The Secret Origin of Deacon Hammer

Part 1

                                     
I’ve always felt like I was meant to do something important.  You might find this hard to believe, but I never wanted fame. I  just wanted to do something meaningful - something that made a real difference to real people.  All the famous people and the connected people and the privileged people - to me, that was just a wasteland of the unreal.  I didn't know where my future was going to take me, but I knew it would be someplace where Botox and facelifts and boob jobs and keeping up with the Joneses, and all those superficial preoccupations -were not what people’s live’s were about. 

For years I was adrift.  I thought I wanted to teach, but that went nowhere.  I couldn't afford the tuition.  I took a few classes and all I had to show for it was an empty bank account.  I took odd jobs, scraped by.  I didn’t lose hope, though.  I knew there was a way I could help people.  Then one day, I watched as an old woman was knocked to the ground by some thug who started to run off with her pocketbook.  As I stood there, immobilized with disbelief, the scene seemed to play out in slow motion.  The robber had barely started his escape when he was knocked off his feet by a police officer he never saw coming.  But this mugger wasn't done.  As the cop tried to handcuff him, the criminal suddenly erupted in a frenzy of grabbing and pulling and tearing, turning the tables on the unprepared policeman.  I suddenly snapped out of my trance and found myself sprinting to the fight.  Without breaking stride, I drove my knee into the side of the thugs head, knocking him silly.  I kneeled on his back while the cop slapped on the cuffs.  And then something happened that changed my life forever.  I was feeling like a hero, like I just saved the whole world, when the cop looked at me and said, “Thanks, man.  Wait with this guy while I check on that woman.”  In my self congratulatory ecstasy, I had forgotten all about her.  I watched in awe and shame as the policeman attended to the woman, paying no attention to his own cuts and bruises.  That’s when I realized how much good work I could do as a cop.  I never imagined a job in law enforcement, in fact I had always been skeptical of the police, but here was a chance to not only protect, but to serve the regular people in my very own community. 

I excelled in the academy and upon my graduation was assigned to one of the poorest and most crime ridden neighborhoods in the entire city.  I could not have been happier...

Didn't Gerry kill your ass?

Was this your obit or something?

Well I had nothing to do with it, but I saw Oni laughing in the corner when it happened.  Just sayin'.

Mike,

Do you still have his original character sheet?

I remember something about the undefined power being different martial arts Ki type powers as he gained in levels or something. Maybe that was a defined power.

Cool......

Paul wrote on Feb 16^th, 2015 at 6:42pm:


A certain bringer of storms had a hand in his demise....

Gerry, just breakin' your chops.  I was actually glad to die at the time.  The characters he was with were all way more powerful, and he didn't stand a chance.  It was the wrong adventure to debut him in.  I kind of started playing in a reckless way to make sure he died, or at the very least  create the possibility of death.

Marshal Strong wrote on Feb 18^th, 2015 at 1:29pm:


Look on the bright side. Deacon Hammers death led to the creation of Kid Maniac.

Just saying.......

Mike,

Awaiting part two.......

Will wait to see it. First comes the Ravenswood Campaign however as Sir Roland needs a friendly face at the Storm Towers....

As soon as the investigation was over and I was approved for active duty again, I was transferred far away from the projects of my old precinct and placed in my new assignment ...Wall Street.  It was like going to another planet.  Not a whole lot of gang activity near the Stock Exchange.  Not a lot of community centers or churches either.  The trading houses and boiler rooms are their community centers and the only God they worship is the almighty dollar.  I felt kind of numb, but the quiet and lack of action was just what I needed.  There was a  tremendous police presence in the area, including Federal law enforcement and lots of private security.  America knows where it’s bread is buttered.

Without really trying, I ended up getting to know lots of people in the area.  Restaurant and deli owners, the lunch delivery guys and waiters, bicycle messengers, shoe shines, and plenty of stock traders and financial people.  People were basically nice.  I’ve got to admit, I didn’t expect it from Wall Street types.  This was the last place I expected to have my faith in humanity restored.  After a while, I started to relax, and thought that maybe my whole life I had judged the “haves” to harshly and had idealized the “have nots”.  I was finally happy again.  And then it happened…

One night I pulled over a car for drunk driving.  The guy was all over the road and it’s a miracle that he didn’t kill anybody.  Turns out that this drunk was a major player in the Wall Street/Banking world and one of the richest men in the country.  You think a guy like that would have a driver for drunken nights out.  He gave me the “Do you know who I am?” speech.  I wasn’t having it.  Turns out that Ultra rich financier types tend to be politically connected...who knew?  He had apparently bankrolled the current Mayor’s election campaign, and was personal friends with the Vice President.  It didn’t take long to find myself facing disciplinary charges.  Something about improperly vouchering evidence from a drug case almost a year earlier.  They claimed money and drugs were missing.  And before I knew it, I was back on suspension. They were threatening legal action if I didn’t resign. 

It was the day I was supposed to meet my union appointed lawyer.  I found myself walking in the area of my beat without any real idea of where I was going.  My appointment was the furthest thing from my mind.  I wandered the streets while thoughts raced through my mind.  I saw no purpose in anything, I found myself repeating the same phrases over and over, cursing the citizens of this filthy, corrupt city. I hated our society, the country, the world. I felt invisible as people passed by me and I whispered words of condemnation and death.

Ahead of me I saw a group of men in business suits.  At the head of the group was an older man with a rather expensive looking walking stick, the end an ornate, rounded knob held in a gloved hand.  A mounted police officer up ahead was giving them a smile and polite nod.  And that’s when I snapped.

Running on pure rage, I launched into an all out sprint.  Lowering my shoulder I powered through the group.  It all played out in slow motion, and I watched as they went airborne, exploding out, like bowling pins hit for a perfect strike.  I snatched the old man’s cane out of the air and... that’s when things get hazy.  The next thing I remember... was sitting on the back of the cop’s horse, looking down at the officer, who was lying on the grass, a stunned expression on his face, the huge welt on his forehead - growing before my eyes.  I don’t deny hitting him, I just don’t remember it.  My eyes turned towards the stock exchange.  I raised the cane high, gave a battle cry and spurred the horse on, charging directly towards the main entrance of the building.  I was probably moments from getting shot when it happened.

Everything went white.  It was the whitest white you could imagine, and nothing else.  Absolutely nothing existed but white light.  No form, no sound.  Just white.  After the nothingness, I became aware of a presence in the whiteness.  Not a physical presence, but something infinite and great.  A voice in my head said, “I am that am.  The Infinite healing presence.  The light that guides.  I give back to you now your love of humanity.  And I give you the Word to heal and to aid those in need.  You will raise your staff not in anger, but in service.  You will protect the meek, the lowly, and the poor.  The light will shine forth and lead you through the darkness, and blinded will be the enemies of good. As you open yourself to the inflow of Infinite Mind, so shall you draw upon its infinite power. Thus will you stand against those who embrace the darkness.  Go forth now, resurrected in Spirit... and serve.”

Now life is different...my path clear. Of myself, I have no power, but I speak the Word with authority for I am a conduit for the Infinite.  Evil can not stand the light of Truth, for light dispels the darkness.  My staff, now transformed, is an instrument, a pathway for that which acts on the spiritual plane to manifest on the physical plane;  the invisible translated to the visible.  I move amongst the wicked unseen for evil cannot comprehend light. Those whose errors in thinking lead the innocent to suffer, will understand the corrective force of good when they experience the staff’s righteous power.

Life is an opportunity to serve, and each day I am more thankful.  When I am weary, when my body is wracked with pain, I remember that the source of my supply is infinite.  Those who embrace light and truth will find in me a stalwart ally... for life, and those who embrace darkness will see me and know that their days are numbered.

Jimmy! Thanks for taking the time to read the "secret Origin".  It's way longer than I intended and I didn't think anyone would have the patience to wade through it all.  Kind of funny to think that Deacon Hammer died about eight minutes after being created.  Fortunately he still lives on in our hearts! (and in the forthcoming Marshal Strong mini-series!)

Mike,

Can you post his character sheet so we can marvel at his greatness?