Omen

Mason was born and raised in New York City. His father was a fairly well paid paramedic and his mother a humble housewife. He had always admired his father's work, especially since in New York such a job would often put people in serious danger. For the most part, his childhood had been a moderately standard one. That is, until the age of twelve when he first started having 'episodes' as his parents called them. At first it was strickly at night, when he would wake up screaming about monsters. Of course his parents thought they were just recurring nightmares, brought on by an overactive imagination. Though, as time past these 'episodes' seemed to get only worse and far more frequent. When it got to the point were they started occuring in the day they finally decided he needed professional help. Unfortunately, this choice led to what became the darkest period in Mason's life.

The therapist they sent him to was one of the best apparently. Dr. Ferrell was generally viewed of as a genius by his professional colleagues, though they did consider him a bit eccentric. While his parents were a bit apprehensive at having him go to therapy alone, Dr.Ferrell convinced them it was for the best. When Mason first started attending the therapy everything seemed pretty normal, they did a rorshach test, delved into his history a little and went through the whole steriotypical 'and how did that make you feel?' routine. Then when they started to talk about his 'episodes' in more detail things got more than a little disturbing. Whereas most psychiatric professionals would be concerned about a child having such terrifying visions, Ferrell was only fascinated. A sheltered child like Mason, who had never known of the horrors of the world or those in it, shouldn't have been having such nightmaric visions as the ones he was experiencing, no matter how insane he might have been. No matter how uncomfortable and frightened Mason had been when talking about his visions, Ferrell pressured him into reliving each and every detail. It only got worse after one very eventful session when he went through a particularly horrifying episode while in his office. Despite the fact Mason was freaking out and was almost psychoticly trying to escape the room, Ferrell restrained him and forced him to tell him what he was seeing. The answer had frozen him in place, a pale little girl, roughly 10, with slashes on her face and sobbing uncontrollably in the middle of the room.

Ferrell and sworn Mason to stay quiet about their sessions after that and, being the mentally unstable frightened little child he was, he did so obediently. The next day was one that still haunts Mason. When he entered the room that day, the first thing he noticed was a cat strapped down to a table. Before he could even ask, a small scalpel was forced into his hand.and he was told to kill it. Initially he was reluctant, he didn't understand what or why he was doing this, but the way Ferrell explained things made it seem like it didn't really matter, that it's life was worthless. It really isn't that suprising that a distiguished psychologist would be able to warp a child's mind. So, as instructed, he pressed the scalpel against the creature's neck and effortlessly sliced open it's throat. It didn't die immediately, it took a few seconds for the beast to finally be at peace, but in those few seconds it's eyes never left Mason's own. As a pool of blood formed around it's head on the table, Mason could see the life slowly fade from it's eyes before it died. It was his first kill, it didn't matter that it was a house pet, he had taken a life in cold blood in such a malicious way, an act that wore heavily on his psyche. Ferrell congradulated him on his achievement, but his praise rung hallow in Mason's ears. One thing that had absolutely terrified him though, was that before he left that day, Ferrell told him it got easier with each kill.

To Mason's utter joy, his parents had grown impatient with his lack of progress, his 'episodes' being as frequent and terrible as ever. Deciding to go to another doctor, they politely called Ferrell at his office and told him the news. His initial reaction to the news wasn't as pleasent as they had hoped, he was rather insistant that he was making good progress with him and he needed to stay on as his doctor, but eventually gave in when Mason's parent's determination was clear. It was then, on one tragic and mind shattering day, when Mason was coming home from a private tutor (his aformentioned psychotic episodes making it difficult to attend regular schools) he found his appartment door had been bashed in. Fearing the worst, he had run inside and was greeted to a sight no child (Or anyone of any age really) should have to endure. His father's corpse lay face first on the floor, a pool of blood originating from his throat, and his mother was strung up against a wall with razor wire, her body covered in vicious lacerations, especially her face. Mason had stared blankly at the scene before him, he couldn't move, couldn't react to such a situation. He froze on the spot. Then, he noticed something that restarted his brain, his mother was still breathing. Before he could move, Ferrell had made his presence known. Handing Mason a knife, he urged him to finish the job he himself had done with his mother. Looking at his mother in pain was far too much for Mason to take so, hesitantly, he walked across the room until he stood directly infront of his mother. Staring straight into her one remaining eye she murmered something incoherently as blood sputtered up from her mouth. Mason then granted her peace, a quick slash through the throat and it was over. As the life faded from her eyes as she died, so did a part of Mason. His childhood died with his mother.

A cold and unwelcome hand reached out and placed itself on his shoulder. Yet, whatever corrupt words Ferrell were about to offer were not heard as he found a knife had been plunged into his throat. Mason didn't bother to watch as Ferrell bled out, it didn't mattet that he was suffering, it only mattered to him that he was dead, no longer able to hurt anyone else. He was found by the police a few hours later, just sitting in the dark, bloodied room, silently. No matter how hard the police, the councillors, or anyone else had tried to get him to speak, he wouldn't say a word for six months. Mason later learned that the man Ferrell had infact killed over three dozen people in the past year alone, one of his victims bodies even being found underneath the floorboards in his office, a little eleven year old girl with slashes covering her face. Mason himself was cleared of any criminal conduct. The next childhood years of his life had went by in a flash, he spent the majority of this time living more or less independantly, moving from one foster home to the next. He had also developed a knack for freerunning in his spare time, which he attributes to the fresh air and exercise as the reason for his ability to suppress his visions.

His life took a brighter turn the day he met Lauren, the future love of his life. They both met in a hospital, Mason was a paradmedic, following in his father's footsteps and Lauren was a nurse. The two of them had soon started dating after meeting eachother and eventually fell in love. They had been together for roughly a year before he finally felt ready to 'pop the question'. He even bought a ring for her, complete with inscription, and it was not cheap. Then, when life had seemed to be finally going his way, the second great tragedy of Mason's life struck. On the night that he was going to ask they were going out to dinner, but they never made it to the restaurant. Along the way they were approached by a twitchy, pale man with bags under his eyes and showing all the characteristics of an abusive drug user. Instinctively, Mason had stepped infront of his girlfriend to protect her if worse came to worse and, of course, he was proven right to do so. The man pulled a gun and screamed at them to give him over anything of value. Lauren panicked, but Mason had kept his cool, giving him over his wallet peacefully, knowing that it was a dangerous situation. However, when the man had seen the box in which the engagement ring was held he had demanded that also. This was a step too far for him and he fought back, struggling with the man, but it all ended as one shot sounded off.

Mason awoke in a hospital bed a few days later. Apparently it had been touch and go for a while with him. The gunshot had almost killed him, puncturing a few vital areas in his body. Though, this became the least of his worries when he found out what happened to his girlfiriend. The bullet that hit him had gone right through and into Lauren who, unlike Mason, did not survive the wound and died within minutes. Grief stricken, he lost basically all reason for living, and that's when the visions came back full force. In his already fragile state, being haunted by such violent visions had brought him to the edge of sanity. He had almost taken his own life by slicing along his wrists and waiting to bleed out, but was found by a friend unconscious on the floor in his appartment before he was fully gone. After that he was admitted into a psychiatric institute for his own protection, but that only seemed to aggravate his condition, the visions that were once occasional had become chronic. He stayed there for a number of months until one day he had a moment of clarity. The image of his father appeared to him and brought him back to sanity, convincing him that his life was worth living.

He still struggled with his visions now and again, but he was able to keep up the facade of normality up enough to get himself out of the facility. He then began to research his family history. He needed to know about his visions and he was certain he wasn't insane. When nothing of note came up in whatever information he could dig up on either side of his family he started to delve into the occult to find the answers he was looking for. His investigation had led him into travelling all across the world. He eventually found the answers he was looking for and more. As it turns out his visions were his ability to sense souls, but in his untrained state resulted in a complete lack of control and thus nightmaric visions. Also, through further study and practice he was able to improve his control to the point where he could see, hear and speak to the dead as well as sense the souls of the living in the form of peoples' emotions. Additionally, a side effect of training had unlocked his potential mentally which had drastically improved his intelligence and reaction time to superhuman levels. With Mason's moral standing and background it wasn't very hard for him to decide how he would use his newfound abilities. With a great amount of phsycial conditioning and training with both unarmed combat and firearms, Mason had developed his fighting skills enormously, even to the point of being able to keep up with most superhumans.

After years abroad, Mason finally returned to the US with a new purpose in life. He chose to live his life using his abilities to, you guessed it, help others. He outfitted himself with his own superhero getup, partially out of the practicality it brought and partially because he went with his new persona. He would go on to use his powers for homocide investigation, finding that it suit him greatly, and for the basic stereotypical hero stuff, protecting the innocent and fighting evil, that sort of thing. He took up the name 'Omen' which he had been monikered previously by an orderly in the psychiatric institute so long ago and also developed special equipment for himself using the knowhow he gathered over the years.