Thomas Drake

*For Tommy's Iniquity & Integrity counterpart, see here*

**Thomas David "Tommy" Drake** previously known as **Crimson** was a character in *Villainy and Virtue,* created and portrayed by Adam.

Throughout his life, Tommy evolved from superhero sidekick, to crazed assassin, to mercenary, and then to vigilante before dying in the line of duty facing Acchilleus.

## Biography

### Origin

#### Before *Red Wonder*

When he was very young, unbeknownst to anyone his father; John Drake secretly engaged in crimefighting by night as Red Fire*,* partner and equal (not a sidekick) to Cold Steeloperating in Scarlet City*.* Fire and Steel would sweep the streets at night, dissolving gangs and putting madmen behind bars; a true example of fear.

But one night, a duo of criminal psychopaths known only as 'Pain' and 'Grief' escaped from confinement and as Fire and Steel went to face the madmen they were all too prepared for them.

The two split up to cover both positions of the two criminals, as both had laid bombs to start a terrorist frenzy. But as Cold Steel arrived at the factory in which Pain was waiting, he found that Pain was alone - he had sent all his men to the warehouse where Red Fire was headed.

Steel was too slow, it was futile. He tried his hardest but he could not make it to the warehouse quick enough to help Red Fire and the building was set aflame with both Red Fire and Greed inside.

Ever since, David Bates (Cold Steel's true identity) couldn't help but feel personally responsible and would so look over Tommy and his family both as Bates and as Steel. Being the combat expert he was he even resolved to teach the three eldest children martial arts and combat skills, giving them all something to bond over.

Damian would later drop out of these sessions to focus more on his studies but the younger two; Tommy and Alice stuck at it. For children they were pretty good; they took after their father.

#### Becoming *Red Wonder*

But before his twelfth birthday, Bates had to make his presence known as Steel. On his way home from school, Tommy was attacked by muggers at dusk. Though Tommy had developed his fighting skills with his surrogate uncle he struggled to defend himself from the knife-wielding thugs. Sensing the danger, Bates intervened as they demanded more and more of Tommy. Fending off each of the criminals with minimal difficulty, Tommy was amazed by his protector's prowess and before long his natural intelligence lead to the seemingly obvious deduction of the identity of his guardian angel - the two men that always looked over him seems to have similar voices as well as chins.

And so Tommy confronted Bates and demanded that he follow in his father's footsteps. With reluctance, Bates agreed and so over years of training and travelling on "fishing trips with Uncle David" he was carefully sculpted into the precise, skillful and analytical figure he would need to be to rival Scarlet's worst. And though Bates was opposed to firearms and deemed them *unnecessary force*, he recognised the importance of being able to use one in an emergency and so taught Tommy how to wield one.

It was around a year after his father's death (which he understood and reassured Bates was not Cold Steel's fault) that Tommy took up the name *Red Wonder*, partially in memorial of his father and was released onto the field, where he would continue to hone his craft.

### Incidence

Aged 19, Tommy had served as Cold Steel's sidekick for six years now. The two had soon begun to work in near-perfect synchrony - David had missed the days of having a partner. But their relationship became strained as he's teenage rebellion lead him to becoming impatient with David who would continually have criminals incarcerated only for them to escape and kill more innocents - just like his father. Tommy suggested it'd be more effective to simply execute the criminals though David held this directly against his strict moral code. This frustrated him, though he did not act on his frustration as his respect for his mentor and father-figure was too great.

This was... before Pain escaped was confinement. Pain went on a murdering rampage, slaughtering men, women and children alike. Hundreds lost their lives, and this number just happened to include Tommy's mother, his two younger sisters and his older brother; everything left of his family.

Steel and Wonder stopped Pain and began to interrogate him for information on the locations of the other escaped inmates but despite Steel's best wishes to keep Tommy away from this - as he was too close to the case - Tommy refused and quickly beat Pain to a bloody pulp with his bare hands as soon as Pain began taunting him, even easily breaking free of Steel's restraints. Pain managed to get a hold of his concealed gun and there was a struggle for it between Steel, Wonder and him, and as the shot rang out... Cold Steel was dead.

Tommy immediately took the same gun and - in the heat of the moment - executed Pain there and then. Distraught, Tommy then broke into the insane asylum and the prison and began butchering murderous members of Cold Steel's rogues gallery; an eye for an eye.

This event sent Tommy over the edge, despite his use of force against his enemies David Bates was a friend; a father-figure for he and his death was accidental; more importantly, unnecessary.

#### Becoming *Crimson*

The boy was broken and slightly mad. He was a killer with blood on his hands so plentiful that it personified his *Red* title. And so Drake became *Crimson,* a sociopathic contract killer who worked on his own terms. And when he got bored of the bloodshed, Crimson returned to vigilantism. Hearing tales of Heartania's prolific crime rates, Crimson sped over there and became the definition of *vigilante*; taking the law into his own hands.

### Day 3

#### Attack on City Hall

Shortly after arriving in the city, Crimson sat perched on a rooftop; observing. Crimson watched as the hero; The Knight saved an entire crowd of civilians from the power-mad Pursuer-02. As a consequence, The Knight was arrested for interference. Disgusted by The Pursuer's actions, Crimson moved to humiliate the man as well as attempt to aid The Knight by tampering with the security footage to erase any trace of the two heroes on the scene; The Knight and Nimbus, much to the awe of Nimbus' ally; Blacklist. Unfortunately, it appeared that some government power had recognised the tampering and had therefore backed up the old tapes in a secure location. Having failed, Crimson sighed but admitted that he had enjoyed the experience very much.

#### Prison Breakout

And then, moments later the mass prison breakout commenced at the hands of The Ravagers. Seeing this, Crimson prepared to take action; equipping his sniper rifle.

##### An Old Friend

Scoping out the scene, Crimson took in his surroundings; identifying Wild Card on top of another rooftop. But he was then shocked to recognise a familiar face causing havoc on the floor; his old nemesis and fellow assassin; Blizzard. He was then approached by a young boy with mutant abilities who threatened to attack Crimson as he was a villain. Crimson explained his good intentions, but while he let his guard down, he was struck in the back by a snowball from all the way at the floor. Falling to the ground, Crimson quickly recovered from the shock, using his heating element-lined jacket to thaw himself. Explaining his rival's intentions to the young boy, Crimson disappeared; waiting for his rival to arrive. The boy hid also and soon Blizzard burst out of the stairwell. Making a surprise entrance, Crimson reintroduced himself by his current alias and she - in turn - introduced herself as Snowflake. Crimson and Snowflake then surprisingly sat down and began to chat, reminiscing on old times before Snowflake out of the blue made a move to kill Crimson. Escaping using smoke bombs, Crimson sailed away on a grappling hook while the boy and Snowflake battled.

##### The "Bloodbath"

Crimson later reappeared as he lurched down from a trapeze to grab a wounded Broker from the chaos of a battle between Reaver, Adamant Tyrant, Inferno and one of Maleficus' morphs and Shadow Fixer, Pursuer-02, Compound, and Sla'Nesh while Wild Card and Starlass observed. Unfortunately, as Crimson pulled The Broker to the safety of a nearby roof, he - at the same time - unwillingly pulled Sla'Nesh up with him. The two butted heads before realising that they both wished to help The Broker who was in a critical condition after being shot multiple times in the chest. Harking back to earlier, Crimson remembered Blacklist; the hacker he spoke to who was constantly in touch with the white-clad hero; a healer. Contacting her, Blacklist dispatched Nimbus to the scene. Nimbus arrived and began to heal The Broker with ease.

After saving The Broker from certain death, the two exchanged details and departed; Crimson returning to his newly established base of operations in a shipping container inside a crypt's secret cave to rest.

### Day 4

#### Surprise Visitor

Quickly after he awoke the next day, Crimson was visited by an unlikely visitor; Snowflake once again. Except this time she was different; vulnerable, quivering, terrified and de-powered. Quickly Crimson allied himself with her in order to help her track down her lost brother; Felix and figure out what had happened to her as she suffered from short term memory loss.

Eventually the two found themselves meeting Reaver once again, with Snowflake having to answer for deserting her cause the night before to confront Crimson. However, Reaver was in fact hatching a plan to attack The Broker's Citadel and after finding out that Broker and his Inner Circle had left for Capital City decided to pursue them in their VTOL. Hearing that this group in fact contained Felix himself, Crimson and Snowflake tagged along and emerged on the rooftop of the Capital City Archives which inside contained The Broker, Felix and Hammerfist on a mission to erase files incriminating Argent Mind.

#### The Archives

But before Crimson and Snowflake could intervene to extract the boy The Pursuer arrived on the scene. Unable to stop Broker and his mooks, he instead turned his attention to Snowflake; her being wanted for the murder of Claudia Kramer just the night before. Crimson then leapt into action to defend the de-powered cryokinetic girl. Sending Pursuer falling to what would unfortunately not be his death, Crimson continued with Snowflake and followed The Broker's party to an abandoned football stadium along with Reaver and Adamant Tyrant.

#### Stadium Brawl

On this pitch began an onslaught as The Broker and Reaver's men each went toe-to-toe to rescue their targets; for The Broker; Hammerfist, and for Reaver; Felix.

As The Broker became incapacitated Crimson held the newly resurrected Claudia Kramer at gunpoint, allowing Snowflake to interrogate Broker for answers. But as this happened Snowflake was shot in the shoulder by Hunter and quickly began to bleed out. Feeling sympathetic, Kramer offered Snowflake medical aid and helped to patch her up in her underground escape train, expecting Crimson's assistance in return. But as Snowflake entered a stable state Crimson simply carried her away to be picked up by an old friend of his in a helicopter; Theodore 'Teddy' Wren - ex-sidekick Jet.

### Day 5

#### A Welcome Change of Pace

Returning to his base, Teddy and Crimson shared stories and looked backed fondly on the past. Teddy soon left and Snowflake awoke, thanking Crimson and then leaving.

Soon after Crimson left and got himself a bacon sandwich at a greasy spoon before receiving a message from Snowflake yet again.

#### Circuit

Snowflake - in a panicked tone - told Crimson that she had been visited by a man calling himself Damian Drake - Crimson's alias derived from his deceased brother - and was looking for information on Crimson. Snowflake and Crimson exchanged intel and Crimson left to find the man.

Almost immediately, Crimson found the man who introduced himself as Ambers. Enraged that Ambers would use Crimson's brother's name to get his attention they engaged in combat with Ambers repetitively telling Crimson about the friend that Crimson had assassinated years ago, much to Crimson's confusion - he didn't remember many of his target's names.

But when Ambers refused Crimson's offer of mercy - a chance to flee - Crimson - still enraged - took his gun and shot Ambers clean through the head, killing him on the spot. Crimson then quickly fled the scene.

## Appearance

Standing at 6"3 , Tommy was in peak physical condition after years of training and fitness. He had medium length, dark black, slicked-back hair.

### Outfit

As Crimson, Tommy wore a red domino mask to hide his identity. He wore a dark grey, matte, Kevlar shirt with a red cross cutting straight across it over a crimson t-shirt. He also wore black jeans. On top of the vest, Tommy wore a very dark crimson leather jacket. Finally, As Crimson, Tommy also wore armoured, black gloves with gauntlets hidden by his jacket sleeves. On colder days, this leather jacket would be replaced with a matte, black, canvas trench coat.

## Personality

Tommy was very stoic; he showed little emotion and found it a weakness. He was also quite cynical but this could also pass for realism. He very much liked to be the one at the back of the room listening and evaluating any conversation. Tommy may have seemed ignorant but he was actually very considerate as he was taught to keep an open mind. However, Tommy found it very hard to respect others and was not easily tamed; you didn't tell him what to do, he simply agreed with your suggestions. It's also fair to mention that he could at times be considered as *mentally unstable* and definitely could benefit at times from anger management classes.

## Abilities

### Strengths

Trained in many forms of martial arts and combat as well as with a natural strength, Tommy was an incredible fighter both hand to hand and with weapons; preferably firearms. Also trained in ninjitsu (though he personally had little patience for paying too much attention), he was capable of stealth routines harking back to his days as a sniper, though this was not his specialty.

Trained by the ever-prepared detective; Cold Steel, he also benefitted from enhanced intelligence from his specialist education. While his chemistry, physics and maths may not have been up-to-scratch, he could have told you all there is to know about constructing and deconstructing weaponry, was a keen computer hacker and a near masterful detective; always one step ahead of most.

### Weaknesses

As stated previously, Tommy was not at times necessarily mentally stable. He could also get extremely angry which could be a weakness as it disrupted the required levelheadedness of any competent detective. It could be said that Tommy suffered from Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder. That and also that he was **only human**, ultimately his downfall.

## Paraphernalia

### Weaponry

* High-Powered Sniper Rifle: Tommy would often carried his sniper rifle, cherished from his hit-man days. This electrically charged sniper could fire through most metals and comes with assorted types of bullets such as chemical, incendiary and explosive. This was destroyed by Luke Jones.
* Pistols: Tommy always carried with him his two Colts. There was nothing much that's special about these except for the fact that they were attached to his belt by near-unbreakable retractable cords to prevent disarmament.
* Sword: A relic of his days training in Japan with his former-mentor, Tommy wielded a katana-like sword slung across his back crossing with his rifle. This weapon was forged from meteoric metal and thus could sustain the greatest of blows. Naturally this was also suspended by his cord. Interestingly, Tommy had recently implemented a system in which he could run an electric charge through the blade, enhancing slicing power - of course inspired by the weaponry of hero; The Knight and the metallic madman; The Shadow Fixer.
* Hatchets: Finally, Tommy was known to house twin hatchets in his sleeves that expand when dropped into his hands based on a system built into his gauntlet. These hatchets were finally also suspended by his poly-cords as he referred to them as to allow quick retrieval. These were a key instrument in his attack on Acchilleus Libertas.

### Equipment

* Grappling Hook: When you're an assassin, mobility is important. As such, Tommy always packed an electrical grappling hook allowing him to soar from building to building as well as make a tactical escape.
* Specialist Domino: Tommy's domino mask had the useful capability of frosting over the irises in different colours for different uses. Blue; night-vision is enabled, green; zoom
* Smoke bombs: When a quick escape is necessary, smoke pouches were useful for creating a distraction
* Shock absorbing boots: Based on The Knight's technology, Tommy was able to compact shock-absorbing tech into his black military boots, giving them a futuristic looking trim to the back sole. These prevented fall damage as long as he lands on his feet

### Transport

* Motorcycle: Plain and simple, Crimson owned a red and black motorcycle, even adorned with a red X. This was destroyed as he entered battle upon it during the Battle of the Citadel.

## Relationships

### Snowflake

During the City of Chaos arc, it was revealed that the two contract killers had had previous runs in including a situation that Crimson had hinted at where their teamwork had lead to neither of them getting paid. Starting as a friendly rivalry, what the two had evolved into animosity with both trying to *eliminate* the other as they both recognise each other as equals. However, despite their they curiously seem to both had something of a playful relationship as shown by them reminiscing on past times.

Curiously, Snowflake also hesitated from killing Crimson long enough for him to escape. She seemed very conflicted indeed.

### Blacklist

*"Thanks for noticing my mistake, babe!"* ~ Crimson

After she spotted his mistake during the Knight/Pursuer encounter, Crimson recognised Blacklist as a skilled hacker and a possible adversary

## Quotes

> "Oh you know, the usual... Take out the odd raging lunatic - some murderers can be so uncivilised - stop a few sexual assaults, and oh, I do bar mitzvahs now!"
>
>

## Aliases

As an ex-covert, contract killer, Drake has been known by many aliases, all of which invoking the theme of the colour red. These include:

* Red Wonder (as Cold Steel's sidekick)
* Blood
* Haemo
* Scarlet
* Ruby
* Vermillion
* Red (quite occasionally)
* Crimson (most recently)

## Trivia

* Crimson was born on the 19th of October 2037.