Characteristic
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3
6
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1
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3
5
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26
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15
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15
It was looking like a pretty normal day for Danny. Threats from the jocks at Argus High (he'd made the mistake of standing in front of one of their lockers). Scorn from the popular girls (he'd been reading a book about dinosaurs during lunch). Homework he could wrap up in about 10 minutes, assuming he bothered (trigonometry). A trip to Wal-Mart (for a jockstrap and the latest Peter David Star Trek book).
It was at Wal-Mart that things got a bit weird. Two guys from the football team--jerks, both of them--were picking on Danny's friend Ted, shoving him and punching him in the stomach out of view of anyone else at the store. Danny started to make himself scarce--it wasn't like there was anything he could do about it, anyway. But he found himself getting angry. Angry at his fear. Anger at the jocks. Anger at Ted, who was beginning to cry. He started thinking about knocking the jocks on their butts. And then, in an instant, he found himself turning into a velociraptor.
Chasing the jocks away from Ted was exhilerating, if a bit of overkill. The jocks cried. One peed in his pants. And Ted, terrified at first, was reassured and elated when Danny was able to growl reassurances at him through his raptor jaws.
And so Danny began his career as Raptor Boy, foiling a bank robbery and even going head to head with a minor supervillain who tried to steal some antiques on display in the Argus City Railroad Museum. But that last encounter, in which he was forced to resort to tearing at his enemy's armor with his terrible claw (a six-inch claw on his hind foot), was something of a Pyrrhic victory, since the villain nearly lost an arm as a result of his wound. He decided that he needed more training, and more teamwork, before proceeding with his career. He was overjoyed when Dr. Saul Numen presented him with the opportunity for more training.
Danny spends a lot of time in his favorite parts of the city—the library, Limeburner's Park, the Parthia Center for Science and Technology, the Arboretum Mall, the Old Argus Carnival Amusement Park, and the Argus City Railroad Museum. He also loves maps and has memorized the lay-outs of several fictional locations.
An only child from a happy home, Danny Kazmierczak nevertheless has long dreamed of going to another world and being a hero. He’s spent hours searching the backs of every closet in his Argus City home for a passage to Narnia, checking train stations for hidden routes to the train to Hogwarts, looking for hints of Excalibur at the Renaissance Faire, scanning the skylines for hopes of tornados to take him to Oz, blinking his flashlight on and off in the backyard in the hopes that the Enterprise will beam him up, and trying to figure out how to activate his ubergene.
Precociously bright and driven by an active imagination, Danny often finds it difficult to interact with other people. He’s nice and funny, but his mother still lays his clothes out for him in the morning. He still hasn’t figured out yet that reading a copy of The Emerald City of Oz, Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince, or A Spell for Chameleon between classes isn’t likely to endear him to his classmates, especially when his grades typically outshine theirs with little effort on his part. Unathletic and unpopular, he has long dreamed of casting magic spells or getting superpowers and saving beautiful girls and winning their admiration. The ability to change into a fierce dinosaur isn't exactly what he had in mind, but he's thrilled nonetheless, and enthusiastic about his new superhero career.
Danny is unsure of whether or not he believes in God. He's completely uneducated about religion; he knows more about the Greek pantheon (or the Forgotten Realms pantheon, for that matter) than he does about the Bible. His father is an atheist who doesn’t like talking about religion in the house and avoided giving Danny any religious direction. His mother is a closet Episcopalian, but keeps quiet about it (Danny’s father is definitely the head of the family). But Danny does believe, in at least part of his heart, in Aslan, the land of Oz, the magic of Xanth, warp speed, super heroes, and the triumph of good over evil. Enthusiastic and full of stories, Danny wants to be a writer or movie auteur when he grows up. Or, better yet, a world-class superhero.
Danny is generally a little uncomfortable in social situations; as a result, he's never been much of a joiner when it came to groups or organizations. He was briefly a cub scout, and even won his pack's pinewood derby, but he didn’t stick it out because it didn’t hold his attention very well. He’d rather read a book than earn a badge or do a project. He does get along with other "geeks," though, and will gravitate toward them when possible.
Danny lives in a five-story split-level house at the top of a hill at the edge of Parthia. He can bicycle fairly well, but can’t drive yet. His parents, recognizing his maturity and bowing to their own busy work schedules, have entrusted him with a local bus pass, which he uses to explore various parts of the city. He takes a school bus to school and gets rides from his mother when she can find the time to give them to him.
Danny’s parents, Tom and Raellen Kazmierczak, are loving, but somewhat distant. They are often unsure how to deal with their bright son and are also very caught up in their own careers (Tom is a senior vice president at Stoppers Brake Manufacturing and Raellen is a high school English and drama teacher at Argus High School). Tom is 5’11”, with a thinning brown hair and glasses. Raellen, 5’6”, is blonde and slightly overweight.
Bink, Danny’s dog (named after a character from Piers Anthony’s Xanth books) is half English Springer Spaniel and half something else (no one’s quite sure). He has the brown and white coloring from his Springer side, but is on the small size for that breed. He’s learned several tricks and follows Danny around whenever he can.
Ted Haas is Danny’s best friend. Like Danny, Ted is a bit of a geek, but he’s more scientifically grounded than Danny is, studying up on airplanes (his father is a pilot for American Airlines), military equipment, and the space program. Ted is taller and more athletic than Danny. While a generous boy, Ted can be incredibly stubborn once he’s made up his mind and the pair’s most frequent conflicts come when Ted wants to play one type of game or activity and Danny doesn’t. Ted is in Danny’s class and lives about two miles from Danny’s house.
As the Velociraptor: "Rarrrr. Come play with me."
Danny's primary power, other than a keen, precocious intelligence, is his ability to change into a fierce velociraptor. Although he hasn't realized it yet, now that his ubergene has been activated, he has begun to gain a few increased abilities in his human form, too. Primarily, he's a little faster than he used to be, and has toughened skin and sharpened senses. His velociraptor form is a synthesis of science, the distortions of Jurassic Park, and some superhero-level enhancements. By instinct, his primary attack in that form is a slash with his "terrible claw," in which he stands on one hind foot (balancing with his long tail), and raises the other hind foot to slash an opponent. He's trying to learn less lethal ways to deal with opponents. In his raptor form, Danny's mind is somewhat driven by animal instinct. Although still smart, he is not as sharp or knowledgeable as he is in human form, and is more impulsive. He can manage to communicate, although his voice is sort of gravelly.
As he develops his powers, it's possible that Danny might learn to assume other dinosaur forms, or even develop into a more fully rounded metamorph.
Thin and gawky, Danny has thick, usually messy brown hair, pale skin, and hazel eyes. He has a slight gap between his two front teeth and often dresses too formally for the occasion at hand. As Raptor Boy, he wears a tight costume that shows just how unimpressive his physique is. The green shirt is covered with lizard-like scales (think of Aquaman's shirt in green instead of orange) and decorated with a circular emblem that depicts the face of a roaring velociraptor. He has sky blue domino mask, gloves, trunks, and boots, dark green tights, and a brown belt with a gold buckle. In his velociraptor form, Raptor Boy is a sleek, frightening dinosaur. About six feet tall, he stretches to 13 feet long, including his tail. Each of his front legs ends in three sharp claws. Each rear foot is distinguished by a six-inch "terrible claw."