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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Davies" data-source="post: 8349264" data-attributes="member: 30538">Black Hood/Hēitóu Zhào<img src="https://photos.smugmug.com/My-First-Gallery/i-BNtGLt3/0/3290945b/M/the-black-hood-1---cover-120895-M.jpg" alt="" class="fr-fic fr-dii fr-draggable " data-size="" style="" />As someone else once said, as far back as Yu Wing Bai could remember, he wanted to be a gangster. Specifically, he wanted to be a member of the On Leong Tong, New York City's original tong organization, as its members seemed to have wealth, influence and respect that was literally unimaginable to a kid from Chinatown. Wing Bai was sure that if he entered this life, he'd be able to look after his widowed mother and dumb little brother, and never have to worry about anything else ever again. So, in his late teens, he started doing odd jobs for the lower ranking members of the tong, in hopes that he'd attract the notice of a patron.In 1956, at the age of twenty, he got his wish. Out of an array of prospects, he was chosen to become the apprentice of Hēitóu Zhào, the Black Hood, the ageless masked enforcer of the On Leong. As it turned out, the mystery man was not ageless, and was just the latest heir to the title in a legacy that stretched back to the 1890s. (Wing Bai was too excited to ask just how many Black Hoods there'd been over the years, and how long some of them had lasted.) While getting on in years, the old man was still able to give his young pupil intense, almost sadistic training that turned him into a lean, efficient fighting machine, the ideal hitman and enforcer.Three years later, the old man passed away in his sleep. Wing Bai put on the mask and took up his hatchets, ready to begin serving his masters and finally getting a taste of the wealth and respect they possessed. Almost immediately, though, he found his path crossing with that of the Cowl and Masque, the very same costumed crimefighters who (in the former case) had convinced his mentor that it might be time to retire. They weren't able to capture him, but they could and did thwart his first mission. Returning to the tong in defeat, he expected to be punished for his failure. Wing Bai was somewhat surprised to find them to be very understanding; many of them had had similarly disastrous encounters with the shady figure who had, a generation earlier, prefigured these so-called superheroes. The punishment was limited to denying the newest Black Hood the remuneration he'd been expecting, with the understanding that he was going to learn from these mistakes and do better next time. Wing Bai swore to do this.And he lived up to that oath, with his ratio of success to failure being about fifty-fifty over the next decade. That kept his bosses satisfied, for the most part, though Wing Bai wanted to do even better than this. Nevertheless, enough money was coming his way that his mom could be kept in comfort, and his dumb little brother had more options than Wing Bai had, and so he was content with his lot. On the rare occasions that he was captured, he was out in hours, either due to his skills in escape or graft laid down by his bosses.By 1970, though, Wing Bai was starting to consider getting out of this, training a replacement while he was still relatively young, so that he could rise in the Tong's ranks. That was when he was informed, by the group's current President, that he'd risen as high as he ever could. No previous Black Hood had ever become one of the group's elders, much less an executive. They either died in battle, or trained an apprentice who would be expected to take out their mentor if said mentor lived too long after completing the training. Wing Bai's mentor had died right before he would have been sentenced to death.Shaken by the realization that he'd walked down a path that only led to a dead end, Wing Bai started to become a bit careless. When given orders to eliminate a group of Hip Sing operatives, he didn't do much in the way of investigating his targets, but just launched a frontal attack. He was expected to die, after all, so why not go all out? But he didn't die, of course, and he found himself the last man standing once again, and looking down at his latest victims with cool contempt that dissolved when it finally broke through to him that his dumb little brother was among the dying. Tearing off his mask, Wing Bai frantically asked what the idiot had been doing here."I wanted to be a gangster, like you," were his brother's last words.Wing Bai never really recovered from this horror. He continued to engage in missions for the tong, but no longer cared whether he lived or died. And ultimately, he did die, roughly a month after the Battle of Vietnam, during his last confrontation with Masque. They fought on a rooftop in Chinatown, and one of the Black Hood's attacks carried him over the side, clutching to the edge. Despite everything, Masque tried to pull him up, but Wing Bai all but forced him to let go so that he plummeted to his demise.The leaders of the On Leong were considering how to go about replacing their masked agent when they were rocked by a series of raids and arrests that would cripple the organization for decades. Wing Bai's fey behavior had concealed his plans for vengeance; on his death, information concerning the inner workings of the On Leong was sent to the police. While many of them escaped prison, the organization never again employed a masked agent. Yu Wing Bai was the last Black Hood.The Black Hood -- PL 8Abilities:STR 3 | STA 3 | AGL 4 | DEX 3 | FGT 6 | INT 2 | AWE 3 | PRE 4Powers:Axe Mastery: Split Attack; Easily Removable (-0 points) - 1 pointSneak Attack: Strength-based Damage 2, Limited to vulnerable or defenseless targets - 1 pointAdvantages:Accurate Attack, All-out Attack, Assessment Benefit (ambidexterity), Defensive Roll, Equipment 2, Evasion, Improved Critical 2 (hatchet), Improved Initiative, Language 2 (English, others, [Cantonese is native]), Power Attack, Takedown, Uncanny Dodge.Equipment:Hatchet (Strength-based Damage 2) and 8 points of equipment as needed.Skills:Acrobatics 6 (+10), Athletics 6 (+9), Close Combat: Hatchet 3 (+9), Expertise: Streetwise 8 (+10), Insight 8 (+11), Intimidation 8 (+12), Perception 6 (+9), Sleight of Hand 6 (+9), Stealth 7 (+11).Offense:Initiative +8Unarmed +7 (Close Damage 5/3)Axes +9 (Close Damage 7/5, Crit 18-20)Defense:Dodge 7, Parry 9, Fortitude 5, Toughness 5/3, Will 6Totals:Abilities 56 + Powers 2 + Advantages 16 + Skills 29 + Defenses 11 = 114 pointsComplications:Loyalty--Motivation. Family. Prejudice (Chinese.) Secret Identity.Note: Character concept by Voltron64.</blockquote>

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