Tremaine Johnson

Tre Johnson is very easy to get along with, as well as someone looking to figure out what he wants to do with his life. He's been seen in one Youtube video where he stopped a few muggers from mugging a woman on her way home. But that was his one and only highlight of high school, but regardless Tre still is a dependable person who is just looking for his way.

Background

 * Tremain Kai Johnson was born in Los Angeles CA. His parents moved from L.A. to San Francisco due to better jobs and the possibility to start anew with their newborn child. Because they didn't have a lot of money, putting him into daycare wasnt a option. His father, Anthony, was a struggling graphics designer, while his mother was a cook at a Chinese restaurant. His mothers boss, Mr. Lee, was a rather kind man, and said that he would watch her son while she worked.


 * Mr. Lee took a liking to young Tremain. After Tre came to the restaurant one day, cutting out of school while sporting a black eye because of a bully at school stealing his lunch money, Mr. Lee gave the hungry child lunch and decided to teach Tre some self defense. Not to be a stereotype, but Mr. Lee was actually a very advanced practitioner of Kung Fu, from a long line of Kung Fu artists, having been a sensei of a dojo in Beijing. For reasons Mr. Lee always refused to explain, one day he stopped, moved to America, and went into his second love - cooking. Like Tre, Mr. Lee had grown up in a seedy part of the city. As Tre ate the Chicken Lo Mein, he decided that he would take up training in kung fu one more time, to teach this kid the basics of kung fu - if only to make sure he didn't have to be bullied all the time.


 * Things hadn't been as good for Tre as his parent had hoped when they moved to San Francisco. They struggled to keep the crime ridden areas from getting the best of them, often worrying about their son growing up in a bad neighborhood but, even though it was better than L.A., their combined salaries still wasnt enough to let them bring up Tre in what they considered a safe neighborhood. Nevertheless, they tried to instill into Tre that not everyone is bad or every neighborhood is as bad as theirs. They always made sure to talk with Tre, making sure that he knew that they would always be there for him as well as if he needed to talk he could come to them about it, instilling a good moral compass and support structure for the him.


 * His father was happy about Mr. Lee training Tre in martial arts. It instilled good discipline in his son, making sure he didnt go down the wrong path in life like some of his friends would, growing up in a poor neighborhood. His mother, however, did worry that Tre would go out looking for fights. She expressed her concerns to Mr. Lee, and he assured Tre's mother that such a thing would never happen - that he was teaching the boy purely for defense and discipline, mentioning that Tre had not had trouble with the bullies at school since he started training. It wasn't because he was fighting - it was because he was standing up to the bully, and bullies tend to pick on the easiest mark. Tre's mom reluctantly agreed, like his father already felt, that the martial arts was probably for the best. Many of Tre's friends had been entering gangs as a means of protection and a 'future' for themselves - the kung fu training kept Tre from doing the same.


 * Tre understood that where he lived was very dangerous, especially after he saw one of his friends was killed outside his home when he was 12 for his sneakers. However, he also realized there were good people in his area as well - people who tried to do good things in the neighborhood. Not heroic stuff - no saving the world - just little things to make life easier for each other. With that mentality Tre did what he could to help the people around him. That meant helping some of the elderly with groceries, garbage and even running errands. This got him a bit of a reputation for being soft with some of his old friends, who were now in gangs.


 * By the time he was in high school, Tre had become a very good martial artist. His relationship with Mr. Lee had become almost like family - Mr. Lee, not having any family of his own, viewed Tre almost as a surrogate grandson. Feeling that Tre was a good soul, he decided to teach Tre a new form of martial arts, something that was passed down to his family only. In addition to Tre helping out around the neighborhood, he also ran off some gang members from the younger kids as well from the school. He'd occasionally daydreamed about being a superhero, like that Batman in Gotham City, or those people in Titan Tower. But he didn't have powers, he didnt have money for all sorts of gadgets, he wasn't the last survivor of a doomed world. He was just a kid growing up in the hood who knew some kung fu - even if he was pretty good at it. Plus his family would freak if he risked his life like that.


 * Not that there werent temptations to do that - especially after his mother was mugged, or when their house was robbed. Tre's mother during the course of this time as well as his father have both been attacked and robbed. It eventually got so bad that Tre's family moved to a better neighborhood - which also meant no longer living near Mr. Lee, though Tre would frequently visit (to his mother's displeasure, given the experiences they had in that neighborhood). In the new neighborhood, he met new friends, and got into stuff like free running (aka, parkour) and dancing. He would still frequently try to help out in the old neighborhood - volunteering with the elderly, engaging in neighborhood watch, volunteering for Big Brother, sometimes getting 'into it' with the gangs to break up fights or stop the occasional mugging - which more than a few times did end with him being hurt badly. He even got his name in the paper once when he did successfully manage to save a woman from getting mugged, though he broke a rib in the process, while a bunch of other people just stood and watched. It was on Youtube and everything. It was pretty exhilirating though - sure it hurt like hell, but he felt like he was really doing some good.


 * To help out a bit more with his parents, Tre got a job downtown as a Bike Messenger. The job didnt pay a whole lot, but it helped the family. Tre knows a lot of people who live in his old neighborhood weren't as fortunate as his family was to be able to leave. Every so often, his messenger job takes him past Titan Tower, and he wonders what it would be like to be saving people regularly like they do, hob-knobbing with heroes, getting recognized for doing good work... generally making the world a better place.


 * He hasnt had his family violently die in an alley. He hasnt had his planet blow up. He did not train for years on a deserted island to hone his skills to superhuman perfection. Neither his father, nor his mother, were heroes or criminals. He wasn't bitten by a radioactive walrus or whatever. His sensei... ok he's old and knew a special type of kung fu which he was taught, but it's not like he was 300 years old with fu manchu hair and could break steel with his finger - he was a chinese food restaurant guy who used to teach at a dojo in Beijing. No, Tre doesn't have a hero's origin story. But that doesn't mean he can't be a hero, right?

Right?

Personality
Tre is not particularly outspoken, he often has a very 'zen'/laissez faire view of life. The whole idea of not being easily goaded by words into a fight stems from Master Lee's teachings, which also helped keep him out of the gangs growing up. That being said, actions CAN goad him into a fight rather easily, threatening his friends, threatening his family are all good ways to get him to put the 'zen' back in the closet. His friendly demeanor also doesn't mean he'll just turn the other cheek when attacked and the fight or flight instinct kicks in, he's more likely than not to choose fight.

He's not satisfied with his abilities, he knows there are a lot of people, who are a lot better than he is at fighting. But what he does, he gives 100 percent. Growing up in a rough neighborhood, having to deal with gangs and drug dealers and the like on a regular basis, he looks up to people who actually make the world better. This includes police officers (only those that try to do the right thing), Master Lee, and especially superheroes. Whenever he travels by Titan Tower during his messenger job, he thinks about what it would be like to be in there along actual heroes, making a difference like they do. The idea that they have regular problems self-confidence issues, personality problems, fears, preconceived notions, etc. like everyone else would be a major surprise to him. One thing he does see as problematic about heroes, especially the 'BIG' heroes, is that they might keep the world safe, but why don't they do the same thing on a smaller scale, in small neighborhoods. Sure, they try, but it didnt make where he grew up a better place. In short, he thinks superheroes should be perfect, or at least holds them up to a far greater standard than anyone else, and wishes they (and the police, for that matter) would pay attention to the problems on the small scale more often.