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: | {{{family}}} |
| Religion: | Spekkian |
| Title: | |
| Nicknames: | The Shield; Captain Guardia |
| Hobbies: | |
| Known skills: | When he was fully powered, Terence Shale (as The Shield) was nearly invulnerable. He could fly, travel at super-sonic speeds, was incredibly strong and had the use of heat-beams from his eyes and ice breath. |
| Favorite color: | |
| Inspiration: | |
| Motto: | |
Terence Shale is the man behind the superhero known as the Shield.
Contents
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. Working 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, superior speed and the ability to fly; from Nature, immunity to disease 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.
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.
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: he devised 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 reporting in, 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 mostly-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 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 (whose dayjob was as a 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 send 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.
Thus, Terence 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, Elleod Vrinnicus, but Terence in touch with the Esper Ammit, who has powers of psychometry and divination and uses them as an appraiser of magical items in Albrook's mystic ward. 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 is employed and can't take time off work, the only person who could go with Terence was Osprey (still unemployed).
