Umbra

Full Name: Kole Ross, Erebus
Nickname(s): NA
Codename: Umbra
Alias(es): NA
Age: 17
Race: Meta Human, Modified Bat
Affiliation: Chaotic Good

Hair Color: Dark Brown
Eye Color: Dark Brown
Gender: Male
Height: 5'8"
Weight: 130 lbs.
Other Traits:
Erebus:

Powers:


Linked Minds: Kole and Erebus share a telepathic link, allowing them to communicate with each other without speaking. In addition, the two have a sort of internal GPS, allowing each to be aware of the other's location at all times.

Skills:

Martial Arts: Kole has studied both bōjutsu and kama fighting for two years. While he isn't a master, he can certainly hold his own in a fight.

Agility: In order to make up for his lack of muscle, Kole has trained up his agility so that he can put more speed behind his attacks and dodges, making him slightly faster than your average human.

Anatomical Knowledge: Since gaining a form of his own to control, Erebus has started studying the human anatomy. His knowledge allows him to find and inflict all kinds of wounds, from mortal blows to highly painful but non-lethal wounds.

Physical Weaknesses:

Light: While normal light sources are not a problem for Kole, light magic or elemental light will rip through both Umbra's shadow weapons and Erebus' shadow form, dispelling them instantly and rendering them unusable for an hour.

Source: Kole needs a light source in order to be able to generate a shadow. Putting him in a room entirely deprived of light will render his powers useless.

Human: Yeah, he's got powers, but Kole is still a human. Put a bullet in his head and he's not coming back from that.

Dispelling: In addition to rendering the clone unusable, dispelling Erebus' shadow clone limits the strength of Kole's powers. He loses the ability to travel as a shadow, and each of his weapons are reduced, allowing him to form one bola, a single Eskrima stick instead of the staff, and one kama.

Mental Weaknesses:

Morality: Due to Erebus' desire to kill, Kole has become more lenient in dealing with criminals, allowing Erebus to use lethal force on criminals he views as 'guilty', while holding him back against more 'innocent' opponents. While this judgement can be fairly easy at times, putting Kole into a position with an enemy that he finds hard to judge can put him into a moral dilemma, causing him to argue with and sometimes even attack Erebus if the bat goes too far.  

Equipment:

Electric Candles: Kole carries three electric candles on him at all times as backup light sources

Personality:

While a bit quiet in the past, Kole has started to come out of his shell, becoming more confident in himself and his abilities, especially when engaging with Erebus. Kole is still a bit hesitant when it comes to approaching or engaging others, but he will stand up to to criminals or work with other heroes to stop them

Erebus has mellowed a bit since connecting with Kole, mainly as a result of Kole's allowance of his killing. The bat will still butt heads with Kole when they disagree, but overall they have a better understanding of one another.

Strengths:

Intelligent: Kole is a bit smarter than the average kid his age, on par with a freshman level college student

Cautious: Kole will refrain from rushing into a battle headfirst or acting on a whim, choosing instead to try to form plans to defeat his enemies effectively.

Interests/Habits:

Reading, stopping crime, training
Fighting


Family Members: Kara Ross (Mother), John Ross (Father)
Place of Origin: Washington State
History:

Kole grew up in a small city in the western part of Washington state. He was rather quiet in his younger years, and most of the kids picked on him for it. While he never interacted with others in school, he payed attention in all of his classes, absorbing everything the teachers had to say, and even then doing some extra research on his own to get ahead. This lifestyle continued on for him for a few years with relatively little change, except for when he started to pick up bō and kama fighting at a dojo close to his home. However, things do not always stay the same forever, and in Kole's case once change came, it kept coming.

The first major change happened when he was just over 13 years old. One day at school, the normal teasing went farther than normal, escalating into a one-sided beating. As he was getting pummeled, he curled up and closed his eyes, at which point the punches and kicks appeared to have stopped. When he opened his eyes, he noticed not only that he seemed to be looking from inside the ground, but that he couldn't see any part of his own body. This shock was enough to knock him out of his current state, causing him to rise out of his own shadow. All of the students that had been near him ran away in fear, while Kole ran to his home, refusing to tell his parents why he was home early. His parents later received a letter that Kole had been expelled from the school for traumatizing a group of students. Instead of trying to find a new school, his parents decided to home school him. With the extra time he had, Kole worked on replicating and then controlling the strange phenomenon that had occurred, eventually leading him to be able to exercise a small amount of control over his shadow.

Right after the Vanishing, a group of scientists in Jump were trying to come up with a new defender to replace the heroes that had disappeared. They believed that by manipulating the genes of animals, they could produce a superior species that would be just as strong as the missing heroes. Their first experiment was a genetically modified bat, codenamed Erebus. While the gene manipulation worked, the scientists found that the bat required a bond with a metahuman in order to use its powers. After some research, they found out about Kole's mishap and decided that he would be the best subject for their tests. A rag, a bottle of chloroform, and an unplanned cross-country road trip later, Kole was locked up in the testing facility with a collar around his neck that restricted his powers and a weird looking bat hovering near him.

For five painful months for both the scientists and Kole, nothing seemed to cause a bond to be formed between the two test subjects. Finally, one scientist had the idea that a shared traumatic event might cause a bond to be formed. The scientists hooked both Kole and Erebus up to an electric torture device and turned it on, causing electricity to course through their bodies. As Kole lost consciousness, he heard a small, cold voice in his head.

Time for me to have my revenge.

When Kole regained consciousness, he found himself standing over the dead bodies of all of the scientists with the bat flapping next to him, its thoughts flowing into his head. He rushed out of the testing facility, attempting to get away from the bat and the mess behind him. As he walked through the streets, a thrown away newspaper caught his eye. "Heroes Return to Jump!" the headline proclaimed. While Erebus had caught up to him and was continuing to project horrible thoughts into his mind, Kole decided to atone for the accident that had occurred by joining these heroes in protecting the city.

During his time spent in Jump, Kole focused mainly on dealing with low-level criminal activities, however he had a few run-ins with stronger opponents. After the Zydon invasion and government takeover, Kole decided that it would be better for him to return home, packed up his things, and returned to Washington. While in Washington, he continued his work as a hero while also training to gain further control of both his powers and Erebus. One particular encounter left both him and Erebus down for the count against a particularly brutal opponent. It was at this point that the two discovered Erebus' ability to posses Kole's shadow, and the two struck back, with Erebus eventually dealing the killing blow. While the event didn't make them friends, it did give them a better appreciation for the other, improving their teamwork. After a bit more practice, Kole was able to limit their connection, depriving Erebus control of his body, however he was unable to keep the bat out of his head or shadow.

With the recent takeover of Jump, Kole decided that it was time to return to help liberate the city for good.

Added under physical weaknesses.