Kate Bishop // Hawkeye

How do you even begin to explain Kate Bishop? At a glance…she’s rich and white, from New York City’s elite. Kate stands at just short of five foot six inches tall with an athletic build – mostly due to her training. She's a person of change, she likes to change her hair, her clothes and she has excellent fashion taste. Come on this rich bitch can out dress the lot of you and she knows it.

However there’s a lot more to her than meets the eye. Kates blunt, stubborn and prides herself on her independence. She doesn’t need anyone’s help, she doesn’t really want it either at least when it comes to her personal life. Kate isn’t the most open person in the world, she will rarely let people know exactly how she feels or what is going on inside her head and she will never express her self-doubts to people. Kate believes that as an Avenger there isn’t room for those kinds of thoughts that she must remain strong or people will not think she’s good or capable enough to deal with the pressures that being an Avenger entails.

Either one of her best or sometimes worst traits is that she cares a hell of a lot about what she does, the people around her and the people in her city. Kates always been involved in charity work one way or another and she is a colossal believer in that you use should use your gifts, your wealth and influence to better people’s lives rather than taint them. Being an Avenger is an extension of that, she wants to help and save peoples lives because she can, if the people who can do it don’t then what hope does anyone else have? Being an Avenger isn’t a choice to her, she has the ability to be one and thus must do so, it is a moral obligation given to her with her training rather than a conscious choice and she sure as hell isn’t going to let anyone stand her way.

She’s determined and focused and once Kate has thought of a goal she will go and do it regardless. Nothing will stand in her way and she has demonstrated this before time after time. Her determination can be a downfall, Kate doesn’t know when to stop sometimes and she will go off on an adventure, get in trouble and end up having to get herself out of it escaping by the skin of her teeth. It does however show her ingenuity and her ability to think on her feet. She is a good tactician and is fast developing her skills for planning when it comes to fighting, a skill which she will hopefully continue to hone.

By far though her ability to open up to people or rather inability is her biggest downfall. Kate keeps things to herself and she has plenty of secrets which she has kept locked away in her head, from the assault that lead her to training and into life as an Avenger, to her rocky relationship with her family specifically her father and his girlfriend which she rarely speaks of. The death of her month which she has never really spoken about either. While Kate refuses to let people in she does know when to seek help and she would rather pay to see a therapist and discuss her issues behind closed doors where none of her friends will find out about them than talk to any of her friends.

Despite all her faults Kates good with people, she understands them and she has a huge capacity for empathy which stems from her own life experiences. She knows what loss feels like, heart break, that horrible feeling that you will never be safe again and what it is like to have everything you know torn apart. It shows in her own, the way she treats victims and the people that they rescue, while she doesn’t stick around she treats people with the upmost care and sensitivity. She tries her hardest to be the best hero that she can. Kate never wants to see someones life torn apart and preventing that is the reason for her life. At least in her eyes.

Kate has no powers persay, she is however an elite master archer and is considered one of the best marks(wo)men in the world. She has an uncanny ability with the bow that closely remembers the Avenger Hawkeye where her name derives from and Kate has demonstrated the ability to learn and adapt her archery skills from other archers. Such as learning to shoot multiple arrows at a time and mastering the use of trick arrows. She is highly skilled in several forms of close combat including kick boxing, jujitsu, and has shown considerable sword skills. Kate carries a sword similar to that of the Swordsman and carries two battles staves that resemble those used by Mockingbird. On several occasions Kate has shown that she has an eidetic memory (sometimes commonly mislabelled as photographic memory) and has used to it to her and her teams advantages.

Kate grew up the youngest daughter of a rich and elite Manhattan business family – The Bishops – her father owns one of the worlds largest publishing and printing companies and she had everything. Kate has never wanted for anything in her life, the whole world is at the tips of her fingers and yes the eight figure trust fund that she has is without a doubt a nice thing she has never felt comfortable with her families wealth. Its always something that she has felt a little at odds with, how can her family have do much and some so little and seeing the inequality between her own world inside her families and others has always been a stinging point for her. Her mother saw it as well, and her mother was without a doubt the grounding force in her family that brought them back down to earth. Her mother was a charitable women. She taught Kate the importance of charity and helping others when she was young and charity work is something that Kate has continued even though her mother has passed away. Her mother’s death hit her hard, Kate was fourteen and old enough to understand what it all meant, she passed away while on a business trip to Colorado and Kate feels as if she never got much of a chance to say goodbye. While her mother is gone Kate feels that by continuing her charity work, her legacy in a way she is still here and that she is making a difference still.

As you would have imagined Kate has attended some of the most elite and prestigious schools in the country, she was a good student, involved in extracurricular activities most of her life ranging from the student government to debating society, the school orchestra – she plays the cello - and was president of the charities society. School was well school, she had her friends…she was never one of the incredibly popular kids because of the way she tried to distance herself from extravagances of their lifestyles but she did well and she had top grades. Many had tipped Kate at a young age for entry into one of the top Ivy League schools and her father has always pushed her towards studying business, politics or law…a degree that would be useful for the company.

Despite the fact that her father and her were not close Kate has always respected him in a way, he was emotionally distant but they did have their traditions and both are avid tennis fans and attending competitions like Wimbledon or The US Open was a family tradition. One of the best trips she can remember was when she was twelve and she went to the French Open with her father while they were on business in Paris and they make up some of the happy memories she has of them together. It didn’t last however, the death of her mother pushed the two of them apart further and the close relationship she has with her elder sister is really one of the only things that kept the family together. While Kate and her sister Susan she the world in different ways, Susan loves the life style that she has and had no qualms about blowing six figures on a wedding in a heart beat Kate was a lot more reserved and despite their differences Kates sister has always supported her in all the things that she has wanted to do. Even though she worries that the high level of charity work would burn her out as it did their mother.

Before becoming a Young Avenger Kate’s life was shattered and pulled apart one night, she was walking home from a charity event in the city center at a homeless shelter and decided to cut though Central park. She was brutally sexually assaulted and the experience left her shattered and distraught. Its an experience she has spoken very little of and the only person who knows that it happened is her Therapist. It left her cut off from the world, Kate withdrew, stopped most of the activities she had at school and outside and was too traumatised to beable to cope with most of the basic tasks she had. The fact that her sister who was grown up and moved out living with her fiancée at the time and her father who she lived with saw little wrong at the time is a testament to the strained relationship she has with her father and the distance between the once close sisters.

Eventually there was just anger though, and she sought professional help in dealing with it, she saw a therapist who helped her work though her issues and in doing so Kate decided that she was never going to be a victim again. That she has learned that bad things happened and it didn’t matter how much charity you did, how much good you did, bad things were going to happen to good people and you had two choices. You either became a victim and it took over you and it destroyed your life piece by piece and it ate you till there was nothing left or you took it all and turned it into something positive. While she might never feel safe again, Kate can stop it happening to other people and she can learn to defend herself, the experience spurred her on to start learning martial arts, combat, fencing and several other styles of fighting. The archery was something she had been doing since she was a young child, every summer at Interlochan Music Camp. She was rather good at it.

It wasn’t until her sisters wedding Kate seriously thought of something like the Avengers, she’d never really considered it before. Her sisters wedding was taken hostage and a botched rescue attempt by the Young Avengers resulted in the church ending up on fire and a gunfight. Kate who was being held hostage successfully disarmed the armed robbers and saved the Young Avengers. At which point she forcibly introduced herself into the Young Avengers along with a young woman by the name of Cassie Lang who helped her track them down after the whole wedding on fire incident. Together the two of them demanded entry on to the team and were granted so after helping them fight Kang the Conqueror in which Kate doned a bow and arrow and took out Kangs ability to travel though time before verbally ripping him a new one.

The Young Avengers never had it easy, following their battle with Kang the Avengers attempted to shut them down and refused to help the team without some kind of parental consent. Frankly Kate was having none of it, nothing was going to stop her now and she convinced the rest of the team to continue on with or without the Avengers blessing and they would do it on their own. Believing that the very worst they could do was tell their parents Kate used her own money and one of her fathers abandoned warehouse to create new costumes and give the team a base to work from. While Kate has stumbled over a codename many have been used in jest, joking she was referred to as Hawkeye and the name kinda stuck. Guess the lesson there is come up with a cool nick name or you will be given one that you’re not all that fond of. Most people referred to her as Hawkeye because of her abilities and the skills she shows, also her personality traits. It’s been said she’s the only person other than Clint that has sassed Captain America and blatantly disregarded being told what to do. She guesses that’s kinda a complement however…Kate doesn’t want to be stuck in that shadow for ever.

At the moment Kates part time hero, part time charity worker and spends far too much time dodging the question about why she isnt’ at college yet. Maybe one day. Being a hero is so much more fun! Family wise her father remarried a woman named Heather, who Kate literally, and yes we mean literally went to high school together and to make matters worse the same high school! She’s only older than Kate by three years and while Kate wants her father to be happy she has a hard time accepting the woman as a part of the family, especially as a mother figure. The two are currently sailing around the world on a yacht while Kate stands on rooftops dressed in purple going out of her way to find trouble.

And she did find trouble, now Kate Bishop in her time as a Young AVenger has seen a lot of weird shit. This didn't reALLY MAKE THE TOP TEN UNTIL THE HEAVENS OPENED. iT WAS LIKE THE NORTHERN LIGHTS EXCEPT BRIGHTER, THE BRIGHTEST LIGHTS YOU HAD EVER SEEN AND THEN THE WORLD IMPLODED. tHROWN INTO WHAT HAS BEEN TERMED A 'POCKET DIMENTION' WITH A BUNCH OF NEW HEROES, kATE DOESN'T KNOW WHATS UP FROM DOWN here. it's strange how you realise how much you loved somewhere when it's taken away from you. How much you adore it until its lost and within moments Kate was homesick. She misses her New York, her Avengers, she misses the way the subway smelled slightly different and her apartment...she even misses the pizza dog.

Now all thats left really is to try and make a life again, to pick back up the bow and get on with everything. After all...just because you're a little bumbed out doesn't mean the world stops needing saving. The world isn't waiting for a girl in purple to find her way back home again...it has other plans.

They had found Harold H Harold...strung from the H in the Hollywood sign with a purple arrow though his chest. It wouldn't have been a more stinging statement if Madam Masque had tried. This was meant to be the City of Angels, a place where people came to get away, to find love, lust, romance, happiness, fame and fortune and all Kate had found was ways to get her wings broken. LA sucked. Kate remembered what the pain felt like right in the seat of her heart as she looked up at the bloody and dead body with one of her arrows...the letter that had been left behind for her. 'The only way you'll leave this town is in a body bag.'

They had burned down her home, the trailer she'd been staying in, the one that she had made her home away from the crippling emotional black hole that was Clint Barton and all the memories of her time as a Young Avenger. That was until getting out of LA became a necessity. It was imperative. It wasn't a matter of principal...now she understood why Madam Masque was trying to keep her in LA. To keep her out the way while they killed Clint...she couldn't let that happen.

Sure this was the kinda city where the dead came back to life, where phoenix stories ruled the airwaves but nothing was bringing Harold back from hanging off that H and she wasn't going to let Clint suffer the same fate. She could feel the panic rising in her, Kate had gathered her things, the dog and the hell bitch cat and stolen a car. Got the hell out of LA as fast as she could and hit redial on her phone over and over again until her battery ran out. There was no stopping on the road home, she fell asleep in a parking lot for a few hours with the dog to wake her up if anything happened but other than that she was coasting on caffeine and petrol fumes.

It was night when she rolled into New York, left the dog and the cat with a trusted friend and took to the roofs. Purple suit on she meant business, it was time to track down exactly what the hell was going on. There was nothing, his apartment was empty, why hadn't he called, why hadn't he got help, why had he been so intent on doing everything himself. Kate could have followed Clint into the pits of hell. She would still. He was her mentor and yes sometimes they didn't see eye to eye but they were joined together by a name. They shared everything,...and she hadn't been here when the shit had hit the fan. Kate blamed herself for whatever had happened.

That whatever was going to remain a mystery. The heavens opened, the sky lit up like northern lights but brighter, like the most beautiful thing you had ever seen in your life and Kate knew enough, seen enough weird stuff to know that it wasn't a good sign. The world imploded on itself, turned inside out and Kate found herself in another world...not it wasn't the first time she had been to other universes but this one was different. The air tasted different as she picked herself up from the rooftop and looked out, the city lights had changed, there were differences, there were different buildings, the lay out was skewed slightly and yet it was still recognisable as New York.

“Okay. This looks bad.” She said to the air, gripping tighter on her bow's riser. “Really. Bad.”

USER NAME: Sammie 

YEARS RPING: 10 years

REFERRED TO BY: Vinny.

OTHER: No.