Dante Bishop

Commander **Dante Bishop** is the main protagonist of the **Into the Dark** *series*, the *General Secretary* of the **Popular Socialist Party** and the *Commander-in-Chief* of the Revolutionary Army. Born as a child prodigy with a natural interest in politics, military tactics and martial arts he would be raised by Kalifa Ramila as a child soldier for a criminal syndicate before her demise eventually breaking away to become the revolutionary. After forming his own group and joining a paramilitary revolutionary movement under the leadership of **Commander** Carmelo Jones prior to his assassination, he would assume command and overthrow the United States Federal Government. He would form a close bond with Phoebe Cook his successor as well as building an intimate relationship with Candice Myers, the Chief of the **Medical Corps** of the **Revolutionary Army.**

## Appearance

As a child he was known for dressing plainly he spent most of his time helping around the house. He wore a basic white t-shirt with blue jeans or khaki pants and simple black sneakers. At ten years old while living with Kalifa he gains more diversity in attire, wearing black t-shirts, collared brown shirts and long sleeve sweaters on occasion.

At twelve years old while training with **Grand Master** Damian, Dante dons traditional Samurai attire wearing a kimono during his martial arts/sword fighting training. He would also carry his katana with him.

Now fifteen years old and an official member of the organization, Dante wears paramilitary garbs with a long sleeve black combat top, with a shoulder holster for his gun, a hip holster for his combat knife, black combat pants and black combat boots. He would continue to wear this attire throughout his four years of active service.

## Personality

Political, and philosophic with a militant disposition, Dante was described by Kalifa Ramla as being a natural born revolutionary and military genius possessing natural charisma being able to lead those around him and form close camaraderie with those who serve with him.

He has demonstrated a following of Marxist-Leninism and Black Nationalism, expressing a desire for greater unity between the African-americans and their own self-determination through national liberation; something that he would pass on to Michael Brooks. He also has knowledge of Anarcho-Syndicalism and Mutualism as seen during his conversation with Thomas Richards.

Despite his militant personality, Dante is not above giving those around him second chances, as seen with Jacob Rogers who held white supremacist beliefs but gave him a chance to reform himself and join the Revolutionary Army which led to him becoming a faithful ally and becoming one of his commanders, similarly he would give these same chances to Gabby Hernandez and Michael Brooks. However, he would also reveal a merciless side whenever faced with an impossible situation such as when Malik Hussein betrays him and attempts to usurp his authority which leads to Dante killing him.

Dante displays a softer side, as he will take steps to help and protect those he considers friends or family. He feels emotion and has empathy and care towards those he cares about as seen with his close friends (like Felipe Castro Cruz and Tyrell Wilson) his love interest but none more so than Phoebe Cook who he views as his younger sister and potential leader for the future worldwide proletariat revolution.

## Biography

### Background

#### Early years and Training

As a child, Dante was raised by his mother Anna Bishop as his father was falsely imprisoned, overtime his mother fell into depression and due to the constant stresses of raising Dante alone, became dependent on pain killers. Neglecting her son, Dante became independent learning how to cook, clean, and fend for himself. Eventually Anna dies from an overdose leaving Dante orphaned and alone. After spending time on the streets evading the police and stealing food to survive, he eventually met Kalifa Ramla while he was camping in the attic of one of her homes.

Kalifa introduces herself as a real estate saleswoman and offers to take in Dante, with no place left to go and weary from avoiding the police he accepts. After living with her for a short while he quickly finds out that she has a habit of engaging in relationships with terrible men, she is secretly an illegal arms saleswoman and an assassin for hire, with her identity exposed she gives him two options, one is to be placed into foster care the second was to stay by Kalifa's side and be her assistant. From then, he spent many years trained by various people around the world, developing not only his combat skills and strategic mind but adopting their lifestyles as well. From time to time, he would receive private lessons in hand-to-hand combat from Kalifa himself, even "rewarding him" for his hard work.

His desire to become stronger eventually lead to him allowing himself to be experimented on with strength enhancers and various other performance enhancing drugs in order to increase his combat ability. Eventually Kalifa would end up passing away from terminal cancer, despite the complexity of their relationship Dante would remember her fondly remarking that he felt a feeling of emptiness with such a big presence in his life suddenly vanishing.

#### Searching for Purpose

Utilizing a number of hideouts used by Kalifa and the money left over by her Dante continued to train while searching for his purpose in life as he felt it had vanished with Kalifa. During this time he made friendships with Tyrell Wilson, Michael Brooks, Yrihanna, Mae and Janessa Wright all of whom held black nationalist ideals similar to his own.

## Skills and Abilities

Shown to be a natural child prodigy, Dante possessed an innate affinity for martial arts and sword fighting using his natural intellect and knack for strategizing to help him during his days as a youth while he fought against grown adult security officers. After additional training with Kalifa Ramla and Damian his prowess and skill set diversified, including the use of punches, throws, grappling and submission locks. By the time he was fifteen years old his relentless training, mastery of martial arts and swordsmanship (in addition to his own body modifications) allowed him to surpass both of his predecessors prior to reaching his full potential.

His skill and ability are recognized from the beginning of the series where we overpowered dozens of special weapons and tactics members and defeated Jacob Rogers with little difficulty despite the fact that he was armed with a gun, outmaneuvering him and incapacitating him without killing him or even greatly injuring him. When facing off in a brief confrontation with Gabby Hernandez he was able to block and anticipate every move she makes despite her being apart of the special forces police team, overpowering her and subduing her. The only noteworthy contenders against Dante were Natasha Volkova a trained Russian spy/assassin, as well as **Captain** Conrad Smith a former Delta Force operator.

In addition to his fighting skills, Dante is a natural born leader being able to lead a small elite group of military trained guerrillas successfully ambushing the incoming special forces police team, capturing three of their members (one of which is Gabby) and leading the larger, centralized and heavily armed Revolutionary Army accomplishing a number of military victories over the United States Armed Forces. He possesses a natural charisma being able to inspire those around him with his actions while commanding respect and admiration from nearly everyone even people within the Brigade of the Black Rose and the student activist group.

Dante is very disciplined when fighting against armed opponents. As shown, his style appears to be a mixture of several forms of Kung-Fu, Karate and Ninjutsu.

## Weapons Used

Katana - The first weapon Dante ever made use of was a traditional Japanese made katana, at the young age he took the slightly curved blade and killed his master's drunken abuser. After extensive training with it he became a master swordsman battling a number of warriors and defeating them without killing a single one. He battled and killed Alexander Jones in a sword fight with minimal difficulty.

Glock 19 -  Dante began training with a standard Glock pistol which he often uses, assembled and fired regularly leading to him mastering it along with other small arms overtime during his life as a child soldier.

Combat Knife -  Dante is an an experienced knife fighter being able to fatally stab a police officer during a brief struggle between them before the assailant was overpowered and killed by Dante.

Heckler & Koch Mark 23 -  Dante gained experienced with a number of handguns but in his later years came to rely on the H&K Mark 23 pistol relying on it's large frame and grip as well as its heavier ammo.

Mk18 Mod 0 - During the Police Raid and the Jail Break he uses the H&K sub machine gun firing it at an incoming group of police officers, a number of riot teams and often keeps it on hand.

Remington XM2010 Enhanced Sniper Rifle - After the Jail Break Dante began making use of a military grade sniper rifle. He was very accurate with it being able to kill a number of hostiles from a distance of nearly 800 meters.

M2 A1 Browning -  After raiding a military stronghold Dante acquires a heavy machine gun more capable of firing further distances than his standard automatic carbine however due to its weight the Revolutionary Army is forced to mount it on an armored Humvee.

M107 .50 Caliber Long Range Sniper Rifle - After raiding a military stronghold Dante acquires a heavy sniper rifle more capable of further distances than with his SR-25 semi-automatic rifle despite it being heavier.

Carl Gustaf recoiless rifle - When facing off against an armored chopper Dante was able to successfully down it using an anti-armor launcher before retreating from the surrounding area.