Screaming Mantis

 Screaming Mantis, AKA Screaming Beauty is a major antagonist in the video game Metal Gear Solid 4: Guns of the Patriots. She's the founder and leader of the Beauty and the Beast Unit.

Past
Screaming Mantis was born in a war torn village in South America. When she was just a child, her village was attacked and eventually burned to the ground. Hunted by enemy death squads, she ended up being separated from her family. She took refuge inside the basement of a building. Shortly after she enter the basement, she discovered that it was actually a makeshift torture chamber. However, given the constant military presence outside in the village, she wasn't able to leave the corpse-littered room. To make things worse, she was eventually locked into the basement so she couldn't escape. The constant screams of tortured villagers haunted her every day and every night. After weeks of being locked in the cellar, she kept herself hydrated by drinking the dirty water that had pooled up on the floor. Drinking all that water eventually lead to hallucination. She saw a single black praying mantis, who taught her how to block her ears from the screams. She also learned from the mantis that to survive, she would have to eat the corpses that littered the floor. However, she only ate the male corpses, much like the female mantis devours her mates. The starvation and dehydration had done irreparable damage to her mind. She survived for several weeks and somehow managed to get back to the surface.

Eventually she encountered forces that were led by Liquid Ocelot. They subjected her to gene therapy and drug induced nanotherapy, building up her psyche for their ultimate plan. Eventually, Mantis's psyche was torn out of her own mind, and was replaced with what remained of Psycho Mantis.

Metal Gear Solid 4
Screaming Mantis, along with the other members of the Beauty and the Beast Unit were sent to kill off the Middle Eastern Rebels. She mostly watched the other member kill the rebels, however she does use her "psychic" abilities to kill off the members of the Rebels. After the B&B Units kill all the rebels, both Screaming Mantis and the other members retreated.

While Snake, Meryl and Akiba were storming the Outer Haven, Snake encountered an unconcious Meryl. When she woke up, Meryl pointed a gun at Snake. It was revealed that she was possessed by Screaming Mantis. Mantis also mentioned that it has been a "long time" since she encountered Snake. Snake asked if she was Psycho Mantis, to which that Mantis said that Psycho Mantis was "another me." Snake was able to subdue Meryl by surpressing her nanomachines, however, Screaming Mantis used the nanomachines of the FROGS and took control over their bodies by using both the Psycho Doll and Sorrow Doll. While fighting Mantis, Snake realized that his aiming was off. He eventually figured out that Screaming Mantis was manipluating his nanomachines to control his body. Snake managed to surpress his nanomachines and shoot down her two dolls. With the powers of the Psycho Doll, Snake was able to defeat Screaming Mantis.



However, after defeat, Mantis' suit was flung forcefully away form her body, barely missing Snake. Screaming Beauty fell out of her shell, and as soon as she hit the ground, she started to panic. She began hearing the tortured screams from her past. Screaming Beauty begged for the screaming to stop and her inner demons to have some mercy. Shortly after that, Beauty moved slowly towards Snake, begging to be released from her torment. Snake managed to defeat Screaming Beauty, and she went into a fetal postion.

Abilities
Being the leader of the B&B Unit, Screaming Mantis is the dangerous member. She wield powerful psychic abilities, very similar towards Psycho Mantis.

However her psychic powers come from her ability to control the nanomachines inside a person's body kinda like a puppet master. She also can break the forth wall by making it look like the game blacked out, or the game restarted, much like Psycho Mantis. She can also teleport, and throw her knives. She also wields two dolls with various abilities, the Psycho Doll and the Sorrow Doll. When she loses her suit and becomes Screaming Beauty, She acquires the ability to kill Snake with touch, though how she got that ability is unknown.

Trivia

 * Like the rest of the Beauty and the Beast Unit, Screaming Mantis pays homage to bosses of the previous Metal Gear Solid games. Her name comes from Psycho Mantis, her knives comes from Vamp, and her primary emotion, Screaming, comes from a mixture between the Pain and the Fear.
 * Her appearance is based on the super model Scarlett Chorvat
 * If she is defeated via non-lethal methods, the Screaming Beauty Face Camo is unlocked
 * Screaming Beauty is the only boss in Metal Gear Solid 4 that the main weapon(s) can be acquired during the boss fight.
 * The fight with Screaming Mantis is a complete reference towards the fight with Psycho Mantis. Much like fight Psycho Mantis, there's a health bar for a knocked out Meryl, and if she dies, the result is a game over. Screaming Mantis will also dodge every weapon that Snake uses to fight her. And just like Psycho Mantis, Screaming Mantis with cause the TV screen to black out, or appear that the game has restarted.