Boone

History

Boone was recruited by Battlestone after the latter was dismissed from the Youngblood project. Along with two other recruits, Kayo and Lethal, he accompanied Battlestone on a number of high-priced mercenary missions. One key contract was the murder of major Japanese criminal Mr. Soroyama, which Battlestone used as publicity since he was tired of covert ops preventing them from developing a reputation.

Eventually one mission (contracted out by Jacob Marlowe) went south, as the foursome failed to steal a gem after running into with Youngblood operatives -a gem which was later revealed to be a Kherubim orb of power. Angry over this failure, Battlestone curtly told the team members to go away, and ceased operations. Kayo stuck with him despite that, and several months later they created Brigade, a costumed team with a number of superhuman operatives -not unlike Youngblood, but operating according to Battlestone’s militant view of the business.

After it began operations, Battlestone’s team started taking casualties ; since Battlestone was determined to carry on, he decided to recruit new members ASAP and turned toward ex-members of his old mercenary unit. By that point, Boone had been working on his own for a while, either solo or paired up with the mercenary Hacker.

Battlestone rescued Hacker when Boone’s latest contract started turning sour, and made an offer to Boone. Boone eventually accepted - though he had his differences with Battlestone, he could not in good conscience let him down. Lethal also returned, and both were invaluable in stiffening the team against an attack by another team of super-killers, Bloodstrike. However, Lethal and Kayo decided to quit soon after that ; Boone had reservations since he resented losing his freedom as a freelance operative, but stuck with Battlestone for the paycheque.

Brigade clashed with the Soroyama family - the son of the man Boone and the others had killed years before had kidnapped Kayo whilst he was working in Japan. During that mission, Boone abandoned his comrades and tried to capture a Kherubim orb of power by himself, but circumstances made his attempted treachery pass for a daring initiative. Still, he was increasingly doubting that future of Brigade and looking for a lucrative way out of the team.

Treason

At that point, Boone’s frequent associate Hacker had just been kidnapped by men working for Craven, the director of the sinister American intelligence agency I.O. (International Operations). Craven was determined to bring Brigade down, and forced Hacker to start plotting against the team. Either Hacker contacted and convinced Boone to help him, or Craven found some leverage to also force Boone to serve I.O. - but in any case, some time after Hacker’s kidnapping, Boone became an IO mole within Brigade.

At that point, Boone realised that team member Thermal was writing an expose on Brigade and its history ; when Thermal ultimately decided not to send her draft to a publisher, Boone confronted her, knocked her out and took the file.

Boone arranged for exfiltration with his accomplice Hacker - but his attempt to flee via a Santa Monica beach (during which he shot several bystanders standing haplessly in his way) did no work out and Battlestone collared him and beat him up. Using a special explosive, Boone made it look like he blew himself up along with Battlestone, but he actually escaped alive, and carrying both the unconscious Battlestone and the disc with Thermal’s file.

In the aftermath of this, most Brigade members were killed in an unrelated case ; meanwhile Battlestone was brainwashed and reconditioned. Boone was simply never seen again, though there is a high likelihood he became an agent for I.O., likely along with Hacker. Interestingly, given how the Image proto-universe sundered, that may mean he now operates in the Wildstorm universe.

Personality

Not much really - a hot headed, flippant, gunslinging American action hero with a cocky streak and mediocre one-liners, especially when he blows HPs to pull off a flashy and successful manoeuvre. As with most Image heroes back then, he never hesitates to enter Killing Combat.

He’s a “shooting pool, drinking beer and scoping chicks” sort of guy. While he can be loyal to his old friends (it is *possible* he betrayed Brigade to save Hacker), there is always some hint of reluctance in acting on it, and he generally looks out for number one - even at one point abandoning the rest of the team to a difficult fight in order to concentrate on the mission’s objective… and hog the glory.

His pursuit of his own interest proved to be more potent than both his reluctance at associating with Battlestone again (while he had been curtly and almost insultingly dismissed last time, the paycheque was good) and any loyalty toward his comrades-in-arms within Brigade.

Powers and Abilities

Boone is a talented mercenary, infiltration specialist, hand-to-hand combatant and gunman. He favours an acrobatic, undisciplined approach to combat, including gunfights ; and though he’s sometimes dual-wielding handgun he seems to be just as efficient wielding just one gun. One of his recurrent tactics is to position himself with some kind of flip or other acrobatic manoeuvre - then burn a few HPs to open fire after his little stunt, because he can.

He’s in excellent physical shape, and with enough HPs could withstand multiple superhuman blows without permanent damage.