PULLCORD

[jamat]

Yet another character background

Jamat

PULLCORD

Major Holdworth witnesses the first detonation of the atom bomb and believed it should never be used on another human being because of the devastation it coursed. When he heard it was to be dropped on Japan to hasten the end of the war he handed in his commission and resigned from the army, turning his back on 25 years of exemplary service.

Three years after his resignation Holdworth was diagnosed with terminal cancer, a by product of being exposed to those early atomic experiments. He left behind a 2 year old son and a grieving wife. Life for Charles Holdworth was one of living up to his fatherís good name and reputation. He was outstanding in the field of athletics and joined the cadets before moving on to the army when he was old enough.

Like his father before him he was a natural leader and moved up the ranks quickly becoming a captain before he turned 30. Around this time he met and married Margret, a well to do draughter of the cornel in charge of Charlesís unit. Life was going well they had a draughter within a year called Beatrice and five years later a son named Roger, named after the old major.

Margretís pregnancy with Roger didnít go smoothly and she spent the last three months in hospital. The night of the birth there was a storm and the power went out all over the city. Margret went into labour at 6 pm and by 5pm the next day she was exhausted and the baby was showing signs of stress.

The decision was made to do an emergency curcerrian The process was going well until the emergency generator for the hospital was hit by lightning and they had to proceed by torch light. The doctor cut into Margret and proceeded to break through the birthing sack. Reaching in he felt round for the baby. Getting a good grip he pulled. It wasnít until the doctorís back touched the wall behind him that he realised the child he held under the arms still had its waist and legs in his motherís womb. The childís body was stretched out lick plaster seen between them. Quickly Charles who had been there for the birth grabbed his sonís legs from his motherís womb and moved over towards the doctor, as he did so the boys body took on a more natural shape.

Many weeks, and a battery of tests later the doctors were still baffled. For all intense and purposes Roger was a healthy baby boy. The only abnormality was the total flexibility of his skin, skeleton and organs. They could be stretched out with no discomfort to the child and when let go would spring back into place.

It wasnít long before the army heard of this and Told Charles they would provide for the child in exchange for giving them the ability to study him as he grew up. Their doctors would examine him yearly through to adulthood documenting any changes that occurred. Of course all this would be done quietly and Roger would just assume it was because of his disability.

Roger grew up to be a strong healthy and likable teenager, he obeyed his parent, respected his elders and joined the army when his was old enough, like his father before him he felt duty bound to keep up the traditions of the family.

This was the opening that the powers at be were waiting for. Within a year Roger had been fast tracked into special intelligence where he was persuaded that his special ability could be used in the service of his country.

Over the following year more stringent and intensive tests were carried out. He learned that as he started to control his body better he could do amazing things with it. He could stretch long distances, rap himself round object using his body to protect them from damage. His skin was extremely resilient and could take the impact from an automatic machine gun with little or no damage occurring. He could make himself paper thin and slide his whole body through small spaces. He could also use the skin on his hands and feet to form small suckers allowing him to scale smooth vertical surfaces with no difficulty.

When the exact extent of his abilities were known the army developed a special hand to hand fighting style to complement his powers.

When they felt he was ready he was given his first mission, to assassinate a south American gun runner with connections to the middle east. He was persuaded to do it by being told that without the guns the soldiers in the middle east would be safer thus he was serving his country and fellow warriors by taking this life. What he later found out was the gun runner had sold the intelligence service out and needed to be silenced and in fact had no contacts in the middle east at all.

Roger worked as a wet works operative for another 7 years before he started to question what he was being ordered to do, he was brainwashed into believing a good soldier should never question orders.

But one mission went wrong and if it hadnít been for his fatherís contacts he would have been left out to dry by the armed forces under their policy of not recognising a spy if they were court. Charles managed to extract his son from danger and in the process making it look like heíd been killed. After months of hiding Charles and Roger met up to decide what to do.
Over the years Charles had been doing his own research into his sonís abilities and everything pointed to his fatherís exposure to radiation from the atom bomb tests and for some reason it had skipped a generation but in Roger had altered his DNA to what it had become today.
Roger saw no alternative but to stop using his powers, get a new identity and hide for the rest of his life. Charles was against this, he pointed out that all his life heíd been used to do someone elseís dirty work now it was time for him to do something for himself. That his grandfather had died from the very thing that had given him his abilities and it was down to him to redeem himself for all the people he had killed in the name of the British government.

They knew that if he just went out and started using his powers in public he would soon be tracked down and killed so they hit on the following idea. They used his fatherís contacts to find the whereabouts of a superhero group and tracked them for months. When the opportunity arose Roger appeared out of no where and saved on of the heroís life. This resulted in him being asked to join their ranks and took the name PullCord.

All along father and son came to realise for Roger to survive he needed to be high profile and nothing was more high profile than being part of a superhero team. Soon he was a solid member of the team and trusted and liked by all of them, in turn he came to see them as his family and out of a scam set up for his survival respect and loyalty developed for his fellow team mates.
The secret service realised they could not make a hit on such a well known hero so they sat back and hoped that one day a super villain would tie up the loose ends for them, in the mean time the observed him fro afar waiting for a possible chance to clean up their own house.


Personality:

Roger is likable and charismatic. He has times when he becomes moody and a darkness comes over him. On these occasions his fellow team mates are quick to pull him back into the light and get his mind back to the here and now.

His military background has helped the team too and they default to his tactical superiority in battle situations though he has not and will not take the leadership role in the team.