Head: SW Dark Woman
Torso, Arms and Upper Legs: 25A Lady Jaye
Coat: POTC Liz Swan Pirate Disguise
Lower legs: 25A Shipwreck


Charis Brooks, The Lady by the Bay

Charis Brooks is the daughter of the late "Ham" Brooks, retired officer, lawyer, and confidant of Doc Savage. In many respects, Charis was a disappointment to her father, though her entrepreneurial career has been famously successful. She had some run-ins with the law in her early years, and has often been accused of operating on the wrong side of it in her adult life as well, despite the success of her high end consumer electronics retail business. Her father passed away shortly before Doc Savage joined EXCAL. If anyone knew what Charis was getting into now, they'd understand it's a good thing "Ham" isn't around to see it.

One of the assets that Doc no longer needed when he transferred his holdings to EXCAL was the warehouse where all his vehicles and gadgets were stored, under the fake corporate name of the Hidalgo Trading Company. This warehouse, located on the Hudson River in NYC, where the river meets New York Bay, was discreetly purchased by Charis Brooks, who had first hand knowledge of the facilities' potential (hidden storage areas and so forth). Not wanting to draw attention to herself from "uncle Doc" however, the warehouse purchase was made not by Charis, but by her anonymous corporate alter-ego, "Lady by the Bay Corp."

On the surface, the warehouse now caters to the upscale electronics needs of the rich and famous from New York, and in fact worldwide. It is a legitimate business in its own right (funded partly by Charis' inheritance, and using technological products "borrowed" from much of the research done over the years by the Fab Five). Just after her father passed away, Charis broke into his law office, and pilfered the HTC files on store there (including patent filings not yet made) and used this as a spring board for the business. However, that is not the primary purpose of the enterprise.

There were other technology concepts contained within those files that could be of far greater worth than consumer electronics. Though Doc's crew largely disavowed weaponry, the research and development of weapon based technology was certainly a key part of their endeavors. Once Charis got her hands on these files, she persuaded several former HTC employees (especially those disgruntled by the switch to EXCAL) to join her, as one of the world's premier advanced weapons designers. For her own part, Charis is highly intelligent, and has various physics and engineering degrees, and had in fact apprenticed under Monk Mayfair in her years prior to going astray. So she has, in many ways, added to the weapons designs on file, and has helped design new equipment as well.

Thus, the real purpose of the Lady by the Bay is to provide cutting edge weapons tech to those who need it (and who can pay for it). As referenced previously, she is not in league with MEDUSA, the terror organization setting the world ablaze. But she has no conscience when it comes to selling weapons to crime bosses, villains, and the like, so long as they bring the right amount of cash. Many of her best clients, however, are from Departments of the U.S. Military, the CIA, NSA, FBI, SHIELD, etc... (who long craved Doc Savage's weapons tech, though he would not sell it), and also various members of the EXCAL organization, who similarly crave cutting edge technology.

The weapon design team within EXCAL (which also includes the tech previously designed by Wayne Enterprises) is impressive in its own right - especially since Doc is now onboard. But the Paladin Knights, in particular, are finding out that "Red Tape" is not a problem specific to governments only. And requests for weapons upgrades internally are slow, at best, non-existent, at worst. Luckily, EXCAL is more liberal with it's funding than with it's weapons allocations, so a cab ride and expense voucher is often all it takes for a knight to get the advanced tech he needs from the Lady by the Bay, as opposed to months of paperwork internally. When one knight tells another he's going to see the Lady by the Bay, it's understood that it isn't to buy a Blue Ray player.

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This character was formed, in part, with some great suggestions made in the critiques section. Specifically, the name Charis was proposed by Wolfman, who suggested making her a weapons supplier tied into the Excalibur theme. In the Stephen Lawhead Pendragon cycle of books, Charis was the name of the character who later wound up being the Lady of the Lake. So I took that idea (having read the books myself, I was mad to have not thought it up on my own), and I added the Doc Savage tie-in myself, to further wrap her into the story.

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