the Phantom Reporter

Strength        Agility         Intellect       Willpower
7d              5c              6d              7d

Hand Size:      3 (17)
Edge:           1

Powers:

(none)

Equipment:

Semi-automatic Pistols (a): Dick carries two of these weapons with him while 'on the job' as the Phantom Reporter - you never know when some two-bit hood is going to open up on you. He can fire these weapons to inflict his Agility +4 damage, +5 CS if fired in a burst.

Hindrances:

(none)

Skills:

Boxing (s): former a collegiate boxer, Dick knows full well how to defend himself without weaponry. Whenever engaging in unarmed melee, Dick may divide his pre-cardplay action score between two such attacks, the last of which occurs as a contingent action.

Marksmanship (a): in addition to his considerable hand to hand fighting abilities, Dick can also fire a gun with ease. Whether wielding a standard, semi-automatic or fully automatic rifle or pistol, Dick may do so at a reduced difficulty level.

Journalism (i): thanks to his newspaper work, has access to - and the skill to use - several sources of information. Furthermore, on a challenging difficulty action, he can find out anything remotely public about anyone within a working day.

Sports / Football (a): an ex All-American fullback, Dick knows the ins and outs of football - whether playing or when writing about it for the paper. The man should receive a reduced difficulty on any football-related action, whether playing or commenting on the sport.

Swords (s): a former fencing champion, Dick has the ability to wield a foil - and by extension, most other swords - with heightened ability. Whenever he takes a foil or other long blade into battle, he may use it at one difficulty level lower than normal.

Wrestling (s): a former wrestler, Dick is well-versed in the application of holds in combat. If he can pass a Strength (strength) action, he can apply a hold on a foe, and for each turn he can succeed in further such actions, he can keep inflicting the same damage.

Writing (w): as a general matter of course, Dick prefers the written word when detailing the things he's found out via his journalistic work. He should make actions to write compelling works at one difficulty level lower than is usually required.

Calling:

Investigator: it probably goes without saying, but Dick loves to unravel a mystery - particularly one that others fail at handling. Whenever an unsolved crime comes to his attention, Dick is more than happy to look into it and bring the perpetrators to Justice!

Costume:

While active as the Phantom Reporter, Dick has worn two separate costumes. The first was a blue three piece suit, with a large collared red cape, a red domino mask that glowed, black leather shoes, and a purple fedora with a black stripe over the band.

His second uniform was just a bit different. It consists of a three piece purple suit, accented with a magenta tie, a black cape with a magenta interior and magenta collar, magenta gloves, a magenta domino mask, and a purple fedora with a magenta stripe.

Personality:

Dick is a principled, idealistic sort, feeling a need to use his abilities to help the 'little guy' who can't help himself. As a reporter he's always digging into the fine details of a case, particularly if there's an unsolved crime involved that he can resolve.

Real Name: Dick Jones
Occupation: journalist, vigilante
Legal Status: citizen of the United States with no known criminal record
Marital Status: single
Alias(es), if any: Mr. Van Ergen
Group Affiliation: none

Height: 6'
Hair: red
Eyes: blue
Weight: 190 lbs
Other Distinguishing Characteristics: none

Story:

Dick Jones has always excelled at everything he did. He was a former all-American fullback, not to mention an ex-collegiate boxing, wrestling and fencing champion. But Dick wasn't bound to be a professional athlete; no, he was intent on becoming a reporter!

To this end he took the proper journalism classes in college and easily got the job he was looking for at a local newspaper. Of course, Dick quickly found that a man in his position - and with his unique talents - stood to do a lot of good for the community.

As such, whenever he would be given a particularly hairy case to cover, Dick went about solving the crime for the police when they couldn't - or wouldn't - do their jobs properly. He couldn't do this publicly of course, so he adopted a new identity: the Phantom Reporter!

Under the cover of yet another alias, Mr. Van Ergen, Dick would journey out at night and fight the crimes he learned of thanks to his city editor, who realized that cases Dick investigated tended to 'solve themselves' soon after the man got the job.

On one such occasion, Dick was given the task of investigating a series of murders being committed on the East Side, murders that nobody seemed able or willing to stop. Lurking on the streets one night, Dick discovers several thugs in the act and breaks up their murder party.

Of course he hit one so hard he killed the guy! The next day, Dick found that his boss was threatened by more thugs, and was told to lay off the case. Not one to back down so easily, Dick resumed looking for his quarry when they found him, roughing him up in the process.

Returning to their lair at midnight, Dick smashed this second crew up, and forced a mouthful of Nembutal ™ down one's throat, learning that the police chief, the park commissioner, and the publishers of the Record and the News-Telegram are behind it all - for sensationalism!

Subsequently taking all of these conspirators down, Dick let his victims know how he'd drugged one of their cronies. Soon enough, though the police wouldn't arrest any of them, Dick's foes were implicated by said crony, who confessed while still under the effects of Dick's drugs.

With the case solved, Dick returned to his high school beat, though few of his further exploits have yet to be revealed. He was active at least through the Battle of Berlin, however, when the Army pulled in every costumed adventurer it could to help finish the fight.

During the fighting, Dick was pulled together with eleven random heroes and assigned to shut down the S.S. Headquarters. Of course their basement contained a sophisticated trap with which the Nazis immobilized Dick and his compatriots, hoping to eventually dissect them for Science.

However, their captors were killed by Russian solders soon after, and Dick's unit lay forgotten, in cryogenic storage, for decades. Only recently discovered by a construction crew, Dick and company were revived by the United States Army, and given a job!

With the country recovering from a nasty super-hero Civil War, the Army thought these World War II heroes would be the best propaganda machine to help prop up the new status quo, and all of them agreed to continue doing what they would've been doing anyway - albeit in a new era.

To this end Dick has begun to do what he always does, digging into strange mysteries, some of which actually involve his fellow members of the so-called Twelve. He's even landed himself a colum with the Daily Planet, where he can talk about his observations of the past and present!