Codename: Black General

Real Name: Junichi "Johnny" Itto. He will always introduce himself as Johnny if he can.

Affiliation: Hero

Origin: Junichi grew up rich. Very rich. Itto Industrial Concern was an international powerhouse of a company, founded by a retired PE from the 1940's, a Japanese-American businessman who had thrived in a time of adversity by being hyper-patriotic Americans and fighting alongside the greats as a sidekick, Dragon Fist. The brilliant man was able to parlay that publicity money in an actual company, that, as time went on, only seemed to be getting stronger.

So Junichi, now a third generation multi-millionaire, grew up with the finest things in life. If he wanted something, all he had to do was basically find the right family member to whine to, and he got it. Private schools, vacations around the world, tutors in any subject or field he was interested in, pretty much everything that could give him an advantage was thrust upon the boy. In return, his family demanded excellence from him, something he was a too happy to give them. Jun was the favorite of the grandchildren, something his father assured him was a boon, and something the boy kept up as best as he could, unknowing of the plans in motion.

For you see, while Jun didn't have the same gifts his grandfather had, something about genetic lines not being kept pure, Jun did have a knack for learning, and a willingness to please the family. Even in his rebellious teenage years, time he spent sneaking out, slumming among normal people, hiding in movie-houses, and everything - he kept up the incredibly strict schooling and workout regiment his family kept him on. He might have had a will of his own, but he played along well enough and could be expected to fall in line.

Junichi, now going by a nickname of Johnny that he had acquired from his friends, attended the state university - while his family could have bought him into anywhere, his pride at a full scholarship to somewhere more local appealed to his grandfather's "do-it-yourself" attitude and served to further cement Johnny in his debt. In the third year of his masters program, he was called home immediately - family emergency, was all he was told - and arrived instead to find his family waiting with a great deal of scientists and a new explanation.

The situation was thus: Junichi was going to continue the family legacy, becoming a new hero, and then a new spokesman for the company, to help elevate it to public heights. He'd already been registered with CAPE, paperwork forged under his real name, with the secret identity Black General. Johnny, of course, balked - he had a life, friends, most of his masters degree, and a future of his own to consider, so there was no way hell he was going along with this. Of course, their counter-argument was compelling: almost everything Johnny owned was technically his families, and he'd never worked a day in his life. Besides, they weren't stopping him from hanging out with his friends, or quitting school - that made a fantastic cover. He just had a new, higher priority, as well.

Reluctantly, he agreed. That was roughly a week ago. Johnny's managed to put off actual superheroics, or even transforming (and given that he has to put the belt on, pose, and yell, wouldn't you?) but he knows he can't keep putting it off. Eventually, he's going to have to make contact with the superheroes of the city.

Powers/Abilities/Skills: Possession of a belt that grants armor, superhuman strength, superhuman endurance, enhanced reflexes, and a desperation attack. Without the belt, first dan black belt in Shotokan, promising architectural design student, decent motorcyclist, decent cinema buff, above-average trivia recall.

o Level 1: With the belt active, Johnny's strength, reflexes, and endurance are all elevated to well above human norms. He has armored plating sufficient enough to ignore the average punch, and blunt the majority of the pain from an attempt to bludgeon him. The armor is stab resistant, but does not hold up to most projectiles, or objects specifically meant to pierce armor. He is capable of one peak-humanly strong punch or kick, but doing so will automatically shut down the armor for four hours.
o Level 2: At this point, the suit grants Johnny strength equivalent to an Olympic bodybuilder and endurance like a marathon runner. No further enhancements to his reflexes, however. His armored plating is reinforced, making most blunt weapons and unarmed strikes from normal people painless distractions. The armor is now very difficult to stab, but higher speed, armor-piercing, and particularly large projectiles still have no problem breaking it. His desperation attack is now beyond human limits in terms of strength and area encompassed, more akin to getting hit by a car at roughly thirty miles an hour. It still shuts down the suit for four hours.
o Level 3: With this level of power, the belt grants Johnny strength and endurance beyond the normal human range, making him difficult to fatigue and capable of smashing through most walls and flinging grown men like rag-dolls. His reflexes have received no further boost beyond the first level's enhancements. The armor is now much more durable: a normal human would have a very difficult time making him flinch, let alone hurting him. Knives are now more likely to break than impact, and he can take several low-velocity bullets before the armor is ruined. His desperation attack is now best described an explosive effect, capable of blowing holes in concrete or creating large pits in the ground. It still undoes his transformation for four hours.
o Level 4: At this final stage, the belt grants Johnny strength and endurance on the order of allowing him to break through concrete, bend metal, and endure attacks that would annihilate normal men. His reflexes are still merely exceptional. The armor is now in it's complete form as well: Johnny is pretty much capable of walking through traffic and your average civilian firearms without flinching, and can take repeated shots with armor-piecing projectiles. His desperation attack can level buildings, ballooning out in a 180-degree three-dimensional half-circle in front of and around him. This power still deactivates his suit for four hours.

Weaknesses: Remove the belt from the picture and Johnny is just a normal guy, which means he's particularly vulnerable compared to most of his superpowered brethren. This is exacerbated by the fact that he has to go through the hassle of starting up his suit before every fight, something someone sufficiently fast, or armed with a projectile, or even just close and quick-witted enough can probably stop. There's also the little issue that, in theory, if someone stole his belt, they could use it to kill him.

In addition to this, he kind of resents all this heroic legacy crap that's been forced on him by his family, and the idea that he's supposed to be out recruiting people to wear suits like his bothers him further. If he does heroic stuff, expect it to be either something he has a personal interest in, or someone to have goaded him into helping.

Equipment: Prototype super-belt, iPhone 4s (provided by Itto Industrial Concern, any minutes or texts over limit he pays for), 2011 Suzuki Hayabusa 1340cc done up to match armor (provided by Itto Industrial Concern, ONLY for superheroic activities), Macbook Pro, 2006 Honda Civic Hybrid.

Appearance:

o Civilian: Junichi is about 5'10" and a bit on the skinny side of average at 151 pounds. He stays in decent shape, but is not particularly musclebound, with dark brown hair and brown eyes. He sometimes wears an old pair of thick-rimmed glasses if he doesn't think he'll be going out, but usually wears contacts. He prefers multiple layers when he can get away with it, and the designer casual "hipster" look.
o Costumed: A matte-black suit of full body armor with gloves and boots that looks kind of like the terrifying big brother of a motorcyclist’s jumpsuit. It has purple highlights that resemble a serpent tracing around his shoulders, chest, and back. The armor itself has a sort of tortise-shell pattern in the non-matte, if examined closely. The helmet is full face concealing, with a glowing green visor for the eyes. "試作品" (shisakuhin, test model) is visible on the armor's left shoulder, and the numbers “000” on the right.

Team (if applicable): None. Just getting started, and so far team membership is something his family hasn't been able to buy. Again, IIC wants Johnny to captain his own team, but there's no way in hell he's going to solicit people for that any time soon.

Miscellaneous: Birthday is 13 November 1987. Junichi speaks English, Japanese, French, and Mandarin. He's a bit aloof, tends to talk very informally when the family isn't around, and is pretty easy to rile up or freak out outside of the suit. When working, he's clipped, to the point, and serious. His favorite color is navy blue, his favorite foods is the cheeseburger, and his favorite movie is Godard's Breathless.

Should it come up, the suit is a form of very limited nanotechnology that IIC has developed. It was prohibitively expensive to make, and they aren't going to get much further than this tech-wise for years to come.

Previous Metro City Experience: None. Hi!