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Mr. Vaudeville
Profile
Alias: Mantis
Legal Name: Kazuko Haraguchi
Gender: Female
Age: 27
Ethnicity: Japanese American
Occupation: Assassin; Mercenary; Anti-hero.
Height: 5′ 4′
Body Type: Lean, thin
Hair Colour: Black
Hair Type: Long, straight
Eye Colour: Light brown
Skin Colour: Pale
Species: Superhuman
Powers and Abilities
Powers: Infrared and ultraviolet vision, ultrasound detection, almost superhuman agility, dexterity, flexibility, and reflexes.
Details/Limitations: Can hear frequencies of up to 80khz instead of the normal human 20khz, but cannot hear infrasound – below 20hz. Infrared vision works as night vision, ineffective in daylight. Agility/dexterity/flexibility are at absolute peak human levels.
Abilities/Skills: Asassination, gymnastics, martial arts (including Ninjutsu, Taekwondo, Judo, Jujutsu, Aikido, Eskrima, Kendo, Fencing, and Kung Fu), firearms, stealth, infiltration, chemistry, electronic warfare, demolition.
Costume: Lightweight, stab-proof, and impact resistant body armour, gauntlets, and boots; fully fire/water resistant bodysuit; gas mask; utility belt.
Weapons: Twin Kukri knives; Twin Katanas; one wrist-mounted gas canister launcher; wrist-mounted poison dart launchers (two charges per wrist); explosive compounds.
Gadgets/Tech: Guntlets contain grapnel launcher and wire, gas canister launcher and poison dart launchers; utility belt contains powders and chemicals for making explosive compounds, different poison dart and gas canister charges, throwable EMP/signal-jamming devices, disposable handcuffs, caltrops, and other small tools; mask contains communications and listening gear, as well as being a fully functional gas mask that filters chemical gases, smoke, dust, sand, and other environmental hazards.
Physical Weaknesses: Extremely high ultrasound frequencies can cause crippling pain; can be temporarily blinded at night by sudden and intensely bright light shone directly into the eyes.
Mental/Emotional Weaknesses: Vulnerable to psychic attack; prone to ruthless, psychotic anger when taunted about violent past.
Personality and Relationships
Primary Traits: Intuitive, cold, ruthless, sardonic.
Likes: The arts, history, literature, travel.
Dislikes: Con artists, common thieves, flying, ignorant westerners.
Habits/Quirks: Often seen as quiet, emotionless, and aloof, she is deeply distrusting of new people but fiercely loyal once her trust has been won, with a strict code of honour. Her sense of humour is very sarcastic, dark, and cynical, and is displayed most prominently in stressful or combative situations; something which led to her gaining a reputation for having a mean, ‘ice-queen’ personality. She doesn’t talk much unless she has something specific to say, and prefers solitude and working alone to the company of others. Somewhat ashamed and conflicted over her hyper violent past – for which she is trying to atone – she has been known to completely lose her temper when provoked or taunted about her former life and deeds.
Fears: Being used as a pawn or tool, clowns, bats.
Family: Real family deceased, some adoptive family amongst the ODA.
Romantic Interests: –
Allies: Paragon, The Jetman, The Magician, Overmind, Solara
Affiliations: International Freedom League, Indo-Asian Superhuman Assembly. Formerly affiliated with the Order of Divine Assassins and Lawless Earth Network.
Rivals/Nemesis: –
Enemies: The Shadowguard, the Mutant Syndicate, Tau Magi, Church of the Fractured Dawn.
Origin
The only child of an American secretary and a Japanese businessman, Kazuko Haraguchi was orphaned as an infant in a tragic automotive collision and placed up for adoption. She grew to intimidate the other children at her orphanage, possessing a knack for violence which caught the eye of recruitment officers for the secretive Order of Divine Assassins, who brought her into the Asian chapter of the organisation and removed any trace of her existence from public record.
Spending the next ten years being trained in an assortment of martial arts, weapons skills, languages, and the ways of espionage, she completed her first solo mission for the order before her eighteenth birthday. For some time she travelled the globe undertaking contracts for the order, spending enough time in the west to be considered Japanese-American and becoming one of the organisations most ruthless and successful agents.
At around 22 years old, she was contracted to assassinate a corrupt official and his wife, but found she could not bring herself to complete the act upon discovering that the targets had an infant child. Suddenly feeling the pain of her own barely remembered loss, she reneged from the order. The contract was passed on to another agent who attempted the assassination using a chemical gas. Kazuko intervened, donning an old gas mask to rescue the family. Against all odds the rescue was a success, although some of the gas leaked into the mask and caused damage to her eyes and ears, resulting in the powers of infrared/ultraviolet vision and the ability to detect ultrasound.
No longer an Agent for the ODA, she adopted the new alias of Mantis and spent several years as a bodyguard for hire within the Lawless Earth Network. During a contract in Europe, she encountered and was beaten by several members of the Society of European Superheroes. It was at this time she was approached by The Jetman, who – seeing her potential for good – offered her a chance at redemption by joining his fledgling International Freedom League. She accepted, turning away from her life of crime, and even won a place with the Indo-Asian Superhuman Assembly a year later.
