Gradius
| Gradius | |
|---|---|
| [[]] | |
| Also Known As | |
| Organization Type | Crimefighting/Peacekeeping |
| Leadership | Elias Jerico |
| Membership | 5, growing |
| Associated With | |
| Related To | |
Gradius is a group founded by Elias Jerico in order to combat the various criminal activities of The End. Its core members are currently Elias Jerico, Izumi Saotome, Shannon Moore, and Jimmy 'The Left' O'Toole, with Dylan Copeland serving as the home liaison.
History
Gradius was first founded when Elias, Jimmy and Shannon were dimensionally displaced into The End, crashing into an abandoned restaurant and found by one Darren Elway, an older gentleman. A man without any sons of his own, Elway soon realized that three boys would be overwhelmed by The End without any guidance, and brought them into his fold, adopting them unofficially.
The broken down restaurant had roomy underground lairs and tunnels, but it wasn't enough for Elias; Elias, hearing about more and more of The End's injustices and rampant crimes, and having no memories of his own to temper his frustrations, began to devote himself to training his body. Furthermore, since The End had no police or peacekeepers to speak of, there was nothing to devote himself to, in order to further this cause, which did nothing to discourage his hatred of the situation. Soon, Elias gave his brothers an idea - he would found Gradius, an organization to stem the tide of villainy - the voice of the voiceless, the fists of the fistless.
The results were explosive and successful; the talents of the three were varied and impressive, and beyond all else, the criminals of The End just were not used to resistance, and the group found much success in at least stemming the tide. On top of that, Jimmy O'Toole proved himself well capable of gathering information, and through the efforts of Shannon Moore, the restaurant's underbelly became a sprawling underground fortress, with many stories and seemingly unending potential.
Elias was a man with a dream, however; he wanted Gradius to become larger, and knowing that he didn't belong in this dimension, he wanted it to be able to fight for all dimensions. Elway knew of this, but was concerned about his sons being unable to work as well with others - could their three man cadre truly accept another?
The answer came by way of PARADIGM; when Darren Elway discovered the existence of a multidimensional organization with much the same tenets as Gradius, he knew he had his answer, and their way in. It is in this way that Izumi Saotome was hired to accompany the group, much to Elias's initial distrust, Jimmy's absolute attention, and Shannon's brief stoicness (which is how he took everything). Izumi's likeable demeanor and contagious energy won them over in record time, however, and before long Izumi was officially the fourth member of Gradius, with her considerable abilities augmenting the already powerful group.
With Izumi's help, Gradius began to throttle and hold back much in the way of encroaching enemies - mob bosses such as Salvadore Battista Pergolesi, of the self-styled Pergolesi Dynasty, often found new drug and prostitution rings foiled before they could truly begin, and for a period of time, The End was, if not truly safe, at least no longer chaotic.
When Izumi was seemingly killed by Inspiratio during a PARADIGM mission, the group was emotionally shattered, and all three remaining members of Gradius immediately swore revenge, joining PARADIGM to do so; when Izumi was revealed to actually have been Izu Tendou, and the real Izumi showed up, Gradius was relieved; it was enough for Shannon and Jimmy to return to the End, but Elias stayed, designating Shannon as temporary leader of Gradius while he helped handle the more immediate concerns of interdimensional mayhem.
Gradius was then beset by Eletian Carmichael's path of destruction across The End, leading to the death of over 213,000 people in the city, including that of Darren Elway; reactions were swift and emotional, and Gradius attempted to contribute to humanitarian efforts until Sagiko Tsukino utilized the power of the Silver Crystal to bring them all back, at which point the full near-lunacy of the End gave away, causing Gradius to utilize PARADIGM again to stem the tide.
It was in this way that PARADIGM fought Dylan Copeland into submission, a powerful telekinetic adept that was quite simply frightened out of his mind. After subdual, and after the entire situation with The End was stabilized, Elias recruited Dylan as the fifth member of Gradius.
Shortly after, Shannon began to sink into a depression over the loss of a relationship he'd cultivated, and sank into his work, improving the quality of Gradius HQ by several times; when he was brought out of his melancholy by Miyabi Uzumaki, he and Jimmy decided to rejoin PARADIGM fulltime, after training Dylan to use his psychic powers to multitask and run the majority of Gradius on his own.
The rest of Gradius continue to visit The End routinely to maintain structure and to thwart crime, and various other PARADIGM agents have taken it upon themselves to help fight criminals and various other enemies individually.
Gradius HQ
The headquarters of Gradius resides in the ruins of Darren Elway's old abandoned restaurant - a fridge inside hides the secret trigger that activates an elevator, giving access to the vast underground facility.
Several floors house electronics, plain steel, weaponry, and food supplies - at the bottom floor, the elevator opens into a minor living room attached to a kitchen, followed by various rooms, a large bathroom, a simulator (utilizing 'liberated' technology from others in The End), a master entertainment suite, and a gym with attached armory.
