Personality
In a word, Elliot is a survivor. Having adapted to the streets at an early age, he has no delusions about 'fairness', 'good triumphing over evil', or any other such wishful thinking. The mild disdain he holds for everything and everyone is a result of that pain and compromise. The loss of his parents was the beginning of accepting that life is hard and unforgiving. He considers himself far from naive or innocent. On the other hand, he is no fool either. He likes to drink, have fun with the few friends he has, and celebrate the small victories he manages to secure, whether in his fencing or helping to stop a super. He does love a good fight, but he tries not to fight heroes. The few times that's happened have been 'misunderstandings'. Making friends is tough for Elliot. He tends to keep a distance when with others, watching to get a better sense of a person. If he warms up and becomes friends, however, he is very loyal, protective, maybe a little possessive. He expects loyalty from his friends so betrayal hurts and is rarely if ever forgiven. In fact, depending on the nature of the betrayl he may contemplate revenge.
Background
Elliot's life started pretty normal. His family was poor, with both parents working to keep him in school, food on the table, clothes on everyone's backs, and handle the occasional health issue (with government help of course). He went to rough public schools and learned early on to toughen up, never show how you really feel, never back away from a fight or insult, and to take care of the few friends you ever make. He fell into crime by the time he was 13. He ran with a gang that admired such a strong spirit in a boy so young, so they trained in the street survival skills he still uses often, as well as various forms of larceny, skills he falls back on when he needs them. He was never caught, and he enjoyed the thrill. He maintained contact with the gang until he was 16, treating them more like family than his own parents. In his own mind, his absence and the extra cash helped to ease their burden.
Sixteen was the age his life took the turn that would propel him into his current lifestyle. By then, his parents worked for a scientific research center, Omni Research. It was perhaps the best jobs they'd had, and they faced a bright future with the training they were getting. They were both lab assistants, finally making use of their own college degrees despite their earlier rough start. The three were closer as a family, and everything was going well. Elliot even considered dropping the street life and work towards becoming a scientist, and those skills dropped a bit. That was before the explosion. The project head at the time was running experiments on new wavelengths of energy discovered on the electromagnetic spectrum...and something else. Elliot was there and gained permission to watch. The containment system overloaded and exploded, killing the project head and Elliot's parents, and landing him in the hospital.
He woke up a week later, his body undergoing puzzling changes as the new energy settled in and mutated his body. The doctors didn't know what to make of it, but a week after, he was released in good health. But his life was gone. Shattered. All he could do was fall back on his street skills again to make a living. Sure, there were superheroes and villains around, but he never thought much of them. Until his own new powers kicked in. He found himself knife-, and then, bulletproof and much stronger. This made him up his street game, and he fit easily into the local crime scene again, this time as an enforcer. It took some time for his Bio Electromagnetic powers to kick in, and this happened when he faced a low level wanna-be super hero looking to make a name for herself. After defeating her, he went from enforcer to mercenary, selling his services and making a good amount of money. Honoring his parents' memory, however, he does try to do the right thing. He has a belief in karma, a little warped as it is, but he feels that by the end of the day if it all balances out, it's all good.