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""[...] at least there's someone in this world legitimately trying to do good. Heroes like us, heroes like police, firefighters, doctors, soldiers... Real heroes who risk their sanity and their lives to protect those who cannot otherwise protect themselves. Not these [politicians]."
— Spades to Starfire, regarding a discussion of politics.



Spades Neil
Spades
Vital statistics
Real Name Neil
Aliases Spades, Spades Neil, Ace of Spades (uncanon), Gemini (uncanon)
Gender Male
Species Psionic Human
Status Missing
Alignment Good/Gray
Likes Video games, Meditation, Magick studies, Philosophy, Abrahamic religious studies (Islam, Christianity, Judaism), Writing, Reading, Tea, and Sushi
Dislikes Dishonor, bigots, cowards, bullies, idiots
Place of Origin Methuen, Massachusetts
Residence Boston, Massachusetts
Relationships
Relatives Half-brother to Rachel "Raven" Roth
Allies Beast Girl, Avro
Enemies Zana, Scarecrow, Trigon, Slade
Affiliations Titans North
Powers & Abilities
Powers Aerokinesis, Pyrokinesis, Demonic abilities
Weaknesses Stress, poor self-control, poor magick experience
Equipment Dragon Skull Cane/Sword, Vietnam War-Era Combat Knife, Ceremonial Dagger
Others
First Appearance 2006 on MySpace

Spades Neil is the (former) leader of Titans North, who once worked in the city of Boston. They occupied a renovated version of the John Hancock Tower which had the top several floors expanded for additional space Titans North thought they'd require. Despite Neil's appearance, he is almost the polar opposite of his half-sister Raven, as he is loud, talkative, outgoing, and willing to share his thoughts and feelings whenever necessary. Unlike Raven however, he has convinced himself that he is more human than demon (despite being related to Trigon and having Avro sharing a body with him). While his power has as much potential as his older sister, he initially only knew aerokinesis and pyrokinesis, while more complex abilities had to be later taught to him by Raven. This would later prove difficult as Neil follows a different philosophy as opposed to Raven. Raven insists that Neil must control his emotion, while Neil believes his powers work best when he lets his strongest feelings run free. He thinks his powers are enhanced by his emotions, rather than controlled by them. While this may be true, it also makes his magick more volatile.

Personality

It has always been in Neil's nature to lead groups of people for their collective benefit. Using this affinity for leadership, he managed to form a new, small team he called Titans North which was dedicated to continuing the work of the original Titans. He has a habit of conflicting with existing authority however, which is a definite flaw of his take-charge instincts. He had gotten into verbal fights with Robin on several occasions, one such example when Neil convinced Control Freak into stepping away from a fight. Neil not only refused to attack him, but allowed him to escape! Having convinced himself there's always another, more complex way to solve any problem, Neil and Robin have never been very friendly. On the other hand, Neil gets along fine with the others members of the original Titans team.

While a decent leader, Neil has also proven to be quite the silver tongue. With his charisma, he had often given advice to his friends, and he usually tried to stop and wait to see what a supposed villain's intentions were before starting a fight. Although more often, their intents were indeed criminal, there have been a couple situations, such as with Control Freak, where Neil has convinced the enemy to stop fighting under the belief that the 'villain' isn't necessarily evil. However, where Neil excelled in his shrewdness, he lacked in his physical strength. While he had some powers such as his Aerokinesis and Pyrokinesis, his only really usable abilities were only taught later.

Neil is an easy enough person to talk to, though the tough part is more getting him to be quiet once started. He's at least conscious of this flaw today, but if his mind is locked onto a topic of relevant interest, it may prove difficult to silence him (especially if the topic involves politics or religion). His patience is decent enough for most people, and he is known to have a good long temper. However, that long fuse may as well be the ignition to a nuclear warhead, because when someone finally does break his patience, he's especially known for his extreme cruelty and even demonic attempts for retribution. However, despite his dark appearance and beliefs, and somewhat of a mean streak when he is driven far enough, he rarely does anything out of ill-intent.

Another signifying feature of Neil's personality is his character was once very enigmatic. For example, while Neil was quite outgoing and gave off the vibe of a normal teenager, the way he spoke and thought about more important matters showed a much higher sense of wisdom and maturity than most people his age. He often spent his free time in his room, on his computer, writing stories and philosophies about the world around him. His mind did not reflect that of a normal teenager. In his younger days, he was intensely bullied because of his heretical ways of thinking. It didn't help that he was not physically strong either, thus making him an easy target. Consequently, because other children didn't understand him, they hated (or more likely feared) him because he was different. They took him as a target. Not because he was scary in the traditional sense, but just because he thought differently. Perhaps they viewed him as competition. Years of bullying caused some psychological problems for Neil, which some might even label as a mild form of Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder, but he finds relief in his writing.

History

Before the Titans

Neil's "official" birth records state he was born at Stoneham Hospital in Massachusetts, into an average family with regular lives. However, something about him was far from the norm and he knew this from a very young age. Allegedly on the very day of his "official" birth, a family friend, a female psychic, who knew nothing of his birth, actually called Neil's grandmother Lenore within mere minutes of Neil being born. When Neil's grandmother picked up the phone, her friend immediately spoke of a "great power" suddenly entering the world. Not long after, Neil was deemed an Indigo Child by that same woman. Unfortunately, this woman has since faded into the shadows of history. Neil cannot remember having ever met her, but his family had told him stories about her on several occasions. Neil still has doubts as to whether she ever existed, or if she was just a crazy old lady, or if there was something more to her.

When Neil was a young child, he began to take notice of his unusual traits. He was always far more intelligent than his peers, but this made them often dislike him. This led to a long and painful lifetime of bullying and harassment from his peers. As a result, he grew up with a deep hatred of anyone who picks on others because they are different or weak. Neil suffers some psychological problems due to this history, but it serendipitously gave him a new view on the world; a world that could use some improvement. While it would never be perfect, he figured he could at least try and make it a little bit better. He event went so far as to join the Teen Titans on a visit to California in 2006.

Neil came to the Teen Titans just as they were returning from their campaign against the Brotherhood of Evil. While he managed to befriend Raven, who found herself very curious with how familiar young Neil was to her, the other Titans met him with distrust and reluctance. It would not be until he went on to create Titans North that their leader Robin would even consider speaking to Neil. It was with good reason, too. Slade, although thought to be dead, had managed to get in touch with Neil, offering to help him control of his powers in ways that Raven would not dare show him. It was an offer he nearly accepted.

File:Glomp.png

Beast Girl hugging Neil by surprise

During this time, Beast Boy was also discovering a lost sibling by the alias of Beast Girl. Beast Girl, also known as Leyla, became the target of Slade's first offering with Neil. If he could bring her this 'Beast Girl', he would unlock Neil's potential. However, while Neil succeeded in capturing Leyla, it did not take long for her to make him realize what a mistake he was making, and who Slade really was to the Titans. At the last moment, Neil sabotaged Slade's plans, and returned Leyla safely home.

After helping Leyla out of her predicament, it didn't take long for him to fall for the girl, though at first he kept it hidden. Within a month, he had fallen in love. A month later, after coming to terms with these feelings, he then confessed it to her. They continued dating for roughly four years until separation and stress in the Titans North finally broke them up.

The loss of his family

Just as Neil was starting to further his relationship with the Teen Titans, his relationship with his (foster) family started to break down. He grew increasingly distant from his family due to constant fighting and strain between the marriage of his parents, and often found himself caught in the middle of it with the additional stress factor of his younger sister constantly berating him with verbal insults.

One day, around Christmas of 2009, it reached a breaking point. Though the details of the conflict are too vague for Neil to recall, he does remember the consequences. Cornered by his father, yelling in his face, years of this stress at long last made him break. He swung his fists at his father's face and managed to land two blows that, although they left his father relatively unharmed (being the large man he was), would be the final interaction Neil ever has with his family.

He fled the household to a near by park. What he didn't realize was the effect of his emotions on the world around him. Somewhere along the lines, all it took was a candle in the basement or ashes from a lit cigarette left by his mother to ignite a pile of clothes near the washing machine. The building was raised to the ground. While Neil was at the park, he heard the sirens, and returned to find his home ablaze. His family perished in the inferno, leaving him alone. With nowhere to go, he briefly moved in with his grandmother on his father's side, called 'Nana' by the family. Her true name was Lenore. He stayed with her until the founding of Titans North.

Titans North

Titans North Tower

Titans North Tower

Titans North was constructed in Boston after an arrangement with the Mayor and the bankrupted owners of the former John Hancock Tower. The reason for constructing the tower in the first place was due to a growing super-villain problem in spite of general crime rates going down. The tower however was never fully completed. Today it is complete on the outside, but the interior is still underdeveloped. It was being rebuilt to withstand super villain attacks, which the original building was obviously not meant to do. In addition, the top floors had been widened (giving the tower its T-shape) to accommodate possible future residents or other expansions. The project was supposed to be done by summer of 2010, but it never was. Titans North fell apart due to the same person who put it together.

Neil founded Titans North in March of 2009 when the deed to the tower was given to him along with the necessary funds. Later the building underwent a retrofit that started in July. The building used to be an insurance company (ironically) which had to have its old offices and cubicles demolished and rebuilt. The hope was that one day the expanded portion of the tower would dozens of bedrooms like a big superhero apartment complex, an entire floor dedicated as a single combat field (which was completed before the tower's abandonment), an Olympic sized swimming pool, a big living room, game rooms, a huge library, a small hospital, a VTOL aircraft hangar, and much, much more while maintaining the floors below the expanded section for public access. Titans North would have been not only a superhero's haven, but a community center for all of Boston. There also would have been a secondary Police headquarters for easy communication between the Titans and official law enforcement.

The End of Titans North

It wasn't a super-villain that at long last defeated the Titans North. Instead, it was politics. A wave of xenophobia allowed right-wing politicians to take advantage of the superheroes moving in, and they did everything in their power to attack the idea in order to discredit supporters of the organization. Neil today theorizes the real reason for this is because they would have discovered and exposed corruption within the Boston law enforcement system. These right-wing protesters cited collateral damage caused by superheroes, the extreme cost of renovating and maintaining the tower, and even the recent example of the Trial of Batman incident at Arkham Asylum. Although not an actual court case, enough slander was spread through news outlets that it was falsely accepted as a valid case. The biggest argument soon became that the presence of superheroes would only attract more super-villains and turn normal criminals into super criminals.

Titans North finally collapsed a year after its creation. In summer of 2010, with only three members (dramatically less than he had anticipated by then) the group disbanded. Neil disappeared, effectively severing contact with all except Raven. Eventually, he'd lose contact with her too.

Disappearance

As of August 16th of 2010, Neil left the Titans North. Officially, he is still a member and its leader, but due to his absence, the Titans North group disbanded quietly. He has been reportedly spotted in Jump City with Starfire, as well as with Terra. He had been trying to obtain his college degree while living with his Nana, all the while keeping in loose contact with Raven through letters and increasingly infrequent visits to continue his training, but eventually they too lost touch.

During his time away, his Nana fell ill. Two years after moving in, and after numerous hospital visits for treatment of brain cancer, she quietly passed away on August 20th, 2012, at nine o'clock in the evening just as church bells were ringing in the distance.

The Return

A week later, Neil would return to Jump City, but by now the Teen Titans had officially disbanded. His first encounter would be with Starfire, who still lived at the tower during this time. They ran into each other by chance in the park.

Traits and Powers

Abilities / Strengths

Avro in his dragonic form

Avro in his dragonic form

Disadvantages / Weaknesses

Spells, Incantations and Artifacts

Spells and Rituals

Books, Artifacts, and Notable Possessions

Neil's Satanic Bible

Neil's Satanic Bible

"Sources"

Contacts

Trivia