Henry McCarty (Quick Draw)

Weight: 120

Apparent Age: 45

Archetype: Street Samurai

Preferred Weapon: DAOD Nemesis

Runner Song:

Bio: Well when they say some runners have nine lives, this could be no truer when it comes to Quick Draw, this little bastard has survived some of the worst the world can throw at him and has always come out ahead in some manner. Though he didn’t emerge unscarred, Quick Draws psyche has been severely damaged by everything he has seen through his many years being on the street. This runner is one of the first of the Next Generation runners to enter the game in the early 2050’s though some reports indicate that he actually became a runner sometime in the late 2040’s this is again nothing but rumour and speculation. Quick Draw managed to unite a group of runners that be all actuality should never have been a team and transform these independent minded criminals into a well oiled machine that dominated the shadows for almost two decades and would become Hollywood’s poster children for what runners should be.

        Quick Draw was born in a small frontier town in Texas of human stock and would be one of the first citizens to suffer the ill affects of goblinizing, turning into a Dwarf long past the normal age. He was already an adult when his body rejected him and he would be forced to go through the pain and suffering of becoming a Dwarf all alone. This would force him to alter his life’s direction, Quick was thrown out of school, his wife left him and he would loose his job and end up on the streets of Dallas, before moving to Chicago. They say that his early onset metahuman stature was do to the ravages caused when the natives unleashed their magic’s of the Great Ghost Dance. Though again everything is speculation and Quick is very secretive about his past and the events that would lead him to becoming one of the most notorious and recognizable of his day.

        During his youth, Quick was being ridiculed, attacked and forced to defend himself from the ignorant minds of his fellow Texans that saw him as a freak and wouldn’t accept his new stature and being. This would force him onto the streets, with no one willing to assist or take him in he would quickly learn the streets and learn how to survive through the school of hard knocks. This time he spent living in the gutter would eventually help define Quick Draw and transform him into the killer he would eventually be known for. Though during this same period of time Quick Draw was as well dealing with the Nights of Blood and the constant attacks from the Natives. He would have to quickly learn how to fight and treat everyone he meet as a potential threat to his safety. This level of paranoia would help him survive through the many engagements and keep him alive through the years.

       During the early days Quick would eventually join the Sons of the True Confederacy as a way to keep himself alive and make some extra credits. This was only a job for him cause he personally couldn’t stand the Confederates and didn’t agree with their bigotry. Though for Quick he needed to do whatever he could to survive and with Aztlan starting to raid southern Texas and the Civil War beginning Quick so this an opportunity to make some quick cash, get some quality gear and eventually escape Texas and break free from his street lifestyle and move to a more accepting city. Though for Quick this would be far from the truth, and for him the stars wouldn’t align till he arrived in Seattle many years later. During the Civil War he would prove himself as a soldier and his unyielding nature would strike fear into the UCAS soldiers that dared to stand before him. For the one of first cybered mercenaries would be born with Quick, though he would eventually be classified as a Street Samurai he began as a professional mercenary and as the war progressed his bank account would rise and more of his soul would be sold for cyberware. The colder Quick would become the meaner he became on the battlefield and quickly his code of conduct would vanish. It is mostly do to Quick that we have the distinction between samurai’s and mercenaries. Though once the ceasefire was called and the UCAS would surrender to the Confederates Quick would have to make a choice and that was to stay with the SOTC or vacate Texas and move on to another city and start a new life.

       Well for Quick the choice was simple and do to the ridicule he was receiving from his fellow Confederates he choose to leave his home behind and move onto another state and another city. This decision he would eventually grow to regret as he decided to move to Chicago prior to it becoming Bug City though it was already being overtaken by the bugs and this would turn this city into a blood bath as the citizens being possessed by the bug spirits began randomly assaulting each other. This was the early beginnings of what would become the worst racial onslaught of modern history, the Nights of Rage would begin on the mean streets of Chicago and many suffering metahumans would be butchered in their homes, attacked in the streets and publicly lynched just for being unlucky enough to carry the extra gene. What actually sparked the Nights of Rage is officially unknown, though speculation states that the corruption of the bugs had something to do with it. Though whatever the cause, these riots displaced many metahumans throughout the country and the worst hit where those unlucky enough to be in Chicago.

         Quick was living in Chicago during the time of Rage and even though he had amassed a small fortune during his time with the Confederates, he would find himself once again living on the streets and being forced to live day to day and never knowing if he would even awake in the morning. With each passing day he would have to fight to survive, fend off magical assaults and outrun the corrupt police department that was only interested in locking him up cause he was a Dwarf. Needless to say his time in Chicago was no better then his time living in Texas and he would even spend many nights locked up, charged with crimes he never committed. The only thing that would keep Quick out of prison would be his vast legal knowledge and his money. The Chicago District Attorney never wanted to dance with a high priced defence lawyer and they would send this troubled mercenary back out into the wilds of the urban sprawl. Quick unable to secure a legitimate career within the UCAS would be forced once again to take to the shadows and continue his downward spiral into the that world. Soon though the bug spirit situation would grow out of control and even a well trained hive buster like Quick would no longer be able to handle the sheer amount of corruption, spirits and violence within Chicago, and once he got word from some of his good friends that the government was planning on dropping nuclear weapons on the city to contain the bug situation he figured it was time to exit stage left and move on once again to yet another city and start over.

        By the time the walls around Bug City where being erected and the bombs where falling Quick had rolled into Detroit for what would become yet another short stay. The Motor City was already considered a demilitarized zone by this point and unless you where a valuable asset to a corporation, the military or the law enforcement your chances of succeeding inside Detroit where slim to none. For Quick the only benefit was he didn’t have to live on the streets any more and he could stake a claim in one of the many abandoned apartments and call it home. It was either squat above the streets or take on the mole lifestyle and live under the city in the old sewers and subway lines. Quick was not ready to join yet another group and he refused to join the many tribes of Detroit. For this he would suffer ridicule and many assaults and raids from those that lived below the streets and for Quick he would find himself thrown into yet another war and each day would be a fight for survival. The work in the shadows was slim and the competition was fierce between the surface dwellers and the mole people, many times they would even work in direct competition and kill each other just to reduce the numbers or make the other runners look like inept failures reducing their value to an employer. Quick being a surface dweller and a metahuman would have to work twice as hard to prove himself within the shadows of Detroit, this would once again force him to cross the line and commit multiple cold blooded murders just so he could sleep in piece. Though once the Mole People would hijack a large shipment of food that was meant for the local grocery stores. Quick and a band of Surface Dwellers would take it personally and enter the underworld of the city to return the food to the people above the streets. Well once he entered the underbelly of Detroit Quick was able to see that these Moles where living just as hard a life below the streets as he was above. The old Quick would have allowed his emotions to get the better of him and he would have forgiven the Moles but the old Quick had died many years prior and his machine like thinking and soulless body cared little for those that had wronged him for so long.

       There are many tales of what accord on that night, though the only common factor is that Quick began firing into the crowd of Moles, causing an initial panic that would allow the highly trained samurai’s and mercenaries to make short work of the offending tribe of Moles and allow them to capture the food and other supplies the Moles had accumulated over the years and return them to the surface and to the people on the streets. The only problem being is that Quick had fallen so far from humanity that he didn’t just hand the food back to the shops, he extorted the shop keepers for the food supplies and charged them nearly their entire life savings in order to restock there barren shelves.

The shop keepers would pay him the exuberant prices under the threat of death and Quick was on the fast track to becoming just another street villain and this would once again send many mercenaries, assassins and many of the Moles to engage this troubled Dwarf. Quick would once again be in a fight for his life and figure with the increasing violence inside Detroit, the corruption and UCAS starting to take interest in the inner workings of the Detroit criminal syndicate it was time to move on yet again and this is how he made his way halfway across the country and entered Seattle in the late 2040’s the exact date is unknown but this was when Quick would walk into the shadows of the legends and throw his into a world where the big boys play. The jobs in Seattle where prevalent, the fee’s where competitive and a void had been created by the exiting founding fathers, this was the perfect time for a new runner like Quick to enter the scene and he would enter the city with a bang and for the first time in is life Quick wouldn’t have to worry being assaulted for being a Dwarf, he could actually secure a residence and not have to worry about eating.

       The jobs that this runner would be involved in through his almost three decade career would make him a very wealthy man and he would soon become the poster child for the Seattle runners scene with Hollywood becoming very interested in his life story and his cold, calculating actions. Though for Quick he could care less about the fame and all he wanted to do was live the dream. Though the one thing he noticed was that the new street runners where a rag tag bunch of freelancers that couldn’t work together if they where super glued together and this would cause many of his early operations to fail in very epic and horrible manners. The other runners all had their own objectives, goals and all wanted to be the star of the show. He was working with a team full of chiefs and no tribesman, this Quick couldn’t stand and he was not used to, when he worked in Dallas, Chicago and Detroit the runners their all knew their roles and would gladly partake in team work. Though in Seattle it was like a movie with no supporting actors and all staring roles, and with each subsequent failure the jobs would become less and less frequent, the high fee’s would dwindle to a small stipend and soon an entire generation of runners would be all fighting amongst each other and all the hard work of the founders would be in vain.

     To make matters worse do to Hollywood the popularity of being a runner had exploded and the Seattle shadows began to flood with newbies and posers all trying to make a name for themselves. Quick knew the only option he would have to save the runners of Seattle would be to step up and be a true leader. He needed to take charge and enforce his will over the others of his generation and break down their star mentality and force them to work as a cohesive unit. So through the trials and tribulations Quick was able to break down the will of those runners he would normally work with and a team was born. Not since the days of the Wolf Pack had a team like this been seen on the streets and so would begin the rise of the Wind Runners originally just called the Mariners after the local baseball team. The original line up would include; Nightshade, Electra, Logan, Wheels, Claw, Edge and Arrow and Switch Doctor. Soon other teams would form and the chaos of the Seattle shadows would fade and the Next Generation would be on their way to becoming the shadow warriors the founders had set them up to become.

    Though for Quick Draw this was just the start and he would see that the shadows where being filled with fakes and poser that where accepting jobs that they would fail and this would cause another fall in the wages as the supply would out meet the demand. With the skill of the posers being sub par and their knowledge of the shadows only coming from the silver screen he was watching as his lively hood and reputation was being tarnished with each passing day. Quick would also begin to notice a trend on when the fakes would flood onto the streets and he would dub this time of year to be known as Rookie season. Quick figured during this season he and his fellow runners would have to work especially harder to maintain their reputations and as well follow the founders warnings. Though this would become a feat that would never be able to be accomplished as the new runners coming into the game would make life very hard for those that already paid their dues. The new guns trying to make a name for themselves or trying to be like the fictional characters of the movies would take there shots at the established runners and show them total disrespect, Quick still didn’t wanted to start a war with fellow runners even if they were frauds till the day a group of frauds and rookies would capture an established runner by the name of Exodus and brutally ambush and murder this Dwarven mercenary as he exited a local runner bar. Once word had spread about the brutal murder Quick had enough and he spark the war in the shadows and call for the execution of anyone who assaults, disrespects or murders any known runner. This call to action would spread like wildfire and the war of the shadows would commence and escalate till it climaxed with the murder of Crazy Glue in 2073 and the eventual war between friends.

      Quick didn’t want to start this war as he knew that once the fires where ignited it would rage out of control as the new blood would continue to flood the streets and Hollywood would take this shadow war by the horns and blow it out of proportion. Quick Draw would become the poster child for these assaults and the established runners would become the villains in this war. When in all actuality they are the victims just trying to hold onto what’s left of their reputations, income and lives. These new bloods fired the first shoots and the world just expected the established runners to just roll over and take it. Well they didn’t and know forever they are known as murderers and xenophobes, though this is actually not the case and most of the greats of his generation are sickened by the war of the shadows and wish they where hand was never forced by the brutal murder of Exodus by a group of runners being led by a man known as Legion. The Shadows would never be the same once the war was engaged and the flames of this raging bonfire would begin to corrupt and engulf the incoming New Breed and even that generation would be plagued by the mass flooding of poser and fakes that would make their lives even harder with each passing year.

        Even though the Shadows where engulfed in the fires of hate and a bloody war was ragging the Mariners would continue to grow in numbers and their would be involved in some of the most legendary jobs of their day. These runners where lucky enough to have the privilege in working with a handful of founders during the Titanic Operation and they would also be engaged in the war against Corporation X, The Jurassic Project and Tir Tangier Raid as well as many others that would fill these runners bank accounts and help them with their attempt in fading into the darkness and creating a void for the New Breeders to fill. Though karma would keep these runners from ever being able to leave the shadows and every time they would try to step away, they would be dragged back into the fray. Quick even tried to fade away and he would have the most success at this, but the pressures of the new breed and the fakes would prevent even Quick from fully slipping away and adhering to the warnings of Fable.

        In the fall of 2062 the Winds of Change would begin to blow and the fate of the city would be left in the hands of a chosen few that heard the call and couldn’t sit and watch as their home would be pillaged by the enemy of the Tir Tangier. If it wasn’t for Quick Draws notorious paranoia that would always cause him to be randomly late to a meet he would have been killed when the Tangier had set up a false meeting with some of the most notorious criminals and corrupt politicians of the Seattle underworld to be held at the Space Needle. Quick would arrive ten minutes late and watch as the landmark building would explode killing all inside in a blink of an eye. The Winds of Change had begun and the Mariners gathered at the Jackals Lantern and discussed what needed to be done to get revenge and justice for their fallen brothers and mend the black eye given to their beloved Emerald City. The spoke long into the night and as the sun was rising this team of elders had a plan in place that would be risky but they couldn’t trust anyone else and they would become Seattle only hope. This plan would send them up to the moon, to assault the Orbital directly, it would send them to Denver to assassinate key players there, off to Bug City to capture lost foci that had been thought destroyed when the bombs went off and then they would have to assault the Tir Tangier directly and strike at the heart of the problem their killing and destroying the nations capital building exposing an underground passage that would eventually lead them back to Seattle where their final strike would be directly at the NAN on Council Island. The one thing that would ring true was that, you never piss off runners of this calibre and never back them into a corner. The Mariners would fight valiantly against each threat and they would eventually bring down the entire conspiracy, exposing the Tir Tangier as the enemy they are to the UCAS government. By the end of 2065 the Mariners had successfully saved Seattle and what they thought was the world from the evils of the elven nation, as well as the natives that seemed to have allied with the elves for some reason. Though by this point in history the Mariners shed their original name and would be forever known as the Wind Runners. The world all tuned in for the news updates and broadcasts of these runners during their daring operation and soon even the news would learn that the runners where a cash cow and so would begin the early days of Shadow Beat a news agency focused only on the runners and nothing else. The Wind Runners would sky rocket in popularity during the early 2060’s and even though these warriors where trying to adhere to Fables warnings they would be unable to vacate the limelight, and as more fakes and new bloods continued to open fire on them again their popularity increased as these runners were not afraid to bring violence and murder directly into the living rooms of the citizens worldwide.

         Quick Draw though knew that the Wind Runners would have to try to walk out of the shadows and leave them for the New Breed, but alas as he tried they were never left alone and once again the jobs would come rolling in with payouts so high that these old school runners would have been stupid to refuse and so they returned to shadows knowing that they had just survived the winds that had blown much earlier then predicted and this was their time. Over the next two years these old dogs had been living the dream and making millions for just a few hours worth of work each time, this would create a divide between the old dogs making the big bucks and the new bloods and others of the Next Generation still struggling under the weight of the Wind Runners, The Unknown Soldiers, The Regulators, and The Ministry that where dominating the game in the late 2060’s. As the years went by the war in the shadows would go and once again all the blame would fall on the Wind Runners as the true enemy of the new runner and even the founders would begin to slowly return to teach these old dogs that they should never fail to listen to Fable and his warnings. Though for the Wind Runners they would eventually find away to walk away from the game safely and be able to somewhat vanish from the shadows. Though this wouldn’t keep them safe forever and when the shadows would erupt in 2073 even the mighty Wind Runners would fall victim.

        By 2068 the Wind Runners had become the personal defence of Aztec CEO and President Henry McCorby and his wife Raven McCorby this job would pay them more in a few short years then they made their entire career and all they had to do was stay near McCorby unless they where off duty when they would hang out at their favourite runner bar the Jackals Lantern to reminisce and attempt to help the New Breed. Though even when they retired from the shadows, and would no longer accept any further contracts they would still be assaulted by the frauds and fakes and thus being thrown back into the engagement. The sheer skill of the Wind Runners far out matched any other runner of their day and even some founding fathers would be unable to match some of the Wind Runners. Especially Quick Draw, Edge, Arrow and the Ripper who unto themselves where whirlwinds of death, doom and destruction. These old dogs where never given a chance to fully withdraw and they refused to be run out of their home and leave the city they bleed to defend. In there minds Seattle was big enough for everyone but the Winds would see different and come 2073 they would blow once again and send the city into panic and turmoil as the Deaths Hand would invade, runners throughout the city would begin falling and Lone Star would be ousted bringing back the Seattle Police Department. The early part of this year would see some of the most violent times, long before the Battle of Seattle.

       During this Winds of Change the war in shadows would fully erupt as the founding father would return in force and begin to engage the Next Generation hunting them down for failing to listen to Fable and blaming them for the Winds blowing again to soon, blaming them for the destruction of the New Breed and the death of countless runners of their generation. This would climax with the death of Crazy Glue at the Jackals Lantern, Crazy was considered the mother hen of the runners and beloved by all of her generation and the new breed. Her death was blamed on the Wind Runners, seeing that Quick Draw hated magic more then he hated UCAS. This would cause a war between friends as the Wind Runners would be assaulted by the Unknown Soldiers and the two once legendary teams would begin killing each other off in a outright assault. This war would leave them vulnerable to the attacks from the even more seasoned killers of the Founding Fathers and even the mighty Quick Draw would fall victim to the assaults and be found murdered.

      Though if this runner is anything but paranoid he would even be prepared to foil even a legendary assassin and Quick Draw would manage to use a body double to trick the assassin allowing him to slip away into the night. The founder did Quick Draw a favour and allowed this legendary runner his chance to walk away from the game and finally heed Fables warnings. Though this would come at a time that wouldn’t allow Quick to remain in hiding and his love for Seattle and his Patriotism would bring him back to the streets yet again. For Quick he has accepted that karma will not allow him to remain out of the game and live a life of piece, for this old dog the shadows are in his blood, he is the face of the streets. The city needs the likes of Quick Draw now more then ever as he will not rest till the Emerald City is properly defended.

      Quick Draw has returned to the game and this time it’s personal, he has spent his career defending Seattle and fighting for the runners that deserved his respect. He has fought for the people and learned more in a short time about the truth of the elves, the NAN and the False Flag then anyone else of his generation and for this he will lay his life down in defence of Seattle from the UCAS and General James O’Brian who was almost killed by Quick Draw back in 2068 when he figured out the Generals ultimate scheme and began hunting him after his Broken Arrow ploy. If their is any runner that can bring this war to an end it is Quick Draw the master of the tactile computer, a legend with any weapon and their is no one alive that is faster then this little dwarf. Quick Draw has stood the test of time, watched as the world burned around him and he has been fighting the establishment from the get go. If anyone deserves to be the face of what a runner should be it’s the legend known as Quick Draw, he stands for freedom, he is the runner of the people and he is truly a God among men.

Page Written By: Shadow Writer