Raptor

Raptor is a runaway and a street kid, former drug dealer and all around scoundrel that befriended Hellion and fell in with Hawkeye.

Background
Adam was born just outside of Baltimore to a military father and a stay-at-home mother. When he was two, his younger brother, Derek, was born. His father was gone much of the time, so the two boys were very close growing up-- despite the fact that Derek was born deaf. They moved several times during Adam’s childhood, from one military base to another.

Adam was a very precocious child, always taking apart household appliances and putting them back together, sometimes with Derek’s help. He spent most of his time in trouble for one thing or another, at least until his father was killed in action when he was ten. Feeling the weight of having to be the new ‘man’ of the house settling on his shoulders, he turned to free-running to deal with his stress and feelings while trying to take care of his younger brother. His mother, who had been staying at home, was now working full-time.

Adam was twelve when ten-year-old Derek was hit by a hit-and-run driver right in front of him. The younger boy did not hear Adam’s frantic calling to get out of the way, and though he ran as fast as he could, he was not able to make it to his brother in time. This left serious emotional scars, scars that got worse over the following six months as his mother, driven nearly to madness with grief over losing both her husband and her youngest son in such short order, blamed Adam for Derek’s death and became both emotionally and occasionally physically abusive.

Just after Adam turned 13, he ran away from home, determined to make it on his own. He was living on the streets for awhile, falling in with a group of other teenagers in NYC who were also runaways. His natural leadership abilities and charisma made him the de facto second-in-command for their little group. He became close to the other Gothlings, their ‘leader Conrad, Ace, former rich kid Christian, Eileen (who became his first crush and first girlfriend), Neil, eventually a girl named Clara, and Conrad’s younger brother Evan. They all dreamed of a day they would be able to live as heroes, and between shoplifting, the occasional drug dealing, and whatever they had to in order to keep food on their table, the teens trained to defend themselves and others-- parkour, hand-to-hand fighting, and Adam taught himself how to use a small crossbow he lifted from one of the houses they broke into.

When Conrad and Ace were busted for selling drugs by SHIELD, it fell to Adam to take care of his crew. He did the best he could, but when the Russian mob shot up an underground music party that his crew was attending, Christian was critically injured and Evan was killed. Enraged at the death of his friend, Adam killed the Russian thugs with his crossbow before helping the rest of his group get the other attendees to relative safety, with the help of Julian Keller and Jonothon Starsmore.

He befriended Julian, who offered Adam and the remnants of his crew a temporary place to stay in the Keller penthouse. There, he met Clint Barton, and admitted to a sort of hero worship for the older man. They stayed with Hellion for a couple of weeks.

When the crew was leaving the penthouse after their stay, to go to what they hoped would be a more permanent location, Eileen died in Adam’s arms from an overdose of mutation negating drugs. Clint managed to talk the grieving teen into turning himself in to the authorities for his part in the deaths of the Russian mob goons and distribution of the anti-mutant drugs; the boy was released on parole under the conditions that his legal guardian would assure his good behavior and return to normal society-- school, etc. Adam lied and said both his parents were dead.

Hawkeye agreed to be Adam’s guardian under the condition that Raptor attend the Avengers Academy. Not wanting to stay in jail, Adam agreed to that condition… and to Barton being his new de facto pseudo-dad. There’s absolutely no way this can go badly.

Personality
Cocky: Adam has always been just a little smarter, just a little faster, and just a little /better/ than everyone else around him. This has given him a confident, cocky air that even bad circumstances can’t fully take away from him. He /knows/ he’s going to win, whatever happens.

Haunted: He watched the deaths of his brother, his friend Evan, and his girlfriend Eileen and was powerless to stop any of them. He fears that anyone he gets close to will also die, and he’ll be forced to witness it.

Big Brother Complex: Adam feels responsible for those around him who need taken care of. He tends to act like a bossy older brother.

Temperamental: Adam has been through a lot, and his tolerance for stupidity and things that frustrate him is minimal. He has a short fuse and an explosive temper.