Ghost Owl
But he wasn't alone. A kid in a hoodie, couldn't have been any older than sixteen, was huddled up against a nearby wall, shivering, not from the cold - he didn't even feel the cold, not now - but from the shock and horror of what he'd just seen. From the anger of allowing it to happen. It was a Christmas he'd never forget. Chances are, you know how it goes: a good man dies, a bad man lives, a newborn vigilante, angry, screaming, is baptised in blood. Old tale, played out a thousand times over. But it has punch. It resonates. And you have to make allowances for the classics.
Nevertheless, this time around it seems somebody got bored with the same old script, demanded a last-minute twist thrown in. So a sharp-eyed observer - not that there any other witnesses that night, sharp-eyed or otherwise - would have noticed the kid was clutching something, staring down at it with the sort of wide eyed disbelief typically reserved for first-time alien encounters. It was a .45 revolver, and it had five bullets chambered. A spent shell casing, still warm, lay in the snow not three feet away. No prizes for guessing where the rest would be found.
| Ghost Owl | ||||||||||
| Player: @Uberturnip | ||||||||||
| ||||||||||
| "Quiet night. I intend to keep it that way." | ||||||||||
| Biographical Data | ||||||||||
| Real Name: | Jacob Stele | |||||||||
| Known Aliases: | None | |||||||||
| Gender: | Male | |||||||||
| Species: | Human | |||||||||
| Ethnicity: | American | |||||||||
| Place of Birth: | Hudson City | |||||||||
| Base of Operations: | Various hidden safehouses | |||||||||
| Relatives: | Estranged | |||||||||
| Characteristics | ||||||||||
| Age: | 32 | |||||||||
| Height: | 6'4 | |||||||||
| Weight: | approx. 230 pounds | |||||||||
| Eyes: | Brown | |||||||||
| Hair: | Brown | |||||||||
| Complexion: | Fair | |||||||||
| Physical Build: | Muscular | |||||||||
| Physical Features: | Strong jawline, permastubble, weary eyes, at least one minor injury | |||||||||
| Status | ||||||||||
| Alignment: |
Chaotic Good | |||||||||
| Reputation: |
Imposing | |||||||||
| Identity: | Secret | |||||||||
| Years Active: | 13 | |||||||||
| Citizenship: | American | |||||||||
| Occupation: | Lab technician at Westside Morgue | |||||||||
| Education: | College dropout | |||||||||
| Marital Status: | Single | |||||||||
| Known Powers and Abilities | ||||||||||
| -ESP enabling interaction with spirits and related phenomena
-Peak human physical conditioning -Mastery of various martial arts styles -Expert traceur and acrobat -Skilled (if unorthodox) detective -Knowledgeable in covert tactics and psychological warfare | ||||||||||
| Equipment and Paraphernalia | ||||||||||
| Extensive arsenal of tools and gadgets including but not limited to:
- Armoured bodysuit - Kevlar helmet featuring air filter, adaptable lenses & integral comm suite - Bracers housing retractable talons - Memory cloth glider cape - Heavy-duty linegun - Utility belt containing miscallaneous tools and gadgets - Jet-assisted glider for long distance travel | ||||||||||
| ReldinBoxMini Template | ||||||||||
History
An anonymous vigilante made his big debut on the Hudson crimefighting scene in the spring of 1962 - and he knew how to make an entrance. The police who later raided the dockside warehouse found a metric tonne of cocaine, a small army of thugs with an entire medical encyclopedia's worth of injuries evenly distributed amongst them - inclduing one Marco Narcelli, notorious underboss of the Danovicci crime family. Narcelli had suffered the additional humiliation of being covered in feathers and hung upside down from the rafters. During an interview, he described his assailant as 'some psycho in an owl costume'. For the next few months, the papers, local news networks and street gossip were all abuzz with speculation, rumours and alleged sightings of the mysterious new crimefighter. He didn't stay anonymous for long.
"...man reportedly dressed as an owl foiled a bank robbery..."
"...no hostages were harmed..."
"...the would-be victim Fred Highfield, 46, described his rescuer as 'a ghost'..."
"...We don't care what 'good' he thinks he's doing. This Owlman, he gets caught breaking the law and he goes down..."
"...don't he realise Halloween ain't for another four months..."
"...HCPD commissioner issued a warrant for the masked vigilante's arrest..."
"...just another crook with an entitlement complex..."
"...a real hero..."
"...another sighting of Hudson's very own ghost owl..."
"...Ghost Owl..."
Ghost Owl. It was the papers that saddled him with the name. Maybe it wasn't what he'd have chosen for himself but he never raised any objections. Not to the name or anything else - the see-sawing opinions of the press, the arrest warrants, the public denouncements and whispered praise; none of it mattered. He just continued his silent war, making his presence felt across the city, and left everyone else to draw their own conclusions.
Maybe he sought a worthy successor, maybe he had a soft spot for strays or maybe he simply wanted someone to make the tea after a long day cracking skulls. For whatever reason, the mid-eighties saw Ghost Owl break a lifelong habit and take a sidekick under his wing: a teenager who dubbed himself Kid Strigid. A bright boy, exceptionally gifted - smart, brave, loyal, tough; everything a veteran crimefighter could possibly want in a protege. But the Kid was ultimately cast from a very different mold than his dour mentor - his outspoken views and optimistic (if naive) worldview made him the darling of the media, a veritable poster child for Hudson's cadre of vigilantes. To no-one's great surprise, he grew into a fine young man, a formidable street warrior in his own right - it was only a matter of time before the aging Ghost Owl (he must've been, what, in his fifties by now?) would surrender his cape and utility belt to a new generation.
And then, entirely without warning, the Kid went stark raving mad and tried to murder his mentor. And very nearly succeeded.
The reason for Kid Strigid's treachery and descent into lunacy remains unclear to this day, although there is substantial evidence to suspect brainwashing and the involvement of Owl's long-term nemesis and criminal strategist-for-hire Checkmate. At the time, it was believed by all parties that Ghost Owl had perished in the ambush - he'd been riddled with bullets and left for dead. And to add insult to the injury, his hideout was exposed and ransacked by every two-bit goon with a grudge. Kid Strigid - who had since taken for himself the absurdly appropriate appellation King Cuckoo - took advantage of his former mentor's absence and set about putting everything he'd learned to good use, carving a niche for himself in Hudson's bloated underworld.
Ghost Owl, miraculously rejuvenated, appeared to put an abrupt end to his former protege's deranged ambition. After a bloody set of skirmishes, King Cuckoo found himself confined to a psychiatric ward. And that was where he met his end at the hands of a grief-stricken nurse, seeking revenge for the death of a lover caught in the crossfire. The matter of the mysterious fatal overdose was ruled a 'suicide' and subsequently forgotten about. Hudson Asylum takes care of its psychopaths.