Jo

Summary

Gianni “Jo” Di Maggio is the son of a man named Mark Di Maggio and his wife, a woman named Grace, who had mysterious powers seemingly related to Projections. While he had a strong bond with his mother, Jo didn’t have a good childhood: his father was distant and paranoid. In his teen years, he retreated into the sport of boxing, practicing it at a nearby gym, to escape from his awkward family situation.

Over the course of a few months, when Jo was about 17, his father had been informed by a small-time criminal organization that Grace was an avatar of the goddess Gea. With his help, for the right price, they kidnapped her seeking to harvest and exploit her powers. Jo came back home one day to find both of them missing, with clear evidence of a fight. He managed to track them, and without thinking, he charged into the warehouse where he knew she would be held, getting himself captured almost immediately.

Luckily, he had managed to cause quite a commotion and a girl named Jessica Steeles, who had been nearby during the commotion, noticed what happened and through a little bit of cleverness and a lot of luck managed to sneak inside the warehouse and free him. While they were sneaking out, they stumbled upon Grace’s body, halfway through one of many experiments. The sight traumatized him, but what little remained of her consciousness within her managed to awaken, and give him what little was left of her essence, resulting in the Projection “Mother Nature's Son”, which allows Jo to manipulate kinetic energy.

The two barely escaped but, after appealing to authorities led to nothing, managed to gather the courage to try to take his father’s organization down before they could get any further. After many tribulations, they just barely succeeded, and agreed on founding a superhero team called HOME.

Appearance and Personality

Jo is an incredibly plain looking young man. He has brown hair and eyes, and always dresses in casual getup, even when the rest of his team is in their uniform, though he does wear a shirt with HOME's logo on it. He's rather fit, though his choice of clothing hides that, and of average height. His HOME uniform, for the rare times in which he wears it, is a dark blue suit with red stripes passing by his arms and legs' sides.

Jo's usual behavior, which he maintains in battle, is really relaxed and casual. If he is somehow brought closer to defeat, he'll instantly stop playing around, though, and shift to a much more serious personality, going all-out. There's little middle grounds between these two states. Deep down, Jo is a rather troubled individual, as his upbringing left him completely lacking in certain types of instincts or empathy, leaving him rather obsessed with keeping a perfect control on his behavior and developing a sort of "artificial" version of these drives.

Personal Statistics

Alignment: Neutral Good

Name: Gianni Di Maggio

Origin: World of Projections

Gender: Male

Age: 21

Classification: Human, Projection user 

Birthplace: Seattle 

Height: 178 cm 

Eye Color: Brown

Hair Color: Brown

Marital Status: Single

Status: Alive

Themes: Mother Nature's Son by the Beatles, Atom Heart Mother by Pink Floyd

Combat Statistics

Tier: 9-C, up to 9-A with Mother Nature's Son and Gea. Up to at least High 7-C with Atom Heart Mother

Powers and Abilities: Superhuman Speed, Martial Arts (Jo has developed a fighting style revolving around his powers to be as effective as possible in combat), Acrobatics (Jo is a very agile fighter, Kinetic Energy Manipulation, Damage Boost and Damage Reduction (Jo's Projection can be used to nullify or redirect kinetic energy, which Jo uses to intensify the power of his attacks, or nullify the enemy's), Gravity Manipulation (Joe can also use his powers to momentarily redirect something’s gravity with even just a simple tap, intensifying it or shooting them in a random direction), Explosion Manipulation and Radiation Manipulation (With Atom Heart Mother), Summoning (Can summon an apparition that resembles his mother Grace), Limited Reality Warping (Projections function through a limited reality warping effect), Analytical Prediction (Capable of predicting his opponents' actions in combat, an instinct trained through years of usage of his extremely precise power), Limited Chain Manipulation (When summoning Grace's image, she is bound to Jo with chains), Resistance to Soul Manipulation (The Essence of every being in World of Projections comes from splinters of The Third's being, with The Third being a deity comparable in size and power to Gea and Lucifer, who would then go on to become entire universes. The Essence of Projection users is particularly large and more powerful than common people's)

Attack Potency: Street level (Able to easily defeat most non-superhuman characters, and is reputed to be an incredibly talented martial artist. Can cause minor cracks in walls), up to at least Small Building level with Mother Nature's Son (Could hurt and stagger Helios, though he was ultimately weaker) and Gea (Somewhat weaker than his own empowered strikes). Up to at least Large Town level with Atom Heart Mother (Atom Heart Mother has never shown its full potential, as its drawbacks intensify with its power, but it has been described to be comparable to modern nuclear devices)

Speed: Subsonic (Is reliably able to parry handgun bullets with his power, when not in melee range)

Lifting Strength: Above Average Human

Striking Strength: Street Class, up to Small Building Class with Mother Nature's Son and Gea

Durability: Street level (Comparable to his Attack Potency), at least Small Building Level with Mother Nature's Son (Able to easily cancel out attacks from people comparable or superior to its offensive potential, and described as a mostly defensive ability. Could easily block any of Helios' attacks when perfectly timed) and Gea

Stamina: At least Peak Human. Able to fight through horrible injuries, while keeping near-perfect control over his abilities. Needs to mentally keep everything he needs to do in check as he's missing basic human instincts.

Range: Standard melee range. Twenty meters with Gea, whose own abilities have a range of ten meters. Up to thousands of meters with Atom Heart Mother, likely far higher.

Standard Equipment: Nothing.

Intelligence: Gifted. Has been said to have the equivalent of several decades' worth of combat experience despite his training being fairly light before becoming a superhero a few years back. Has created a fighting style of his own that focuses on quick weak strikes and forgoes defense and power for speed, letting his ability provide both of those. Able to function as a perfectly normal human being despite being almost completely lacking in many normal instincts or emotional responses.

Weaknesses: Mother Nature's Son's timing lasts less than a second, and cannot be used immediately again if it doesn't absorb or deal out a strong attack. It also cannot block non-kinetic energy. Jo does not have full control over Gea, and its abilities are slightly weaker than his. He also cannot use Mother Nature's Son and Gea at the same time. Atom Heart Mother's power is directly proportional to its size, and the stronger it is, the longer Jo's not gonna be able to use his powers afterwards. Its half-life is also incredibly brief, reaching safe levels of radiation in a few seconds. Jo constantly holds back against his instincts to avoid any casualties, resulting in a slightly hindered combat speed, though he's willing to drop this if needed. Somewhat casual at the beginning of most confrontations.

Notable Attacks/Techniques: 

• Mother Nature's Son: A rare case of an inherited Projection, Jo is only able to use this ability in incredibly brief bursts, and it's contact based. It can be used to nullify or redirect kinetic energy, which Jo uses to intensify the power of his attacks, and nullify the enemy's. He can also use it to momentarily redirect their gravity, intensifying it or shooting them in a random direction. Defensively, the ability has to be activated with a strong attack, though the latter can be done with a tap.
• Gea: A mindless manifestation of his mother's corpse based off his confused memories, Gea is an ethereal entity that Jo can summon behind him to fight by his side. It's violently protective of him, and can use a weaker version of his abilities at range. It's bound to him with chains tied to their wrists.
• Atom Heart Mother: Jo's ultimate ability. He summons Gea, only to detonate her, causing a nuclear explosion he is immune to. Though highly radioactive, the area will quickly become safe again. However, it temporarily disables Jo's Projection due to the amount of energy it requires. This backlash can range from a few seconds to several months, depending on the size of the explosion.

Other

Notable Victories:

Notable Losses:

Inconclusive Matches: