Sleeper

Retired Marvel OC

Sleeper is a cybernetically enhanced soldier, taking a few pages...or chapters out of Batman's playbook, using psychological as well as physical warfare to fight anyone that harms or oppresses others. He keeps an extremely low profile, since his perception of the world around him has been severely skewed, but despite his fearsome appearance and reputation for being a monster's monster, he's a decent man with a good heart...and a big appetite, in more ways than one...

In actuality, the entire past and background of Stephen Connor is a lie... created by a corporation trying to build a cybernetic super-soldier.

Background
(See last paragraph for Sleeper's real Background)

Sleeper started out as many did in the Barrens of Seattle in the year 2032...in a run-down neighborhood, whose parents were slaves to the local megacorporation; unskilled workers doing dangerous jobs to get enough food to survive. They didn't have much, but his mother had a secret treasure: a collection of ink-and-paper comic books. None of them were particularly rare or valuable, but the young boy read them through and through. When he was twelve, the family had become desperate, signing up for pharmaceutical trials in a desperate bid to make more money to cover school for their child. Tragically, the drug trial ended up being a failure, and every volunteer died as their internal organs declared war on themselves. The corporation adjusted their bottom line and moved on. The young man left behind found out the hard way what it meant to deal with a corporation, and he declared a silent vow to make anyone who would oppress and victimize others pay for their inhumanity.

Years passed as the young man lived on the streets, growing up and targeting bullies of all kinds, even though those battles ended in defeat for the boy. Then, he became of age and signed up for the Corporate wars, becoming a soldier fighting against other corporations. He soon became quite adept at being a stone-cold killer, and was rewarded with his first cyberware after a chemical attack nearly decimated his nervous system and muscle mass. When he left the military and returned to the Barrens, he found there were still bigger bullies, so he found himself a new family of like-minded individuals and made their fortune by doing what they did best...fighting the megacorporations.

As they became more successful and experienced, Sleeper upgraded his cyberware for better, more advanced modifications. People he had helped joined him in his fight, making a sleepy little town into their base of operations. Also, three women found Sleeper after he had helped them years before, now all grown up....in many ways. They became his "Angels", and were his partners....romantically as well as professionally.

More than 20 years later, Sleeper and the Angels, as well as a small army of his friends, attacked a remote lab belonging to a corporation known for experimenting in energy technology. Sleeper had discovered that the lab was using blood magic as a means of opening a gate in time and space. The attack was successful, but the person in charge of the lab was a sore loser, activating the device as it was being dismantled. The resulting explosion threw Sleeper through a dimensional wall and he blacked out.

When he awoke, he was in a junkyard. A check with his systems showed him that he wasn't on the world he knew before. His friends, his Angels were gone, with no clue as to their fates. He was trapped in a reality more primitive than his own. His cybernetics and bioware still worked, but were largely incompatible with the environment. He fell back on his chief tactic, survival, and disappeared into the streets of New York.

Six months have passed. Rumors on the streets say some kind of vampire-like monster now roams the streets of the city, targeting evildoers, taking nothing and leaving criminals with bones shattered, internal organs ruptured, barely alive. They talk about, "the man with the black hat", "the monster" and "the Dark Man". None of the general public take it seriously, but there are a lot of people in Intergang and the Maggia that say, "Cover your tracks, stay out of sight and keep your activities away from other people...or the SLEEPER will get you."

(What Sleeper doesn't know, however, is that his perceived past is a construct provided for him by Roxxon Corporation. The original concept was to create the perfect combat cyborg, but they chose to provide a means to keep him under control. First, a complete brainwipe to remove any residual memories that might otherwise interfere with his core programming. Then, the introduction of fake memories, providing a life with no superheroes outside of comicbooks, in order to force the operative to perceive supers as merely other enhanced soldiers, providing a psychological baseline that can be used to prevent the operative from disloyalty to the company. However, what they did not expect was how obsessed the operative was with comicbooks, which prompted him to focus on them more and more as his artificial memories were implanted. The obsession gave rise to an undetected condition, a "memory embolism", which enabled him to wake up from his programming and make a very hasty and dramatic exit. His past experiences, relationships and skills stuck with him, enabling him to understand and comprehend his situation, though he will be considerably awestruck by the existence of something he believed to be impossible, the existence of superheroes. His old life will eventually come back to haunt him, as well as Roxxon's attempts to recover their lost property, even if it means they'll recover him in pieces...)

Personality

 * Relentless - Sleeper will never stop when it comes to something he believes in, protecting others, fighting against oppression and cruelty. No matter what is thrown at him, he refuses to give up. He may simply have forgotten how.

Dedicated - Even at his worst, Sleeper will always do the right thing when the opportunity arises. He refuses to allow evil to happen if he can figure out a way to stop it.

Romantic - Sleeper has a somewhat romanticized outlook on the world around him, largely affected by all the comicbooks he's read. He still believes in hope, truth and love conquering all. Probably explains why he also likes Disney movies so much.

Romantic - Despite some of the most horrible things he's experienced, he still believes in truth, justice, hope and love conquering all, probably because of all the comicbooks he's read. Probably also explains his interest in Disney movies.

Dark Side - Everyone has a breaking point, and when Sleeper reaches his, he becomes more interested in vengeance than justice. It is at this point that he is at his most cruel, his most sadistic. At that point, he doesn't answer to the name, "Sleeper", but to the name, "Dark Man".

Survivor's Guilt - He doesn't belong in this world, and sometimes, he can't deny how it feels being the only survivor of the people he used to know. He has moods, sometimes.

Logs

 * TBA