Nicky Lee

## Background

### 1999 - 2007: Nicky Barrera

Nicholas "Nicky" Barrera was raised by Antonia Barrera in the mean streets of Blüdhaven. Shortly after his birth, his father abandoned them, leaving his mother to raised little Nicky on her own. Antonia was left a single & hard working mother until she met Tommy shortly when Nicky was four. The two eventually got married & had a child of their own, a daughter named Nyssa.

### 2007 - 2016: Nicky Lee

Together, his parents ran a kosher Chinese restaurant, where Nicky also worked as a busboy or washer or whatever else was needed that day. Despite having a good childhood, Nicky loved to fight. He was a tough little scrapper who put up with tough opponents, as he believed that anything that doesn't kill you makes you stronger.

Nicky became a regular occurence for the Blüdhaven Police Department, constantly getting held up for his fights. With the help of his police aunt Maggie, he usually got away with most stuff but after a particular fight where Nicky knocked his opponent out cold, the family decided to press charges of assault against Nicky. Afraid the charged might actually stick, Nick enlisted in the army at seventeen in order to avoid jail time.

### 2016 - 2020: Nicky Lee

The army was different from life in New Jersey but Nicky quickly adjusted, becoming the class clown of his comrades. He received Ranger training at Fort Benning & went on to be assigned to a specialize in explosive ordnance disposal, making him familiar with most NATO & Warsaw Pact explosive devices.

He was eventually recruited on to the Joes by Scarrlett after she found him crawling out of a bush. When she brought him to meet the team after the interaction, Ripcord quickly commented on the smell surrounding him & called him "Tunnel Rat." To his annoyance, the name stuck but he soon willingly adopted it as a codename.

## Powers & Abilities

* **Demigod Physiology:** Though he was unaware of this for vast majority of his life, Nicky is the demigod son of Olympian God Hephaestus. Because of this, he has has many skills pertaining to weapons & mechanics.
	+ ***Technokinesis*:** Like his other brothers, Nicky has impressive mechanical abilities. He is an expert builder & mechanic.
		- ***Machine Aptitude*:** He can not only control machines, but sense them, mechanics, or metal.
		- ***Machine Expertise*:** As the demigod child of Hephaestus, he can operate any mechanical vehicle expertly.
		- ***Machine Sensitivity*:** He can also identify machinery type & use by touch. He can also sense faults in metal ore.
		- ***Trap Detection*:** Nicky also possesses the ability to find and sense traps in the ground, making him an expert combat engineer.
	+ ***Enhanced Agility*:** As a demigod, he is extremely agile.
	+ ***Enhanced Durability***: Nicky is quite durable, performing tasks that a regular mortal would need a gadget for.
	+ ***Enhanced Reflexes*:** His reflexes are much quicker than the average human.
* **Demolitions:** He has expertise in the most conventional & unconventional explosives to ensure the secure disposal of explosive weaponry. He has received specialized training in biological, chemical & nuclear weapons.
* **Engineering:** His secondary military occupational specialty code is combat engineering, making him adept with clearing explosives, avoiding mines & constructing bridges.
* **Hand to Hand Combat:** Growing up on the streets of Blüdhaven, Tunnel Rat got into many street fights against some very tough opponents. He used this as training while growing up & developed excellent combat skills that would be valuable in his tunnel missions where there wasn't a lot of room to maneuver.
* **Medicine:** He also serves as the team's back-up medic if Jinx is unavailable.
* **Multilingualism**: Nicky can speak fluent English, Greek, Mandarin & Spanish. He naturally knows Greek as a demigod.
* **Science:** He spent much of his youth exploring the subway tunnels & sewers. He is very knowledgeable of soil types, insects, fungi, medicinal plants & most things found underground.

### Weaknesses

* **Insecurity:** He always feels like he's the least important, no matter the group he is in.

### Ratings

* **Intelligence:** 5 - High / Exceptional
* **Strength:** 5 - High / Exceptional
* **Speed:** 4 - Trained / Learned
* **Occult:** 3 - Average / Basic
* **Weapons:** 5 - High / Exceptional
* **Range:** 4 - Trained / Learned
* **Strategy:** 4 - Trained / Learned
* **Combat:** 5 - High / Exceptional
* **TOTAL:** 113 - Threat Level 3 / General Threat

## Trivia

* Nicky operates as the Joes' infiltration specialist, explosive ordnance disposal (EOD) specialist & secondary field medic. He is also skilled in engineering & entomology (study of insects). His philosophy is that anything that does not kill you makes you stronger.
* He currently has the rank of Specialist (SPC), earning the enlisted grade of E-4.

## Notes

* Nicky Lee/Tunnel Rat is a character from G.I. Joe & its related media.
* In the comics, he is Trinidadian & Chinese.
* His family is unique to Earth-44.
	+ Hephaestus is the Greek God of Fire, Forges & Metalworking.
	+ Nyssa Lee is based on Nyssa Barrera, a character from the Percy Jackson franchise.
	+ Sofia Ramos is Babylon, a member of the Outsiders.
	+ Maggie Sawyer is a detective with the GCPD.
	+ Rosalina Basaro is an original character.