering at first glance, but reading up on it some parts (by no means all) described him in surprising detail.

"Being the first sign of the Chinese zodiac, rats are leaders, pioneers and conquerors. They are charming, passionate, charismatic, practical and hardworking." "These people tend to have an immense control of their emotions, which they may use as a tool to manipulate and exploit another person, both emotionally and mentally. Rats are masters of mind games and can be very dangerous, calculating and downright cruel if the need arises."

In addition, as he's an Aquarius (like me) the following came up, with plenty of them describing him exactly: "Individuals born under this sign are thought to be quirky, witty, playful, friendly, spontaneous, open minded, caring, devoted, liberal, brave, understanding, tolerant, charming, accepting, non-judgmental, freedom-loving, eccentric, and a benevolent character. But Aquarians are prone to erratic, undependable, self oriented, cold, aloof, mean, self centered, unable to commit, judgmental, rebellious, and fickle."

Schrodinger's jaw: Few have seen the lower half of Shade's face, eliciting rumors his jaw might not exist.

Amateur magician: In his youth, Shade learnt a number of basic 'magic' tricks (the sleight of hand kind, not the actual magic kind) out of boredom. While this means he's easily capable of making the card disappear, it also means he's relatively good at spotting sleight of hand tricks.

No commitment: Something I've been asked a few times is why I seem so deadset against Shade getting into a relationship. The fact of the matter is I've been RPing since I was about 15, I'm 21 now, and I've had enough IC RP relationships to last me a lifetime. I know others have different experiences, but for me they can genuinely just sap the fun out of a character, not to mention lead to some quite over the top IC drama that really just isn't enjoyable for me anymore. I deliberately designed Shade so he WOULDN'T fall into relationships. For a while I was toying with the idea of having some unknown force put a weird mental block in his head that meant he genuinely couldn't commit, even if psychic or mystical forces were trying to compel him to, but felt that would be a bit over the top.

Shade's Card

Shade's Card

Da, quaesumus Dominus, ut in hora mortis nostrae Sacramentis refecti et culpis omnibus expiati, in sinum misericordiae tuae laeti suscipi mereamur. Per Christum Dominum nostrum. Amen.

Shade Wield