Backup, the Origin

THE STORY OF BACKUP
 
Name: Backup
Civilian ID: Bill Gutierrez

History:
Born into a middle class family, Bill Gutierrez lived a pretty normal childhood for his first twelve years. Sure, occasionally weird things would happen around him but occasionally weird things happened around EVERYONE. He was an only child but he lived a happy life. Then everything came tumbling down.

Bill’s dad worked for the IERA. Until he started questioning their goals. Then dad was blackballed. They lost everything. The house the IERA had provided. The car. Dad’s job. Then dad took his own life, leaving Bill and his Mom out on the streets. Mom fell into a deep depression and heavy drinking so it fell to Bill to take care of, well, everything. Then mom passed from an alcohol overdose and Bill found himself alone on the streets.

With jobs for twelve year olds thin on the ground and with no desire to go into the system, Bill turned to crime. Being small, unobtrusive and good with his hands he found himself as part of a pickpocket crew. One person would distract the mark, Bill did the lift then he would handoff to a third so there was no evidence on him if he got caught. It was during this time that Bill’s magic began to surface, though he didn’t know it. Sometimes he was even harder to notice than expected. Once or twice the people chasing him would stop and look around as if blind. There was even one time when Bill could have sworn he had gone through a wall while being pursued. Once he whispered something to one of his teammates, they responded, and THEN they both realized they were a good city block from each other.

For years, Bill thought of himself as just lucky. He took larger and larger risks, counting on his “luck” to get him out. He went for bigger and bigger scores. Is there a vid star in town with an entourage and bodyguards? Bill lifted thousands right off them. Politicians with secret service protection? No problem. He loved the rush of pulling off the impossible. Right up until the time he got caught.

Mind you, things had gone perfect. Wealthy industrialist. Bodyguards distracted. Slid in. Got the goods without a mishap. But then a hand clamped down on his shoulder and he found himself staring up at a hulking man in an ill fitting suit and eccentric jewelry. He knew he was dead. He was wrong.

Pulled into the back, Bill was sat down in front of the industrialist and his strangely accessorized bodyguard. Bill shrunk down in his seat and tried to disappear. But for once his luck had failed him. Sullenly he looked up.

“You went through a lot of risk for a couple hundred bucks and some credit cards that’d be canceled before you could use them.”
“Yeah.”
“And you got caught.”
“...yeah.”
“You 18?”
“...yeah…”
“So if we turn you in you get tried as an adult. You have a juvie record?”
Bill just glared.
“Yeah, I’ll take that as a yes. You curious about how we caught you?”
“...”
“...”
“...yeah…”
“You were smooth, I’ll give you that. If it wasn’t for Arnie here catching your aura we’d never have known what happened.”
“...Aura? What the fuck you talkin about with aura?”

And that was how Bill Gutierrez discovered that this entire time his “luck” had been his natural magic bubbling to the surface. They never called the police. Arnie, full name Arnold Hossenfeffer, took him under his wing and began trying to train him. That lasted almost a week, primarily because Hossenfeffer is an overbearing asshole who thought that Bill should be grateful he wasn’t immediately tossed in the garbage with the rest of the criminals. Hossenfeffer was what’s called a gadget mage. He had just enough power to utilize magically imbued items. And he had collected a lot of items. Four days into his training, Bill found that one of the items, a bracelet, helped him channel his own powers. Two days later Bill lifted the bracelet, a protective ring and a thousand dollars and headed out.

Back on the streets but now with powers, Bill was a force to be reckoned with. No one was safe. He picked up thousands per day. He was so successful and so loose that he got the attention of the IERA. When a squad was sent to catch him he barely escaped with his life. His crew, however, wasn’t so lucky.

Bill’s been on the run from the IERA ever since. Recently he also came to the attention of the local LFER cell. After reaching out to Bill an agreement was made and Bill, now codenamed Backup, joined the LFER. He missed being part of a team and let’s face it, having a codename is cool. Let’s see where that goes.

Personality/Motivation:
Backup is new to the whole super thing but he has spent most of his life as part of a team, coordinating with others. He’s more comfortable as part of a team. He’s not a leader. He tends to take his cues from whoever he deems as in charge. There’s not a lot of moral lines he won’t cross to protect his team, the only one that comes to mind is he won’t kill.

Backup doesn’t give his trust easily but once he does he is loyal to extreme levels. It’s part of how he deals with feeling abandoned by both his parents before he was a teen. If Backup is your teammate he will do everything in his not inconsiderable power to keep you alive and safe. The last thing he ever wants is to see those near him die again.

Powers/Tactics:
All of Backup’s powers are spells he developed subconsciously in his career as a pickpocket. The only exception to this is his flight spell, the one he managed to learn during his remarkably short apprenticeship with Arnold Hossenfeffer. As a result all his spells are designed to help him be sneaky or keep him and his team alive. As he learns more about his powers (now that he knows he has one) he’ll probably develop new abilities but for now most of what he can do revolves around those few goals.

In combat, Backup tends to, well, backup everyone else. He turns teammates invisible to give him a combat advantage. He maintains communication. He blinds opponents when he can. His job is to make everyone around him better.

Appearance:
Bill Gutierrez is a nondescript hispanic teenager, 5’6” tall with brown hair and brown eyes. He normally wears a dark hoodie