Mosquito

Arthur Mossberg

Arthur Mossberg willingly sacrificed much in favor of advancing his career. He got the MBA. He worked the long hours, the nights and weekends. He built his social life around his colleagues and getting ahead. He focused on retirement, on the things he would do later, after. Although he was an executive with Morgenstern Labs with considerable seniority, that “later” always seemed further and further away. Eventually, his marriage fell apart and, at middle-age, it seemed like a waste of time building another serious relationship. Then Arthur’s health began to decline, and maintaining his medical insurance became paramount, all while younger and equally ambitious execs eyed his position and corner office.
It eventually became clear to Mossberg: even if he made it the remaining short time to retirement, he wouldn’t live long enough to enjoy it. Alzheimer’s was threatening to take away what he had left: his memories and his faculties, and there was already talk about easing him out of his position with the company and into something “less stressful.” He couldn’t tolerate that. So when an anonymous figure approached him with a solution to his problem, Mossberg had nothing to lose. Doctor Shock wanted certain information on Morgenstern’s top-secret projects, which Mossberg supplied. In exchange, Shock helped Arthur with his medical problems.
The process was painful and had some unexpected side effects. When Mossberg regained consciousness, he was disoriented and thought he was hallucinating that Doctor Shock had become a hundred-foot giant. Instead, it was he who had shrunk down to a little more than five inches tall. He vaguely heard something about “electrons” and “quantum compression” but that was right before heroes broke into Shock’s secret lab and a stray force blast broke open the container Arthur was in. The tiny figure fled unnoticed from the fight. It didn’t take long for him to discover the process changed him in other ways: he could fly on crackling “wings” of electro-magnetic force and project electrical “stings” from his hands, but he also craved the bio-energy of other creatures and needed it to sustain him.
One other thing was clear: Arthur Mossberg’s life was over. The sadistic Doctor Shock was more likely to dissect him than to help him if they were ever to cross paths again, and he was a wanted man for stealing from Morgenstern, which was how the heroes found Shock’s hideout in the first place. All of his plans for life were in ruins, and all Arthur could do was to make “the Mosquito” a force to be reckoned with. No more waiting. He would take what he wanted, and pity anyone who got in his way.

Physical Description

Special abilities

Mosquito is permanently reduced in size to about five and a half inches tall, making him difficult to spot and a tiny, fast-moving target in a fight.
Doc Shock’s treatment has apparently cured Mosquito’s synaptic degeneration and given him various bio-electrical powers. Mosquito can drain the bio-electricity from the nervous systems of other living creatures from a short distance away (about 10 feet or so). This causes the target to suffer increasing fatigue and eventual unconsciousness. If Mosquito continued to drain from an unconscious victim, it’s possible their central nervous system would shut down altogether, killing them, but he has never done so, always stopping the process once the victim passes out.
Drained energy is stored in the electron compressed cells of his own body and he can release it, either as directed bolts from his hands (his “electro-stings”) or as electromagnetic “membranes” which extend from his shoulder blades, allowing him to defy gravity and fly, complete with a high-pitched whine like a larger version of his namesake. The drained energy also facilitates the rapid regeneration of Mosquito’s cells, allowing him to quickly recover from injury by draining another creature.
If Mosquito goes for more than a day or two without using his bio-energy draining abilities, his cellular structure begins to destabilize. He suffers fatigue, headaches, and various aches and pains that increase in severity. He doesn’t entirely know what would happen if he refrained from draining others altogether; it’s possible the symptoms are merely some form of withdrawal, but they could possibly worsen and even lead to death. Thus far Mosquito chooses not to find out. He initially resisted his cravings to drain victims, but now goes in search of a “quick fix” when the symptoms first present themselves, and tries to stay “topped up” so they do not set in at all.

Mental characteristics

Intellectual Characteristics

Mosquito is a bitter man who feels wronged by life and is out for revenge against the so-called “normal” people who have it better than him. In particular, he hates successful business types who remind him of who he once was, and those who have lives of wealth and privilege, which they neither deserve nor appreciate in his view.
He soothes his outcast and “freak” status by punishing others, sharing his pain. Mosquito is a bully when he has the upper hand and a coward when he is clearly outmatched. He hates Doc Shock for helping to ruin his life, but is also afraid of the mad scientist, who happens to be immune to Mosquito’s electrical powers. Shock would like nothing more than an excuse to put his former subject under a microscope, preferably cut into very thin slices. For just that reason, Mosquito avoids him and works with organizations like F.O.E. in order to gain their protection.