Name: Manny Rodriguez
Alias: El Cid
Gender: Male
Age: 29
Appearance: Manny stands at 1.7 meters and weighs approx. 80 kgs. He has broad shoulders and a square jaw resting on a short neck. His dark hair is cut short, his eyes are brown, and his borderline unappealing hairiness forces him to shave once a day or suffer a short beard by the end of the week. He has a tanned skin covering a visibly muscular body. He usually wears his work clothes - blue overalls, and black Nike shoe he found at a locker-room one day. Otherwise he would wear one of his black t-shirts under a white undershirt with short grey or brown trousers. He wore a golden mask when he was starting out, but nowadays a proper change of clothes and a shaved chin fools most of the eye witnesses.
Personality: Manny is a hothead. He usually jumps into a situation head-first and is easily provoked. He protects his dearest friends and family fiercely and considers them the most important thing in his life. Manny is deeply religious, and as a catholic he respects clergymen and the word of the pope. He attends Mass and goes on to confessing his sins to his priest frequently. He's naïve and his world view parts the world into two sides ? sinners and saints, black and white. This hurts him most when dealing with situations were neither is clear, sometimes an issue that leads to unfortunate consequences. He's sociable, outgoing and loud. He changes completely in the presence of people he respects, like his family and his priest, becoming quiet and calm.
Alignment: Superhero.
Superpowers: (Due to an accident) Broken brain chemistry which allows for Manny to have inhuman reflexes (and increased speeds) when his heart rate is very high. This power can be useful and switched into gear after a short time of effort, but staying with said power turned on for too long burdens Manny's heart. If he pushes too far his heart might just explode in his chest, while health issues related to his heart do haunt his everyday life because of that power.
Unnaturally hardened bones(capable of surviving hits, make his physical attacks stronger).
Weaknesses: Manny is a hot-head. He's a danger to himself and sometimes others around him and would gladly jup in a fight without thinking. This also makes his power spontaniously pop up when he doesn't need to, a habbit he had been trying to fight since his first heart attack at the age of 26.
Manny is deeply religious and follows the church's decrees. He views the world in black and white and has trouble in dealing with some people he can't label.
Manny is susceptible to all natural weapons including firearms, though his bones almost never break.
He cares for his close family and friends dearly, and would protect them whatever it takes.
Manny sees good people as those he needs to protect and bad as those he needs to vanquish. This sometimes outs him in an awkward position when he has to choose between the two. He usually goes for saving the good.
Biography: Manny was born to a single Mexican illegal immigrant working in Arizona in a small town. She was a maid at the town's only motel and would have her and Manny live in that motel. Manny grew up in a poor home. Manny was dropped by his mother as a child, sustaining a blow to the head. The doctors managed to save him after a lot of work, but they were baffled when Manny appeared to be perfectly healthy. The impact did not break his skull as they had expected due to his hardened bones, but it did turn shatter some items in his brain. From there on, Manny had suffered trouble with his heart, accompanied by a strange sensation when he gets overexcited or in a bad situation. As he grew older he learned more about using this weird phenomenon only he has, all the while receiving worrying chest pains at such an early age.
Manny used to spend most of his time playing catch, fighting other children and riding his bicycle around town (One that he doesn't even own). He would frequently get injured but he never did need to be hospitalized once, something that helped his mother's poor financial situation. His way of life continued till his third year of high-school where the school's principal was close to expelling him. A senior teacher advised the principal to give Manny another chance, and so he did. That was the gym teacher, and as both knew a week after that talk he was talking rubbish. The gym teacher had wanted to start a boxing team in the school for years, and he had been eyeing Manny for that very reason. Manny had to do his coach's bidding and try to recruit his more lively and violent friends into the team, an act that, after almost a year of training, catapulted the team of young boys into the national stage. The strange phenomenon he had encountered during his childhood became a prized possession in his fighting matches, and Manny led the team to victory. That attracted attention to the boy and his illegal status, but his excellence in sports and surprisingly impeccable record allowed the state to grant him his USA citizenship.
Manny had a younger sister he loved and protected from local boys that feared his wrath. When he got older, Manny got more into boxing while his injuries seemed to have little effect on him besides internal bleeding, cuts and bruises. His fists were also notoriously deadly as he later found out his knuckles were naturally stronger than the other fighters. As he progressed, Manny became more distant from his friends and family and dabbled more in matters of his career. When a funeral of his good friend called him to visit home he decided that his carrier mattered less than being with his loved ones. Manny had taken a job in the old school he used to be in as a janitor, though he sometimes drives to the big city and does a boxing match or two for sports and a decent payday.
He had lived that way for the past four years, though recurring visits to the city's underbelly made the man feel wring whenever he entered the city. After consulting with his priest he believed that he should work towards a better society and try to show those lost souls the path of Christ and help them off the street. That resolution ended badly as he was stabbed twice in a fight against three men armed with knives, a fight that also ended in their demise. Even though he was first charged with manslaughter, the charges were dropped after two weeks when police found the case to be simply an act of self defense. It was then that Manny knew he had to help those people another way and that he had to keep his identity a secret. He wore a silver mask common with Mexican wrestling and ran around the streets of the city literally stopping crime. After each encounter he would come to his priest back at his home town for confessing his sins and if necessary, tending to his wounds.
He learned of the consequences of his powers after he had his first heart attack at the age of 26. Ever since he had been trying to use that power as little as possible, though when push comes to shove Manny knows when to strike back, and strike hard.
Other notes: He's bi-lingual with Spanish and English. The nickname he gave himself reminds him of an old tale he heard from his mother when he was a child, but know he doesn't remember what the name means.
