Terence Shale

Terence Shale

Biological
Full name:	Terence Shale
Born:	2293 AD
Birthplace:	Arris, Guardia, Gate III
Sex:	Male
Race:	Human
Hair:	Brown
Eyes:	Black
Height:	6'1"
Weight:
Personal
Marital Status:
Family/Relationships:	Clark Shale (Father), Martha Shale (Mother), Calvin Shale (Brother), Kara Shale (Cousin), Yoshiko Morume (Former Girlfriend, deceased)
Religion:	Spekkian
Title:
Nicknames:	The Shield; Captain Guardia
Hobbies:
Known skills:	As the Shield, Terence has a number of powers derived from his bond with Shiru and Kabshiel. From Shiru, he derives his elemental-based powers; the addition of Kabshiel into the mix gives the Shield limited command of a few Holy powers that allow him to heal the living and harm the undead. When he was de-powered, the Shield wore a suit of Seraphim power-armor that allowed him to fly and protected him from most physical damage. His primary weapons in the suit were a pair of gravitic batons.
Favorite color:
Inspiration:
Motto:

Terence Shale is the man behind the superhero known as the Shield.

Origins

Terence Shale had few prospects in life before he was selected to participate in Project: Shield, the top-secret Guardian super soldier program instigated by Sir Scorpius and Norstein Bekkler. Employed as a sanitation worker at Fort Arris, he accidentally stumbled onto the proving grounds where several of the GDF's best and brightest were competing for entry into the project. Unwittingly, Shale bested them all, and while Scorpius was inclined to scrap the trial and begin anew, Bekkler (owing to his unique sense of humor) wanted to give the prize to the janitor.

Overcoming Scorpius' doubts, Bekkler had his way, and a legend was born. Shale's spirit was bonded to a small shield crafted of Dreamstone, within which was housed a nature spirit named Shiru. This spiritual bond, stronger by far than the link between Guardian knights and their enchanted swords, gave Shale incredible powers, derived (as Bekkler once put it) from the elements of Spekkio's sorcery: from the Earth, superior strength and endurance; from the Wind, supersonic speed and the ability to fly; from Nature, immunity to diseases and toxins; from the Water, icy cold breath; and from Fire... heat-based eye lasers. (naturally!)

Shale lead a dual life from that point on: one as Terence Shale, ZAPS operative, and the other as the Shield, hero of Guardia.

Powers and Abilities

The Shield

The Shield has a number of special powers and abilities derived from the spirits that he shares a bond with through his dreamstone shield. Some of his more common powers, skills and techniques are listed here:

• Super Strength: A gift, supposedly, from the spirits of elemental Earth, the Shield possesses superhuman levels of strength and physical power. He can lift incredibly heavy objects, and has a devastatingly powerful punch. (as one of his unlucky foes once put it: "The Shield hits like a truck.")
• Thunderclap: Not a "power" in and of itself, but rather something that the Shield is able to do with his super strength. By clapping his hands together, the Shield is able to send out a powerful shockwave that can shatter glass and knock a man off his feet. Because of the collateral damage this technique can inflict on allies or bystanders, the Shield is extremely judicious about how/when he employs this move.
• Footstomp: Similarly, this is more like a special maneuver the Shield's practiced rather than a power in and of itself. By stomping with the great force provided by both his strength and his speed, the Shield can simulate a localized seismic event. Through practice, and possibly some of the elemental magic inherent to his powers, he's learned to exert some control over the direction and intensity of the shockwaves he creates. (unlike his Thunderclap, which hits indiscriminately in an area around him)
• "Invulnerability": It wouldn't be completely accurate to say that the Shield is invincible -- although, again, he did stop two very large and powerful bombs with his body and lived to tell the tale (although he was incapacitated for quite some time by each blast). Regardless, he is extremely tough and most conventional attacks are all but useless against him. At best, a weapon with enough power to it (such as a missile, or a high-powered energy weapon) can knock the Shield around, or wind him momentarily. It's said that this ability, as well, was derived from the element of Earth.
• Superhuman Health: From the element of "Nature," the Shield derived an impressive metabolism and immune system. He is virtually immune to most known toxins and diseases, and heals at an extraordinary rate (this ability likely plays a critical role in his ability to recover from taking a WMD blast). Theoretically, this power means he could eat almost anything, and regardless of what it was, could possibly metabolize it safely. (though, it should be noted: he still does have a human sense of taste, and likely wouldn't want to eat just anything)
• Heat-based Eye Lasers: One of the Shield's signature powers, derived from the element of Fire. These beams can reach a temperature hot enough to melt steel, well in excess of 2000° Celsius. However, the Shield is able to adjust his eye-lasers' intensity, throwing out beams with only enough potency to burn clothing or cause skin discomfort.
• Flight: The Shield is capable of what appears to be a form of psychokinetic flight, levitating and propelling himself through the air with little more than a thought. This ability is reputedly derived from the Shield's connection with the element of Air; his top speed has been clocked at Mach 1.
• Freezing Breath: The Shield has extremely powerful lungs, from which he is capable of producing hurricane-force gales (with a windspeed of ~200 mph). He is capable of controlling and adjusting both the force and temperature of his breath, and frequently finds use for his breath's capacity for freezing objects in place with arctic ice.
• Holy Light: A new addition to his traditional slate of powers, a power given to him by his connection to the spirit of the angel Kabshiel. At will, the Shield can project short-range beams of holy light from the palms of his hands. This light can harm those beings susceptible to the holy element -- demons and the undead, mainly -- or it can grant a minor healing effect to living beings. There may well be other effects to the Shield's holy light power that have not been discovered; only time will tell.
• The Shield itself: The source of the Shield's power. Originally constructed of Dreamstone, and imbued with the essence of a spirit named Shiru. The shield was broken by Manta's specially-designed sonic weapon, and then later reforged and combined with the plastic from the Shield's seraphim armor. In addition to being the hero's magical conduit, the Shield's shield serves as a handy weapon and defensive implement (true to its form). The shield can stop most conventional projectiles (and the Shield's super strength ensures that he suffers almost nothing from the force of impact), and its mirrored surface is capable of actually reflecting energy weapons. Its magical nature also provides the Shield with decent protection against magical attacks as well. When pressed, he can also throw his shield and, like a boomerang, it will return to his hand.
• Vulnerabilities: Manta was the first to ever truly do any real harm to the Shield. While the reforging process has strengthened the source of the hero's power, the whole loss-of-powers episode has exposed a weakness of the Shield's: sonic attacks. At the right frequency, even if they can no longer shatter the dreamstone-plus-seraphim shield, a sonic burst could potentially bother, stun or even incapacitate the Shield. Also, as a side-effect of his newfound access to Holy-elemental effects, the Shield has exposed himself to harm from Shadow-elemental magic.

Seraphim Shield

In his Seraphim armor, the Shield lacked much of his original power set. However, the ingenuity of Abdiel Zion ensured that the hero was still able to be somewhat heroic:

• Increased Strength: The Shield's armor increased his normal strength, and while he may not have been able to rip a car in half with his bare hands anymore, he was certainly stronger than the average carjacker or purse snatcher.
• Gravitic Batons: Also affectionately known as his "Beatsticks," these were the Shield's primary weapons while he was rocking the seraphim armor. Even the lightest tap from these weapons could carry a potent gravitic blast, equal in force to being struck by a fast-moving car. The Shield was also able to use these paired batons to project waves of gravitic force, giving him a powerful ranged attack.
• Gravitic Boomerang: One thing the Shield was able to do with his batons was throw them, allowing him to deliver a whallop at distance. Because the batons were magnetically paired to his armor's gauntlets, he could always cause them to fly back to his hands after being thrown, like a boomerang.
• Vanguard Shield Module: Developed by Kuat scientist Dr. Walter Glass, the Vanguard Shield Module used advanced solid-light construct technology to create a special energy based "shield" for the Shield. Given as a gift by Damien Gavalian, in recognition of the Shield's service at the Defense of Egmont, this piece of tech had added sentimental value, as it returned the Shield to his core idiom of being a hero who fights with an actual shield. The module itself attached to his armor's left gauntlet, and deployed as a circular semi-transparent construct of hard-light energy. The solid-light tech was derived from the same tech as created Kuat's Gnome Defense Fields, but was scaled down for personnel use, and in theory could have deflected almost anything.
• Vanguard Watch Mini-Module: A second Vanguard module was given to the Shield, this time built into a wristwatch and intended for use when Terence Shale was without his full set of armor. Being smaller, the mini-module was not as powerful as the larger device, but it was better than nothing and would still protect Terry in a pinch.
• Heat-based Eye Lasers: Violante Vaquero devised this add-on to the Shield's helmet. It was capable of creating beams of an intensity similar to the Shield's original power (~2000°C), but the helmet could only sustain short-burst beams before overheating. (it should also be noted that Terry had to be very careful how he aimed and fired these eye lasers, because they were very, very capable of slicing through his seraphim armor)
• Flight: The Shield's armor made heavy use of gravitic propulsion to emulate his normal ability to fly. The main unit was housed in a "jetpack" on the Shield's back, while manuevering "thrusters" were embedded in the Shield's hands and feet. Short, deployable wings mounted on the jetpack aided in maneuverability, though these were likely more cosmetic than functional (they were painted blue to emulate the Shield's former costume, where he had a blue cape). Synaptic controls inside the helmet allowed for intuitive control of altitude, direction and speed -- though this did take some getting used to. (Terence clocked over 300 hours of practice time at Diamond headquarters before he took the suit out for its first live test flight)
• Seraphim Armor: The armor itself was a fully-enclosed suit that protected its wearer with the strength of "invincible plastic." While within it, Terence was nearly as durable as he was when he was fully powered, although the Seraphim suit did still suffer from the same sorts of weaknesses that a normal Seraphim has (in particular, susceptibility to energy weapons).

Various Heroics

The Shield arrived at a time when Guardia was most in need of heroes: during the OmniSent crisis, the Shield foiled an attempted assassination of King Derik, and accompanied Manta and Osprey in a mission to infiltrate a hidden OmniSent space station. The Shield also foiled an early plot by the Xenos to assassinate several ranking members of Guardia's Parliament over the issue of parliamentary re-districting the Denadoro Prefecture (a move intended to enfranchise Guardia's Mystic minorities, which the human-supremacist Xenos were clearly against).

Twice the Shield proved his nigh-invulnerability by intercepting (with his body!) missile-mounted weapons of mass destruction inbound for Guardia Proper: once when a Dark Matter warhead was launched by a fleeing Tyurin Cage, and then again during the Cleansing Wars when Rajaat launched a U-missile from a captured Grand Army submarine.

Stripped of his Powers

The Shield met up with Manta again, much later on, on the rooftop of the Sun Palace in Porre. Manta had accepted a contract to kill the Shield, and had devised a weapon that he believed capable of rendering the Shield vulnerable enough to do just that: Manta had invented a sonic wave emitter that was tuned to a specific frequency which resonated with Dreamstone. Amping this frequency up, the weapon caused the Shield's shield to shatter. The two fought, and though the Shield was without his super powers for the first time in years, he wound up the victor, and Manta wound up (temporarily) dead.

After Shale being debriefed by ZAPS about the Manta attack, Bekkler would contract with Diamond, Inc. to construct a Seraphim body-suit, complete with a jetpack and pair of gravitic batons, in order to keep the Shield still somewhat-super. (though he would now be without his heat-based eye lasers) Bekkler then sent the Shield to El Nido to investigate rumors of a drug ring that was growing in power, along with their dangerous new product, Pyra. In the course of this investigation, the Shield met up with a newly-no-longer-dead Manta and, finding that they seemed to have a common enemy, they worked together (along with an army of undead pirates) to destroy the pyra factory of the very people who had hired Manta to assassinate the Shield in the first place.

Corruption Hearings

What Bekkler would turn-up about the pyra ring was that someone in the Guardian government was involved at some level. This knowledge made Bekkler dangerous, and made him the target of Khalid Morris' administration. Morris' justice ministry alleged corruption at the topmost levels of Guardian intelligence, and Bekkler was all but indicted in absentia of countless trumped-up charges ranging from being involved in the pyra trade to spying on Guardian citizens, to betraying the kingdom to the Defilers during the Cleansing Wars.

Shale and his longtime girlfriend, Yoshiko Morume, used ZAPS clearance to break into the Justice Ministry offices and learn the truth: that Khalid Morris himself, along with several unnamed accomplices, were either working with, employed by or behind the pyra ring. Yoshiko (who was a newspaper reporter) was to write an expose and blow the story wide open, but the Flying Fates showed up at the couple's apartment in Trann, and in their haste to escape Yoshiko was killed.

The Cloven Shield

Terence's response to Yoshiko's death was to suit up and assault the Bureaucracy Building to wreak bloody vengeance. He got as far as Khalid's office, clearing a path of destruction on his way up, before Bekkler telepo- err, I mean... he... uhh... phase-shifted him into his own office in Porre. Bekkler explained to Terence that he was on the verge of losing his very soul to the emptiness that had been left when Shiru was destroyed, and so sent him away to Egmont -- which was where Bekkler claimed the path to repairing himself would begin.

Of course, the Shield would arrive in Egmont just ahead of the Reklar invasion. There, the Shield met up with Osprey (who had just been fired from ZAPS and was looking for work) and Fara Somers, also known as the Mana Knight. After the Reklar had been repulsed from Egmont (thanks to the Mana Knight and numerous other heroes who just happened to be in the neighborhood), Terence and Osprey stuck around with Fara and her Valkyrie mentor Roxanne, travelling with them to Albrook.

Thereafter, both the Shield and Osprey became Roxanne's semi-permanent houseguests.

To Mend a Shield

After a time, with Roxanne teaching, Fara finishing up college and Osprey trying desperately to find employment, Terence began searching for a way to repair Shiru. While he tried to keep his efforts secret from his friends at first, they eventually learned of what he was trying to do and made him accept some help.

Roxanne's neighbor, Eleod Vrinnicus, put Terence in touch with the Esper Ammit, a longtime Albrook native who uses his powers of psychometry and divination as an appraiser of magical items and antiquities. When Terence brought Shiru's remains for Ammit to read, he pointed Terence in the direction of the Phoenix Mountains, north of Albrook. He also hinted that Terence's seraphim armor had some part yet to play in his destiny, but as is standard for cryptic diviners, Ammit did not say what.

Since everyone else was employed and couldn't take time off work, the only person able to go with Terence was Osprey (still unemployed). Driving North from Albrook along Boderick's Trail, they lodged at a campgrounds, where they were beset by an evil cat lady and her army of magical, evil cats. Beating a fighting retreat, they climbed the mountain and fought running battles against the evil cats all night long, until they stumbled upon a cavernous entrance into the Manta Cave, where to Terence's supreme consternation, Manta turned out to be the key to re-forging the broken shield.

In reassembling the shield, Terence's Seraphim armor was melted down and integrated with the Dreamstone. This process restored the Shield to full power, but added a tertiary spiritual component to the mix: the dead angel Kabshiel, whose physical remains were part of the Seraphim plastic that made up Terence's power armor.