The Thunder

## The Thunder (The Team)

* **Street Name:**The Thunder
* **Metatype:**Troll (*Homo sapiens ingentis*)
* **Origin:**Fargo
* **Affiliation:**The Team , NDRU
* **Specialties:**What he calls XPV (EXtreme Physical Violence), that is to say close combat skills and BTE (Big Troll Energy), which is a combination of social skills and effective branding.

The Thunder's street name exists mostly as a brand, part of the tradition of shadowrunner street names, because there's never been any secret about his identity. Former star Right Heavy for the NDRU Bison's Urban Brawl team DuWayne Wahlo.

For a lot of kids who experience it in early puberty, Goblinization is a trauma that severs them from society and is something that will leave them grappling with their identity for the rest of their life. For DuWayne Expressing as a Troll in 2056 at age 12 was probably the best thing that ever happened to him.

The scion of a family of local semi-professional and professional athletes, DuWayne was always going to be a big boy, his father, grandfather, brothers and uncles (all Humans except for younger brother Antoine) are all well over six feet and two-fifty. As a Troll, DuWayne is an impressive figure. According to his college stats, he competed at 9'9" and 553 lbs, all muscle. After leading the Davies High School Eagles to three straight regional championships in AFB (American Football), he was recruited by NDSU as an Offensive Right Heavy for their championship Urban Brawl team. And that's the first time DuWayne became a legend. He was Rookie of the Year for the TZCL (Treaty Zone College League, combining teams from political gray zones like Fargo, Denver , Seattle , and Others), and was named MVP in both '64 ad '65. Even as a junior there were already talks with recruiters from the Minneapolis Marauders to play professional Brawl.

It was at the end of the '66 season that everything changed for him. A near-fatal accident during the championship left him devastated (you can Orb  it if you want more details, it was all anyone in the Fargo newsphere  talked about for weeks). He had to be rebuilt nearly from the ground-up.

A formerly undetected system sensitivity caused complications in his cybernetic reconstruction. Expensive complications that meant he couldn't compete until his family could find the resources to complete his rebuilding, and effectively ended his college playing career. Crowdfunding by fans managed to fill some of the gaps and get him up and functional. But not to league competition standards. In order to pay off some of his debts he started working as a bouncer and doing some underground fighting, which is what brought him to the attention of the Underberg Family . His talent at fighting and his natural charisma and flair for winning over a crowd caught the eye of the rigger Roadwork , recently promoted to head of the Underbergs' smuggling operations. She reached out and offered to cover the rest of his medical debt if he came and worked for her.

On their first run together, 'The Thunder' as he dubbed himself, managed to single-handed save Roadwork, and coincidentally all of Lake Park MN, from an Unhcegila . And that's the second time The Thunder became a legend. After his impressive debut run, he was automatically recruited into the ranks of the permanent members of the Team, along with Roadwork's good friend, the mage Lightrider .

And the kid's been on a roll ever since. With his flair for the dramatic and his impressive size and athletic abilities (as well as an absolute ton of top-shelf cyberware) he has quickly made himself into something of a local legend. Its publicly known that DuWayne is The Thunder, but somehow neither BlockSec  nor the Zone Patrol have managed to conclusively connect him to the crimes everybody knows he's helped commit, at least in part because of widespread collusion by his extensive fanbase.

When not doing charity events, playing in exhibition matches or doing, ya know, shadowruns, The Thunder can be found touching base with his people and soaking up the adulation of his fans at the Astroturf .

*[Edit: On 7/4/75 DuWayne Wahlo, "Roadwork" (Peyton Underberg), and Lady Lightrider were all found dead on the banks of the Red . The Wahlo family is holding a ceremony at Holy Nation Church in Fargo on 7/23/75, public is invited]*

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