James Rhodes; War Machine

Mun Information
Name: Bill
Age: 26
E-Mail: spartanxiphos@gmail.com
AIM: AureliumX
Previous RP Experience: Here.
Did you read the rules? There are rules to this game?

Character Information
Name: James Rupert Rhodes
Codename/Tag Name: War Machine
Age/DOB: 42/May 3rd, 1967
Affiliation: United States Air Force
Occupation: Occupation: USAF Colonel; Military Liaison to Stark Industries in acquisitions.
Twitter Account: n/a
E-Mail Address(es): jrhodes@us.af.mil
PB: Don Cheadle
Journal Name: machineofwar

Powers/Abilities:

James is a phenomenal pilot, having flown everything the Air Force and Tony have ever thrown his way. Due to his military training, he is also an expert in the use of firearms, survival, tactics, and hand to hand combat. A career officer, he also has good organizational skills, charisma, and a commanding presence, as well as a measure of business savvy from his close association with Tony.

Weaknesses:

James is a normal human, subject to any and all the vulnerability that entails. The times in which he listens to Tony in lieu of his intuition and better judgment do not often bode well for him either. And while not technically a weakness, James has a habit of risking his own neck and doing the right thing, no matter what the personal cost might be to him.

History:

Born into a well to do middle-class family in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, James knew from an early age that he wanted to be a pilot when he grew up, inspired as he was by stories of his grandfather who was one of the Tuskegee Airmen during the Second World War. To the chagrin of his family, he gave up the gave up a chane to run the family law firm to join the Air Force.

At the United States Air Force Academy James continued to excel to the extent that he was awarded with a 'graduate school slot', so that he was able to go on to earn his Masters Degree from MIT. It was at MIT that James first met Tony Stark, who would become his life long friend and confidant. Graduating with top honors, James went on to advance in rank while Tony assumed control of Stark Industries in partnership with Obadiah Stane.

When the need arose to assign a liaison between the United States military and Stark Industries, James was the obvious choice, given his close relationship with Tony. Tasked with providing information between the military and Stark Industries, James balanced these duties with his responsibility to the Air Force, so that he often found himself flying between California and the Middle East on a regular basis. It fell to James to put Stark before the top military brass, to promote his latest projects, as well as test them himself in many cases. By the times James made Lieutenant-Colonel, however, his work load was such that he did not have enough time to test fly all of Stark's new projects.

To delegate off some of his responsibility, then, he chose Major Carol Danvers to test fly Tony's new experimental aircraft-a decision that has haunted him ever since. What should have been a simple flight turned tragic when the plane malfunctioned, landing Danvers deep into enemy territory after she had to eject. Despite frequent and unrelenting search and rescue efforts, James was not able to locate Danvers until she herself had made it into an Afghan city. The image of her, right after the torture she endured, is something James has never been able to forget. When a bid came over his desk by Danvers to do some work with NASA, he signed off immediately and wished her the best.

Roughly five years later, James attempted to introduce Tony for an award that would serve as a prelude to events that would change his life and their relationship forever. After a demonstration of Stark Industries new Jericho missile, the horror of what happened to Carol was in many ways revisited upon James as Tony himself was abducted when their military convoy came under attack. Cursing himself for letting Tony ride in a separate vehicle, James spent months searching for him, long after the Pentagon and Washington had given him up for dead. When he finally found Tony, his friend had become a new man. Eschewing the further development of weapons, James at first did not know what to think of Tony, even if he did respect his new appreciation for life. Nothing could have prepared James for the events of the following weeks, wherein it was revealed that Stane was behind the plot to kill Tony, and 'Iron Man' was introduced to the world for the first time. Almost as soon as Tony made his infamous "I am Iron Man" declaration, the military began to hound James to somehow seize or otherwise acquire the armor.

Only the placement of Tony among the Avengers and SHIELD have stalled any serious attempts by the military to go after Tony for his armor, something James is more than thankful for, even if the pressure has hardly abated on his side. This has caused more than a little tension between himself and Tony, even if James would never betray his friend.

Writing Sample: This sample is from another game I played Rhodey in briefly.

Some men had cars or trucks that they worked on. Boats. Motorcycles. Snowmobiles, or the like. Others had guns, or other sorts of weapons that they enjoyed collecting, taking apart, and putting back together. James had some of those too. Especially guns. But what he had that no other man had-with one exception, of course-was state of the art battle armor. Armor powerful enough to literally transformed James into a one man. Able to match or surpass the speed of most fighter jets, while packing more firepower than an entire infantry platoon.

It was no wonder he had been dubbed 'War Machine.'

Sure, he would never be able to match the technical genius of his best friend and frequent partner, nor ever know quite as much about the armor than the man that built it, but...he was still a Marine. The armor simply made him more dangerous than he already was.

Deep in the sub-basement of the manor outside Los Angeles proper that served more as his base of operations than his home, James sat on a stool before his suit of armor, tinkering with the hip pods. While the suit was self-repairing, he liked to get into the machinery himself whenever he could as experience had taught him never to be fully reliant upon technology. Carefully removing sludge and another thick substance he could not identify from the hidden cannon he worked, as he had for hours making sure the armor was in prime condition.

For weeks he had been preparing for an extended world tour of sorts to make his presence known to warlords that the United States was either not capable or interested in dealing with. The monsters who were allowed to perpetrate atrocity after atrocity while the rest of the world too often sat on their hands. The same sorts of threats James would have liked to have gone after years before, and perhaps would have, had he the means and not been held back by his superiors in the Corps.

But now... now was different. Now he had the means in his armor, and the freedom in his semi-retirement from the military. The only thing that held him back now, he thought as he manually closed the hip pod, was finding out what had happened with Tony before he did go. Sure, he knew enough to realize that he would not have to be bailing Tony out himself this time for once, but at the same time he didn't feel right about leaving before checking in with him.

Wiping his hands with a rag as he got up, he resolved to do just that.


Other Notes/Information:

• I would like for James to become War Machine soon (especially as I never made it that far the first time) through some means. Again, will have to work this out with the Iron Man player, be it his updating the Mark II armor ala the Iron Man 2 film or.. whatever else.