Manticore

"If I miss a shot with ONE of my gimmick arrows, there's a few thousand bucks that could have fed and clothed a whole village in Ethiopia."

- Manticore: City of Heroes Smoke and Mirrors

Manticore, real name Justin Sinclair was a hero in the super-hero themed MMO City of Heroes. Manticore inherited the title from his father along with the costume and gear. After his parent's deaths at the hands of the villain Protean, Manticore took up his father's mantle to get revenge on Protean and make sure no one else fell victim to similar super villains. Manticore is considerably wealthy and uses his money to buy cutting edge gear and pay for various elite forms of marital training. As a member of the Freedom Phalanx of Paragon City Manticore often works hand in hand with the like of Statesman and other super powered heroes. Manticore is the only non-powered member of the Freedom Phalanx's inner circle and considerably insecure and confrontational because of it.

Background
Justin's father was the original Manticore, a hero who used his wealth to pay for high-tech gear and equipment, most iconic his tech arrows, and patrolled Paragon City each night as the masked vigilante Manticore. Manticore senior eventually payed for his good deeds by earning the wrath of the shape-shifting villain Protean, one of his main foes. Protean broke into the Sinclair estate, ambushed and killed Manticore and his wife right in-front of Justin. Protean left before he had a chance to kill Justin as well in order to evade the authorities. Justin inherited a massive trust fund after his parent's death and decided to take up his father's mantle as the new Manticore. Through-out his remaining childhood and working into his teenage years Justin trained with his nanny Virginia Bowman. When old enough Justin took to the streets dressed in his father's old outfit and began fighting crime. Manticore had dreamed of getting revenge on Protean but it turned out Protean had been killed years prior so Manticore's rage was unfocused and he would take out his anger on loiterers as easily as muggers or murderers. Manticore was eventually confronted by Micheal White, AKA Back Alley Brawler. Back-Alley Brawler came to give Manticore a talking to and encouraged him to find more moderation in what he did warning him not to become fanatical, Manticore took Back-Alley Brawler's words to heart as he not only respected White but considered him a friend as White had been the one to kill Protean

Freedom Phalanx
Deciding to seek purpose Manticore went from vigilante to hero and formally registered as such with the Freedom Phalanx, Paragon City's main organization of heroes. The Freedom Force registered all known heroes, affording them leeway with the police and law-enforcers instead of being vigilantes. The organization cooperated with but did not specifically answer to local politicians and police. Manticore made a name for himself as soon enough was promoted to one of the top lieutenants of the Freedom Phalanx along with the likes of Statesman, Back-Alley Brawler, Sister Psyche', Positron and Synapse. With the support of his fellow heroes Manticore patrols the streets fighting super-villainy wherever he finds it. Manticore is even one of the premier trainers of the Phalanx's main stock troops the Longbow. Though most Longbow in-fact use guns Manticore still trains most of the troops to use precision aiming.

Skills and Equipment
Manicore's suit is a special polymer not far removed from Kevlar but around thrice as tough. Manticore puts himself through a variety of martial arts and training techniques to run faster, stay stronger and fight better than the average man. Manticore's iconic item though is his weapon the bow and arrows. Manticore's bow is titanium as are most of it's arrows. While some arrows are normal all be it high quality arrows he has a variety of gadgets attached/built into others such as flash-bangs, incendiary devices, poisons, acid containers, napalm caches and net-traps. Justin is considerably wealthy and uses his money to pay for the research and assembly of his arrows. Justin will also frequently employ his vast fortune to repair damages caused during fights with super-villains, items as needed for the Freedom Phalanx and donates to the families of heroes killed in the line of duty. After the events of Hard Crash where all super-powers were removed from Paragon, Manticore received his own personal super-power after restoring them to the city, Manticore's arrows can phase through allies and rematerialized passed them at his original target, this is Manticore's one and only super-power but one he thoroughly enjoys, since it means his shots can not longer be subject to being blocked or causing friendly fire. After receiving his power Manticore was inspired to try a small augmentation and set up a device that tapped him into the city's Mediport grid, used to teleport people and heroes to hospitals when their life-signs go critical, and uses the same signal to teleport over short distances.

Personality
While Manticore tries to keep a cool demeanor in the public he is is very confrontational and insecure to his team mates. Manticore thinks he is seen as weaker than the other lieutenants of the Freedom Phalanx since he is the only one among them with no superpowers, an idea that makes Manticore deeply resentful towards other members. Manticore disliked that for all his time training researching and assembling his arsenal, most of the time his shots got blocked by other supers mid combat. After the events of Hard Crash Manticore can function in the field much more easily and it has let him shine more but he still dislikes being shown-up by super-powered heroes. In particular Manticore has major problems with Statesman who is a perfectionist that demands the best from his team mates. Manticore considers Statesman self-important and has called him on such on several occasions but Statesman seems to take such notions in stride. Manticore eventually married his team-mate Sister Psyche' and the two are very much in love although they frequently bicker. Manticore wants to help the poor and is disgusted by the living conditions of lower-class citizens but lives by a right-wing ideology that giving out money to the poor does not help them and only creates temporary relief. Manticore does however give money to schools and local businesses in order to encourage economic growth in areas that need it, thus fighting poverty not by giving to the poor but by giving to communities. Even with his conservative outlook on social healing Manticore feels incredibly guilty every time one of his arrows misses or does not take effect saying that with the money he spends on just one arrow he could have fed and clothed an entire village in Ethiopia.