History
Gavin Shaw is a young high school senior living in Apollo Bay, one of the toughest cities in California. Gavin’s greatest desire was to find a way to do what the police had never been capable of doing…Release the stranglehold the gangs and drug dealers have had on his hometown.
On his way home from visiting his best friend, Dex, Gavin stumbles across the hero Lionsblood (a member of the superhero team called The Icons), who had been badly injured in an alley. Quickly running to the hero’s aid, Gavin unknowingly placed himself in the lone of fire between Lionsblood and the beast known as The Hyena who, moments before, he had gravely injured. After contacting the police and acting as a shield to protect the fallen hero, Gavin suffered a mortal wound delivered by the villain before he fled the scene.
Gavin awoke n a hospital bed almost completely healed after being in a coma for three days. Surprised that he was even still alive, the teenager would soon realize that Lionsblood, in an effort to save the boy’s life, had to inject him with the same serum that gave the hero his powers. Unfortunately, his would-be mentor died shortly after saving the teenager’s life which left Gavin having to figure out things out on his own.
Waning to put his newfound abilities o god use and finally the means to do something about the crime that ravages Apollo Bay, Gavin, inspired by heroes like the Doberman and Manticore, became the crime-fighter known as Midnight Tiger. Soon, he began to catch the attention of major criminals which he knew he had no ope of handling in his own. This prompted him to seek training from the ICONS Project, whom he initially turned down for membership after discovering they wanted to move him away from Apollo Bay. The Icons are a government sanctioned superhero team spearheaded by former superhero turned cop, Lt. Grant Goodrich. They’re composed of young, moderately experience heroes who stopped in during cases where the local authorities or even S.H.E.R.I.F.F. (Super Human Enforcement, Retrieval, and Investigation Federal Facility) aren’t capable of handling super-powered incidents. Though, lacking the sufficient experience, Gavin is determined to protect the city f Apollo Bay from any and all threats and to one day become of the greatest heroes ever known
Powers & Weapons
Midnight Tiger possesses a number of superhuman attributes that are a result of a combination of a genetically altered version of ailuranthropy (a cousin to the virus that causes lycanthropy) and the anomalies found in Gavin’s own DNA. Professor Thaddeus Hadaway (a.k.a. Lionsblood), who had been infected by a direct strain of ailuranthropy himself, performed many genetic manipulations on the virus in order to cure it, but was ultimately unsuccessful. However he did develop a strain that gave him more control of his bestial form that enabled him to retain his intelligence and personality no matter how animal no matter how animal-like his physiology transformed. Presumably, after test Gavin’s blood to gauge it’s compatibility based on his specific DNA, a modified version of his strain was developed as a serum and administered to the teenage Shaw during his coma.
Unlike Lionsbloood who carried the original base virus for ailuranthropy despite his genetic tampering, Gavin does not undergo an outward physical transformation into a were-cat. So, aside from retractable claws on both hands and feet and canines that can grow at will (all capable of tearing through about 2 inches of steel coupled with his strength), his enhanced abilities have become innate and on the genetic level and he remains a human appearance.
Gavin’s superhuman physical abilities of catlike strength (two tons), speed, intelligence, agility, durability, flexibility, reflexes reactions, coordination, balance, endurance and a kind of pheromone scent he gives off (which he calls his musk) reflect his namesake.
Though Gavin is still vulnerable to disease and illness, his enhanced physiology makes him capable of healing injures super-humanly faster and more extensively than ordinary humans, including injuries as severe as broken bones or gunshot wounds within a matter of minutes.
He possesses super-humanly acute senses. He senses of touch is enhanced to the extant that he is able to feel the slightest vibrations on any surface. His vision and hearing are enhanced in a similar manner, enabling him to both see and hear sights and sounds that ordinary humans can’t and to see and hear at much greater distances and in the dark. He also possesses a super-humanly acute sense of smell that uses to track a target by scent.
Gavin originally utilized a freestyle version of Capoeira (an Afro-Brazilian martial art that combines elements of dance, acrobatics, and music), but ruled heavily on his enhanced abilities to compensate for his current lack of skill. However, he has begun training at Icons headquarters in several forms of martial arts disciplines best suited to his abilities by Wraith, the Icons’ combat instructor.