Knightshade
Knightshade, aka Cameron David, first appeared in Velocity Girl 3: Shadows of Destiny, since then, he has appeared in Velocity Girl 4: Velocity Girl and the New Texas Space Rangers and also in Smerd's Book of Shapes and Colors. His last name, David, is a tribute to the prolific writer Peter David, whose writing was a definitive influence on author Jon Klement's development as an author.
Biography[]
Following a nasty divorce that robbed him of much of his time with his children and left him hopelessly destitute, Cameron suffered from such severe depression that his body's chemistry was drastically altered--altered enough to trigger the expression of his DNA's latent "super" genes. He has taken up the role of a hero (known as Knightshade) rather than a villain in the Smerdivese. In Velocity Girl 4: Velocity Girl and the New Texas Space Rangers, Knightshade's secret identity is discovered by the United States Government and he is blackmailed into being a double agent for the U.S. Government within the ranks of A.S.P.
Knightshade is very conflicted about his double agent status, but the U.S. government used Federal muscle behind the scenes to grant his civilian identity Cameron David full custody of his children for as long as Knightshade cooperates in his double agent role. Knightshade's government contacts have threatened that they can take away his children just as easily should he turn on them.
Being a teleporter of global scale, Knightshade could easily take his children and live as a of family fugitives, but, so far, he is unwilling to subject his children to this. He has not been asked (so far) by the government to do anything that violates his conscience (much).
Persona[]
Fortunately, once Cameron's powers were activated, the activation was permanent and he does not have to be depressed to access them. These days, he is about as well adjusted as any "super" in the Smerdiverse (whatever that means).
Knightshade's global range teleportation is his most treasured power. He loves the freedom to go anywhere, anytime. He relishes the thought that no one can force him to be anywhere he does not want to be, . He routinely teleports to various cities around the globe for patrol. For this reason, he seems to be unlike many other "supers" that seem to have a home city.
Powers and skills[]
Knightshade is mentally linked to a dimension he calls the Dark Place. During his chemical depression, he found that the darkness of his despair began to consume him more and more, until the world of Earth began to fade around him. He had slipped into the Dark Place. Frightened at first, he panicked and willed himself back into our world of Earth, but he found that he did not reappear on Earth at the same point that he had left. By leaping through the Dark Place, Knightshade can teleport anywhere on Earth.
Knightshade is a living conduit to the Dark Place and can pull the substance of it, which he calls shadowmatter, into our world, shaping it with his mind. He uses shadowmatter to form his armored costume about himself, to launch solid bolts of shadowmatter from his hands as an attack, and to create a variety of objects such as walls for crowd control, cushions to catch falling people, and just about anything else he can imagine up to the size of a small building.
Since he is simultaneously connected to a different universe as well as the Earth dimension, Knightshade can free himself from the gravitational vectors of the Earth dimension and fly. He is very manueverable in the air and has achieved speeds approaching 200 mph.
SPOILER ALERT: In Velocity Girl 4: Velocity Girl and the New Texas Space Rangers, Knightshade attempts to teleport while having an adventure on the Moon. Instead of the quick, instant hop through the Dark Place that occurs when Knightshade teleports on Earth, he is temporarily stuck in the Dark Place and is attacked by shapeless, clawed creatures that are new to him. The Dark Place had always been empty before.
It is discovered that the Dark Place is naturally filled with monsters of human nightmares, but, close to a planet such as Earth, the life force of the planet's biosphere (the oceans teaming with life, the forests, the jungles, etc.) keeps the horrible creatures away. When one enters the Dark Place at a point far away from the Earth (or a similar life-filled planet) the nightmare creatures are present and are free to attack those who would enter their domain. So, while teleporting by hopping through the Dark Place may work in a manner similar to that of other teleporting heroes and/or villains as long as Knightshade is on the Earth, it is an extrememly dangerous form of teleportation to use in space! END SPOILER ALERT!