STRIKER
Leader of Strike Out

Name: Michael Arnold Harett
Nick Names: Striker, Blade Dancer, X-z B, Re-Le, Blades
Age: 18
Siblings: Ember (Michelle Harett)
Powers: None
Special Skills: Striker is a skilled sword fighter and sword handler. He used to work in a circus where he learned to juggle with swords. He has trained himself along with Dean's help in martial arts and is therefore a decent fighter hand to hand as well.
Appearance: He is hardly ever caught without at least two digital watches (one on either arm), but is usually wearing five on his right arm and one to two on his left arm. He also usually carries around two small swords when he's in his Strike Out uniform. He has short brown hair and blue eyes.
Personality: Striker is a very strict and serious person. He is very time oriented. It is not only a pet peeve of Striker's to be late, but also a source of overwhelming anxiety for him. He does everything by the clock. A good way to really piss him off/freak him out is to reset all of his watches to different times. He will guarantee have a panic attack. Striker is also known to be very determined and persistent. He has insomnia which keeps him awake for days at a time. He falls into depression fairly easy but he is very good at hiding it most times. His team members describe him as stern and strict leader but is often caught joking when they are not on missions or training. Striker is very careful about his actions and is generally a caring person.
Other Facts:
*Striker is left handed.
*Striker can not read or write but basic words. He has a reading level of about a 1st grader.
*Striker is dyslexic.
*Striker is the leader of Strike Out despite not being the oldest member.
*Often times since half his team, including himself can't read, he communicates with pictures and numbers when giving a presentation.
How Strike Out Started:Striker grew up in a traveling circus with his father. His mother left the father, him, and Ember at a young age. The father died from alcohol poisoning when Striker was about 15. Striker then left the circus and took Ember with him to go start a new life. Striker was too young to get a job and couldn't read or write well enough to fill out applications so he turned to thievery. He started out stealing what he and Ember needed to survive. But eventually he started getting better at it and taught Ember to help him. After a few years they met Reiner, who was also a theft. They became friends with him and the three started working together. While out stealing, Striker stepped on a rusted nail but was afraid to go to the doctor because he was scared someone would recognize him. Conner happened to be in an alley when Striker was observing the damage down by the nail. Conner tried convincing Striker to go to the doctor, but when Striker refused, Conner said that he would help Striker another way if Striker would give him some money and food. Striker was very cautious about this, not trusting Conner at first, but did what Conner asked after a while of talking with him. Conner told him the plan was for him to cut himself with something rusted so he'd go to the doctor, since they wouldn't recognize him. Conner then was going to wait to see what kind of medicine they treated him with and then go to the black market and get that medicine for Striker. Striker followed him throughout the journey except for entering the doctor's office. After getting the medicine for himself, he asked Conner to join him, Reiner and Ember since he seemed to know a lot more of how the criminal system worked and because he knew about certain medical knowledge that none of them knew. Once it was the four of them, Striker decided they needed a name. He called them Strike Out and with Conner's help started getting them missions from other criminals for higher paying yields than his usual robberies. Dean joined after being kicked out of another criminal group. Dean helped Strike Out work on their hand to hand combat, while Strike Out taught Dean how to work with different technology they had stolen and gave him a safe place to stay. Doniel was the last to join after following Ember back to the territory after a robbery. He threaten to tell the cops if they didn't let him join.

GENERAL INFO:
Name origin:
Meaning behind the name Michael: From the Hebrew name (Mikha'el) meaning "who is like God?". This is a rhetorical question, implying no person is like God. Michael is one of the seven archangels in Hebrew tradition and the only one identified as an archangel in the Bible. In the Book of Revelation in the New Testament he is portrayed as the leader of heaven's armies, and thus is considered the patron saint of soldiers.

Meaning behind the name Arnold: It is from a Germanic name meaning "eagle power", derived from the elements arn "eagle" and wald "power". The Normans brought it to England, where it replaced the Old English cognate Earnweald. It died out as an English name after the Middle Ages, but it was revived in the 19th century.

Meaning behind the name Harett: Said to derive from an Anglo-Saxon culture.

How he was named: Michael of course took on his father’s last name which was Harett. His mother was the deciding factor to name him Michael because she’d been hoping for a girl, who she would’ve named Michele if she had had a girl first, and therefore Michael was the closest name resembling that. The father chose the middle name Arnold to honor his father who’d recently passed away. The parents didn’t look up the meanings of the name, nor did the names they chose were supposed to create a destiny for their child.

Nickname, if any (if so, explain its origin – e.g. who created it?):
Mike- This is short for Michael, but he was only ever called by it in his childhood. Once he got the name Blade Dancer, he stopped answering to the name.

Blade Dancer/BD- The ring master at Platty’s Circus came up with that one as his circus name when he did shows. BD is just a shorten version of it that his friends at the circus would call him.

Blades- Michael later shorted his name Blade Dancer to Blades to have a more intimidating name but to keep his origin.

Striker- Ember created this name when she saw him light a gas station on fire. She said it would fit in both ways of him striking a match to light the gas station on fire and with his swords when he struck someone.

X-z B- Though the name is not used often, this name was given to him by Reiner who gave Ember the name X-z, and then added a ‘B’ on for Michael standing for X-z “brother”.

Re-Le- Though the name is not used often, this name was given to him by his team as a code for “Respectable Leader”. It is generally used when Michael does something that the whole team is impressed with and so they say it as a praise or a thank you to him.

Does s/he like the nickname?
Mike- Michael never liked his nickname Mike claiming that it was an uninteresting name and that he wanted a more exciting name to go by.

Blade Dancer/BD- Michael actually loved the name Blade Dancer as his show name and BD for short. He demanded to start going by it even off stage because he wanted the name to replace the old nickname Mike.

Blades- Michael loved the name Blades because it made him feel like it was more intimidating than Blade Dancer, who sounded much like he belonged in the circus, but not so far gone that it couldn’t be used for his circus name. Blades to Michael was him edging towards a life outside the circus, but not quite there yet.

Striker- This is the name most people know Michael as. While he loves the name, being that it no longer connects him to the circus but as a new life as a criminal team leader, he struggles sometimes with the name because so many people curse this version of his name which often leads him to question if the way he lives is right.

X-z B- Though the name is not used often, Michael doesn’t mind this name. He finds the name not very catchy though and therefore would rather go by Striker or Blades instead. But the name does hold a fondness to it since it connects him directly to Ember.

Re-Le- Though the name is not used often, this is one of Michael’s favorite names to go by because it makes him feel like he has accomplished something. It makes him feel like people look up to him and that he’s doing the right thing. This name holds extreme feeling of pride and joy when it is used.

Birth date:
September 14, 1996

Ethnic background:
White American

Religion:
None

Current address:
An abandon office building near Pinkerton Street in Reighs City

Does s/he rent or own?
Michael pays a person under the table to keep the building from being demolished or reopened. He doesn’t own it so it’s best described as rent.

Brief description of home (apartment, house, trailer, etc.):
It’s a three story, not including the basement, old office building. The basement floor is the locations of all the Strike Out team’s rooms, the training room, living room, kitchen, and weapon room. The first floor is mostly abandoned incase someone enters through the main entrance undetected. The second story is mostly storage and a planning room. The third story is mostly unused. There is a stair case that leads down the side all the way down to the basement. There is a key code for the door that leads to the basement which the password is 129412. If anyone enters from the first floor entrance, a silent alarm will go off and the team will have to go evacuate anyone up there or wait them out. If you enter from the rooftops, no alarm will go off. Typically the Strike Out team doesn’t use the other floors besides the basement floors.

Does s/he live with anyone?
Yes, the Strike Out team lives with him.

Describe the area in which s/he lives (big city, town, rural, other):
Big City

Is this his/her ideal home and location?
Michael’s not sure if this is his ideal home location or not. He’s never known much besides the city and therefore doesn’t know what else is out there really. He believes for his line of work, it is the idea place because there are lots of places to run to and lots of people to chose from. He also likes the underground city in Reighs City made for criminals. He’s not sure any other city really has something like that which makes him believe this is the perfect city for him at least while he has the life of a criminal team leader.

Home decor:
Carefully planned, Comfortable; Though there is not a lot of actual decorations in the Strike Out territory, there is a sense of hominess. There is a digital clock in every room that is kept running at all times. The individual rooms are decorated by it’s occupants. The living room has a small television in front of three couches set up in a semi-circle around the television. There are side tables with lamps on either side of the middle couch and a larger table in the middle of the semi-circle separating the couches from the tv. This kitchen is a medium room with a counter in the middle opening on either side to divide the room in half, one side for the kitchen and the other for the dinning table area. The dinner table is large enough to fit eight chairs around it and is located to the left side of the room when you enter the kitchen. The other side of the room holds a small area for cooking and the refrigerator. The training room is the biggest room in the basement. It is a large room filled with equipment on the right side of the room. The left side is mostly bare with matts for sparing and a large track for running circling it. There are a few weapons on the wall to train with including swords, boa staffs, knives, and num-chucks. There are rings hanging on the ceiling for people to swing across on if they climb up the ladder near the door, but there is no safety net. The weapon room is also known as the target practice room because it is sound proof so that you can aim at the targets on the other half of the room. This is where most of the guns that Dean uses are held.

When someone walks in, what's his/her first impression?
If they walk in on the first floor entrance, they probably assume the place is abandoned because it is very dusty and bare. If they walk into the basement entrance, they would probably assume it is a hang-out for teenagers because of the lack of any expensive decoration and probable mess they might encounter if Michael or Conner hasn’t cleaned up the place yet. If someone walks in through the roof entrance, they probably assume the place is abandoned because it is very dusty and bare.

Pets?
No. Michael has never owned a pet and therefore doesn’t really have an opinion of what it would be like to own one, but he doesn’t own one simply because they would get in the way with his life as theft if he had to worry about taking care of a pet or keeping a pet quiet when someone intruded the home. Plus Michael doesn’t think he’d have to time to train a pet or even take care of it like he should.

Current occupation (include length of time, location, job title):
Full-time Criminal: Has been a criminal for nearly 4 almost 5 years. He started as a petty thief and it’s escalated into everything except murder for a price. He basically does crimes for other criminals for a lower pay than the original job but a decent enough pay that it keeps the team satisfied.

Job satisfaction (happy, discontent, ambitious...):
Though Michael likes to tell everyone including himself that he is happy as a life as a criminal, he is secretly discontent. He feels like he’s making the wrong choices in life and wants to go down another path but feels too far gone down this path to change his ways now. He fears what kind of life he would have outside his safety net as a criminal. He feels he will never be able to be a normal citizen due to the fact that he can’t read and has a long track record. Michael often struggles with doing the right things verses doing what he’s always known.

Income level:
Michael makes anywhere between $500 to $3,000 a month. It all just depends on how many assignments the Strike Out team does and what the pay out for each assignment is.

Education:
Michael was home schooled while in the traveling circus. Though he learned basics, he struggled with reading and writing so heavily that his father begin cheating for him and doing his work on the subject telling him it was really unimportant anyway rather than teaching him. Because of this, neither he or his sister know really how to read or write. Michael excels at math though and has always been great at doing formulas in his head, only struggling with word problems. Michael dropped all form of education at 15 when his father passed away from alcohol poisoning. He has extreme dyslexia.

Does s/he drive? What kind of car does s/he own, if any? (Make, model, color, age, etc.):
Michael has never gotten his license, but has learned to drive from Reiner, who taught him how to hot-wire and steal cars. He doesn’t own his own car though.

Sexuality (e.g. straight, gay, bisexual, asexual, unsure...):
Michael is not into romance at this point of his life. He hasn’t ever thought of his sexuality, but is homosexual. Michael is generally so focused on his criminal life that it leaves no time for him to think about who he’d want to date.

Marital status:
Single.