Return to the Fray
stevewhite81603 for Norman Richards (The Patriot)
AGE: 41 (28-31 in flashbacks)
Norman is one of three siblings all born with strange abilities, the next stage in human evolution. Stronger, faster, and more agile than most of mankind, and with an impenetrable healing factor, Norman's abilities were the strongest of the three.
He formed a team with his sister Nina, and his brother Roland, helping to found Omega, an institute of heroes charged with protecting Britain and the rest of the world. He was happily engaged to marry Alex Tyler, also known as Fast Forward, and the team of heroes was a perfect defence against evil.
After years of fighting, the three siblings finally cornered The Inventor, a supervillain and Terrorist hellbent on controlling the western world. In the ensuing battle, Nina was incapacitated, Roland was killed. Although he managed to kill the Inventor, Norman was left with a badly damaged leg, heavy facial scars, and a broken heart from the loss of his brother. Refusing to use his healing factor, he disappeared to live a life of solitude, enforcing his painful injuries upon himself as penance for the life of Roland. His sister recovered, and helped to ease to transition into a world without heroes, and his fiance Alex resigned herself to his loss, and tried to move on.
Though they have tried to tempt him back, nothing could make him once again don the Patriot mantle... till now.
(Desparate) If you come with me and turn youself in then no one else has to die! You can pay for your crimes Inventor, there is a price for everything we do, and once it is paid we can move on. Nothing is too big to forget! Work with me, please!
(Bitter) Look at me, What good am I? I can't walk, I can't feel, but the worst part of it all is, I just dont give a shit. You stand there, all rightous and glowing, and you talk about innocent lives, people in need. I just don't care any more. They're all just faceless nobodies screaming "Help me Patriot!" The patriot is dead. Dead, buried, and eaten by worms. Let me get back to being Norman Richards.
(Determined) 10 years I've lived with these injuries, looked at these scars in the mirror as a reminder of what I lost to help those people. That's why I left. Because every life I could've saved, would just remind me of the one I failed to save. Now it's different though, now... It's time to let the scars fade.
