Basic Information

Name: Peter Osten 
Nickname/Alias/Etc: He is known by one name and one name only; Skeleton. 
Gender: male 
Age: 29 
Height: 6’1’ 
Weight: 215 lbs 
Faction: Skull 

Appearance

Hair Color: none
Eye Color: An irritated red color, like he has smoke in them. 
Ethnicity: Half-black, half-white , though most of his skin is now an irritated burnt red color. 
Physical Appearance: Skeleton looks like he lives in a gym. Easily the most physically-fit member of the Skulls, he has a massive bulk with a barrel chest and a six pack that makes all other six packs jealous. Being wanted by the police makes doing that last set at the gym [i]that[/i] much easier. There is no point in describing Skeleton’s face because you’ll never see it. Skeleton’s face, back, shoulders, and hands are covered in terrible burn scars. His skin in those places is an unhealthy purplish red, dotted with rough boil-like blemishes. His body is a patchwork of scars as well. A terrible ropelike scar trails down his back, and his wrist has been slit open several times (not of his own doing). He used to have a tattoo on his left shoulder, but the burn scars have made it nearly imperceivable. 

Skeleton's voice is low and gravely, like a blues singer. There is a very mild southern draw to it that's only identifiable if you're paying close attention. His voice is slightly raspy, like a smoker's voice. 

Attire: All of Skeleton’s skin has clothing covering it. He wears a pair of long camo cargo pants tucked into a pair of black combat boots. Around his waist is a chain belt with a heavy silver skull buckle. He wears a white tee shirt on his top half, and over this is his black leather jacket. The jacket has spikes on the epaulettes and is always zipped up. On the back of it is a sugar skull, the logo of the Skulls. Covering Skeleton’s head and face is a skull balaclava, which is where he gets the nickname “Skeleton” from. Covering his eyes is a pair of black polarized Oakley sunglasses. The balaclava is shaped in such a way that it covers all of the skin that the sunglasses do not. The mouth of the balaclava is made of a mesh that allows him to drink through it. Skeleton doesn’t eat when Skull peons are around, and the only people who ever see him eat are his closest friends. On his head is a black half biker helmet with a row of spikes trailing down the middle of it. On Skeleton’s hands are a pair of gloves designed to look like a skeletal hand. They are SAP gloves, with pieces of metal in the knuckles, similar to brass knuckles. 

Personality

Outward & Innate Personality: Skeleton is a cruel villain with a bit of a heart. He believes that being honorable in combat is the way to go, and that petty acts of violence and backstabbing are cowardly. Skeleton doesn’t kill civilians and won’t resort to petty crimes or terrorist attacks on civilian buildings to achieve his goals. He is known for being particularly cruel to those foolish Skulls who harm innocent or unarmed people. He refuses to participate in terrorist stunts, but is known for leading attacks on the police. That said, however, enemies will be dealt with swiftly and mercilessly. Skeleton is exceedingly cruel to those who present themselves as a threat, and has absolutely no problem with crushing usurpers. Interrogation is part of his skill set; he is [b]extremely[/b] charismatic with a pipe or a nine-iron in his hand, especially with all that leather and all... those... muscles…
	He’s not the smartest tool in the shed, though; Skeleton gets by on forced charisma, not intellect or wit. Unlike Whisper, Skeleton doesn’t plan things very well. He’s more of a full-charge kind of guy, like Southern generals in the Civil War. 
Skeleton loves pushing his body to the limits. Many times, Skeleton will take on as many dangerous opponents as he possibly can, in order to challenge his body and mind. He gets extremely bored fighting normal mooks, and so will always go after the best of the best on the battlefield. He’d charge a Navy SEAL team head on if he knew it would give him a challenge. He has been known to occasionally deactivate his power just so he could level the playing field with a worthy opponent. Socially, Skeleton is cold and pretty antisocial. He rarely has conversations with other Skulls unless they have proved themselves to be worthy of his friendship, a rare and treasured distinction. Even with his friends, Skeleton is rather cold. He’s not going to be flaunting around his innermost feelings anytime soon. Skeleton is officially diagnosed with PTSD, a psychological illness associated with traumatic events, especially combat. His scars are a testament to this. Skeleton has trouble sleeping often, and occasionally people find him very depressed. At some points, people believed him to be suicidal, but it would be [i]deliciously difficult[/i] for him to commit suicide. He copes with his PTSD through sleeping pills and beer. 
Hobbies/Interests: Anything physical, really; running, exercising, fighting, playing sports. He is known to spar other Skulls in MMA. Every morning, he is said to do an extraordinarily difficult workout to train his body for that day. His love of fitness, however, cannot outweigh his love of alcohol; Skeleton is an alcoholic. He also enjoys driving and collecting both cars and motorcycles. He’s a novice mechanic. 
Skills/Talents: Skeleton is freakishly strong, and is unmatched in hand-to-hand combat. He is a blackbelt in taekwondo, and used to compete professionally in MMA before he got banned because of his power. He is fairly agile (at least enough for him to get out of his own way), and has good cardiovascular endurance. Basically, a physical powerhouse. 
Prized Possession: His Skulls jacket, probably. 
Quote(s): Skeleton’s catchphrase is “weak”, which he spits as if the word burned the tip of his tongue. “Weak” is the worst insult that Skeleton could possibly use against something or someone. 
History/Bio: Skeleton doesn’t talk about his past. If you ask him about his ubiquitous scars, he will simply say something to the effect of “I was too weak, and this was my reward. I am stronger now.” 

Do I look like Skeleton to you? 

Peter Osten was born in Albuquerque, New Mexico. His father was a major in the US military. He was a tough, hard man, one that had no problem with liberal discipline. Skeleton spent most of his childhood days with scars covering his buttocks and the tops of his thighs. The beatings made Skeleton tough, but also made him begin to resent his father, especially when he got beaten for doing nothing wrong. 
	When Pete was nine, his father lost his right leg in the Persian Gulf War. He was honorably discharged from the army, and the family moved to Mendel, where Pete’s parents both got jobs. Pete discovered his powers on a middle school playground two years later. A kid pushed him off of the monkey bars, and he tumbled to the ground with a thud. He should have been injured, but there was not a scrape on his body. The kid jumped down from the monkey bars to punch Peter, and after about four punches was sent on a nice long trip to the ICU. At the time, meta humans were very poorly understood, and so Peter was put into anger counseling. All anger counseling did, though, was give a civil person a reason to be uncivil. For years after those classes, Peter would get himself out of messes by saying “I have anger issues. I go to therapy for it”. Peter’s father still hit him if he ever did anything bad, something which also drove him to turn down a dark path. 
	When Peter was twelve, he met Damian Sparks, and not long after met Kylie Evans and Amber Kiyoshi. The four of them became a sort of street gang, drinking beers in dark alleys and smoking pot and playing cards and occasionally beating up people who dared walk into one of their hangouts. It was a charmed life, prowling the streets with his friends, and he began to lose grip on what was important in life. He failed the eighth grade. The night he got the failing report card, Peter’s father gave Pete the toughest beating of his life. He punched and kicked and spanked and smacked him with a paddle and told him he was weak. Peter’s father, however, didn’t understand his son’s potential. How could he? The doctors couldn’t figure it out, and Peter’s father didn’t know anything about the Academies. But that night, Peter decided that he’d had enough of his father’s cruelty. He fought back, and his father received a nice two-month stay in the hospital with half a dozen broken ribs and a shattered humorous. This messed with Peter a ton, and he began to fear his abilities. He attempted to learn to control his power with the help of the other soon-to-be Skulls, and soon discovered through experience that he could turn the power off and on. 
	When Peter was seventeen, the Race Riots happened, an event that would change his life forever. Peter was in a way part of the starting incident for the fighting. He and Damian saw a meta human woman being attacked in an alley, and decided to try and help. They beat up the assailants, but they were caught on camera. Thus, the Riots began. For weeks, there was fighting in the streets of East Mendel. fifty-six humans and sixteen metas were killed, and over a hundred of the two groups combined were injured. Peter spearheaded many metahuman attacks, causing him to gather many meta admirers who would someday become the first Skulls. He would use his abilities to go after humans with firearms, and was directly responsible for the deaths of eleven humans in the riots. One particular attack, however, went south and caused the terrible burns all across Peter’s body. There was a man named David Armstrong, an ex-marine who was holed up in a row home in River Hill, a neighborhood in East Mendel. He owned a powerful hunting rifle, and had used it to kill five metas. Peter decided to force Armstrong out of his home by setting it on fire, but he was driven into the house with two other metas (who won’t have names) by assailants with molotov cocktails and homemade bombs. The house, which was already on fire, now burned like a christmas tree in July. Peter managed to kill Armstrong by smothering him in burning curtains and throwing him out of a window, but shortly afterwards, the floor collapsed and Peter fell into the blazing inferno that was the second floor. A beam from the ceiling fell across Peter’s chest, making him unable to move. He was trapped there, alone and in pain (the other two metas had either bailed or died; he didn’t know which), for hours, until firefighters managed to control the blaze and Damian and Kylie were able to get him out and take him to the hospital. He never saw Amber Kiyoshi again. 
	The hospital could do very little for Peter; his face, head, back, shoulders, and arms were covered in third-degree burns, and skin grafts were too difficult to do back then (plus who would give a skin graft to street scum?). They treated him with creams and such, but they did very little to save him. He probably should have died, but somehow that sunnovabitch exceeded expectations and left the hospital earlier than expected, now covered in scars. He now had a new purpose in life; to protect metas from the humans who would dare to attack them out of pure fear. He formed the Skulls and took up the Skull balaclava to cover his face and prevent his scars from being seen by others. They grew rapidly, and soon East Mendel was dominated by the gang. He never returned home, and because of this his parents split up. For over a year, Peter’s father searched the city, looking for his son, but eventually gave up on it and retreated to his house to live the rest of his life as a depressed alcoholic. He committed suicide on September 15, 2013. Peter Osten did not attend the funeral. Peter Osten was dead; now, he was known as Skeleton, the face of metahuman vengeance and a symbol of fear across all Mendel. 

Family: 
Maj. William Osten/ Father / Deceased. 
Mary Osten/ Mother / Estranged. Lives in San Antonio. 
Jared Osten/ Brother / Estranged. Lives in San Antonio. 

Relationships

Relationships: 

| Kylie Evans | Good | Friend | “Kylie’s been there with me since I was young and stupid. She’s one of my most-trusted friends. I would protect her with everything I’ve got.” 

| Damian Sparks | Excellent | Best friend | “My right-hand man. Dame is by far my best friend. He was the one who pulled me out of the flames, and who fought beside me against those fucking asshats back in the Riots. I’d give my life for him.” 

| Matt Detmer | Decent | Associate | “The kid’s annoying, but he’s starting to grow on me a little. He’s only an Enforcer because Kylie convinced me that he was strong enough to be one. Who knows? Maybe he’ll pay off one day.” 

| Caden Zorich | Neutral | Associate | “Caden creeps me the fuck out, but he’s one of the strongest metas in the gang. He could give most of us a run for our money. Weird as he is, he’s crucial to our operation.” 

| Whisper Kiyoshi | Bad | Enemy | “That little bitch is gonna burn to death one day, and I’m gonna be the one who lights the fire.” 

Abilities

Power Class: Energy 

Ability: Kinetic energy absorption. Skeleton has the ability to absorb kinetic energy. Kinetic energy is the energy contained in any physical object with mass that is accelerating (layman’s description here). With this power, Skeleton can nerf pretty much all physical attacks. If you punch Skeleton, your punch will do nothing and he will absorb its energy. If you shoot him, you might as well be firing a peashooter at a wall of concrete. This ability makes him extremely durable and hard to injure. And what can Skeleton do with this energy, you ask? Skeleton can store the energy he absorbs as potential energy, and release it at will. So if, for example, you throw a 90 mph fastball at Skeleton, he can absorb its kinetic energy on contact and then redirect it into a punch, or simply send the ball flying back with the same force and velocity. He can store the energy for long periods of time between use, and release it at will. Unlike other mutants who use this power (*coughsebastianshawcoughs*), Skeleton releases his energy on contact, meaning that he can’t make massive explosions, but if he fell off of a building and hit the ground, he could punch a tank and send it airborne. His strength is dictated solely by how much energy he has absorbed. 

Weaknesses/Limitations/Drawbacks: Well firstly, Skeleton has no defense against energy powers. Lasers, electricity; all of it can harm him. Secondly, the lower energy an attack has, the more damage it does to skeleton. This is hard to explain, so I’ll give an example from pop culture. In X-men, Sebastian shaw had a very similar power to Skeleton. Magneto killed Shaw by immobilizing him and then slowly pushing a quarter through his forehead and into his brain. If Skeleton is subjected to a low-energy attack like in this example, it will harm him. So, he can still be crushed or strangled. Skeleton can be harmed indirectly as well, however. Things like fire, drowning, radiation, smoke, gasses, and poisons can still hurt him because he cannot absorb any kinetic energy from them. 

Other: Skeleton drives a custom-built 2014 Harley Davidson Iron 883 motorcycle. It is black with flame paint on the sides, and the headlight is shaped like a skull. The wheels have light strips on them, causing the rims to glow dark red at night. 

Skeleton lives at the Skulls Headquarters in East Rail. It is a row of run-down row homes that were converted into one building. 

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