Leo Eskandari

[Leo Eskandari]

Character Name: Leo Eskandari
Codename: Manticore
Country of Origin: United States
Hometown: Boston, Massachusetts
Ethnicity: Persian/Irish
Age: 19
Birthday: December 1st
Height: 7'2" ||| Weight: 480 lbs.

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Physical Description: A 7'2" 480 lb beast of a mutant with black fur, a horned leonine head, and an armored, snakelike tail ending in a sharp stinger hidden in a nest of quills. Plates of chitinous armor also appear on his back, shoulders, arms, and legs. His anatomy allows mobility on two legs or an all fours.

Personality: Leo is a loud, hot-headed, and acts like a tough guy, but has a soft side if one has enough patience to get past his walls. The events of his life having eroded his faith in others, making him slow to get close to others because he fears being either abandoned or betrayed. But now he has a greater fear, himself, as his new animal instincts have introduced a tendency to exhibit animalistic behavior that he can't always control.

Power Explanation: Leo's X-Gene has been bonded with an engineered "Primal" gene, giving him a monstrous new body that grants him an arsenal of natural weapons and animal abilities.
Original Mutant Ability - Leo can grow quills anywhere not blocked by his armor and use them as projectiles.
Granted Abilities:
- Night Vision
- Enhanced hearing and smell.
- Greatly enhanced endurance and strength - no lifting cars, but could rip a door off of one or lift a large motorcycle
- Mildly enhanced agility and balance
- Claws, horns, powerful jaws, and a prehensile tail with a stinger armed with a mild paralytic.
- Medium healing factor - Can recover limbs, but it would take a few days.
Physical Limitations - Limited dexterity in hands that double as paws and size can impede movement in tight quarters.

History: Leo hasn't had an easy life. The clearest memory from his early childhood is of his father telling him he had something important to do before leaving and never coming back. His mother never stopped believing he would return, but Leo came to believe that they had simply been abandoned.

His life was as stable as it could be as the child of a single mother in a poor neighborhood, too proud to accept her family's help. But that stability all changed when his mother died of an undiagnosed heart condition and he was taken from all he knew to live with his aunt and uncle in London.

His aunt clearly cared about him, but her husband always treated him as an unwelcome burden. During this time he began to routinely get into trouble at school and often came home bearing signs of having gotten into a fight. Eventually, his uncle told him that enough was enough and that if he got in trouble again, he was out on the street. Leo's behavior at school improved. But soon after graduating from state school, he mouthed off at his uncle in a big way and was struck hard in return. Unfortunately, his secret status as a mutant was revealed when his uncle screamed, his hand coming away riddled with sharp quills. This enraged his uncle, and Leo found himself cast out onto the streets.

He spent the rest of the year as just another mutant street kid in Lambeth; lying and stealing to survive. Then he met a man who promised him food and shelter in exchange for some work. Leo reluctantly accepted the offer and walked right into a trap. When he came to, he found himself in a small cell with hazy memories of a doctor talking gently to him about having some new destiny and being one with nature. All he was sure of was the collar about his neck and the feeling that something inside of him was wrong.

Then came the hunger, the pain, the resistance, the red haze, and finally the thoughtless obedience of the trained beast. In body and mind, he was no longer human. After being freed from this feral state by the X-Men, he was sent to Muir for evaluation. When given the offer to take refuge in the Savage Land, Genosha, or go to XU, he chose the latter.

[Ashlie Minamida]

Seen and Cleared in advance

Approval 1/2

[Hank McCoy]

Approval 2/2