Travis "Hexas" Smith
Travis Smith
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Portrayed By Josiah Cheatham
Gender Male
Date of Birth November 1, 1991
Age 20
Zodiac Sign Scorpio
Aliases Aloysius Joseph “AJ” Gardner, Liam Otter, Hexas
Place of Birth Denver, Colorado
Current Location New York City
Occupation College Student
Known Relatives Crystal Smith (mother, also know as Sarah Gardner and Jillian Otter), Donald Garder (father, deceased)
Significant Other ???
Identity Secret
Known Abilities Six Arms, each arm has a different power: energy shield, energy sword, freezing touch, heat touch, healing touch, disease touch.
First Appearance ???

Yeah I have six arms, just something I gotta learn to accept.

History

Aloysius Joseph Gardner was born a healthy baby to Donald and Sarah Gardner, named after Donald’s grandfather. He would be their first and only child but the young couple was happy with little AJ. He was healthy and grew to be a happy child. They lived in a small two bedroom house in Denver, Colorado and enjoyed everything the city had to offer. From the mountains, to skiing, to shopping to the Colorado Rockies, the Gardner’s enjoyed it all.

As AJ grew up he idolized his father. He was Daddy’s little helper. Donald Gardner was a carpenter by trade and he would let AJ watch, and even help him in his workshop in the basement. By four years old he was hammering things together and learning little things here and there. He loved being around the workshop and being around the wood. His father had even gotten AJ a special pair of goggles that could protect his eyes and fit his tiny head. AJ’s father also introduced him to his other love, baseball. Two or three times a year Donald would take the family to Rockies games and AJ loved it. He never got to catch a foul ball but as a kid he always brought his glove with hopes. His father even took him to baseball fairs where he was able to meet some of his favourite players and get their names signed on a ball.

Every winter the Gardner family would always go on a few ski trips. They tried to make about 3 or 4 a year, nothing for AJ to become great at but he always did have fun. It was their winter vacations and weekend getaways in the colder months. With his mother being an elementry school teacher, it was easy for his family to go on vacations together. AJ grew up with strong family values and loved his parents greatly. It was obvious that they were a close-knit family.

Once AJ hit six, he joined little league and played baseball. In the summers he went to baseball camp. He made friends with the other kids easily but his idol was always his father. It was always obvious he tried to mimic him as a kid. As he grew up his love of baseball and his father never changed. He helped his father more and more in the workshop and learned more about carpentry as well. By age ten he was making his parents Christmas and birthday presents down in his fathers workshop, with his fathers help for safety reasons.

The years went by, AJ went from going to elementary school, to middle school to high school. His freshmen year, age 14, he started taking shop classes and was one of the best in the class from all his experience. He got decent grades and made friends fairly easily. He hung out with most of the jocks in the school and, of course, started to get into partying. This didn’t change anything at home though as he was one of the few fourteen year old kids who still looked up to their dad. AJ even made varsity baseball as a third basemen his freshmen year in High School. It was a combination of luck and the last third basemen graduating the year prior.

Summer break came and his family was planning a vacation to go to Wyoming to visit the parks, but it never happened. All seemed good in the life of AJ, that is until one night when his family was out in the city. They were walking back to the car from dinner when the Gardner’s heard an argument going on not to far. Donald decided to go check it out and told Sarah to stay with AJ. Of course, AJ, being an curious teen who believes that nothing bad will ever happen to him, decided to go after his father despite his mother’s protests. Sneaking behind his father, AJ was able to see everything. Five men, who looked like they were mafia, arguing, a body on the ground. He thought he was hidden in the shadows as he saw his father stop. Donald realized that he had to turn around and just go, this wasn’t an argument to be trying to get in the middle of. But it was too late, Donald was spotted and AJ watched his father get shot and killed.

AJ couldn’t react, frozen in fear, he felt someone tugging on his arm and being dragged back to the car. It was his mother, and she was able to drive them as fast as she could home and call the police. When the police showed up, AJ and Sarah told them everything they saw, along with descriptions of the five men. The police explained a situation that was far worse then they realized. It wasn’t the mafia they were dealing with but a group called the Maggia, an international crime syndicate

The five members of the Maggia were in the middle of ‘disposing’ something/someone they didn’t want around. Not just a body but drugs and a strange device. Since AJ and Sarah saw it all, they could testify what they saw and put these five men in jail. After the death of Donald, the two were quick to agree. Though things are never that easy as two days later, they were receiving death threats from The Maggia that if AJ and Sarah were to testify, they’d follow in the foot steps of Donald.

AJ barely had time to grieve, as he knew things were over his head. He didn’t have time to really register his father, his hero, was dead, as the trial and the death threats where right there. Contacting the police in regards to the threats, arrangements were made. Donald has a small private funeral and was cremated; most of the ceremony was a blur to AJ. He knows he gave a small eulogy at the funeral but he doesn’t remember what he said. Right after the funeral was the trial. Agreements were made and AJ and Sarah were to testify under the deal that they were going to go into the witness protection program right afterwards.

Much like the funeral, the trail is a blur to AJ, he knows he told the truth and the bad guys were put in jail thanks to him and his mother. After that Aloysius Joseph “AJ” Gardner no longer existed, his name was now Liam Otter. He found the new last name to be silly but he couldn’t argue it. Jillian and Liam Otter then moved from Colorado to St. Louis, Missouri.

Liam missed his father greatly, now that things has settled down he finally had time to grieve, so did Jillian. Liam knew he only had his mother now and latched onto that for a few months. Next thing Liam knew the new school year was starting and he would be at a new High School. In between getting over the loss of his Dad, it was a lot of school work, unpacking and adjusting. The house was smaller than their last one but at least there was a garage to put all his fathers equipment so that Liam could continue with carpentry.

Liam didn’t stop doing what he loved just cause his father had passed away, in fact it made him treasure those things and work harder. Again he was able to make the varsity team as a third basemen and he excelled in woodshop. His grades slipped a bit to C’s but they were passable enough to stay on the team. Since things where just him and his mother now, Liam grew a lot closer to her.

He made a few friends in his new school but he just wasn’t as open as he used to be. He didn’t go to parties actually preferring to spend time with his mother. After seeing his father murdered, Liam became afraid of losing her as well, and Jillian felt the same about Liam. It was hard with his new friends and school, having to make up stuff that his father passed away from cancer and shortly after his mother got transferred to a school here with her job.

Over the years things got easier for Liam, he got more friends in school, he started going out more and his grades picked up. He got his drivers license and got his own beat up car as a gift for his 16th birthday, a 1995 Toyota Corolla with 100,000 miles on it. Baseball, his fandom of the Colorado Rockies and his love of carpentry still were foremost in his life. He got into paintball and airsoft while living in St. Louis, and had a lot of fun playing it. He wasn’t bad at it and it was a good way to socialize and get out aggressions from the loss of his father, something he never fully got over.

Liam was one of the strongest players on the team his senior year of high school and he even got offered a few scholarships, and he accepted the scholarship into St. Louis University. He agreed with his mother that he’d stay home and go to a local college, after all neither wanted to be left alone. He celebrated his 18th birthday and graduated high school. He got a summer job working for a construction company doing carpentry work and looked forward to it. The job was to assist with building the new wing at the local hospital and Liam was looking forward with what he was going to learn.

Two weeks into his summer, Liam was coming home late from hanging out with friends. It wasn’t a long walk back to his house, especially when cutting through the back alleys as a shortcut, but someone called his name in one of the dark areas. Not Liam but Aloysius Gardner was the name that was called. Without thinking, Liam just started to run, he didn’t even look back and when the gun shot went off hitting him in the leg, Liam knew his fears were accurate as he feel to the pavement. It turned out the Maggia members that Liam and his mother put in jail, were significant enough for other Maggia members to try to find them. Liam didn’t know it, and he still doesn’t, but what they interrupted that night was the start of something big but with his mother and himself testifying it ruined their plans and they lost out on a lot of ‘good deals’.

He tried to get away but it was hard to move with his leg injured and the four guys sent to find him proceeded to beat him within an inch of life. The Maggia didn’t bother hiring superpowered individuals to take out a boy, they figured they he didn’t have super powers, it’d be easy. So, unconscious, they threw Liam’s body in a dumpster near a factory and just left him there to die. Luck shined on Liam that night, as there were some strange chemical waste that was disposed of in that dumpster and the chemical waste got into his blood stream from his many cuts. Science went to work and instead of killing him, it altered him. Liam had a recessive X-Gene that was never going to manifest. It was the right combination of chemicals and drugs and Liam’s x-gene became dominant, his mutation came to being.

Liam remained unconscious through it all as his body shifted and altered, extra limbs rapidly forming and becoming a part of him. The drugs and chemicals in his blood stream also did more than just give him extra limbs but gave each of the limbs an individual ability. While this was going on, Liam never noticed until he woke up the next morning. He went to climb out of the dumpster, still heavily injured and near death, when he pulled himself up and out with one, two, three…four arms. Once out of the dumpster Liam realized he had six arms. He didn’t have time to really look at it when one thought popped into his head “Mom”.

Liam ran home as fast as he could to find the same Maggia members there that almost killed him. He knew he had to protect his Mom and ignoring all his wounds he had to fight them. Once spotted by the four, they opened fire on Liam, he raised his left top arm in front of him defensively and an energy shield formed, blocking all the fire. He rushed forward and using his unknown powers one by one, freezing a gun here, melting another one, hitting one with an energy shield and making the last one so ill he couldn’t fight, Liam was able to defeat them. He wasn’t going to let his mother die.

Liam rushed inside to find his mom injured and tied up, the house smelled horribly of gasoline. The maggia lit their house on fire while the two were still inside. Jillian and Liam were able to grab a few belongings before being able to get outside. The house went up quickly and Liam and his mother watched everything they owned burn. It wasn’t until his mother pointed it out to him that Liam’s bottom right hand was glowing, and that she was healing.

Lucky for Liam, a neighbor called the police and they were able to get their in the nick of time to arrest the four Maggia members. Liam passed out from his injuries and over excursion. He woke up in a hospital and for the first time really noticed his six arms. Jillian held her son while he cried, and promised him they’d work through it.

After two days of being at the hospital Liam and Jillian were approached, since the witness protection failed them, they had to do something else, and now with Liam not being a normal human, there was an option for them. They were told about a school called Barnes Academy, run by a UN affiliated group called SHIELD. They could give them new identities again, along with housing in a well protected environment. Everything about Barnes was explained and they even said that they could find a job for Jillian there, since she is a teacher. After a bit of thinking, the two accepted.

Liam is now Travis Smith, and he hopes that’s the last name he’ll be given. His mother is now Crystal Smith and is working at Barnes as an English teacher. Travis will be starting college there shortly while learning how to live life with six arms and super powers. If the Maggia has given up on hunting Travis and his mother, it is yet to be seen.

Theme Song

"Best I Can" by Queensryche

Powers

Six Arms – Travis has six arms, this happened from a chemical triggering a dormant x-gene that would have never manifested to give him powers. He has equally as much dexterity with all six arms and has become ambidextrous because of it.

Skills and Talents

Baseball – In both of Travis’s High School’s he was on the varsity baseball team as a third in the batting lineup and played third base. He loves the sport and loves to play it. He’s been playing baseball since he was a little kid.

Timeline

  • What's happened since you've been approved?

Quotes

  • "I said it!"

Trivia

  • Travis is in the Witness Protection Program.
  • Travis loves baseball and his team is the Colorado Rockies.
  • Travis' mother works at Barnes Academy.
  • Travis enjoys carpentry and is pretty good at it.
  • Travis also enjoys paintball and airsoft.
  • Travis is a moderate skiier.

Gallery

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