Zero Onyx
Mr. Jonas Dustin Walker (a.k.a. Zero Onyx)
Written by: Null Kit
In our line of work, injury is inevitable. All of us have had some manner of life-threatening injury severe enough that an abrupt withdrawal is needed, and all you can do is 'tough it out' until you're seen by a back-alley surgeon of questionable qualification and set on the path of mending.A wise man once said to me: A sucking chest-wound is nature's way of telling you to slow down.Occasionally however, someone recieves an injury severe enough that simply surviving it is enough to garner a reputation. Zero Onyx is one such person: A Troll physical adept specialising in melee combat and infiltration, Zero Onyx was brought to the attention of Raleigh's underworld in the aftermath of a botched shadowrun, where he was shot fourteen times in the chest and not only survived, but regained consciousness until his recovery and stabilisation eighty-one minutes later. As a result of this, the troll has garnered a reputation not only as a resilient man but as a haunted one, superstition coming hand in hand with nearly impossible odds. A valuable hire for operations requiring close-up violence, if you can find him
Physical Description
General Physical Condition
Zero Onyx is what you would expect, well-built for a troll in his early thirties and baring no cybernetic/biological augmentataion, but absolutely riddled in scars, large and small. Despite the severity of the injury to his lungs, he appears to have no lasting conditions as a result and shows above-average respiratory capabilities.
Mental characteristics
Personal history
Much of Zero Onyx nascent years were of little relevance to his current position, despite straying from societal norms. Born under the name Jonas Walker, he was one of about fourteen children raised collectively in a communal residence of aproximately twelve families. Parenting was abundant and healthy, but space was at such an economy that personal posessions were limited to what didn't take up excessive room, something that was difficult for a Troll and would explain Jonas' ascetic standards of living later in life.
In spite of repeated attempts to shed stereotypical views of Trolls, Jonas unfortunately found he had a talent in application of physical violence, one that would anticipate an eventual astral awakening into a physical adept. Walker did his best to stay out of trouble after his awakening became apparent, but trouble found him nontheless in the guise of an assortment of thugs, hooligans and self-proclaimed rivals wanting to be the guy who took down a troll adept, each defeat only spurring the next contender.
Some of the Trids are still out there of slots just walking up and picking a fight with the guy. My favourite's the one where a dwarf charges across the street and just taking a fucking swing at Walker's shins with a sledgehammer.Eventually, one would come along and best him. Not a warrior, not anyone of famed capability, or even worth naming in this very data-cache, simply a nobody who got in a lucky knockout-hit and earned himself fifteen minutes of fame before dying in a gang-shooting the next week. The incident had long-lasting effects however, on Jonas, who was made the subject of mockery for his ignonymous fall. Enraged for being made a laughing-stock for a fight he never wanted, Walker left his communal-home and walked into the The Concrete Forest, deciding that if he's going to be forced into a life of fighting, he might as well embrace it. The subsequent months managed to be more violent than Walker's entire life up until then. Desperate slug-outs against the wastrels and thugs of the dangerous Z-zone became rampages through its dilapidated alleys, to the point that people from Raleigh would risk walking the streets of the Concrete Forest to record Walker's latest brutal ambush on camera. The trids went viral and Walker's talent was for the first time noticed by someone who didn't want to prove themselves his better: A fixer approached Walker, still covered in follow-through from his last beatdown, and offered him an opportunity to put his skills to use against better opponents and make a means of living comfortably in the process. Walker was intrigued, and accepted. Walker's emergence into the Shadows as Zero Onyx was a distinguished one, riding his reputation from the Concrete Forest into a performance on his first run that was agreed to be well above expectations, but Walker remained conflicted, feeling that he had in some way given up by embracing his violent capabilities. Without a reliable alternative however, he decided to venture on into his new profession, spending his earnings frugally and putting most of it into charities in an admitted attempt to "make peace" with himself.
II still don't have anything on how he got the alias Zero Onyx. Anybody got a guess?
I asked the guy myself once, he said he came up with it on the spot and thought both words sounded cool. Anticlimactic, but it's the same reason most runners pick their name, so who are we to judge?On June 2077, Zero Onyx was contracted with four other runners on a shadowrun, an extraction-run on Renraku's behalf to retrieve a VIP hiding inside The Concrete Forest. The details on how the run went and how it fell through are unimportant, what matters to this article is that Zero Onyx was seperated from his group and cornered by the VIP's security, who shot him fourteen times and left him a broken heap on the ground as they returned to pursuing their kidnapped charge. The Troll himself claims that in the midst of bleeding out, he met his mentor-spirit; a ghostly-white human, wreathed in flowers and covered in scars. The human whispered to the dying troll, allegedly saying that conflict and bloodshed were as much a part of him as his own heart and soul, that crushing loss would always find him, but so would victory and conquest, both forever changing him but also push him forward to meet his destiny. Nearly an hour and a half later, one of Zero Onyx's teammates returned to his last broadcasted location with a hastily assembled extraction-team and found the adept sitting up, gently clutching his ventilated chest and staring into the distance. Supposedly, as they loaded him into the armored van they took there, Zero Onyx was asked how he was still thinking and breathing despite his physical condition being mostly incompatible with life. "I made peace." he said, before passing out again. To say Zero Onyx's injuries were unusual is an understatement: Fourteen PDW-calibre bullets in his body, both lungs barely recognisable as vital organs but not so much as a grazing-wound to his heart or major vessels. In spite of the severity of his injuries, the Troll made a complete (albeit long and painful) recovery and was soon waiting eagerly for another shadowrun to participate in. However, the man known as Jonas Walker was irrevocably changed by his experience: Gone was the reluctant man, who struggled with balancing his talents with his desires, and from the experience of near-death came a serene and unsettlingly calm shadowrunner, unapolagetic of who he had became and running into each fight with an utterly unwavering conviction.
Education
High-School Graduate.
Employment
Numerous short-lived employments and internships, before dedicating himself full-time to Shadowrunning.
Accomplishments & Achievements
Zero Onyx's accomplishments are numerous, despite his short career as a shadowrunner, having attained a very well-founded reputation both for his brutally effective talents in hand-to-hand fighting and for his seemingly preternatural capability to survive injuries that should by all means put him out of the fight.
Failures & Embarrassments
The troll's accolades and noteriety have long eclipsed the humiliation of his first major defeat, but the incident still appears to weigh heavily on him.
Mental Trauma
None diagnosed, several conjectured.
Morality & Philosophy
Unknown, possibly nihilistic in his current condition.
Personality Characteristics
Motivation
Of this writing, Zero Onyx's motivations appear to have arranged themselves around his new occupation, focussing on further improvement of his skills and finding opponents that can give him a challenge.
Savvies & Ineptitudes
Between being a troll, being a physical adept and being the subject of years of unwanted fights, it should come to no surprise that Zero Onyx has a frightening competance in unarmed combat, albeit one that's ultimately came at cost to any ability to engage at range.
Alignment
True Neutral
Current Location
Year of Birth
2048
32 Years old
Children
Pronouns
He/Him
Eyes
Hazel
Hair
Brown, Bald
Skin Tone/Pigmentation
Jaundiced-White
Height
8'2''
Weight
672 lb.
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