Edward “Danger” Broderick Sr (Runner)

Membership: Unknown

Race: Human

Height: 5’8

Weight: 160

Apparent Age: 70+

Archetype: Swordsman Adept: Circle Unknown (Your already dead and don’t know it!)

Preferred Weapon: Twin Short Blades (Fire & Ice)

Runner Song:

Bio: Some ask the million dollar question that has all fans of the shadow world debating and arguing, the question is who was the first of this legendary profession and most will claim that it is Evergreen or maybe the fallen Canyon…though after much consideration and research if has finally been confirmed that Old Man Edward here is the first of that noble profession. The Runner simply started working within the shadows long before anyone knew that is was a option, he would bring forth this craft as he forged ahead alone within the dangerous world of the criminal elite. He ventured alone in this long distance run to supplement his income and help provide for his growing family, the salary of a school teacher was not enough to maintain a comfortable lifestyle in the ever growing megalopolis that Seattle was becoming.

Edward is a man that when you look at you would never think he is a legendary shadow warrior and ma of the streets that has more street cred in his pinky finger than most earn in their entire career on the streets. He cut his teeth acting as a courier for the crime bosses and king pins, moving his way up the chain to answer man and problem solver, lets simply say their isn’t a crime on the streets that Edward hasn’t mastered; though he always steered clear of any offence that involved Human Trafficking, Sexual Based Crimes and Exploitation or Harm to a Child. Simply the Runner would not be involved and legend states that he even made certain that if he hear of such crimes he went out of his way to free the people or bring the guilty to justice.

To fully understand why a white collar, middle class school teacher would enter the world of the criminal and be the true forefather to the street runners we know today. We must understand that Edward is a man that has always been dedicated to his family and regardless of what you think about him, he never did his family wrong and he was there to raise his children and be at all their functions and watch as the crossed the stage for graduation and even walking his two daughters down the aisle.

Edward stared running the shadows at  young age and he has aged well unlike the streets that have been decaying for generations. He started off as a simple High School math teacher and would work hard till he received his tenure at the Lynnwood Public High School where he worked alongside Ralph Rivers, Douglas Greenspan, Bernard Cummings and Lloyd Weathers all of who are now runners and mercenaries and not to forget some legends like Thomas Donaldson, Trevor O’Malley and Wilford Brunswick.

Edward’s salary was enough for him to support himself and his new bride within Lynnwood and maintain their condo all the while allowing for his wife to keep house and tend to their two dogs. Well when his wife would become pregnant with triplets all things changed and Edward’s life would quickly spin out of control and this would be only the start to his new life of crime. He suddenly needed to purchase a home big enough for his now growing family and make certain their is enough room for his ageing parents if needed.

Well the one thing about the Seattle banking system is that it’s very crooked and not designed to lend a helping hand to an honest man in need and he was denied loans for a mortgage do to his status of being a wage slave. This would lead him initially down the road to the loan sharks or as we call them today “Fixers” and wouldn’t you be surprised to learn the Brady Krieghoff aka Tang was the man of the hour within Lynnwood. A few phone calls and a deal is brokered, money changed hands and Edward was on his way to his dream of home ownership, though this dream would come at a cost seeing that Brady would want his money back with interest and Edward was about to learn the hard way that one simply does not “Pay Tag Back” one works for Tang and pays in blood, sweat and tears.

For Edward this was the first time he was exposed to the harsh reality that was the criminal underworld and what they are willing to do if they have leverage. Once a fixer sinks his fangs into you…well your screwed and for Edward once he shook Tang’s he was owned. So during his time out of the classroom and away from the home he was hard at work paying Tang back with simple jobs here and there or just working within the smokey backroom cooking the books for the King Pin of the Streets.

Over the years Runner would prove his worth to Tang as more than a bookkeeper and someone that could get things done. Edwards wife initially was in the dark about her husbands second career but that would become a impossible secret to keep once Tang went to war with Padre. As Brady’s empire was growing he was stepping on the toes of the Drug Lord Padre and this meant that anyone working for Tang was in jeopardy and that would include families. Edward now expecting his sixth child would be forced to step up his game and take part in his bosses shadow war, he would become the danger that lurked in the night and knocked on the door of the enemy becoming the judge, jury and executioner. He would show Tang and Padre that he was not a simple bookkeeper and someone that took justice into his own hands and was willing to go to extremes to protect what he loved.

For Tang this was when Runner would go from simple bookkeeper to ally and friend, and for Padre it would be the birth of a great enemy and someone that even the Father of Narcotics would wish to avoid. By this point with blood on his hands and years of laundering money for Tang he was now truly a criminal and trapped within the dangerous underworld. Edward’s life had taken a very dark turn, during the day he was the soft spoken teacher, troop leader and elder session of his church but when the sun went down and the big city lights drowned out the heavens, he would become Danger or simply known as Runner.

Once the wage slaves bedded down and dreamed of escaping the humdrum of city life, he was putting on his combat gear and taking to the streets to make an impact in the war between empires. The more he did and the more successful he became the legend of the Runner would grow, law enforcement agencies grew to know his handle and wonder who this criminal was and where was he lurking. Growing ever close to Edward with each passing day, the SPD would become a serious problem that would normally bring an end to most runners and for the first it could have spelled doom for Edward and Tang; not to mention the entire profession that would come there after.

It would be a SPD detective Elmer Krieghoff aka Proxy that would be the buffer in between Runner and the SPD investigating officers. Edward would not learn of Poxy’s protection for many a decade and once he would;  Edward simple shook Elmer’s hand and thanked him…a true class act. Now we know that Elmer did’t do this to keep Edward out of jail but to protect Brady and the Krieghoff empire. Though whatever the reason we can thank Proxy for he spared a great man and a inspiration to many from life in prison or worse.

By the days of the Founding Fathers Edward would have been working for Tang for years and already had established himself as a man of the streets, he was a dedicated father and husband, he adverted tragedy and was lucky to suffer little under the Great Tragedy of 2018 and loose nothing but some of his own blood, his family had survived and he was now a very wealthy man owning multiple Burger Huts in Lynnwood and keeping his day job as the towns favourite educator. Yet once the lights went down he took to the streets to protect Lynnwood from Padre and as well keep the money flowing into his families accounts as Edward cared little for his own wallet but wanted to make certain that his children and grand children could go to college and escape the life of a wage slave and maybe move to a nice neighbourhood in the Common Wealth.

Edward might not have taken direct sides in the revolution but he stood proud and saluted “Old Glory” each and every day, he proudly wore his American flag lapel pin and recited the Pledge of Allegiance every morning with his hand over his heart, Edward paid for his college serving in the US Army and was the only son of Veteran of the US Army. Patriotism and duty was something that was in his blood and for Edward the UCAS might be the new form of government and needed to be respected, but the good old USA was the land of his birth and the land that he stood on the front lines to protect, and hence seeing the people were never given the opportunity to vote on the eradication of the USA, the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution. In his eyes democracy had failed and he was simply paying lip service to  false regime and hoped one day to retire to the bastion of Democracy and Freedom within the Common Wealth and hence where he wanted his offspring to move too.

Though for Edward this was his fatal mistake and his blatant disregard for the UCAS and staunch support of “Old Glory” would get him in hot water and further push this old man into the streets and force him to hire the Railroad to move his family under the cover of night to parts unknown. Though Edward would simply not bow down and simply not allow himself to be cowed by the UCAS Loyalists, he believed he was in the right as he voted, paid his taxes and supported a system he didn’t believe in, but America has also been a land of the free and we have always been allowed to speak our mind and support whatever government or belief we deem proper.

Well in his long career as a runner of the shadows and his never missing a moment of his children’s life, The Runner would end missing a few as he would end up being arrested while he had his hand over his heart saying the pledge in the morning as his students all stood proudly behind their beloved teacher reciting a pledge to a system they would never know. Edward might be one of Tang’s most elite soldiers and the streets original bad ass, but this man still loved his country and he still loved his job educating the young and giving them a fighting chance to be something more than a wage slave.

His arrest would rocket through Lynnwood with an outpouring show of support and media attention, so much so that the UCAS nationals that where simply planning on gassing poor old Edward would be forced to let the Runner have his day in court. Well for Edward it would be five years before he would see freedom again and he would be forever changed after his release, he was found guilty of treason and sentenced to death by hanging. Edwards attorneys would work diligently to make sure their client wouldn’t be wrongfully hanged and to show that he did nothing wrong and that the charges of treason where trumped up and had no merit.

The Runner was sent to a federal super max prison and would spend 23 hours a day locked in a 5 x 8 cell and only allowed out to shower and to walk around the concrete garden of an outside that only had one small window over fifty feet away. He would be nullified sexually as part of his sentence and to prevent him from acting out and keep him compliant (This means for those morbid enough to wonder he has simply a dime size scar where his manhood once was). Medication would keep his magical nature sealed and hormones therapy would keep him male but docile, Edward would spend the next five years being locked away from anyone and his only interaction with other people would be when he was being beaten, transported to the showers to be raped or given his very simple meal all hoping that his lawyers would win an appeal and he would be spared the gallows that he had a very direct view of from his prison cell and the guards would remind him of often.

He would have himself measured for a casket, and weighed for a proper drop length even being asked if he wanted a hood or not. According to Edward as the days pressed on he was loosing faith that he would ever see the light of day again, even when he would be given his execution date, given last rights, a last mean and marched out to the gallows in his court dress, the rope put around his neck and his casket in direct view as the hood was placed on and the executioner marched towards the lever; the phone rang and it was his lucky day as the courts had given him a stay of execution. This would happen three more times before he was told that he would be a free man in the morning. Though on the last time the call almost came in to late as the lever had been pulled and he free fell only to be stopped by a sudden jerk of the rope and a extreme pain in his neck as he struggled to breath, he could hear commotion above him as death was over taking him and suddenly he felt himself being lifted and the guards bitching that he had urinated himself.

He was taken down from the gallows and lucky to be alive as the executioner had purposely botched his hanging and moved the rope so he would suffocate and only dropped him half the needed distance wanting Edward to suffer greatly before death. He was rushed to the infirmary and revived, his vocal cords were crushed and had to under go extreme neck surgery to repair the damaged disc that had herniated do to the sudden stop. He had to undergo bone lacing surgery and muscle grafts to repair the damage from the execution attempt, though he is still alive and still our hero and our legend.

After five years of incarceration the Runner had escaped death and was a free man, but a changed man. He now spoke very softly and with a grainy voice with every word being painful, his mind damaged by the solitary confinement, his vision damaged beyond repair from bright white walls and fluorescent lights for 18 hours a day and an anger that cant be quenched. They turned a man that was once non violently opposed to the UCAS and a legal citizen into a tried and true rebel agent and I don’t blame him for his disdain, this poor man would go to be nothing more than a shell of his former self and need to under go counselling to regain even his will to continue.

In 2068 the Runner would be freed from prison and after his release he would move to the Common Wealth where he would meet up with his family once again, his neck scared, glasses upon his face and age ravaging his body and face; he was almost unrecognisable but to his loved ones they could see beyond the exterior and see that their father was home. He would learn that his wife Susan would have passed away while he was in prison from cancer and that his eldest son Edward Jr would be suffering from stage 4 bone cancer and even with treatment he still only had a few months to live. His newest grandchild had been born with cerebral palsy and needed a lifetime of treatment and his youngest son Henry had been arrested at a rally to free his father and hanged for his trouble.

For Edward everything was falling apart he had missed the birth of his newest grandson, his wife struggled and passed away without him, his youngest was executed for a crime of expression and now his family was falling apart and they all looked to Edward for direction and support as they had done in the past. Though this time he was well needing support and having the eternal pain within his neck, back and a ghost sensation within his groin that would end up being worse than the spinal pain; seeing that he was now on a higher dose of hormones to offset the bone loss and pacification from the removal of his sexual organs. Edward was about to be given another blow that he would barley survive and that was that he too would have cancer and would have to have his prostate removed in hopes to survive; for him they caught it early and the removal of the sick organ was simply preventive. Though it would mean he would loose yet another natural production of testosterone and rely further on medication.

This illness scare was enough for his remaining family to rally around their father and Broderick clan would vow to stay strong and stick together through thick and thin. Edward would receive the best treatment that the Krieghoff’s could provide and after only a year he would end up in remission and be free of cancer though his body and soul would take yet another blow as his eldest son would pass away while he was in surgery and his eldest daughter would be killed in a traffic accident; now with four of his children dead and buried, his wife gone he would be needed to help support the family once again.

First Edward would return to teaching within the Common Wealth and by 2073 he would be on the horn with Brady and returning to the world he forged, the world of the shadows a young mans game, but this old timer invented the game, made the rules and this time he had a score to settle. Having fully accepted the Sons of Liberty and the Krieghoff way he would don his suit and tie but this time not for the classroom but for the streets, he was returning to Seattle as a tried and true professional and going to burn down the UCAS Loyalists or die trying. His family safe secure and his life savings in their hands, he would say his good byes and head off to the Emerald City on a quest of revenge and for the Runner he has already witnessed his own coffin and escaped death numerous times for dying doesn’t scare him. He wants to make certain that the Loyalists suffer greatly under his boot before he is lowered into the ground and to let the world know that even in the face of oppression great men can overcome.

Well Runner welcome back to Seattle and I do hope you live to tell your tale, I know death is not what you fear and you have had most everything stolen from you including your god given rites of procreation, but please you are and inspiration to many and we all remember the teacher we used to call Bedrock for you would always be their for us and have laid the foundation for many of your students to go onto be productive members of society; you and Canal kept many of us on the straight and narrow and even though you are the legendary Runner we still want you to live and continue to inspire yet another generation.

Page Written By: Chris Marrow (Former True Demure)