Swiftlet
Player: @Panthy
Character Build
Class Focus:	DPS
Power Level:	40
Research & Development:	Arms/Fighting Styles
Biographical Data
Real Name:	Charlotte Thorpe
Known Aliases:	Little Bird, The Westside Raven
Gender:	Female
Species:	Human
Ethnicity:	Caucasian
Place of Birth:	Cleveland, Ohio
Base of Operations:	Millenium City
Relatives:	Neil Thorpe (Father), Claire Thorpe (Mother)
Characteristics
Age:	17
Height:	5'6
Weight:	126 lbs (57 kg)
Eyes:	Blue
Hair:	Deep Red
Complexion:	Fair
Physical Build:	Athletic
Physical Features:	Deep red hair and intelligent, cynical eyes
Status
Alignment:	██ ██ ██ ██ ██ ██ ██ ██ ██ Lawful Good
Reputation:	██ ██ ██ ██ ██ ██ ██ ██ ██ Reputable
Identity:	Secret
Years Active:	3
Citizenship:	American
Occupation:	Freelance Journalist
Education:	College Degree
Marital Status:	Single
Known Powers and Abilities
Computer Expert - Hacker - Gadgeteer - Detective - High IQ - Exceptional Hearing - Master of Stealth - Escape Artist - Skilled Martial Artist - Proficient Acrobat - Strategist
Equipment and Paraphernalia
Cowl feauturing built-in radio devices and visor with multiple vision-modes - High-powered grapple and line-launcher - Gliding cape - Utility belt - "Swiftblade" boomerangs - Bolas - Smoke pellets - Anaesthetic gas pellets - Explosive devices - Miniaturized dart gun - Variable binders - Lockpicking tools - Homing devices - Data storage devices - Multi-purpose UNTIL PDA featuring custom state-of-the-art hacking and decryption interfaces - "Watcher" V-4 Owljet Interceptor

Attributes
	Strength	█ █ █ █ █ █ █ █ █ █		Endurance	█ █ █ █ █ █ █ █ █ █
	Agility	█ █ █ █ █ █ █ █ █ █		Speed	█ █ █ █ █ █ █ █ █ █
	Fighting	█ █ █ █ █ █ █ █ █ █		Projectiles	█ █ █ █ █ █ █ █ █ █
	Durability	█ █ █ █ █ █ █ █ █ █		Resistance	█ █ █ █ █ █ █ █ █ █
	Intelligence	█ █ █ █ █ █ █ █ █ █		Psyche	█ █ █ █ █ █ █ █ █ █
	Intuition	█ █ █ █ █ █ █ █ █ █		Charisma	█ █ █ █ █ █ █ █ █ █
ReldinBox Template

Personality

History

Broken Bird

Charlotte Thorpe encountered the ugly face of criminality early in her life. She was kidnapped at the age of nine by a disturbed serial-killer in her home state of Ohio, of whose victims Charlotte and her younger friend Salim were to be the final two. Unbeknownst to the killer, the vigilante Nighthawk had been following in his footsteps having connected him to similar abductions in Detroit. The killer was eventually apprehended, but Nighthawk arrived too late to save Salim. The sole survivor of a slew of kidnappings across the Midwest, Charlotte would come to know a deep and insatiable sense of personal guilt as she grew older, as well as a compulsive fascination with her masked rescuer.

In the years following that traumatic event Charlotte became withdrawn and distracted, focusing on her schoolwork to such an extent that the only friendship she knew was with her therapist. Inspite of her reserved nature and increasing alienation from her peers Charlotte excelled in her studies and in her fitness, her natural athleticism and agility earning her a number of awards for which she seemed to care frustratingly little. Studies and practice consumed her night and day and she developed something of a gruesome fixation with criminals and the deranged, privately gathering clippings and even restricted case files for a menagerie of unsolved atrocities. To her parents it was a worrying pattern of obsession, insomnia and distraction. For Charlotte it was a quest for understanding, to make sense of the life-altering events of her curtailed childhood, but as she delved deeper into the nature of the beast what began as morbid curiosity soon developed into full-on training. By the time she was eleven years old she had begun to foster a range of investigative techniques, studying tirelessly the methods of her favourite heroes and detectives and familiarising herself with basic forensic science - the same methods that had saved her life just two years previously.

By the time she entered high school she had already surpassed her peers in drive and intellect and quickly secured a foothold in the area of journalistic study, utilizing her talents for intuitive reasoning and cyber-intrusion to inform articles for her school paper. Whilst still at school she managed to get herself flagged as a person of interest by UNTIL, a fact that remained unknown to her until recently. At 15 her father, an engineer, took a job at Harmon Industries and so brought his family with him to live in Millenium City. It was here in the so-called city of the future, a hotbed of superhuman activity and sinister corporations, that Charlotte began to cultivate the notion of being a costumed vigilante.

Nighthawk himself had long since vanished from the public eye, but Charlotte paid tribute to his legacy by adopting another shadow-dwelling bird as her emblem: the swiftlet. Small and smart, the swiftlet makes its home in darkness and uses a form of echolocation to ensure that the night holds no secrets.

Swiftlet's early years were difficult, not least because of her decision to drop out of school so that she could study from home when she wasn't working freelance. Her parents chastised her about wasted potential, moreso when she took on a deadbeat job working as a typist for an older man downtown. In reality Charlotte was putting her potential to the best use that she could imagine. Writing articles about the cruel and corrupt could never satisfy her unless she tried to do something about it, a message reiterated by her new employer and the man who would become the young vigilante's staunchest ally and most demanding teacher.

The Cage.

Cage

"The world is so fixated with superhumans that you forget what ordinary people can do. We have our own monsters."

"And our own heroes."

- Cage and Charlotte Thorpe

The voice in Swiftlet's cowl. Assumed by many to be nothing more than a sophisticated Artificial Intelligence, in truth the unseen and enigmatic Cage is quite real. A man of solemn demeanour and myriad skills both physical and cerebral, he has been Charlotte's secret mentor for the past two years. Pushing fifty, Cage is a curiosity in that he has no recorded identity even amongst UNTIL's extensive records and the truth behind his origins is a secret which compels Charlotte's investigative nature, but one that he seems determined to carry to his grave.

His only regular interactions are with his new protégé, who is determined to live up to his towering expectations. Under Cage's guidance, Swiftlet has developed from a low-level street vigilante into a skilled detective and formidable martial artist. With the benefit of his seemingly limitless knowledge of fighting styles, Cage has helped her learn to take advantage of her acrobatic prowess, natural agility, short stature and even her femininity. Together they have endeavoured to transform her perceived weaknesses into her greatest strengths, and with her mentor's technological genius behind her the budding Westside-based vigilante has begun to take her first strides into the realm of global superhuman threats.

Though Cage has welcomed UNTIL's sanctions of his young apprentice he remains adamant that she maintain her discretion and keep his involvement, even his existence, entirely confidential. This has at times put strain on their mentor-pupil relationship, especially in cases where Charlotte has been forced to offer half-truths and outright lies under UNTIL questioning. In spite of his apparent paranoia and questionable behaviour, Charlotte has come to understand the magnitude of the trust that he has placed in her as his only human confidant. Whatever his past and whatever his crimes she has ultimately decided to return that trust and remains steadfast in her loyalty. For better or worse, she will not let him down.

A Dark Night

"That headline again," droned the television in the corner of the dining room to which all eyes in the Thorpe household were glued. "The one-time Champion and superhero, Nighthawk, has been identified at the scenes of no less than ten major super-crimes in Millenium City. The MCPD's Chief Surhoff warns all citizens to be on alert for the masked vigilante, and a warrant has been issued for his arrest. I've been your anchor Cole Steadmann, and from all of us here in the studio... goodnight and God bless."

The television winked out before Charlotte's eyes and the sound of rattling cutlery and a scraping chair signalled her father rising from his seat across from her. She looked to her own plate, where sat most of her cooling dinner. "I'm telling you, it isn't him."

"You don't know who he is, Charlie."

"I know his style. Everybody does, and this isn't it."

"The man is a violent lunatic. You may have been too young to remember, but people were calling for his arrest even before he disappeared. Nobody should be allowed to take the law into their own hands."

But Charlotte hadn't been too young. She set her chin in her palm and idly speared at a potato with her fork. "What if the law lets them down? Criminals are subverting it all the time."

But her father had already left the room.

"Why do you say that, sweetie?" came her mother's voice, with a sugar-sweet patronizing edge which made Charlotte's jaw tighten.

"It's obvious, mom. You only need to watch the news. There are people out there who can get away with murder because they aren't made to answer to anybody," she gestured to the deceased television screen with an exasperated breath. "And they're the kind of people with enough money, and enough power, to make a proven hero the target of every cop and PRIMUS soldier in the city."

Her mother only smiled sympathetically, before arranging her knife and fork together on her empty plate. "You should write an article for your paper about all this, you know. Those stations snap up young people with controversial opinions."

Charlotte was way ahead of her. Infact, she was longing to get back to her room and the three-page draft already sitting on her laptop. She spent a few silent, painstaking minutes finishing off her cold meal before sliding back her chair and rising to her feet in order to stack both plates on her forearm. "Thank you, dear."

She began to trundle out of the room, but paused at the window to look out across the city. The towering structures of Downtown Millenium City glittered under a clear midnight sky, themselves overshadowed by the immense monolithic skyscrapers which circled the Renaissance Center. Nestled somewhere amidst the cacophonic urban chorus was the sound of blaring police sirens. Her trained ears told her that they were speeding towards Westside, as they often did, but on this night Charlotte couldn't help but wonder if they'd been sent in force to apprehend the masked vigilante who had been her childhood hero. Her eyes roamed the gleaming cityscape before her.

Where are you?

Aspect of the Hawk

Birds of a feather flock together.

Skills and Abilities

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