Hero Origins

Pawn

I wasn't always mute, I was just taught that I didn't have a say in anything earlier on in my childhood. I lived with my mom, my father died shortly after I was born so it was just the two of us for a while. We lived in the city and she worked her butt off to provide for me, I still spent time with her and had a normal childhood. 

One day she met Hank, cool guy, fun attitude and worked in some business company so he was well off. They started spending a lot of time together and I saw my mom get happy, my father dying really took a lot out of her so it was the first time I felt like she didn't have to feel so bad. We would go on trips and do fun things like movies and game parks, things were pretty cool for me as a kid. Hank was starting to fill the place of my father figure. 

A few years later, I was ten, I had woken up one night to a noise downstairs, when I got to the stairs I heard Hank and my mom arguing. It was innocent at first, something they could have moved passed. I made my way to the kitchen and that's when I saw Hank hit my mom for the first time. She realized I was there and immediately grabbed me and took me back to bed, Hank yelled he wasn't done talking. 

My mom tucked me in and told me he didn't mean it, I went to bed not really knowing what all was going on and what it really meant. The next few months to two years I had seen bruises on my mom, she would make excuses and get defensive if I asked about them. I didn't want to be around Hank that much anymore since I knew what he was doing and the bribes weren't enough. Secretly I signed up for martial arts classes and just told them I was playing sports at school. 

One of my best friends at the time was from Japan and his dad did some exercises with a real samurai sword. We had snuck in to watch him one day and he got kind of mad. At this point his dad was a better fit than Hank. Soon after turning fifteen Hank decided I had graduated to being another target and eventually left some bruises on me, a good bit of self defense was involved but it made him even more angry. My friend's father noticed and asked me about it, I was honest and he asked if I knew how to fight. I told him I did and showed him what I was taught from classes. He thought it was impressive and offered to teach me more. 

Eventually I learned to stay quiet in movements which allowed me to sneak up and watch more of what was going on at home. My fighting improved and soon he asked if I'd be willing to learn sword technique. I told him I would so we began that training as well. My birthday came and to my surprise I was given my own sword to practice with and do exercises of my own, the blade was definitely sharpened. 

Six months later I had gotten home from school and heard my mother scream, I walked in on Hank beating and kicking her. I jumped in and tried fighting him, managing a few punches hardly did anything, he was significantly bigger than me. When he threw me off of him I had to find another means of protecting my mom. I ran upstairs to get the sword, I pulled it on him and he laughed at me. He put his hands on my mom again and I cut his hand clean off. Throwing me again to get me away from him but I got back up. He tried rushing me so I used some training and slid under him and when I had the chance I stabbed the sword right into the back of one of his kidneys. 

We had to go to court about the situation and once the judge saw all the bruises and history of breaks and fractures they had my neighbor testify and a few other people. They ruled in self defense as protection for me and my mom. The other good news was that because my mom and Hank had actually married, she got everything he had since he died. Now my mom lives a quiet life with all his money and she doesn't get beat up anymore. 

I myself refused to speak after that since it was traumatic and I didn't want anyone connecting the dots to why I had the sword. It felt like a better option than getting my friends dad in trouble since he helped me! I learned American Sign Language and get by just fine, now I fight the bad guys and villains that want to treat others just the same. The Warrior Legion is a pretty cool team and I'm glad to be on it.