(The dark man of the Fire)
Shi was one of the clones that have been made of Steve. He was the fourth - which is why he called himself 'Shi', as that's 'four' in Japanese. He was also a really vicious and evil bastard, which is also why he called himself 'Shi', as it also means 'death' in Japanese.
Shortly after his creation he was ripped from the GRIT world into another. About ten seconds later he got attacked by a pair of wild lions. He managed to fight them off, but not without receiving a nasty cut to the face. This cut later developed into a nasty scar.
Dazed and confused, he wandered through the world, trying to find his home. Only, because this wasn't HIS world, there were differences. Everyone that he thought he knew - friends and family back in the GRIT world - drove him away on sight, calling him such things as 'demon' and 'evil bastard'. Often with guns. Eventually, in desperation, he tracked down Ryuu-ou, so he could ask the old man questions. Ryuu-ou turned pale, yelled something about ghosts, and started attacking viciously.
What had happened is that the Steve counterpart on this world had started off the same way as Steve back in the GRIT world. But instead of learning to control his Fire, he had been overcome by the Fire's will and entered the Rage of the Fire, and gone on a murderous rampage around the world. Ryuu-ou had eventually tracked him down and killed him. This past history came out in the fight with Ryuu-ou.
Somehow, the clone who would become Shi survived the fight, defeating Ryuu-ou. He staggered away, vowing never to succumb to the Fire like his counterpart did. He trained hard every day, and tracked down as much knowledge about the Fire that he could find. And eventually he was as good as, if not better, than his old master, Ryuu-ou.
But during it all his life of hardship continued. He tried to be the nice young man he'd always been (or had memories of being), despite having blood on his hands. But people from his counterpart's past kept on coming, trying to kill him. Others distrusted him because there were so many assassination attempts. He had Steve's Bad Luck With Women. He seemed doomed to an unlucky life.
Something in his mind snapped. He would no longer be Steve, the nice young man everyone took advantage of and tried to kill, but Shi, an angel of vengeance. He would have vengeance on everyone who had made his life such a misery. And he did so - at least for the people in the world he was currently in. There were still a couple of people back in his world of origin that he wanted to kill. But to do that he needed the secret of dimensional travel.
And then he met up with Hitomi, an interdimensional traveller. He wormed his way into the village she lived in and her life. He became her lover. He did everything he could to make her trust him. Eventually he gained the secrets of interdimensional travel from her. His goal attained, he betrayed the village to its enemies, left Hitomi behind, and disappeared.
A few months later, he showed up back in the GRIT world with the goal of killing the person he was cloned from - that is, Steve. Their battles culminated in a big mid-air fight in New York (in the "Just Plain Stupid" threads) and Shi was finally defeated, in a joint effort between Steve, Hitomi, Scott, and Stark.
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This page was last updated on the 4th of December, 2000