the Phantom Bullet (deceased)

Strength 7d

Agility 4c

Intellect 4c

Willpower 7x

Hand Size: Edge:

3 (17) 1

Origin:

Though possessed of remarkable physical skill, Allen Lewis was but a normal human, lacking special powers of any stripe. He did wield a truly remarkable device, however, in the form of a handgun which fired lethal, icy bullets at his enemies!

Powers:

(none)

Hindrances / Augmentations:

(none)

Equipment:

Ice Gun (a): his claim to fame, aside from his remarkable skills, Allen's ice gun was given to him by an eccentric inventor shortly before his untimely demise. An amazing device, it condenses ambient water into particularly dense lumps of bullet-shaped ice.

The gun can fire these phantom, icy bullets at Allen's foes as any other firearm could, inflicting like (his Agility +4) damage with each round. The benefit, of course, is that the ice gun leaves behind no evidence of its use, save for a small amount of water.

Skills:

Boxing (s): while his ice gun is a handy weapon, Allen doesn't always feel the need to end the lives of his opponents. No, he can fight unarmed with the best of 'em, dividing his pre-card play action score between two melee attacks, the last of which occurs as a contingent action.

Climbing (a): Allen demonstrated the strange ability to get atop most any structure while going about his journalistic duties, whether or not common sense dictated he should attempt to do so. He may resolve actions attempted when ascending or descending at a reduced difficulty.

Detective / Espionage (i): though trial and error, and more than a little bit of luck, Allen has picked up the ins and outs of investigative work - which goes hand in hand with his journalism, really. He's competent in digging up clues and piecing disparate facts together.

Guns (a): it would appear that Allen can wield most firearms with competency, for he handled his ice gun almost like an extension of his own body upon receiving it. He may utilize any standard, semi-automatic, or fully automatic rifle or pistol at a reduced difficulty.

Journalism (i): Allen is a journalist - and a darn good one. He has received accolades for his work throughout the city, and people tend to know him by it. He should receive a reduced difficulty on actions required while crafting compelling accounts of events surrounding him.

Contacts:

As a journalist, Allen has numerous contacts to call upon for information when writing a story, including police officers, fellow reporters, his long-suffering editor, and of course less savory, underworld types. As the Phantom Bullet, however, Allen lacks much in the way of allies.

Calling:

Investigator: his spiritual bread and butter, Allen loves to dig into a mystery, and write the story behind it. Sure, most of his work devolved into tales of corruption towards the end of his journalistic career, but Allen nonetheless liked to tell a good tale when he could.

Costume:

When adventuring as the Phantom Bullet, Allen wears a long-sleeved, skin-tight white shirt with a gray bullet on the chest, red flared gloves, brown trousers, black leather boots, a black leather belt, a black holster for his ice gun, a black domino mask, and a red cape.

Personality:

Allen comes across as arrogant to his fellow reporters, but the truth is he's simply jaded, having witnessed the levels of corruption permeating the system at large. This has the tendency to reduce his motivation to cover stories (which he needn't do anyway) to a minimum.

However, when given the opportunity to actually make a difference against the rampant crime tearing apart his city, Allen couldn't help but leap into action. And, as the Phantom Bullet, Allen can go places and do things that his civilian identity couldn't dream of!

Real Name: Allen Lewis
Occupation: journalist, adventurer
Legal Status: citizen of the United States, legally deceased
Marital Status: single
Alias(es), if any: Scoop Lewis
Group Affiliation: none

Height: 5' 11"
Hair: blonde
Eyes: blue
Weight: 175 lbs
Other Distinguishing Characteristics: none.

Story:

Little is known about the background of Allen Lewis. While he works as a reporter for the Daily Bulletin, and has received accolades for his journalistic works there, the truth is that he was so wealthy that he needn't actually perform this work. And didn't want to much, anyway.

This is because, while he enjoyed journalism in general, the years had taught him that the system is festering with corruption, a blight that was choking all that was good in the world. Thus, when prompted to report on the city's latest crime spree, Allen didn't feel like bothering.

It took prodding from a fellow reporter to get Allen motivated, doing so by daring him to investigate the cause of this spree, instead of just reporting on it. Finding himself more than a little bit intrigued by the idea, Allen made his way to the scene of the latest incident.

He learned it was perpetrated by the same gang which had performed several, like crimes, all of which involved scaling to impossible heights to kill their target. And, strangely enough, the investigator on the scene said the perpetrators had left prints indicating they had seven fingers!

Having found a mysterious feather on the premises himself, Allen decided to dig deeper. Heading back later that night, he encountered several strange men returning to the scene of the crime, though they pummeled Alan senseless before he could get any answers from them.

Showing up to work battered and bruised the next day, Allen's editor assumed he'd had a drunken binge the night previous, and was fed up. To get back at him somewhat, the man sent Allen to do a fluff piece on some eccentric scientist that had been bothering him repeatedly.

Speaking to this inventor, Allen learned that he feared for his life, and that 'they' were trying to steal his wondrous invention. Imploring Allen for help, he gave our hero the working prototype of his amazing ice gun, along with its plans, to keep it out of 'their' hands.

Not sure what to make of that, Allen left, only to hear that inventor had been robbed and murdered just hours later. Testing out this strange weapon, Allen was amazed to learn that it worked. Not only that, but he decided that it would be an amazing implement of justice in his hands!

Donning a fantastic costume to draw attention away from his face, and thus his rather public identity, Allen dubbed himself the Phantom Bullet! He then raced to what his contacts told him would be the scene of the next crime in this spree, the home of millionaire Rafael Case.

Bypassing the police by climbing up to his penthouse, Allen let Case know he was there to help, but was ambushed once more by strange, high-climbing Bird Men! Thanks to his ice gun, Allen managed to slay one and ward off the rest, and saved Mr. Case - if not his money.

Writing a story about this inexplicable robbery to scoop the other papers, Allen made his editor very happy for a change. He then let slip news that he'd caught wind of yet another incident in this spree about to occur - at the home of oil magnate Nelson Glaven.

Deciding to take a different tack at this, Allen waited nearby, and watched a man pick up Glaven's money. Following him, Allen learned that he was a local reprobate, Bennie the Beggar, and found out he was working for the villains behind these high profile robberies.

Once those thugs kidnapped the daughter of a young heiress, Allen leapt into action once more, forcing Benny to help him find her. Learning the culprit behind all this was African explorer Alveroz Monez, Allen went after the man, finding him in a cave beneath his expansive property.

There, Monez was about to kill the heiress, when Allen interrupted him. Monez then sicced his strange Bird Men on Allen! Sort of half-men, half-apes, these seven-fingered oddities of nature were found on one of Monez's trips to Africa, but were no match for Allen's wit.

Tricking them into killing themselves by inadvertently leaping to their doom, Allen was left with naught but another colorful feather from their headdresses, lifted as they breezed by him. Allen then apprehended Monez, freed the young heiress, and wrote the story of the century!

Or, at the very least, the story of the week, what with all these other super heroes like him suddenly popping up on the scene. For as it turned out, Allen wasn't the only fellow running around in a fanciful costume lately. No, he was accompanied by the likes of Angel, Fiery Mask, and Mister E!

Settling into a new routine, Allen would bust up some conspiracy or another as the Phantom Bullet, and then write the story about it in his civilian identity. This made his journalistic work even more famous, as people love to hear about corrupt officials getting theirs.

When he uncovered hints of another, more incredible story of corruption at the city's docks, Allen went after it with aplomb, but as it turned out he was simply out of his league. This because it turned out that Allen had discovered a ring of Nazi infiltrators operating on American soil!

In order to keep from being discovered, these fascists went after Allen with everything they had, and gunned the poor man down in a remote alley far from where he'd found them out. Few knew what had happened to him, but ultimately the Angel managed to root out Allen's killers.

Not that this was much consolation to Allen, but still.

Extra Goodies:

Return to the Solo Heroes main page!

Interested in using Technoholic content in your own project? Please read this beforehand!