Kale Arcturus

If you looked at Kale's past you wouldn't think he was an assassin. 2nd child of 3, born to a professor and his wife. Raised in neighborhood. No he's the type you'd expect to live an average life, become a doctor, or lawyer or engineer. Not kill people for money. He most likely would have done exactly that if his mother wasn't murdered before his eyes when he was six. They had been out shopping for groceries when a man accosted this for money. His mother had refused only to be shot protecting her child. Most children would have cried, begged for mercy. Kale didn't. His brain simply could not comprehend the fact that his mother was dead. The only word that kept repeating through his head was why? The man told him something that would shape the rest of his life. "Kid, there are those who have power and those don't. Remember that." Those words were burned into mind that day. He vowed that he would be one of the ones with power. He took solace in his chosen martial art style, Aikido. He choose Aikido because it benefited from his natural flexibility and adaptability rather than brute strength. It seemed more elegant, refined not like boxing where you simply pulled the other person into submission. In order to prove to himself that he was strong he competed in mixed martial arts tournaments against other styles to prove his worth. Determined to be strong. He wouldn't be weak. He devoted his time and effort into mastering the martial art. At first it was about revenge. But as time passed, the anger in his heart burned out, all that was left was a sadness at the way the world was.

Fast forward through high school, he pushed himself to success in both the physical and mental. He had a 3.6 GPA, was state champion in Lincoln-Douglas Debate, and member of the National Honor Society. He studied Aikido extensively since he was six to the point where he was considered an expert by the time he turned 18. He and his father grew distant during this time. While they were still close, there were more barriers between them, like all teenagers and their parents. His father had blamed himself for his wife's death, and strove to make up for it by taking care of Kale. Eventually Kale and his father both agreed that he should try to stand on his own, be his own man. They reached an agreement as he left for college. Both wishing the other the best of luck.

Through college, Kale continued to hone his fighting ability, regularly training against members of the Judo, Karate, and Tae Kwon Do clubs. He understood that simple repetition wasn't enough he need real combat experience. He got chance while walking back to his apartment from a movie. A group of thugs surrounded him and demanded his money. When he refused they attacked. Amused by how disorganized and incompetent they were Kale beat all of them to the point of unconsciousness. He ended up killing one of them, the first of many men he would kill. He told the police it was self defense, they didn't question further. He reflected on what had happened. It wasn't as if society had lost anyone important, if anything he had done society a favor, cutting off a weight that would only hinder the rest of society. And he felt great. The rush of adrenaline was wonderful. he decided that while he felt remorse at ending the man's life, it was outweighed by the benefit society received.

Once he graduated from college he knew that he couldn't just work the 9-5. It would be too boring, and a waste of his skills. Why not use them for something, anything? Everyone knew that the man living in the apartment below him was a member of the mob, just no one wanted to talk for fear of retribution. He went down one day and asked to borrow some money; he didn't need it, but it was simply a way to get him in. When he didn't pay back on time, he found the man and four others waiting in his apartment. They told to pay up or they would kill him. He made a counter offer, he'd pay them back with a kill. After a short discussion the man told him to kill a lieutenant of a rival mob, Kale accepted. He spent the next couple days shadowing the man, figuring out his schedule, when he was alone, the locations that he traveled to that would make for an easy kill. He ended up surprising the man in his own home, and proceeded to beat him into submission before breaking his neck. He then took the man's wallet and any valuables in the home to make it look like a simple burglary. After a couple more hits, he was introduced to the boss of the mob he was working for. He spent the next couple years offing other organized crime leaders. It was simple affair he would disarm their security systems if they had any, sneak past their guards and then kill his target. On the rare occasions he was discovered, he was more than capable of defending himself. His contract with the boss was simple. He killed the target, he kept 50% of whatever assets the target had. The boss would takeover the now vacant operation. It was a mutually beneficial arrangement. He grew tired and bored of the ennui of such a life. There had to be more out there than this. Knowing that if he wanted to cut ties with his boss, his boss needed to die. He had started to plain out a way to kill his boss and escape when the second in command; Alexander, approached him with an offer. Help him kill the boss, allow him to takeover, and he would pay Kale enough for his financial troubles to go away. What Kale didn't know was that his boss was a vampire and that Alexander was a hunter that had infiltrated the mob specifically to kill that vampire.

When he confronted his boss, he was surprised at how resilient he was. The fight was long, and difficult. Kale initially attempted to beat the vampire into submission. His strikes should have been enough to subdue a human but his boss weathered the attacks as if they were nothing. Then Kale resorted to a combination of his formal training in Aikido and the skills at moving silently in the dark he had picked up in his short career as a hitman to take down the vampire. It was working. He would wait until the vampire attacked before using Aikido to catch and throw the vampire prone, then he would disappear into the dark, before lunging out at the vampire when he let his guard down, before repeating the process. Eventually he wore the vampire down. Before he could land a finishing blow, the vampire threw him against the wall and prepared to exsanguinate him. As he made his peace with the world, the vampire suddenly stopped moving, a stake of wood protruding from his chest. Kale pushed him aside to see that Alexander had stabbed the vampire through the heart from behind. After he decapitated the vampire, Alexander explained to Kale that monsters were real. Vampires, werewolves and other darker creatures haunted the night. They prayed upon humans and toyed with them. Alexander explained that there others like him, humans who knew what was out there, and were determined not to allow any ground to them. He told Kale that he believe he could be an excellent hunter if he choose to do so.

From that moment forth, Kale knew that he couldn't just live a normal life, not when he knew what was really out there. It was then he took the Vigil and swore to hunt down those that preyed upon society. As a transhumanist, Kale just simply could not believe that Humanity existed as a playing for other beings. That would undermine everything he believe in. Humanity was meant for more than this! Humanity was supposed to mean something. Humans were supposed to overcome challenges not pretend they didn't exist. He hated the fact that humans were so weak in the face of such horrors. He vowed then that he would not be weak. He would be a bastion. He would show these monster that Humans were stronger than they. That they should fear humanity, not the other way around.

Since that night, he devoted his time and effort to destroying what lurked in the dark. Alexander taught him what it meant to be a hunter. It was not so different from being an assassin Kale realized. When he was an assassin, he helped society by killing mob bosses. As a hunter he helped society by destroying what lurked in the dark. He took to the Hunt with a fervor that impressed even Alexander. He's still an assassin. He just has a broader range of targets now. Sometimes Alexander would give him information about a criminal that needed to disappear, other times, he would tell Kale about a supernatural creature that was causing trouble. Whatever the target he executed the mission. He would take their assets, keep whatever he needed, and donate the rest. After all what's the point of money if it wasn't doing anything useful?

Alexander sent him to Georgia to investigate the strange rumors coming in about abandoned hideouts and empty monster dens. He warned him to be careful, that his was his first mission without backup and he couldn't afford to be reckless. He understood but whatever was out there, needed to be stopped and he would stop it.

Character description and clothing. Kale minus sword and claw. http://img221.imageshack.us/img221/4208/leongrace.jpg

Sheet:Kale Arcturus