The Shades

The Shades
Origin
Creator	Honorcrocketts
Creation	July 9th, 2012
Debut	Lord DeGroot - Invasion (Encounter with The Shades)
Characteristics
Type	Assassin
Alignment	Lawful Neutral
Attitude	Cocky, erratic (Blade) Serious, unflinching (The Jackal) Overconfident, belligerent (Quake)
Fighting style	Short- to mid-range
Abilities	Swordsmanship (Blade) Demolitions (The Jackal) Superhuman fitness (Quake)
Status
Status	Alive
Occupation	Hitmen
Superiors	Rusty
Enemies	Any Freak they are assigned to kill

The Shades are a trio of dark GRY TF2 Freaks, Blade, the Jackal, and Quake, created by YouTube user Honorcrocketts.

Biography

At some point in their lives, Blade, Jackal, and Quake were once normal people who were victimized by malevolent Freaks. Due to their traumatic experiences, they were hired as mercenary hitmen by an unknown person who shares the same hatred for Freaks. While his identity is currently unknown, Blade, Jackal, and Quake's employer is the head of a secret but large organization that specializes in eliminating members of the TF2 Freak race, both good and bad. The organization as a whole believes that by killing off all the Freaks, the TF2 universe will turn back to normal again. It was during this period of time that Blade, Jackal, and Quake became the people they are today, gaining their current abilities through rigorous training exercises and scientific means. As a tradition, they are assigned Rusty, a senior Shade Engineer, as their leader and strategist.

Appearance

The Shades are a trio consisting of a Demoman, Scout, and Heavy wearing dark gray clothes and the Security Shades at all times. Jackal, the Demoman, wears a Hair of the Dog hat; Blade, the Scout, wears the Scout class-issued headset without the baseball cap; and lastly, Quake, the Heavy, wears a default RED Your Worst Nightmare hat.

As the result of being infused with wolf DNA, Jackal's other form is that of a werewolf. Usually in this form, he wears the Scottish Snarl mask.

Personality and Behavior

In many cases, the Shades are usually seen together because of the need to function as a team due to their contrasting personalities and abilities, and to take on stronger TF2 Freaks more easily. As a whole, they are an unflinchingly serious and determined group who want to fulfill their employer's goals of eliminating the Freak race, and to the Freaks themselves, each Shade is ruthless and unrelenting.  Individually, on a personal level, each Shade has their own personality:

• Blade, the Scout of the trio, is cocky and pretentious, and prefers to deal with things in a very straightforward manner. His foolhardy and quick-tempered behavior often runs the risk of bungling their missions.

• Quake, the Heavy and largest of the trio, shares a similar temperament to Blade's, except he is a few times worse. He is hot-tempered and handles his missions without tact or grace. He harbors overconfidence in his own abilities, which leads to him underestimating his opponents, and due to this he has screwed up more missions than Blade has. While mostly disliked by his own teammates, they keep him anyway because of his talents.

• Jackal is the most mature and sane member of the trio, and harbors a impressively stubborn and indomitable will. As the only Shade being more accustomed to battle than his two teammates, he is fearless and more than capable of confronting a strong Freak without batting an eye. While he is often frustrated with Blade and Quake's antics, he nevertheless sticks with them. When in wolf form, Jackal reverts to a more feral personality and becomes very carnivorous and indiscriminate over whom he fights in battle.

Powers and Abilities

The Shades have a variety of abilities gained through years of training and science, making them more powerful than a normal human being. Individually, each Shade can overpower a low-level Freak, but when together, they can take down Freaks higher up the power scale. Their weaponry all consist of experimental prototypes handed to them by their employers to test their capabilities in battle; most of them are energy weapons fueled by charge-packs that are made from the same technology used to make a Medipack. 

• Blade earned his name through his excellent proficiency with bladed weapons such as knives and swords, and favors disguising his attacks with incredible speed and hit-and-run tactics. However, he isn't afraid to resort to using firearms in a fight. Blade can cover great distances with his jumps and use the Soldier class's Mantreads for causing fall damage to his opponents. As a Scout, Blade serves the role as an infiltrator and is capable of being stealthy, which contrasts with his personality and fighting style.

• The Jackal is an expert trapper and skilled in using explosives like a normal Demoman; he carries various grenades that are made of different but combustible material. He usually starts a fight by laying his grenades and traps for his enemies, and setting them off once they are within range. Jackal has enhanced physical endurance, which means he can take more damage than what is required, and can use a wide selection of grenade launchers. He can also inject himself with a special serum that activates his wolf genes, turning him into a werewolf; the wolf form both grants him enhanced senses and reflexes, and furthers his endurance.

• Quake serves as the strongman for the Shades and as such, has very high stamina and superhuman strength that renders him capable of pummeling his opponents with ease. He can also use this strength to create small earthquakes by punching the ground. Due to his large size, most of his weapons are large for convenience, but surprisingly he can handle them like toys. His main weapon is a mechanical fist made out of electromagnetic steel; this fist attracts anything made out of metal, therefore it is useful in depriving enemies of their weapons in most cases.

Faults and Weaknesses

Blade:

• As a Scout, he shares his class's weak defense and therefore can't take much punishment in a fight.
• He is a poor shooter compared to his skill with knives, and his hand-to-hand combat is even poorer.
• Enemies might take advantage of Blade's cockiness if he doesn't pay attention to their fighting styles.

The Jackal:

• He has poor combat reflexes so therefore he isn't really good at reacting to and dodging enemy attacks.
• His skill in physical combat is very limited, as his skills lie in explosives and traps.
• Due to his wolf genes, Jackal cannot control his transformation into his wolf form during a full moon, potentially making him dangerous to those around him. Therefore, his transformation is often used as a last resort.
• Using mini nukes, a special type of grenade, runs the risk of creating self-damage and friendly fire.

Quake:

• As mentioned before, he tends to be overconfident, therefore overestimating his own abilities, which may lead to trouble if he fights a Freak stronger than him.
• His earthquakes tend to affect both his enemies and teammates alike.
• As a Heavy, he is slow in movement and clumsy even in battle; speedy Freaks might take advantage of this.
• He also has poor perception, which also makes him slower to react to things than his teammates.

Trivia

• The voice actor for Blade and Jackal is Rick Hunter, who voiced the Postal Dude in Postal 1 and Postal 2; Blade's voice has a slightly higher pitch.
  • Quake's voice actor is Corey Cruise, who voiced the Postal Dude in Postal III.

Notable Videos

• Lord Degroot - Invasion (Encounter with The Shades)
• Rusty's Rogue Robots