A re-imagining of my OC, Rhythm Lion, done on Hero Forge. Rhythm Lion is the superhero identity of the white lion prodigy of percussion, Prof. Leonardo Williams, a celebrated professor at Wildcat City's prestigious music school, Battlefield Music Academy, or BMA.

Similiar to Rhythm Rat as well as the famous Corps Coon, Rhythm Lion plays a snare drum on the march that hypnotizes his enemies into surrendering. He is also an avid uniform and hat collector, and sometimes likes to dress as if he's a member of the U.S. Marine Band, whom he has guested with on several occasions. Here, however, I have him in a suit-and-tie combination, wearing the school colors of BMA, blue and orange.

Bio Highlights: Leonardo is highly knowledgeable and well celebrated by his peers and fellow teachers (as well as the G-52s and their allies, namely Leo the Patriotic Lion and Tom the Patriotic Tiger) for being able to play multiple instruments with the greatest of ease. He varied around in high school and college, settling for trumpet and cornet in orchestra and concert band, clarinet in marching band, and piano and vibraphone in jazz combos and ensemble. His percussion performances as a soloist range from various military drum cadences to showpieces for timpani. He has released various direct-to-video and/or DVD films teaching the basics of music, and these individual portions of videos are being made into a YouTube account.

Shortly after fellow BMA instructor Arthur ("Art") Pendegraf experienced the CNG effects that led him to join the G-52s as Rhythm Rat, the effects rubbed off onto Leonardo, which happened when the pair of them came into his office help the police and the C.I.D.F. investigate the smuggling problems the school was having; it turned out it wasn't a student doing it as a prank as some people thought, but one of the student's parents, who didn't want their son going to this school. "I raised him to be a dentist, not a piano player!" the dad argued. "He knows he'll hate the lifestyle of being famous!"

"Why'd you let him play the piano in the first place if you didn't want him to be a professional?" Leonardo asked, calling the dad's bluff. "I don't understand why this city has a problem with parents saying that because they do this for a living, that's what their kids will do. That's not your decision, is it? Let your kids be who they really are, and I spoke to your son. What he truly is in life is a pianist."

"Then why did he lie to me? He just sat at the piano and did nothing; that's deceitfulness!"

"He wasn't lying; he was asked to play the John Cage piece 4'33." (4'33", or four minutes and thirty-three seconds, is an experimental composition by John Cage written in 1952, where the score instructs the performers not to do anything at all; the piece really consists of the sounds the environment or the audience makes. The point of the piece is that true silence is impossible.) Leonardo tried to reason with the father as he was arrested, but he wouldn't listen; he still showed the proof CNG was messing with his head by claiming his one and only son was a disgrace to the family for being anything other than a dentist, and he assumed all big name musicians died too young of drugs and alcohol, but that's not true. He later learned that when the student was asked to perform the piece at a recital, the dad lost his temper, started flipping the bird at him, and called him an absolute disgrace to all mankind before storming out of the auditorium, leaving the kid in tears. (The couple had also divorced the next day, but the mom won custody of the son, not the dad.)

The student in question, as a result of his dad's smuggling actions, later underwent a permanent transformation he didn't want. Now, instead of a human, he's living the rest of his life as an anthro border collie of the red merle variety. (This differs from Doughty Dog, who is a black-and-white border collie.) He and Leonardo continued their discussions on what was happening, and the lion discovered the dad wasn't actually a dentist; just a pathetic wannabe who had a fake license hanging in his waiting room. "I'm very sorry about this, professor," said the student, "but my dad was a TBTC terrorist. I think he wanted to kill his patients."

"So he's not a real dentist?"

"No."

Since then, the student has gone on to experience a better life through the art of performing music, and Leonardo continues to thrive as one of the academy's premier instructors. His decision to act as the G-52 Rhythm Lion came in conjunction with the induction of Rhythm Rat, and he became (at the time) now the latest to clear the "USA Waiting List."

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Character (C) me and me alone
Artwork in link (C)  BlueMario1016
Made in Hero Forge