Hell Rider

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Real Name: John Milton (goes by Lucien Drake)

Code Name: Hell Rider

Age: 25

Race: Half-Demon

Appearance: A handsome young man in his mid-twenties with silver hair in his mortal form. Hell Rider appears far more menacing when he assumes his demonic appearance, taking on the appearance of an eternally burning damned soul.

Powers: Hell Rider can shoot brimstone from his sawed off shotgun and channel it through other objects. Likewise, he can create flaming fists. He also recovers within minutes from nearly any wound delivered him (short of decapitation and having his heart cut out). These abilities are nothing compared to his far vaster physical abilities when he assumes his full Hell Rider form. Then he proceeds to wield as much strength as Captain Thunder and gains the ability to inflict "The Pain of Hell" on individuals. Hell Rider is immune to any form of fire in both forms.

Weaknesses: Lucien Drake loses all his powers when he steps onto Holy Ground or a Holy Item is placed on his person. Lucien suffers painful burns that require hours or days to heal from being sprayed with Holy Water or wounded with blessed weapons. Lucien must keep his Demon Shotgun and his Sword on his body or he will lose control of the Demon if separated them from for more than 24 hours.

Background: Lucien Drake was born in the Fens to Mary Milton, a young Catholic school girl who was kidnapped by the Cult to the Hell Queen as an attempted host for her power. When she was finally rescued by Freedom City's local costumed hero Captain Thunder, she was already pregnant and traumatized from their magical ritual to summon their Demon Lord's power. Lucien was raised by the state despite calls from some quarters to have him aborted before birth.

Lucien was eventually adopted by a series of unpleasant foster homes who basically took the money and let him fend for himself. He ended up as a petty drug pusher for Boss Olivarti by the time he was fourteen and by sixteen was a member of the "Devils" street gang. A dispute over drug money resulted in him activating his powers for the first time and incinerating four of his fellow gang members. Lucien was tried as an adult and sentenced to life in prison.

Lucien found his powers soon after allowed him to go over the wall as he developed the power to create wings of shadow and allowed him to go over the wall. Lucien has spent the past years on the run ever since. Mostly, he's fallen off the radar of the government but is listed as a superhuman offender that unfortunately cases him to be brought in by superbeings whenever he encounters them. Lucien has fought both Raven II and Foreshadow, though more precisely its been "has gotten his ass thoroughly kicked by both of them" but managed to escape in the mass jail breaks of their past.

Over time, Lucien discovered the ability to shift voluntarilly between his human form and that of the supernatural figure known as the Hell Rider. It is believed that Lucien's father, whomever he was, was host to a demon when he impregnated his mother. Furthermore, Lucien holds within him the full blooded spirit of a Demon that exists inside of him. Lucien takes charms with him to reign in this demon but if he's without them for a full 24 hours then he becomes the Hell rider until the next full moon.

Lucien has since figured out that his powers are not-metahuman in nature but supernatural due to the help of Father Paul Magrudder who helped raise Lucien. A stern Catholic, Paul believes that Lucien is a Nephilim and has the chance to win God's favor through good deeds. Lucien genuinely cares for the old man and became unfortunately involved in the man's desire to save the region from the forces of "EVillllllll" as a favor for the few smatterings of decency that he can remember from his childhood (thanks to Magrudder's actual attempts to give the boy guidance).

Several times, Lucien has had counters with the obsessive Catholic Knighthood in the Order of Saint Leopold and demons attempting to seize him and drag him off to Hell as a half-breed. The later has resulted in most of Lucien's fourteen or so Demon kills that has people thinking the boy is a 'Demon Hunter.'

Motivation: Hell Rider is a reluctant superhero at best. Operating a personal Detective Agency, he's motivated more by greed and a desire to find the monster who sired him than any real humanitarian motivations. His love of destruction and hatred of demons has lead him to numerous encounters with evil though. He also protects children and mothers as a rule. Hell Rider will never turn down an offer from a lady if he think he can score too.

He'll also do whatever it takes to protect his mother (most of the money he steals goes to her care).

Personality: An obsessive partier and self-styled badass. Hell Rider just wants to have fun and not get sent back to jail for super humans. He's a fundamentally decent guy despite his criminal record and infernal origins. Oddly, he's a great deal smarter than his street origins would suggest as well with an obsessive reading streak in-between trashing supernatural evils.