[center][img]http://i.imgur.com/Hv4QKCo.jpg?1[/img] [i]“If someone puts their hands on you make sure they never put their hands on anybody else again.” [/i] ― Malcolm X[/center] [b]Your Name:[/b] Byrd Man [b]Character Name:[/b] Luke Cage [b]Character Alias:[/b] Power Man [b]Character Allignment:[/b] Hero [b]Characters Abilities:[/b] Cage has steel hardened skin and super strength. [b]Characters Skills:[/b] A street wise resident of New York City, Cage is adept at going places and making connections with people that conventional authorities cannot. In addition, he is a practicing PI proficient in surveillance and investigative technique. [b]Origin Story:[/b] The story of Luke Cage can be told in verse. The early days are when his life went from bad to worse. Carl Lucas, a would be gangster working around Harlem town, working as a strongarm lackey to that Willis Styrker clown. Styrker had Harlem tight in his grasp, strangling the community with his criminal clasp. Young Luke fell for Lenore, Stryker's sweetheart. Styrker went mad with jealousy, his sanity fell apart. One day Carl was headed home when he got stopped, ya dig? It was two NYPD uniforms and a detective pig. They ran Carl in because an eyeball witness, the man said Carl was around a murder scene the night before and acting suspicious. Carl's fingerprints matched the ones on a piece, so he was arrested for murder by the police. A swift trial commenced, so fast you couldn't blink. The end result was predictable, Carl sentenced to life in the clink. Carl's heart was tortured, his spirit maimed. He knew that he was framed. Ten years in the slammer seemed to rapidly pass, all the while outside Stryker's kingdom gained mass. Losing hope on getting out and his prospects dim, Carl decided to volunteer for a project most grim. An experiment to create the durability of a famous super-soilder ended in disaster thanks to an evil poacher. Carl lay in a science chamber, his body resting, when a vindictive guard broke in to where they were testing. The guard smashed the console and dial. The chamber began sparking, its insides filling with bile. A massive explosion rocked the prison then, a force that was like a keg of dynamite times ten. The guard, the doctor, and the whole experiment were lost in the detonation, nothing could survive that great conflagration. Out of the fiery rubble and debris a lone figure came crawling. It was a naked Carl Lucas who ran, his own ass he was hauling. He ran into the woods to avoid any guards. Through some odd happenstance he was now out behind bars. What's more his whole body seemed unreal. The explosion hadn't hurt him, his body tougher than steel. With new powers at his command and ten years spent spurned, he set his sights for Harlem and home he did return. Once home he started a crusade for payback, Willis Stryker and his criminal rackets were prime for attack. A new life and fresh start he had acquired. Carl Lucas was dead, believed perished in that fire. Soon after coming home he sought out his former love Lenore. He was shattered when he discovered she was no more. She had died six years back, overdosing from mainlining pure smack. He made a promise that day, for letting her die Stryker would pay. Adopting the alias Luke Cage, he tore up Harlem fueled by his powers and rage. It didn't take long for Stryker to get mad. He put out a million dollar hit for Luke Cage, man he wanted that brother reaaal bad. Cage tore trough Styrker's men like butter, setting the residents of Harlem's hearts aflutter. For a long time now they had needed a defender to help them thrive, but Cage didn't want none of that jive! He wasn't a hero to speak for the masses, he just wanted to kick Styrker and his men's asses. Cage dispatched Styrker's men at their nightclub without breaking a sweat. They were the bad mothers, but to him they proved to be no threat. Cage finally set his sights on Styrker, that villain. The two fought each other, both intent on killin'. Stryker tried his best to fight off his former friend, but the steel skinned man was too much to defend. Desperate to kill and half crazed, Stryker decided to kill both he and Cage in a massive blaze. Up went his nightclub in a red hot spire. Nobody was getting out of that fire. If you think that's the end of this story and Cage is dead, then what the hell's wrong with your head? Out of the fire came Cage choking, unharmed and unhurt but his body smoking. While he came out of the fire okay, Stryker had been consumed in the infero's fray. Gathered around the blazing hulk were the people of Harlem so grateful, they were glad to be rid of the crime boss that was so hateful. In the embers of the building Cage watched it burn, while a feeling inside him did churn. His vengeance was complete now that Stryker had died, but he still felt hollow and empty inside. That day Cage made a solemn vow, he would change his life and his ways somehow. From that day forward he decided to work for the people as best he could, writing wrongs and injustices in the 'hood. If you need help and your situation is dire, then you can always call Luke Cage: Hero for Hire. [b]Story Arcs:[/b] Kings of Harlem -- Cage tussles with a gang taking over the streets of Harlem. During the fight, he begins to see links to the kids running the gang and his own troubled past. War, What is it Good For? -- A local store owner hires Cage to fight off an extortion plot by members of the Puerto Rican Army. Soon, Cage in embroiled in the middle of a gang war between the PRA and the Harlem Kings. No Justice No Peace -- High-powered defense attorney Matt Murdock hires Cage to investigate the credibility of a witness in a police-involved shooting case. Cage uncovers a seedy cabal of corrupt cops in the local NYPD precinct. [b]Supporting Cast:[/b] Sgt. Alex Stone -- NYPD squad sergeant and occasional ally. Sister Mercy -- Streetwise junkie and snitch for Cage. Franklin "Foggy" Nelson -- Local defense attorney and routine employer of Cage. Marcus Drayton -- Harlem community activist. [b]Sample Post:[/b] [b]131st Street Harlem[/b] Luke stood on the sidewalk and watched the traffic coming and going. The tension from the afternoon had all but evaporated once news got out that the grand jury on the Alderman case were going to need further time. After a week in deliberation, they were still deadlocked. That didn't bode well for the family of Isiah Hamilton. A deadlocked jury would mean a potential mistrial, which could mean a dismissal of the charges. It was one of the many sneaky ways the criminal justice system could get away with not punishing one of their own. It was why they needed Tommy Drayton more than ever. Luke wasn't foolish enough to think one politician could turn things around overnight, but he knew a guy like Tommy could implement a cultural change that might take a decade to see the benefits of. But incremental change was sure as shit better than what they had right now. "GIVE TO THA LAWD!" Luke had to suppress a laugh when he heard the shrill cry. On the corner of Lennox and 131st street, was Sister Mercy doing her thing. Sister Mercy had been working the corners of Upper Manhattan for nearly twenty years now, dressed in her black nun habit and ringing that bell while she shouted about fire and brimstone and the only way to heaven was to give to the lawd. "'For the love of money is a root of all kinds of evils' First Timothy 6:10, people. GIVE TO THA LAWD!" You wouldn't think it by looking at her, but the sister was without a doubt the best street hustler of all the would-be conmen and scammers operating out on the streets. It didn't hurt that she has a dynamite racket. It takes real balls to impersonate a nun, and the sister had balls. The truth was that sister is a brother by the name of Jackson Coleman. Jackson was a former B&E man who hit the right racket to feed his drug addiction. Luke knew him back before he went to jail, back when he was gangbanger Carl Lucas. They got back in touch after Luke's homecoming and Luke found an unlikely ally in the hustler. From time to time over the years Sister Mercy helped him out with errands and intel for a price. A cross-dressing junkie nun who cons people with a bell and the bible. Luke had to grin. Where else but Harlem? "Say, Sister Mercy," he said as he palmed two twenties and shook the good sister's hand. "What do you know good?" "'Blessed are they who observe justice, who do righteousness at all times', Psalm 106:3," he said loud enough for the pedestrians passing by to hear before whispering. "Luke Cage, my man. What's up, homie? GIVE TO THE LAWD, PEOPLE." "Wondering if you had your ear to the ground on something, Sister. You know Tommy Drayton? Someone tried to snuff him earlier today." Sister Mercy let out a low and soft whistle before returning back to the work of yelling about damnation and monetary salvation. She thanked a passerby as they tossed a dollar into the bucket at her feet. After a few moments of thought, she finally shook his head. "That's out of my range, brother. Politics and shit. You need a Day of the Jackal-type motherfucker to pull off something like that. I just know about hustlers. It's been quiet the last few weeks around Harlem, far as any action is concerned." "What about your network? All those homeless fools." Sister Mercy stopped ringing her bell for a second before she nodded. "Joe the Bum. He's a homeless guy that bottom feeds by hanging around political campaigns. He gets a few sandwiches here and there for running errands and wearing signs at rallies. I think he was hanging out around Drayton and his people. He may have seen something. I'll run him down for you." "You better, Sister. I don't want to kick a nun's ass." "I do what I can nigga," she whispered softly. "I'll be here tomorrow morning with Joe the Bum." "Sister, I could kiss you..." "'But I say to you that everyone who looks at a woman with lustful intent has already committed adultery with her in his heart,' Matthew 5:28, brother. Repent and GIVE TO THA LAWD!" Luke laughed and started home to Jess and Dani. It'd been a long day, and he had a pretty big task in front of him. Sister Mercy was right that this kind of case seemed a bit out of his range. He wasn't a political intrigue guy. But he was a Harlem guy. Harlem was where Drayton was from and that was where they'd tried to kill him. This was a Harlem crime, and when it came to Harlem crimes he was very much in his depth.