This is the journey taken by one young man that saw him leave Paragon City as a boy and return a warrior. Parts of it are my RL autobiography. Parts of it are things I would have done differently if I had known then what I know now. Parts are complete fiction. (I leave it to you to figure out what is what.)
Chapter One
16 year old Daniel Paine took one last look at Paragon City as he boarded the bus that would take him to FT. Sill Oklahoma for basic training. With both parents killed just weeks earlier he had run out of options. Social services was planning to place him in a facility for minors and he had no intention of going to what amounted to a prison for the next two years just because he had no other family. A little help from a buddy of his (Jay was always in that gray area. Not quite a criminal but not quite on the straight and narrow either.) and he had the documents he needed to convice the Army that he was 18. He wasn't quite sure what waited for him out in the world but it had to be better than two years in a Paragon City juvenile facility.
14 weeks later he was on another bus. This time he was headed to FT. Benning Georgia. Army basic training had agreed with him. Always a big kid he was now 6'2" and 235 lbs of hard muscle. He had taken to military life like the proverbial duck to water. Having impressed his DI's they had convinced him to apply for some of the more advanced training the Army offered. So he was headed to GA to learn to jump out of a perfectly good aircraft. If he passed that it would be on to the Ranger course. He had also learned that despite never having handled a firearm before that he was a gifted marksman. Successful completion of the Ranger course would see him enrolled in the US Army Sniper School. He had been told that only the best soldiers completed the training that lay ahead of him for the next year. His fellow passengers wondered what put the smile on the face of the very large soldier riding with them this fine spring day.
Chapter 2
Looking through the scope mounted on his weapon, finger begining to slowly squeeze the trigger SGT. Daniel Paine US Army thought of the events of the last few weeks leading up to this moment. It had all started 6 weeks earlier when he had been summoned to his Battalion Commanders office at 0400 hrs.
Reporting to the CO was unusual for a simple SGT. Doing so at 0400 was just downright strange. Daniel Paine tried to think of anything he might have screwed up badly enough to be called on the old mans carpet but nothing came to mind. A firm knock and Paine marched in and came to a ramrod straight position of attention giving no indication that he saw the second man dressed in civilian clothes in the room even though he had instinctively sized him up already. Tall, slightly built but in shape. Callouses told of considerable hand to hand combat training. The posture and hair cut said ex-military. His CO began to speak.
"SGT Paine I would like you to meet Agent Jackson with the DEA. He has a proposal for you."
"Paine we have a situation in Columbia that we need some help with. There is a major player in one of the drug Cartels operating in Miami, that we can't tough through the US legal system. We want to lure him back to Columbia by disrupting his supply system down there."
Paine knew what Jackson was hinting at but he wanted it to be made crystal clear so he just stared at the DEA Agent until he elaborated.
"A hard case huh? Ok let me lay it out. We plan to eliminate this piece of trash, but not on US soil. We want you to go down there and stir stuff up and when he shows we want you to take him out as well. You OK with that?"
Daniel Paine had no problems with that plan. He had a special kind of hate on for drug dealers. He had no problems with hunting them down like the vermin they were.
The next 2 weeks saw Paine studying every piece of intell the DEA or Army could provide him and boarding a small unmarked jet late on the afternoon of the 15th day for nighttime HALO insertion into the jungles of Columbia. For a week Paine had done nothing but observe. Locations (both firing and targets), lanes of fire, movement patterns, E&E routes- all the things he needed to know to do his job and stay alive. There was no room for error on this job. He was all alone, a long way from home, no back up, and no cavalry coming if he got into trouble. He had nothing on him to identify him if caught, and no way to call for help.Just a set of map coordinates almost 100 kilometers away and a date and time to be there. A second location and time for pickup if he missed the first was his only safety net. Miss them both and it was a long walk back to the States.
The last 3 weeks had seen him sabotaging production. Quietly making couriers and their cargo disapear and anything else he could thing of to make a dent in the flow of cocaine going to the dealers in Miami. Finally this moring his target had finally shown up. For the last 8 hours Paine had watched from his hide nearly 1200 meters away on the side of a large hill that gave him a full view of the front of the Hacienda. Seconds earlier his target had emerged and Paine had placed a cross hair on a point level with and just to left of his targets heart (knowing the slight crosswind would push the round slightly 2 the right) and began to sueeze the trigger. As always with good shoot the weapons discharge was a surprise. Paine watched in his scope as the 50 caliber round took his target square in the heart and ended his drug dealing forever.
Less than 36 hours later an unmaked helo dropped into a clearing for just 30 seconds and lifted off with a tired but satisfied SGT Daniel Paine on board. He would go back for some well deserved R&R ( He knew the really great little place up in the Mountains of North Carolina with very few tourists and a very friendly VERY attractive lady bartender who had a soft spot for him.) Then he would go back to training and preparing himself for whatever his country needed him to do next.
He suddenly realized that it was 1987 and that it had been 5 years today since he had left Paragon City to escape the Social Services system.
Chapter 3
It was cold in the Mountains of North Carolina, but Daniel Paine was sweating as he worked at spliting large pile of firewood. 27 years old now Daniel was a heavily muscled 245 pounds on a 6'2" frame with grey hair cut in a military buzz. He was still moving a little stiffly but felt that he was nearly recovered from his wounds. What was this? The 3rd time things had gone south on a mission. Seemed like that only happened when he worked with a team. Seemed like he never had things go bad when he was on a solo operation. There had been a lot of those in the last 5 years. Ever since that first time the Army had loaned him out to the DEA. Word had gotten around and several government agencies had made use of him over the last few years. No real home but the Army, no family, highly motivated and trained, with uncanny natural ability. His only outside tie was the one he had made in this little mountain town. He had just been passing through 8 years earlier and had stopped for some coffee.
Pam was 18, with dark hair, brown eyes, and a ready smile for the tall stranger in the Army uniform. When some trucker started giving her a hard time Paine had stepped in. Then so had 2 of the truckers friends. It had lasted less than 15 seconds. Then the soldier had been asking Pam if she was ok while the 3 truckers lay on the floor. After the police had taken statements the local Sheriff revealed that he was Pam's uncle and only living relative. From that day foward Paine had been as welcome in the little town as if he was one of her own. He had been back several times and gotten a little closer to Pam each time. The first time he had been injured he had spent nearly 2 months here recovering and that was the first time Pam had spent the night.
Stacking the firewood Daniel considered how Pam would react when he told her it was time for him to go. He knew she wanted him to leave the Army and settle down. Her uncle was ready to retire and the Sheriffs job would be his for the asking. The whole town respected him, and nobody else was likely to even run for the office. He suspected that Pops was putting off his retirement waiting for him to decide to settle down. But he also knew there was a lot of jobs left that his nation would need him for. He could not just walk away. For the first time in his life he knew fear. Fear that one of these times when he left, Pam would tell him not to come back.
Two days later Paine pointed his 1978 XLCR-1000 Harley-Davidson towards FT. Bragg with his fear realized. Pam had told him last night that when he left he should not come back until he had left the Army.
It was 1992 and Daniel Paine would never return to the little Mountain town. He would know nothing of Pam or the child she carried for 12 years.
Chapter 4
It was winter of 2004 an a 26 year old Harley snarled past the Paragon City Limits sign. As he entered the city for the first time in 22 years Daniel Paine wondered why his subconcious had brought him back here of all places, doing so unfortunately brought the sorrow of the last few weeks back to the forefront of his mind.
Six weeks earlier he had retired from the Army with 22 years of service.
Things were happening in the world and in the current civilian leadership of his nation that he did not totally understand. The last couple of missions he had been on had left him feeling like he had done something wrong for the first time in his career. So he had put in his paperwork and the day he was discharged he had called a number that he had not used in 12 years. The number was still good, but the news from the other end was not.
He had called Pops to find out if he thought Pam would still want him to come back now that he was retired. He learned that a child had been born 9 months after he left the last time. He could only sit in stunned silence at what followed next. Both Pam and the daughter he had never know had died 2 years before when a drunk driver had crossed the center line.
For six weeks he had drifted slowly across the country never really knowing or caring where he was, until the PCL sign had brought him back to the here and now. Figuring this was as good a place as any he rented a 3 room apartment in a building with a secure garage near Atlas Park. Money was not a real concern He had his retirement pay, but more importantly he had lived a fairly spartan warriors existance. Of course he had nothing to do but wander the city he had left 22 years before and get to know it again. That and try to escape the still raw wound where everything that ever really mattered had been taken from him. And deep down he knew it was his own fault, because he had chosen to put duty first for all those years.
Chapter 5
A small smile crept across Daniel Paines face as he surveyed the result of 2 months of preperation. He had taken the apartments on either side of his. Moved into the one on the left that was shown on the supers books as unoccupied, set up his workshop in the center unit that had been soundproofed (his original apartment) and made the right hand unit his publically know domicile (It was really a empty decoy in case anybody came looking for him).
In the center unit he now had a small but very well equiped machine shop and gunsmithing set up. He also had a large stockpile of weaponry that was not legal for anybody outside of the military to possess. A complete set of a new experimental body armor that was lighter, more flexible, and stronger than anything he had ever used before finished off his spending spree.
Just as he had 22 years before Jay had been there for him. He was still walking that gray line. He was able to help Daniel get his hands on some very heavy duty ordnance and the heros license that would allow him to operate openly. And more than that had willingly financed Daniels plans.
As he walked the streets of Paragon City in December of 2004 he had looked at the city that spent the first 16 years of his life in and he did not like what he saw. Gangs ruled the streets. Skulls, Hellions, and Trolls fought amongst themselves and the people paid the price. Drugs were rampant. The worst seemed to be unique to Paragon, something called Supradine. He had never encountered it on any of his DEA work in SouthAmerica.The Rikiti Invasion had devestated much of the city. Many of the most powerful and well known heroes were gone, probably to never return, on the ill-fated counter invasion. And for the first time in several months something besides apathy pushed the pain and loss he felt back. It was anger at what was happening to his city. And he began to form a plan. He would join the new wave of heroes that had risen to defend the city in this darkest hour. He had no powers to use, but he did have a life time of training. That would have to be enough.
Now he was ready. He had meet a couple of people that were willing to supply him with information and assistance in the course of finding Jay and getting thing set up. These contacts would point him in the right direction. he would start at the bottom, with the low level gangers and work his way up. Eventually he would make a dent. He would make a difference. He looled around his workshop and hoped that having a mission again would be enough to make the loss he felt bearable.
