Patience Phillips

The Red Claw

Patience Phillips

## Biography

### Early Life

Patience Phillips was born as Kuasa Jiwe on July 23rd, 1990 to a Zambezi woman named Abiesa Jiwe. Kuasa was born the daughter of an affair with the local warlord Abu Kwesi. Abiesa had kept the child’s true origin a secret from most of the village - having her labeled as a social outcast.

When Kuasa was two years old, an American woman named Barbara Minerva came to town and studied the culture with Abiesa, even going spelunking with the woman. The conversations with Barbara opened her eyes to exactly how big the world really is.

Kuasa was outcast from most of the village, as rumors began to spread about her origin. When Kuasa was sixteen years old, she saw a Zambezi woman join the Justice League and bring fame to their country. Inspired by Mari and Barbara, she decided that she wanted to go to college in the United States.

When her mother refused, saying they didn’t have the money, they got into a screaming argument, leading her mother to reveal her father to be Abu Kwesi. Kuasa approached Kwesi and revealed herself as his daughter, begging him to help her go to school. Kwesi was enraged, so he kidnapped the girl and her mother, abandoning them in a ravine with a pack of mountain lions.

The fall into the ravine broke Abiesa’s legs, but Kuasa was mostly unharmed. As the lions began circling, her mother revealed she had kept a secret mystical water totem. She tried to fend off the creatures, but the lions got to her. Kuasa took the totem and used it to fight them off, but not before one pounced on her right arm, tearing open the flesh.

She managed to escape from the ravine and decided she would flee Zambezi. She couldn’t risk going to the airport, knowing it to be under Kwesi’s control, so she tried to barter with a group of fishermen for use of their boat. One of the fishermen happened to be Thomas Blake, on a reconnaissance mission for the League of Assassins.

Thomas convinced the fishermen to help her out. She boarded the boat and they began to sail, but ran into a patch of storms. Thankfully, she was able to use her totem to keep the boat afloat. In the chaos, Thomas hijacked the boat, killing the other fishermen and losing their bodies at sea.

He sailed them to Infinity Island, an outpost of the League. There, he met with several members of the League of Assassins and convinced them to allow her to stay there. They gave her food and care, and she even slept with Thomas. She spoke with Talia al Ghul who attempted to recruit her to the League, but she denied. Unbeknownst to her, after this, Thomas was assigned to kill her.

Instead, he decided he loved her, and fled from the League of Assassins, and took her to America with him. They moved to Star City. After a little bit, Thomas was picked up by Green Arrow and imprisoned. Fearful of the League, Team Arrow, and Abu Kwesi’s far-reaching hand, Kuasa changed her name to Patience Phillips and decided to reinvent herself.

### Patience Phillips

Using the money Thomas had squared away, she enrolled herself at Metropolis University and began pursuing a business degree, while she also dabbled in chemistry on the side. She was known around campus for being very charismatic, joining several clubs and helping many students grow their own businesses.

As such, she was noticed by LuthorCorp, and Lex Luthor personally attempted to recruit her to his business. Distrustful of him, instead, she reached out to Mari McCabe to help her get her fashion business off the ground. With her first major investment, the corporation Multigon was born.

Now, living the good life, Patience began to fall into a couple of vices. Her main one being gambling. It became a well-known secret that she had a gambling problem, and an affinity for metahuman fighting rings. This put her into the circle of Veronica Sinclair and Amos Fortune, who ran the underground metahuman fight club “the House” in Gotham City.

When her debts were left unpaid, the Royal Flush Gang were sent to rough up some of Multigon’s assets and kidnap the CEO. When Vixen tracked her down, Sinclair used this opportunity to capture her, mind control her, and force her into the fighting pit. Phillips was mesmerized by her ability to do so.

### Red Claw

When Vixen eventually broke free, Sinclair split, taking Phillips with her. Patience had fallen head-over-heels with the woman. In exchange for all her debts cleared, Phillips began funneling some of Multigon’s funds into restarting the House in another spot in Gotham City. Not wanting to remain Sinclair’s lapcat, Phillips got in contact with Rupert Thorne, who put her into his Tobacconist's Club, trying to get her a bigger piece of the pie post No Man’s Land.

In the Club, she took up the alias of the Red Claw, and began showing up to meetings wearing a mask. This came in handy when Catwoman crashed one of these meetings, and the Red Claw was able to fight back against the woman. Catwoman ended up stealing the Water totem from her.

Philips was soon contacted by Hush, who told her he could help her get the totem back, if she put a hit out on Catwoman for him. So, she did. This attracted several buyers, including her own ex-lover, the self-proclaimed “Cat-Man.” Blake teamed up with several other low-end criminals to kidnap Selina’s daughter, hiring Film Freak to stage a kidnapping video. Unbeknownst to the criminals, the baby’s father, Batman, took issue with this, and beat Red Claw’s name out of the lowlifes.

Catwoman and Batman spent weeks scouring Gotham, but no one else was familiar with the Red Claw. She has remained elusive ever since. She spends her nights at the House with Sinclair, and her days running Multigon and staging business meetings with Thorne. She is becoming a rising figure in Gotham’s Underworld, one even Thorne himself fears.