Nick Palereno

Name: Nick Palereno

Age: 24

Bounty: 0

Species: Human

Occupation: Bounty Hunter

Allegiance: The Bounty Hunting Trio

Home Island/Ocean: Hale Island/West Blue

Appearance: Nick is 6’0”. He has short, dark brown hair that is almost always messy as he rarely bothers combing it. His eyes are a beautiful turquoise hue. His skin is decently tanned as he spends a lot of time outdoors while on the hunt. His face is almost flawless and looks like it could have been chiseled from stone. The only thing that mars his features is a birthmark over his right eye, which is barely visible as his hair almost completely covers it. Nick is big guy, but he is not fat by any means. He is simply muscular and built like a truck. He normally wears practical clothing. Nick has a rust-colored trenchcoat that he always wears. Underneath it he wears a shirt, generally of the long-sleeve variety, which is tucked into a pair of light brown pants, which is encircled by a belt. Nick’s footwear consists of any kind of shoes that are built to last, like boots.

History: To completely understand who Nick is one would have to first look at his father, Wallace Palereno. Wallace was a bounty hunter and an excellent one at that. At one time just mentioning the name Palereno was enough to send bounty heads running for cover. The man was a living legend, but things didn’t stay that way forever. What changed him was getting married. Wallace wanted to stay home and be with his wife, so he retired from his old life and settled down. Sometimes he wished he could set sail again and cause some trouble, but he never truly regretted his decision.

Nick was born only three years later and he became his father’s pride and joy. Wallace did not hide who he had been from his son. As a result, Nick was very enthusiastic about becoming a bounty hunter, even from a young age. However, it wasn’t until he was eight years old that his dad began to take him seriously and began teaching him the skills he would need. By the time Nick was fourteen years old, he had become the equivalent of a black belt in at least three fighting styles and was already working on a fourth. Nick had also learned how to shoot a gun and can hit a fly with nothing more than a blowgun from fifty feet away. His dad also gave him a basic overview of how to use close range weapons, but he always told Nick that if he could take down his targets without ever getting close to them then he was good to go.

Nick’s mother did not approve of this. It wasn’t that she thought being a bounty hunter was a bad thing, but like most mothers she worried for her son’s safety. She also did not like the fact that all of the work he was doing was taking him away from his studies in school. So when Nick was eleven they reorganized his schedule so that he would have time for his homework as well.

When Nick turned nineteen, he almost gave up on becoming a bounty hunter. Like his father before him, he found himself falling in love with a young woman and he couldn’t bear to leave her. Sadly, she did not feel the same way as he did and she abandoned him for another. Nick was heartbroken, but eventually he recovered and returned to his former passion. He decided to put away such things like love for the time being. One day he might consider it again, but not now, when he was so close to achieving his goals.

Wallace finally declared Nick ready on his twenty-second birthday. Nick had learned not only fighting skills, but sailing, navigation, cooking, and basic medicine. Nick’s father then presented him with his birthday present. It was Wallace’s old ship, the ‘Hound’. Wallace had had the ‘Hound’ overhauled and stocked with some of the necessities. Nick left home the next day, setting out for his new life on the high seas.

A few months later, Nick was approached by a group that called themselves the Zodiac Legion. They claimed to have employed his father back in his old bounty hunting days. They offered Nick a position among their ranks so long as he first passed a few initial tests. Nick agreed to take the tests. The moment he did so, the tests began. Three incredibly long days later, Nick was dragging his exhausted, half-dead body out of the ocean having just been in a fistfight with a couple of fishmen. He had passed every test, not with flying colors, but sufficiently enough that he was able to enter the Zodiac Legion as a bounty hunter in their employ. In other words, he passed because he survived every test.

Since that time, Nick has served the Zodiac Legion faithfully. He isn’t particularly fond of them, for obvious reasons, but he does their bidding. In exchange for a cut of every bounty Nick secures and his loyalty, Nick gets the Legion’s protection and has access to their information centers, which has info on practically every bounty head in the world. In fact, the information is so through that Nick could look up the entire life story of many of those same bounty heads. (Not that he has looked them all up. Nick never was one for studying unless he was actually on a job.)

In present day, Nick is still not as famous as his father, but he has taken down a couple of big names such as ‘Flame Dancer’ Rory McCullin and Ray Dius Bone. He still works for the Legion and is content with where he is. Lately, however, things have begun to be turned upside down and Nick is being forced to choose between his loyalty to the Legion and what he thinks is right.

Personality: Nick is a friendly enough guy, as long as you’re not his target. He is a fairly serious and levelheaded person, but can goof off when it is appropriate. He is fair and believes in dealing out justice and as such, he will not hunt down people who simply got on someone’s bad side and he has been known to take down his employers when they themselves do something illegal. Nick tries to, for the most part, keep on the side of the law. He does not like bounty hunters or assassins who flout the law and do whatever they want. In a similar manner Nick is not overly fond of pirates. Oddly enough, he isn’t crazy about the World Government either, though he likes the Marines. The only thing he doesn’t like is when a Marine goes on about absolute justice. Nick hates that ideal with a passion.

Ship: The Hound: The Hound is a small, sleek vessel. It has no cannons to weigh it down. It was built for speed. It does have a gun, which fires a grappling hook that has a rope attached to it, on the front of the ship. The ship has some space below deck, but Nick does not use that area since he likes to keep everything he has close to hand. Instead he keeps his equipment in one of the two tiny cabins on the main deck. He sleeps in the other cabin. Nick actually lives on his ship. He has no other home.

Ship Flag: N/A

Devil Fruit: N/A
Type: N/A
Effect: N/A

Special Abilities:

Strength: Nick’s strength is significantly above average, but it is still nothing special. He can’t, for instance, punch through a wall.

Acrobatic: Nick is fast, can perform somersaults with ease, and can climb just about anything with just his hands and feet.

Locks: Nick can open pretty much any kind of lock unless it is electronic and requires a password or a code.

Fighting Skills: Nick’s close-range weaponry fighting ability is only passable at best. On the other hand, he is an amazing hand to hand fighter, mixing several different fighting styles into one. He is also excellent with any kind of long range weaponry, whether it be a blowgun or a cannon.

Learned Techniques:

1. Avian Pierce: Nick jabs with one of his hands in a strike upon his opponent’s neck to momentarily cut off their air supply.

2. Equestrian Strike: A roundhouse kick.

3. Simian Carnival: Nick flips forward; plants both feet on his opponent’s chest and kicks off, launching them away from him.

Weapons/Items

These are the weapons/items he always has with him:

Two pistols

Silencer

Four grenades (Two are regular explosives, but the other two contain tear gas.)

Wire for picking locks

Knife

These are the weapons/items he keeps on his ship for more specific jobs:

Gas Mask

Night-Vision Goggles

Sniper Rifle

Wetsuit

Extra Grenades

Blowgun

Bullet Clips

Goal: To make a life as a bounty hunter.

Approved.

I figured that after finishing two RPs with the character that I should probably just give him some learned techniques. They are:

Avian Pierce: Nick jabs with one of his hands in a strike upon his opponent’s neck to momentarily cut off their air supply.

Equestrian Strike: A roundhouse kick.

Simian Carnival: Nick flips forward; plants both feet on his opponent’s chest and kicks off, launching them away from him.

REAPPROVED

I know I just asked for some new attacks, but because of that I found something else I want to change. No offense to Keymaster, but I don't have a clue as to how this guy got approved in the first place. He was atrocious. Only five lines in his history! Disgusting. As such I have completely overhauled him. And I revealed a couple of things in his history that I was otherwise keeping secret about Nick, but more importantly about his employers, the Zodiac Legion. So, without further ado, the new and improved Nick Palereno!

The old Nick is below for comparison with the new. And in case the new isn't approved, in which case I would need to switch them back.

Spoiler:

REAPPROVED