Shroud
Shroud, real name Elliot Conners, is the main antagonist of Dispatch and "The Death of Mecha Man" comic, as well as a minor supporting character in the "Get Up" comic. He is a former member hero, and member of the Brave Brigade, who turned to villainy and became the leader of the Red Ring.
Biography
Background
Elliot Conners was a brilliant scientist who desired to join the Brave Brigade, offering to use his knowledge to create augments to enhance the abilities of its superpowered members. Although Chase was supportive of Elliot's bid in the hopes of receiving his augments, Robbie Robertson was skeptical, believing he did not have what it in him to be a true superhero.
Get Up
Elliot attends a barbecue held by Robbie. Approaching Robbie and Chase, Elliot awkwardly attempts to socialize with the heroes and not so subtly urges them to hold a vote on his membership to the Brave Brigade. Robbie shoots him down with a joke, however, causing Chase to burst out laughing and accidentally spitting his beer on Elliot's augments, causing them to short-circuit and hurt him. Chase attempts to apologize and clean his mess, though Elliot rebukes him and angrily storms off.
Brave Brigade
Elliot went on to become an unofficial member of the Brave Brigade and heavily augmented his body with cybernetics, turning himself into a cyborg. Although he desired to become a proper member of the team, Robbie remained unconvinced of his capabilities and kept delaying the vote on his membership. Despite this, Robbie promised Elliot to build him a mech suit in exchange for creating the Astral Pulse as a power source for his suit, though he never fulfilled his end of the bargain.
The Death of Mecha Man
Having learned that Robbie canceled the voting on his membership for the fifth time, an angry Elliot confronts Robbie in his workshop, accusing him of breaking his promise. Robbie rebukes him, leading Elliot to challenge him to a fight and demand that he hand the Astral Pulse back to him. Powering himself up, Elliot orders Robbie to get in his suit. He refuses and throws a rag over Elliot's head, blinding him before mercilessly beating him until he is bloody. Pulling the rag from Elliot's head, Robbie says, "Let's lift the shroud so you can see this one coming" as he winds up for the final blow, only for Chase to pull Elliot out of the way. And leaves Elliot in the care of Vitalia.
Getting back up to his feet, Elliot retrieves Robbie's revolver from his locker and goes to the breakroom, where Chase and Robbie are arguing over the events that transpired. He fires the gun at Robbie, shooting him dead before Chase can save him, and leaves.
Becoming Shroud, imprisonment, and return
Inspired by the beating he took from Robbie, Elliot renamed himself 'Shroud' and at some point replaced his cybernetics with one fitted on his skull, which allowed him to make complex calculations in seconds, thus allowing him to make highly accurate predictions. Despite his newfound abilities, Shroud was captured and imprisoned. In the meantime, Robbie's son Robert became the new Mecha Man. Still, Elliot desired to have the Astral Pulse returned to him as it would greatly boost the capabilities of his augments.
After fifteen years of being jailed, Shroud escaped and used his technical knowledge to gather a loyal gang of augmented goons around himself, founding the Red Ring. This included Invisibitch, who received augments to treat her asthma and joined the gang to pay off her debt. Setting up in Llewelyn Steel Works, Shroud formulated a plan to lure Robert into a trap and take the Pulse back, using a goon called Toxic to guide Robert to the foundry and ordering Invisibitch to plant an explosive on the Mecha Man suit as a precaution in exchange for having her debt cleared.
Pivot
Shroud arrives as Robert is taken under fire by the Red Ring goons in the Llewelyn Steel Works. Exclusively communicating through Toxic, he tells Robert to hand over the Astral Pulse and that he is unlikely to leave the foundry alive if he doesn't. Despite this, Robert manages to fly off in the suit as Shroud watches, his suit exploding soon after. Though Robert survived, the Astral Pulse became lost and was presumed destroyed in the explosion.
In search of the Astral Pulse
Following the ambush on Robert, Invisibitch left the Red Ring, and her augments were disabled. She joined the Superhero Dispatch Network (SDN) under the Phoenix Program soon after, receiving the hero name of Invisigal. According to Shroud, he sent her to work for the SDN as a spy, knowing Robert would eventually join it, though whether he was lying about this or was telling the truth remains uncertain.
Over the following months, Shroud eventually came to realize that the Astral Pulse was still intact and tracked it down to a warehouse by the docks.
Moving Parts
Initially, believing the Astral Pulse to have been destroyed in the explosion, Shroud soon learned that it survived and exchanged hands between various gangs who all tried and failed to make use of it before selling it on to the next gang, with it currently residing in a warehouse by the Torrance dockyard.
As multiple villains fight over the Astral Pulse, Shroud watches from the shadows as Invisigal, with the assistance of Robert, tracks the pulse to the captain's quarters of a ship being kept in the warehouse before locking herself inside to keep Lava Lad and his partner from breaking in. Disposing of the two rival villains, Shroud patiently waited for Invisigal to exit, kicking her down the stairs as she got an asthma attack before tossing a smoke grenade next to her. Grabbing the briefcase containing the pulse, Shroud kicked her inhaler away before calmly leaving the warehouse. Chase uses his superhuman speed to rescue her soon after, but falls into a coma as his powers finally take their toll on his body.
Retrospective
Finding that the briefcase is empty, Shroud discovers that Invisigal had cleverly pocketed the Astral Pulse. Believing Robert to be aware of this, Shroud planned to interrogate him and calculated that Robert would come drinking at the Sardine to cope with recent events. Shroud infiltrated the bar in his civilian identity, while being backed by the Red Ring and Coupé or Sonar (depending on who was cut from the Z-Team). Sure enough, his calculations prove to be right as Robert settles at the bar counter. Deciding to torment the dispatcher, Shroud loudly mocks the victims of the warehouse battle to the bartender, including Chase or Invisigal (depending on who Robert advised Blazer to give a statement about). This angers Robert, who crushes his glass in his hand. Stating that Robert must have lost someone in the battle, Shroud orders him a drink. As the bartender toasts, he makes a sexually explicit remark regarding Blonde Blazer as he sees her on TV, which Robert can glass him for or let go. Regardless, Shroud shoots the bartender dead for it before ordering the cut hero to knock Robert out.
Shroud tortures Robert for the Astral Pulse's location and torments him with an embellished story of Robbie's murder before revealing that Invisigal had the Pulse in her possession as she was rescued. Robert convinces Shroud of his ignorance, however, leading him to decide to kill the dispatcher, as he no longer had a use for him. Before he can, Blonde Blazer enters the Sardine and threatens Shroud and the Red Ring to leave, stating that the bar would soon be swarmed with their enemies and that although she would eventually fall to their numbers, she would take out half before doing so. Impressed, Shroud applauds her performance and orders the gang to retreat. Shortly after, Shroud orders the county-wide assault on Los Angeles.
Synergy
Shroud arrives at the SDN Torrance branch in a mech suit as Robert, in his own mech suit, and Royd are confronting the Red Ring. The two fight, though Shroud’s predictive powers put Robert on the back foot. The arrival of Blonde Blazer and the Z-Team manages to turn the tide. Robert is momentarily pulled away from the battle by Coupé/Sonar, though he manages to beat them before refocusing his efforts on Shroud. During the battle, Shroud knocks Blazer out and attempts to finish Robert off, only to be taken down by Chase, who was revived and empowered by Blazer’s amulet, and pulls the power sources from his mech. Severely weakened, the suit is taken down by the combined efforts of the Z-Team and Robert, who lands the finishing blow, sending the mech flying onto the office’s roof.
As the heroes celebrate their victory, Shroud emerges from the mech’s wreckage while holding Beef and threatens to kill the dog if Robert does not surrender the Astral Pulse. As Robert flies to the roof, the recovered Red Ring goons capture his allies, and Shroud mocks him, claiming that he knew he would surrender the Pulse for Beef and claiming that he sent Invisigal to join the SDN to weaken it and him. If Robert attempts to trick Shroud by giving him the inferior Proto Pulse, he will see through the ruse and force Robert to hand over the Astral Pulse anyway, empowering himself and his goons with the Pulse’s energy. If Robert gives him both the Astral and Proto Pulse, he forces Shroud to make a gut decision. Ultimately, he chooses wrong, tossing the Astral Pulse away and inserting the Proto Pulse into his implants, causing him and the goons to vomit.
If Robert did not manage to reform Invisigal, she stabs Shroud in the throat during his moment of victory/defeat, killing him. If Robert did manage to reform Invisigal, she takes a bullet meant for him after Shroud attempts to shoot him. Angered, Robert attacks and viciously beats Shroud, having the option to either kill or spare him. Either way, the Z-Team subdues the Red Ring, who are arrested (alongside Shroud if he was spared) and taken into custody.
Personality
Shroud is a cunning, intelligent and cruel man. As seen in Episode 8, he planned everything a step ahead of The Z-team. In his Fight With Mecha Man (Robert Robertson) He easily overpowers him, predicting his every move before Robert could even do them.
Shroud's has a complete utter disregard for empathy and human life, yet despite it all, he has a surprisingly solid sense of honour. In one such case, Eli mercilessly shot a bartender he only a few moments ago, was cracking jokes with, but the reason he shot him was because the bartender was making inapropriate jokes about Blonde Blazer who Shroud has a high amount of respect for due to her genuinely being one of the only good superheroes. Similarly, in Episode 7, he will glare at Coupé or physically discipline Sonar when they respond to Blazer disrespectfully, the latter of the two receiving a verbal warning as well. Yet, most of the time, his cruelty takes precedence such as when he captured Robert and ruthlessly tortures him, and was fully willing to kill Robert with his own father's pistol, the same pistol Shroud used to kill Robbie.
By all means, Shroud isn't a careless individual, he knows when he and his gang is at a disadvantage and intentionally avoids unnecessary fights such as with Blond Blazer when she attempted to rescue Robert from his captivity. This may also be part of his plan in giving the heroes a false sense of security, in order to make his ambush of the SDN headquarters all the more effective.
Shroud's most apparent trait is that he feels the need to calculate and predict anything. It's implied that he has a slight fear of uncertainty, hence why he implanted augments into his head that allows him to predict and read people more effectively. This is the reason why Shroud so effectively is one step ahead, he predicts the actions and choices his adversaries were about to do. Despite it all, his ability to read people is not perfect as he can't fully predict very spontaneous people or people who don't know what they are doing in general, such as the entirety of Z-Team.
Shroud has an ego which is the reason that led to his defeat. After threatening to kill Beef (how dare he) he assumes he already won. When Robert gives both Of the Astral Pulses, Shroud snaps, leading to him making more rushed and illogical decisions (blatantly choosing between one of the pulses)
Abilities
- Genius intellect: Shroud was capable of creating and implanting various augments into, either giving them powers or boosting any powers they may already have. His genius is especially highlighted by his creation of the Astral Pulse, a highly potent energy source which Royd, another genius scientist, failed to replicate.
Equipment
- Augments: Shroud has an augment on the right side of his head that allow him to make complex calculations on the fly, which he can use to predict the most likely outcome. It also appears to be connected to the augments given to all the members of the Red Ring in some form, as he was able to disable the implants of anyone who had one, and powering them up should he successfully retrieve the Astral Pulse. When he was a member of the Brave Brigade, Shroud had even more complex augmentations that covered his entire body, including a pair of blades that shot from his forearms and augments that enhanced his physicality. They were seemingly removed sometime before he had his mugshot taken.
- Mask: Shroud's implants seem to be connected to his mask as the eyes flash with symbols and numbers whenever he calculates and can retract at will.
- Spider-Mech: Shroud has a large, spider-like mech suit that he uses to fight, should the need arise. The suit has enhanced capabilities for prediction, and is assumed to boost his already existing abilities in that regard. Alongside this, it is capable of charging and firing a powerful energy beam, strong enough to even push away someone like Phenomaman, and four powerful arms to engage in combat from all sides.
- Revolver: Mecha Man Astral's own gun that Shroud used to kill him with.
Weaknesses
- Overreliance on calculation: Shroud depends on the calculations of his implants to the point of overreliance. As such, unknown and unpredictable factors easily take him by surprise. As a result, he was pushed to the back foot while fighting the unpredictable Z-Team and was taken by complete surprise when Chase, empowered by Blonde Blazer's amulet, joined the battle against him. Robert can exploit this further by giving him both the Astral Pulse and inferior Proto Pulse, forcing him to make a gut decision on which crippled him with indecision. Invisigal in particular seems to act as a blind spot for him as he failed to predict she would take the Astral Pulse for herself or betray him in the end.
Appearance
In 1999, Shroud, then known as Elliot, appears as a bespectacled, slightly heavy-set man with brown hair and brown eyes. He has augmented himself, having cybernetics jutting out of the right side of his head. He also has a thin pencil mustache.
During his time with the Brave Brigade, Elliot has lost weight and has fully augmented his body with cybernetic implants, having replaced his right eye with a robotic one, and no longer wears glasses.
In his mugshot shown in Episode 1, all of his cybernetic implants have been removed, and he appears thin.
As a villain, Shroud wears a red, metallic mask, a trench coat, and a hood covering his head. By the time of the events of Dispatch, Shroud's hair has grown grey and now sports a full mustache and beard. In his civilian disguise/casual clothing, he wears glasses.
Notes
- In Episode 7, before his identity was revealed, the subtitles refer to Shroud as 'Beard Guy'.
Trivia
- Shroud's eye color has been portrayed inconsistently, with it being blue in the game, but brown in the comics.
Gallery
Unmasked
Mugshot
1999
Brave Brigade
