[hider=Matthew Cole Sykes][center][img]https://media.istockphoto.com/photos/teenager-with-afro-hair-style-picture-id1042424400?k=6&m=1042424400&s=612x612&w=0&h=E6YMIj4RFZyaOdUM8c07ef6APoqTDKTzjysNak_iOP0=[/img]

[h3][i][color=brown]"Y'all think you can get away with murder? Now y'all really on some shit."[/color][/i][/h3]

[youtube]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FeasN3Nl-6Y[/youtube][/center]

[color=brown][b]Name:[/b][/color] Matthew Cole Sykes

[color=brown][b]Alias:[/b][/color] Home Run

[color=brown][b]Gender:[/b][/color] Male

[color=brown][b]Age:[/b][/color] 20

[color=brown][b]Looks:[/b][/color] Cole stand at a respectable 5' 9", with a lean, bordering on a wiry frame. But the toned muscle in his arms and legs are evidence of his strength. He maintains a head of frizzy brown hair and his skin is a deep, dark chocolate brown, just like his eyes. Cole's normal clothing choices are (almost always) a varsity jacket (black torso, white sleeves and accents) over a simple t-shirt, usually plain in design or emblazoned with any manner of "gangster"-type logos and designs, with denim jeans and sneakers. If his varsity jacket isn't available, he usually has a sleeveless baseball jersey that he wears underneath a generic hoodie of some form and design. There is always a faux gold chain around his neck, not the low-hanging variety but an actual necklace on which hangs a small locket and a small pendant in the shape of a baseball. If he's going out for a day to skate or hang out with friends, he almost always has a backpack with his skateboard strapped to the front, which hangs loosely from his shoulders.

His eventual costume is very similar to his civilian gear, except with a clear baseball theme: a proper baseball jersey or one of his varsity jackets, gloves, cleats and pants, along with a balaclava that he wears underneath a catcher's mask to conceal his identity. He also wears elbow and knee pads to help him with sliding or protecting his joints.

[color=brown][b]Occupation:[/b][/color] Cashier at a 7/11.

[color=brown][b]Personality:[/b][/color] Cole was brought up as a loyal young man who was taught to respect his elders and pay attention in class. Things he promptly forgot when he broke through into his late teens, instead developing a rather storied hatred for authority and a disdain for adult figures in general. But the lessons he learned about loyalty still remained, and as such, he is very loyal to those he considers as friends. The cliques he was a part of in high school and the few friends he has at the skate parks and batting cages of Long Beach all tell the same story: that Cole was always there whenever friends gathered to eat or to hang out, and that he was an integral part of their friendships and lives. He cares about his friends and sometimes goes to absurd lengths to check on them or to make sure they're okay, often flexing what street cred he has to ensure his buddies don't get harassed by the wrong people.

[color=brown][b]Backstory:[/b][/color] Unlike many of his friends, Cole wasn't raised in the better districts of Long Beach. Rather, he grew up in near-poverty, scrimping and saving with his two brothers and two sisters to get by while his mom and dad raised their big family as best as they could. When he was growing up and attending school with his siblings, he was often picked on for being small in size compared to his elder brothers who towered over him in his teens. But he got by, learning how to fight and how to be tough in order to stand up to any would-be bullies, impressing his brothers and infuriating his teachers and parents.

But things wouldn't always be smooth for young Cole. One of his brothers, disillusioned with the lack of promise that his life had, decided to drop out of school and become a gangster. A criminal. He would often be gone from home for extended periods of time, and the times that he did return was to beg for money from his parents or to sleep off whatever drug-induced hangover he was recovering from that day. It stressed out his mother, angered his father, and made his other siblings worried for his safety. But Cole was also an impressionable youth; he saw his brother's acts as being "tough" and becoming the man he always wanted to be, and the young boy followed in his elder brother's footsteps as soon as he could, embroiling himself in the same gang and becoming a delinquent. By the time he was 17, he was a local legend in his school, having almost been arrested by cops several times for noise disturbances and defacing public property. All while maintaining healthy friendships in school and a good interest in track and field and sports. With ill-gotten gains that were never discovered by his parents, gotten through stealing and fencing minor goods, he got his own skateboard and a second-hand baseball bat to further fuel his legitimate hobbies.

However, there was one event that turned his life around for the better, a tragedy that shaped the rest of his school days forever. His elder brother, a full fledged gangbanger, was gunned down by a rival gang in retaliation for a territory grab and dissing their leader. He died before he could even reach the hospital. Distraught and traumatised, Cole could only watch as his family struggled not to fall apart, bearing the wrath of his father for having followed in his dead brother's footsteps. That was when he swore off the gang business, threw in all his cards and tried to turn his life around. He cut ties with whatever criminal elements he was in contact with and attempted to focus on his studies, with some measure of success. He graduated, at the very least, and kept up with his skateboarding and baseball hobbies, but his prospects were...limited. But Cole had one goal in mind: baseball. He loved the sport and saw himself, one day, as being a player in a Major League team, representing his team and playing in the big leagues. That goal, however, was still far away, but he didn't care. The young man got a job as a cashier to help pay for batting cage practice and saving up to, just maybe, get membership in a smaller league to play for his city and not be the former delinquent he used to be.

[color=brown][b]Skills/Weapons:[/b][/color][list]
[*] Agility and Speed; having hobbies that involved athletics meant that Cole was always on top form, physically. Running track, playing baseball and keeping up with the latest skate tricks all required him to maintain himself physically and that has carried over to his new adult life.
[*] Street Smarts; Cole's been there, on those dirty streets, being a juvenile delinquent in high school and mixing with the wrong crowd. Sure, he's learned his lesson and doesn't hang out in those places any more, but that doesn't mean he's lost his touch in identifying places where criminals like to roam.
[*] Skateboarder; Cole loves to skateboard and it is one of his favourite past times, right up there with playing baseball. 
[*] Batting Strength; physically training himself to one day become a professional baseball players meant hours of practice spent in indoor batting cages in Long Beach, or playing pick-up games with other locals in small diamonds. But he's trained himself to hit one hell of a home run, even though he isn't at the professional level yet.
[*] Weapons - Louisville P72 Slugger/Element Calavera Skateboard; his two prized possessions. An aluminium baseball bat adorned with stickers of various baseball teams, and a skateboard from Element with his own custom design on the bottom.
[/list]

[color=brown][b]Other:[/b][/color] Cole loves music and listens to it almost constantly on his phone on a pair of off-white, Apple earbud knock-offs.[/hider]