[h1][center][color=Yellow][u]MARVEL: KNIGHTS OF NEW YORK[/u][/color][/center][/h1]

[center][url=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dM5sIBIRDLQ]Mood Music[/url][/center]

[h3][color=Yellow][b][center]Luke Cage[/center][/b][/color][/h3]
[center][img]https://i.imgur.com/2AS5Ea1.jpg?1[/img][/center]

[h3][center][u][color=Yellow]CHARACTER BIO:[/color][/u][/center][/h3]
[color=Yellow][b]Real Name:[/b][/color] Carlton Lucas
[color=Yellow][b]Age:[/b][/color] 30's
[color=Yellow][b]Gender:[/b][/color] Male
[color=Yellow][b]Powers, Abilities, and Gear:[/b][/color] Cage has steel hardened skin and super strength.
[color=Yellow][b]Origin:[/b][/color]

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-soldier 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.


[h3][center][u][color=Yellow]STORY INFO:[/color][/u][/center][/h3]

[color=Yellow][b]High Concept:[/b][/color] I want to tell stories about Luke Cage, Harlem, and street heroic in the same vein of guys like Chester Himes, Walter Mosley, and Ross Macdonald. 

[color=Yellow][b]Motivation and Conflict:[/b][/color] Cage is in business to help people. He learned the hard way what happens when you lead a bad life and wants to atone for the sins of his pass by making up for it with good deed.

[color=Yellow][b]Notes:[/b][/color] 

[i]Supporting cast: [/i]

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. 

[center][h3][u][color=Yellow]PLAYER INFO:[/color][/u][/h3][/center]

[b][color=Yellow]Player Name:[/color][/b] Byrd Man.

[b][color=Yellow]Preferred Contact Method:[/color][/b] PM

[b][color=Yellow]Why [i]This[/i] Character?:[/color][/b] Cage is one of my favorite Marvel heroes period, and especially a favorite among the street level. Been a while since I rocked him. So, Sweet Christmas!

[b][color=Yellow]What Can You Bring to the RPG?:[/color][/b] A reliable player who has been writing this character off and on for ten years and knows how to write him, at least a version of him I guess.