Skull-Force (Justice)
Background
"Get out!," screamed his father, "If I ever see you again, you degenerate worm, it will be too soon!"
That was the last thing that Greg heard his father say to him before he left the house for good on his sixteenth birthday. Consequently, it also happened to be the day that his father had learned of the fact that Greg had a boyfriend. Greg was pretty sure it was this fact, and not his turning 16 that so enraged his dad. Either way, it was clear that he would soon have to learn to fend for himself. His mother had died years ago in a car accident, and his new boyfriend wasn't out to his parents... who were probably just as poor as he and his ex-dad were and so couldn't have afforded to give him a place to stay anwyay.
That first night was the roughest. He couldn't remember an evening in April being so cold! Why the hell did it have to be this night that defied the season?! At any rate, he had found a nice quiet corner in an abandonend warehouse where he could situate what few belongings he had taken out of the apartment he had grown up in: a picture of his mother, some clothes, his wallet, a scant few toilettry items, a blanket and pillow, a pocket mirror, and a watch. Greg surveyed the little corner and his makeshift bed: "Wow! It's hard to imagine being worse off than I was before." He let out a loud sigh and laid down to take a nap.
A few hours later, Greg awoke to his stomach growling fiercely. He pulled out his wallet and found that he only had $12 to his name. Man, he thought, this is not gonna last me too long. He went to the corner grocery and picked up some fixings for sandwhiches... and stole a small hot-plate from the camping aisle. It was the first time he had ever stolen anything in his life. And something about the necessity of having a "stove" in his new home made it feel pretty good. This would certainly not be the last time that Greg stole anything to stay alive.
The Beginning
Greg survived in that manner for quite a while. Buying what he could afford with his meager earnings doing little odd jobs here and there since he couldn't legally get a job being a drop-out and technically a run-away, and stealing the rest. His skill at pick-pocketing became more than servicable as well. So much so, that eventually he was noticed by a group of Skulls operating near his warehouse.
Eventually the band's leader approached him. "Hey kid!" said the leader.
"Me?" replied Greg.
"Well, duh, ya see any other kids 'round here?" The other Skulls laughed a bit at this.
"I guess not," was Greg's somewhat reluctant reply.
"We, uh... seen you ummm... are pretty good at stealing shit from people, eh?"
"Maybe I am, what of it?"
"Well, you ever thought about lending those talents to a more... organized purpose?"
"Not really, I get by okay," said Greg. He was now seriously wondering how much longer he wanted this conversation to go on. He had always gone out of his way to avoid attention from the gangs in the area. The fact that he had been watched for awhile made him uneasy. Not to mention the reputation these guys had.
"Suit yourself," he shrugs, "but I think you could do a lot better than that," he sticks his thumb in the direction of the warehouse that Greg had settled into.
Great, they know where I live too... I really haven't been too careful, have I?
Eventually Greg agreed to go with the contingent of Skull members. Mostly, he went with them because he didn't really see an option, and because he didn't like the idea that they would know that he had turned them down and where he lived. Things went pretty good at first. He was given a place to stay inside an old apartment building that was used by many Skull members as a crash pad. It was far nicer than the warehouse, and warmer too, but it certainly wasn't the Hilton. Greg stole a lot of money for the Skulls, and had gained their trust, for the most part. It was decided that Greg was good enough, and old enough, to become initiated formally.
Go Hunt, Kill... what?
The day of his initiation had finally come to pass. Greg was tasked with the duty of murdering a citizen of Paragon City, digging up their body after they were buried and crafting a mask from the person's skull! This task, had it been asked of him when he was 16 and alone and afraid, would have been far too much to even think about... now? Well, he had lived with these guys for a long time, and even considered some of them to be his friends. It didn't seem as horrible as maybe it once would have been.
Greg waited outside a building he knew to have a lot of... well, promiscuous activity going on. And he had decided that the death of a pimp would be less than horrible, and something the PPD would be unlikely to give a shit about. The moment was approaching, he had spotted the guy he was going to do in... and was following him down into an alleyway with his pistol at the ready (a few Skulls waited along a rooftop to both make sure he did it, and bail him out if things went wrong). Greg took his hands out of his pockets, aimed his gun at the pimp and *WHAM* the pimp got hurled a good fifty feet into the brick wall! Greg walked over to him surprised as hell! Not only had he killed a guy, but he was also a mutant, he must have been so on edge that his power finally emerged. The Skulls on lookout later explained to him that instead of pulling the pistol out of his pocket, he had just aimed his hands at the guy and shot the guy with a force-blast.
Needless to say, his mutation put him somewhat at odds with a lot of the Skulls who were just thugs with weapons. They felt like Greg was superior to them, that he thought he was better than them, and resentment grew in this little band. Greg felt cast out. But, it wasn't until he and Aaron (a Skull who Greg had secretly been attracted to since the beginning) were walked in on by the gang leader that recruited Greg that he was officially kicked out of the group (though not before learning a thing or two from a Bone Daddy)!
To the Isles
After that day, Greg packed up his stuff yet again, and headed out... or tried to. Outside of his door was a pretty large group of Skulls looking like they wanted a fight, and it was a fight they got! Greg did okay for awhile, but the sheer volume of guys trying to beat the tar out of the "homo" was just too much for him to bear. Eventually, battered, bloody and unconscious, Greg fell to the floor.
Greg probably would have died in that hallway if Aaron and a bunch of other Skulls who didn't think much of queer-bashing came along to break up the mob and drag Greg out of there. The small group of guys brought Greg to Port Oakes where one of them knew a place where they could be safe, and help Greg while he recovered. Those same guys are with him to this day, looking for an opportunity to teach those closed-minded Skulls a lesson they won't soon forget.
Costumes
Skull-Force's basic look is a tank top, a leather trench and his signature skull mask, but sometimes he doesn't feel like wearing all of the different component. Here are some of his looks, and also a shot of his boyfriend, Aaron.
Skull's most common appearance.
Skull is rarely seen without his mask.
For those especially warm days in the Isles...
Skull's boyfriend and arsonist pal, Aaron.
Metagame Information
- — This section pertains to out-of-game information and is included for the benefit of the reader, or to include other OOC information.
This was the first villain I ever made. He was created on Guardian and I soon discovered that I wasn't a big fan of red-side, or the somewhat slowness of red-side Guardian. So, I played him a bit, but never made much progress. Later, I had leveled a different villain to 50 and had grown to like the Isles a lot more, so Skull came out of retirement. Alas, red-side Guardian was still slow and so Skull went into moth balls once again. Finally, I moved him over to Justice to join the rest of his VG and hope to finally push him from the 40s to 50 (which I have recently begun to do)!
Now, he has respecced into the Speed pool so that he has the option to use Burnout to launch a double Gang War! It doesn't work too well when used back to back because it seems that enemies too have aggro limits and a lot of the members just mill around instead of attacking. But, if used after one another, it would be quite nice, especially to suck up aggro during AV/EB fights.
Badges
All this character's badges are listed here on City Info Tracker.
