Coyote (Lawson)
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Early Life
Blake Lawson was an ordinary student: Average grades, not many friends, not too popular. It was these characteristics that made him the perfect target. A wave of kidnappings had arrived in Millennium City, and all the victims were teenagers between the ages of 14 and 17. One afternoon on his return from school, Blake ended up being knocked off his bicycle, sedated and thrown into a van. It all happened very fast, but just before he passed out, he realized that he was now part of the terrible statistics that plagued the central region of the city.
When he regained consciousness, Blake realized that he was tied to a table, with several strange machines and devices around him. Along with him were other teenagers, all of whom were in the same situation as himself. The lab's disturbing silence was broken by the creaking of a door, announcing the entrance of what appeared to be a scientist. Ignoring the screams muffled by gags from the teenagers present, the hooded figure went on making adjustments to some devices, one containing a shiny moss-green liquid.
The alleged scientist filled several syringes with the strange liquid and approached the teenagers. Getting close enough, the sullen figure removed his hood, revealing a frightening scene: a kind of hybrid between human and animal. The man introduced himself as Fenris, a self-proclaimed geneticist obsessed with the Werewolf legend. He also revealed that the syringes contained a serum that would transform all fit subjects into man and wolf hybrids like him. Fenris said that a wolf's strength was measured by the size of the pack he commands, and the serum would provide one for him.
Turning Point
Unfortunately for Blake, he was the first guinea pig. As soon as Fenris injected the serum, his veins started to burn. An intense heat began to run through his body, making him writhe in pain. About to pass out, he saw two figures breaking a window and attacking the villain. After that, it all went dark and Blake woke up in some kind of medical ward, with the two figures from before beside him.
He had been saved by the teenage superheroes Flashfire and Hardware and was recovering in their hiding place. The duo said they had been after Fenris since the kidnappings began, and unfortunately failed to arrive in time to prevent the villain from injecting the serum into Blake. Hardware said that he had survived the process by a miracle, and that his physiology had changed dramatically: Blake now had sharp claws, keen senses and a healing factor.
Without knowing for sure how to reverse the process, the pair asked him to try to lead a normal life. To not use his powers - however difficult it may be - until they found a cure. Blake, however, proposed a different solution: Refusing to avoid the unique situation in which he found himself, he felt the responsibility to use his new skills to combat the injustices to which he and the other adolescents were subjected. Blake also wanted to be a superhero.
Heroic Steps
Realizing that it would be difficult to change his mind, Flashfire offered to supervise him on some of the duo's missions. The months that followed were marked by hard training and a lot of dedication from Blake, who eventually began to reap the rewards of his hard work. Adopting the alias Coyote, he soon ceased to be a concern for Flashfire and Hardware, and finally became a valuable asset in their crime fighting. Soon after, the pair became a trio.
After reaching a certain level of team chemistry, the young heroes began to take higher and higher risks, fighting increasingly dangerous villains and even assisting famous heroes on important missions. After several successes, the media ended up calling them the Teenage Trio, a name that pleased them quite a lot.
During three years of successful missions, the Teenage Trio had already established themselves as a reference for other teenage groups, gaining the public's affection and the trust of many adult teams, who often requested partnerships to deal with cases involving other teenagers, supers or not. The meteoric ascension catapulted the young teenagers to unimaginable fame and responsibilities. Unfortunately, the higher the height, the greater the fall.
Tragedy is Just a Step Away
Many successes brought many enemies to the Trio, but the biggest problem was the dangerous overconfidence that became present in recent months. The city had called the Teenage Trio to deal with a possible hostage situation at the docks. Everyone wanted to resolve the situation as quickly as possible, as they had an interview at the WCOC Television Station. Upon arriving at the scene, Flashfire quickly flew over the containers searching for hostages, while Coyote dealt with the kidnappers and Hardware tried to neutralize a reported bomb threat.
They were just ordinary bandits, the situation would be handled in a few minutes. That thought led the young heroes to not pay much attention to what they were doing. What happened next was a succession of small mistakes that quickly became a deadly snowball: Coyote became distracted and let one of the hijackers reach Hardware, which forced Flashfire to cover his friend in distress with a fire blast, that ended up hitting the young hacker himself, who ended up cutting the wrong wire of the bomb.
The explosion killed Flashfire, Hardware, the kidnappers, and some hostages who were near the bomb. Coyote barely left alive, he survived purely on account of his healing factor. The media, already on scene to cover the hostage crisis, dubbed it the Icarus Mission, which prematurely ended the promising career of the young team of superheroes who may had flown too close to the proverbial sun.
Aftermath
Blake recovered, but Coyote did not. Guilt and shock caused him to abandon his superhero career, but it did not extinguish his desire to see justice done. Four years later, he joined the MCPD and now solves the most varied cases: from problems with local gangs to crimes with possible villains and vigilantes involvement. That, however, does not mean that Blake has left his past behind.
He still visits the graves of his former teammates and exercises regularly, using his experience as a superhero to analyze cases from a different angle. For some reason that even he can't explain, Blake kept his Coyote costume. If there is one thing he has learned over the years, it is that in one way or another, nothing lasts forever. That belief would soon be justified.
Beware the Scars of Old Wounds
Returning from a successful arrest operation in an abandoned building, Blake heard strange noises coming from an empty alley. While investigating the disturbance, he was surprised by Fenris, who went for his hamstrings and caused his legs to go out from under him. In another instant the mad scientist quickly injected another dose of the serum into him. Once again, that odd sensation burned through his veins and, just like seven years ago, he passed out, but not before hearing the villain mention something about the "Survival of the fittest..."
Upon waking up, Blake noticed there was something wrong. He no longer had his claws, and his healing factor for some reason wasn't handling so well the pain and fatigue from the recent serum injection. His keen senses seemed to be intact, but clearly Blake was far from his peak form.
This raised several questions in his mind. What did Fenris still wanted with him after all these years? What did he meant by the survival of the fittest? Was that the reason the villain weakened him? Although he had no answers to any of these questions, Blake was obstinate in getting them answered somehow. Suddenly, Coyote's uniform came to mind.
After pondering for a few moments, he finally realized that, in fact, nothing lasts forever.
After being injected with the serum, Blake developed enhanced strength, speed, senses, and durability. The wolf DNA also gave him feral claws and a healing factor.
After the second serum dose, Blake lost his claws, a good portion of his enhanced attributes and his healing factor haven't worked properly ever since. His keen senses seems to be intact.
- The enhanced hearing makes Blake sensitive to high frequency sounds.
- His healing factor is currently unreliable.
