About twenty-seven years ago, in the distant Badlands southwest of Santo Ileso, a group of friends were partying under the stars when they witnessed something always rumored about in the area but never truly confirmed– a UFO crash. They ran closer to get a better look, and came upon the wreckage, which was now burning hot in the middle of a toxic waste pit. Their hopes of seeing any aliens were dashed, they thought, until they heard a strangely familiar– strangely human– sound: a baby crying.

At first, most of them attributed the sound to their current psychedelic intoxication, but upon realizing that they were all hearing it, they quickly followed the sound and found the source of it. An infant, obviously, with very, very blue skin and pointed ears, had been thrown from the crash, enough to be out of the brunt of the fire, and landed directly in a puddle of the green, glowing sludge. They could see its skin was starting to burn a bit from the radiation, so they hurriedly wrapped him in one of their blankets and removed him from the danger.

As they were so far out in the desert, they brought him to a 24-hour veternenary clinic at the edge of the city, as it was the closest place they knew of that could help with cleaning the baby of the harmful substance.

While they weren’t sure about handing what they knew was an alien child over to the government, none of them were in any position to be raising kids, so they had no choice but to relinquish him to the state, though they didn’t disclose where or how they’d found him. After several rigorous tests to try and determine what he was or where he’d come from, he was placed in the foster care system.

Damien, as he would come to be named (by whom, he’s not sure), would grow up moving around the city several times, from family to family. Normally, he was quite a meek and quiet kid, agreeable, even if rather sensitive. However, as he got older, it became apparent he had a proclivity for reckless and often violent behavior when particularly upset or excited. It didn’t help that he always felt just so… different from everyone else around him, considering the way he looked, and he learned to use violence to defend himself when poking, prodding, and jeering got too intense. He never felt quite right in his foster homes or with his peers.

As a teenager, he spent most of his time keeping to himself, either indoors or wandering around town. One day as he was taking one such stroll, Damien found himself getting into an altercation with a boy about his own age, who was very clearly a member of Los Panteros. The two had already beaten each other up pretty badly when other Los Panteros members joined, and, seeing how well he’d held his own, they instead recruited him.

For Damien, Los Panteros became the closest thing he’d had to a real family. They had each other’s backs, and that was more than he felt he’d been given thus far. He became close with Theo, the boy he’d originally scrapped with, and before long they were best friends. They did everything possible together– worked on cars, sparred, went on jobs, and just hung out. They were even mentored together by a more senior member, Xavier who’d taken them under his wing and taught him everything he knew about blades, guns, cars, crime… He was almost a father figure to them, at least in their eyes. He always knew what to do and took care of them when things went wrong.

While coming up in Los Panteros, Damien’s specialties became clear. He was quite adept at reconnaissance, able to sneak around and snoop, despite his unusual appearance tending to stick out. He knew how to find people and dig up information using any resources he could get his hands on. Additionally, he honed his skills particularly with bladed weapons, favoring a bush machete for melee combat.

His investigatory habits would lead him to catch Xavier doing something he shouldn’t have seen, though. Xavier instead, knowing Damien trusted him, saw the opportunity to move the heat away from himself. He gave Damien the responsibility for this, feeding him an explanation about it being on the up-and-up within the gang. It was, of course, a frame.

When it seemed like Xavier was about to have his cover blown, he turned Theo against Damien and sent him to take him out. However, Theo knew Damien well enough to know when he was being truthful and decided to leave him alive– but planning to make it look like he’d killed him. However, before that could happen, Xavier killed Theo and proceeded to torture Damien before finally taking Damien’s own car and crashing it into him. Surely, Damien was dead.

A few days later, Damien awakened in the hospital, and was approached by someone who turned out to be a representative from Marshall. They were offering to cover his medical costs, and upon Damien explaining the situation, help him fake his death and stay hidden, in exchange for his skills and service. With some hesitation (could he really just… defect from Los Panteros like that? And work for Marshall, no less?), Damien agreed.

During his recovery he worked as a remote intel agent for various Marshall operations, and then began working in the field.

He was glad to be useful, but it didn’t take long for it to feel more like he was being held captive and forced to be Marshall’s mercenary– which in a way, he was, considering he didn’t exactly go out much, for fear of being found by Xavier again. And, of course, he wasn’t opposed to violence, but… Marshall lacked any actual care in what they did. It was only about money and numbers, and it became clear that they would work him to the bone. They didn’t view him as human, he was expendable, and almost worst of all, he was basically a glorified cop.

Eventually, he found himself resigning, which after a lot of threats, he found to actually be a bit easier than he’d imagined. He was legally considered dead, the deed having been done by Marshall themselves, and so he had both nothing legally binding, and leverage. So he was let go– but given word that Marshall agents had permission to take him out should they ever find him alone away from the public.

I am so sorry this is so long. I cut it down a lot lol.