I spent a little time going through my Google Docs via Drive, tonight, and found this little write up. It was a back story, of sorts, for a character I had planned on making for the DCU MMO.
Unfortunately, the game pretty much sucked and I never got around to making this western themed character but, I got a semi-decent story from it though.
The first time I heard the story of The
Nightranger, I was just a kid. Something my parents would tell me around the
campfire on our yearly camping vacations.
They said he was the Eternal Law of the Old West….a spirit of vengeance
that couldn’t die. They said he rode the
badlands of the Old West, dispensing justice to all manner of nasty hombre.
Little
did I know they were right….and then some.
It seems that, back in around 1850,
the sheriff of a small mining town in Colorado called ‘Calamity’ was gunned
down by the Jeremiah Hazard gang. About
a week later, that very gang was found strung up on a big oak tree just outside
of town. The leader, Jeremiah Hazard,
had a note pinned to his chest.
“The
Law never dies.”
More
and more vigilante justice was found dispensed in the outlying area, but who
was doing it was still a mystery. Until
that fateful evening when a telegraph operator named Milo Stewart saw a dark
figure, on a dark horse against the full moon of the autumn night. His eyes glowed an eerie white as did his
horses. The horse also snorted a white
fire through his nose and his hooves seemed to spark a white will o’ the wisp
with each step. A shaken Stewart sent a
telegram to a friend at the nearest big city newspaper who, in turn, sent a reporter
out to see if there was really a story here or just an ‘urban legend’. As it turned out, more and more sightings
were reported and the word spread. The
crooks and hucksters got scared and scattered.
Things settled down in Calamity and the Nightranger began showing up
less and less. Time marched on and the
Old West settled down. From time to time
you’d hear of the “Eternal Law” showing up to dispense some justice, but they
became few and far between. Oh, and by
the way, the sheriff who was thought to have been gunned down by the Hazard gang….his last name was
Walker…same as mine.
You
see, apparently, a very long time ago, a distant relative of mine ran afoul of a
group of ‘wanderers’ as he travelled through Russia. I’m still not sure what he did to incur the
wrath of these ‘wanderers’, but a curse was placed on my relative to ‘forever
make amends’ for his transgressions....whatever they may have been. Now
the curse is passed down through the generations and the first born male
inherits the mantle, compelled to fight crime and right wrongs whenever he
can. The curse has taken on many names
over the centuries….”Wayward Soldier”, “Dark Rider”, “Hell’s Highwayman”, even the famous “Headless Horseman” story is
based (loosely) on the exploits of a relative helping to keep New England save from brigands. I’ve recently
discovered that my father used to patrol the highways and byways as the
“Phantom Trooper”, which fits I suppose, he being a police officer and
all. When my father died, three years
ago, the curse was passed down….we all knew it was coming so I was prepared. A
strange twist to the curse, maybe it’s starting to relax after over three
hundred years, is that we can manipulate the force a tiny bit. My father used to appear as a large
motorcycle cop, dressed in black leather with a black helmet and a black energy
field surrounding him. He rode a souped up Harley which he created from the
dark energies we can tap into. Being an
Old West buff, I’ve gone back to the “Nightranger” moniker, my appearance much
like the one who rode the badlands of Colorado but with a large, flowing, cape
and a dark, energy created, horse. As
for what I can do with my cursed powers…..pray you never have to find out.
See
ya ‘round Gotham…..pardner.
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