Biography: |
==Quick Info==
Full Name: Shazam Money (picks random middle names...)
Current Assignments: [[Phoenix Wing]] Commander, Naval Training Officer (Commander of Venom Squadron)
==Description==
Physical: Shazam is what you may call naturally 'fit.' He requires almost no work whatsoever to retain his shape. Whether it be from earlier practices or new ones, he has an extremely high metabolism, so he likes to eat his fair share as well. What is known is that he performs various exercises at certain times of the day and hates doing anything for a prolonged period of time (running, swimming... Breathing can be tiresome as well be he thought it better to keep at it...) He stretches every night before he sleeps, if he can help it of course; he does aerobic exercises when he awakes, showers then performs his duties. At one look he may not look like much, but get a good look at him and you may feel the need to step back. He doesn't lift like a normal person or perform exercises to make him excellent in a particular sport- he's just 'fit.' However, it is also of some note that he once became very interested in martial arts and took the time to learn a form or two. Watching and learning about super-troopers and the lore of Jedi and Sith alike inspired him to become a fighter himself, but since he lacked genetic altering or force abilities, he turned to good old fashion stretching, exercise and practice...
Posture: Walks pretty tall but likes to slouch when no one is looking.
Quirks: Used to have an interesting case of OCD. The case in which he was altered is a little difficult to understand unless you've had it yourself, but it goes a little something like- "Shazam would tap his right foot slightly. So he would have to tap his left. But if he didn't tap his left exactly like the right, things have just gotten off balance and you need to do something to equal them out- maybe blink the left eye... No- too much. Now I've got to do a soft blink on the right..." Through analysis of his problem, he figured that if he forced himself to deal with the imbalance he would forget it even existed. It has worked up to this point... He feels a certain dependence in numbers as well. He doesn't believe in luck or bad-luck, just that certain numbers are signs for him. If he sees all eights, there's something wrong and he should be checking into it. If he's got all odd numbers in succession like 1:35, it's a good safe number. The 7:11 make a wish is probably the best example, though. If he looks at the time later and its an odd number, the wish comes true, if its even, the exact opposite will occur. He's slowly weaning himself away from these things, but sometimes he finds himself doing it out of habit.
Pet Peeves: Being ignored, being told what to do, having to say something over again, and having to apologize. In return, he hates people who yell to get their point across or get into heated discussions about what he considers to be 'nothing.'
Emotional Description: Basically a fun loving guy with a few rough edges. If someone ask why something was a bad idea, expect a harsh answer. Always fighting his own demons, that is wanting to ignore the wants and needs of others, he usually keeps them safely at bay. He'll play it cool to the best of his abilities, but if it comes down to it he'll become very strict and try to make things work more efficiently, theres no screwing around unless he's doing it. He is however insanely jealous of people, which is his biggest demon. Absolutely can't stand it if someone doesn't know how much better he is at something than someone else. In fact, he'll go out of his way to show people just how good he is, trying to keep a friendly face though. He needs that reputation. In relationships he is not as insanely jealous though, actually quite trusting. Anyone worthy of his love has got to be right about the same back. He expresses deep truth in his relationships, basing them solely on that bit of respect and responsibility. He hates to lie. Also he tries to avoid doing things that are 'too bad', because he does fear a higher power. So you'll also see him following a few unwritten laws. Also, he follows what he calls the 'Guy Code'... Invented by he and a friend Joe, the two created an idealistic set of rules that guys had to follow or they would not be treated as well. For instance- a man does not steal another man's woman if he knows the man. If he does not- then it's all go. A man does not take another man's last beverage- very sinful...
==History==
===Childhood===
Born, as far as he knows, on Corellia, Shazam's birth and early life are muddled in an uncertain wave of unexplainable events. First and foremost, his father, Icos, was an honest man with no enemy, neither individual nor group. His mother was kind, though he does not know her name and probably never will; according to Hermes, this was done to protect her memory as well as spare Icos any recollection of the events that transpired. He does not know what either of them did at the time, but he is sure that there was no mis-dealings, at least on his mother's side. His earliest memory, that which he draws from a recurring dream, is being held in his mother's arms at a local tavern when his father burst in and leads them out a back door. From that door he and his parents fled into a forest- and then darkness. A scream... And then the ramp of his uncle's ship- the Seroster. Only Shazam and his father accompanied Hermes off planet.
The rest of those early years are fairly lost and Shazam is sure that he was called by a real name for a short time, but even that is unknown to a past that seems to have lost meaning. Rather, at the age of five years old, Shazam grew up under an entirely different umbrella of logic. He had no identity- no name or home to call his own. Under the expert tootalage of his father and his uncle, Hermes, Shazam ceased to exist and a smuggler boy was born. From the day that he set out on his first trade with his father and Hermes on the planet Sanima, Shazam could have been anyone. At the beginning of every 'trade,' his father, an apparent master of false identification and security networks, would create entirely new people. On his first mission, Shazam was known as 'Tanner Ituse,' son of 'Garigan Ituse.' They usually played as father and son while Hermes played any number of roles, ranging from Grandfather to shady body-guard. Never the less, to avoid confusion and yet keep from learning names that would not apply on future ventures, Shazam was referred to as 'Son' or 'Nephew' and Icos was often called 'Father' or 'Brother' by Hermes. 'Uncle' and 'Brother' were likewise attributed to Hermes. At the end of every trade, any evidence that they had ever even existed on that planet, disappeared. All places that they entered, whether they be taverns, firms or buildings housing massive organizations, Icos could slice in and slip out fairly unseen by anyone. Things like finger-prints, eye scanners and bio analysis machines would know nothing of their time spent on planet. This would drive anyone else insane, but Shazam grew up around it. He learned to care very little about issues that effect masses of people, because they were gone the next time he turned around. Rather, as was characteristic of his father, he picked up only what was found to be important. This made him somewhat worldly... And cocky.
Throughout the next ten years or so, since he had little else to do, Shazam began to take interest in the various ships and machines he found himself surrounded by. Icos discouraged this for some reason and insisted that the boy never learn to fly- "Only fools fly so that they may fight..." Shazam considered this for a long time, but after deciding that he didn't want or need to fight anyone, did he begin his uncle for the chance to fly. They started out slow, Hermes letting Shazam take the controls of the Seroster whenever Icos wasn't around. Then they moved on to cup holders... And the importance of keeping your eyes out the viewport... Shazam wasn't impressed, so, using what primitive knowledge he had at his disposal, figured out how to work the Nav system. One such course threw them half-way across the galaxy when Shazam thought it would be more wise to reset the computer as he saw fit. Hermes decided he'd better take Shazam's teaching a little more seriously if he were going to attempt something that dangerous again.
Icos had also taken an interest in teaching his son more about the way of the universe, particular about the presence of a force. Though he could not manipulate it in any manner, Icos and Hermes had lived before the Jedi purge and knew of the mystical 'force' that guided the Jedi knights before the fall of the Republic and rise of the 'Empire'. It was a power that Icos had guided his life by and taught his son to respect, even if he could not feel it- he had to respect it. A kind of moral code was established and a 'good' vs 'bad' idealism stemmed off of it... They engaged in what they believed to be "pure arts", such as hand-to-hand martial arts as opposed to weapons. Reckless weapons that anyone could fire did not hold the same level of respect as being able to control your opponent as well as yourself in a dangerous situation. Also, what had made him semi-cocky, also made him knowledgeable. Traveling from planet to planet revealed Shazam to a plethora of cultures and ways to understand what is usually feared. He would never forget the lessons he learned in those early years, particularly about the respect for life.
===Adolescence and Early Adulthood===
Throughout those years, up until about the age of eighteen, Shazam was sent off to so many different schools, he couldn't have even pretended to remember his classmates or teachers. Shazam took these extremely seriously because, not only were they his only opportunities to meet and socialize with other children, especially young ladies, but it was also his only opportunity to learn the science behind fighters and math involved in the advanced Nav Computer calculations. Shazam was no genius, but he applied his 'learn what you must' to school at all times. His interest and understanding of avionics grew and peaked when he re-joined his uncle and father late in his eighteenth year. Hermes had already been allowing Shazam to fly his Star Viper Page for years. On several occasions Icos would leave to prepare for a trade or meet with a possible buyers to arrange a deal; Hermes would often let Shazam take off for days at a time with Page and assign him personal missions of his own. Icos had no idea.
On the planet of Rudick, on a trade mission to hand over extremely valuable artifacts to the Fudi Acuss clan, Hermes had inadvertently put both he and his brother in extreme danger. Though he hadn't known it, Icos had conducted business on the planet before and people would no doubt remember him after the events that had transpired. At the same time, Hermes had brought them there to watch the Cross Country Fighter Race- a competition between pilots to establish who was, in fact, the best pilot in the sector, through whatever means necessary. Pilots fought and killed one another in order to establish ultimate sovereignty over the competition. Shazam was fascinated by it. Upon boarding in the hotel, the trio went down main street to see what they could get in preparation for the competition when Shazam ran into what appeared to be an old friend of Icos and his Mother. From that moment, the man began to have secret meetings with him, telling him that he had known both Icos and Shazam's mother, and encouraging Shazam to enter to the CCFR and prove to his father that he could survive on his own, a thought the man had been having for some time.
By the time Shazam was entered into the competition and given a ship by this mysterious man, it was too late to back him out and neither Hermes nor Icos could stop him in time. Entering into the competition, Shazam barely survived the opening moments, nearly dying in multiple collisions and explosions produced by missile impacts. After being pursued for almost an hour, Shazam was shot down over the Rudick forest where he was forced to kill a member of the Fudi Acuss clan- something that went against his moral code and landed him in a world of trouble over the entire planet. He managed to escape the forest with the assistance of an older woman who called herself 'Lora,' but he didn't get a chance to speak with her- she'd handed him off to his father and uncle.
On the way out of the sector, having to escape quickly due to the high alert that the death of a Fudi Acuss had brought about, Hermes attempted to make Shazam understand that he'd been a fool. Icos was too disgusted with his son's actions to even speak with him, so Hermes was the one in charge of giving him the necessary chastisement. After a fiery quarrel, Hermes let slip that Icos was one of the best fighter pilots he'd ever seen and that he should be in awe of everything his father said... This changed Shazam's perspective entirely.
A new respect was formed between father and son though, and despite the trouble that had come about from the accident and the apparent existence of enemies, Icos began to teach Shazam about ships and aerial combat, believing, for whatever reason, that some kind of impending doom loomed above him. The accident on Rudick had shaken him.
Roughly five years later, returning to Corellia for the first time since Shazam was Five, the young man was arrested by CorSec officers upon meeting with a possible client. After being arrested and spending a few hours in a jail cell, Shazam managed to escape and make it back to the Seroster for a possible escape, only to find his Uncle's body at the ramp of his ship. Mortified, Shazam took his dead Uncle aboard and lifted off without his father, unsure of how he could have left them like this. Something awoke in Shazam and a the respect he'd had previous to this for all life became some life. What he thought he knew about his father no longer mattered- his uncle was dead and his family was gone. He was one his own.
===The Vast Empire Navy===
When all you can do is run, a new kind of desperation comes over you. Shazam felt that the only thing he could cling onto was nothing. He searched for something he could build on, anything, anywhere... The next stop out of hyperspace, after his escape from Corellia, he found himself stepping into a recruitment office for the Imperial Navy. This wasn't the big 'Empire' his father that spoken about all those years earlier, but a faction that he'd heard Hermes speak of on occasion. Without a second though, he signed up. Put simply- what else was he going to do.
He was sent to Abrae for Basic Training and excelled dramatically, becoming a protege of the well-known academy professor and pilot Comprey Courtney. Courtney was renowned for his emphasis on technique and strategy, particularly its relationship to the environment and surroundings that can aid a pilot in a fight. Shazam finished with high marks and moved out of BT and into immediate active duty with Kaph Squadron, one of the various active squadrons in Phoenix Wing; less and less squadrons were in existence, however, after the extreme increase of pilot casualties. One of Shazam's first missions involved a crash landing alongside a fellow pilot by the callsign 'Chipmunk Man,'- what followed was a series of rescues, solo attacks on Rebel forces and a commandeering of a full-scale battleship. With the direction of Daishi and assistance of two Dark Jedi, Liquid and JMac, Shazam survived and defeated an unknown adversary that showed force potential and wielded a jedi weapon. It was Shazam's first, but not his last, experience in explosive rage, the man claiming to have some kind of link to his father's disappearance on Corellia. Thought he man was defeated, Shazam felt empty. He promised he would never kill like that again. But he did.
The completion of this mission was marked by the acquisition of the Gozanti Cruiser Real Bebop. This became Shazam's flagship and he would set to working on it for the next five or so years of his life.
After a good year and a half of near-death experiences with the Vast Empire Navy, Shazam was given a squadron of his own- the revived 'Nazgul Squadron.' Shazam had felt a special attachment to the downed squadron after hearing of its disbandment and felt that it would be somehow satisfying to make it into a "super-group". The series of missions that were introduced to him afterward would shake him to his core but give him some of his best known allies and colleagues. Most notably was the introduction of Jen Knight, call sign "Aletheia," a woman he could never quite put his finger on- girl next door or little sister? Either way, he was always hesitant to make a move, and after the disturbing events that took place in the presence of the traitor [[Warren Dimmias]], a man who nearly destroyed Nazgul Squadron and narrowly escaped Shazam, Jen changed and the relationship was even more difficult to interpret; tension was fairly high from there on out.
On a short vacation a few months later, Shazam and the rest of Nazgul fell under attack, Jen Knight sustaining sever brain damage as a result of a speeder wreck. Rushed off planet and aided by the wives and girlfriends of the Nazgul members, Jen Knight was saved, but her trauma could not be stopped without further assistance and greater damage resulted. Shazam resigned his position as Nazgul commander shortly thereafter, though it wasn't necessarily because of the dangerous situation Jen Knight had encountered. Rather, new information was made known to him aboard his retrieved ship - the Seroster. After helping Nazgul fend off an attack, Shazam found that the Real Bebop, had been stolen while in holding. Shazam would soon find out that he wasn't the only one left in his family.
===Icos's Decision===
What happened that night on Corellia though?
Years ago, Icos, Shazam's dear father, had been living a life of solitude on Corellia, protecting a family secret for some time. That is, they were the keepers of what they believed to be the 'Kyber Crystal,' capable of making any jedi into a far greater one. One of his ancestors had discovered the rock during the Mandelorian Wars and had forever kept it in the hopes someone in the family would possess the abilities to use it. Being the ultimate fighter was everything to the family so Icos was thrown into limbo when the precious rock was stolen from under his nose, suddenly forced to begin a man hunt for anyone he could find. The rock had been stolen by an already powerful Jedi who dismissed his own apprentice after feeling the grips of the dark side encase him. Taking it as his own, he didn't have the heart to kill someone he himself had trained, so instead gave him a memory wipe and fake life to live. What he hoped to accomplish with this, even he was not sure. The apprentice was 'Lei,' and also Icos's opportunity to claim the precious rock back. Lei went to Corellia to try and understand why he was seeing images of Corellia being destroyed when Icos ambushed him. Lei was actually seeing his old master's thoughts through passage of the force rather than a vision of the future.
Icos decided to take advantage of the memory wipe upon discovering it and told Lei that he needed his help, and his alone, in retrieving the Kyber Crystal. This wasn't enough for Lei though, so Icos decided the only way he could get him to take such a chance with his life was to tell him that it would be his, because he was his brother. Icos and Lei were not brothers though... And Lei also told him that Lei had betrayed the family and the one way he could help them was to take the rock back himself and bring the family to a new definition of honor.
After some time searching through his mind for how he was taught, he was able to breakthrough a portion of the memory block and retrieve some supposedly 'un-retrievable' information. From this he learned and honed his technique so he could become a Jedi once again. After almost a year in solitude, he went to confront his old master on the distant planet of Stalis in the unknown regions. When he met the master, he was overwhelmed almost instantly. He was ready to give up... However, the Kyber Crystal as has been mentioned throughout this time was within the light saber. The thing about this particular crystal, is no one really knows anything about it. It's completely mystical and mythical. For days, the Jedi master would go through these 'katas', thinking that he was teaching himself to become a greater light saber duelist. Truly, he did appear to be getting much better, but little did he know that he was actually teaching the light saber instead of himself. This Kyber Crystal had actually decided to learn everything the Jedi did, absorbing what it could to become a remarkably dangerous weapon in the hands of a force user. Of course, no weapon like that is known to exist in the SW universe currently, but that is because the weapon was disassembled... How?
After Lei had given himself up to his master, the light saber rejected the masters movement to execute him. Instead, it flew from his hands into the outstretched hand of Lei. The master took Lei's light saber and a battle ensued, but as the master soon found out, he was not the great master he thought he was. The saber moved of its own free will, guiding Lei's movement. After the master was defeated, Lei went back to, now his friend, Icos. The night of his return, Icos stole the saber back, dismantling it and taking the crystal with him to his brother Hermes. Hermes understood that the crystal was the families legacy and thus decided it was his job as well to protect it. Icos returned to a Corellian bar to find his wife enjoying a crowded corner with his son. After begging her to leave with him, the two of them exited through the back into the forest, Hermess vessel only a half-mile away. It was at this point Lei came from the darkness and decided to engage the group of runaways. Using the Kyber Crystal, Icos was able to use his earlier dabblings to a remarkable level, using force pushes and levitations to block the angry Jedi from his family. However, despite his efforts, Lei managed to grab Icos's wife away and began a form of torture, extending her joints and crushing her insides. The wife screamed in pain, but Icos could hear her in his mind, telling him to run with the baby... Icos made it to the Seroster and escaped with his brother and son, never going back to Corellia until a fatal day eighteen years later...
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