Neutral Good | Acts cute but could actually kill you | Power hungry
He's known as Death Rider in the law enforcement environment because of his unique ability: sucking out any remaining energy from dead bodies to power himself up.
Story:Before...Hawk Jeremy Storm was born in Cuba, into a middle-class family, and is the third of four children. At the age of six, he discovered his extraordinary power: he had the ability to anesthetize and immobilize anyone with a simple touch for a minimum of seven seconds, interrupting the communication between the nerves and the brain. He begins to practice using his skill and discovers that the duration of the paralysis is closely related to his mood. The happier he is, the longer his victim's immobility time will be.When he turns ten his parents enroll him in a special course for superheroes, which in Cuba are called "State mastiffs", receiving a large cash prize from the Cuban state, which is always looking for talented young people. Hawk is easily accepted into the program and receives a higher level of education than most normal citizens, learning to speak and write fluently in English and Russian, among other things. At the age of sixteen, having obtained a temporary superhero license, Hawk is sent to Lebanon to retrieve two journalists held hostage. He brilliantly overcomes the mission and brings the two journalists home. He will later discover that his superiors were hoping that the two journalists couldn't actually be saved by someone like a sixteen-years old boy with a power so closely related to his mood: he had in fact been sent only to show the people that measures were being taken regarding the abduction of ordinary citizens; the two journalists were considered troublesome figures, being in possession of "dangerous" informations regarding President Alejandro Composta, who was preparing for a sensational coup d'état that would have marked the beginning of a tyrannical dictatorship. Hawk collects information, and in the meantime the two journalists seem to have disappeared into thin air. Only the body of one of them will be found two years later, but Hawk won't know about it: he's entirely absorbed in study and work, exhausted, but always happy. At eighteen he becomes one of President Composta's bodyguards and is proud of his work. A few months later he witnesses a massacre of innocents (officially declared "subversives") ordered by the president himself and decides to rebel, sure that he has not become a State mastiff to support a tyranny, but to protect the helpless. He is shaken, heartbroken, and the images of the massacre will remain etched in his memory for decades. He kills in cold blood the militia leader who led the assault and then, one after the other, with method, the rest of the team: he breaks into their rooms while they're asleep, in the barracks, paralyzes them with the power of his touch and guts them with a stab. He cries for three days after doing it and promises himself never to do something like this again. He breaks his promise less than a week later when he tries to kill President Composta. Unfortunately he is discovered by one of the guards and stopped in the act of stabbing Alejandro Composta in the eye, but manages to escape. He hides in the countryside, where he feeds on tubers, wild vegetables and rats for more than four weeks. He's skilled and, thanks to his long training and his intelligence, he manages to evade the teams that were searching for him. Arriving at the fifth week, he meets another fugitive: it's Adolfo Seresto, one of the two journalists he saved at sixteen. Adolfo promises him his help, revealing that he is about to leave the country thanks to the help of some friends, and return to the only place where no one would look for him: that is, back to Lebanon. The two flee and Hawk moves to Lebanon where he remains for over twenty years. When Hawk Storm turns 38, President Alejandro Composta dies in a disastrous plane crash with his private jet, along with his two children. Hawk decides to finally return to his homeland, where he hopes to be able to hug his parents again. He discovers that his mother is dead, but his father welcomes him back with open arms. The country appears to be slowly returning to normal with the re-election of a moderate president, Ernesto Moriava, and Hawk Storm returns to practice as a State mastiff. Peace seems to have returned to Hawk's life as he proudly works for the country he loves for eleven more years. His father always makes fun of him for the strange mixture of accents he speaks with, a little Cuban, a little Spanish and, above all, a lot of Lebanese dialect, but he doesn't take offence for it. Hawk becomes a regular guest on the prime-time television program “Family Evening”, where he tells the youngest about his incredible adventures and how he catches criminals without hurting them at all. After his first murders, at the age of eighteen, he no longer dared to hurt anyone and has always worked to ensure that arrests were made in complete safety for both agents and criminals. Life seems to smile at him, when suddenly everything falls apart: the president is assassinated and a group of ex-mastiffs loyal to Composta takes the power by rigging the elections (quite blatantly), and revealing that one of the tyrant's heirs is still alive: it is Alejandro's youngest daughter, Carmencita Composta. The country finds itself in chaos. Carmencita is an iron-fisted queen, capricious and even worse than her father, determined not to leave any freedom to her people. Hawk cannot resist: he is wanted again and the radios, televisions and posters, in an act of merciless propaganda, designate him as the enemy of the people. Together with a group of other politically persecuted, he leaves for the United States. The sea is rough, the waves rise violently, but they cannot be postponed: the poor fugitives are chased by a real warship, which will soon be upon them, and the only way they have to save themselves is to reach the safe American territory, where they will ask for asylum. The ship, if you can call it a limping little boat with a few meters of space below deck for more than twenty people, will never arrive... or at least not whole: the storm crashes with fury against a cliff, destroying it and killing almost all the passengers. Hawk Storm is one of the few to have survived and would really prefer not to be, because he wakes up in a hospital bed, completely paralyzed from the neck down. He calls for a merciful death, but the nurses keep telling him not to worry, because "he will be replaced". He has no idea what that means, but every hour feels like hell to him. | |||||
... AfterAfter a week, Hawk is joined by a federal agent, who explains to him that a replacement is about to happen and that he was fortunately selected for that practice. "What does that mean?" Hawk asks, confused and in pain, his face still covered in bruises and cuts. "It means" Replies the agent "That there is a criminal who has been sentenced to death. We don't kill them, those sentenced to death, we replace them: we take your spirit, your soul, and we put it inside him in place of the one he had before. We have specialists who can do it. So, let's save you and his body as well. Do you understand, caballero?". He is anesthetized, his spirit is extracted as a ghost and then dissipated, and Hawk Storm's is shoved in its place. Hawk wakes up in a body that isn't his own, lean and nervous, not even in his twenties, with a mass of unruly brown curls and pianist's hands. It takes months to get used to not being himself, until he can finally see his own expressions in those young alien features and realizes that he's still him, only with many more years to live in front of him. Oh, and of course with a completely different power: what was Jonathan Livingston's ability, absorbing the energy of the dead, becomes his. Hawk passes the exams in the new country, without any problems and with flying colors, to join the superhero task force and begin practicing the profession under the name of Death Rider. He doesn't kill anyone: he only uses the energy of people who already died in scuffles in which he wasn't involved and, thanks to the increased strength it gives him, he'll stop criminals. WIth the money he earns from his salary, he has a field day buying dozens of suits and a delightful little house to live in. He become the sidekick, or helper, of one of America's most famous super stars: Alastor Sutcliffe, known as "Incarnate Death". The fact that one is called Death Rider and the other Incarnate Death gives rise to a series of gossips that he, amused by this little game, never denies, even if the two names are in no way related. Hawk starts becoming incredibly popular thanks to his frequent appearances on rescue teams and his good looks. Often invited to increasingly famous television lounges, he delights viewers with shrewd jokes and amuses them with his distinctive accent. All his life he's been forced to be happy, trained meticulously to think only of good things to make his old power work, and now that he really has something to be happy about he's bursting with glee. He ends up singing often and discovers that the body that belonged to Jonathan Livingston has a beautiful voice, so he records his first CD turning his most brutal experiences into cheerful rhythm songs, giving voice to the pain he had inside once, when he had to force himself to smile even when he was terrified and angry, otherwise his power wouldn't work. The fifty year old in a twenty year old body becomes famous throughout the country. No one knows his true age, because the replacement is a strictly confidential process, so everyone believes he's just a talented British immigrant. Experiencing firsthand how much the power of his new body was superior to the old one, and then observing the gap in innate abilities between the young and the previous generations, he elaborates the "superboomer theory", which he expounds in a successful essay that comes soon considered by countless private companies wishing to better exploit the power of children. Hawk begins to collaborate with the FBI Academy in Quantico, for the training of the youngest: a stimulating job, which satisfies him deeply and which always puts him in front of new challenges. Three or four times a month he is joined by tenured professors to help the kids understand the true extent of their powers and organizes large and elaborate simulations of confrontations with real criminals. Here he meets Valder and Anya Philippus, two young mixed-race siblings, brother and sister, with the ability to transform the physical appearances of their closest relatives and therefore to mutually change their bodies. Hawk is fascinated by it: the transformative powers he has seen so far have always been terribly bland and furthermore only reflective, capable of transforming the wearer's body, but never someone else's. The superhero takes the two under his protective wing and begins to meet them more and more often even outside school hours... it's during a little trip out of town, however, that the tragedy occurs. Hawk Storm had decided to reward his favorite class by taking them to see a famous ice cream museum, but at the end of the visit, walking all together on the way back, they met Brainstorm (Brainstorm was the name that was at that time of Werhunter, the most fearsome criminal in American history) intent on tearing apart a group of people at an animal rights demonstration, thanks to the help of his gigantic robot armor that seems inspired by a Japanese cartoon. Hawk first tries to take the class away, afraid that something bad might happen to them, when a large chunk of one of the buildings next to them collapses. Brainstorm is battling Dr. Cosmos, a civilian with super power that allows her to exhibit monstrous strength, as well as a dozen armed agents. The violent struggle undermines the stability of a part of the building, which hits students on a trip and kills one almost immediately. Instantly, Hawk Storm absorbs his energy: he has no other choice, since his body automatically feeds on the strength of the dead who are less than six meters away from him. With adrenaline flowing through his veins and a renewed strength, he frees the only three students who were trapped from the rubble, while the others flee. One of them has a broken leg, the other two are bleeding but it doesn't seem to be anything serious. The two lightly injured are Anya and Valder: she was hit in the mouth, he is covered with scratches and keeps one eye closed. What he sees infuriates Hawk, who runs towards Brainstorm to help the agents stop him, absorbing the strength of all the people who have already been killed by the criminal along the way. Overflowing with power, he tries to pull back the leg of the very high armor-robot, but Brainstorm crushes him to the ground with a single fist planted firmly against his lower back. Hawk Storm passes out and Brainstorm leaves him alone, believing him dead. In the next few minutes, the supercriminal will be defeated and arrested. Anya and Valder don't run away with the other boys: they believe that, despite being squashed like a gnat and the blood that comes out of his mouth has made a pool around his head, Hawk is still alive. The two are right and are able to transport him to the nearest hospital, where he is saved. Upon awakening, Hawk finds his two favorite students by the bed. She lost a canine and is just glad it didn't get any worse. Valder lost an eye: he could have avoided it if he had been treated immediately, but he had been protecting Hawk for too long, so the pressure caused by the trauma in his eyeball had increased so much that it had to be removed. Hawk also came out of it far from unharmed: his kidneys were literally pulped, one barely functioning, the other removed. He'll have to undergo dialysis for the rest of his life if he can't find a kidney transplant. He also received terrible spinal trauma, and survived only thanks to the force infused by his own power into the muscles at the base of his back, but he will have to undergo surgery if he is to walk again. He hugs Anya and Valder, thanks them for saving their life, mourns their suffering and his own. He is relieved to know that at least Brainstorm has been captured. After a few hours, Brainstorm escapes and the police lose track of him. The spine surgery is fine and in a short time Hawk returns to walking, then running, and finally resumes his super activity. He is advised to stop working as a superhero, considering that he no longer needs it (he has collected a hefty premium from insurance and can continue to live comfortably thanks to his earnings in the music world) and that he is forced to undergo about three hemodialysis sessions each week, lasting nearly four hours each, which clearly interfere heavily with his superhero activity, as well as his strict diet and fluid intake regimen. He refuses. When Anya and Valder turn eighteen, he hires them as his helpers or “sidekicks” and, if possible, his career becomes even more brilliant. His illness remains a secret: Anya and Valder, transforming themselves into perfect copies of him, show up in public when Hawk is forced to his dialysis sessions. In short, Anya and Valder fall in love with him: it seems that the relationship of simple friendship, or even just of adoration towards that strong, altruistic and brilliant man is not enough. Both confess their love. Both are, without hesitation, accepted and become his lovers. And that's when Hawk informs them both of his new plan: to capture Brainstorm/Werhunter. But doing so won't be easy and he will need all the help he can get, so a reform is needed that will allow him to use the powers of the new Superboomers. What animates him is a ferocious desire for revenge: he wants to avenge the wounds of Anya and Valder, as well as the life of the boy who died during that sad day, but above all he wants to rip Werhunter's kidneys to finally receive the transplant that a list of waiting too long would preclude him for several years to come. | |||||
He likes | He dislikes | ||
❤ Music, singing, dancing ❤ His sidekicks ❤ The energy rush he gets when he can use his power ❤ Winning ❤ Crocodiles ❤ His own face ❤ Ermines ❤ Clothes that are formal but colorful ❤ Kissing and hugging his friends ❤ Buying gifts for people | 💔 Sam Bedstone 💔 Being tied up with ropes 💔 Racist people 💔 Death metal 💔 Crying (especially in public) 💔 Boys with heavy makeup 💔 Being quiet | ||
| |||
Skills
| ||||||||||||
Gallery of images (Click to enlarge!)
| | |||||
With Valder, Cherry and Anya | With Valder, Cherry and Anya | |||||
|
| |||||
|
| |||||
| ||||||
| + | + | ||||
+ | + | + |
All the drawings in this page (e probably in all the other pages, if not differently specified) were realized by our artists, Furiarossa e Mimma. You can see more of their works and support them on their Patreon page. Become patrons of the arts!