Niklaus Drake

 "This is my mission. And I'm going to do whatever it takes to show them the truth. If you're not with me then stay out of my way."

- Nick

Niklaus Francis Drake (ニコラスフランシスドレイク, Nikorasu Furanshisu Doreiku), simply known as Nick (仁紅, Nikku) is the leader and co-founder of The Outsiders; an organization comprising of young vigilantes, who claim to be "freelance mages" and provide social service while ridding Fiore of it's evils. He is the son of the former mage turned banker, Jon Drake and Jeanette Drake; a former model. Niklaus or Nick was initially the perfect definition of an academic prodigy and a true sophophile, who truly enjoyed being an academic genius and the star athlete of his class but his life was changed after a great tragedy struck his life; filling him with anger, fear, confusion but at the same time, also gave him a drive to prove his self-worth. However, in order to hide his real identity due to his inability to fully trust an individual, he crafted and took on the identity of Nicholas Perry (ニコラスペリー, Nikorasu Perí) and ended up convincing the entire world of his new individuality; this later on created inessential drama and tension between the team.

Nick soon started his own war on the hypocritical society that mocks the good and preys on the innocent and at the same time tried to "enlighten" them to the truth that god is non-existent and if humanity were to solely depend on a supreme being; singular or not, they would surely become a weaker race and would eventually die out. He also made a few bold moves through painting graffiti on the walls of religious gurus, dropping anonymous tips to the authorities about criminals masquerading as "noble men" in the society along with proof and even stopping a few petty thefts. He did all of this while under several guises, so as to not compromise the safety of his father but soon realized that he himself was not enough to change the world and show his fellow humans that they could defend themselves, that they could make a difference if they tried and that determination and planning is everything that humanity needs to progress and not some 'messiah'.

This led him to recruit like minded individuals who wanted to make a change but without being bounded by unnecessary laws that stop good men from doing good and enable the rich to get away with everything. Nick eventually co-founded the vigilante organization, Outsiders and began operating on a remote island and would often film the works of his team and upload it to the news feed system by hacking it on a monthly basis; using several undetectable hacking methods, in order to inspire people to perform heroic acts. He was soon described as a public menace by the media while the general public accepted him as a hero and gave him the title of Red Bird (朱禽, Aketori). After he was unmasked and incarcerated by the government, he was broken out of prison by his old flame and frenemy, Kassandra Cathan and was forced to join the government approved secret espionage team known as the Insiders.

Personality & Character Traits
"I don't do it for approval or an applause, Ms. Cathan. My Dad always said I could do anything I wanted. And I can. He supports me in whatever I do. I'm going to make him proud."

- Nick

Origins and Early Life
Niklaus Drake was born to banker Jon Drake and former model Jeanette Drake on ‎August 19, X786, in Oaktown, Fiore. Ever since his childhood, Niklaus was a curious child who valued knowledge over everything else and as a result, sought out information, data and new facts every day; causing him to invest himself and his life in reading various books, articles, talking to several scholars and even doing a little bit of 'research' of his own, this obviously earned him titles such as "nerd" and "bookworm" at the elementary magic academy. After topping his classes and cracking a tough entrance exam, Niklaus finally had managed to enter Trinity Institute for Higher Learning but as luck would have it, his middle class parents could not truly afford the school fees on their own this caused him to take the unfavorable way; train his body, in order for him to apply for the sports scholarship. Being the overall academic prodigy Niklaus was and given his athletic background despite being invested in books and novels, Niklaus successfully got the scholarship and made his parents proud.

He would then go on to become a state level gymnast representing his institute; further delighting his parents and while his parents where happy with their genius of a son, Niklaus was not. Topping his classes at the academy and pleasing the crowd during his performance weren't enough for Niklaus. He sought and lived for challenge and mystery. This would eventually lead him to perform stunts such as hack into his own school's database, dig up "dirt" on his school authorities and even managing to download a list of wanted criminals from his local law authority department after obtaining it through questionable means just for the "thrill" of it and how it made him feel after he had accomplished it.

Unlike other kids who tend to graduate from school at the age of 17-18, Niklaus had managed to graduate out of school by the time he was only a week away from turning 13 while also pulling off such risky escapades. It is also during this time his interest was piqued by a training discipline known as Parkour and given his already amazing flexibility, bodily coordination and endurance, he managed to learn several parkour techniques under a private instructor for free after black mailing him with several physical evidences of his extramarital affair. It is then he discovered about a form of data transaction, exchange, interconnected networks that was actually unknown to most of the people. This was simply known as 'ShadoWeb'; a highly encrypted, convoluted network that was incredibly hard to find and access in the first place and was simply forgotten by the society. After encrypting and rerouting his data address, Niklaus ventured the dark world of ShadoWeb only to come across horrors that kept him awake for nights but being adamant on finding and uncovering some sort of mystery, the naive boy in him playing detective uncovered an entire network of drug trade and seeing that as a challenge, spent months trying to connect the trades, clients and dealers together and after several attempt finally cracked his first "case" and left an anonymous tip for the authorities along with proof for the tradings that happened and will take place. This would actually lead into the capture and seize of world's largest underground trade network; though, the real man behind it all managed to escape and swore vengeance on the person who ratted them out.

Months after the bust, Nick realized he had made a mistake; that is, he forgot to reroute his magical network address the last time he ventured the ShadoWeb and went into various chat rooms and sites in order to seal the deal and get the final proof he needed to bust the trade network, when an anonymous man, hinting himself to be a cannibal contacted him on his Lacrima Phone stating that he had made some very powerful men very angry and that everyone now knows where he lives, what he does, about his family and would like nothing more than to destroy him. That very night, the leader of the drug trade network, Kefáli Epifanís along with a few of his man ambushed Niklaus's home and open fired in an attempt to kill him and his family, only to find it empty. When they arrived they were captured and arrested by the law authorities and Niklaus and his parents were thanked for what they have done but at the same time, they had to be put under witness protection program; causing them to leave Oakland and move to an unspecified blacksite in Fiore and take up new identities. This not only left Nick's father jobless but also without an identity. Despite this, Nick's parents were proud of him and were willing to make such an sacrifice. Nick and his parents were given the new identities soon enough and eventually moved to another city after the "threat had passed". Now going by the name Tymoteusz Weiß, he continued his studies for a few months before quitting and working three jobs to raise money for his family due to his father failing to get a job and his mother suddenly falling ill.

Despite having his problems with religion and religious institutes, after finding out that his mother was suffering from Small cell carcinoma, he personally visited every guru, every institution and prayed and even begged for help. He went to the finest doctors for suggestions but to no avail. His mother sadly passed away within a few months leaving his dad devastated to the point where he turned into an alcoholic. With time, his father's condition only worsened as he was diagnosed with schizophreniform disorder, making things worse for Nick. Once he recovered from the shock and admitted his father in a mental institute, Nick left the city in search for answers to why bad things happen with good people; only to find nothing but an actual abandoned island off the coast of Fiore which was a former military base but had it's location revealed about 70 years ago. After once again visiting the infamous ShadoWeb and stealing money worth of 15,000,000,000 from various sources, Nick took it upon himself to prove these religious gurus as nothing but impostors and that one did not need a supreme being to guide humanity and survive. He firmly believed that humanity had the ability to save themselves and did not need to depend on a 'god' to rescue them all or help them and that in fact, humans would become a lazier and weaker race if they started depending on anyone else other than themselves, causing him to film himself taking physical action against small time criminals and uploading it to various networks for people to see. More importantly, he had not only stolen money from various gangs throughout Fiore but also lead them into thinking that they stole each other's money, causing them to fight among themselves and leading to a gang war that would "cleanse" the streets of Antirrhinum. While he would use this money for travels, training and upgrading his equipment.

This was the inspiration and drive that later on forced him to take up his infamous code name of RedWing (朱羽, Akehane); due to red being the color of his preferred choice and wings symbolizing freedom, and later on allowed him to recruit like minded individuals and form The Outsiders (局外人, Júwàirén). He once again changed his identity to make sure that the government did not realize who they were facing, in the rare event he was outed to the world or captured. This eventually gave birth to his newly assumed identity of Nicholas Perry (ニコラスペリー, Nikorasu Perí). At some point, he stumbled upon his grandfather's designs for what would come to be known as "wingsuits" and based his outfits design around it. He also crossed paths with Nakano Takeko who taught him how to defend himself using improvised weapons and the art of Bōjutsu after he seemingly impressed her with his intellect and determination. After only five months of training, Niklaus left Nakano's tutelage and started on his own path and during his first few encounters with a couple of petty thugs they heard him discuss an urban legend known as 'Sune Dmya'.

RedWing and the Sune Dmya
While continuing with his investigation about the mysterious and apparent urban legend, Sune Dmya (صنع دمية, Sune Dmya; 人形作り, Ningyō-tsukuri), Nick heard of reports about a 'Man-Hyena' in a nearby city and chose to investigate it instead as the trail of this Sune Dmya had become cold. Now going by the pseudonym of 'Nicholas Alva Perry' or 'Nicholas Perry', Nick arrived at the city with a new outlook and appearance that while did not exactly hide his face as per say but helped with the new identity because of his choice of clothes, hairdo and an unique accent that was so genuine that it could easily fool any one from Pergrande Kingdom into thinking that he was in fact the son of a noble man from that respective country. After purchasing an apartment in one of the tallest buildings in the city and moving to the 28th floor for a more "clear view", Nick used the newly rented apartment as his improvised, local base of operations.

During the day, he would blog about teenagers such as himself; using an encrypted and rerouted network to prevent himself from being tracked down. While at night, he would go out into the city to further investigate the case of this man-monster who has been spotted twice near the docks and has apparently once broken into the house of an elderly who lived in the nearby neighborhood. By studying the man-beast's patterns, he quickly deduced that the so called 'beast' in question was nothing but a teenager; much like himself, who likely had his DNA mutated somehow and was on the run, due to his behavioral patterns that did not indicate any territory seeking scheme or any form of mental illness that would send him on a killing frenzy. For this child was scared and merely defending itself and was more likely hiding from someone, something. After a week of trailing the monster, Nick entered the residence of the creature and confronted it, in it's own house. To the creature's shock, Nick did not attempt to threaten or attack him but was still suspicious of him. Calling himself, Esfir Kalashnikov, the man-beast tried to approach Nick but unfortunately one of Nick's tear-gas cylinder's fell off of his madeshift tactical duty belt; startling Esfir, causing a fight to break out between the duo and after a long fight where Esfir was seemingly gaining the upper hand, Nick finally stops holding back and unleashes the actual power of Quaser and wins the fight.

After several hours, Esfir wakes up tied up to a bed with Nick sitting on a chair next to him informing him that the damage to his DNA is permanent and sadly irreversible. After a short heart to heart conversation with Esfir, Nick is told by Esfir about an organization calling themselves Astraeus that were going around kidnapping teenagers such as themselves, training them and forcibly experimenting on them to create perfect soldiers for a shadow war that's to come.

Magic
Quasar (準星, Junsei)

Abilities
Gifted Intellect: Nick is a highly gifted individual who has a natural intellect which borders on quasi-genius level. His naturally high intellect allowed him to excel in his studies and gain an academic scholarship. He is also has a great memory and processing power which is seemingly superhuman and quite truly remarkable. Having a measured IQ of 152, Niklaus was referred to as a "genius" and a prodigy by his parents due to his ability to grasp and master any subject with minimal mental effort. He is a talented hacker, a keen strategist, a natural leader, a good criminologist and something of a great detective despite his young age. His mental skill was enough to earn him the attention and respect of BCO-12 director, Helmer as well as the project runner of Astraeus. He is also multilingual, speaking and knowing in details about six current languages and a dead one. He has an in-depth knowledge of the natural sciences, which he puts to use in the crime lab. Despite being somewhat inexperienced and immature, Nick is not to be taken lightly in combat as he is shown with the unique ability to weaponize practically anything around him. He is highly talented in devising equipment for utilizing and enhancing as well as suppressing psionic magic. His mechanical aptitude and intellect allowed him to redesign his grandfather's original wingsuit and later on turn into his tactical suit. His intellect his further shown when he was able to instantly discern the difference between illusion and reality; although, he was not able to snap out it on his own. Managing the resources of his team, encrypting networks, finding hidden clues and trails as well as managing the entire team on his own despite his young age, Nick has proved himself to be an overall polymath. Even the likes of Kassandra Cathan has commented that his mind is his greatest and most dangerous weapon. He also shows a natural knack for deception and lying and his genius also allowed him to analyze and breakdown the complex fighting style of Nakano Takeko and counter few of her moves; a few that is incredible on it's own, considering Nakano is a top notch assassin and one of the best hand to hand combatants to have ever walked the earth.
 * Hacking:
 * Tactical Analysis:
 * Advanced Deductive Skills:
 * Skilled Mechanic:
 * Leadership:

Master Gymnast & Accomplished Acrobat:

Advanced Vigor:

Master Aerialist:

Assorted Abilities
Competent Hand-to-Hand Combatant:

Bōjutsu Specialist:

Vehicular Driver:

Skilled Marksman:
 * Throwing:

Equipment

 * Modified Wingsuit: Based on his grandfather's design, battle worn, unorthodox, slightly impractical, replaced by Red Wing.
 * Red Wing:


 * Ghost Lance:


 * Sonic Disks:


 * Snap Gun:

Behind The Scenes= Trivia= Quotes by Character=
 * Nick was originally entirely based on the author but later on turned into an amalgamation of fiction and reality.
 * His sense of adventure and thrill was somewhat inspired by Nathan Drake. Although, he no longer "does it for the thrill" or fun.
 * His solo stories are more character driven while team stories are action driven.
 * His name is an obvious reference to Sir Francis Drake.
 * The way Niklaus's name is written in kanji, "(仁冴良子, Nikorasu)" it means "noble and skillful good son/child" which is actually very fitting to his character. While his last name is written as "(努黎功, Doreiku)" which roughly translates to, "dark achievement through effort". This may be a reference to the path that he has chosen.
 * The 'ShadoWeb' mentioned above is the real world equivalent of dark web; which is actually different from the "Deep Web". Dark Web is the encrypted network that exists between Tor servers and their clients, whereas the "deep web" is simply the content of databases and other web services that for one reason or another cannot be indexed by conventional search engines. The Dark Web is a place notorious for criminal activities such as real life Russian roulette, drug smuggling, child pornography, human trafficking and cannibalism to name a few.
 * Niklaus discovery and research of this drug network which ultimately lead to the biggest drug bust is actually a reference to the Silk Road case.
 * The Silk Road is an online black market which can only be accessed via the TOR browsing client. Many sellers on the site specialize in trading illegal drugs for Bitcoins, a peer-to-peer digital currency.
 * Niklaus or Nick is a confirmed positive atheist.
 * Niklaus through his actions have proven himself to an anarchist.
 * Given the list of aliases, names and identities used by Niklaus; despite his age, his identity out of all the mages is actually the hardest to make out because of the layers it consists of and his elaborate plans and ways to simply "fit" into these made up roles and names.
 * As of August 23rd, X801, Niklaus or Nick is 15 years and 4 days old and has a measured IQ of 152.

Quotes about Character=

Statistics=