Powers
Darkforce Control: Shroud can tap into the darkforce dimension and generate areas of darkness, darkening one area per round increasing to a maximum of five areas. This negates all light sources of less than Amazing intensity and causes all within the area (except Shroud) to perform all combat and FEAT roll at -3CS. He can manipulate darkforce into shadows and shapes.
Mystic Vision: Shroud is blind, however he possesses mystic senses that allow him to "see" without penalty, even in his own darkness. This vision works in all areas adjacent to his own, so much that he can even see through walls and barriers. He cannot see beyond 1 area.
Talents
Martial Arts A B C E, Criminology
Contacts
Nightshift, Captain America
History
The man who would become the Shroud was orphaned at ten years of age when his parents were gunned down by a hold-up man. Embittered, the youth decided to dedicate his life to fighting crime. Entering college, he studied law and criminology, and began a rugged regimen of exercise to build his body to its peak of physical potential. Upon graduation, he traveled to Nepal to the temple of the Cult of Kali to study their martial arts and mystical disciplines. For seven years he studied among them until his masters believed he had learned all he could. He was then prepared to receive the ceremonial "Kiss of Kali" from a branding iron whose imprint was in the shape of the goddess Kali.
The man screamed when the branding iron was pressed against his eyes, cheeks, and forehead. Believing his masters to have betrayed him, the man stumbled out of the temple to bury his scarred face in the snow. When he recovered from the shock and pain, he discovered that his eyesight had been replaced by a mystical extrasensory perception. Inexplicably, he was unable to perceive the temple anymore, so he made his way back to civilization and America, where he adopted the identity of the Shroud.
To begin his crime-fighting career spectacularly, the Shroud decided to hunt and kill the Latverian dictator Doctor Doom. Although at one point he came close to his goal, he eventually found himself siding with Doom against the Red Skull, who had launched a "hypno-ray" satellite designed to enslave the Earth's populace. In order to stop the hypno-ray, the Shroud intercepted and absorbed the full effects of the ray bombardment himself. Rescued from the oblivion of space by Captain America, the Shroud was taken back to Earth to recover.
In the long months it took him to regain his sanity, the Shroud discovered that the blast had apparently triggered the emergence of a latent mystical power, the ability to summon a volume of absolute darkness at will. He also decided to go undercover, build up his own reputation as a criminal, and destroy the underworld from within. Associating with the underworld of Los Angeles, the Shroud soon gained a reputation with both criminals and lawmen as a master criminal. At the same time, he often would work with various heroes, such as the original Spider-Woman, Tigra, and the Avengers. Invited to join the Avengers as they opened a West Coast branch, he declined, preferring not to compromise his autonomy. He went on to organized his own gang, dubbed the Night Shift, although they later refused his leadership.
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