The Rook

* Vigilante
* Civilian

"*I need you...I need you to help me not feel afraid anymore. [...] I see him in my nightmares. I remember the things he did to me. And all I want is to fight back, to **get him out of my head**. But I don't know how. So I want you to show me...so I can make sure that this **never** happens to anyone ever again,*"
—Cassidy to Nobody, begging him to train her[src]

**Cassidy Lynn** is the daughter of New York City mayor Thomas Lynn and a former member of the Syndicate. At age 15, Cassidy was kidnapped by David Crank, a serial rapist and murderer. Rescued by the vigilante Nobody, she began to idolize him and inspired her father to rally public support for the vigilante throughout the city in opposition to the newly formed AVTF, eventually forming a friendship with the vigilante himself. Following her encounter with the Empire Killer, Cassidy enlisted Nobody to train her in hand-to-hand combat so that she no longer had to live in fear, becoming his protégé and taking on the codename of "**The Rook**". Having proved herself in the war against Handsome Joe, Cassidy officially joined the Syndicate as one of Nobody's patrol partners. Following Nobody's presumed death at the hands of Penance, Cassidy spent two years defending the city with the remaining Syndicate until Nobody returned to face both the Crooked Man and Handsome Joe one final time.

Following the break-up of the Syndicate, Cassidy decided to move to the city of Los Angeles, where she could practice her vigilantism legally thanks to the introduction of the Vigilance Act.

## Biography

### Early Life and Background

There are not many a few details available about Cassidy's early life, other than she was born in the mid-2000s to an unknown mother and Manhattan politician Thomas Lynn. She was marked out for her remarkable intelligence from a young age and quickly became popular at school. Despite her young age, she helped in her father's campaign to run for Manhattan City Council, which proved successful.

### New Trauma

#### Kidnapping

In the summer of 2020, at the age of 14, Cassidy was stalked and eventually kidnapped by serial rapist and murderer David Crank, who drugged the young woman to stop her from fighting back. He brought her back to his Queens bungalow and kept her in a hidden room behind the fridge, where he began to drug and sexually assault her, ultimately planning to kill her. He kept Cassidy drugged enough that she couldn't fight back, but not enough that she wouldn't remember everything he did to her. The drugs in her system eventually became so concentrated that she became almost catatonic to his torment.

#### Rescue

"*Did he hurt you? [...] **Look away**...*"
—The vigilante upon discovering Cassidy in Crank's house[src]

Cassidy's torture finally came to an end on July 11th 2020, six weeks after she was kidnapped. After Crank had robbed a Home Depot in downtown Manhattan, he was found by a hooded vigilante, who proceeded to brutally beat the criminal, demanding to know where a specific diamond ring was being kept; their fight caused significant damage to Crank's house, including knocking over the fridge that hid the door to the room where Cassidy was being kept. After breaking both of Crank's arms, the vigilante eventually got an answer and searched through Crank's bag, finding the diamond ring. He moved to call the police before he noticed the hidden door; upon opening it, the vigilante instantly remembered Cassidy as the girl who had been missing.

Unaware that his face was exposed to the girl, he calmed her and reassured her that he wouldn't hurt her. He then spotted bruises on her body, as well as the depraved conditions she was being kept in, before asking her if Crank had hurt her. Cassidy, still somewhat under the influence of Crank's drugs, simply nodded. The vigilante then told her to look away before he grabbed a knife and brutally slit Crank's throat open.

After murdering Crank, the vigilante hugged Cassidy and carried her outside of the house. At that moment, NYPD detective Adrian Sheppard arrived at the house and made to arrest the vigilante. However, he stopped upon realizing that the vigilante had rescued the girl but killed Crank in the process, and recognised the vigilante as Michael Keene, a man who worked at a Home Depot in Manhattan and had tracked down Crank to retrieve his co-worker's diamond ring.

### A New Protector

"*You can call me...**The Rook**,*"
—Cassidy talking to Sheppard[src]

## Overview

### Personality

Cassidy is kind, intelligent and extremely empathetic, but also severely damaged due to her torment at the hands of David Crank. Even at a young age she was incredibly assertive and resourceful, becoming only more so after being inspired by Nobody. It is clear that she suffers from PTSD, thanks to her torment at Crank's hands, that manifests in the form of panic-attacks and hallucinations, the latter usually in the form of demonic rooks (likely due to the black bird tattoo on David Crank's neck).

Once Cassidy embraces the identity of "The Rook", she begins to channel her anger, trauma and frustration into a sense of justice and a thirst for vengenace. As a result, she begins to display behaviour that is worringly similar to Nobody, most notably marked by an impulse to unleash her anger on the criminals she faces. As she has become more dedicated to her crusade, she has unfortunately grown to become a hateful, socially inept young woman, unable to let go of the traumatic experiences that have defined her since the beginning of the series, unlike Michael, who has learned to use his vigilantism as a method of working through his trauma.

## Powers, Equipment & Abilities

### Powers

Cassidy does not possess any superpowers.

### Equipment

#### Amour and Apparel

* **Rook suit:** Cassidy wears a protective suit as her alter-ego, "The Rook", to hide her identity from her enemies when fighting crime. It was designed by Cassidy and made from Michael's original "Nobody" costume combined with some lightweight riot gear. The suit is primarily made of Kevlar, making her more than capable of dealing with small arms fire.

#### Weapons

* **Batons:** The Rook's main offensive weapons are a pair of steel batons given to her by Michael, which were in turn provided by Adrian.

#### Gear

* **Burner phones:** Cassidy uses multiple burner phones to communicate with Nobody and the rest of the Syndicate and avoid detection by the authorities. Both typically only use a single phone once before destoying and discarding it. She later combines these phones with an earpiece.

### Abilities

* **Peak Physical Conditioning**:  Due to intense and extensive training with Michael, Cassidy Lynn is near the natural peak of human capability. She has displayed enhanced strength, speed, stamina, agility, reflexes, and endurance because of her training.
	+ **Enhanced Strength**: The Rook possesses enough strength to push 180 pounds after just six months of training, and she can easily defeat foes much larger than herself.
	+ **Enhanced Speed**: Cassidy's speed is at the level that she is easily able to keep up with and even surpass her mentor in speed. She was even able to keep up with Erik Grayson, who had spent his entire life freerunning across the roofs of New York City.
	+ **Agility**: Cassidy possesses fantastic equilibrium, balance, flexibility, dexterity, and body coordination.
	+ **Reflexes**: Cassidy can evade several attacks to a degree and dodge multiple bullets at a distance, as well as dodge the jets of fire released by Erik Grayson.
	+ **Endurance**: Cassidy's muscles and bones are more tolerable to damage and exhaustion thanks to her intense training.
* **Expert Martial Artist**: Cassidy is a highly skilled and formidable hand-to-hand combatant and martial artist, having trained in martial arts ever since she was five and earned her black belt when she was seventeen, in addition to training with Nobody. She has shown training in martial arts such as Karate, Judo, Brazilian Jiu-jitsu, Fencing, and Aikido. She was able to hold her own against several members of the Handsome at once, even though they were all armed, and was even able to hold her own against Handsome Joe. She is also able to quickly use her surroundings to her advantage and use random items as improvised weaponry.
* **Stealth**: Due to her training with Nobody, Cassidy has significant skill at stealth, infiltration, and sabotage, able to sneak into Handsome Joe's base of operations without even Nobody knowing that she was there.
* **Indomitable Will**: Like her mentor, Cassidy has a very strong will. Despite the horrific trauma she endured at the hands of David Crank, she has found the strength to overcome her fears and nightmares both through training and her own willpower.

## Relationships

### Nobody

"*My best friend is a **psychopath vigilante**...and I wouldn't have it **any other way**,*"
—Cassidy to Nobody[src]

Cassidy deeply idolizes the vigilante known as Nobody, feeling indebted to him for saving her life from David Crank. After she becomes aware that Nobody is following and looking out for her, Cassidy comes to form a close bond with him that eventually becomes a true friendship, with Nobody serving as her mentor/brother-figure, or perhaps even a secondary father-figure.

A year after he rescued her, Cassidy and Nobody have become extremely close, with Nobody picking her up from school every day. Due to the torment that she suffers at the hands of other girls because of her past, Cassidy requests that Nobody trains her in hand-to-hand combat, which Nobody refuses to do, knowing that Cassidy would use her skills for vigilantism. However, after seeing her fight back against Jake Hendrik, Nobody decides to reveal his true identity to her and agrees to begin training her, on the condition that she does not use her training for vigilantism.

Six months later, while Cassidy and Michael have become closer, their relationship has also become more tense, with Cassidy believing that Michael is going too easy on her during training.

## Quotes

"*This is her. The girl. He had her,"
 "And where is he?"
 "The Bad Man is dead,*"
—The vigilante, Detective Sheppard, and Cassidy respectively[src]

## Trivia

* Cassidy's vigilante alias, "The Rook", is derived from the black bird tattoo on David Crank's neck and her objective to overcome the trauma he inflicted on her.
* Cassidy will serve as the protagonist of her very own spin-off, titled "*The Rook*".

## References

1. ↑ Punishment
2. ↑ New Me