C H A R A C T E R C O N C E P T P R O P O S A LPSI-RIDER
Johnny Renault♦ Male ♦ 20 ♦ Ontario, Canada
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C H A R A C T E R C O N C E P T:
"Witty Quote"
Johnny spent most of his life in the great white north, enjoying the winter as any sane Canadian has to do to survive. However, Johnny’s first love was the track. CASCAR was Johnny’s favourite thing to watch even before he could walk, whether it was the rumbling of the engines or the action of the colourful cars whizzing by it didn’t matter; Johnny loved racing. That being said, Johnny wasn’t all that smart or skilled. He’d managed to run in some pee-wee go-karting leagues as he grew older but he was normally running at the back of the pack if he hand’t crashed yet. He wasn’t deterred though, continuing to race all throughout his life and even dropping out of grade ten to pursue it more. The racer wannabe got better as time went on but he was never good enough to get into the big local leagues. In a last ditch effort Johnny moved to America, getting his citizenship and traveling the country and racing in some more popular smaller leagues in the hopes of getting ‘discovered’.
He got discovered alright and nobody big wanted to work with him. People found Johnny had an uncanny knack for knowing what move other drivers were going to pull but aside from his seemingly supernatural intuition Johnny wasn’t anything special. Going back North to live with his parents during the off season, Johnny was finally coming to terms with his inability to compete in his dream occupation. In a saddened stupor, Johnny took a walk one night to the old local track he used to watch the now cancelled CASCAR races. The track had seen better days, mostly only being rented out for rich people’s fun rather than running any actual races. Johnny sat down in the stands like he had so many times before and began considering what route to take his life in now.
That’s when the sky lit up.
It was like the sun had risen in an instant as something big and hot landed on the infield of the track with a relatively light landing. Johnny felt drawn to the ship, a mutual sadness he felt with it made him feel pity for the unidentified flying object. The ship seemed to be melting but with a weak effort, a hatch was opened and Johnny went inside, uncharacteristically keen on helping whoever it was that seemed to be messing with his head. Inside there was nothing but a set of alien looking controls and a seat. Johnny turned to leave, thinking the owner had left through another exit, but he stopped as the track was once more lit up with spot light from encroaching helicopters, armed to the teeth. The door out shut before Johnny could make his way out but Johnny didn’t miss a beat as he made his way to the controls and took a seat, feeling the forgiven sadness he once felt turn to fear. This ship was the thing messing with his head and at the moment their goals of getting out of there lined up. Johnny immediately knew he had no idea how the controls of this machine worked but sensing this, the ship began to contort. It wasn’t a quick process but by the time the helicopter got over head, Johnny began to recognize the shapes of a steering wheel and pedals in the ship.
Johnny drove the alien ship out of the track that night, the ship staying at a street level as the duo ripped through the area and eventually evading the helicopters. By the time their ride together was over, Johnny’s UFO was much more identifiable. It seemed to be a hodgepodge of cars; handles of a Javelin, nose of a 77’ firebird, and an assortment of other odds and ends. To most the care would be an ugly mess but at the moment it was the most beautiful machine Johnny had ever seen. Over the coming months Johnny grew to love the machine, keeping it well maintained, hidden in his parents’ garage and street racing it at night. Johnny began to get a bit of a legend around him and his dream machine, deciding to go for his own moniker like Racer-X when operating the vehicle. During his golden months of driving, Johnny began to feel some unrest from The Car. Wanting to get to the bottom of why his new pride and joy was bummed, Johnny swallowed his pride and began ‘meditating’ in the car, figuring that would help him get a better feel for the machines feelings. This didn’t work too well but after witnessing a mugging during a race, Johnny knew exactly what was up. The Car had a pretty strong sense of right and wrong evidently and wanted to do good evidently. That night was the first night of Psi-Rider’s career in super heroics, getting his ass beat in as the other victim fled. Despite his bruises and probable internal bleeding, Johnny couldn’t help but feel good doing good, whether that was a side effect from The Car’s own feelings or because he had found his second calling in life. Psi-Rider’s acts eventually put him on the Renegade’s map who invited the hero from the great white north to join their squad. Psi-Rider was going international.
Schmuck: Johnny’s a better than average driver. In a normal car he’ll given anyone short of a professional driver a run for their money in a race (drag, road, or otherwise) but with The Car Johnny is a bona fide prodigy. Aside from Johnny’s surprisingly good intuition, he has no supernatural powers of his own and relies heavily on The Car for super heroics.
The Car: Secretly nicknamed Carly, The Car is an alien quasi-biological-ship-turned-street-machine that Johnny has bonded with. The Car is capable of changing its shape and configurations on the fly, shrinking down to a motorcycle of growing to the size of a minivan at times. It has limited weapon capabilities, mostly including a small arrangement of lasers and creating spiked surfaces or reinforced sections. Its biggest boon to Johnny is it’s ability to bestow some low level telepathy, allowing Johnny to predict the actions of most living creatures which really helps the inapt superhero. (
C H A R A C T E R M O T I V A T I O N S & G O A L S:
Johnny has a some insecurity about his skill behind the wheel and seeks to prove his mettle to the world by rip and roaring till he can accumulate enough fans to justify himself in his own eyes. Another point of concern in Johnny’s life is his motivations for super heroics. He won’t admit it but Johnny has doubts about his willingness to help others is genuine or only a psychic result of his dream machine. Later on I’d like to have Johnny figure out more about the origins of The Car and face an evil version down the line ala KARR vs KITT.
C H A R A C T E R N O T E S:
Johnny knows next to nothing about mainstream superheroes, only really knowing of Superman, Batman, and Green Lantern (he’s pretty sure there’s only one).
R E L A T I O N S H I P S:
1x Laugh
