Alias: "Thunder Strike"
Age: 26
Gender: Male
Species: Black Human male
Sexuality: Straight Male
Appearance and Attributes: Travis stands at a rather large 6 Foot 7 Inches tall with a rather muscular frame which he has rigorously honed since he was a young teenager, an avid sports and athletics fan, clearly not one for the more nerdy elements in life. His bulging biceps and large calf muscles are the more prominent features of his physical appearance. Usually seen running around in tank tops and running shorts. Never leaves home without wearing a good pair of running shoes as he simply loves the freedom they give him. To keep in with the rest of his attire he can often be found wearing sweat bands and headbands. His clothes all look pretty bog standard but in truth all his clothes are weighted for further trainning purposes as he feels he must always push himself to his utmost limits. He is at the peak of physical fitness and much like the stereotypical athletic type he is more than remotely aware that by the common standards he is what many women would call "attractive" and he is not beyond using it to get what he wants. Somewhat of a ladies man, often flirting with anyone he can find, using his good looks to get him what he needs in certain occasions. Originally he was religious until he received his powers, believing that no god would curse him so, that this simply was something terrible that he had been thrown into. He now has a short fuse on his temper, losing his sight and having to make it seem as though he cannot see has made him unhappy with his new change of lifestyle, having sight but not being able to see in front of others has caused him some rather large set backs, making him somewhat bitter over the loss of his athletic career. He wanders somewhat aimlessly now, though he wont let this beat him, through the somewhat bitter twist his life has taken he has not allowed it to take away his true heart of gold which still shines through when allowed to. He quietly continues on his life, having moved only recently to a new city where he hopes that he can put the past behind him somewhat and get on with his life.
History: Travis was a May baby and was born healthy and also a little heavy. His parents, Preston and Jade, were both loving and caring parents and were most delighted to have their first and what would be only child. Strangely Travis' story at the start of his life is mostly uneventful, he was a poor study in school but greatly interested in basketball and the 100 metre sprint. He did nothing truly remarkable through his childhood, he was a simply kid with a love of sport but a rather high distaste for all things "nerdy" or "geekie". His family were moderately wealthy and sent him to be privately educated at a Boarding School for Young Men called "Westhempsmith" there he spent many of his formative years and also built where he built on his already athletic driven choices. Here he was always just pasting muster when it came to grades yet he was on every single school team there was and usually the teachers would let a few things slide since he had been one of the reasons they had done so well in many school tournaments and had also gotten the school more funding. It was at this school that the headmaster pushed him down a career in athletics and sent him away during the summer to special camps so that he could try out for the nationals in many of the sprinting races. He only ever entered once and was instantly signed out to play for his country and did so ever since that day happened.
As it was said, his early years were simply the common life of a young child, he had no major hardships in his life, a string of relationships both long and short, a loving family, no issues or worries with money, in fact you could of almost said that his life was "perfect" shall we say. He was sent on many occasions to special training sessions for his sheer running talent and he was constantly put through special training programmes around the world for weeks at a time, he was living the high life, living out of hotels in hot and exotic places across the globe. He was never stuck for company either, as a serial ladies man, he could find himself with up to 2 or 3 ladies a night in each new city. He enjoyed much of the privileges it also afforded him having much spare time to hone his physique and practice harder and longer to achieve his dream. All he wanted in life was to be the fastest runner in the world, to topple all the records and show people he was the fastest, even the best! He wasn't always serious and competitive, he did have a softer side, from the age of 18 to 20 he had a long term relationship with a girl he had meet when visiting his grandparents who lived not far outside his home town. Her name was Natasha Denson and she was the first love of Travis.
While running was his life, for the two years they were together it briefly shared first place with Natasha, a young aspiring lawyer who was still working her way through college although she was 2 years older than Travis at the time. Their relationship last the two years but was cut short when Natasha grew tired of his constant obsession with running and constantly pushing himself further, as he reached his 20th year he began pushing himself so hard that for a few months he would pass out and faint should he keep pushing himself to hard. She pleaded with him to tone down just how hard he worked but her words would fall on deaf ears and as he pushed himself harder, he only suceeded in pushing her further away as the final straw was broken when he had pushed himself so hard in a training session that he had ruptured internal muscles and was rushed to hospital. On his sick bed she cried as she told him she could not be with him anymore if he wouldn't listen to her pleas to keep him safe. Travis was angry that all she could think about was breaking up with him while he was hurt, so he told her to leave and get out of his life if she couldn't support him. When he recovered and was released from hospital he had begun to see the error of his ways and regretted the heated arguement he had before she had left his life for good, however from that day forward he no longer pushed himself to physical injury, choosing to learn from his mistakes.
His powers were in a constant slow spiraling descent upon him, from the age of 22 he began to lose his sight, slowly at first, only squinting or getting occasionally blurred vision, it was not until he was 24 that he became fully blind. His senses seemed to be changing all the time, sometimes he could hear noises that he shouldn't off from such a long distance, like two people arguing on the other side of the street as a car roared passed but he simply thought his ears were playing tricks on him. Travis often felt unusual about his ever changing hearing and eyesight but choose to keep his head down and continue with his training. The year of the olympics was coming up when he was to be 24 and he put his heart and soul into it with everything he had to be ready to compete for the right to be the fast man alive. It was shortly after his 24th birthday and the day of the olympics arrived, he was standing warming up for his big preformance in front of the whole world as the crowds watched and people at home sat glued to their T.V. sets, it was to be on this occasion that something miraculous was about to happen.
He had a great start, he was flying down the lane, easily beating all that stood around him, he was sprinting with all his might and then suddenly half way down the track his world of colour seemed to shift and bend, the colours blurred to gray and soon into darkness. He still sprinted forwards but was soon greeted with pain as he slammed hard into the next runner now catching up with the blinded Travis. The two hit hard and the impact floored both runners and cost them both the race. With all the work he had done over these years, it had all been in vain, now blinded he had lost the race and to the same extent, his pride. He left silently that day and refused to pass comment as he was shuffled out of the stadiums. He was blind, how could it have happened and so fast? The truth was, his eyes had begun to dull but his ears had begun to work on a whole new level. Shortly after losing his sight and returning home that night he began to become more and more aware of the world around him, there were sounds in his head he had never heard before, they whirled around him until he could take it no more and passed out.
He was found a day later lying face first in the floor. He was alive and well but something was beginning that would change his life forever. When he awoke to the sound of his own mother frantically trying to revive him he got up suddenly and without realising it place his hand on his mother's shoulder and calmly replied "I'm fine mom, I just fell over is all!" He was so caught up in the moment he hadn't realised that he had seen his mother's face in a way he had never seen her before and yet he was blind only yesterday. It was only as he sat upright in a chair and stared at the figure he knew so well in front of him in his new vision did it all become clear to him. His vision had returned but in a new way, instead he could make out the shapes of all things around them whenever they gave off a sound, or if he spoke he could see the very soundwaves his voice gave off bouncing against the walls and all the objects around him. He laughed loud and his mother soon left thinking he must have just been depressed from his loss the day before. He was glad she was gone as he began to challenge his new sight to see just what he could and couldn't do. He didn't see or hear from anyone for a week or so but by then he had already begun to understand.
Around his home he practiced walking around in the woods, he had learnt just by letting out a low exhale of breath unaudible to most ears he could see the woods and the trees around him perfectly. He seemed to develop a rather deep rumbling in his throat that he could not clear and in an attempt to clear his throat he let out his first sonic blast. In the woods not far from his house he trained himself in secret, learning the new tricks of his until now untapped powers. Here he learnt how to focus sound from around him into the very energy he could project out around him. He first mastered his voice blast, learning that he could even vary the frequencies to call on bats and lead them around to even simply breaking glass or causing deeply irritating noises to the eardrums of those around him, strangely his own highly attuned senses took no kick back from his own attacks. On the last day he was to spend in the woods he learnt to pressurise all the noise around him contain it and build it all up until the point he could explode it out in a massive shockwave. He achieved this powerful feat but was comatosed for the next 12 hours when he woke up to find a family of racoons making their way to nibble on him thinking him a corpse.
It was around this time his parents decided they would move him away from his old home and try to get him a new life, somewhere fresher and new. Novum Aurora, in Europe was to be their destination of choice, they thought here in a part of the world only just beginning to flourish that perhaps he would be able to regain the seemingly broken pieces of himself he had lost with his eyesight, in truth Travis wasn't that interested in the idea as his newfound powers were his only waking care these days. He was moved to a suburban part of Novum Aurora in a fairly quiet neighbourhood where his parents made sure he would have a care worker on sight should he need help without his own eyesight now. Travis was only to happy to be free of his parents and to be allowed some new freedom he would never have had being surrounded by friends and family. Here he could let loose, here he was a new man that no one knew, to them he was only a blind man, here he could do as he pleased as no one here would give him even a second look once they seen the light of his eyes had long since faded.
Powers:
Active; Sound Manipulation: Travis has the ability to absorb nearby waves of sound from any source; noise, vibration, man-made or naturally occuring. While he absorbs this energy within him, he can use this energy in a variety of forms. He can use it to screech a high frequency wave that will shatter ear drums and break glass. Summon it as kinetic energy in his hands to create supersonic blasts from his hands or store up energy in every part of his body and use it to "bleed" out a destructive sound blast from the very pores of his body much like an explosion. Using the explosive blast does however have the draw back of extreme pressure placed on muscles, blood veins and arteries. If used to much it could rupture the very blood vessels and cause him to bleed from his own pores, severely weaken him for a medium length period before he could use any of his powers again.
Passive; Echolocation and Sonar enhanced sensory capabilities. Echolocation is the ability to sense the surrounding area by sound, pinpoint enemies and allies around you with the use of sound rather than visuals. Much like a bat, Travis has the ability to use his sonar perception to use any sound as a means of seeing the world around him. While being unable to see by normal means, the sounds given off or reverberating off of an object allow him to create a mental picture in his head of the world around him, giving him the ability to see through walls and other solid structures that are not sound proof.
Character Specific Weaknesses; His powers have made him blind, without a sense of smell or taste. A place without noise or sound. Inside a sound proof box would cripple the senses of Travis. He also doesn't allow anyone to know that he can still see, letting bad things around him happen just to keep up his cover in public has lead him to allow things that go against his moral compass and at times even allowed others to take advantage of him.
Team Position: Member of the Superheroes team.
Colour: Grey-blue [RGB 159, 197, 232].
